Government Executive - Authors - Kedar Pavgi

Three Charts That Explain the ISIS Targets Struck By Coalition Air Forces

Kedar Pavgi — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 17:10:12 -0400

The U.S. military’s share of the air campaign against ISIS is holding steady. In both February and March, American forces carried out about 70 percent of the coalition’s air attacks against targets in Iraq and 93 percent of them in Syria, according to figures released today by CENTCOM officials.

Since the air campaign began on Aug. 8 last year, U.S. and coalition forces have hit 5,548 ISIS targets, including 1,096 fighting positions and 762 buildings, according to the CENTCOM data. That includes 234 targets since March 18, the last time the command released strike data.

The latest data included 15 planes that were destroyed during strikes in late September and October at Taqba Air Field in northern Syria, and a drone that was hit in mid-March. The aircraft were captured by ISIS after a major battle against Syrian government forces, and were subsequently targeted by the coalition. Pentagon spokeswoman Cmdr. Elissa Smith did not have details on the type of aircraft that were targeted, but Bellingcat, a crowd-sourced news site, reported in August that the captured planes included Mig-21s.

Previous releases did not include the aircraft, and Smith said that this likely had to do with changing data from the daily battle damage assessments.

So far, the U.S. military has spent $1.83 billion on operations in Iraq and Syria through March 12, with an average daily cost of $8.5 million, according to the Pentagon.

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Air Force to Offer Separation Incentives to Thousands of Civilians

Eric Katz and Kedar Pavgi — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 17:21:35 -0400

The Air Force will soon begin offering incentives to reduce its workforce by nearly 3,500 employees, the service announced Monday.

As part of a Defense Department-wide effort to reduce the number of employees at headquarters offices by 20 percent, the Air Force will offer early retirements and buyouts to civilian employees. The Air Force will resort to involuntary reductions in force if the voluntary programs do not entice a sufficient number of workers to separate. Employees in the Washington, D.C., area would be the first to receive layoffs, according to an Air Force spokeswoman.

Per standard government buyout procedures, eligible employees will receive up to $25,000 to separate. The incentive programs will target headquarters management, though the Air Force will determine the exact number of civilians who will receive an offer in the coming weeks.

The cuts will save the Air Force $1.6 billion over the next five years, a small fraction of the $50 billion the service must slash due to the 2011 Budget Control Act’s sequestration caps. The Air Force’s fiscal 2014 total budget is $138.3 billion.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel issued the notice requiring the 20 percent staff reduction last year in light of sequestration’s harrowing requirement to reduce the Pentagon’s budget by $500 billion over the next 10 years, and gave services five years to meet the target. The Air Force has opted to frontload the staff reductions, however, in order to shed a greater light on the impact up front.

"It's better for Airmen because it provides them predictability and allows us to re-stabilize our workforce sooner,” said Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James. “It also allows us to harvest the savings earlier so that we can plow it back into readiness and some of our key modernization programs.”

The cuts will impact both military and civilian positions. Military personnel have been offered “a variety of voluntary incentive programs” over the last year, the service stated. The Air Force plans to cut a total of 20,000 military positions this year, partially by eliminating vacancies that have piled up due to a hiring freeze.

The new round of cuts will take place at bases worldwide. Use the map below to see where the reductions will take place.

The Air Force aims to go beyond Hagel’s 20 percent benchmark so greater savings can be re-invested in preparing for missions “at the wing level,” according to Bill Booth, the service’s acting deputy chief management officer. The service will consolidate several offices into the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center.

“The current and projected fiscal climate make it essential to centralize management and streamline support to the maximum extent possible in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness, as well as deliver more standardized levels of service across the Air Force,” Booth said.

The Air Force has 689,000 personnel, about 500,000 of which are military.

(Top image via Lightspring/Shutterstock.com)

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Tech Roundup

Bob Brewin, Joseph Marks, and Kedar Pavgi — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 01:00:00 -0400

CIA’s Virus Trouble

The Government Accountability Office found that the CIA gave Amazon an unfair advantage when it agreed to weaken security requirements on a $150 million contract for a massive intelligence community computer cloud it had already awarded to the Web giant.

During post-award negotiations, Amazon asked the CIA to weaken a requirement that all software in the cloud be verifiably free from computer viruses that might let unauthorized people see intelligence data, GAO wrote.

Amazon asked that it only be required to vouch for software it had built itself, not for third party and open source software it planned to include in the system. The CIA agreed, prompting a challenge from IBM, which had also bid on the contract.

If IBM had known in advance that requirement might be loosened, that could have substantially changed both the company’s bid and its competitiveness.

“It is a fundamental principle of government procurement that competition must be conducted on an equal basis,” GAO said. “Offerors must be treated equally and provided with a common basis for the preparation of their proposals.”

GAO recommended that the CIA re-bid the cloud contract and reimburse IBM for the cost of challenging the award. GAO’s bid protest rulings aren’t officially binding but agencies often follow them.

Computer clouds typically offer cheaper storage space than traditional government data centers and allow agencies to perform more complex computing operations with larger amounts of data.

GAO also upheld another section of IBM’s protest, which claimed the CIA unfairly adjusted the likely price of proposed cloud offerings based on inconsistent standards.

- Joseph Marks

Twitter Diplomacy

The State Department’s social media presence vastly dwarfs that of other countries using Internet-based tools for public diplomacy efforts, according to a new report.

The 39 U.S. ambassadors with a digital media presence pack a significant punch, based on an analysis by the Canadian Defense and Foreign Affairs Institute. U.S. ambassadors with Twitter accounts have a combined 538,942 followers and average more than 16,000 followers per account.

“Users of social media who do not engage in substantive, real-time exchanges are unlikely to make their voices heard,” the report says.

State has pushed to incorporate the latest social media networks in its public diplomacy efforts. Recently, the General Services Administration struck a deal to allow agencies to use the video-sharing service Vine. Many embassies have begun posting videos that show off American culture.

- Kedar Pavgi

Goodbye Paper

In June, the Veterans Affairs Department finished installing its paperless Veterans Benefits Management System in all 56 of its regional offices. VBMS is a key element of plans to eliminate the backlog of disability claims.

“Now that the system is in place, much work continues to be done as we roll out more features and train more users,” says Tommy Sowers, assistant secretary of public and intergovernmental affairs.

“This is a big crossover year for us,” says VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. “We have for decades sat astride rivers of paper. Now we are in the process of turning off paper spigots and turning on electronic ones.”

- Bob Brewin

Oops, About Those Loan Records …

The Veterans Affairs Department inadvertently deleted 464,000 home loan files, and Sen. Ron Portman, R-Ohio, wants to know why.

In a letter to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, Portman said he learned that the Cleveland regional office deleted almost half a million electronic records relating to loans, grants and applications. “While I understand the VA has taken steps to remedy the situation, the limited communication and delayed incident reporting are particularly concerning,” he said.

Portman had a lot of questions, including whether VA had backup systems and how often backups were performed.

VA spokeswoman Jo Schuda said human error on May 25 accounted for the deletion of the documents and images, which are used by lenders, appraisers and internal staff.

Employees are being retrained to prevent this error in the future, she said. No personal information was compromised.

- Bob Brewin

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Budget No Reason to Avoid Syria, Defense Official Says

Kedar Pavgi — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 15:20:25 -0400

The Pentagon’s budget squeeze would not hold back the implementation of a no fly zone in Syria, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in an Aspen Security Forum session on the future of the Pentagon. But any new military commitment would require more money from Congress, and fast.

“We would need supplemental funding, which is normal for a new contingency,” Carter said. Administration officials have so far been divided on how to approach the ongoing chaos in Syria, with factions in the government proposing additional weapons delivery and action to support the Syrian rebels.

As Carter spoke, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., upbraided Gen. Martin Dempsey, the Joint Chiefs chairman, in a testy exchange for not joining in McCain’s longstanding fervor for more direct U.S. military intervention in Syria. Dempsey was appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee for his confirmation hearing to continue as chairman for another two years. Dempsey said the administration was considering the use of “kinetic strikes” in Syria, according to the Associated Press.

Read the rest at Defense One.

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Retiring Military Dogs Helped Locate Explosives, Deter Terrorist Attacks

Chanin Knight, Eric Katz, Kelly Martin, and Kedar Pavgi — Fri, 05 Jul 2013 10:11:18 -0400

Four retiring military dogs were recently honored for their distinguished careers overseas.

At a late-June event at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City, Okla., the dogs’ handlers ceremoniously “passed the leash” to the canines’ new retirement caretakers, according to Stars and Stripes . The dogs primarily served to track and locate explosives, drugs and terrorists.

“Simply put, these dogs save lives, many lives,” Col. Julie Boit said at the ceremony.

In addition to serving the Air Force, the “four-legged airmen” also supported components of the Army and Marine Corps.

The ceremony’s honorees were:

· Arras: A six-year-old German shepherd that served in the military for four years. The dog located explosives and deterred terrorist attacks against Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan and Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. Arras supported the president and vice president.

· Blacky: A nine-year old German shepherd that served in the military for seven years. Blacky served in Iraq, helping to locate weapon caches and to prevent improvised explosive devices from detonating.

· Cita: A six-year-old Belgian Tervuren that served in the military for five years, including in Afghanistan helping to locate 30,000 pounds of hashish.

· Sheila: A six-year-old Belgian Malinois that served in the military for four years, including in Kyrgyzstan helping to locate explosives and deterring terrorist attacks.

Below, enjoy a slideshow of military dogs on duty in Iraq and Afghanistan:

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Around Government

Charles S. Clark, Chawndese Hylton, Susan Fourney, Eric Katz, and Kedar Pavgi — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Debating the Draft

One lawmaker says women should sign up, while others say shut it down.

The decades-old military draft system could be in line for a face-lift if some in Congress have their way.

Lawmakers are making moves to reform the Selective Service, the agency in charge of registering young men for compulsory service in the event of a military call-up. The agency was created in 1948, and the last draft was in the early 1970s during the Vietnam War.

One bill, sponsored by Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., would reinstate the draft and require women to register with the Selective Service System—which now applies only to men ages 18 to 25. According to Rangel, the Defense Department’s new policy to allow women in combat should require them to sign up as well.

“Requiring women to register with the Selective Service would compel the American public to have a stake in the wars we fight as a nation,” he said in
a statement.

Two other lawmakers want to eliminate the Selective Service. Reps. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., and Mike Coffman, R-Colo., say the agency’s $24 million budget is a waste of taxpayer money. They argue that the Pentagon is unlikely to resort to a draft if a conflict breaks out, and say Congress is unnecessarily prolonging the agency’s life.

Either proposal would bring significant change to the Selective Service System. Since the shift to an all-volunteer military force in 1973, the agency and its workforce of about 130 employees has taken a back-seat role in supporting Defense. Still, registration with Selective Service is mandatory for eligibility in many federal programs, including student financial aid and government employment.

Though legislation is unlikely to make headway anytime soon, the movement to change the draft is likely to persist in Washington’s tough budget environment.

- Kedar Pavgi

For the Birds

Government transparency is considered an aspirational goal these days, but on occasion it can ruffle some feathers.

Collisions with glass buildings cause up to 1 billion bird deaths each year, according to Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., who has introduced a bill to compel the General Services Administration to incorporate bird-safe building materials and design features into federal structures.

“This completely cost-neutral bill will save these birds’ lives without requiring unrealistic actions or expenditures,” Quigley wrote on his website. “The way we live our lives cannot be detrimental to other species, and yet collisions with glass on buildings is a man-made issue.”

- Susan Fourney

Tornado Relief Fund Started

Terri Long was known as a fighter.

During her career at the Federal Aviation Administration, she fought against her cancer—which she defeated—and for her co-workers, as vice president of the Oklahoma chapter of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists.

Long died May 20, one of 24 people killed by tornadoes in Moore, Okla. Federal employees have mobilized to help her family and other storm victims.

“We have been nonstop since [the tornado hit],” says LeAnn Jenkins, president of Oklahoma’s Federal Executive Board. “There’s been a lot of communication and coordination of resources and unmet needs.”

There are at least 5,000 FAA employees in Oklahoma, many of whom work at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City. The storm—and a tornado in Shawnee the previous day—destroyed the homes of many federal employees.

A Social Security Administration building was damaged, and the local post office in Moore was destroyed. U.S. Postal Service employee Richard L. Jones was killed. Two weeks later, another tornado outbreak ripped through the region and killed 14 people.

To make a donation to the Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund for tornado relief, go to www.feea.org.

- Eric Katz

Getting Personal

The perils of using private email accounts for federal business.

It’s tempting, with modern remote access to email worldwide, to toggle back and forth between personal and business accounts. But for federal officials, the temptation can spell trouble.

Several Obama administration officials have been taken to task recently for conducting government business using private email. Lisa Jackson, before leaving as Environmental Protection Agency administrator in December, drew attention from EPA’s inspector general and Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Texas, who serves on the House Science and Energy committees, for using a secondary email account for selected communications—along with other agency officials. The account used the pseudonym Richard Windsor.

Thomas Perez, President Obama’s nominee for Labor secretary, faced a rocky confirmation battle in the Senate this spring, in part because of some 1,200 emails from his personal account in which he discussed Justice Department strategy in a controversial housing discrimination case in St. Paul, Minn.

Gary Gensler, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, was criticized by his agency’s inspector general in May for using a personal email account in discussing regulators’ handling of the collapse of the brokerage firm MF Global Holdings in 2010.

William Bransford, general counsel to the Senior Executives Association, says using personal email for work is not advisable because of the need to archive. “With a personal account, the government can’t investigate something that may be inappropriate or on the edge—they would need a search warrant,” he says.

EPA argues it is standard practice and that the personal accounts are subject to the same disclosure requirements as official accounts. Lawmakers argue it violates the administration’s commitment
to transparency.

- Charles S. Clark

Out of Africa

A virtual trip can be the next best thing to being there when tight budgets make the trek impossible. That’s why the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art has partnered with Polycom to use video collaboration tools to bring art and science exhibits like “African Cosmos: Stellar Arts” into the classroom. The free interactive virtual field trips offer “a way for schools to enhance their art education without spending resources or traveling,” says Deborah Stokes, NMAA’s curator for education.

- Chawndese Hylton

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Getting to the Point

Kedar Pavgi — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Would your mom understand? It’s one of the tips Energy Information Administration senior editor Colleen Blessing tells her colleagues to keep in mind when they write official agency documents. She emphasizes that clarity is a virtue, especially for federal agencies looking to maximize the reach of their publications.

Blessing has been with the EIA since its creation in 1977, working in budget, forecasting and analyst positions throughout her career. More recently, she has become a key figure at her agency for promoting plain language techniques. All that work paid off this spring, when the EIA won the 2013 ClearMark Award from the Center for Plain Language for its writing style guide, which outlines practices for crafting agency documents.

“People want rules, they want to know how to do it right,” Blessing says.

She believes editors at all agencies should adopt style guides to help eliminate common errors and promote good writing habits. At the EIA, the rollout of the writing guide included training classes and extensive advertisements in the agency’s newsletter.

One of the common writing pitfalls Blessing noticed was broad use of complex academic jargon. She said writers must adapt their language for their audience and aim for wording that is short and straightforward. Blessing touts the benefits of usability testing—showing draft documents to unaffiliated co-workers. If they don’t understand the purpose immediately, then it’s time to reshape some of the language, she says.

“There are steps you can take to being better,” Blessing says.

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Marines Could Cut 8,000 Troops If Sequestration Sticks Around

Kedar Pavgi — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 17:02:30 -0400

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos said Wednesday that continued budget cuts from sequestration could mean the loss of 8,000 troops from the service.

Defense Department managers know more precisely where the cuts would come, but Amos declined to provide specifics to reporters at the Defense Writers Group, The Hill reported. The final decision remains with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s office, according to Amos,

The commandant said that he didn’t “want this to happen” and was working with leaders in the service and at Defense to ensure that the country had “the best Marine Corps it [could] afford,” according to the American Forces Press Service.

The announcement of possible cuts comes after Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno outlined an 80,000-troop force reduction. He said Tuesday that the service was undertaking the cuts primarily because of the 2011 Budget Control Act, and that further reductions may be necessary should sequestration remain in place.

Though it’s unclear whether the cuts would affect civilian jobs in the Marine Corps, Odierno said Tuesday that the Army’s troop cuts would be “commensurate” with a drawdown in civilian personnel in the service. The Navy recently announced a reduction in force for 745 civilian positions, citing budget cuts.

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Army Announces Force Reductions, Future Civilian Cuts

Kedar Pavgi — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 17:11:56 -0400

The Army on Tuesday announced it is reducing its force and end strength with cuts that will also affect supporting civilian jobs in the coming years.

The service plans to reduce end-strength by 80,000 soldiers, with the goal of having 490,000 troops by fiscal 2017, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said during a Pentagon press briefing.

The Army did not have specific figures on the number of civilian jobs that would be lost with these reductions, but Odierno said there are “foundational requirements” on necessary positions, such as those in family and soldier programs.

"There will be a commensurate civilian drawdown with the military, but we're working our way through it," Odierno said.

Odierno emphasized that Army officials would communicate with officials in local communities and members of Congress to ensure a smooth transition. If full sequestration remains in place, however, the Army will have to reduce active guard and force structure by 100,000 troops, he said.

“I want to be clear, we are taking these actions because of the Budget Control Act of 2011,” Odierno said. “This end strength and force reduction predates sequestration, so as sequestration moves on, there'll be a requirement potentially to take out more force structure out of the Army.”

Lawmakers on Tuesday had mixed reactions to the Army's announcement, according to The Hill. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said "there is always risk when you make cuts," but added that there was "no other way they could" achieve the necessary budget requirements otherwise.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., said the Army's decision to reduce force to the size it was before 9/11 was shortsighted. He said the country was forgetting about the lessons from previous force reductions, and now the Army was "foolishly expecting history to teach" a different lesson with this drawdown.

The cuts follow the reduction in force announced by the Navy last week for 745 civilian positions as a result of tightening budgets. The Air Force announced an RIF in April to eliminate 15,000 positions, but that was unrelated to sequestration budget cuts.

Defense Comptroller Robert Hale has said continued sequestration would lead to job losses throughout the Pentagon.

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Lawmaker Seeks to End Pay Discrepancies Between Blue and White Collar Feds

Kedar Pavgi — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 15:17:53 -0400

Lawmakers and labor groups are pushing to fix pay discrepancies between blue and white-collar federal workers caused by differences in the way the Office of Personnel Management classifies wage areas.

Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., has introduced the 2013 Locality Pay Equity Act to end what he calls an “archaic” system that creates pay disparities between employees on the General Schedule system and those that are paid hourly. Cartwright cited the example from his home district; General Schedule employees at Tobyhanna Army Depot are subject to a 25 percent pay differential over hourly employees because OPM classifies the two groups of workers as living in different wage areas.

“The current wage inconsistency at Tobyhanna is an issue in which I have been interested since last year; the current system is dated and does not take into account current regional considerations and statistics,” Cartwright said in a statement. He noted that the proposed legislation would “level the playing field.”

The private sector does not vary the pay of salaried and hourly workers based on localities, according to American Federation of Government Employees National President J. David Cox Sr. He recommended that the federal government follow suit.

“Treating salaried and hourly workers differently in this context is unfair and inefficient,” Cox said. “It makes the blue-collar employees at military depots, federal prisons and VA hospitals feel like second-class citizens.” Cox added that hourly workers face the same costs of living as their salaried counterparts, and said that the current system was “unconscionable.”

The Federal Prevailing Rate Advisory Committee -- the labor management committee that studies pay for federal blue collar workers -- voted to “end the practice of treating blue collar and white collar federal employees differently with regard to the drawing of local labor market boundaries” in November 2010, according to AFGE. OPM must submit the policy for public review before it can be officially implemented.

(Image via Robles Designery/Shutterstock.com)

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Navy Announces Layoffs for 745 Civilians

Kedar Pavgi — Fri, 21 Jun 2013 13:44:30 -0400

The Navy Installations Command on Wednesday announced that it would undertake a reduction in force for 745 civilian positions.

The RIF will be completed by fiscal 2014, and will affect civilians working in 20 states; Washington, D.C.; Guam; Italy; Greece; and Cuba, according to the announcement. The Navy said it was part of “cost–saving measures” being undertaken because of tightening budgets.

"This action is not taken lightly, but is part of a conscious, risk-based approach to future shore capabilities that are aligned with the Navy mission," said Vice Adm. William French, head of the Navy Installations Command, in a statement. "I am committed to ensuring that we do all we can to assist those people directly impacted by this action by providing them access to all tools available under reduction in force rules and assisting them with finding future employment."

The Air Force announced an RIF to eliminate 15,000 positions in April, but said the move was unrelated to budget cuts caused by sequestration. Defense Comptroller Robert Hale said extended sequestration could lead to further job losses at the Pentagon.

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Defense Sees Little Progress on Unwanted Sexual Contact in Six Years

Kedar Pavgi — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 17:32:48 -0400

Some 6.1 percent of military women reported unwanted sexual contact in 2012, compared to 6.8 percent in 2006, according to new data from the Pentagon, despite Defense Department efforts to tackle what it acknowleges as a sexual assault crisis.

Of the reported incidents, 67 percent happened on military installations, and 41 percent occurred during duty hours, according to the 2012 Workplace and Gender Relations Survey of Active Duty Members.

The top three types of offenders were military coworkers, other military members and personnel at a higher rank, the survey said. Some 3 percent of the victims “indicated the offender used drugs to knock them out.”

Among all military women surveyed – not just victims of unwanted sexual contact – 70 percent said they would feel comfortable if they had to report instances of sexual assault, compared with 59 percent in 2006. Still, 67 percent of women who said they were victims of unwanted sexual contact in 2012 chose not to report the incidents to military authorities.

Defense surveyed nearly 109,000 men and women between September and November of 2012 to compile the data in the study. It follows another study released by Defense in May that found the number of instances of “unwanted sexual contact” among service members rose sharply in fiscal 2012.

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Employees Sue Contractor Over Sequestration Layoffs

Kedar Pavgi — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 12:30:11 -0400

Former employees of a major government contractor are filing a class action lawsuit claiming the company did not follow the directives of the 1988 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act when issuing layoff notices, Politico reported.

The three employees behind the lawsuit against L-3 Communications argue that they were laid off without the 60 day notice mandated by the WARN Act, according to Politico. They are seeking compensation for the days they would have worked if they had been given the proper notice period.

The Labor Department last year instructed contractors not to send WARN Act notices for sequestration-related layoffs. The Office of Management and Budget in September said agencies would cover contractors’ “liability and litigation costs” related to such notices if they followed Labor’s guidelines.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have become interested in the case. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., blamed the Obama administration for remaining opaque about how contractors should implement sequestration-related layoffs.

“Affected industries were bound by law to notify their workers ahead of sequestration layoffs,” McKeon told Politico. “Instead, in the most cynical of moves, the White House offered taxpayer money to companies to stop them from issuing layoff notices, warnings due days before the election.”

It’s not the first time L-3 Communications has had to undertake layoffs and restructuring because of falling demand in the government market. In April, the company laid off 190 employees in its Salt Lake City office, citing a “declining budget environment and uncertainties due to sequestration.” The company told Government Executive in April that WARN Act notices were not necessary for those layoffs.

Many major contractors did not factor sequestration into their 2013 revenue forecasts and have not undertaken major sequestration related layoffs. Lockheed Martin Corp. was an exception, citing the budget cuts in its forcast, and BAE Systems delivered 3,500 WARN Act notices to its employees across the country, citing a downturn in the overall government budget.

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Don’t Furlough Forest Fire Victims, Colo. Lawmaker Says

Kedar Pavgi — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:51:18 -0400

A Colorado lawmaker is asking Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to exempt civilians impacted by forest fires in Colorado from planned 11-day furloughs beginning in July.

In a June 18 letter, Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., said that many members of the military and Colorado National Guard had “made a huge contribution to fighting the fire.” He added that help should also be directed toward civilians who were “directly impacted” by the fire in Black Forest, Colo. Lamborn cited the furlough exceptions the Air Force granted civilians hit by the recent tornados in Oklahoma.

“Black Forest and the Colorado Springs community have already shown our strength in responding to the fire,” Lamborn said. “I ask for your direct action to help avoid any unnecessary additional pain and financial hardship for Defense Department civilians who may have been affected by this fire.”

Lamborn’s letter follows that of other lawmakers who have been lobbying the Defense Department’s leadership to reduce furlough days for civilian employees, or add exceptions based on extreme circumstances. A group of Democratic senators asked Hagel in June to prevent planned furloughs for Department of Defense Education Activity teachers beginning this fall. And more than two-dozen House members implored Hagel in May to use additional flexibility to avert furloughs for civilians.

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IRS Employees to Receive $70 Million in Bonuses

Kedar Pavgi — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 10:56:59 -0400

Internal Revenue Service employees are set to receive $70 million in bonuses, despite a White House directive to cancel the awards while sequestration is in place, the Associated Press reported.

News about the bonuses came from the office of Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, according to AP. The agency is following through with an agreement with unions to pay millions in bonuses, Grassley said, even as the agency clamors for budget relief.

"The IRS always claims to be short on resources," Grassley told AP. "But it appears to have $70 million for union bonuses. And it appears to be making an extra effort to give the bonuses despite opportunities to renegotiate with the union and federal instruction to cease discretionary bonuses during sequestration."

An Office of Management and Budget memo from April—signed by former OMB Controller, and current acting IRS commissioner Danny Werfel—directed agencies to hold off on bonuses during sequestration “unless agency counsel determines the awards are legally required.” Federal employee groups were unhappy with the directive, saying that it interfered with the performance-based pay system necessary to retain senior executives.

Union representatives declined comment, according to AP.

An IRS spokeswoman told AP that the agency was complying with OMB directives, but was “under a legal obligation to comply with its collective bargaining agreement, which specifies the terms by which awards are paid to bargaining-unit employees."

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Military Opening Positions to Women

Kedar Pavgi — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:51:16 -0400

The Defense Department on Tuesday formally rolled out plans to allow women to enroll in combat jobs, including in special operations forces such as the Army Rangers and Navy SEALS.

Implementation schedules vary by service branch, but overall the military is planning to establish gender-neutral training and standards by September 2015 and fully integrate women according to the new rules by January 2016.

U.S. Special Operations Command head Adm. William McRaven said in a memo that he has contracted with the RAND Corporation to provide “non-biased analysis” by July 2014 on the training standards necessary for integrating women into special operations forces and to determine the “social science” impacts of integrating women into small teams.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel signed off on the plans in May and said in a memo that he was confident the services would “meet the standards required to maintain our warfighting capability” within the new rules.

“The Department remains committed to removing all gender barriers, wherever possible, and meeting our missions with the best qualified and most capable personnel,” Hagel said.

Defense officials intend to implement the new rules carefully, making sure all testing and surveying is done according to the services’ recommendations, Juliet Beyler, director of officer and enlisted personnel management, said during a Pentagon press briefing on Tuesday.

“There is an understanding that doing this might take some time,” Beyler said. “The key is setting it up for success.”

Rear Adm. Tony Kurta said the Navy is planning to allow women to serve on board the Coastal Riverine Force small craft beginning next month, per the service’s implementation plan. Eighty-eight percent of Navy billets are currently open to women, and the service intends to do more to incorporate women in the coming years.

Within the Air Force, less than 1 percent of positions are currently closed to women, according to Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff Brig Gen. Gina Grosso. She said closed positions are currently marked for special operations forces and that the outcome of the studies done by USSOCOM would determine full implementation of the new plan.

“The Army’s very excited about the implementation of our plan,” Army Deputy Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Howard Bromberg said. He said the service would rely on past surveying to assess possible tweaks in policy as this process continued.

In January, then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey revoked the ban on women’s participation in combat positions.

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Army Encourages Managers to Fill Openings Created by Training Programs

Kedar Pavgi — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:35:34 -0400

The Army is encouraging managers to “backfill” vacancies created by civilians taking career development, leadership or training programs.

In guidance released on June 12, Deputy Assistant Army Secretary Anthony Stamillo said the service wanted to “encourage [its] high performing employees” to apply for career development programs and also make Army officials aware that they “already have the authority to backfill a vacancy created by an employee” in a training program.

“In addition, Army is providing a blanket exception to backfill those vacancies through any recruitment source as long as the organization has sufficient funds,” Stamillo said.

Stamillo said Army managers should “consider various options” before filling the positions and see if “temporary promotions,” reclassifications of empty positions, or additional mechanisms to promote “upward mobility” of junior employees would be a better solution. He asked managers to consider if the employee in training would be returning to the post upon completion of the program, and said temporary reassignments could be considered as well.

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered a departmentwide hiring freeze at the beginning of the year to preempt possible disruption from sequestration-related budget cuts. The Army specifically exempted several personnel categories from the freeze, including mission critical jobs, civilians serving in combat zones and employees supporting the Wounded Warrior program.

(Image via Nonnakrit/Shutterstock.com)

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Federal Employees Increasingly Under Attack on Public Lands

Kedar Pavgi — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:59:47 -0400

Federal employees working in the country’s outdoor areas were victims of more violent attacks in 2012 than in previous years, according to a report by an advocacy group.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a non-profit alliance of government officials and environmental advocates, cited a number of factors for the increase, including drug trafficking on federal lands and alcohol abuse.

Of the six federal agencies that reported 313 violent incidents in 2012, the U.S. Park Police saw the sharpest year-on-year increase in incidents, which were up 42.9 percent to 100 reports. Other agencies experiencing an increase in attacks on their employees included the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Park Service.

“Unfortunately, violence and abuse directed against public servants is becoming more common,” PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch said in a statement. “The saying ‘it’s not easy being green’ is becoming truer with each passing year.”

PEER compiled the report from data obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests to several federal agencies. Ruch told Government Executive that PEER counted incidences that were marked by federal officials with several keywords, including ‘threats,’ ‘intimidation,’ ‘assault’ and ‘terrorism.’

Examples of attacks include the shooting of a park ranger in January 2012, an attempt to run a Park Police officer over and various threats issued against federal workers.

An Interior Department spokesman told Government Executive that officials would review the report fully. The department is “committed to providing a safe and sustainable work environment for all employees as well as an enjoyable and safe experience for visitors to our public lands,” he said.

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Rules on Giving Flags to Families of Fallen Feds Announced by OPM

Kedar Pavgi — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 14:33:40 -0400

The Office of Personnel Management on Friday announced new guidelines for issuing U.S. flags to family members of federal employees who have been killed in the line of service.

The proposed rule, to be formally published in the June 17 edition of the Federal Register, is an implementation of the 2011 Civilian Service Recognition Act. The law authorizes agencies to give flags to beneficiaries of federal employees who lose their lives “under certain conditions” while serving the public.

“I encourage all agencies to make full use of this authority to honor those federal employees who have made the ultimate sacrifice in support of our nation,” acting OPM Director Elaine Kaplan said in a memo to chief human capital officers.

Eligible employees include those at executive agencies, the U.S. Postal Service and the Postal Regulatory Commission, OPM said. Kaplan said the proposed rule was made “after coordination” with the Defense and Homeland Security departments.

Officials can “provide a flag on behalf of an individual” if the person died after Dec. 20, 2011, and was killed by injuries “incurred with such individual’s employment” with the federal government, including terrorism and natural disasters, or other circumstances as determined by the president.

Passed unanimously by the House in late 2011, the law was commended by union officials as a “meaningful and appropriate step” for recognizing federal employees who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

(Image via justasc/Shutterstock.com)

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Top Secret Defense Contractors No Longer Being Reinvestigated

Kedar Pavgi — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:24:13 -0400

“Funding shortfalls” are forcing the Defense Department to suspend most periodic reinvestigations of contractors cleared for top-secret status in some national security jobs starting Friday through the remainder of fiscal 2013, according to a recent announcement.

The Defense Security Service, the agency that manages the reinvestigations, said the cuts would affect “most top secret periodic reinvestigations” but would exempt reinvestigations for contractors recognized as “key management personnel” and those needed for priority programs.

“Requests for initial personnel security clearances and Secret PRs are not affected by the suspension,” the agency said.

The agency also noted that the reinvestigations of industry personnel with access to “mission essential” intelligence would also be exempted. For example, the cuts will not affect people in positions similar to that held by recent National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, a top-secret cleared employee with contractor Booz Allen Hamilton.

The move was designed to push the costs of the reinvestigations—which can be thousands of dollars each—to the next fiscal year, according to the Federal Times.

Top Secret level individuals must be reinvestigated every 5 years, and Secret level personnel every 10 years, according to DSS. Spokeswoman Cindy McGovern told Government Executive that the agency has oversight of investigations for contract personnel in the National Industrial Security Program, which includes contract employees at the Energy and Defense departments and the CIA.

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, more than 1.7 million Americans have or are eligible for a Top Secret clearance.

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Help Sue the Government Over NSA Snooping, GOP Lawmaker Says

Kedar Pavgi — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:10:30 -0400

A popular Republican lawmaker is supporting a class action lawsuit against the government over surveillance programs that have collected information and phone records of millions of American citizens.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., formally announced his intention to support and promote the effort during an event Thursday on Capitol Hill. Eighty-six other groups have also signed on, including advocacy groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Web companies Reddit and TechStars.

A handful of other lawmakers also spoke out against the National Security Agency’s monitoring programs during Thursday’s event.

Paul had previously declared his intention to sue during appearances on Fox News Channel and CNN over the past week and has been a vocal critic of the government’s domestic intelligence tactics since The Washington Post and The Guardian first disclosed the story last week. Paul said he is strongly opposed to the indiscriminate use of individual warrants to collect records on all of the country’s citizens.

“Looking at everyone’s phone records, I think, really goes against what we stand for as a free people,” Paul said on Fox News Channel. “If we get ten million Americans saying we don’t want our phone records looked at, then maybe someone will wake up and something will change in Washington.”

He said that the government could subpoena records for individuals, but that the use of a single warrant to justify collecting records on 300 million individuals was unconstitutional.

His lawsuit follows legal actions taken by several independent groups against the NSA, including the American Civil Liberties Union, and the family of a deceased Navy cryptologist. It also follows other actions Paul has taken in recent days, including filing a bill that prevents the NSA from collecting phone records and using his SuperPAC to garner support for the lawsuit.

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Pentagon Preparing Two Budget Plans for Fiscal 2014

Kedar Pavgi — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 15:18:52 -0400

The Pentagon is planning for two scenarios in fiscal 2014 because the outcome of budget negotiations between the White House and Congress remains uncertain, a senior Defense Department official said on Wednesday.

Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said the department was “prepared for a wide range of budget contingencies,” adding that the department’s approach next year would depend on how Washington sorted out its fiscal situation.

One plan will be based on the Obama administration’s fiscal 2014 budget request and the other assumes Washington continues to be mired in “fiscal gridlock," Carter said during an annual conference hosted by the Center for a New American Security.

Carter said the Pentagon’s Strategic Choices and Management Review, the budget evaluation ordered by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in March, had been completed and awaited review by Hagel’s office. The SCMR will be the “basis” for the fiscal 2015 budget request, and will also help with fiscal 2014 budget decisions, Carter said. A recent memo from his office directed Defense managers to plan for a possible 10 percent budget cut in fiscal 2014.

Still, Carter lamented the impact that sequestration was having on Defense’s budget and planning efforts.

“Despite our best efforts to minimize this damage, it is at a minimum, embarrassing, to be doing this in the eyes of friends and foes alike,” Carter said.

Defense must complete and submit a plan to make good on a promise to the leadership of the Senate Armed Services Committee. In May, Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., wrote to Hagel demanding a “package of reductions” by early July to help plan for possible sequestration cuts in fiscal 2014.

Carter also said he “aligned” himself with the recent shadow budget reviews conducted by CNAS and a host of other Washington D.C. think tanks. The organizations said that sharp reductions to the department’s civilian personnel would be necessary to help realign resources in areas such as the Asia Pacific and cybersecurity.

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The Army's Weapon of Mass Deliciousness

Kedar Pavgi — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 16:26:21 -0400

This is a tank that will conquer all dessert environments.

On Friday, TLC’s "D.C. Cupcakes" show will reveal the details behind the construction of a fully functioning, 1-ton cupcake tank built by Washington-based Georgetown Cupcakes last year.

The company’s owners, Katherine Kallinis Berman and her sister Sophie Kallinis LaMontagne, baked last year's tank to commemorate the service's 237th birthday, and donated the $9,800 cost of the cupcakes, according to ABC News. As for the details, 5,000 cupcakes coated the outside of the tank, and 200 pounds of camouflage fondant were used, according to the Army Live blog.

This year the company will be giving away free treats to all active duty military members, veterans and family at the store’s locations nationwide to celebrate the service’s 238^th birthday on Friday.

Sweet.

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Ask Us for More Money to Fill Defense Budget Holes, Senator Says

Kedar Pavgi — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:59:43 -0400

A lawmaker on Tuesday encouraged Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to file a supplemental budget request to fill fiscal 2013 budget holes caused by higher wartime costs and sequestration.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said civilian furloughs at the Defense Department have a “direct link” to higher-than-anticipated costs caused by the ongoing war in Afghanistan. During a Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, she said a third of the shortfalls in Defense’s readiness account, and half in the Army’s readiness account, was not caused by sequestration, but by higher operating tempos.

Collins said budget transfer requests only moved money around between accounts, when the real issue was a serious shortfall in the amount of money Defense has.

“Even if we abolish sequestration today, that does not solve of the problem of your needing—legitimately needing—more money to deal with unanticipated, underestimated war costs,” Collins said. “I would ask you to look at the possibility of submitting a supplemental request.”

Hagel said that he had not discussed or considered a supplemental request and noted that Defense “had not looked at that as a possibility.”

Even if the Pentagon were to file a request, it's far from certain that Congress would approve it. A congressional committee recently rejected part of Defense’s $9.6 billion budget reprogramming request, Defense News reported.

Government Executive asked Collins’ office if she would push for the passage of such a measure in Congress but did not receive a response by publication time.

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Has Sequestration Hit Defense Contractors Hard Enough?

Kedar Pavgi — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 14:47:50 -0400

A lawmaker on Tuesday pressed Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on the high price-tag of contractors as part of the Pentagon’s workforce.

The comments came from Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., during a hearing of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee on the Pentagon’s fiscal 2014 budget request. Durbin framed his comments in the context of the recent leak at the National Security Agency by a Booz Allen Hamilton contractor, and said he was “concerned about the cost” of the contractor workforce in the Defense Department.

He cited a recent report that said contractors, on average, were two-to three-times more expensive than civilian employees. Durbin said data from Defense also indicated that contractors make up 22 percent of the Pentagon’s workforce, but account for 50 percent of its personnel-related costs. With sequestration forcing 11-day furloughs for hundreds thousands of civilian employees, Durbin questioned how much of the recent budget cuts had fallen on contractors.

“I wholeheartedly support the idea of exempting uniformed personnel from sequestration cuts; we owe it to these men and women not to put a hardship on them when they’re literally risking their lives for America,” Durbin said. “But then when we take a look at the civilian workforce in the Department of Defense, here’s what we find: there’s not been a civilian pay raise since 2011. So my question to you is this, if we’re setting out to save money, has the civilian hiring freeze resulted in more, or fewer contract employees, and if so, how are you tracking the cost ramifications? Has contractor pay in the Department of Defense increased during the civilian hiring freeze?”

Hagel said the department was in the process of reviewing all contractors and contracts given the current situation. He said that many contractors, especially ones with technical, or niche skills, were necessary for some functions. However, Hagel said there would be a time when the Pentagon would have to make some “tough choices” on the size and scope of the contractor workforce as budgets become increasingly lean.

“I don’t disagree with any of your general analysis about contractors,” Hagel said. “I think when you look at the buildup over the last 12 years, and I was in this body during a significant amount of that, as that buildup occurred, money flowed in to different departments and institutions because we felt they were required for the national security of this country.”

Defense Comptroller Robert Hale added that the $37 billion in sequestration cuts in fiscal 2013 would likely result in a “sharp drop” in contractors. When questioned on the number of service contractors currently at Defense, he said that he didn’t have an exact figure, but estimated that more than 700,000 were working in some capacity.

“Well I have found … a sense of disdain toward DoD civilian employees and a sense of benign neglect when it comes to contract employees,” Durbin said. “And I think if there’s going to be sacrifice, it has to be across-the-board, if we’re going to save money, it shouldn’t be at the expense of those who are willing to work in the civil service.”

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