FederalDaily - September 22, 2005
Senators Request National Guard Funding
The National Guard needs $1.3 billion in the next supplemental spending bill
for Hurricane Katrina relief, according to Sens. Kit Bond, R-Mo., and Patrick
Leahy, D-Vt., co-chairman of the 85-member Senate National Guard caucus. "Due
to longstanding equipment shortfalls and high operational tempo in Iraq and
Afghanistan , the National Guard has a perilously low level of equipment available
for natural disasters, a potential large scale terrorist attack and readiness
training," the senators wrote in a Sept. 13 letter to President Bush.
They added that about 34 percent of the Guard’s resources are available
for use right now with shortages in trucks, engineering equipment, night vision
goggles, information systems and communications equipments.
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Army Employee Arrested for Taking Bribes
A civilian member of the Army, who worked as director of contracting, and
two other individuals have been arrested in New York and Indiana on charges
of participating in a scheme to pay bribes and take kickbacks in connection
with Army contracts in Germany, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Steven G. Potoski, 45, of Garmisch, Germany, a civilian employee of the Army,
admitted that he accepted bribes from contractors and subcontractors for contracts,
DOJ said. According to the charges, Potoski and the contractors or subcontractors
agreed to fraudulently inflate the amount of certain line items on contracts
and split the profit they made. The complaint further alleges that Potoski
accepted over $350,000 in bribes from at least 15 contractors or subcontractors.
The bribes came in the forms of cash, home renovations, flat screen televisions,
computer laptops, automobile maintenance, airline tickets, hotel rooms, trips,
cleaning services, furniture, artwork, appliances, Oktoberfest tickets, tickets
to the Indianapolis 500 and ski passes.
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DoD Needs More Hispanics
The Department of Defense (DoD) has to do much more to increase Hispanic representation
in its military and civilian work forces, according to Clarence Johnson, principal
director of the Office of the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Equal Opportunity.
He was speaking at a luncheon hosted by Latina Style magazine last week. "Hispanics
must be better represented in the leadership ranks," he said, adding, “Hispanics
comprise slightly more than 6 percent of the DoD civilian work force, in comparison
to almost 11 percent of the national civilian work force. This is not acceptable.”
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Military Student Loan Program Extended
The House on Sept. 20 approved a bill to extend the duration of a higher education
program aimed at helping servicemembers—the program provides student
loan flexibility for troops. The bill was approved unanimously. The Higher
Education Relief Opportunities for Students (HEROES) Act, H.R. 3132, allows
the secretary of the Department of Education to provide assistance and flexibility
to men and women in uniform as they transfer in and out of postsecondary education
during a time of war. Military personnel can be excused from their federal
student loan obligations while they are on active duty.
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