FederalDaily - March 23, 2007
NTEU Calls for 3.5 Percent Pay Raise
The head of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) expressed support for a 3.5 percent pay raise
for military servicemembers, and said civilian federal workers deserve the same. That increase is higher
than the 3 percent raise recommended by President Bush. In March 21 letters to members of the House
and Senate military personnel subcommittees, NTEU President Colleen Kelley supported a 3.5 percent
raise for both servicemembers and civilian federal workers. Kelley said the higher raise would help
close the pay gap between public servants and private-sector workers. She also said servicemembers
need a healthy raise to make up for last year’s 2.2 percent pay hike—the smallest increase
for the military in 13 years. Kelley said the small raise occurred at a time “when troops are
putting their lives on the line every day for the rest of America.” To see more, go to: www.nteu.org/PressKits/PressRelease/PressRelease.aspx?ID=1066
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Coast Guard, DEA Bust Nets 21.4 Tons of Cocaine
In one of the biggest maritime cocaine busts on record, a Coast Guard crew this week boarded a suspicious
vessel off the coast of Panama and uncovered 21.4 tons of cocaine stowed aboard, officials said March
21. The Coast Guard—working with Panamanian police and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agents—spotted
the Panama-flagged vessel, the Gatun, March 17. Two U.S.-based Coast Guard cutters caught up with the
ship for a search on March 18 after obtaining permission from the government of Panama, A Coast Guard
boarding team discovered about 42,845 pounds of cocaine in two containers aboard the ship, officials
said. The 14 Panamanian and Mexican crewmembers of the Gatun were arrested and are being transferred
to the United States and Panama for prosecution. Officials suspect the drugs were headed for Mexico
to be distributed later to the U.S. cocaine market. “This operation is a prime example of interagency
teamwork among the DEA, the Coast Guard, and other Homeland Security and Department of Justice components,” said
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. To see more, go to: www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1174494402751.shtm.
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FAA Short-Staffing Midnight Shifts
A new Department of Transportation (DOT) Inspector General’s (IG) review of staffing at Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) facilities showed the agency did not have the adequate number of employees
to cover midnight shifts. In the review, performed in the weeks after the 2006 crash of Comair Flight
5191, inspectors found 11.1 percent of midnight shifts had a single controller on duty at FAA facilities
that have combined radar approach control and tower with radar functions. This was in direct violation
of FAA standards, and the agency has since issued a written order saying that such facilities must
have two controllers on duty, the report said. National Air Traffic Controllers Association President
Patrick Forrey said the IG’s findings underscore the union’s complaints about FAA understaffing. “This
IG report should be a wakeup call to the agency to re-evaluate its new staffing plan and increase its
new staffing standards,” Forrey said on March 21. To see the IG report, go to: www.oig.dot.gov/item.jsp?id=2003.
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