The Buzz

Not Easy Buying Green

The Defense Department once again pushed the "green procurement" philosophy this summer, issuing a new policy aimed at helping procurement offices make environmentally sound purchases. The guidelines ask the department's acquisition officials to plan how they will identify opportunities to buy environmentally friendly products and services "in the normal course of business."

Such items include products made from recycled materials or non-ozone-depleting substances and those labeled as energy efficient. Products or services that use alternative fuels also count as green.

Under the policy, Defense purchasing offices also must set reasonable goals for buying environmentally safe items, based on overall levels of acquisition and the nature of goods and services needed.

The policy asks procurement offices to educate employees on ecological responsibilities and train them to seek out green products at a reasonable cost. Environmentally sound purchases must be tracked so officials can determine if goals and applicable laws are being met.

The new policy is meant to "affirm a goal of 100 percent compliance" with federal laws and executive orders concerning the use of environmentally friendly products, Defense officials said.

Drug Deals

The FBI's post-Sept. 11 focus on combating terrorism has not necessarily detracted from the federal government's efforts to investigate drug-related, white-collar and violent crimes, according to the Government Accountability Office.

FBI officials transferred substantial numbers of field agents to counterterrorism, counterintelligence and cybercrime work following the terrorist attacks, and attention to traditional drug and criminal cases fell during the next two years, GAO auditors recently reported (GAO-04-1036). But outside agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, are closing the gap, the GAO's analysis of enforcement statistics indicated.

Drug enforcement didn't make the top 10 list when FBI Director Robert Mueller outlined his agency's new priorities in May 2002. White-collar crime came in seventh and violent crime ended up eighth, while counterterrorism, counterintelligence and cybercrime filled the top three slots.

As priorities shifted, the FBI permanently transferred 550 field agents from drug enforcement and pulled 124 agents from white-collar crime and violent crime. A quarter of the agency's nonsupervisory field agents worked on counterterrorism, counterintelligence and cybercrime in fiscal 2002, before the realignment of priorities. In fiscal 2004, the FBI dedicated 36 percent of nonsupervisory agents to those three areas.

Carpe Diems

The General Services Administration has lowered the maximum per diem rate for several major cities, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington. The fiscal 2005 per diem rates, which take effect Oct. 1, were posted in the Federal Register in early September. The rates cover lodging as well as meals and incidental expenses.

The rates have remained essentially unchanged for three years. The government has, however, increased its travel spending significantly. In fiscal 2003, agencies spent $11.9 billion on travel, up from $10 billion in fiscal 2002. In addition to dropping some rates, GSA adjusted others-including in Boston and the Manhattan borough of New York City-to reflect seasonal fluctuations in rates.

The Outsiders

The government is filling a greater percentage of mid-career jobs with applicants from outside the federal civil service at the same as the number of job notices advertised to all comers is declining.

A survey by the Partnership for Public Service, a Washington nonprofit group, found that government agencies filled 15.3 percent of positions from GS-12 to GS-15 with outside hires in 2003. The total has risen each year since the organization first conducted its midcareer hiring survey in 2000, when only 10.5 percent of these positions were filled from the outside. During the same time period, though, the portion of midcareer jobs opened to outside applicants declined from 49 percent to 43 percent.

Get Well Department

Throughout the presidential race, John Kerry has assiduously avoided proposals that might taint him as a traditional big-government liberal. His campaign documents are remarkably free of bureaucracy-building proposals. And in August, Kerry moved to pick up Bill Clinton's new-Democrat reinventing government mantle, unveiling a proposal to cut management ranks, freeze the federal travel budget and reduce its vehicle fleet.

Nevertheless, in a speech in Greensboro, N.C., in early September, Kerry offered up a proposal for nothing less than a whole new Cabinet department. "What I want to do, what I'm determined to do, and it's in my health-care plan, is refocus America on something that can reduce the cost of health care significantly for all Americans, which is wellness and prevention," Kerry said, according to the online magazine Slate. "And I intend to have not just a Department of Health and Human Services, but a Department of Wellness."

Kerry didn't elaborate on his idea. He has played up the wellness theme in promoting his overall health-care plan throughout the campaign, and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, has been even more vocal in her support for preventive health initiatives. In a January 2003 interview with the Boston Herald, Heinz Kerry said she'd fight for a Department of Wellness if her husband were elected.

Hiring Help

Three federal agencies are undergoing extreme hiring makeovers, thanks to the Partnership for Public Service, a Washington nonprofit that has convinced private and public sector hiring experts to donate their services to help agencies attract top applicants and bring them on board quickly.

The three agencies-the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Education Department-will rely on the firms to diagnose problems in recruiting and hiring, and to implement solutions. Agency representatives expect to start seeing results by the end of the year.

Partnership Executive Vice President Kevin Simpson says, historically, government has "done a poor job of selling itself." Managers are "too removed from the process [and] need to take ownership and partner with human resources staff," rather than rely on the HR office completely.

The organizations that have volunteered their services include Monster Government Solutions, ePredix, AIRS, CPS Human Resource Services and Brainbench.