FederalDaily - June 26, 2006

Veterans’ Benefits Increase Approved

The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee approved legislation to fund cost-of-living (COLA) increases for benefits paid to veterans and their survivors. The bill, H.R. 4843, the Veterans’ Compensation Cost of Living Adjustment Act of 2006, authorizes a 4.1 percent increase to benefits paid by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)—including a $250 monthly increase in benefits for survivors of military members killed in the line of duty. The increases are pegged to the government’s Consumer Price Index (CPI). "Providing our veterans with a cost of living adjustment will ensure that benefits earned by these heroes and their survivors maintain their purchasing power as living costs continue to rise,” said bill co-sponsor Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.

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Labor Department Documents Reveal Anti-Union Bias

Watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released documents June 22 revealing what the group calls a “close and supportive” relationship between U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) officials and an avowedly anti-union organization, the Center for Union Facts. The 108 pages produced last week indicate possible anti-union bias among officials—in one case, DOL public liaison aide Lynn Gibson appears to have arranged a meeting between Center for Union Facts leader Richard Berman and DOL staff. Other instances of anti-union activity include department officials trading press releases and blogs from anti-union groups via e-mail. The government initially turned down CREW’s Freedom of Information Act request for relevant documents. CREW said it is suing to obtain additional documents and e-mail, including more that pertain to DOL Secretary Elaine Chao.

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Senate Moves To Help National Guard

On June 22, the Senate unanimously passed the National Guard Equipment Accountability Act, which calls for the Pentagon to track and replace all equipment taken from Guard units for other military units to use. Guard units have left at least $30 million in equipment to other U.S. military services in Iraq since 2003, hindering domestic training and emergency response, according to bill sponsor Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. “We must ensure that the men and women of our National Guard have the equipment and support they need to respond quickly and effectively to emergencies both at home and abroad,” she said. The move comes just after a bill was approved earlier in the week to elevate the Chief of the National Guard to four-star general, with the aim of gaining the Guard better representation in the Pentagon.

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Whistleblower Protection Advances In Senate

The Senate approved an amendment sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, to the current Defense Authorization bill. The proposed legislation would strengthen protections for federal employees who blow the whistle on fraud, waste or other abuses of government resources. The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents more than 150,000 federal workers, has been especially active in better protecting government employees from unfair punishment in the wake of exposing wrongdoing. “Protecting whistleblowers from retaliation and other penalties is and remains a valuable tool in promoting the highest-quality public service,” said NTEU President Colleen Kelley. Kelley pointed out that Garcetti v. Cebollos, a recent Supreme Court decision, had significantly weakened whistleblower rights under the First Amendment of the Constitution, making the need to enact stronger whistleblower protection law all the more “acute.”

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