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FederalDaily - April 20, 2005

Oklahoma City Bombing 10th Anniversary

Federal employee organizations on April 19 th commemorated the 168 people lost in the Oklahoma City bombing ten years ago when a bomb exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) joined the Oklahoma City National Memorial in celebrating the National Week of Hope April 17-24. During the week, AFGE distributed arm bands to federal workers with the slogan “In Solidarity.” The union said it raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in the days following the disaster to support the families whose members were harmed or killed in the blast. “T hese were not just Social Security representatives or Department of Transportation engineers—they were mothers and fathers, friends and loved ones, doing their part to help fellow Americans,” Partnership for Public Service President Max Stier said in a statement.

Environmental Groups Sue Federal Agencies

The Center for Biological Diversity and Bluewater Network filed suit on April 14 against 14 federal agencies for their failure to follow the Energy Policy Act (EPA), which requires them to purchase alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs). The agencies being sued are the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation and Veterans Affairs, and the CIA, the Federal Communications Commission and the General Services Administration. The case follows a suit by the same environmental groups in 2000, for which a court ruled that the federal government failed to purchase sufficient AFVs or disclose purchase numbers. The EPA requires all federal agencies to ensure that at least 75 percent of their annual purchases of cars and light-duty trucks in major metropolitan areas are AFVs instead of traditional petroleum-fueled vehicles. According to the two groups filing the lawsuit, the federal government has more than 600,000 vehicles, the largest fleet in the nation.

Uniting the Federal Acquisition Workforce

The Office of Management and Budget announced on April 18 a policy creating new training and development requirements for federal agencies’ acquisition workforces. The policy broadens the definition of acquisition workforce by including acquisition-related functions such as program management. Also, Defense Department and civilian acquisition workforce requirements will be aligned under the new policy—to ensure that the overall federal acquisition workforce has common training standards. There is a new partnership between the Federal Acquisition Institute and the Defense Acquisition Institute (DAI), which are co-located on DAI’s Ft. Belvoir campus in Virginia. “By better aligning training standards for the civilian and Department of Defense acquisition communities, we will also facilitate career mobility for our contracting professionals,” said David Safavian, administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. “This improves job satisfaction, performance and ultimately recruiting and retention of employees.”

Civil Rights Commission Tightens Its Belt

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) on April 18 released transcripts from its most recent meeting, disclosing details about the agency's budget shortfall and plans to resolve it. The USCCR unanimously approved a recommendation to conduct an immediate reduction in force of four employees, to furlough all staff for an estimated four to five days and to close two regional offices next fiscal year. At the meeting, Staff Director Kenneth L. Marcus recommended that it implement corrective measures to satisfy several goals, including: close a projected FY 2005 deficit of approximately $265,000, protect the welfare of the agency's employees and protect the ability of the agency to accomplish its mission.

Suspension of NIH Conflict-of-Interest Rules Requested

Reps. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Tom Davis, R-Va., asked National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Elias Zerhouni on April 14 to adopt a 90-day suspension on the new conflict of interest regulations implemented by NIH earlier this year until agency officials have fully reviewed the proposals offered by the Assembly of Scientists and other comments in response to these regulations. Van Hollen and Davis said they are concerned that some portions of the regulations will inhibit NIH’s ability to attract and retain research professionals. “We believe that the proposed regulations are overbroad,” they wrote in a letter to Zerhouni. They added that some top scientists at NIH have already stated that they will leave their positions at NIH rather than accept the terms of the new regulations.