FederalDaily - November 10, 2005
Union Opposes Changes to Worker
Appeals Rights
Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, submitted
comments to Congress this week warning that a proposal by the Senior Executives
Association (SEA) would curtail the rights of federal workers. According to
Kelley, SEA’s plan would create the Federal Employees Appeals Court to
essentially replace other grievance handling agencies (such as the Merit Systems
Protection Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Office
of the Special Counsel), creating a one-stop shop for employee appeals. Kelley
said the proposal was “wholly unacceptable” and “cuts to
the heart of due process.” Kelley warned of creating “an enormous,
unwieldy conglomerate agency” without the expertise to handle such cases
and with many of its decisions not being subject to review.
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25,000 USPS Employees Donate Marrow
More than 25,000 U.S. Postal Service (USPS) employees have joined the National
Marrow Donor Program Registry. In 1997, USPS joined forces with the National
Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), The Marrow Foundation and 3M, forming the “Delivering
the Gift of Life” campaign. The campaign builds awareness of the need
for unrelated volunteer marrow donors. More than 25,000 USPS employees have
joined the NMDP Registry through the campaign, and more than 60 have made life-saving
marrow donations. Marrow and blood cell transplants are a life-saving treatment
option for patients with diseases of the blood and immune system, including
leukemia, lymphoma and certain genetic disorders.
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House Passes Telework Requirements
A provision requiring several federal agencies to prove more of their workers
are teleworking—or risk losing funding—is included in the in the
FY 2006 Science-State-Justice-Commerce (SSJC) Appropriations conference report
approved by the House today, according to Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va. The Senate
is expected to take action on the conference report soon. Under the bill, the
Departments of Commerce, Justice and State, the Securities and Exchange Commission
and the Small Business Administration are required to certify that telecommuting
opportunities have increased. If the agencies can make such certifications,
$5 million will be available to each—only upon such certification. Also,
each department will have to maintain a telework coordinator to oversee the
implementation and operations of telecommuting programs, and serve as a point
of contact on such programs for the House Committee on Appropriations.
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New Intelligence Office Announced
Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John D. Negroponte and CIA Director
Porter J. Goss announced on Nov. 8 the creation of the DNI Open Source Center
(OSC) based at CIA, effective Nov. 1. The new center will focus on openly available
information that could be important to the intelligence community. Negroponte
and Goss said the center will build on the established expertise of the CIA's
Foreign Broadcast Information Service—an organization with a history
of providing the U.S. government “highly valued open source products
and services.” The center's functions will include collection, analysis
and research, training and information technology management to facilitate
government-wide access and use.
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