FederalDaily - December 19, 2007
Arbitrator Again Rules Against IRS
For the third time this year, an arbitrator has ruled that the IRS acted illegally in negotiations
with the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) over a new labor contract, the union said. The arbitrator
ruled that IRS engaged in “bad faith” bargaining by demanding that NTEU agree to bargain
changes to the alternative work schedules (AWS) program first, rather than wait until the parties renegotiate
the overarching national contract. Bargaining has been delayed for over two years due to what arbitrators
have found to be repeated violations of the law by IRS management, NTEU President Colleen Kelley said
in a Dec. 17 statement. The decision orders the IRS to stop demanding that NTEU bargain over the AWS
separately, that it refrain from making any changes to local AWS agreements, and that it restore the
status quo where changes have been made, Kelley noted. To see more, go to: www.nteu.org.
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Veterans Group Urges Bush to Sign Funding Bill
The Disabled American Veterans (DAV) on Dec. 17 urged President Bush to sign a $3.7 billion emergency
provision of the Fiscal Year 2008 omnibus appropriations bill that would increase funding for veterans
health care and related programs. The House approved an omnibus $516 billion spending bill that hews
closely to the White House's budget limits and the Senate is expected to follow suit. As part of the
package, lawmakers designated an extra $3.7 billion as “contingent emergency” funding,
which can’t be released until the president sends a separate formal budget request by Jan. 18
to Congress, said DAV Washington Executive Director David Gorman. “Failure to provide adequate
funding would make a bad situation even worse,” Gorman said in a statement. To see more, go to: www.dav.org.
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GAO Cannot Certify Federal Financial Statements
For the 11th straight year, serious flaws in federal financial systems keep the Government Accountability
Office (GAO) from certifying the government’s annual consolidated financial statements. GAO issued
a statement Dec. 17 saying it could not express an opinion on the government’s Fiscal Year 2007
consolidated financial statements largely because of problems with DoD reporting systems. In a speech
at the National Press Club, David M. Walker, comptroller general of the United States and head of GAO,
underscored the problems. “Candidly, if the federal government were a private corporation and
the same report came out this morning,” Walker said, “our stock would be dropping and there
would be talk about whether the company’s management and directors needed a major shake-up.” To
see more, go to: www.gao.gov/cghome/d08371cg.pdf.
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