FederalDaily.com > GAO Details Undercover Border Security Test

FederalDaily - August 3, 2006

GAO Details Undercover Border Security Test

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigations official Aug. 2 detailed a breakdown of security at nine of the nation’s land ports of entry at a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. According to testimony presented by Gregory D. Kutz, managing director of forensic audits and special investigations at GAO, between February and June 2006, undercover GAO employees successfully entered the United States using counterfeit and/or expired documentation to cross northern and southern borders. This included two agents in Arizona, two in New York, one in California, one in Idaho, one in Michigan, one in Texas and one in Washington state. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers never questioned the authenticity of the phony documents presented at any of the nine crossings. On three occasions—in California, Texas and Arizona—agents crossed the border on foot. At two of these locations, in Texas and Arizona, CBP allowed the agents entry into the country without asking for or inspecting any identification documents. The GAO effort, conducted to test the current status of security at the nation’s borders, brought with it a recommendation for a new initiative to require travelers within the Western Hemisphere to present passports to prevent potential criminals and terrorists from crossing into the United States from Canada and Mexico.
To see the testimony, go to: http://finance.senate.gov/hearings/testimony/2005test/080206gk.pdf.

Bill Would Aid Service Members’ Transition to VA Care

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) Aug. 1 introduced the Veterans Navigator Act of 2006, which would launch a new program designed to improve access to medical care for service members transitioning from the Department of Defense (DoD) into the Veterans Administration (VA) health care system. The bill calls for $25 million in federal grants over the next five years to create a pilot program that funds ‘navigators’ who would provide ongoing outreach, instead of direct care or services, to service members returning home. The bill targets all veterans or soon-to-be veterans, but focuses on the seriously injured or wounded soldiers, female soldiers, those suffering from psychological problems and members of the activated National Guard and Reserves. Federal money for the program also would fund existing programs, including those run by veterans service organizations and other experienced groups.

USPS and FedEx Ink New Contract

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and FedEx Express, a FedEx Corp. subsidiary, have agreed on a new contract for domestic air transport of postal express shipments, the USPS said Aug. 1. The new contract—worth approximately $1 billion a year—runs through September 2013, and supercedes a current contract that was set to expire in August 2008. FedEx will fly about 4 million pounds of U.S. mail every business day, USPS said. USPS and FedEx Express in 2001 entered a seven-year contract for airport-to-airport delivery of Priority Mail, Express Mail and First-Class Mail within the United States. The 2001 retail agreement that granted FedEx the right to place FedEx self-service boxes on postal property is not affected by the new agreement. That portion of the contract expires in 2009.

No COLA Bump for Feds in “Non-Foreign” Areas

The Office of Personal Management (OPM) has concluded that rents in “non-foreign area” cost-of-living allowance (COLA) areas do not provide sufficient reason to adjust COLAs in those areas. The federal government pays COLAs to certain white collar federal and U.S. Postal Service employees in these designated regions, which include Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The conclusion was drawn from the results of the General Population Rental Equivalence Survey (GPRES), a living-cost survey that collected information on homeowner estimates of the rental value of their homes and market rents in these non-foreign area COLA areas—and the Washington, D.C., area. Unlike workers in the 48 continental states, workers in non-foreign COLA areas receive COLA adjustments based on comparisons with rates in the Washington, D.C., area. GPRES found no statistically significant differences between homeowner estimated rents and market rents in the non-foreign COLA areas compared with the D.C. area.