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.

CFC PARTICIPATION APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE ON LINE--"In keeping with a move toward greater information access for all and improved technology, charities wishing to apply for participation in the federal government's Combined Federal Campaign (CFC), can now find the applications on the Office of Personnel Management's Web site, http://www.opm.gov" (OPM News Release, December 18).

THE FEDERAL DIARY--"About 141,000 civil servants are paid special higher rates--because of their jobs--than other employees at the same grade levels. Most special-rates are engineers and scientists, although in the Washington area the biggest group is clericals in Grades 2 through 7. Most special-raters will get a 2.3 percent pay raise next month. Non-special-rate employees here will get a 2.45 percent increase" (The Washington Post).

CENSUS BUREAU COUNTING ON SHORTAGE OF WORKERS--"Low unemployment is uplifting news for the nation but a big worry for the U.S. Census Bureau as it prepares to recruit millions of temporary workers for Census 2000. With the U.S. unemployment rate at 4.6%, a 24-year low, Census officials are afraid that it will be tough to find people willing to work part-time for only six weeks as early as spring 1998" (USA Today).

A FAITHFUL BUT TEMPORARY STEWARD--"By any measure, Michael A. Friedman has a record of accomplishment that would do any head of the Food and Drug Administration proud....But Friedman is heading the agency only until President Clinton nominates and secures a new permanent FDA commissioner. He is officially the lead deputy commissioner,' first among the handful of top officials who run the nation's food and drug safety agency. The front-runner for the job, by all accounts, however, is Jane E. Henney, a former FDA deputy commissioner of operations who now runs the University of New Mexico's Health Sciences Center" (The Washington Post).

REPORT URGES DOUBLING POLICE ON INDIAN RESERVATIONS--"American Indians receive less than half the police protection provided to other rural communities and face a public safety crisis' because of soaring reservation crime rates, according to a Clinton administration report. The report proposes doubling the size of reservation police forces and suggests that a Justice Department makeover of Bureau of Indian Affairs police functions could improve safety" (The Washington Post).

JUDGE RULES GOVERNMENT COVERED UP--"A Federal judge said today that the White House and the Justice Department had participated in a reprehensible' effort to cover up false statements by Ira C. Magaziner, the chief architect of President Clinton's ill-fated heath plan, and the judge ordered the Government to pay a penalty of more than $285,000" (The New York Times).

**TSP Open Season - Runs November 15, 1997 to January 31, 1998.

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENTS

Managing the Federal Employee Discipline and Performance Process

Jan. 12-13, Feb. 25-26. A nuts-and-bolts course designed to enable managers to navigate through the shoals of employee conduct and performance problems without becoming the loser. Cost:$550. Conducted by William Rudman. Brookings Institution. Washington, D.C. Contact Lela Sallis (202)797-6299.