FederalDaily - July 18, 2006
PSC Endorses Repeal of Expatriate Tax
Increase
The Professional Services Council (PSC), a nonprofit trade group,
has endorsed a repeal of the foreign earned income tax and other
tax code revisions affecting Americans living abroad, the association
announced July 14 in a letter to Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. PSC endorsed
DeMint’s “Working American Competitiveness Act,”
which would reverse revisions Congress enacted in May that did
away with tax exemptions on capital gains and housing costs for
U.S. nationals living abroad. Congress adopted the revisions as
part of the Tax Reconciliation Act without hearings, and only
included them in the final conference version of the bill. The
revisions—effectively a tax increase affecting hundreds
of thousands of Americans living and working abroad—were
made retroactive to January 2006. PSC has since maintained that
the new tax law negatively impacts U.S. employers and their employees,
many of whom are supporting U.S. government contracts around the
world. For more information, go to: www.pscouncil.org/pdfs/demintltr.pdf.
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Park Police Officer Shortage Exposed,
Group Says
A recent spate of violent crime in the National Mall area of
Washington, D.C., reveals a shortage of U.S. Park Police Officers,
the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) said
in a July 14 news release. According to PEER, the crime spike
underscores warnings raised in December 2003 by then-chief of
the Park Police Teresa Chambers about the effects of staff shortages
in the service. In an April 2000 report to Congress, the National
Park Service estimated it needed 806 officers for its police force.
At the time of the report, the group said, there were approximately
638 sworn officers available for duty. Today, there are even fewer—621.
According to PEER, only six officers were on the Mall on the evening
of July 11—at the height of the summer tourist season. For
more information, go to: www.peer.org.
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Former CDC Official Sentenced For Theft
A former director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) has been convicted of misdemeanor theft of government funds,
according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern
District of Georgia. Between 2002 and 2005, Donna Stroup—who
then headed the CDC Coordinating Center for Health Promotion— altered
more than $7,500 in receipts for clothing store and hotel room
service purchases to make them appear to be legitimate work expenses,
such as FedEx deliveries and document copying. “This is
a sad case of a gifted public servant turning her back on her
responsibility to be an honest citizen,” said U.S. Attorney
David E. Nahmias. Stroup pleaded guilty before a federal court
magistrate in Atlanta, and was sentenced to one year probation,
480 hours of community service, $2,500 in fines and full restitution
of the stolen money. For more, go to: www.usdoj.gov/usao/gan/press/2006/07-14-06.pdf.
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