In Brief

EXECUTIVE MEMO

IN BRIEF

• Hitting Home. Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., head of the House Civil Service Subcommittee, has blasted the Office of Personnel Management for releasing the home addresses of its employees to the American Federation of Government Employees, saying the union will inundate employees at home with pro-Democratic Party propaganda. OPM said the union needed the addresses to communicate with those it represents during last winter's long government shutdowns.
• Benefit Busters. Mica is also trying to create a new retirement system for future hires.Those hired after Oct. 1, 1997, would get Social Security coverage; Thrift Savings Plan participation, but without a government match; and government-funded benefits invested in private sector bonds or securities in the employee's name. The plan would not adjust annuities based on the cost of living.
• Investigating IGs. Soon the gumshoe will be on the other foot. President Clinton has created an Integrity Committee to probe allegations of wrongdoing against inspectors general and their senior staffers. The FBI representative on the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency will head the committee.
• Furlough Fever. The good news for 2,700 Energy Department administrative employees is they won't have to take 48 furlough hours. The bad news is that by March 31 they had to take two furlough days, instead, due to tight funding. At the Labor Department, 7,500 employees faced furloughs of one to 20 days because final fiscal 1996 funding for Labor and eight other departments hung in limbo through mid-April.