FederalDaily - October 20, 2005
Bush Signs DHS Appropriations into Law
President Bush signed the Homeland Security Appropriations Act for 2006 on
Oct. 18. The bill includes a total of $30.8 billion for the operations and
programs of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Specifically, the bill
provides increased funding for 1,000 new Border Patrol agents. Further, the
bill will fund the hiring of 100 new immigration enforcement agents and 250
criminal investigators. The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center will receive
$282 million to train federal law enforcement personnel and construct additional
training facilities to accommodate the increased number of Border Patrol and
Immigration Enforcement agents that need to be trained. DHS’ 2006 budget
is a 4.7 percent increase over fiscal year 2005. In total, with mandatory and
fee-based programs, the DHS budget for 2006 is $40.6 billion.
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USDA Decides not to Close FSA Offices
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scrapped a decision to close 713
Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices throughout the country in response to overwhelming
political pressure. Following the plan’s announcement, senators unanimously
passed an amendment to the Agriculture Appropriations bill to prohibit closing
local FSA offices until it could be determined that the closures will be cost
effective and will not reduce service to producers. The proposal was part of
a new modernization policy called “FSA Tomorrow,” aimed at freeing
up funding modernizing the agency’s technology resources. While applauding
efforts to streamline USDA, Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont. stated, “FSA appears
to have no plan for dealing with the potential impact of these closures on
local communities, and that’s a very serious issue.”
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OPM Reports on SES Rankings, Awards
A new Office of Personnel Management (OPM) report documents how federal agencies
are evaluating the individual performance of Senior Executive Service (SES)
members. The report, which covered fiscal year 2004, showed that 59.4 percent
of the career SES received a rating at the highest performance level, down
from 74.5 percent in 2003. Also, 58.2 percent of career SES members received
a performance award averaging $13,734 in 2004, up from 57.4 percent ($12,883
average) in 2003. OPM Director Linda M. Springer said the report on performance
ratings, awards and salaries is “reflective of the transition to the
new Senior Executive Service pay-for-performance system” that took effect
in 2004. OPM’s report includes a number of charts, including one that
lists a sampling of agency-specific average SES rates of basic pay.
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NPS Releases New Management Policies
The National Park Service (NPS) on Oct. 18 released for public comment a proposed
update of NPS Management Policies. There will be a 90-day public review and
comment period for the proposed management policies, which are accessible for
review and comment at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/waso.
The policies address such issues as: park planning; park protection; interpretation
and education; use of the parks; park facilities; commercial visitor services;
and the management of natural resources, cultural resources and wilderness.
According to NPS, the revised management policies also:
- provide clear definitions, for the first time, of “unacceptable
impacts” to resources and “appropriate uses” of
parks;
- provide more flexibility to park managers and recognize that
each park has unique needs; and
- provide guidance in response to changing recreation uses
and technology.
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