FederalDaily - June 15, 2005
Fed Subpoenaed for YuccaMountain Information
House Committee on Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., issued a subpoena
to a federal employee—a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientist named
Joseph Hevesi—on June 14. The subpoena ordered Hevesi to appear and testify
at a hearing on June 29 and to produce to the House Subcommittee on the Federal
Workforce and Agency Organization all documents and records in his possession
that relate to the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada.
Hevesi has, to date, refused to cooperate with the subcommittee in its congressional
investigation, according to Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev. The subcommittee has been
investigating allegations that federal employees of the USGS, of the Department
of Interior, may have falsified data used in scientific studies at Yucca Mountain.
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New Rule Affects Annuitants’ Health Insurance
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued final regulations in the June
10 issue of the Federal Register on changes in health benefits enrollment for
annuitants or survivor annuitants when a health insurance company decides to
terminate participation in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program.
The new regulations give OPM the authority to enroll annuitants in whichever
option of the Blue Cross Blue Shield (BC/BS) Service Benefit Plan it determines
is closest to the terminated plan. The new regulations are effective July 11
this year. Previously, when a company left the FEHB Program, OPM would enroll
the affected annuitants in the standard option of the Service Benefit Plan—instead
of the option closest to what the annuitant had.
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NTEU Criticizes IRS Plan to Cut Jobs
The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) recently issued a statement criticizing
the IRS for plans to close call centers in three cities. Under the agency’s
cutback plan, about 175 employees will be adversely impacted at the three sites
slated for closing—around 60 in Houston, 80 in Boston and 15 in Chicago,
NTEU said. According to the union, the Boston and Chicago call sites include
a number of disabled employees. The IRS’ budget proposal for the next
fiscal year includes a plan to cut more than $134 million from IRS customer
service functions—including 1,385 positions, NTEU further stated.
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Spam, Phishing Threaten Federal Information Systems
Federal agencies face new cyber-security threats that are the result of increasingly
sophisticated methods of attack and the blending of different types of attack,
a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says. Examples of these
threats include spam (unsolicited commercial e-mail), phishing (fraudulent
messages to obtain personal or sensitive data) and spyware (software that monitors
user activity without user knowledge or consent). GAO said all three pose security
risks to federal information systems. Spam consumes significant resources and
is used as a delivery mechanism for other types of cyber-attacks; phishing
can lead to identity theft, loss of sensitive information and reduced trust
of electronic government services; and spyware can capture and release sensitive
data and make unauthorized changes.
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