FederalDaily.com > MSPB Issues Tighter Rules for DHS Employees

FederalDaily - October 12, 2007

MSPB Issues Tighter Rules for DHS Employees

The Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) proposed new rules last week for the adjudication of cases that result from implementation of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) new personnel system. The new rules shorten the time to 20 days that an employee has to appeal a disciplinary action, rather than the normal 30 days accorded others in the federal workplace. The rules also allow the removal of an employee for national security reasons without appeal, and allows the department to set a two-year—rather than one-year—probationary period for some positions. Also, the new rules would prevent MSPB from modifying a DHS employee’s punishment even if the board ruled the penalty unreasonable. Non-bargaining unit employees at DHS would be covered after Nov. 5, and DHS would extend the rules to bargaining-unit employees as contracts fall due. The comment period on the proposed rules ends Nov. 5. To see more, go to: www.mspb.gov/netsearch/viewdocs.aspx?docnumber=291530&version=291875&application=ACROBAT

Groups Question $3 Million OSC Funding Request

Three government watchdog groups urged lawmakers to deny a $3 million request from Office of Special Counsel (OSC) head Scott Bloch to pay for a probe into whether White House officials violated the Hatch Act by politicking at federal agencies. In an Oct. 10 letter, representatives from the Government Accountability Project, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Project on Government Oversight sought to postpone the payments until a separate investigation by the Inspector General for the Office of Personnel Management into allegations of misconduct by Bloch is finished. Bloch is facing allegations of mismanagement, misconduct, retaliation and politicization of OSC. In seeking the funding, Bloch said he needs the money to hire additional investigators to look into the legality of PowerPoint briefings that were given by White House operatives to political appointees at several federal agencies. “At this point, Mr. Bloch cannot be trusted to oversee any investigation, much less a sensitive investigation of alleged Hatch Act violations by high level political appointees,” the groups wrote in the letter to Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and ranking member Susan Collins, R-Maine. To see more, go to: http://www.whistleblower.org/doc/2007/OSC%20letter%20GAP.POGO.PEER.%2010.10.07.pdf.

House Passes Bill to Abolish Private IRS Debt Collections

The House overwhelmingly passed a bill on Oct. 10 that would repeal IRS authority to hire private collectors to pursue outstanding tax debts. The Tax Collection Responsibility Act of 2007, H.R. 3056, sponsored by Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., passed 232 to 173. The debate over the bill turned partly on the admission by top IRS officials that IRS employees could collect unpaid federal taxes more efficiently than private debt collectors. Furthermore, the private firms weren’t meeting expectations. The debt collectors reported $32.13 million in gross revenue through Sept. 20, as opposed to the $45.7 million to $65 million projected for the year. Rangel also noted that there were allegations of aggressive tactics employed by some of the private firms that taxpayers said were harassment. “No one ever likes the tax collector,” Rangel said in a statement, “but you do feel a little more secure when you know a public servant is doing his or her job and not some fly-by-night company whose profits are based on how much they collect in taxes.” The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) and a coalition of public interest groups supported the bill. To see more, go to: http://waysandmeans.congressnewsletter.net/mail/util.cfm?gpiv=1999931134.4468.137&gen=1.