News Briefs

THE DAILY FED

News Briefs

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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.

NATIONAL GUARD, REGULAR ARMY IN A TUG OF WAR-"Threatened with deep troop cuts and a shrinking role as the nation's backup combat force, the Army National Guard is engaged in a bruising political war with Army leaders over the relevance of its 370,000 reservists and their claim on dwindling military resources" (The Washington Post).

CITING PROBLEMS, FBI DELETES PHILADELPHIA CRIME DATA FROM SURVEYS-"The FBI, citing problems with how city police measure crime statistics, said today it is deleting numbers from Philadelphia for the last 18 months from its national crime surveys" (The Washington Post).

TO REINVENT THE REPORT, GORE ENLISTS A VISUAL AIDE-"They're Washington's new tag team: Dilbert and Al Gore. The cartoon character from the ranks of corporate America has been enlisted to add a little zing to the vice president's "reinventing government" crusade" (The Washington Post).

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENTS

Access America Conferences

The National Performance Review (NPR), will launch a series of informational conferences aimed at providing government employees and private industry IT officials with techniques and strategies for implementing the goals of Access America, an NPR report outlining steps to increase access--via the Internet--to government services. The first conference will be held November 3 (changed from September 25) in Baltimore, Md. and then will travel to other cities across the country. Expert panels will discuss IT topics, including Internet/Intranet successes, the future of Distance Learning and collaboration, IT acquisition and procurement reform, and privacy and security.

Improving the Government's Estimates of the Costs and Benefits of Regulation

On Sept. 30 the Office of Management and Budget issued its first report to Congress that tallies the costs and benefits of federal regulation. This conference, sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and the Brookings Institute, will bring together scholars and administration representatives to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the report. Topics to be addressed include methodology, the implications of the estimates themselves and suggested modifications. The conference will be held October 31 from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the American Enterprise Institute, 1150 17th St, NW. For more information call 202-862-5847.

DTIC Annual Conference

The Defense Technical Information Center is presenting its Annual Users Meeting and Training Conference on Nov. 3-6, 1997 at the DoubleTree Hotel, National Airport, Arlington, Va. The conference theme is Information in the New Millenium. Contact Ms. Julia Foscue at 703-767-8236 or by e-mail at jfoscue@dtic.mil.