News Briefs

THE DAILY FED

News Briefs

The following news summaries are from OPM AM, the daily newsletter of the Office of Personnel Management. OPM AM is available on OPM Mainstreet, the agency's electronic bulletin board, at 202-606-4800.

THE FEDERAL DIARY--"A number of federal employees have indicated that they plan to retire strategically in late December or January so their annuities will be enriched by the 2.9 percent cost-of-living adjustment that takes effect next year for federal retirees. But it can't be done....Only people who have been retired since December 1995 will get the full COLA. That's 2.9 percent for those under the older Civil Service Retirement System and 2 percent for those under the newer Federal Employees Retirement System" (The Washington Post).

ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS IN LIMBO UNTIL ELECTION--"The hottest ticket in town, Clinton aides now joke nervously, is for a seat on Air Force One Nov. 12--when President Clinton takes a two-week trip to Asia, during which he is expected to begin focusing on who he wants where in his second term. Senior officials are anxious not because they're worried about the outcome of the election. What's got them edgy is whether they're going to be tapped to stay on or even to move up" (The Washington Post).

CHRISTOPHER AND CO. TAKE TO BUNKERS ON BUDGET--"Secretary of State Warren Christopher journeyed to the U.S. Military Academy the other day to urge future Army officers in the cadet corps to support adequate funding for what he called diplomatic readiness.' Spending levels for the State Department, foreign aid and other non-military international activities have been cut far enough, Christopher said. Further reductions would undermine this country's ability to conduct effective diplomacy around the world and possibly plunge the future officers into armed conflicts that could have been avoided" (The Washington Post).

METRO PROMISES ACTION TO ENSURE SUBWAY SAFETY--"Metro officials, saying they are determined to maintain public confidence in the region's subway system this winter, said yesterday that they will follow all 20 safety recommendations made by a federal panel that investigated a fatal train crash. Metro General Manager Richard A. White said that 17 of the National Transportation Safety Board's suggestions--including strengthening rail cars' brakes, lowering speed limits and relying less on a computerized train-operating system--have been implemented and that the other safety improvements would be in place by the end of November....The NTSB issued a harsh report Tuesday on the Jan. 6 crash that killed a train operator at the Shady Grove station, saying that Metro relied too heavily on the computerized operating system, which had trouble stopping trains when tracks were icy" (The Washington Post).

U.S. OKs PLAN TO PUT POOR INTO HMOs--"In one of the last steps toward moving hundreds of thousands of poor people into managed care, the federal government gave its approval yesterday for Maryland's sweeping Medicaid overhaul. The plan aims to achieve the difficult balance of giving the poor better health care and saving the state millions of dollars....The state has projected $19 million in savings from the overhaul in its budget from Jan. 1 to June 30. Half of that money is state dollars, the remainder, federal" (The Sun).

RETHINKING CAREER RESILIENCE--"For the last several years, management consultants have been telling us job security is dead. To be competitive, organizations must be lean and agile, and capable of responding to changing market conditions by re-deploying workers when possible and releasing them when necessary....Job security has been replaced by the concept of career resilience,' where organizations provide workers with resources and opportunities to assess their interests and capabilities, and with training to improve their job skills....In response to a presidential directive aimed at employment opportunities for displaced employees, executive branch agencies were required to submit career transition assistance plans to the Office of Personnel Management by the end of last February. Consistent with the career resilience philosophy, the plans help employees find new positions through services such as skills assessment, resume preparation, counseling and job search assistance" (Government Executive, October 1996).