News Briefs

THE DAILY FED

News Briefs

Virtual Government '97 Conference

This conference for federal, state and local information technology executives, managers, practitioners, and supporting industry will be held February 11-13 in McLean, VA. Speakers include Vice President Al Gore, John A. Koskinen (Deputy Director for Management, OMB), as well as Congressmen, senior business leaders, and other cabinet officials.

Some topics include the internet & intranet, wireless, universal service, certificate authorities, key recovery, data mining, year 2000, privacy & security, and more.

Please visit the conference Web site for more information.

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--"Uncle Sam's decision to switch to a time-release program to empty federal office buildings quickly means that the next time federal workers are sent home early, everybody will simply leave three hours before normal quitting time. That's it. The new common-sense system from OPM means feds still will be released in stages, but departures will be keyed to their quitting time rather than their Zip codes". . AND. . .At 9 a.m. tomorrow on WUST radio (1120 AM), OPM's Ed McHugh, Susan Shelton and Greg Keller will give an update on buyouts, layoffs and career transition activities (The Washington Post).

INTEREST RATE--OPM says the interest rate due on certain payments needed for civil service pension credit and paid on some refunds of civil service retirement contributions will remain the same in 1997 (Office of Communications News Release, January 23).

POLITICAL APPOINTEES--"Commerce Secretary-designate William Daley pledged Wednesday to eliminate 100 political poss in his department. There are 3,628 political appointees in the federal government" (The Washington Post).

OF INTEREST--The office of the Vice-President has assured the SEA that none of its members will be reassigned because of supposed lack of enthusiasm for "agency missions" (The Washington Times)...Incoming Secretary of State Albright said that career employees lead her list of advisers (USA TODAY)...OPM IG makes inclusion of FEHBP in federal fraud and abuse laws top priority (Bureau of National Affairs Health Care Report, January 15)...President's 1998 budget will increase retirement contributions (Federal Human Resources Week, January 20).

OTHER VIEWS--OPM says USPS employment has grown (Cuba Free Press, Cuba, MO, Jan. 2; Steelville Star-Crawford Mirror, Steelville, MO, Jan. 1; Rocket-Courier, Wyalusing, PA, Jan. 2)...The feds inject quality into health purchasing decisions (FEHB) (Business & Health, Montvale, MN, Dec. 1996)...Veterans can find jobs on Internet (Rapid City Journal, Rapid City, SD, Dec. 29; Union Leader, Manchester, MN, Jan. 4)...Lorraine Green joins Amtrak (Journal of Commerce, NY, NY, Jan. 6)...IRS offers buyouts (Record, Troy, NY, Jan. 8)...FEHB model for Medicare (Journal of Commerce, NY, NY, Jan. 6).