FederalDaily - January 16, 2008
PEER: Forest Service Plans to Pull Scientists from Field, Cut Jobs
A new Forest Service (FS) consolidation plan would cut some jobs and remove thousands of agency scientists
and land planners from the national forests they are tasked with managing, according to documents released
Jan. 14 by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The Forest Service business process
reengineering plan would consolidate virtually all work performed under the National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA), PEER said, affecting one in four agency jobs and shrinking its on-the-ground firefighting
militia. The FS seeks to combine work now done by employees scattered among 155 national forests and
20 national grasslands into centralized service centers, PEER said. The agency’s own 2007 Feasibility
Study projected the plan would result in a nearly 20 percent reduction in environmental positions.
And, it would impact half (3,564) of those FS employees who do NEPA work and also have collateral all-hazard
duties, PEER said. While the original plan had called for opening the consolidated NEPA jobs to private
competition, Congress cut off funding for outsourcing of FS jobs in the FY 2008 omnibus appropriations
law. Nonetheless, PEER said, “the agency appears set to proceed with the recommended centralization
and downsizing.” To see more, go to: www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=971.
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Waxman Urges EPA to Speed Up Responses in Waiver Inquiry
A leading lawmaker urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to speed up its delivery of documents
in a congressional probe into the agency’s decision to block California from imposing limits
on tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases. In a recent letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson,
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, urged
the agency to be more forthcoming with documents after it failed to meet a Jan. 10 committee deadline.
Also, Waxman advised Johnson that the committee would depose seven personnel believed to be key in
the decision-making, including Robert Meyers, principal deputy assistant administrator in the EPA Office
of Air and Radiation, and Jason Burnett, the agency’s associate deputy administrator. Last month,
Johnson rejected California’s request to put into effect rules on tailpipe emissions of greenhouse
gases like carbon dioxide, and the committee is looking into allegations that Johnson overrode the
recommendations of agency technical and legal staff. To see more, go to: http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1681.
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TSA Names Two New Airport Federal Security Directors
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on Jan. 14 named two new Federal Security Directors
(FSD): Mitchell Brown will serve as the FSD for Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina,
and William Haleck will be the new FSD for the Pago Pago International Airport in American Samoa. Brown
has more than 35 years of law enforcement experience, including almost seven years as chief of the
Raleigh, N.C., Police Department. Brown also will serve as FSD for Asheville, N.C., Regional Airport.
Haleck previously held the FSD equivalent position at the Pago Pago airport before it was federalized
in 2002, TSA said in a statement. Prior to serving with TSA, Haleck worked 24 years with the Drug Enforcement
Administration. He is expected to report for work in Pago Pago by the end of the month. To see more,
go to:
www.tsa.gov/press/releases/2008/press_release_01142008.shtm (Brown)
or http://www.tsa.gov/press/releases/2008/press_release_01142008b.shtm (Haleck).
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