FederalDaily - October 12, 2005
Court Strikes DHS Personnel Changes
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia last week rejected a
motion by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to narrow an injunction
already placed on the agency which blocked it from implementing a controversial
personnel management system (known as MaxHR) on Aug. 1. The National Treasury
Employees Union (NTEU) and other federal employee unions had filed a lawsuit
against DHS and the Office of Personnel Management, alleging provisions of
MaxHR were illegal. In August, the court said that “significant aspects” of
the system “fail to conform to the express dictates” of the Homeland
Security Act legislation establishing DHS. The court issued an opinion that
forbade the agency from implementing those parts of the MaxHR that address
collective bargaining, mitigation of disciplinary actions, and the role of
the Federal Labor Relations Authority as an arbiter of disputes between management
and employees.
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Senate Committee Lowers Credit Card Limit
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs Committee, and Ranking Member Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., coauthored
legislation to repeal a provision that was recently signed into law related
to "micro-purchases" by federal employees via government-issued purchase
cards. A provision in the second Katrina supplemental spending bill increased
the limit for such credit card purchases from $2,500 to $250,000. The Collins-Lieberman
bill repeals this increase for normal, routine purchases and provides for a
$15,000 spending limit for emergency purchases. Their bill was unanimously
approved by the committee last week. "Over 300,000 federal employees have
government purchase cards. A spending limit of $250,000 opens the door to misuse
and abuse of these cards,” the senators said.
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House, Senate Pass Defense
Appropriations
The Senate passed the Department of Defense (DoD) Appropriations by a vote
of 97-0 on Oct. 7. The bill contains about $440 billion in spending authority
for the DoD for fiscal year 2006. It provides funding for a 3.1 percent across-the-board
pay raise for military personnel. The bill included an amendment that was unanimously
approved by the Senate that would ensure federal agencies could provide the
same amount of support for the Boy Scouts and other youth organizations as
the agencies have in the past. The Senate bill will now go to a conference
committee where it will be reconciled with the House version. The House passed
its version of the Defense Appropriations bill by a vote of 398-19 on June
20.
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DOE Labs Focus on Lowering Costs
A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report said about two-thirds
of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) $26.9 billion in spending went to
28 major facilities—laboratories, production and test facilities, and
nuclear waste cleanup and storage facilities in fiscal year 2004. DOE spent
about $2.9 billion in fiscal year 2004 to support its five largest laboratories.
DOE and its contractors have initiated several steps to reduce support costs
but can take additional actions to improve their implementation, GAO said.
First, DOE’s laboratory contracts have increasingly included incentives
to encourage cost reductions. Second, DOE requires its contractors to benchmark
employee benefits and to reduce benefits if they exceed the benchmark. Third,
DOE has begun to address a $1.9 billion backlog of deferred maintenance to
reduce long-term costs. All of these initiatives still need work to become
fully-effective, GAO said.
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