Government Executive - Authors - Katherine McIntire Peters

Biden Blasts OMB and Defense Officials for Obstructing Transition

Katherine McIntire Peters — Mon, 28 Dec 2020 17:09:23 -0500

President-elect Joe Biden said Monday that Trump administration officials at the Pentagon and the White House Office of Management and Budget are withholding critical national security information from his transition teams as they work to ensure a smooth handover of power following the January 20th inauguration.

“Right now, as our nation is in a period of transition, we need to make sure that nothing is lost in the handoff between administrations,” Biden said. “My team needs a clear picture of our force posture around the world and of our operations to deter our enemies.”

Citing the need for full visibility into the budget planning underway at the Pentagon and other agencies, Biden said “we have encountered roadblocks from the political leadership” at the Defense Department and OMB. “Right now, we just aren’t getting all the information that we need from the outgoing administration in key national security areas.”

“It’s nothing short of irresponsible,” he said.

Many agencies have sustained “enormous damage” under the Trump administration, Biden said: “They’ve been hollowed out—in personnel, in capacity, in morale. In policy processes that have atrophied or been sidelined. In the disrepair of our alliances. In our absence from key institutions that matter to the welfare of the American people. In a general disengagement from the world.”

Transition teams have briefed Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris about needed investment at a number of agencies, including the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, to rebuild alliances necessary to counter threats to the nation, Biden said.

He said the incoming administration is still learning about the extent of the SolarWinds hack and the vulnerabilities exposed as a result.

“We need to close the gap between where our capabilities are now and where they need to be to better deter, detect, disrupt, and respond to these sorts of intrusions in the future,” he said.

Restoring Capacity at DHS, FEMA

He also highlighted challenges at the Homeland Security Department and the Federal Emergency Management Agency relative to their roles supporting pandemic response and on the front lines of the “humanitarian disaster that the Trump Administration has systematically created on our southern border.”

He promised to boost the capacity of Homeland Security to process asylum seekers, but said it would take time to solve, noting that “it’s not as simple as throwing a switch to turn everything back on — especially amid a pandemic.”

He also said a critical issue will be managing the safe, equitable, and efficient distribution of vaccines to as many Americans as possible as quickly as possible.

“We want to make sure that our administration is poised to make full use of FEMA’s domestic reach and capacity in managing our COVID response,” Biden said.

Notably for federal employees, Biden ended the briefing with a shoutout to career professionals working across government.

“They never stop doing their jobs and continue to serve our country day in and day out to keep their fellow Americans safe, just as they have always done. These agencies are filled with patriots who have earned our respect, and who should never be treated as a political football,” he said.

“I’m looking forward to the honor of working with them again, to asking for their advice and inputs to help shape the best possible policies for all Americans.”

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Congress Passes Another Stopgap Spending Bill, Again Averting a Shutdown

Katherine McIntire Peters — Sun, 20 Dec 2020 21:42:33 -0500

House and Senate lawmakers on Sunday passed yet another stopgap spending bill to keep government operating while lawmakers finalize the details of a stimulus package aimed at providing economic relief for millions of Americans suffering hardship from the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Moments ago, in consultation with our committees, the four leaders of the Senate and the House finalized an agreement," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor Sunday evening. "There will be another major rescue package for the American people."

Congress on Friday had passed a 2-day continuing resolution to keep government operating over the weekend, but with funding slated to run out at midnight Sunday, another extension proved necessary. Lawmakers expect on Monday to vote on both the economic stimulus package and on an omnibus appropriations bill to fund agencies through September 2021.

Negotiations on both the appropriations bill and on the economic stimulus bill hit a series of snags in recent days even as lawmakers insisted they were nearing agreement.

“Negotiations are moving forward,” Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, said on the House floor Friday. “We are close to a final package.” He added that negotiators would need the extra two days to get across the finish line, but that estimate turned out to be too optimistic.

Sunday’s continuing resolution was the fourth this year.

“The American people urgently need coronavirus relief and this short stopgap bill will allow bipartisan, bicameral negotiators to complete their work on this important issue,” said Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., speaking of the third CR. Lowey chairs the Appropriations Committee.

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Weekend of Violent Protests Leaves Trail of Damage for Feds

Katherine McIntire Peters — Sun, 31 May 2020 16:27:29 -0400

Federal officials over the weekend were thrust into the middle of the violent fury sweeping cities across the country following the death of George Floyd, the unarmed black man killed in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25. Graphic video showing Floyd’s death as police officer Derek Chauvin pressed a knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes as he begged for air sparked international revulsion and days of protests across the country.

Late Friday, one Federal Protective Service officer was killed and another critically wounded after the two were shot at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building in California. The officers were protecting the federal courthouse there as protesters clashed with police nearby.

At a briefing on Saturday, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said: “Last night in Oakland, California, an assassin cowardly shot two Federal Protective Service contractors as they stood watch over a protest. One officer was killed and the other is in critical condition. The FBI, the Oakland Police, supported by the Department of Homeland Security, are investigating that attack. Let me express my deepest condolences to the family members of these two FPS contractors. Any loss in the DHS family impacts all of us and I want the loved ones of these brave officers to know that you have the support of the department behind you. ”

Wolf also noted that earlier in the week someone threw a “molotov cocktail” into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in an attempt to burn it down. “As of late, we have witnessed an outright assault on our law enforcement community,” he said.

In Washington, as elsewhere, demonstrations turned violent. More than 60 Secret Service uniformed officers and special agents were injured near the White House after being hit with bricks, rocks, bottles and fireworks in clashes between Friday night and early Sunday morning, the agency tweeted on Sunday. Demonstrators vandalized six Secret Service vehicles and attempted to knock over security barriers, according to the agency.

“Secret Service personnel were also directly physically assaulted as they were kicked, punched and exposed to bodily fluids,” the agency said. “A total of 11 injured employees were transported to a local hospital and were treated for non-life threatening injuries.”

Numerous federal buildings were damaged in the protests. In a series of tweets Sunday morning, Zack Stanton, a digital editor at Politico magazine, chronicled some of the vandalism: protesters smashed a window and defaced the Veterans Affairs headquarters building, and smashed the doors and windows at the National Treasury Employees Union headquarters.

The National Park Service reported vandalized monuments on the National Mall. “For generations the Mall has been our nation’s premier civic gathering space for non-violent demonstrations, and we ask individuals to carry on that tradition,” the National Park Service tweeted.

On Sunday, 5,000 National Guard soldiers and airmen were activated in response to civil disturbances in 15 states and Washington, and another 2,000 were preparing for activation if needed.

“The situation is fluid so those numbers can change rapidly,” according to a statement from the National Guard.

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GovExec Daily: Public Service During COVID-19

Katherine McIntire Peters and Adam Butler — Wed, 06 May 2020 06:00:00 -0400

Every era presents unique challenges for government officials, and every administration handles those challenges in its own way. But the novel coronavirus pandemic, coinciding with the precedent-breaking Trump administration, makes for especially challenging times for the federal civil service.

This is Public Service Recognition Week and today we talk about what it means to be a public servant in 2020. To date, more than 10,000 federal employees have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Many are performing heroically—on the front lines and behind the scenes—in difficult circumstances. Joining the podcast to talk about this is GovExec Correspondent Erich Wagner and Editor in Chief Tom Shoop.

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Trump Fires Intel IG, Taps White House Confidant for Pandemic Oversight Role

Katherine McIntire Peters — Sat, 04 Apr 2020 10:45:35 -0400

President Trump late Friday shook up the federal inspector general community by firing one of its stalwarts and announcing his intention to nominate five new IGs, including one to oversee the government’s pandemic response.

Trump notified Congress late Friday night that he was removing Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson from his position within 30 days. Atkinson drew White House condemnation after he alerted Congress last September—as required by law—to the whistleblower complaint that led to Trump’s impeachment.

In his letter to Congress, obtained by the Washington Post, Trump wrote: “It is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general. That is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general.”

Michael Horowitz, chairman of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency and the Justice Department IG, blasted the move in a statement early Saturday:

“Inspector General Atkinson is known throughout the Inspector General community for his integrity, professionalism, and commitment to the rule of law and independent oversight. That includes his actions in handling the Ukraine whistleblower complaint, which the then Acting Director of National Intelligence stated in congressional testimony was done 'by the book' and consistent with the law.”

After Atkinson's firing, Thomas Monheim, a career intelligence officer, now serves as acting Intelligence Community IG.

Additionally, the White House said Trump would nominate Peter Thomson to become inspector general of the Central Intelligence Agency. Thomson is currently an attorney at Stone Pigman Walther Wittmann, LLC, in New Orleans where he co-chairs the firm’s White Collar Criminal Defense and Information Security Practices, according to the announcement.

According to the firm's website: "Our knowledge of the white collar criminal defense practice can assist individuals and businesses targeted by government investigations, including those charged with securities fraud, mail or wire fraud, money laundering, Medicaid or Medicare fraud, or federal or state Racketeering in Corrupt Organization (RICO) statutes."

Pandemic Spending Oversight

Also late Friday night, Trump announced his intention to tap Brian Miller, currently Special Assistant to the President and Senior Associate Counsel in the Office of White House Counsel, for the job of Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery at the Treasury Department. The new position was created by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act and is one of several mechanisms designed to ensure taxpayers are not fleeced as agencies implement the largest spending bill in history.

But when Trump signed the CARES Act on March 27, he issued a signing statement specifically objecting to the creation of a special IG for pandemic recovery at Treasury empowered to request information from other agencies and report to Congress any delays in receiving that information: “I do not understand, and my administration will not treat, this provision as permitting the SIGPR to issue reports to the Congress without the presidential supervision required by the Take Care Clause, Article II, section 3,” the signing statement said.

Michael Thorning, associate director of governance at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said Trump's position "undermines the independence and integrity of this new office and Congress’ ability to conduct oversight at a time when the public deserves independent reviews of how this $2 trillion is spent," in a Friday op-ed for Government Executive.

While Miller has related prior IG experience—he served for nearly 10 years as the General Services Administration’s Senate-confirmed watchdog where he oversaw a string of high profile waste and fraud investigations—he will face considerable scrutiny in Congress in the new role if he is confirmed by the Senate.

Other IGs also will be watching. Horowitz stressed the importance of the pandemic oversight role in his statement:

“The Inspector General Community will continue to conduct aggressive, independent oversight of the agencies that we oversee. This includes CIGIE’s Pandemic Response Accountability Committee and its efforts on behalf of American taxpayers, families, businesses, patients, and health care providers to ensure that over $2 trillion dollars in emergency federal spending is being used consistently with the law’s mandate.”

In addition to Thompson and Miller, Trump also announced his intention to nominate three other officials for IG roles:

Jason Abend to be Defense Department IG. Abend currently serves as senior policy advisor at Customs and Border Protection.
Andrew De Mello to be Education Department IG. De Mello currently serves as a Justice Department trial attorney for the Tax Division He has been on detail to the Homeland Security Department IG’s office as a senior special counsel since October 2019.
Katherine Crytzer to be Tennessee Valley Authority IG. Crytzer currently serves as the Justice Department’s acting deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Policy.

Correction: President Trump announced he would nominate Peter Thompson to become the CIA IG, not Atkinson's replacement as initially reported.

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OPM Director Abruptly Quits

Katherine McIntire Peters — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 19:43:45 -0400

Office of Personnel Management Director Dale Cabaniss resigned unexpectedly Tuesday evening as federal agencies struggle to cope with the spread of the novel coronavirus that has brought life to a halt for millions of Americans.

As the human resources chief for the federal workforce, Cabaniss was a key player in the Trump administration’s efforts to protect and support the federal workers necessary to provide critical resources to Americans, from ensuring border security to processing tax returns. The administration has been heavily criticized for failing to provide clear guidance to agencies during the quickly evolving situation.

Just six months on the job, the former chair of the Federal Labor Relations Authority apparently had grown increasingly frustrated by interference by John McEntee, the 29-year-old head of the White House Personnel Office, according to a report from Politico:

“McEntee's return to the White House has roiled the administration with some officials criticizing the former Trump campaign staffer for what they see as an effort to stock the administration with his friends, including at least three college seniors. McEntee has not responded to questions on stories touching on the hires.”

Michael Rigas, OPM’s deputy director, will lead the agency on an acting basis, an agency spokesperson told Federal News Network.

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In Surprise Move, Trump Gives Federal Employees Christmas Eve Off

Katherine McIntire Peters — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 18:39:02 -0500

In a surprise move, President Trump on Tuesday signed an executive granting most federal employees an extra day off on Christmas Eve:

“All executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government shall be closed and their employees excused from duty on Tuesday, December 24, 2019, the day before Christmas Day.”

It was a gift few expected. Presidents do not typically grant extra vacation time when Christmas falls on a Wednesday.

Christmas Eve is not a federal holiday, but the president can issue an executive order to give federal workers the day or a half day off if he chooses. In his executive order, Trump directed agency heads to determine what employees needed to work “for reasons of national security, defense, or other public need,” but the vast majority of federal workers will have the day off.

In 2013, the last time Christmas Eve fell on a Tuesday, President Obama did not opt to give federal employees extra time off. This was “consistent with historical precedent when Christmas has fallen on a Wednesday,” an OPM official told Government Executive, at the time. “The government has remained open on Christmas Eve for six of the last nine times since 1946 that Christmas Day has fallen on a Wednesday.” One exception was in 2002 when President George W. Bush gave employees a half-day.

Margaret Weichert, deputy director for management at the White House Office of Management and Budget, told an audience of senior executives Tuesday evening that President Franklin Roosevelt was the last president to give federal employees the day off when Christmas Eve fell on a Tuesday.

Last year, President Trump issued an executive order on Dec. 18 to close federal offices on Christmas Eve (a Monday) to give employees a four-day weekend. The partial government shutdown began on Dec. 22, so some employees were already furloughed or working without pay by Christmas.

But this year, a shutdown seems highly unlikely. The White House said President Trump would sign the $1.4 trillion spending bills passed by the House on Tuesday that would boost funding for most agencies and provide a 3.1% pay raise to civilian feds.

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Pentagon Watchdog to Review Military’s Border Support Mission, Spending

Katherine McIntire Peters — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 14:51:44 -0500

Under orders from President Trump, the Pentagon has deployed several thousand troops to the southwest border to support the Homeland Security Department’s efforts to stem the flow of immigrants crossing the border illegally. What training have those troops received for the mission? How much have the deployments cost? Those are among the questions the Pentagon watchdog intends to answer in an “evaluation” announced this week.

In a memo to department leaders and senior service officials, acting Defense Inspector General Glenn Fine said the scope of the review would include, but not be limited to: the use of military personnel in support of security operations; training provided to troops on potential contacts with civilians; coordination and interaction between troops and Homeland Security personnel; and funding issues—both the amount of money spent on deployments to the border and “whether the actual use of those funds comply with applicable federal law and DoD policy.”

In July, the Pentagon announced it was sending more than 2,000 new troops to the southwest border, after previously deploying several thousand troops in October 2018 for what it called Operation Faithful Patriot. The cost of those deployments is unclear

The IG’s announcement coincides with Tuesday’s ruling by a federal judge in Texas blocking the Pentagon from using $3.6 billion in military construction funds to build a border wall. As National Public Radio explained:

U.S. District Judge David Briones of El Paso ruled that the administration's use of an emergency proclamation last February to divert those funds to the border wall is unlawful. The ruling found that the administration was within the law in using an additional $2.5 billion intended for drug interdiction efforts for border wall construction.

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‘Take Action Now to Defend This Great Institution,’ Yovanovitch Implores Congress

Katherine McIntire Peters — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 18:29:08 -0400

In her opening statement on Friday to House lawmakers pursuing an impeachment inquiry into President Trump’s actions regarding Ukraine, Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch offered an eloquent tribute to career civil servants and Foreign Service Officers, but it came with a warning that the “sacred trust” those public servants traditionally have had in the government they serve has eroded.

“We make a difference every day on issues that matter to the American people—whether it is war and peace, trade and investment, or simply helping with a lost passport. We repeatedly uproot our lives, and we frequently put ourselves in harm’s way to serve this nation. And we do that willingly, because we believe in America and its special role in the world,” she wrote.

Yovanovitch, whose parents fled the Communist Soviet Union and Nazi Germany for freedom in the West, said she has a deep appreciation for democratic values: “Given my upbringing, it has been the honor of a lifetime to help to foster those principles as a career Foreign Service Officer.” While widely respected by her peers, the career diplomat with more than three decades of experience—including ambassadorships in Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Ukraine under three presidents—became the target of a smear campaign that led President Trump to recall her from Ukraine in May, despite assurances from senior officials at State that she had done nothing wrong.

Trump himself disparaged her in threatening language in a call with Ukraine’s new president in July. But as distressing as her personal experience has been over the last several months, it speaks to a much deeper problem at the State Department and has significant implications for American security. Her message to Congress was unambiguous:

I must share the deep disappointment and dismay I have felt as these events have unfolded. I have served this nation honorably for more than 30 years. I have proudly promoted and served American interests as the representative of the American people and six different presidents over the last three decades. Throughout that time,I—like my colleagues at the State Department—have always believed that we enjoyed a sacred trust with our government.

That basic understanding no longer holds true. Today, we see the State Department attacked and hollowed out from within. State Department leadership, with Congress, needs to take action now to defend this great institution, and its thousands of loyal and effective employees. We need to rebuild diplomacy as the first resort to advance America’s interests and the front line of America’s defense. I fear that not doing so will harm our nation’s interest, perhaps irreparably.

That harm will come not just through the inevitable and continuing resignation and loss of many of this nation’s most loyal and talented public servants. It also will come when those diplomats who soldier on and do their best to represent our nation face partners abroad who question whether the ambassador truly speaks for the President and can be counted upon as a reliable partner. The harm will come when private interests circumvent professional diplomats for their own gain, not the public good. The harm will come when bad actors in countries beyond Ukraine see how easy it is to use fiction and innuendo to manipulate our system. In such circumstances, the only interests that will be served are those of our strategic adversaries, like Russia, that spread chaos and attack the institutions and norms that the U.S. helped create and which we have benefited from for the last 75 years.

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Agencies May Now Enforce Trump’s Controversial Workforce Orders

Katherine McIntire Peters — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 15:05:33 -0400

Federal agencies are now free to implement three controversial executive orders signed by President Trump in 2018 aimed at limiting the power of employee unions. A court injunction against the orders was lifted Wednesday, a week after a federal appeals court declined to rehear a case brought by the unions.

The three executive orders would shorten the length of performance improvement plans to 30 days, exempt adverse personnel actions from grievance proceedings, streamline collective bargaining negotiations, and significantly reduce the number of work hours union members can spend on official time.

Tony Reardon, national president of the National Treasury Employees Union, called it a “sad day for the employees who serve this country.”

“For the first time since our merit-based civil service was created, we now have a series of presidential fiats—directly in conflict with the law—that are designed to marginalize the voices of federal workers, weaken their due process rights, and severely limit their elected union representatives’ ability to represent them and ensure that our civil service system is based on merit, not favoritism or patronage,” Reardon said.

In August 2018, U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson found that Trump’s executive orders, taken together, effectively “eviscerated” federal employees’ collective bargaining rights. But in July, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned that ruling, which blocked agencies from implementing the orders. In overturning the lower court’s decision, the panel did not weigh in on the merits of the case, but rather ruled that federal employee unions must first seek redress through the Federal Labor Relations Authority’s administrative review process. The full court last week declined to rehear the case as the unions had sought.

NTEU and other federal unions will continue to fight the executive orders “through whatever means available,” Reardon said.

When the appeals court ruling was issued last week, American Federation of Government Employees National President J. David Cox said he was outraged by the court’s ruling.

“While we review our options, hundreds of thousands of federal government workers will suffer as their access to union representation at the worksite is stripped away by the implementation of President Trump’s union-busting executive orders,” Cox said.

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Trump’s Tweets on Census Question Create Havoc for Feds

Katherine McIntire Peters — Fri, 05 Jul 2019 12:31:56 -0400

While it’s not news that President Trump’s freestyle commentary and Twitter use often creates havoc for executive branch officials charged with carrying out the administration’s plans, it’s relatively rare that we get a glimpse behind the curtain that shrouds such moments. That’s what makes the transcript of a telephone conversation between a federal judge and Justice Department lawyers over the administration’s efforts to include a citizenship question on the 2020 Census such interesting reading.

As everyone following this issue already knows, the Supreme Court in late June blocked the Commerce Department’s plans to add the question to the 2020 count. And on Tuesday, Justice Department lawyers said the administration would drop the question, something confirmed by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross: “The Census Bureau has started the process of printing the decennial questionnaires without the question. My focus, and that of the [Census] Bureau and the entire department is to conduct a complete and accurate census.”

But on Wednesday, Trump weighed in on Twitter, calling the reports “FAKE!”:

The News Reports about the Department of Commerce dropping its quest to put the Citizenship Question on the Census is incorrect or, to state it differently, FAKE! We are absolutely moving forward, as we must, because of the importance of the answer to this question.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2019

That got the attention of Judge George Jarrod Hazel on the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, who hastily organized a telephone call with plaintiffs and two Justice Department lawyers—Joshua Gardner and Jody Hunt, who was on vacation at the time—to find out what was going on.

A full transcript of the conversation reveals confusion all around. Here's a key excerpt:

Judge Hazel: I don't know how many federal judges have Twitter accounts, but I happen to be one of them, and I follow the President, and so I saw a tweet that directly contradicted the position that Mr. Gardner had shared with me yesterday. . . So now we have a court reporter here. I'm going to ask, frankly, the same question I asked yesterday to Mr. Gardner. Is the Government going to continue efforts to place a citizenship question on the 2020 census?

Joshua Gardner: Your Honor, this is Mr. Gardner. I want to back up just a step and say that I've been with the United States Department of Justice for 16 years, through multiple Administrations, and I've always endeavored to be as candid as possible with the Court. What I told the Court yesterday was absolutely my best understanding of the state of affairs and, apparently, also the Commerce Department's state of affairs, because you probably saw Secretary Ross issued a statement very similar to what I told the Court. The tweet this morning was the first I had heard of the President's position on this issue, just like the plaintiffs and Your Honor. I do not have a deeper understanding of what that means at this juncture other than what the President has tweeted. But, obviously, as you can imagine, I am doing my absolute best to figure out what's going on. I can tell you that I have confirmed that the Census Bureau is continuing with the process of printing the questionnaire without a citizenship question, and that process has not stopped.

The transcript makes clear that Judge Hazel is struggling to figure out how to deal with a Justice Department that is clearly out of the loop on the Trump administration’s intentions. And that, in a nutshell, is the problem Trump’s Twitter habit creates for executive branch officials on any number of issues, from trade policy to interactions with Iran and North Korea.

Trump further muddied the waters for the 2020 Census on Friday, when he told reporters he was thinking about issuing an executive order demanding the question be included.

Q: "Are you going to issue an executive order on the census?"

President Trump: "We're thinking about doing that. It's one of the ways, we have four or five ways we can do it. It's one of the ways we're thinking of doing it." pic.twitter.com/vp93GpFKQA
— CSPAN (@cspan) July 5, 2019

Judge Hazel gave the Justice Department until 2 p.m. Friday to clarify the government’s position. Attorney Gardner on Wednesday probably summed up the situation as well as anyone could: “I think the current fluidity of the state of play suggests the status quo is we need to see how these things develop.”

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Former HUD Executive Indicted in Procurement Fraud Scheme

Katherine McIntire Peters — Fri, 28 Jun 2019 13:48:53 -0400

A federal grand jury on Wednesday returned a seven-count indictment against a former assistant inspector general at the Housing and Urban Development Department, charging him with procurement fraud.

According to the 19-page indictment, Eghbal “Eddie” Saffarinia “steered significant government business to Company A and its business partners” at the same time he was receiving payments worth tens of thousands of dollars from the Virginia-based company’s chief executive.

Saffarinia, a member of the Senior Executive Service, worked for HUD’s Office of Inspector General from February 2012 until September 2017, first as assistant IG for information technology and later as assistant IG for management and technology. He also served as the OIG’s head of contracting activity, where he was the senior manager supervising procurements.

The indictment alleges that beginning in early 2012, Saffarinia used his procurement oversight role and access to contractor proposal and source selection information to execute a scheme under which “Company A received approximately $1,065,520 for subcontractor work performed under the IT services contract.”

Allegedly assisting Saffarinia in the scheme was another OIG employee he hired in August 2012 to head the office's new predictive analytics department, the indictment alleges, referring to that individual as Person B. According to the indictment, Saffarinia, Person B and the company executive (Person A) “were friends who emigrated from the same country, went to college together in the early 1980s, and socialized with each other on a regular basis. Saffarinia and Person B also co-owned an information technology business in the late 1990s, and Saffarinia and Person A had a long-standing financial relationship.”

The Justice Department noted in a statement: “During a period in which Saffarinia received payments and loans from his friend totaling $80,000, Saffarinia disclosed confidential internal government information to his friend and undertook efforts to steer government contracts and provide competitive advantages and preferential treatment to his friend’s company. Saffarinia also failed to disclose this financial relationship and another large promissory note on his public financial disclosure forms.”

The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office and the Office of the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community. Trial Attorneys Edward P. Sullivan and Rosaleen T. O’Gara of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section are prosecuting the case.

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Trump Administration Backs Off Plan to Close Forest Service Job Corps Centers

Katherine McIntire Peters — Thu, 20 Jun 2019 14:14:31 -0400

Less than a month after announcing plans to outsource or close two dozen Forest Service job corps centers that train young people for conservation and firefighting work, the Trump administration is reversing course under pressure from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

The plan would have transferred the Civilian Conservation Centers from the Forest Service, which is part of the Agriculture Department, to the Labor Department before closing nine of them this summer and outsourcing the rest to contractors over the coming months. In all, 1,100 federal Forest Service positions would have been eliminated under the plan, which officials promoted as part of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue’s broader effort to streamline USDA operations.

While a Labor Department spokesperson declined to comment on the reversal and referred all questions to the Agriculture Department, the USDA press office emailed Government Executive a statement it attributed to “a USDA and DOL spokesperson.” The full statement reads:

“Following robust engagement with stakeholders and members of Congress regarding the future of the USFS Job Corps centers, USDA has notified DOL that the USFS will evaluate the feedback while reviewing its role in Job Corps management and operation. For the time being, USDA does not intend to transfer these centers to DOL to allow management to determine a pathway that will maximize opportunity and results for students, minimize disruptions, and improve overall performance and integrity. DOL and USDA will conduct a robust organizational review to determine the appropriate course of action keeping in mind the USFS mission, the students we serve, and the American taxpayers. As USDA looks to the future, it is imperative the USFS focuses on and prioritizes its core natural resource mission to improve the condition and resilience of our Nation's forests.”

What Forest Service Chief Victoria Christiansen characterized in late May as a “high-level policy decision” sparked immediate pushback from the National Federation of Federal Employees, the union representing Forest Service personnel, and members of Congress, who say the centers provide valuable career pathways for underserved youth as well as critical employment in many rural areas.

“The idea of suddenly closing 25 successful job training centers that prepare thousands of young people for the workforce while providing taxpayer-friendly forest maintenance and firefighting operations manpower, is ridiculous,” stated NFFE Executive Director Steve Lenkart. “How Secretary Perdue was coaxed into serving as the political canary in the coalmine for [Labor] Secretary Acosta is baffling.”

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, said, “After broad bipartisan objection, the Administration made the right decision to maintain the Forest Service Job Corps program.”

Stabenow was part of a bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers that pressed the administration to preserve the centers they say provide critical job training to a vulnerable population as well as “essential capacity for the U.S. Forest Service to fulfill its mission and provide economic opportunities in rural areas.”

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Welcome to the New Government Executive

Katherine McIntire Peters — Wed, 12 Jun 2019 20:17:13 -0400

For 50 years, Government Executive has been providing federal leaders with news and information to help them better understand the forces shaping their agencies’ missions, the workforce and their own careers. As our audience has evolved over that time, so too have we. What began as a monthly magazine during the Nixon administration is now a multi-platform news, events and research operation that aims to serve federal employees with critical information wherever and however they want to receive it, whether that’s at their desks, on their personal devices, in their cars or attending our live and digital events.

Continuing that evolution, we’re proud to introduce the newly redesigned Government Executive. We’ve updated the look to showcase what you value most—our award-winning news coverage—while making it easier to find the things you care about, such as ebooks, podcasts, events and popular columns. We hope you’ll take a look around and maybe discover some new things. If you’re inclined, let us know what you think at webmaster@govexec.com. As always, we’re glad you’re here.

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Labor Department Asks USDA to Reconsider Job Corps Center Decision

Katherine McIntire Peters — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 17:19:52 -0400

Eleven days after the Agriculture Department announced it would cut 1,100 Forest Service jobs by transferring two dozen Job Corps centers that train young people for work in conservation and wildland firefighting to the Labor Department, the plan appears to have stalled.

After Labor announced it would close nine of the Civilian Conservation Centers and contract out the work at the others, a number of lawmakers spoke out against the move. On Monday, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said that he had successfully lobbied President Trump to overrule Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta to keep open one of the Montana centers slated for closure.

A press release from the senator’s office said, “The decision follows Daines’ call with Trump on Saturday, where he stressed that the Anaconda center was one of the top ranked in the country, and must remain open. After speaking with Daines, Trump told him the site would remain open.”

When asked by Government Executive if Labor had reversed its decision on the Montana center, a spokesperson released this statement:

“As part of the normal 30-day comment period for [Labor’s] Federal Register notice, we have heard from members of Congress, retirees, and other stakeholders about concerns with closing [Forest Service] Job Corps centers. We’ve asked the [Forest Service] to evaluate those concerns while reviewing its role in Job Corps management and operation. [Labor] and USDA are committed to maximizing opportunity and results for students, minimizing disruptions, and improving overall performance and integrity.”

Labor and USDA will “conduct a robust organizational review to determine the appropriate course of action,” the statement said.

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., late Tuesday introduced legislation that would prohibit the transfer or closure of the centers through the end of September 2020. The bipartisan bill, which has several cosponsors, would prevent an attempt by the Agriculture and Labor departments “to change the interagency agreement that drives center operations, stopping them from bypassing regulations in order to close centers faster,” according to the National Federation of Federal Employees, which represents Forest Service workers.

In the House, Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., offered an amendment to the Rural Development Appropriations bill that would prohibit spending on any center closures or transfers or changes to the interagency agreement between Labor and USDA.

“The Civilian Conservation Centers have been providing critical job training in rural areas to disadvantaged young people since 1964,” said Randy Erwin, NFFE national president. “The program prepares at-risk youth for employment and higher education while providing taxpayer-friendly critical resources to maintain our national forests and support fire and disaster response. The Trump administration’s decision to close these centers without warning equally baffles Democrats and Republicans, especially those from rural areas.”

Officials at the Forest Service, which is part of the Agriculture Department, notified employees of the job cuts in a conference call May 24. Forest Service Chief Victoria Christiansen was clearly distressed to share what she called “very difficult news” and pledged to do all she could to support those affected.

Perdue had said the transfer was necessary to streamline operations at the department. In a letter to Labor Secretary Acosta, the Agriculture secretary wrote: “As USDA looks to the future, it is imperative that the Forest Service focus on and prioritize our core natural resource mission to improve the condition and resilience of our nation's forests, and step away from activities and programs that are not essential to that core mission.”

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Early Retirement, Severance Options Unclear for Forest Service Workers Facing Layoffs

Katherine McIntire Peters — Thu, 30 May 2019 13:09:51 -0400

Nearly a week after the Forest Service told 1,065 employees their jobs would be terminated later this year, federal workers are still waiting to learn what, if any, their options are for early retirement, severance pay or job placement elsewhere in government.

The employees at the agency’s Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers learned during a conference call on May 24 that the Agriculture Department, the Forest Service’s parent organization, planned to transfer the centers to the Labor Department by the end of September.

While Labor runs the Jobs Corps program nationwide, the Forest Service has operated the Civilian Conservation Centers for decades under an interagency agreement with the department. Labor said it plans to close nine of the centers, which train young people for jobs in conservation and wildland firefighting, and contract out the work at the 15 remaining centers.

In the call with affected workers, Forest Service Chief Victoria Christiansen said the agency would seek reduction in force authority from the Office of Personnel Management so it can offer affected workers job placement assistance, severance pay or early retirement options. She reiterated that commitment in a memo to all employees Friday, when she wrote, “We will need to permanently transition the Forest Service Job Corps workforce and will seek reduction in force authority to do so.”

But in response to Christiansen’s comments reported previously, an OPM spokesperson contacted Government Executive to say, “OPM is not involved in, nor do we approve, agency RIF actions. Agencies are responsible for determining whether a RIF is necessary, and if so, carrying out a RIF in their agency.”

OPM’s website, however, states, “An agency must request [Voluntary Early Retirement Authority] and receive approval from the Office of Personnel Management before the agency may offer early retirement to its employees. It also notes:

“The Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment Authority, also known as buyout authority, allows agencies that are downsizing or restructuring to offer employees lump-sum payments up to $25,000 as an incentive to voluntarily separate. When authorized by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), an agency may offer VSIP to employees who are in surplus positions or have skills that are no longer needed in the workforce who volunteer to separate by resignation, optional retirement, or by voluntary early retirement, if approved.”

So what does this mean for employees? Will they be offered early retirement or severance payments? It’s not clear at this time. The Forest Service public affairs office referred a reporter’s questions to the Agriculture Department, which in turn referred questions to Labor. Neither department responded to requests for information about early retirement, severance pay or job placement options for employees.

In a letter last week to Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said USDA’s decision to end its role in the Job Corps program was part of a broader effort to streamline operations at the department: “As USDA looks to the future, it is imperative that the Forest Service focus on and prioritize our core natural resource mission to improve the condition and resilience of our nation's forests, and step away from activities and programs that are not essential to that core mission.”

According to a Labor spokesperson, "At the vast majority of Forest Service Job Corps centers, student services will continue without interruption." Labor will contract out the work in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation, which means contract awards will likely be made next year.

The decision to close specific centers was "made carefully with an eye on past performance, efficiency, and student access," the spokesperson said. "Deactivations do not represent a diminution of the program, but rather a long-term enhancement of it, as they will lead to a higher-performing, more efficient program." At the centers slated to close, "new student enrollment will cease and existing students will have an opportunity to complete their education and skill instruction," the spokesperson said.

The transition of the centers to Labor is expected to be completed by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. On Thursday, Labor published a notice in the Federal Register requesting comment on its decision to close nine of the Civilian Conservation Centers. The comment period will be open for 30 days.

Transfer Was Long Planned

The Trump administration first announced its intention to transfer the Forest Service-run Job Corps centers in its 2019 budget proposal, released in February 2018. In the Labor Department funding section, it wrote:

“The Budget takes aggressive steps to improve Job Corps for the youth it serves by: closing centers that do a poor job educating and preparing students for jobs; focusing the program on the older youth for whom the program is more effective; improving center safety; and making other changes to sharpen program quality and efficiency. As part of this reform effort, the budget ends the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) role in the program, unifying responsibility in DOL. Workforce development is not a core USDA role, and the 26 centers it operates are overrepresented in the lowest performing cohort of centers.”

But the union that represents Forest Service personnel vehemently disputes the assertion that the CCC’s are underperforming: “As shown by [Labor’s] own data, this is false,” the National Federal of Federal Employees wrote in a special report shortly after the administration released its 2019 budget proposal. Citing Labor Department data from 2017, the union noted that the Forest Service centers were actually underrepresented in the lowest-performing quartile—not overrepresented as claimed in the administration’s budget justification—and include the highest-performing centers in the country.

“In addition, a recent [Labor Department] analysis shows that [the Forest Service’s Civilian Conservation Centers] are substantially more cost effective than comparable centers run by private contractors,” the report found.

The union acknowledged that an analysis of Job Corps centers in 2014 showed the CCCs were substantially underperforming, but said the Forest Service took steps to turn the centers around and hold leaders accountable for performance.

“The results were striking,” the report found. One of the centers, Blackwell CCC in Laona, Wisconsin, was ranked 124th out of 125 total Job Corps centers in 2014, but by 2017 had risen to 19th. Another center, Oconaluftee CCC in Cherokee, North Carolina, went from 119th in 2014 to 21st in 2017. Both of those centers are now slated for closure.

This story has been updated with comment from the Labor Department.

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USDA to Seek Reduction in Force for 1,100 Employees

Katherine McIntire Peters — Fri, 24 May 2019 12:22:36 -0400

The Trump administration plans to eliminate jobs for nearly 1,100 Forest Service employees who manage the agency’s 24 Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers, which train young people for jobs in conservation and wildland firefighting. The centers will be transferred from the Forest Service to the Labor Department, which plans to close nine of them and turn 15 over to contractors or other non-federal entities.

Forest Service officials, in a conference call with employees Friday morning, said they were notified of the plan only days ago. “This was a high-level policy decision,” Forest Service Chief Victoria Christiansen told employees on the call. Christiansen was clearly distressed to share what she called “very difficult news” and pledged to do all she could to support those affected.

As the call was underway, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, whose department includes the Forest Service, formally notified Labor Secretary Alexander of USDA’s intention to transfer the centers to Labor, which runs other federal Job Corps centers. The move is part of Perdue’s efforts to reorganize and streamline operations at the department.

The Forest Service has yet to work out many details for the move. It will begin by requesting reduction in force authority from the Office of Personnel Management as early as next week so the agency can offer affected workers job placement assistance, severance pay and early retirement options. But there are many other issues to work out as well, as was clear by the questions employees raised. Those include:

What’s going to happen to students currently enrolled in centers slated to close?
How will the cuts affect wildfire response?
How will management of centers on Forest Service land be shifted to the private sector?
What will happen to employees currently in the process of relocating between facilities, some of whom have sold homes and shipped household goods?
How will existing construction contracts be handled where work is ongoing at some facilities?
Will employees be able to apply for jobs with contractors expected to take over the facilities?

“We only found out about this four days ago,” Christiansen said. “All of the processes for this transition are not where we want them to be.”

Acting deputy chief for business operations Robert Velasco said he anticipated the process for transferring and closing the centers would take three to six months.

The centers slated to close are in Montana, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Virginia, Washington, North Carolina, Oregon and two in Kentucky.

Randy Erwin, national president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, the union representing Forest Service workers, said, “The Job Corps program in general receives a lot of bipartisan support in Congress, and that support certainly includes the centers operated by USDA. Eighty percent of CCC students who graduate go on to get a job, enter the military, or attend continuing education. Plus, only the [Civilian Conservation Centers] train students to serve as wild land forest firefighters to help with fire suppression operations during fire season. There is no plan for this loss of resources to the country which has seen more powerful fires with each passing year."

"This is a coordinated attack on the most vulnerable populations in the country: Rural and urban low-income young people hoping to succeed in life," said Erwin.

Forest Service officials said they expected to brief members of Congress on the plans next week. “My guess is the requests for briefings will be accelerated,” Christiansen said.

This story has been updated with a statement from the union representing Agriculture Department employees.

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Agencies Could Weed Out Poor Managers Early, But They Rarely Do

Katherine McIntire Peters — Wed, 15 May 2019 15:34:50 -0400

Read the comments on just about any story in Government Executive and you’ll come away with one clear impression (besides the fact that the federal workforce appears to be as politically divided as the country): A lot of government employees think they have lousy managers.

A new report by the Merit Systems Protection Board offers some insight into why that may be the case, and what agencies can do about it. In short, too few agencies are taking advantage of the probationary period under which new supervisors and managers serve.

“When used properly, the probationary period is one of the most valid predictors of future success and can help ensure that the government has qualified, competent leaders,” MSPB found. But agencies rarely take action against unsuccessful supervisors during that period. In fiscal 2016, MSPB found that “only about seven out of every 1,000 new supervisors failed the probationary period.”

“Because hiring occurs throughout the year and the length of the supervisory probationary period may vary by agency, we can only estimate the percentage of probationary actions taken against new supervisors,” the agency explained. “However, these estimates point to a convincing trend that agencies are making little use of this additional assessment opportunity. Employment data does not allow us to analyze data for managerial probationary periods in the same way, but similarities in regulations and how agencies administer these programs would suggest that the pattern of actions taken against managers would be similar or maybe even lower.”

The implications for government are significant. Research shows that the quality of an organization’s leadership has a direct bearing on employee engagement and productivity.

Leadership Skills Trump Technical Skills

Many people promoted to supervisory roles ascend the ranks because they have strong technical skills. While such skills may have been critical to their prior success and would certainly serve them well as managers, they don’t always have much bearing on whether someone is actually a good manager.

“Technical skills help supervisors provide appropriate guidance and build credibility with the staff, but leadership skills are more important to a supervisor’s overall ability to lead the workforce. This skill set helps them communicate clearly, empower others, manage performance, and produce results. OPM recognizes this concept by identifying 10 competencies that are most important for supervisory work and treating technical skills as an entirely separate category from other leadership competencies,” MSPB notes.

The board’s “Governmentwide 2016 Merit Principles Survey show that almost three-quarters of employees (72 percent) indicated that their supervisor has good technical skills, but only two-thirds (62 percent) felt their supervisor has good management skills. Furthermore, these leadership competencies are harder to measure and develop than technical competencies. That is what makes the probationary period especially important in determining whether supervisors and managers have these key skills.”

So why aren’t agencies taking advantage of the probationary period? MSPB found that “supervisors’ discomfort with taking actions against ineffective supervisory and managerial probationers is a barrier. This is a longstanding problem in government, and federal employees have commonly cited the management of poor performers as a workforce issue in various surveys.”

The board cited a variety of reasons managers would be reluctant to separate a new supervisor or manager: “For instance, the probationer could have technical skills the organization seeks to preserve or separation could cause morale problems in the organization.” Previous reports have identified insufficient performance management training as a problem.

Another barrier cited by eight agencies was the lack of placement options for unsuccessful candidates: “Under current law, a failed supervisory or managerial probationer is removed from the position but is not necessarily terminated from the organization. An unsuccessful probationer who previously held a position in the competitive service and completed the initial-appointment probationary period would be returned to a position in the agency of no lower grade and pay than the position previously held.”

So what’s to be done? MSPB has some recommendations:

“The most important step agencies can take is to start at the beginning and shore up the front-end employment processes to reduce the likelihood of making a bad hire in the first place. That means improve succession planning, recruitment, and selection; ensure that probationers’ supervisors are prepared to carry out their responsibilities regarding the probationary period; and support probationers through good employee development and performance management programs. Then, focus on putting in place probationary policies and processes that will help probationers’ supervisors take actions when necessary and establishing an organizational culture that emphasizes success while also allowing for failure.”

Read the full report here.

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Shake Up at Homeland Security as Border Crisis Mounts

Katherine McIntire Peters — Sun, 07 Apr 2019 21:10:42 -0400

Just days after traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border to deal with a surge in migrants crossing from Latin America, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is stepping down. President Trump announced Nielsen’s abrupt resignation in a tweet Sunday evening.

“I am pleased to announce that Kevin McAleenan, the current U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner, will become Acting Secretary for @DHSgov. I have confidence that Kevin will do a great job!” Trump tweeted.

Nielsen’s departure follows Trump’s growing anger about the border crisis; at one point last week he threatened to close the border to all traffic, alarming both Democrats and Republicans with what many believe would be an economically devastating move. He later backed off on that threat, saying he would give Mexico a year to stem the tide of drugs and migrants flowing into the United States.

On Friday, Trump surprised members of Congress by withdrawing from consideration his nominee to lead the department’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, Ronald Vitiello, telling reporters, “We’re going in a tougher direction.”

Nielsen has long had a difficult relationship with the president, who came into office promising to drastically curtail immigration, both legal and illegal. According to the New York Times, “Multiple White House officials said she had grown deeply paranoid in recent months, after numerous stories about her job being on the line. She also had supported the ICE nominee Mr. Trump withdrew, Ronald D. Vitiello, and her support for him was described as problematic for her with the president.”

The shakeup at Homeland Security leaves the department with key vacancies at a critical time. Under Trump, ICE has not had a permanent leader, while Homeland Security will soon have its third leader in less than three years. (Retired Marine Gen. John Kelly served as Trump’s first Homeland Security secretary before becoming White House chief of staff. He departed the administration in December.)

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, characterized Nielsen’s tenure at the department as a “disaster,” but put most of the blame for that on the president’s “terrible and cruel policies.” In a statement, he said, “This could not come at a worse time for the day to day management of the Department of Homeland Security and the over 220,000 employees that need leadership in order to best help keep the country secure. There is now currently no permanent secretary nor deputy secretary at the department. The Department will quickly need proven, Senate-confirmed leaders in place that can work with Congress in good faith to help keep the country safe and to fix the Trump-inflicted situation at the border.”

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., the committee’s ranking member, said, “Secretary Nielsen served her country honorably as Homeland Security secretary, despite facing numerous challenges including dire conditions at our southwest border. Although Commissioner McAleenan will have his work cut out for him, I am confident the department is in capable hands. I look forward to working with McAleenan in his new role and to learning who the president intends to nominate on a permanent basis.”

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The Retroactive Pay Raise Is in 'Final Clearance' Stage, says White House Official

Katherine McIntire Peters — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 13:59:28 -0400

About that retroactive pay raise federal employees received last month: The check’s not in the mail yet, but it really is coming, a senior White House official said Wednesday.

“We’re in the final-week-of-clearance stage,” said Margaret Weichert, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, on Wednesday. “I know that sounds like something you’ve heard before, but to me this is an object lesson in the complexity of our pay system,” said Weichert, who is also the deputy director for management at the White House Office of Management and Budget.

President Trump on Feb. 15 signed a spending package to keep the federal government open until Sept. 30. That law included a provision authorizing a pay raise for federal workers for this year, retroactive to the first full pay period of 2019, overriding the president's decision last December to freeze civilian employees’ pay.

But since the bill’s enactment, the White House hasn’t provided much information about when exactly federal workers could expect to see their raises. Trump is required to issue a new executive order to implement the increase, and OPM must publish new pay tables for multiple pay systems and localities.

“It's an EO that unleashes the retroactive pay. You’re dealing with pay tables that are so highly complex,” Weichert said in remarks following a discussion of the president’s management agenda at an event sponsored by the National Academy of Public Administration. “It is exceedingly legalistic as to how we get this squared away. And so the challenges are actually not, as some have [speculated], the payroll processing. It’s purely a lawyering activity.”

“I totally get that people are frustrated that it takes this long. I’m frustrated too,” Weichert said.

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Government's Grand Challenges

Katherine McIntire Peters — Wed, 27 Feb 2019 18:39:48 -0500

In 1970, just a year after Government Executive began covering the business of government, Alvin Toffler published Future Shock, a huge international bestseller about the disruptive effects of rapidly evolving technologies on individuals and society. It was a year of tremendous upheaval: The Vietnam War raged; National Guard troops killed four students during an anti-war protest at Kent State University; the radical Weather Underground declared a state of war against the government; the Concorde took off on it's first supersonic flight; and the peace-and-love movement crashed with the deaths of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.

Nearly 50 years later, the phenomenon of accelerating change Toffler described still reverberates. We see it in scientific advances in medicine, transportation and weaponry; in the economic dislocation of millions of people whose jobs have been upended by new technologies. We see it in climate change and in global mass migration. We see it in ourselves, in how we cope with “information overload,” a term Toffler and his wife Heidi coined.

More remarkable, perhaps, is how slowly government has evolved in response to these rapid changes. In an effort to address that gap, the National Academy of Public Administration has launched a Grand Challenges initiative to identify and address the most significant issues facing government in the 2020s.

The academy is reaching out to practitioners and academics as well as the general public for input on two key questions, NAPA President and CEO Terry Gerton wrote:

“First, what problems must federal, state and local government address over the next decade for American society to reach its full potential? Second, how must management at all levels of government improve to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of public programs?”

As Government Executive Editor at Large Tim Clark put it in a recent video for NAPA, “these are challenges we all must embrace.” Watch the video below:

Correction: Not all four students killed at Kent State University were participants in the anti-war protest—two were bystanders. The story has been corrected.

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FEMA Administrator Brock Long Resigns

Katherine McIntire Peters — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 17:21:13 -0500

As House Oversight and Reform Committee lawmakers gear up for investigations into the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to catastrophic hurricanes in 2017, FEMA Administrator Brock Long on Wednesday announced his departure: “While this has been the opportunity of a lifetime, it is time for me to go home to my family.”

Deputy Administrator Pete Gaynor will become acting administrator, according to the Homeland Security Department, of which FEMA is a part.

In December, Rep. Elijah Cummings, then ranking member and now chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, sent Long a letter demanding compliance with the committee’s previous requests for documents pertaining to the emergency response in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands following Hurricanes Irma and Maria, which resulted in thousands of deaths.

Specifically, House lawmakers want email communications between Long and officials in Puerto Rico, documents related to the “failure to provide tens of millions of emergency meals to U.S. citizens who were victims of the hurricanes in Puerto Rico,” and documentation related to “information obtained independently by Democratic staff indicating that FEMA failed to respond to multiple emergency requests from major supermarkets seeking fuel to run generators to help prevent food from spoiling in the days immediately following Hurricane Maria.”

Long’s departure comes as FEMA regains its footing following the 35-day partial government shutdown, which set back preparedness activities and planning just three months ahead of the 2019 hurricane season. An employee who works in FEMA’s resilience office told Government Executive the agency was unable to conduct exercises or planning for hurricane season or process grants to help state and local governments prevent terrorist attacks during the shutdown.

Long’s tenure at FEMA was controversial. In addition to the agency’s mishandling of contracts for meals and electricity following Hurricane Maria’s devastating blow to Puerto Rico, the Homeland Security inspector general found that Long spent $151,000 in taxpayer funds to pay for personal travel. In September 2018, he agreed to reimburse the government for misused funds.

In a statement, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen said, “Under Brock’s leadership, FEMA has successfully supported State and Territory-led efforts to respond and recover from six major hurricanes, five historic wildfires and dozens of other serious emergencies. I appreciate his tireless dedication to FEMA and his commitment to fostering a culture of preparedness across the nation.”

“Rest assured, FEMA is prepared to continue to lead current recovery efforts, to respond to new disasters, and to get ready for this year’s hurricane season,” Nielsen said.

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Trump on a Feb. 15 Shutdown: 'We've Set the Stage for What Is Going to Happen'

Katherine McIntire Peters — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 14:21:02 -0500

Less than a week after President Trump ended the longest-ever government shutdown, he suggested he is willing to force another partial government shutdown on Feb. 15 if lawmakers don’t provide funding for a wall along the Southwest border. Or perhaps he will declare a national emergency. What he's not willing to do is forgo building a wall. Feb. 15 is when temporary funding expires for those agencies still reeling from the 35-day shutdown that ended Jan. 25, when lawmakers and the White House granted themselves three weeks to work out a border security funding deal.

"I think that by having the shutdown we have set the table. We've set the stage for what is going to happen Feb. 15," he said. “Without a wall it just doesn’t work.”

Trump made the remarks during a meeting at the White House with American manufacturers. Earlier Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would bring a funding bill to the floor with bipartisan support, but noted, "There's not going to be any wall money in the legislation."

Asked by a reporter if he was willing to risk the economic damage caused by another shutdown and what his message was to federal employees, Trump said:

“As far as the people are concerned, many of those people wanted me to stay out, but I didn’t want to do it because people were getting hurt. What I think is the worst sin of all is the fact that we’re allowing people to come into this country and sell drugs and human traffic and do all of these horrible things, that if we had the simplicity of a well-constructed, beautiful barrier or wall, they wouldn’t be able to come into our country. That to me is the great sin. And everybody knows it.”

“I was elected, partially on this issue,” he said. “If we don’t put up a barrier or wall, a strong one, but one that looks good, if we don’t put up a physical barrier, you can forget it.”

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Days Into the Shutdown, the Costs Are Mounting

Katherine McIntire Peters — Fri, 28 Dec 2018 08:00:00 -0500

Government shutdowns are expensive.

For government workers, the costs are personal—the mortgage payments, school tuition and utility bills will keep coming, even if paychecks are disrupted. Feds may eventually be compensated for lost wages (Congress has authorized retroactive pay for furloughed workers during past shutdowns), but if the shutdown drags on, the interim budget squeeze and uncertainty will undoubtedly impact morale, and for some, financial stability.

The Office of Personnel Management on Thursday tweeted this advice for federal workers:

Feds, here are sample letters you may use as a guide when working with your creditors during this furlough. If you need legal advice please consult with your personal attorney. https://t.co/t6h6OzALsS
— OPM (@USOPM) December 27, 2018

But the impact of a government shutdown, even a partial shutdown, is felt far beyond the affected workers and agencies themselves. The contract workers, the janitors who clean federal buildings, the small business owners who staff the lunch joints and dry cleaners that serve federal employees all will take a hit. Scientific research will be hurt (96 percent of NASA personnel faced furloughs). Local transportation projects will grind to a halt.

Some agencies face critical revenue losses, such as the National Park Service, which will not be able to collect access fees during the shutdown. Adding insult to injury, the clean up that will be required after the parks resume full operation promises to add considerably to the park service’s maintenance backlog.

State and local governments are also feeling the pain. As Route Fifty reported, the closure of national parks over the Christmas holiday left some states scrambling to cover for Interior Department furloughs: Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced that his office would activate a plan to keep the Grand Canyon open, ensuring trash pickup, bathroom access and shuttles, along with other services. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state would spend $65,000 a day to keep open the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, while Utah Gov. Gary Herbert also said that parks would be open, although staffing could be limited.

Steve Benjamin, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, told Route Fifty that a longer shutdown, could affect a variety of local government programs, from job training to transportation. “There are roads projects happening all across the country right now, some of which depend on federal funding or federal approvals.” Benjamin said. “If leadership is MIA because of a shutdown, it could have a significant impact.”

Following the 16-day government shutdown in 2013, the Government Accountability Office analyzed the impact on operations, contracts and grants at three departments: Health and Human Services, Energy and Transportation. Of those three, only Transportation is affected by the current shutdown, but the findings are instructive, as they illustrate the ripple effects that few politicians seem to fully appreciate. Transportation had to close its Merchant Marine Academy, significantly disrupting students’ lives. The Federal Transit Administration had to stop processing grants and making payments to recipients.

According to GAO, the impact on industry varied and was difficult to fully measure:

Some contractor employees were reportedly laid off during the shutdown and furloughed contractor employees were not necessarily paid by their employer during or after the shutdown. For furloughed contractors, several circumstances influenced whether they could be paid during the shutdown, including whether work was allowable based on the terms of the contract that they worked on, the availability of other assignments, and whether their company chose to or was able to compensate them out of its own pocket if contract funds were unavailable . . . In addition to furloughs, some companies with affected contracts required employees to use leave or take paid or unpaid time off if they were unable to reassign employees to training or other nongovernment projects.

At least eight states furloughed state employees during the shutdown, GAO found, because of their reliance on federal grants.

According to an official from one national association representing recipients of federal transportation grants that we interviewed, transportation entities which use the funding for operational costs were especially vulnerable. Some local paratransit services which provide transportation to seniors and persons with disabilities, including providing the elderly with rides to doctors’ appointments, expressed concerns about possible disruptions stemming from a lack of funding if the shutdown continued. During the shutdown, the association officials said that some of these entities had developed plans to prioritize life sustaining travel, but that their flexibility to continue operations was limited if the shutdown continued.

Although there are limitations to comparing the current partial government shutdown to the 2013 shutdown (that shutdown affected most federal agencies), the message is clear. Government Executive reported on an analysis by the Congressional Research Service following the 2013 shutdown, which found that while federal spending—including the retroactive pay to furloughed employees—was eventually restored, “the loss of work hours could not be similarly reinstated. The ‘supply’ created by the government was irreversibly diminished as furloughed federal workers could not contribute to the production of government output while out of work.”

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No, U.S. Troops Are Not Getting a 10% Pay Raise

Katherine McIntire Peters — Thu, 27 Dec 2018 10:09:08 -0500

Perhaps he got carried away in the euphoria of the moment. Or perhaps he was just voicing a wish (it’s the season of wish lists, after all). But when President Trump told U.S. troops during a surprise Christmas visit to Iraq that he was giving them a 10 percent pay raise next year, he was wrong. The troops are getting a 2.6 percent pay raise—Trump signed the law authorizing that raise back in September.

Trump also told the troops: “You haven’t gotten [a raise] in more than 10 years. More than 10 years. And we got you a big one. I got you a big one. I got you a big one.” That also is not true. U.S. troops have received pay raises every year for the last decade, as the Defense Department describes on its website. Last year it was none other than President Trump who signed the law authorizing a 2.1 percent raise for the troops.

It’s also worth noting (since the president brought it up) that troops received considerably higher raises than they will get in January during three of the last 10 years—2008, 2009 and 2010, when they received boosts of 3.5 percent, 3.9 percent and 3.4 percent.

Civilian workers, however, have had far less success in the pay department. From 2011 through 2013, their pay was frozen.

Eric Katz contributed to this report.

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