Government Executive - Authors - Andrew Lapin

Read It Here First

Andrew Lapin — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0400

The initial reaction was stunned outrage. After Nextgov first broke the news on June 11 that the State Department was mulling a $16.5 million contract with tech giant Amazon to purchase 2,500 Kindle Touch e-readers for overseas programs, one particular calculation started making its way around the Internet: $6,600—the amount the department reportedly was planning to pay per Kindle.

Considering the e-readers normally retail for $189, this set off many alarm bells on Facebook, Twitter and beyond as yet another needless government contractor markup. “The State Department is buying Amazon Kindle e-readers for nearly 3,500 percent of their list price,” the Heritage Foundation tweeted.

But it wasn’t true. Once the obliquely worded contract was properly explained, it turned out that State has a plan in mind that is somehow both more reasonably priced and much more expansive than what was first reported.

The five-year contract could include as many as 35,000 devices, and while State plans to buy the individual Kindles for 10 percent below retail price, the deal also includes 3G Internet access, language translation software and tons of preprogrammed content, along with the potential to download more directly from the department in the future.

Yet despite all the publicly available information, neither State nor Amazon would talk about the partnership until a contract was finalized. That was slated to take place June 19, but the date came and went with no announcement and the status of the contract, at press time, remains in limbo. A news conference with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos to map out the Kindle Mobile Learning Initiative, originally scheduled for June 20, was postponed indefinitely.

But we do know some things. Most notably, the goal of the Kindle venture will be about more than giving people fancy new toys. The devices will
be deployed in the service of State’s American Spaces program, overseen by the Bureau of International Information Programs, in an attempt to broaden U.S. cultural influence and improve English literacy worldwide.

This idea is nothing new. Spun off from the Cold War-era U.S. Information Agency, which sought to halt the spread of communism through U.S. propaganda, the American Spaces program has been around for more than a decade. It started with a single Foreign Service officer stationed in Moscow who saw a desire among Russians to learn more about American culture. So the officer worked with local libraries and universities to bring American books and movies, along with English conversation clubs, to outposts around the nation.

“It was an idea too good to leave in one country,” says Courtney Austrian, State’s acting deputy coordinator for regional coordination and American Spaces. Expansion followed, and American
Spaces started opening up around the world—some just corners in libraries, others entire cultural centers with auditoriums and exhibits. Now the program has more than 800 sites in 126 countries. State provides funding for the items brought to the venues while local partners pay the employees’ salaries.

The kinds of books that State generally sends to American Spaces vary. Because many spaces make for popular after-school study areas, often there’s a heavy emphasis on young adult literature, particularly historical fiction—a “Johnny Tremain kind of a thing,” Austrian said, referencing Esther Forbes’ 1943 children’s novel set during the American Revolution. Other selections focus on topics like federalism, the Constitution, politics, sports and biographies of famous Americans.

Kindles would seem to be a natural
extension of American Spaces. And being sleek devices designed by some of the country’s best and brightest minds (though made in China), the e-readers carry the mystique of modern American ingenuity—a merging of creativity and free enterprise that State most likely wouldn’t mind putting front and center.

In some respects, Kindles, iPods and similar devices are becoming iconic American cultural symbols. They serve as more than vehicles for Americana; in essence, they are Americana. Amazon is one of the four global-yet-American tech companies routinely trotted out these days as symbols of the country’s entrepreneurial spirit (the other three being Google, Apple and Facebook, although arguments could certainly be made for more). Some would say this is another reason why exporting Amazon’s products to government-sponsored cultural centers makes sense for a federal program aimed at promoting American values.

Austrian says American Spaces is seeing a growing number of requests for books about entrepreneurship, especially
from countries like Greece, Spain and Italy that have been hit hard by Europe’s economic disaster. And America’s own financial problems notwithstanding, the Kindle has been an unquestionable business success, with sales in the billions of dollars and climbing.

And Amazon is showing a greater willingness to think bigger than at least one of its competitors. Representatives for Barnes & Noble, which makes the Nook e-reader, said the company has not yet discussed any international plans for the device. Meanwhile, representatives for Apple, which makes the iPad, did not return requests for comment, although State officials previously told Nextgov the tablet has too many unnecessary functions that pose “unacceptable security and usability risks.”

Of course, as Twitter demonstrated, poorly worded contracts can pose a risk of a different kind: a PR disaster. But if State and Amazon can stop the spread of misinformation, imagine what they could do when spreading actual information.

]]>

Down by the Schoolyard

Andrew Lapin — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0400

The Education Department’s Deborah Temkin is fighting a bullying epidemic in American schools. But she will not fight bullies. “We try not to call the kids who are bullying others ‘bullies.’ That says they cannot change,” says Temkin, who remembers her own encounters with bullying in middle school.

One thing that can change is the government’s attitude toward bullying, and that’s where Temkin has taken the lead. After she joined the department in 2010, a rash of teen suicides drew national attention to the issue. Since then, Temkin has had a hand in just about every government initiative addressing the problem—from the StopBullying.gov website to outreach efforts with Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation.

As research and policy coordinator for Bullying Prevention Initiatives, Temkin helps Education reach out when cross-agency expertise is needed. To combat the rise of cyber bullying, for instance, she worked with the Federal Trade Commission to produce parental toolkits addressing the issue. But ultimately there is only so much government can do in the schoolyard, and Temkin emphasizes that everything comes back to a joint effort.

“We will never be able to really address bullying if we don’t all work together,” she says. “It’s not solely the school’s responsibility or the parents’ responsibility or even the community’s responsibility. Everyone needs to be working together, sending the same messages consistently, letting kids know that bullying is not OK. Only then will we be able to actually combat bullying.”

]]>

Around Government

Charles S. Clark, Andrew Lapin, and Bob Brewin — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Battle of the Blaze

Crews stand by for another dangerous wildfire season.

Federal wild land managers predict another volatile forest fire season in 2012, particularly in the Southwest, where states experienced record-breaking blazes in 2011 and Texas remains gripped in a tinder-producing drought. New Mexico battled another epic fire this spring that churned through 390 square miles.

The Interior and Agriculture departments have a combined firefighting budget of $2.9 billion, and masses of personnel and equipment are standing by.

In this season’s forecast, the National Interagency Fire Center held out slim hope that El Niño—a warm weather pattern in the Pacific that can promote quenching rainfall—could abate conditions that resulted in last year’s 469,000-acre Wallow Fire, which started
in Arizona, and the 150,000-acre Las Conchas Fire in New Mexico.

- Bob Brewin

Pulling Ahead

One month after the summer Olympics, another gathering of the world’s best athletes will take place in London: the Paralympic Games. And for one military service member, the games are part of an unexpected journey.

Two years after losing both his legs in an explosion in Sangin, Afghanistan, Marine Sgt. Rob Jones will be representing Team USA in the Paralympics. Jones, with teammate Oksana Masters, will be rowing in the trunk and arms double sculls event. Not bad for only taking up the sport in 2011. A Marine who once chased explosives may soon be on his way to a medal.

- Andrew Lapin

Counting Plum Jobs

Congress is mulling legislation to speed the infamously slow presidential appointment process. The ability of senators to hold nominees hostage to unrelated political imperatives has long brought despair to agency staff, good-government advocates and nominees in limbo.

But how many would be affected is a bit murky. A bill that cleared the Senate in 2011 would remove 170 mid-level presidentially appointed and Senate-confirmed positions from a larger list that the
Congressional Research Service puts at 1,200 to 1,400.

Only 900 to 1,000 of those are full-time jobs, the remainder being part-time memberships on commissions and advisory boards. The reason for the range, according to CRS analyst Maeve Carey, is the total is extrapolated from the Plum Book. That’s a listing of more than 9,000 civil service leadership and support positions in the legislative and executive branches compiled every four years by the Office of Personnel Management.

CRS says it has uncovered errors in the Plum Book where positions have been added or eliminated or advice and consent requirements have changed. Also, the book does not include positions typically considered routine nominations, such as military officers. In any case, if the House were to approve the Senate plan to remove slots from the list of those subject to becoming pawns in the great political game, the change might result in 170 more satisfied public servants.

- Charles S. Clark

Invisible War

Documentary reveals that sexual assaults are more prevalent in the armed forces.

When Oscar-winning director Kirby Dick set out to film The Invisible War, a new documentary about the epidemic of sexual assault in the armed forces, what he found disturbed him. Dick, whose father served in the Navy during World War II, tracked down more than 100 victims of military rape and interviewed many of them for the movie.

“The reality is that people who come into the military have a greater incidence of having sexually assaulted someone prior to coming into the military,” Dick says. The premise behind his footage is that a lack of accountability in the chain of command perpetuates the problem, refuting the Defense Department’s
theory that assaults in the military are simply a reflection of civilian society.

“The military has to realize that they have a situation here that is not the same as the civilian society,” Dick says. “I don’t really understand why they haven’t gone after this as aggressively as they should have, because they are
losing so many good soldiers.”

Currently in limited release, The Invisible War already has reached its single most important audience: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

Andrew Lapin

]]>

Report: Army soldier shot, killed commander at Fort Bragg

Andrew Lapin — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 12:53:00 -0400

NBC News reported.

The shooter, who had been an Army specialist for eight years and had been a member of the security detail in Afghanistan for the commander he killed, stood accused of stealing a tool box worth $1,700 from the Fort Bragg motor pool. He pulled a pistol on his commander during a standard brief on proper safety protocol for Fourth of July and fired three times without warning, according to NBC.

The shooter was critically wounded in the head during the ensuing struggle to subdue him, and is not expected to survive. A third soldier also was wounded during the struggle.

Shootings in military bases are a growing concern: An Army psychiatrist was charged with killing 13 people and wounding 43 more in a shooting rampage in Fort Hood, Texas, on Nov. 9, 2009, and law enforcement authorities last year thwarted another attempted attack on that base. The Fort Hood tragedy prompted a Pentagon-wide effort to prevent similar violence.

]]>

Supreme Court: Lies about military honors protected as free speech

Andrew Lapin — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:59:00 -0400

A 6-3 ruling found the Stolen Valor Act, signed into law by President Bush in 2006, to be unconstitutional. The law makes it a federal crime to falsify a military honor, punishable by up to a year in prison. Justice Anthony Kennedy announced the court’s plurality opinion, saying that the Stolen Valor Act infringes on free speech rights.

“While the government’s interest in protecting the integrity of the Medal of Honor is beyond question, the First Amendment requires that there be a direct causal link between the restriction imposed and the injury to be prevented. Here, that link has not been shown,” the opinion read. “The government points to no evidence supporting its claim that the public’s general perception of military awards is diluted by false claims such as those made by [the] respondent.”

The case brought to the court, United States v. Alvarez, concerned California public official Xavier Alvarez, who challenged the law after receiving three years’ probation, a $5,000 fine and community service for telling an audience he received the Congressional Medal of Honor when he had never served in the military.

The court heard arguments on Feb. 22 and ultimately ordered Alvarez’s conviction be thrown out, according to SCOTUSblog.

Though the justices ruled that the U.S. government should be able to regulate certain false statements of fact in some capacity, the law as written extended to private as well as public contexts, making its reach too significant, the majority opinion said.

Justice Samuel Alito led the dissenting opinion.

Richard L. Denoyer, commander in chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, told The Washington Post the organization “is greatly disappointed” in the decision.

]]>

Crackdown on government travel advances to full House

Andrew Lapin — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 16:12:00 -0400

The panel passed by voice vote a substitute amendment for the 2012 Government Spending Accountability Act (H.R. 4631). The bipartisan bill, introduced by Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill., on April 25, was inspired by reports of the General Services Administration’s rampant spending on a 2010 conference in Las Vegas (its shorthand is the “GSA Act”). The Obama administration restricted conference spending by 20 percent governmentwide by executive order in November 2011, five months before the GSA scandal was uncovered.

“This bill should have bipartisan support because this is not a political issue,” Walsh said.

Walsh’s substitute amendment adds new limits. Among its provisions: An agency may not pay travel expenses for more than 50 of its employees for any single international conference unless granted approval by the secretary of State. Additionally, it dictates that all agencies must publicly report on their websites, at the start of each fiscal quarter, the details of any travel expenses paid for conferences during the previous quarter.

The bill now moves to the full House. A few committee members expressed concern it unfairly assumed the worst about all federal employees.

“I would caution against generalizing from one bad example,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va. “I don’t agree that this somehow characterizes the culture of the federal workforce. It does not.”

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., added: “There really does need to be a legislative response. It’s not enough just to say, ‘Go forward and sin no more.’ ” But, she added, “we want to make sure that when we cite GSA over and over again, that that is its own story.”

Additionally, the committee marked up the Government Employment Accountability Act (H.R. 6016), another GSA-inspired bill that would allow agency heads to place Senior Executive Service members on unpaid administrative leave if they are suspected of criminal activity or agency misconduct. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., said he introduced the legislation after seeing the way agency heads were forced to continue paying senior GSA executive Jeff Neely, the man chiefly seen as responsible for planning the 2010 Las Vegas conference, while he was on administrative leave as fallout from the scandal. Neely has since left GSA.

“There is just nothing in place right now for the heads of these agencies to handle it,” Kelly said. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., also emphasized during discussion of the bill that any executive found not guilty of criminal or misconduct charges would be fully refunded of all the money they are owed.

The bill passed the committee without objection by voice vote and moved on to the House, though Norton wanted to see clarification for the circumstances that would allow agency heads to place executives on unpaid leave without due process.

]]>

Government overcomes security clearance backlog

Andrew Lapin — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 13:41:57 -0400

Initial investigations take an average of 44 days to complete, down from 189 days in 2005, and the application backlog has been eliminated, according to Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, who spoke at a hearing Thursday.

In 2011, the Government Accountability Office removed the process from its high-risk list, where it had been sitting since 2005.

“I think the overarching framework has worked very well,” said Office of Management and Budget Controller Danny Werfel.

Because the Defense Department handles the majority of government security clearances, it has shouldered the brunt of criticism about application backlogs. In his testimony, Government Accountability Office Comptroller General Gene Dodaro praised Defense and the agencies it has collaborated with for establishing metrics to assess various aspects of clearances.

Dodaro emphasized, however, that removal from the high-risk list “doesn’t mean we don’t have a watchful eye on this going forward.”

In her testimony, Defense Deputy Chief Management Officer Elizabeth McGrath emphasized the department’s key efforts in reducing clearance time, including establishing the Performance Accountability Council with OMB, the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The council, McGrath said in her opening statement, has standardized the investigation and adjudication procedures, and Defense now can adjudicate a clearance in seven days.

Charlie Sowell, deputy assistant director for special security with ODNI, said 22 agencies met their timeliness goals for 2011, while 19 reached their goals at times and five did not meet any of their goals.

Akaka led the hearing, the eighth on the subject and the last that will be held under his tenure. Akaka, chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce and the District of Columbia, previously announced that he will not run for reelection in November.

In 2010, Akaka urged agencies to improve reciprocity by working together to accept clearances from other agencies. To that end, ODNI has established a reciprocity Web page where individuals can submit clearance issues directly to an agency, though Sowell noted it is difficult to measure reciprocity without real data.

Dodaro and GAO asked agencies to identify long-term funding requirements for keeping security clearances at a manageable length.

]]>

Dempsey maps sequestration cuts at Defense

Andrew Lapin — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 16:43:31 -0400

If lawmakers do not avert sequestration and the cuts take place next year, as scheduled, Dempsey still will have to pay the bill for the military’s “overseas contingency operations” in Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf, he told attendees at a military leadership breakfast sponsored by Government Executive.

“If there’s money taken out of the $88.5 billion that we say we need for OCO, I’m going to have to take money out of the base and invest it. You can’t not pay those bills. So OCO will touch it, but the money’s coming from some place, and that is the base,” he said.

When other options such as personnel cuts and base realignment and closure are taken off the table as well, Defense isn’t left with many choices, according to Dempsey.

“There’s talk about exempting manpower . . . and you’ve also said, ‘Thou shall not BRAC,’ ” he said. “So now you’ve limited the places where that money can come from. It can’t come from manpower. It can’t come from infrastructure. And you have to reinvest in OCO. And what’s left is operations, maintenance and training and modernization.”

Defense has had to transition in recent years to a budget-minded operation, and Dempsey readily acknowledged the department has become accustomed to a large degree of fiscal freedom as a result of a decade of war.

“Over the last 10 years of relatively unconstrained resources, we’ve had a thousand flowers blooming out there. If someone had an idea, it was pretty easy to resource it,” he said.

“We’ve kind of really stretched out the rubber band. Shame on us if we let it go and contract to the same shape it was before. Because then, frankly, I think we’ve got some problems,” Dempsey added

He said Defense plans to reduce its footprint in Europe by half to adjust to manpower reductions, while the footprint in the Pacific Rim won’t change and the level of continued U.S. presence in the Middle East has not yet been decided.

Cyberwarfare, unmanned drones and an “exponential” increase in special operations forces are three key technological capabilities Defense has today that it didn’t have when the global war on terror began, Dempsey said. While the department must continue to invest in technology, it should not “become enamored of shiny objects,” he said.

The chairman also emphasized the importance of transitioning military personnel to a stable civilian workforce while finding a better way to harness the younger generation’s “entrepreneurial” qualities as new recruits enter the armed forces.

“If we don’t get the people right, the rest of it won’t matter. We’re going to put the country at risk,” he said.

]]>

EPA, GSA perfect students of sustainability

Andrew Lapin — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 16:32:00 -0400

sustainability report cards for fiscal 2011, monitoring how well each has adhered to a 2009 executive order directing the government to meet energy, water, pollution and waste reduction targets.

For each of seven metrics, every agency receives one of three stoplight-style grades: green, yellow or red. No overall grades were assigned on the cards.

This is the second year federal agencies have released their score cards, according to the press release.

Some agencies fared better than others. The Energy Department received four green scores, one yellow and two reds (which came from poor reductions in fleet petroleum use and poor progress in developing sustainable buildings).

Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency and General Services Administration earned perfect scores of all greens. Agencies that did not perform especially well included the Defense Department, with two greens, two yellows and three reds; and the Office of Personnel Management and Homeland Security Department, both with three greens and four reds.

The Army Corps of Engineers fared the worst, with a score of all red marks.

Not every link on the sustainability page was working or directed visitors to the latest report card as of publication time. The link to the Veterans Affairs Department gives information on VA’s various green management programs, but does not provide visible access to its score card. The Smithsonian Institution’s and Tennessee Valley Authority’s links direct browsers to the agencies’ fiscal 2010 score cards.

In the release, OMB acting Director Jeffrey Zients said energy-efficient investments from the past four years are expected to save as much as $18 billion over the sustainability projects’ life span.

(Image via Martin D. Vonka/Shutterstock.com)

]]>

Fill career positions with care in election year, OPM advises

Andrew Lapin — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 11:29:05 -0400

sent a memo Friday to the heads of federal executive departments and agencies reminding them that all personnel appointments during a presidential election year must “remain free of political influence or other improprieties and meet all relevant civil service laws, rules and regulations.”

Berry emphasized that appointments of Schedule C employees -- who are subject to change at the discretion of the new administration -- and noncareer Senior Executive Service members to competitive or nonpolitical-excepted service positions or to career SES positions should comply with all merit principles regarding fair and open competition.

Mostly, these are not new guidelines for federal agencies. “It has been OPM policy since the Carter administration and under every president since to ensure that politics play no role when agencies select current or former political appointees for career federal jobs,” Berry said in the memo.

OPM has enacted new policy since the last presidential election, however. As of January 2010, the agency conducts all its prehiring reviews on a continual basis, rather than limiting the reviews to the year leading up to a presidential election. Also, OPM now reviews the proposed hiring of current or former political appointees for jobs in the excepted service as well as the competitive service, according to the memo.

]]>

Selective Service not equipped to handle a draft, watchdog finds

Andrew Lapin — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 16:20:27 -0400

The report, sent Thursday to the heads of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, faults Defense for not re-examining its draft policies or taking a closer look at the Selective Service System since 1994. This is despite the fact the agency is charged with keeping an active record of all American males eligible for service. Selective Service’s role has been significantly diminished since Defense established all-volunteer armed forces in 1973.

In the event of a draft, which would require Congress and the president to enact a law reinstating the practice, the agency would be required to hold a lottery to determine inductees according to age and birth date. All men between the ages of 18 and 25 are eligible for the draft.

The Selective Service System has cut personnel steadily since 1997. With a current staff budget for 130 full-time civilian employees and 175 part-time reserve forces officers, the agency would not be able to deliver the first draft inductees to Defense until 285 days after mobilization, according to GAO.

Selective Service’s requested budget for fiscal 2013 was $24.4 million. This is down significantly in adjusted dollars from $22.9 million in fiscal 1997, which would equate to $31.5 million today, according to GAO. While the Selective Service System database contained 16.4 million names in 2010 and added 2.2 million in 2011, officials told GAO that a lack of personnel to set up area offices nationwide would make the actual induction process an arduous one.

In interviewing Selective Service System officials about potential alternatives to their agency, GAO found difficulties in replicating a database of eligible service members. Though other government agencies -- including the Social Security Administration, Department of Motor Vehicles and Census Bureau -- maintain similar databases of U.S. citizens, each has inherent flaws. A database of all Social Security participants, for example, would neglect immigrants with no Social Security number.

GAO recommended Defense once more evaluate its Selective Service requirements to account for the current state of national security and to “establish a process of periodically reevaluating these requirements.” Though a Quadrennial Defense Review is issued every four years, the review does not include an analysis of the draft database.

Defense concurred with GAO’s recommendations.

]]>

GSA to clear schedules of typewriters and other ‘outdated’ offerings

Andrew Lapin — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 17:58:00 -0400

The General Services Administration announced Thursday that it plans to phase out contractors that offer typewriters, photographic equipment, trophies and other “outdated” products from its Multiple Award Schedules.

Each of the more than 8,000 obsolete contracts costs at least $3,000 per year to administer, according to the GSA press release, which said the new streamlining initiative will save more than $24 million annually. The agency will stop adding new contractors for these products.

A GSA spokesman told Government Executive the agency is “still working through the early stages of these changes” and declined to provide a specific date for when they will go into effect.

The release also projected that more than 50 percent of the schedule contracts GSA awarded in 2011 “will have low or no sales.”

In addition to gradually eliminating the agreements for outdated equipment, GSA will look at more than 19,000 contracts with private sector firms “to determine which industries are oversaturated and where duplication has created a crowded and confusing market,” the release stated.

GSA could not immediately provide more detail on the outdated products.

(Image via Stokkete /Shutterstock.com)

]]>

Coast Guard investigates animal testing video

Andrew Lapin — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 16:06:42 -0400

The U.S. Coast Guard says it is investigating the contents of a video that depicts trainees operating on live goats. The private contractor that a watchdog group says administered the exercise has previously violated Agriculture Department animal research protocol, documents show.

The video, an undated, undercover recording of a Coast Guard live-tissue training medical course in Virginia Beach, Va., where participants appear to chop off goats’ limbs with tree trimmers and remove internal organs with scalpels, has been gathering steam since People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals released it online April 18.

In the video, goats can be heard moaning while training participants call for “another bump” of anesthesia. The exercise is part of the Coast Guard’s combat lifesaver training, used to simulate battlefield care for medical personnel prior to deployment in the Patrol Forces Southwest Asia region, which includes Iraq and Afghanistan.

PETA said the exercises are conducted by Tier 1 Group, a private contractor specializing in military training with an active USDA license and registration to perform animal research, and a larger contractor assigned the training to Tier 1 Group. The Coast Guard was unable to comment on the exact relationship between the contractor and the exercises due to the nature of its ongoing investigation, and the Defense Department, which also retains the company to administer training sessions, would only say on the subject that Tier 1 Group is “an approved contractor.” Tier 1 Group could not be reached for comment.

A USDA investigation of Tier 1 Group in August 2011 found two indirect animal research protocol violations in the group’s training exercises. The report found the contractor was using inappropriate anesthetic agents on its goats and was insufficiently monitoring them.

“According to the protocol, the level of anesthesia will be determined by the absence or presence of certain reflexes . . . and vital sign monitoring,” the report read. “However, at least 50 animal medical records only document vital sign monitoring, and frequently the vital signs are not recorded at the specified 15 minute interval.”

A spokeswoman for USDA’s Eastern Region Animal Care Office, which includes Virginia Beach, said license holders are required to submit annual reports, due every year on Jan. 1, about animals that have suffered pain as a result of research practices. USDA agents also investigate cases where anonymous complaints have been filed. The spokeswoman added private military contractors do not receive preferential treatment in inspection procedures.

PETA Laboratory Methods Specialist Shalin Gala, along with 11 military and medical experts, wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Robert Papp on April 18 asking that the training exercises be investigated. On May 30, Frank Kendall, Defense acting undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, replied to Gala, affirming the department’s goal to reduce animal testing to a minimum and to treat animals “humanely,” while asserting that combat medical training is crucial to saving lives overseas.

The letter didn’t stop PETA from releasing another video the following day in which Oscar-winning writer and director Oliver Stone, who earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart with an oak leaf cluster after serving the Army in the Vietnam War, pleads for Defense and the Homeland Security Department to halt the training practice.

Cmdr. Chris O’Neil, chief of media relations, told Government Executive that the Coast Guard is investigating the contents of the video. Five hundred and fourteen Coast Guard members have attended the training sessions since 2009, according to O’Neil. He added some units accessed Tier 1 Group directly through the General Services Administration, as the contractor is on the agency’s schedule, and there are other providers of combat lifesaver training, including the Army’s Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation.

“We expect all Coast Guard members to act professionally at all times and to treat the animals in a humane manner that is in accordance with pre-existing Department of Defense policies,” O’Neil said. “We also expect contracted training providers to adhere to established policy, standards and protocols.”

Kathy Guillermo, vice president of laboratory investigations for PETA, said a whistleblower delivered the video anonymously to the organization’s office, and they were able to confirm independently that it features Coast Guard service members. PETA edited the video before posting online and no longer has access to the original, according to Guillermo.

Guillermo, who learned of the pending investigation separately, said the Coast Guard’s response to the video “seems to be very much in line.” She said PETA would not direct its efforts toward Tier 1 Group or other private contractors.

“Our focus continues to be on the Coast Guard and on the military,” Guillermo said, adding PETA’s goal is to get Defense to “entirely” re-examine its animal testing practices.

Defense spokeswoman Lt. Col. Melinda Morgan directed questions about the specific training exercise to Tier 1. She said contractor services determine the curriculum for training exercises and are responsible for adhering to approved animal-use protocol. Morgan also reaffirmed the use of animals for combat medical training.

“Current training methods save lives, and at this time no human simulator can provide the level of training as the live animal model,” Morgan said. “This training saves warfighters' lives.”

Branches of the military use similar methods of medical training on live pigs and goats, according to the Associated Press. Despite the fact that the military is increasingly substituting animals for lifelike human models in training situations, Morgan said animals remain the best tool for trauma training.

A House bill “to require the secretary of Defense to use only human-based methods for training members of the Armed Forces in the treatment of severe combat and chemical and biological injuries,” sponsored by Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., has languished in Congress and was last referred to the House Armed Forces Subcommittee on Military Personnel in February 2011, according to the Library of Congress online database.

(Image via Anthro /Shutterstock.com)

]]>

Postal commission clarifies role on contentious closure issues

Andrew Lapin — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 17:19:00 -0400

The Postal Regulatory Commission emphasized its advisory role to the U.S. Postal Service during a public meeting Wednesday in explaining why it has not taken a larger role in debates over whether to focus on rural or urban post office closings.

The conversation surrounding possible operation-shrinking initiatives for USPS has revolved primarily around whether to shutter post offices in rural areas.

PRC Chairwoman Ruth Goldway said the commission has not taken a more vocal role to switch the conversation from closing rural offices to urban ones because its relationship with USPS is chiefly a responsive one. “When the Postal Service is considering a change in service that may be nationwide, they come to us and ask us for our advisory opinion,” she said.

She added while USPS operationally has plans to consolidate post offices in urban areas, it is not doing so in a way that necessitates action from the advisory panel.

“If we determine that the Postal Service is going ahead with some changes that are of nationwide impact without coming to us, then we might ask them to come to us,” Goldway said. “But at the moment, the normal procedure is that we respond to their proposals.”

The commission also responds to appeals of closure decisions.

Goldway stated at the start of the meeting that PRC currently is set to advise USPS on four contentious proposals: to change nationwide service standards; to consider changes to operating hours at up to 17,000 post offices; to offer enhanced services related to post office boxes; and to file for a Negotiated Services Agreement with marketing company Valassis.

“It’s going to be a very difficult three months for us,” she acknowledged.

The most recent advisory opinion PRC gave on the distinction between urban and rural service consolidations was in response to USPS’ Retail Access Optimization Initiative, the panel said. That opinion is dated Dec. 23, 2011.

Of that opinion, Commissioner Mark Acton said Wednesday, “we weren’t making a distinction between urban and rural other than the sense that there was a disproportionate impact between rural and urban. And we were encouraging a service that provided a plan that provided for suitable alternative access whether it was in an urban or a rural setting.”

Goldway pointed out that USPS has been working to cut costs in urban areas as well as rural, noting in particular the agency’s efforts to sell off some of its most valuable urban property.

Also talked about at the meeting was pending research to determine updated proper pricing and demand for postal services. The results of the research, being performed by PRC Office of Accountability and Compliance Director Margaret Cigno, PRC staff economist Elena Patel, and consultant Ed Pearsall, have no set release date.

PRC spokeswoman Ann Fisher cautioned that the work “is not intended to represent a commission viewpoint or position” and that “no conclusions have been drawn yet.”

Opening PRC meetings to the public was a point of pride for the five-member commission.

“We may not come to an opinion that everybody is pleased with, but we certainly want to make the commission itself open and accessible and understandable to everybody,” Goldway said.

]]>

Supreme Court: Secret Service agents cannot be sued

Andrew Lapin — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 12:13:25 -0400

Secret Service agents are entitled to the qualified immunity of government officials and cannot be sued, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday.

The decision, as reported by The New York Times, comes in response to a lawsuit filed against Secret Service agent Virgil Reichle by environmental consultant Steven Howards, whom Reichle arrested in 2006 following Howards’ contentious but nonviolent encounter with then-Vice President Dick Cheney. Howards, who had approached Cheney in a public space in Beaver Creek, Colo., to criticize him for his handling of the war in Iraq, argued the arrest violated his First Amendment rights.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg said Secret Service agents are different from “ordinary law enforcement officials” because they are tasked with making “singularly swift, on-the-spot decisions” to guard the safety of the person they’re protecting, according to the Times. NPR had previously reported that Howards, who immediately after the encounter had lied to Secret Service agents about not touching Cheney, wasn’t arrested until 10 minutes after the incident.

The agents had asked the court for broad protection against claims of retaliatory arrest, which was not granted, according to the Associated Press.

]]>

FEMA official emphasizes 'team effort' as hurricane season begins

Andrew Lapin — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 11:38:00 -0400

As the 2012 hurricane season begins, one Federal Emergency Management Agency executive wants to remind American citizens that the onus for keeping them safe doesn’t rest entirely with FEMA.

“It’s a team effort,” FEMA deputy administrator Richard Serino told Government Executive. “It’s not just FEMA. It’s really all of government coming in together. It’s the ability to bring together the team of federal, state, local [responders] . . . We are here to support the governors and the mayors and the cities and towns and states that are affected by a hurricane as they are affected by any disastrous woe.”

The agency currently has a disaster relief fund of more than $2.4 billion, an amount that Serino said has been tracked daily with strong monitoring techniques for at least the past three years.

“We have enough in there to see through the season, unless of course there’s a catastrophic event,” Serino said. He added that a key success in combating 2011’s Hurricane Irene was the ability to predeploy equipment and people to areas where severe weather is expected, an ability granted to FEMA only in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Representatives from FEMA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the military, and the Energy and Homeland Security departments met with President Obama on Wednesday to brief him on the federal government’s approach to hurricane preparedness, and collaboration is the strongest message this year.

In addition to state and local governments, FEMA also will pursue partnerships with faith-based organizations and the private sector. Serino encourages members of the public to visit Ready.gov to gather information on how to best prepare themselves for disasters.

When asked if people trust FEMA enough, Serino said citizens historically trust their local government, friends and neighbors, “and that’s why this has to be a complete team effort.”

]]>

Government lost 5,000 jobs in May

Andrew Lapin — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 14:34:11 -0400

New employment numbers released Friday show a shrinking federal workforce.

Federal employment in May dipped by 5,000 workers from April, to 2.8 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number is down from the same period in 2011, when the federal government employed 2.87 million workers.

The BLS numbers are seasonally adjusted and include employees from the workforce-hammered U.S. Postal Service. The figures were confirmed by Kara Sullivan, an economist at the bureau.

The numbers continue a downward trend in the federal workforce: 2,000 jobs disappeared in April, as well. Seasonally adjusted, federal jobs have decreased for eight months in a row. (The workforce remained relatively stagnant between September and October 2011.)

This continues the longest sustained decline in the federal workforce in more than a decade, according to USA Today.

]]>

Around Government

Andrew Lapin, Aliya Sternstein, and Jean Fogarty — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Back in the Saddle

Therapy programs pair horses and healing for wounded veterans.

Air Force veteran Alicia Watkins lost everything after she returned from tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq and isolated herself from friends and family. She was homeless and living in her car when she accepted an invitation to Join-Up, an intensive three-day program in Solvang, Calif., that pairs abused and neglected horses with self-isolated veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Horses are flight animals,” Monty Roberts, creator of Join-Up, told the American Forces Press Service. “If they don’t trust it, they need to get away from it. That’s how a veteran feels, too.”

Training horses often involves using violence to force them into submission. Roberts prefers a nonviolent training style he calls “gentling” or “natural horsemanship.” The program is based on trust. “The horses we see that were traumatized and abused never forget it,” he says. “But you can mask it over with good behavior, and that’s the same
with veterans.”

Watkins found relief among the Join-Up participants—both the horses and the other veterans—who understood her suffering and shared her desire to heal.

More than 30 Veterans Affairs Department medical centers also provide equine-assisted therapy to wounded warriors. These six- to 12-week programs match vets who have identified specific goals with trained therapy horses. Veterans begin with grooming their horse and nurturing communication skills then riding on trails. The veteran and the horse gradually become a herd of two.

- Jean Fogarty

Upward Mobility

Created in 1978, the Senior Executive Service was envisioned as a mobile corps that would bring excellence across agencies, a study by the Partnership for Public Service and McKinsey & Co. noted, but nearly half its members have never changed jobs.

Trip Tips

With the recent uproar over what feds are up to on business trips, it might be time to review the Federal Travel Regulation, most recently updated in December 2011.

The only people authorized for temporary duty travel allowances are government employees, interviewees and family members who are “temporarily located to safeguard their lives.” So think twice before inviting your spouse along to Las Vegas on the taxpayers’ dime.

Guidelines instruct agencies to “identify opportunities to reduce costs in selecting a particular conference location and facility.” Try to identify those opportunities prior to your eighth preplanning trip.

Employees are prohibited from using a government-issued charge card for personal reasons while on official travel. If you’re looking for a little local nightlife, you’ll have to pay for it yourself.

Yes, hungry feds, “light refreshments” are allowed. Examples in the guidelines include: cookies, pretzels and soft drinks, not artisan cheese trays or $4 shrimp.

Penalties for defrauding the government can include a fine of up to $10,000 and imprisonment up to five years. This might seem self-explanatory, but you’d be
surprised.

- Andrew Lapin

Tech Savvy Response

Thad Allen shares lessons learned after the BP oil spill.

Two years after an oil rig explosion roiled the Gulf of Mexico, Government Executive caught up with retired U.S. Coast Guard commandant Adm. Thad Allen, who led the federal response. Now at Booz Allen Hamilton, he shared his perspective on social networking’s role during crises.

How he used new media to help after the BP well blowout:

Rather than let false rumors of containment or contamination go viral, Allen propped up a website that streamed BP’s live video from the scene to counter misinformation. A joint information center tracked Tweets and other social media around-the-clock. It is less painful to be transparent from the outset than to disclose information later, he adds. “You can suffer, you can try to adapt or you can try to manage what’s going on,” Allen says.

How data analysis has changed since he graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in 1971:

Information sharing has moved light years beyond the radio teletype that Allen used in the early 1970s. Even in 1977, “every workstation had four computers” at the El Paso Intelligence Center in Texas, where he was assigned to drug smuggling cases. But the setup engendered trust, Allen notes. “Trust is an automatic byproduct of just trying to get together and get the job done.”

Next, government should try customizable home pages to exchange real-time intelligence, he says. Legislation now requires the Pentagon to make public the coding for the National Security Agency’s Ozone Widget Framework, a tool similar to iGoogle. The framework creates a Web portal that aggregates analytical tools pertinent to a mission, in the way that the Google app displays live news feeds and other updates. “If they can do it in the military, it begs the question of why can’t they do this in places like the Southwest border.

- Aliya Sternstein

Virtual Visionaries

Imagine being able to view the Smithsonian Institution’s trove of more than 100 million artifacts without stepping foot in its 19 museums. Techies in the Smithsonian’s Digitization Program Office are using a newfangled scanner and printer to create 3-D printed replicas, like this Thomas Jefferson look-alike, for display online or off-site. Still a fledgling effort,the program has a long way to go. But it’s literally history in the making.

]]>

Watchdog: Disability hiring still lags

Andrew Lapin — Wed, 30 May 2012 16:24:00 -0400

Despite a two-year-old executive order, the federal government is not making significant progress in increasing its ranks of disabled employees, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

President Obama ordered the government in July 2010 to hire 100,000 employees with disabilities over the next five years. The GAO report, released May 25, criticized the two agencies charged with overseeing the project: the Office of Personnel Management and the Labor Department.

In particular, OPM has neglected to include all setbacks in its required reports to the White House, has not yet implemented disability hiring training programs for agency officials and is relying on questionable data to measure progress, GAO said.

Under the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, an employee is classified as disabled if he or she possesses “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.”

Of the 66 agency plans for increased disability hiring submitted to OPM for review, representing more than 99 percent of the federal civilian executive branch workforce, only seven met OPM’s 13 criteria, according to GAO. More than half of all agency plans met eight criteria or fewer.

Of the plans, 29 did not include numerical goals for hiring, while nine did not identify the senior official who would be in charge of the hiring initiative.

“Although federal agencies have taken the first step by submitting action plans to OPM for review, many agency plans do not meet the criteria identified by OPM as essential to becoming a model employer of people with disabilities,” GAO said in its report.

The watchdog agency looked at a sample of plans from four agencies: the Education and Veterans Affairs departments, the Social Security Administration, and the Office of Management and Budget. Of the four, only VA had a plan that met OPM’s criteria.

OPM sent strongly worded feedback to all agencies in June 2011, with specifics on where the disability hiring plans were lacking, as well as several reminders in the following months. Yet as of April, 32 of the 59 agencies with incomplete plans had not yet addressed the points of concern -- and OPM did not fully report this to the White House.

Nevertheless, OPM expects all agencies to begin implementing their plans immediately, even the incomplete ones, according to GAO.

OPM does not project the government is on track to meet its disability hiring targets, but the numbers might be better than they appear. Based on data collected from voluntary disability disclosure forms included in job applications, OPM estimates the government hired 20,000 disabled employees in the fiscal 2010 and 2011. Disability advocates, however, believe this is an undercount because some employees will choose not to disclose their status for fear of workplace discrimination.

To address this problem, Labor has plans to promote voluntary disability disclosure with a marketing campaign. OPM is considering using data other than voluntary disclosures, such as information on disabled veterans hired under separate authority, to augment its statistics.

A major inhibitor to achieving hiring goals: Executive training still lags, GAO found. OPM has been developing its training modules since as early as December 2010, yet they still are not ready to implement -- their projected completion date is now August 2012.

GAO recommended OPM better incorporate information about agency disability hiring plan deficiencies in its reports to the president. The watchdog also recommended OPM speed development of its training programs and assess the accuracy of its disability hiring data, including finding other ways to get disabled feds to voluntarily disclose their status. OPM agreed with the recommendations.

]]>

Fewer senior executives are satisfied with their pay, OPM finds

Andrew Lapin — Tue, 29 May 2012 17:05:00 -0400

A little more than half of all Senior Executive Service members are satisfied with their pay levels, a significant drop from 2008 numbers, according to the Office of Personnel Management’s latest SES survey.

OPM said 65 percent of about 7,000 career, noncareer and limited term SES members participated in its 2011 survey. Respondents fielded questions ranging from whether they thought they were being held accountable for achieving results (92 percent said yes) to whether they planned to retire within five years (57 percent do).

Nearly 51 percent of respondents said they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their current pay, a drop from the 60.6 percent who voiced their satisfaction in OPM’s 2008 survey. According to a fiscal 2010 report, the most recent data on SES pay available on OPM’s website, executives governmentwide earn an average salary of $167,049.

Due to the current federal pay freeze, executive salaries for fiscal 2011 would have remained the same, with a small number of pay raises granted in instances where job responsibilities changed, according to Carol A. Bonosaro, president of the Senior Executives Association. Bonosaro told Government Executive that pay remains inadequate for SES members and pointed out the difference in salary with those of government executives in Australia, with whom she had recently met.

“The pay cap in Australia for senior executives is $350,000,” Bonosaro said. “And they get a car. And they were astonished at the range of responsibilities that executives have in our government.”

Still, only 37 percent of respondents to the survey, which was released on Firday, thought pay and benefits were helpful tools for retaining high-level seniors, a finding Bonosaro said was telling of what isn’t being discussed at the executive level.

“Everyone accepts this notion of pay for performance,” she said. “But the question is, what does it actually achieve? Does it actually motivate people to work harder?”

Bonosaro was surprised that 1.3 percent of respondents reported having taken a sabbatical since joining the SES. Paid sabbaticals were briefly common in the early years of the SES, which began in 1979, according to Bonosaro. While agencies still have the authority to offer paid sabbaticals, very few have done so in the last several decades, she said.

“I’m surprised there is anyone left who reports having taken one,” she said. “Agencies don’t want to pay someone not to be there.”

The survey question did not specify paid sabbatical.

Bonosaro pointed to the retirement statistic as “just another reminder of the fact that we’re going to see a lot of people moving out over the next couple of years.”

]]>

IRS closing 43 offices, but says all employees will keep their jobs

Andrew Lapin — Tue, 29 May 2012 11:58:38 -0400

The Internal Revenue Service says its plan to close 43 small offices and to “reduce space” in its larger ones during the next two years will not result in loss of employees.

A spokesman for the agency told The Washington Post on Monday that all workers in the affected offices either will be reassigned to nearby facilities or will be allowed to telework. Each of the offices scheduled toclose employs fewer than 25 workers and none includes a taxpayer assistance center, the IRS said May 22. The agency expects closures will save it $17.2 million in fiscal 2012 and $23.5 million in fiscal 2013.

The IRS also reduced its operations by 105,000 square feet in 2011. It oversees more than 650 offices nationwide.

(Image via >Rena Schild/Shutterstock.com /Shutterstock.com)

]]>

USPS, mail handlers union reach buyout terms

Andrew Lapin — Fri, 25 May 2012 15:28:24 -0400

The U.S. Postal Service and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union have reached a new agreement to send off more employees.

The deal, announced Thursday, offers voluntary early retirement opportunities to 45,000 bargaining mail handlers, according to USPS spokesman Mark Saunders. All career employee mail handlers will be eligible for the incentives. Full-time employees will receive $15,000, while part-time employees will receive prorated amounts if they accept the offer, Saunders said. Employees who meet certain requirements will be eligible for the same deal, but under early retirement rather than buyout terms.

NPMHU places the total number of employees it represents at 47,000, but USPS says that figure includes 2,000 casual employees who happen to perform mail handler jobs; they will not be offered buyouts because they are not career employees. Mail handlers "load, unload, prepare, sort and containerize mail for delivery,” the union explained.

Calls to NPMHU for comment were not returned. Both parties signed a memorandum of understanding Tuesday.

Employees must notify USPS of their intent to separate by July 2 (or July 16 for part-time employees), and must separate by Aug. 31. The incentive payment will be distributed in two increments of $7,500, minus withholdings and required deductions, with the first payout arriving on or around Dec. 21, 2012, and the second arriving on or around Dec. 20, 2013.

The payout for part-time mail handlers will be based on the number of hours the employee worked the previous year, Saunders said. Those who worked less than 520 hours will receive 25 percent of the buyout; between 520 hours and less than 1,020 hours will receive 50 percent; between 1,020 hours and less than 1,520 hours will receive 75 percent; and more than 1,520 hours worked will receive the full payout, even though USPS classifies a full year of work as 2,080 hours.

There are eligibility exceptions. Buyouts will not be offered to mail handlers in probationary status, those who have received notice of removal, those who are leaving under disability or those who are transferring to another federal agency, he said.

Saunders would not speculate on how many employees might accept the early retirement offer. “It’s a very personal decision that each employee needs to think about,” he said. “Employees need to discuss this with their families. It’s an important decision to leave the Postal Service.”

Though these buyouts will result in a reduced mail handler workforce just before the 2012 election mailings season begins, Saunders said customer service would not be affected by the cuts, adding USPS has had a pay freeze in place for several years in anticipation.

“We’re very cognizant of the need to have the right staffing in place at the right time and this initiative is part of that strategy,” he said.

]]>

Obama picks Afghanistan IG with years of federal experience

Andrew Lapin — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:16:00 -0400

President Obama has announced he will appoint Washington law firm partner John Sopko as special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, a position that’s remained open for more than 470 days.

Sopko is currently at the private Akin Gump firm, but he brings more than eight years of experience within the federal government to the demanding watchdog role. The Case Western Reserve University School of Law graduate left a prosecutor position in Dayton, Ohio, to join the Justice Department’s organized crime and racketeering section as special attorney, where he stayed from 1978 to 1982. In addition, he held various director, secretary and counsel roles in the Commerce Department between 1999 and 2003.

From 2005 to 2007 Sopko was deputy director of the Homeland Security Institute, a federally funded research center operated on behalf of the Homeland Security Department.

In addition to stints with the executive branch, Sopko spent time on Capitol Hill in several capacities, with his longest tenure being 15 years (1982 to 1997) as the deputy chief counsel at the Senate Permanent Committee on Investigations. His most recent public position was as the chief counsel for oversight and investigations for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which he held from 2007 to 2009.

Inspector general appointments -- or, rather, the lack of them -- have been a major point of contention for Congress lately. House Republicans recently criticized President Obama for leaving watchdog positions vacant, some for months or years according to the Project on Government Oversight.

In a statement Thursday, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., praised the appointment while lamenting the wait time.

“The White House took too long to fill this critical position, but now that we have someone ready to jump in, it offers us a new chance at accountability,” McCaskill said. “As we work to cut spending and rein in the national debt, billions of taxpayer dollars have been lost in Afghanistan through waste, fraud, and abuse -- and that’s why it’s so important that the taxpayers have a dedicated set of eyes and ears over the massive amounts of money being spent there.”

]]>

Survey finds agencies are not taking full advantage of data analysis

Andrew Lapin — Tue, 22 May 2012 16:45:00 -0400

Even as more federal agencies embrace the idea of increased data analysis, many don’t know what to do with this newfound information.

In a survey co-sponsored by the Association of Government Accountants and Accenture, and released Tuesday morning, 67 percent of federal officials said their organization analyzes data and uses the findings to make fact-based decisions, a process known as “data analytics.”

Of the respondents who said their agency incorporates analytics, 46 percent reported a “low” integration of analytics into agency management. Another 46 percent said their agency had “medium” levels of integration, while 8 percent said their agency practiced “high” levels of integration.

Approximately 40 chief financial officers, deputy CFOs and chief information officers were interviewed for the survey between October 2011 and January 2012, from an indeterminate number of agencies that survey co-author Helena Sims, director of intergovernmental relations for AGA, said represented “a good cross-section.” Additionally, the survey authors conducted interviews with officials from eight offices within six federal agencies, including the Agriculture, Defense and Education departments and the U.S. Postal Service. The interviews were geared toward specific projects that use data integration.

Half the respondents who said their agency used analytics also said a contractor helped develop their data analytics system. During the panel Tuesday, survey co-author and primary researcher Steve Sossei said he suspected the number might actually be higher and agency officials surveyed may not have been aware of which tasks were performed by contractors.

“Really there’s no right-or-wrong approach to the development of data analytics,” said Sossei, who is a retired director of state audits from the New York State Comptroller’s Office. “It’s what fits in your organization. Everything within life is a balance. Sometimes you have to budget, sometimes the time is right to go big.”

For the purposes of the survey, low levels of analytics integration were defined as “data analytic processes are conducted in silos with little consistency or standardization.” Medium levels meant “data analytic techniques are used inconsistently” with “some linkage to management budget and planning functions.”

Lack of integration was a source of concern for Sossei, who warned about the consequences of improperly integrated analytics.

“You don’t want to have a system that just produces results without identifying what they’re going to do, integrating them into your operations, and feeding that back into your system and moving forward and producing better results on a more timely basis,” he said, adding increased analytics use and greater integration would require more resources as well as different management styles.

According to the survey, “nearly all” government data analytics systems focus on financial performance, improper payments and identifying targets for high-risk investigations. Two of the panelists demonstrated how their departments were employing analytics for these purposes: William McGee explained that Defense has used near real-time business transaction analysis to prevent more than $4 billion in improper payments through April, and Edward Slevin discussed how Education is using analytics to attempt to combat student financial aid fraud rings.

Data analytics is projected to be a $92 billion industry over the next five years, according to Kevin Greer, executive director of Accenture Finance and Enterprise Performance. “Those who adapt analytics will have a competitive advantage,” Greer said.

]]>

Industry groups look to start dialogue with TSA

Andrew Lapin — Mon, 21 May 2012 12:34:37 -0400

To air travelers and several lawmakers, the Transportation Security Administration may be one of the most reviled branches of the federal government. But some contractors see opportunity in it -- and one group is starting a dialogue to make it easier to do business with TSA.

The Washington Homeland Security Roundtable, a nonprofit membership organization comprised of Homeland Security Department contractors such as Adobe, Boeing Co. and IBM, announced Monday the creation of the WHSR-TSA Senior Executive Industry Forum. The forum will kick off with a meeting with TSA Administrator John Pistole on June 5 at Reagan National Airport in Washington.

“Our objective is really to have industry have an opportunity to work with the leadership of TSA,” WHSR Director Kay Olive told Government Executive. “I think they’re looking every way they can to improve and increase effectiveness, and we just want to help with that. Much like every agency out there, I think they’re just looking for opportunity.”

Membership will be limited to 50 industry representatives, with no more than one from each company. Registration opens Monday at noon. The forum will meet twice a year.

]]>