FederalDaily - May 24, 2006

Personal Info for Millions of Veterans Stolen

Data including the names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth for as many as 26.5 million veterans was recently stolen, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced on its Web site. The stolen data also included some spouse names and disability ratings. According to the VA, an analyst brought electronic data to his home, in violation of department policy. The home was later broken into and the data was stolen. The department has placed the employee in question on indefinite administrative leave. The VA added that the data did not include health records or financial data, and said the VA inspector general and FBI would conduct a “full-scale” investigation into the incident. For more information, go to www.va.gov. Veterans can also go to www.firstgov.gov as well as www.va.gov/opa to get more information. Further, the VA set up a toll-free number at (800) FED INFO (333-4636).

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USDA Denies Furlough Rumors

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is alleging that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is planning to furlough food inspectors between now and October on a rotating basis. Union officials claimed on Monday that, despite USDA’s public denials of the plan, the department is still planning on going through with the furloughs. “On any given day some inspectors will be selected for furlough and instructed not to report to work, creating gaps in the inspection program,” said an AFGE statement. USDA Spokesperson Steven Cohen denied the rumors and provided FederalDaily.com with a letter from the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). “There are no current plans to furlough FSIS inspection program personnel,” the letter stated. The letter confirmed that FSIS will provide all employees with “additional details…on some of the cost-saving measures we have implemented to ensure that we can continue to accomplish our public health mission this year.”

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Congressman Applauds Teleworking Efforts

Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., visited a teleworking center in Bowie, Md., earlier this week—which hosts quite a few federal employees—to promote the alternative work site method as a way to offset rising gasoline costs. “As we enter an era in which energy conservation will be more important than at any other time in our nation’s history, teleworking is central to a smart energy independence program,” Hoyer said Monday. Hoyer and Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., secured $5 million in federal funding in 1993 for the construction of three teleworking sites in the Washington, D.C., area. The Bowie State University center in Maryland is now one of 14 General Services Administration centers in the region, and it serves 570 federal and private sector workers, according to Hoyer.

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OPM Requires Agencies to Report Training Efforts

Federal agencies must collect and report training and work force development efforts to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) data collection system as part of a new federal regulation finalized last week. Agencies must begin entering training data into the Governmentwide Electronic Data Collection System on Dec. 31, 2006. That will include all information that “supports agency determinations of its workforce training needs and to document the results of training and development programs implemented to address those needs,” the regulation says. For more information on the new regulation, go to www.opm.gov/fedregis/2006/71-051006-28547-a.pdf.

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