Government Executive - Authors - George A. Warner

EPA failed to assess coal risks, IG finds

George A. Warner — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

report from EPA's inspector general.

From 2001 to 2010, EPA promoted coal combustion residues -- the byproducts of coal-fired power plants, such as fly ash, bottom ash and boiler slag -- as potentially useful materials for wallboard, road bases, golf course fill, concrete and other applications, in an effort to reduce waste. The residues contain low concentrations of arsenic, lead and mercury, which are known to leach into ground water sources if unprotected, the report said.

EPA's recommendations came out of a government-industry coalition, the Coal Combustion Products Partnership, which included the American Coal Ash Association and Utility Solid Waste Activities Group, as well as other federal agencies.

The use of coal combustion residues as a structural filler nearly tripled between 2001 and 2008, from 4 million tons to 12 million tons a year, according to the report.

Yet, barring a single draft assessment examining the use of fluidized bed combustion waste --a specific coal combustion byproduct --in agricultural settings, EPA never undertook a risk assessment ofrecommended substancesin any of the uses it promoted.

When the agency started the partnership, the then-director of the Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery said understanding the risks of the promoted products rested with the states. But only 34 states have programs for industrial waste reuse, and those programs could rely on EPA for technical and safety guidance.

Following the accidental release of more than 5 million cubic yards of coal ash sludge at a Tennessee power plant containment dike in 2008, EPA re-examined its policies on coal ash disposal. The agency proposed new rules to regulate coal ash products in May 2010.

Last October, the agency removed the Coal Combustion Products Partnership website from its domain, after an early version of the IG report informed EPA it might have been improperly endorsing commercial products and promoting views in opposition to its policy.

The report encouraged EPA to define the risks associated with future use of coal combustion byproducts, but also said the agency might have to take action to redress the past use of coal ash in structural fill situations. EPA said it would submit a "detailed corrective action plan" within 90 days.

Jason Hayes, communication director for the American Coal Council, said the IG report "is just another example of an ongoing campaign by the EPA against coal." He warned the agency plans to hold "coal ash up to a level no other recyclable material is held to."

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Protection of U.S. nuclear arsenal faulted by experts

George A. Warner — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

released on Thursday by the National Research Council.

The report faulted the National Nuclear Security Administration, a semi-autonomous agency within the Energy Department, for lacking a comprehensive understanding of different enemy attack scenarios that could threaten NNSA storage facilities, and warned that security at the agency's sites would remain "out of balance" without strengthened agency leadership and a "major shift in approach."

NNSA leaders also do not understand the full extent of the "interactions and dependencies among security [systems]," NRC asserted. Sarah Case, the NRC program officer who was study director of the report, declined to elaborate on the security interactions and dependencies referenced in the report, citing the full report's classified status. The public report noted some recommendations "that were judged too sensitive to reproduce" were left out of the abridged public version.

The Senate Appropriations Committee requested the report in 2008 to address ballooning security costs at NNSA, which have grown from $550 million in fiscal 2002 to more than $900 million in fiscal 2010. NNSA management has been questioned by the Government Accountability Office. In January, NNSA received a program management award from the nonprofit Project Management Institute for IT work relating to President Obama's Global Threat Reduction Initiative.

The NRC report warned against using a quantitative strategy -- which NRC was specifically tasked to evaluate -- to better assess security risks while keeping an eye on overall costs. "There is no comprehensive analytical basis for defining the attack strategies that a malicious, creative and deliberate adversary might employ," the report concluded. But it was acknowledged that a "rigorous assessment of security risk" would prove useful to NNSA.

In part, the report restated a line familiar to outside evaluators of NNSA: Serious communication and information issues within the agency continue to hinder its ability to manage projects and fulfill its mission.

To secure its facilities more efficiently, NNSA should better integrate its own security efforts and better coordinate with cooperating agencies, the report said: "Coordination, communication and joint exercises that include all relevant security organizations are necessary" to improve NNSA facility security.

NNSA spokesman Bill Gibbons told Government Executive his agency "has some of the most formidable, robust and layered physical security systems in the world to appropriately guard against any attempt by adversaries to compromise our facilities, systems, equipment or materials. Security is a top priority," he said.

"The NNSA appreciates the work of the National Academies to develop their report. The recommendations are very thoughtful and are consistent with NNSA's efforts to enhance our risk management processes and refine the vulnerability assessment program through our security reform initiative." He added that NNSA will work with other elements of the Energy Department, including the Office of Health, Safety and Security, "to analyze the recommendations and incorporate them into the ongoing reengineering of the NNSA's nuclear security management program as appropriate."

This story has been updated, to include NNSA's comment and to clarify the description of the report.

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Homeland Security offers tool to curb errors in work eligibility

George A. Warner — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

"Beginning today, for the first time, individuals in five states and the District of Columbia will be able to check their own employment eligibility status before seeking a job," Napolitano said at a news conference announcing the pilot program. "This new service is voluntary, is fast, is free and, importantly, is secure."

Officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a division of the Homeland Security Department, hope the program will cut back on the number of documented workers whose status is wrongly questioned because of database errors in the E-Verify work eligibility system during the hiring process. The Self Check program provides "clear instructions in both English and Spanish on how the user can correct his or her records," USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas said at the press conference.

USCIS sees the program expanding soon. The agency plans to implement it nationwide by the end of 2012, but a USCIS fact sheet warned that implementation plans were contingent on "personnel and budgetary" resources. USCIS expects about 1 million people will self-query their employment eligibility status in the next year, and that figure could reach up to 8 million checks per year once the program is available nationwide.

The announcement comes as the E-Verify system is receiving renewed attention on Capitol Hill. Some immigration experts think the House will vote to mandate nationwide implementation this year, NextGov reported in February, but warned at the time that USCIS might not be up to the task.

Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which has congressional responsibility for the 14-year-old voluntary E-Verify program that is used to varying degrees in different states, welcomed the new initiative.

"With the unemployment rate around 9 percent for 22 months and 7 million illegal immigrants working in the U.S.," Smith said, "we should continue to build on the successes of E-Verify."

The program will not be a cure-all for errant non-confirmations, a situation that can lead an employer to fire an employee who is work-authorized, said Tyler Moran, policy director at the National Immigration Law Center.

USCIS acknowledged the program has limitations: "If I self-check myself successfully, and then six months from now I am run through E-Verify," said Michael Mayhew, special operations chief of the Verification Division at USCIS, "I can still get a mismatch if my status has changed, if I've changed my name, if my employer inputs a typo."

Still, Self Check could become an important tool for the E-Verify system, said Marc Rosenblum, senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. He warned, however, that the program does not address the E-Verify program's most pressing problem. "We know that the system is massively vulnerable to identity theft right now," he said. "Over half of unauthorized immigrants who are submitted to E-Verify are wrongly confirmed [as work eligible], mostly as a result of identity fraud."

Rosenblum said USCIS should allow users to lock their E-Verify account after confirming its accuracy, and said that a functioning Self Check feature in the future will make implementing a locking feature easier. The Self Check program makes sure that users are who they say they are through a third-party security quiz based on a credit report and other personal data.

"The vast majority of the work that needs to be done for locking," Rosenblum said, "is accomplished if you can get Self Check working."

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Pentagon not spotting overpayments to contractors, IG finds

George A. Warner — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

A recent department search for such overpayments was both "inaccurate and incomplete," the Defense inspector general reported Wednesday.

Less than half the department's $303.7 billion in first quarter expenditures last year were reviewed for overpayments, the IG report found. Unless senior officials improve their review methodology and oversight, Defense "will continue to understate the department's high-dollar overpayments and error rate," the report warned.

"This is clearly unacceptable," said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management. "The Pentagon has to do a much better job in identifying and eliminating improper payments. We need to look in every nook and cranny of federal spending -- domestic and defense -- to find ways to cut waste and fraud. "

The report comes as scrutiny of Defense's budget has increased among lawmakers. Last June, a bipartisan group of legislators urged the Obama-appointed deficit commission to consider nearly $1 trillion in Defense savings during the next decade. During debate last month over fiscal 2011 spending, the House passed an amendment to cut funding for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine, though the measure was not included in the final bill.

Charles Knight, co-director of the Project on Defense Alternatives, warned that accounting problems at Defense had contributed to the growth of the department's spending during the past decade. "The finding in this report . . . reveal another small piece of the longtime failure of [Defense] to meet basic auditing standards," Knight said.

The IG report was based on the results of the Pentagon's first attempt to screen and report high-value overpayments, which are defined as payments 50 percent larger than the correct amount for contracts of more than $5,000 to individuals and $25,000 to organizations.

The agency conducted that review in response to a November 2009 executive order that requires agency chiefs to publicly submit quarterly reports on significant overpayments found and recovered.

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GSA’s wiki platform is improving efficiency and performance, senior official says

George A. Warner — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Karen Lee, an analyst in the Office of Federal Financial Management at OMB, said open government initiatives should provide the means to "a more accountable, efficient and effective government." Lee made her remarks at the General Services Administration's annual Interagency Resources Management Conference.

Federal agencies have focused some transparency efforts on increasing government efficiency, Lee said, including the paymentaccuracy.gov website, which is part of a broader initiative to reduce erroneous federal payments.

Improper payments are made not "because the government is lazy or because we don't know what we are doing," Lee said. They occur "because we don't have an interoperable way to feed all the information we have" into a single source, she added.

But new initiatives are not enough to boost government performance. Federal managers need to change their mind-set, Lee said, noting that a 2009 study showed most mid-level managers think open government initiatives are unrelated to performance management.

Mary Davie, assistant commissioner of the Office of Integrated Technology Services at GSA and Lee's co-panelist, said performance management and openness are clearly related. She noted that public discussion would only improve her agency's effectiveness. Davie cited a wiki-platform GSA introduced in June to share information with contractors and the public, allowing the agency to better evaluate contract needs and increase transparency throughout the process.

"Why not open the dialog up beyond our usual community," Davie said, "there are a lot of good brains out there."

But GSA has only used the wiki-platform four or five times, Davie acknowledged.

By using a wiki platform to work out details of an upcoming contract, GSA was able to refine the proposal through the process of fielding questions and comments from contractors. In contrast, the standard process typically gives the agency only one cycle of comments, limiting the information GSA can use to update requests for proposals.

Davie acknowledged that employees sometimes resist adopting new technologies, in part because the GSA acquisition process is constrained by an array of complex rules. But, she said, focusing first on small noncritical solicitations made the transition easier.

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SEC told to reorganize and live within its means

George A. Warner — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Without additional funds, SEC will not be able to implement many of the new rules it is writing as required under the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law, Chairwoman Mary Schapiro warned during a joint hearing of two subcommittees of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The hearing focused largely on ethics concerns regarding Schapiro's handling of former SEC general counsel David Becker, who worked on the agency's response to the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme even though he had inherited some money through a Madoff account.

Schapiro's long-standing quest for greater funding was supported by the report[pdf], which was conducted by Boston Consulting Group. It said Congress should either expand funding so SEC can meet expectations, or "change the SEC's role to fit available funding."

But the report also recommended SEC prioritize its regulatory duties to better allocate staff and resources. The commission should categorize its activities from those that are "critical to strengthen or commence" to those that could be scaled back, delegated, or flexibly regulated, it said.

The report also suggested SEC reorganize to improve efficiency and collaboration, an issue former SEC Secretary Jonathan Katz also expressed concern about during Thursday's hearing. Katz said organizational structure should correspond to the markets the commission regulates, but said current agency organization better reflected market structure in the 1970s, calling it a "historical artifact."

Schapiro welcomed the report, saying in a press release that SEC's chief operating officer would head a series of working groups on the report's recommendations. "I believe that investors need an SEC with added staff and better technology to properly police Wall Street," she said.

Schapiro told the lawmakers that outdated technology was hindering the agency from doing its job and no match for the sophisticated technology financial companies are using to monitor the markets. SEC has "too many [employees] doing low-value work because we don't have the technology," she said. "We need to be able to use data analytics to find the important information in [industry data], not have people plowing through all that information."

Schapiro defended the work SEC management has done during the past two years, saying she would have acted similarly if given the chance to start over. "I am pleased that the report recognizes the many initiatives we have taken over the past two years to increase the agency's efficiency and effectiveness," she told the hearing.

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Deputy U.S. marshal killed in the line of duty

George A. Warner — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Perry had been part of a task force attempting to apprehend Carlos Boles, a suspect wanted for possession of a controlled substance and assault of a police officer, according to the Justice Department. Boles also was killed during the incident after law enforcement returned fire.

Perry is the third federal officer to be shot to death on duty in the past month, National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund records show. On February 16, Deputy U.S. Marshal Derek Hotsinpiller died after being shot while serving a warrant in West Virginia. A day earlier, Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent Jaime Zapata was shot dead while assisting Mexican authorities with anti-drug trafficking enforcement in Mexico.

Responding to Tuesday's events, U.S. Marshals Director Stacia A. Hylton said in a statement, "Our deputies and law enforcement partners face danger every day in the pursuit of justice for the citizens of this great nation. Our people and our partners are well-trained and prepared, but it is impossible to predict when a wanted individual will make a fateful choice that results in the loss of life or injury. Our thoughts and prayers are with our fallen deputy, as well as the injured and their families."

Attorney General Eric Holder also expressed his remorse in a statement released Wednesday morning. "Yesterday's tragic shootings in St. Louis are yet another solemn reminder of the dangers that U.S. marshals confront on a daily basis." Holder said.

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State Department’s training program taken to task

George A. Warner — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0500

"State lacks a systematic, comprehensive training needs assessment process incorporating all bureaus and overseas posts," Jess T. Ford, director of International affairs and trade at GAO, told the hearing of Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce and the District of Columbia. "State has developed several training-related goals and measures, but the measures do not fully address the goals, and are generally output- rather than outcome-oriented. As a result, they do not provide a clear means of determining whether State's training efforts achieve desired results."

Despite the criticism, a GAO report found that its programs fulfilled 26 of 32 attributes that the government watchdog uses to assess training initiatives, a fact emphasized at the hearing by Ruth Whiteside, director of the Foreign Service Institute, the organization that delivers much of State's training.

GAO recommended several actions for the secretary of State to "provide transparent, complete and accurate information to help employees plan training and development throughout their careers." The recommendations centered around directing the Foreign Service Institute and the department's Bureau of Human Resources to collaborate with overseas bureaus and offices to develop and implement a systematic, comprehensive training plan, including developing data on employee performance measures.

The GAO recommendations were praised by Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, D-Hawaii, the subcommittee chairman, who said, "In this tough budget climate, it is more important than ever for the department to conduct the planning and evaluation necessary to fully support its funding requesting and target limited resources strategically."

Akaka also warned that funding uncertainty has adversely affected State's operations. "We cannot expect federal agencies to efficiently or effectively implement long-term strategies with short-term funding extension," he said.

But committee member Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who attended the hearing briefly, criticized the department's personnel plan as being on "an unsustainable course in terms of being able to pay the bills."

Dubbed Diplomacy 3.0, the personnel plan seeks to expand civil service personnel by 13 percent and Foreign Service personnel by 25 percent from fiscal 2009 levels by fiscal 2014. Since its launch in March 2009, according to Whiteside, State has filled about 1,900 new positions and has plans for 2,000 more, while enrollment in diplomatic training has risen by 50 percent.

"I wanted to come today," said Coburn, "to clear the record of what is not going to happen in the future . . . because we don't have the dollars to do it."

Limited personnel has forced State into some difficult training decisions, said Nancy Powell, director general of the Foreign Service and director of State Human Resources Ambassador. "Staffing at State has not adapted to the department's expanded mission during the last decade. We sometimes had to choose whether to leave a position empty for the many months it takes to train a fully language-qualified officer, or to cut part or all of the language training." In 2009, GAO released a report that found 31 percent of employees -- and the majority of State employees in Iraq and Afghanistan -- did not meet foreign language proficiency requirements.

Ronald Neumann, president of the American Academy of Diplomacy, told the hearing that establishing a personnel reserve at the department was essential for effective training, saying that a "commitment to investing and professional education and training" starts with ensuring that personnel can take the time needed to train without compromising readiness.

Neumann acknowledged that "maintaining such resources in the current budget climate will be extraordinarily difficult," but said all proposals to improve training at State "are meaningless . . . without sufficient personnel and funding."

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Coming soon: The 2011 version of legislation to speed presidential appointments

George A. Warner — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0500

At a hearing called to confront the age-old problem of too many top agency positions sitting vacant while the Senate ignores or blocks action on the president's nominees, senators and witnesses alike acknowledged that reforming the process is an uphill battle.

"Nominations have become a very convenient tool to push a political agenda that often has absolutely nothing to do with the nomination," former Senate parliamentarian Robert Dove testified.

"I know Senators are loath to give up a power position," Dove added. But he said he was encouraged by recent cooperation on the matter between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who this January appointed Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., of the Rules Committee to draft legislation to improve the confirmation process.

"We've known about this problem for years, but failed to act," Lieberman said, noting the committee he now chairs held similar hearings in 2001. Wednesday's hearing brought out a variety of possible reforms to the appointment process, but focused largely on reducing the number of positions requiring confirmation and simplifying paperwork. The number of positions that require Senate confirmation has ballooned in the past 50 years, from 286 when President Kennedy took office in 1961 to some 1,200 positions today, according to the National Commission on the Public Service and the Congressional Research Service.

"The large number of positions requiring confirmation can lead to long delays in selecting, vetting and nominating these appointees," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. Collins and Lieberman both said streamlining and consolidating the number multitude of forms nominees are required to fill out could speed the vetting process. "A 'smart form' could be developed and put into use which allowed nominees to answer one way, one time each of the White House, FBI, Diplomatic Security, [Office of Government Ethics] and Senate personal background questions," said Clay Johnson III, who was deputy director for management at OMB during the George W. Bush administration.

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NTEU bemoans lack of information on possible shutdown

George A. Warner — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Agencies have increased employees' anxiety by not communicating any shutdown plans with their employees, NTEU President Colleen Kelley told reporters during the conference.

"If there is no money on March 4, employees need to know whether to come to work or not on March 7," Kelley said. "Employees need to be told something." Kelley said she had not heard of any agency that had communicated shutdown plans with employees, including notification of whether or not employees are classified as essential, which determines whether or not they are required to work during a shutdown.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced the Senate would vote within 48 hours on a continuing resolution that appears likely to keep the government open at least until March 18.

Kelley said NTEU had collected members' personal e-mail addresses so the union could continue to communicate with members if a shutdown occurs. She said NTEU was answering member questions about issues such as unemployment benefits, health benefits and whether members could take on second jobs, but said many were concerns agencies should be addressing.

"We are going to be facing serious issues for federal workforce throughout this whole year and beyond," said Maureen Gilman, NTEU's legislative director, during the press conference. She said a two-week extension of the spending resolution would not lessen the chances of a government shutdown. She also speculated that Congress could continue passing short-term appropriations bills for the coming months, emphasizing that there remain major disagreements between the House and Senate on long-term funding.

When the fiscal 2012 budget is debated later this year, federal employees' retirement benefits could become part of the conversation, Gilman added.

The future of federal retirement benefits was also one of the legislative priorities NTEU discussed earlier in the day with union representatives from around the country. Gilman told them the NTEU was opposed to most reforms targeting benefits and noted the Federal Employees Retirement System had no unfunded liabilities.

Kelley also said Congress's recent focus on the federal workforce had made some NTEU members feel "unappreciated and singled out."But the renewed focus on public workers, she added, was an opportunity for NTEU to remind the public of the work government employees do for the country.

The conference's slogan was "Proud to Work for America," and Kelley announced plans to use it in a new campaign in association with other unions to advocate for the work public employees do.

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Federal workers rally against Wisconsin governor

George A. Warner — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

For two weeks, union members, public employees and activists in Madison, Wis., have protested a bill pushed by Walker that would confine collective bargaining rights for public employees to wages only, require unions to hold annual votes on whether to maintain the union and limit unions' ability to collect member dues. The bill also would require state employees to pay half their pension costs and twice the health care costs they currently pay.

Activists and union members from both the private and public sectors rallied at the Wisconsin governor's office near the Capitol, carrying signs reading "Don't Slash the Middle Class" and "Union Busting Is Disgusting."

Asked why he attended the rally, Ben Butler, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 2741, said, "One word: solidarity."

The issue is "not about the budget," J. David Cox, secretary-treasurer of AFGE, told Government Executive during the rally. "It's about denying workers a basic right" to collectively bargain.

Union leaders in Wisconsin have said they would be willing to negotiate with Walker on fiscal issues, but Walker rejected the proposed compromise.

Many attendees said they feared that measures like the one being debated in Wisconsin would be proposed across the country. "If Wisconsin goes, the rest will, too," said Sue Thomas, who works for AFGE's finance department and whose husband works at the National Gallery of Art in security.

Federal "workers are facing the same issues," said Tom Webb, a member of AFGE local 3615, in a view expressed by many federal workers at the rally.

Some federal employees on Wednesday also protested a potential government shutdown that could come when the current spending bill expires on March 4. Attendees at the rally carried signs reading, "No Union Busting, No Shutdown."

Saul Schniderman, a Library of Congress employee who is president of Council 26 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents a portion of federal employees, said the potential shutdown was a big concern for members of his guild, recounting the last federal government shutdown in 1995. It was "not a pretty picture," he said.

Ann Buchanan, a retired Census Bureau employee, said she feared a government shutdown this year would affect workers more, given the state of the economy. In contrast with the current uncertainty surrounding whether workers would be compensated for furloughed time retroactively, during the last shutdown "there was a sense that it would be resolved," Buchanan said. "Government employees -- who want to work -- would be shut out of their jobs." said Cox, adding he thinks Republicans are trying to "starve [agencies] of the resources that they need" to fulfill their missions with their proposed budget for the rest of fiscal 2011.

"It's about clean water, clean air, veterans' health care" and the other services government provides, Cox said.

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Obama proposal for CFTC fees draws cheers, brickbats

George A. Warner — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Under the fiscal 2011 spending bill that the House passed early Saturday morning, CFTC's budget would be cut by nearly a third from fiscal 2010 levels, to $112 million.

Obama's budget proposes new legislation to allow CFTC to collect $117 million in user fees, which would significantly offset the cost of his proposed funding increase of $140 million over the agency's 2010 level.

The funding boost would help CFTC take on new regulatory responsibilities given it under the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the budget documents said. Specifically, CFTC is expected to implement new regulations overseeing the complicated swap market, which specialists say is seven times larger than the futures market CFTC already oversees.

Chairman Gary Gensler in the detailed CFTC budget warned legislators that unless the agency's funding increases, it will be unable to effectively fulfill its missions. "To take on the challenges of our expanded mission, we will need significantly more staff resources and -- very importantly -- significantly more resources for technology," he said in testimony on Feb. 15 to the House Financial Services Committee. Under the president's budget, CFTC's staff would grow nearly 50 percent, from 605 in fiscal 2010 to 983 employees.

Since Obama's budget was released on Feb. 14, however, financial groups have come out against the new fees, saying they would add more costs to an industry already dealing with new rules enacted under the financial reform law.

The fees would "place additional costs on market participants, which will inevitably filter down to customers," said Andrew DeSouza, a spokesman for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. "Additional funding should be sought through the appropriations process."

Michael Shore, associate director of communications at CME Group, owner of the world's largest derivatives market, called the fees a "transaction tax" that would push the derivatives industry to relocate overseas.

But some consumer advocacy groups are supporting the bill in part because the fees would provide potentially stable funding for CFTC.

Tracy Stewart, executive director of the Shareowner Education Network, an advocacy group for retail investors, said, "We hope the fact that user fees don't impact the budget deficit would also insulate them somewhat from cuts such as those we are seeing now."

Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-S.D., declined to comment on the fee proposal, but said in a statement: "The success of the Wall Street reform law will depend on vigilant oversight and enforcement, which means adequate funding for agencies like the [Securities and Exchange Commission] and the CFTC. As the budget process moves forward, I will continue to do all I can to ensure that these agencies get the funding they need -- and that investors and consumers get the protections they deserve.

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Washington feds raise record amount in 2010 for charity

George A. Warner — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Federal employees from the Washington area gave a record amount of money in 2010 to charity, the local chapter of the Combined Federal Campaign announced during its end-of-campaign celebration Wednesday morning.

Washington-area federal employees donated $66.7 million in 2010 to about 4,000 charities through the Combined Federal Campaign of the National Capital Area, their local chapter. There are 350,000 federal employees in the National Capital Area.

The pledged amount currently is $200,000 more than the record CFCNCA collected in 2009, but slightly below the $67 million goal the campaign set for itself in September. Campaign organizers emphasized they still are receiving and processing pledges, and expect to reach the $67 million mark once all pledges are collected.

Linda Washington, chairwoman of the National Capital Area's Local Federal Coordinating Committee and senior policy adviser for community initiatives at the Transportation Department, spoke to more than 1,000 campaign volunteers at the celebration, thanking them "for changing lives locally, nationally and around the world."

The record donations come as many federal employees are themselves struggling, she said, making the figure all the more impressive.

"Some people think federal employees are immune [to the effects of the recession]," Washington said in an interview with Government Executive. "[But] we have people in our families who are without employment. We are being affected also."

She credited the campaign's continued success to "the culture of caring" among federal employees, adding, "we see the need in what we do in our everyday jobs."

Campaign volunteers at the event said they were surprised at how little the pay freeze or the recession affected giving.

Katie Finn, deputy campaign manager at the National Institutes of Health, said NIH collected nearly 2.7 million in pledges from more than 10,000 employees during the 2010 campaign. After the pay freeze was announced, only four employees adjusted their gifts, she said.

The campaign's growing Web presence was critical to its success because it made donations easier and reduced overhead cost, according to Washington. At the celebration, CFCNCA introduced a new E-Giving Award, presented to agencies that increase paperless pledges by more than 10 percent from the previous year. More than 30 agencies received the award. Washington said making CFCNCA technology-focused is part of the campaign's broader push to engage younger federal employees. "Young folks do things quickly," she said. "They want to give online; they want to make it fast." But Washington said CFCNCA also is trying to engage young federal employees offline. The campaign is setting up a young donor advisory board and plans to continue events like the successful "lend a hand" happy hour it hosted this past October.

"When you come to the federal government, you are faced with so much, so CFC is just another program," she said. "We want to make [young people] aware of what CFC is all about."

CORRECTION: The original version of this story misstated the goal the campaign set for itself. The correct goal is $67 million. Also, there are 350,000 Washington area federal employees overall; that is not the number of people who donated to the Combined Federal Campaign of the National Capital Area.

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GAO calls Pentagon policies inconsistent on medical care in war zones

George A. Warner — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The Defense Department's guidelines for regulating routine medical care for civilian employees in war zones are inconsistent, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

One military directive says civilian employees in theater should receive the same level of care given to military personnel, a GAO review of Defense guidelines on civilian medical care found. But military guidance for personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan says routine care for civilian employees should be offered only when possible. Another policy on care in Afghanistan sets a third standard, providing "emergency essential" civilian employees -- but not all civilian workers -- with the same health care access as military personnel.

The report found that the conflicting policies stymied officials allocating personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan because the type of medical care necessary was unclear.

Despite the inconsistencies, no civilian employees were denied routine medical care during GAO's 18-month investigation between August 2009 and January 2011, the watchdog said. But, the report warned, contradictory policies could result in civilian personnel being denied health care if the number of civilians in theater increases in the future.

The report refocuses debate on an issue that has received much congressional attention in the past. In 2007, the Armed Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee expressed concern over inconsistent medical treatment of Defense personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., and Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., the then-chairman and ranking member of the subcommittee, respectively, said in a joint statement at the time, "We are asking these civilians to face many of the same dangers as our troops face. They must be taken care of just as thoroughly."

But, in contrast to the new GAO report, the subcommittee focused largely on implementation issues affecting civilian medical care and found Defense policies largely adequate.

The finding was part of a broader GAO investigation into Defense's procedures for assessing medical personnel in war zones. Besides looking into medical access to civilian personnel, GAO examined how Defense allocates its medical units to best provide medical care. Commanders have reorganized and divided medical teams to better provide emergency service, GAO found, but said Defense should update its policy to reflect changes on the ground.

Defense agreed with GAO's recommendations.

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Official: Contractors will bear brunt of personnel cuts at command

George A. Warner — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Contractors will bear the brunt of personnel cuts when the Defense Department dismantles the U.S. Joint Forces Command this year, Army Gen. Raymond Odierno said during a press conference on Wednesday.

Odierno said 2,000 of the nearly 3,000 positions slated for elimination will be contractor positions. Defense will reduce by about half the total personnel associated with the Joint Forces, he said, restating previously announced figures.

Ending Joint Forces, the command tasked with ensuring interservice cooperation and military training for future operations, would save Defense more than $400 million annually, Odierno added.

The announcement comes a month after President Obama officially authorized the dismantling of the command. Defense Secretary Robert Gates originally announced Defense's plan to close the command in August as part of a broader series of cuts that included a partial hiring freeze and contractor funding reductions.

Most personnel cuts will come from the Norfolk and Suffolk, Va., areas, where Joint Forces is headquartered, but Odierno said Nevada and Florida, where Joint Forces has operations, also will experience job losses. Career services will be provided to those who lose their jobs, he said.

No specific positions have been identified for elimination yet, Odierno said. He expected that process to take place during the next couple of months, and said Joint Forces would be dismantled by the end of August, with all personnel moves completed by March 2012.

A two-star general -- Odierno did not say whom -- will lead a new organization responsible for many of the Joint Forces core missions and will be the deputy director for operational plans and joint force development on the Joint Staff. This person will lead the organization from the Norfolk-Suffolk area.

The new organization will not be merely a trimmed down version of the Joint Forces, Odierno emphasized. "We are taking a major departure from past organizational design, procedure and mind-set to more effectively execute [Joint Forces] core functions and sustain the jointness we have worked so hard to achieve in the past," he said. In addition, the new organization will rely on modeling and simulation to better develop training programs, military concepts and doctrine.

Odierno left open the possibility that the number of contractors working with the new organization could grow in the future, depending on demand. "If we're successful two years from now, you might find that other areas of [Defense] are sending money here for us to work their concepts and development." he said. "We can expand based on relevancy."

He will submit a detailed implementation plan to Gates within the next 30 days, but said he would continue to refine plans as the process unfolds.

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Feds rally against becoming scapegoats for fiscal woes

George A. Warner — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

AFGE members from all 50 states delivered petitions to their senators, arguing that freezing federal salaries, cutting benefits and reducing the government workforce were not good ways to balance the federal budget. The petitions stated the budget deficit is not the result of issues with federal compensation.

"It's not like we're retiring rich," said Bob Snelson, who works for the Bureau of Prisons at a super-maximum security facility in Colorado Springs, Colo., and is chief steward of AFGE Local 1322. Snelson, a 25-year veteran of the government, said an extended pay freeze would affect him "quite a bit," especially with the rising costs of health insurance. The average amount that federal employees pay for health care coverage is increasing 7.2 percent this year.

Other attendees agreed moves such as extending the current two-year salary freeze to five years, as Republicans proposed in January, would cause real hardship for public employees, especially those at the bottom of the federal pay scale. "They don't make a lot of money as it is," said Robena Reid, a member of AFGE Local 3313 and an economist at the Transportation Department.

Government employees are being asked to "foot the bill for the nation's overspending and undertaxing," Snelson said.

The rally comes a week before President Obama will deliver to Congress his fiscal 2012 budget request, which is expected to reveal more details about potential changes to the federal workforce.

Since President Obama announced a two-year federal pay freeze in late November 2010, lawmakers have been discussing additional options for reducing the deficit through cuts in government benefits and jobs. In early December 2010, the president's fiscal commission proposed reducing the federal workforce by 10 percent, adjusting health and retirement benefits, and extending the pay freeze for another year. And in their January proposal, GOP lawmakers called for a 15 percent reduction in the federal workforce along with the three-year extension of the pay freeze. Obama has not said whether he intends to act on those proposals, but during his State of the Union speech last month, he announced a five-year freeze on discretionary nonsecurity spending and a major reorganization of the federal government.

Some rally attendees said cuts targeted at government employees would result in diminished or inadequate federal services. LaVerne English, a member of AFGE Local 2028 in Pittsburgh, said shrinking the federal workforce would lead to staffing shortages at the Veterans Affairs Department facility where she works. For English, the outcome is obvious. "If you don't have enough nurses or nurse practitioners," she said, "the veterans don't get good care."

AFGE President John Gage said in an interview during the march that the public has misconceptions about what government employees do. Federal employees are "[staffing] your VA hospitals, inspecting mines, watching the border [and] manning our prisons," he said. "It's time we really stand up and defend ourselves and defend the work we do."

Gage and other attendees expressed concern over the way politicians and the media have portrayed civil servants during the recent debate over the size and role of the federal government.

"It's coming from all angles for federal employees," he said. "We're upset with the president for reinforcing these terrible myths that our people are overpaid [and] that [we have] a bloated government, when really many of our agencies are short-staffed."

Some of the rally attendees went further, expressing frustration over the government's bailout of the financial sector and the recent extension of the George W. Bush administration tax cuts. "They had so much money to bail out the banks, and we're being asked to accept less," Reid said.

"I think [Congress] should go to Wall Street" to make cuts, said Johnnie Gatling, a social worker at the Baltimore VA Medical Center and a member of AFGE District 4. "They're millionaires."

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Report touts innovation as a key tool in confronting shrinking budgets

George A. Warner — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The report by the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on the government workforce, and IDEO, a design consultancy, outlines concrete actions agencies and federal employees could take to overcome obstacles to innovation, a theme of President Obama's State of the Union address last month.

"Innovation can improve quality of service, but it can also improve the bottom line," said Tom Fox, director of the Center for Government Leadership at the Partnership for Public Service, during a conference call on Wednesday.

In fact, fostering creativity can be more effective than some other proposed methods of addressing budget problems, according to Fox. He called the recent push to reduce government head count a bad management strategy, saying studies show money saved by eliminating federal jobs instead "just gets spent on contractors." In January, Republican lawmakers proposed cutting the federal workforce by 15 percent by hiring one new employee for every two leaving.

The report identified four barriers that stymie innovation within the government, including an incentive structure that rewards the status quo. Government employees are expected to meet common standards, but are not rewarded if they push the envelope, the Partnership and IDEO found.

The report also said a lack of metrics to gauge program success hinders government innovation. While private sector programs and research often can be evaluated based on whether they make -- or lose -- money, federal agencies frequently have to assess whether initiatives achieve harder to measure goals such as improving national security or producing a cleaner environment.

The report defined innovation more broadly than simply invention, saying government workers could innovate by finding a better way to complete a task, implementing a tried idea in a new context, and developing a new process to achieve agency goals.

It highlighted the Social Security Administration's use of Internet videoconferences to interact with citizens in rural areas as an example of improving on a pre-existing government service. Fox lauded SSA not only for the result, but also for the process behind the new program. Social Security first launched a prototype at one site, and then implemented it at scale after the test proved successful.

New programs like the Transportation Security Administration's IdeaFactory, an online tool that enables TSA employees to suggest strategies for fine-tuning the agency's operations and learn about initiatives being tested to improve service, also show "a lot of promise," Fox said. Part of the problem, he said, is the government is not doing a good job of promoting the cutting-edge work already taking place.

Fox said Partnership for Public Service expects to release a second report in March that will focus on leadership skills necessary to foster a culture of innovation.

"Leadership is a real necessary part," he said, noting agencies "need to have the right people involved."

During the research process for Wednesday's report, the authors interviewed more than 100 "innovators" from about 50 public, private and nonprofit organizations, asking what they saw as strengths and weaknesses in the public sector, and where proven private sector strategies could be implemented in government. After coming up with a set of potential solutions, the authors went back to the innovators for feedback to make sure each proposal added to the conversation and could be reasonably implemented, the report said.

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Interior unveils new scientific integrity policy

George A. Warner — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The rules, which take effect immediately, prohibit nonscientists in the department from modifying scientific findings, and spell out criteria for hiring scientists and evaluating their job performance.

The policy is designed to clarify the role of science within Interior's broad and diverse mandate. It defines the responsibilities of all workers -- including contractors and volunteers -- in maintaining scientific integrity, and goes over how to avoid conflicts of interest.

A departmental science integrity officer and science integrity directors at Interior's eight bureaus will lead and support efforts to implement the rules.

Alan Thornhill, science adviser to the director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, said the rules reaffirm Salazar's commitment to making "science a foundation for decision-making" at Interior. They "encourage an environment of rigorous open discussion," Thornhill said, "unfettered by political interference."

Interior has been charged with manipulating scientific data for political ends, including allegations that scientists at the Minerals Management Service -- now the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement -- blocked the publication of scientific results that found oil exploration harmed wildlife.

In 2007, Interior's Office of the Inspector General found that Julie MacDonald, a political appointee, had altered the scientific findings of Endangered Species Program reports and pressured field staff to reach specific conclusions in their studies. While the IG found MacDonald's interference was above and beyond the norm, investigators said other officials in similar positions had "made changes to reports to reflect political philosophy."

Interior released a draft of the new rules in August 2010, opening them to public comment. Linda Gundersen, the director for the Office of Science Quality and Integrity at Interior's U.S. Geological Survey, said hundreds of groups responded with feedback. "It helped us address critical issues" with the rules, she said. "It was really wonderful."

Advocacy groups embraced the final rules issued on Tuesday, but called for further refinements.

Francesca Grifo, senior scientist and director of the scientific integrity program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental and scientific ethics watchdog group, called the new policy "lofty and inspiring," but noted it is "still missing a lot of details." UCS, in a press release, expressed concern that the policy's process for evaluating claims of misconduct lacks transparency.

Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an advocacy group of federal, state and local environmental employees, said the policy was a "good faith effort." But the group also claimed the rules were ambiguous at times, noting they did not lay out the specifics for whistleblower protections and were vague on when scientists could be barred from discussing work with the media.

Still, Ruch encouraged other federal agencies to implement scientific integrity initiatives of their own. "If Interior can adopt science integrity rules, then surely other agencies such as [the Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] and the Forest Service, have no excuse not to follow suit," he said.

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GAO: Northern border remains too porous

George A. Warner — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The U.S.-Canada border remains highly vulnerable to illegal activity and terrorist foot traffic, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

The report, based in part on an assessment from the Border Patrol, said most of the United States' nearly 4,000 miles of northern border remained vulnerable and only 32 miles -- or less than 1 percent of the total border -- was adequately secure in fiscal 2010. That same Border Patrol assessment reported the agency usually could detect illegal activity on another 1,000 miles of border, but often could not respond because of a lack of resources.

"The numbers speak for themselves," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, who released the report along with the panel's ranking member Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. "These findings should sound a loud alarm to the Department of Homeland Security, the Canadian government and our committee. The American people are grossly underprotected along our northern border."

According to GAO, Homeland Security believes the risk of terrorist activity across the northern border is higher than the southern border because there are active Islamist extremist groups in Canada that are not in Mexico. The northern border is much longer than the U.S.-Mexico border and has fewer law enforcement officers, making nefarious activity more likely, the report noted.

Terrorist crossings to and from Canada aren't the only problem, according to GAO and Homeland Security. The U.S.-Canada border also has become a well-traveled route for other illicit trade, including drug smuggling and human trafficking. In fiscal 2010, Homeland Security confiscated about 40,000 pounds of illegal drugs and made nearly 6,000 arrests at posts along the border.

The GAO report focused largely on the joint operations between the United States and Canada, and forums for information sharing among state, federal, tribal, local and Canadian partners in securing the world's largest defended border.

While acknowledging that interagency cooperation improved border security, GAO recommended Homeland Security do more to reap security benefits from its collaborations. The watchdog recommended DHS oversee the various interagency forums to ensure that different department components don't duplicate efforts, or adversely affect the security operations of partners.

Homeland Security also should take a leading role in improving long-standing communication problems between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol, part of Customs and Border Protection -- the two main federal entities responsible for securing the northern border.

The department agreed with GAO's recommendations.

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‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ training begins in February

George A. Warner — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The Defense Department will start training troops in February on new conduct policies related to the repeal of the law banning gays from serving openly in the military and plans to have repealed the "don't ask, don't tell" law by the end of the year, Pentagon officials announced in a press conference on Friday afternoon.

"Moving on expeditiously is better than dragging it out," Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. James Cartwright said during the briefing.

Training troops on the new protocol is the last of a three-step process Defense outlined for the repeal's implementation. For the past month, Defense has been reviewing policies potentially affected by DADT's repeal and gauging what changes are necessary. The next step is training the officers and military commanders in charge of educating troops. Cartwright said troops from some units and military branches could receive instruction before leaders from other units. "[The second and third steps] don't have to be sequential," he said.

Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Clifford Stanley stressed flexibility during the repeal process, noting, "each service is going to approach the training differently."

Cartwright also said the military will focus training on the unit level, and aims to have most of them trained before Defense Secretary Robert Gates or Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mike Mullen sign off on the law's final repeal. He said the military had no specific percentage of personnel it aims to train by that time, but instead will focus on reaching "a good understanding of what [the training process takes] and how long it takes."

Overturning the law requires President Obama, Gates and Mullen to agree the repeal would not hurt troop morale or compromise military readiness. After that, the December 2010 repeal requires a 60-day waiting period before taking effect.

Stanley also confirmed that no service members had been approved for discharge as a result of DADT since Gates adopted new rules requiring one of the three military service secretaries to sign off on any discharge. Still, Stanley said, "The 'don't ask, don't tell' law is still in effect, [and] we are obligated to follow that law."

The number of discharged gay personnel has waned in recent years, but DADT still cost the military more than 3,600 troops and nearly $200 million between fiscal 2004 and 2009, according to a Government Accountability Office report released in January. The report found that at least 1,500 of the discharged troops occupied critical roles in the armed forces, including infantry and intelligence specialists.

How repeal of DADT will affect service members' benefits remains unclear. "There are benefit areas that may become gray areas," Cartwright said.

But Stanley said no policy changes would be made to housing and spousal benefits, noting that Defense would not recognize marital benefits for service members with same-sex marriages recognized by their state because of the department's legal obligations under the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

How the repeal will affect gay service members' legal rights also is unclear. Stanley focused on the basic principles of military conduct: leadership, professionalism, discipline and respect. "Treating and taking care of your people … is so fundamentally basic" within military policy that "there is no special policy needed."

Cartwright said sexual orientation will not become a designated protected class under the law.

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Interior’s five-year strategic plan emphasizes hiring, youth recruitment

George A. Warner — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0500

"The truth is," Salazar said during a town hall meeting on Wednesday, "the strength of our economy, the strength of our spirit [and] the strength of our union are all tied to what we do here at the Department of the Interior."

He outlined Interior's five-year strategic plan released just before the meeting, for an audience of about 350 employees in Washington and more watching online nationwide.

The plan focused on five main departmental missions: creating a 21st century workplace; advancing governmental relations with Native Americans; establishing science-based decision-making processes; managing natural resources; and offering citizens natural and cultural experiences.

Within the five missions, it set 23 specific goals. As part of the effort to become a 21st century workplace, for instance, the strategic plan aims to reduce hiring time to 80 days, maximize the sustainability of Interior's operations, improve the upkeep of the department's nearly 47,000 buildings and reduce information technology costs by 4 percent.

Several of the objectives have been assigned a high priority, including hiring more young people. To underscore this goal, Julie Rodriguez, director of Interior's Youth Office and one of the employees in charge of the initiative, introduced Salazar. Calling her a "real superstar," Salazar thanked Rodriguez for the significant expansion of youth hiring already seen in the past year. In fiscal 2010, Interior increased employment of workers age 25 and under by 45 percent from fiscal 2009.

The high-priority goals also included reducing violent crime on tribal reservations, increasing water capacity in the West by nearly 500,000 acre feet through conservation, approving another 10,000 megawatts of renewable energy production on land managed by Interior, and assessing climate change-related risks for half of U.S. land.

The address largely shied away from the contentious topics of pay freezes, budget cuts and potential furloughs, but Salazar did make a brief reference to the growing strain between the federal workforce and Congress after Marcilynn Burke, deputy director of policy at the Bureau of Land Management, said she "had the pleasure in the last two days of briefing some congressional staffers on our new wild lands policy."

"Are you still alive?" Salazar quipped.

He praised employees' response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last spring, and recounted the department's successes during the past two years, including the opening of the 1 million-acre Flint Hills Legacy Conservation Area in Kansas and the approval of 12 sustainable energy projects that will produce 3,700 megawatts of power.

Despite this progress, Interior still has its work cut out, Salazar noted. Obama's goal of having 80 percent of the country's energy come from clean sources by 2035 is "ambitious," the Interior secretary acknowledged, and will require the use of not just solar, wind and geothermal energy, but also natural gas. And the initiative might not be popular on either side of the aisle, he said. "It will displease both Republicans and it will displease some Democrats," he predicted.

Developing clean and renewable energy is key to American competitiveness, however, Salazar said: "We need to get to a new world of energy because winning the future is going to be largely dependent on who wins the race to the energy future."

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Watchdog puts price tag on ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’

George A. Warner — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0500

report from the Government Accountability Office.

The military lost more than 3,600 service members between fiscal 2004 and fiscal 2009 because of "don't ask, don't tell," which resulted in $193 million in replacement and administrative costs, GAO found. At least 39 percent of the service members discharged performed critical roles within the military such as infantry, intelligence specialist and cryptologic linguist; GAO said that figure could be an underestimate because of the Air Force's limited data.

GAO's report updates a previous study that examined the first decade of "don't, ask, don't tell." The earlier report could not calculate the total costs between fiscal 1993 and 2004 because the Defense Department did not have the relevant data. Around 9,500 service members were separated under the policy during the first 10 years of its implementation, with at least 8 percent of troops occupying critical positions within the armed services.

The report, released on Wednesday, coincides with the Defense Department's preparations for implementing the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell." After months of public debate over the 17-year-old law -- and what many saw as dwindling prospects for its repeal in 2010, the Senate overturned it near the end of the lame duck session in December.

"Our goal here is to move as quickly, but as responsibly, as possible," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said earlier this month, of repealing the law. Gates described the implementation of the repeal as a three-step process: establishing new regulations, policies and service member benefits; producing training material for military leaders; and training service members about the new guidelines.

The Defense Department is "trying to get the first two phases of that process done as quickly as possible," Gates said at the time, expressing hope that it could be finished "within a matter of a very few weeks."

Initiating the new law, however, is still months away. The repeal does not go into effect until 60 days after the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Defense secretary and President Obama all certify that implementing the repeal will not compromise military readiness or troop morale.

Legislation introduced this week by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., could further delay the repeal. That bill would require certification of the Pentagon's plan from all four service branch chiefs -- two of whom opposed the law's repeal.

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