FederalDaily - July 20, 2007
GAO: VA, DoD Making Headway in Medical Info Sharing
After almost a decade of trying, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and DoD seem to be making
some progress in a project to share health information and create comprehensive electronic medical
records, says a new Government Accountability Office report. The report, released July 18, noted that
agencies have faced considerable challenges in these efforts, leading to repeated changes in the focus
of their initiatives and target dates. The report said progress has been made on short-term initiatives—such
as a completed effort to allow the one-way transfer of health information from DoD to VA when servicemembers
leave the military, and efforts to meet the immediate needs of facilities treating veterans and servicemembers
with multiple injuries. However, long-term objectives are a bit more daunting. While the departments
have made some progress in sharing some standardized computable data, they still must come to an agreement
on standards for sharing data from all categories of medical information, complete the development
of the two modernized health information systems, and transition from their existing systems, the report
said. To see more, go to: www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-1108T
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Lawmakers Ramp Up Effort to Pardon Convicted Agents
Invoking the commutation of Scooter Libby’s prison sentence, a group of lawmakers are seeking
judicial relief for two former Border Patrol agents convicted in a 2005 non-fatal shooting of a suspected
drug smuggler at the Mexican border. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., on July 17 said he has 100 co-sponsors
for a bill, H.R. 563, to grant a full pardon for ex-Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean. The
two were convicted in the shooting of a legal resident alien just north of the border near El Paso,
Texas. Ramos was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison and Compean received 12 years. Sen. John Cornyn,
R-Texas, compared the agents’ sentences to the 30-month sentence of Libby that was lifted by
President Bush. “What I do know, however, is that if the Scooter Libby case is one which the
president believes was excessive then I have a hard time understanding why these two individuals would
not warrant a similar review,” Cornyn said in testimony at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary
Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security. To see more, go to:
www.house.gov/apps/list/speech/ca52_hunter/bp_agents_senate_hearing.shtml or
http://cornyn.senate.gov/index.asp?f=record&lid=1&yid=1&rid=237539&pg=1
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GSA Introduces New Hybrids to Fleet
The General Services Administration (GSA) added 55 Saturn Aura hybrid-electric sedans to the federal
vehicle fleet for use by the military services and six other federal agencies, GSA Administrator Lurita
Doan said on July 19. GSA will lease 43 of the hybrids to the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Navy,
and to the Departments of Transportation, Interior, Energy and Commerce, the Environmental Protection
Agency and NASA. The remaining 12 cars will remain in the GSA fleet for agency use and to serve as
demonstration models during sales presentations to federal customers, Doan said. “GSA bought
these vehicles as part of our effort to provide a selection of the latest model hybrid and alternative
fuel vehicles [AFVs] to the federal community,” Doan said. Of the 208,000-vehicle GSA fleet—about
a third are AFVs and hybrid-electrics. For more, go to: www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/home.do?tabId=0.
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