FederalDaily - June 14, 2005

Senate Examines Contractors’ Tax Debt

The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs plans a hearing on June 16 to discuss tax delinquency problems with federal contractors. This will be the second such hearing; the first one was held in February. The February hearing examined the Department of Defense’s (DoD) failure to levy contractor payments for unpaid taxes owed by contractors doing business with DoD and getting paid with taxpayer dollars. That hearing also demonstrated that the problem of tax delinquent federal contractors may not be confined to DoD, according to the Senate committee. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on whether federal contractors at civilian agencies are tax delinquent will be released at the June 16th hearing.

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AFGE Wants DHS Employees Consulted

After Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff testified last week before the House Government Reform Committee on his plans to review the agency for ways to “ better manage risk in terms of threat, vulnerability and consequence,” American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) President John Gage made a request. He said frontline employees, who he alleged were not consulted in a previous review of DHS activities, should be consulted during the upcoming review. “It would be a mistake to overlook the thousands of dedicated men and women who secure our homeland and not take into consideration their practical assessment of DHS efforts, their years of experience or their expertise,” Gage said.

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DoD Reports on Recruitment, Retention

The Department of Defense (DoD) recently announced its recruiting and retention statistics for the active and reserve components for the month of May. According to DoD, the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force active duty forces met or exceeded their recruiting goals. The Navy’s recruiting goal was 1,939, and it enlisted 1,947. The Marine Corps’ goal was 1,843, and it recruited 1,904. The Air Force goal was 1,037, and it recruited 1,049. The Army missed its May recruiting goal of 6,700 by 1,661 recruits. Recruitment goals for Reservists did not fare as well. DoD said all the services are projected to meet their retention goals for the current fiscal year. For more details, visit: www.dod.gov/releases/2005/nr20050610-3621.html.

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Army Plans to Boost Recruitment Bonuses

In related news, Army leaders hope to boost enlistment bonuses to help improve sagging recruiting rates, according to Bill Carr, acting deputy undersecretary of defense for military personnel policy. They also hope to introduce a new benefit that helps soldiers purchase homes. If authority to grant the recruitment incentives passes into law, the bonuses would not apply to all soldiers, but will be "selectively applied" depending on the circumstances, Carr said. The current enlistment bonus is $20,000. The Defense Authorization Bill currently being considered by the House would raise the bonus to $30,000. Carr said there is also a pilot program under consideration that would pay up to $50,000 in mortgage costs for recruits who enlist for eight years of duty.

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