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--"A midterm report on government reengineering, due for release today, will spell out how the Clinton administration has been able to make the federal bureaucracy do more with much less. It will also tell federal employees what kinds of changes....they can expect by the end of the century" (The Washington Post).

PREVENTING SHUTDOWNS--Senate Republicans are proposing a way to avoid government shutdowns. "If for any reason Congress and the president cannot agree on spending bills by the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30, a 'safety net' continuing resolution would automatically determine spending levels until those bills are enacted, under the measure introduced by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) (The Washington Post).

JOBS REVOLUTION--"From Seattle to Orlando, powerful social and technological forces are fueling boomtowns, and opportunities abound in occupations ranging from computer scientist to carpenter. Today, the frontier is going from manufacturing to services and technology" (Time, January 20).

TRAINING--"Job training has to be reworked. We need a policy that covers all our workers, not just executives" (Time, January 20).

EXPANSION--"A proposal to enlarge the historic federal building in Foggy Bottom that houses the Washington chapter of the American Red Cross is drawing fire from residents, who complain that the project would intrude on their lives and threaten their quality of life" (The Washington Post, District Weekly).

OTHER VIEWS--OPM proposes changes in mobility assignments (Chief, NY, NY, Dec.20)...Cabinet members do not automatically get pensions (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Honolulu, HI, Dec. 14)...Health plan gets high marks (Marlin Democrat, Marlin, TX, Dec. 18 and Waller County News Citizen, Hempstead, TX, Dc. 18).