Federal Daily - February 1, 2008
Lawmakers Call for Civilian-Military Pay Parity
A bipartisan group of Washington-area House members—led by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.,—sent
a letter on Jan. 30 to President Bush calling for parity in the 2009 pay adjustments for both military
and civilian federal employees. The call comes as the White House gets ready to release its Fiscal
Year 2009 budget request. The letter emphasized the need for pay parity “due to the essential
service military and civilian employees provide to our nation, and the vast wage gap that exists between
public and private sector wages.” And, the lawmakers added, with a large number of feds soon
eligible to retire, there is a growing need for the government to use pay as a recruitment tool. To
see more, go to: http://hoyer.house.gov/newsroom/index.asp?ID=1103.
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Ethics Survey Finds Significant Workplace Misconduct
A new report finds nearly 3 out of 5 government workers surveyed say they’ve witnessed ethics
violations over the past year, including acts that ranged from abusive behavior by superiors to bribery.
Overall, an average of 57 percent of state, local and federal employees “observed a violation
of ethics standards, policy, or the law in the last year,” according to a biennial survey of
government workers by the Ethics Resource Center (ERC). The highest level of observed misconduct in
the previous year was reported by local government employees, at 63 percent; followed by state government
employees, 57 percent; and federal employees, 52 percent. Although federal workers reported the lowest
figure, ERC President Patricia Harned noted that 52 percent still represents “a significant level
of misconduct that remains in need of attention.” Feds reported a full range of abuses at work—from
27 percent reporting they knew of abusive behaviors in their agency, to 2 percent who knew of bribery.
To see more, go to: www.ethics.org.
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VA Awards Disabilities Studies Contract
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced on Jan. 30 that it has awarded a $3.2 million contract
to Economic Systems Inc. (ESI) of Falls Church, Va., to study ways to change how disabled veterans
are compensated. VA said the contract to review the compensation system stems from the 2007 recommendations
of the Dole-Shalala Commission and the Veterans Disability Benefits Commission. ESI will provide findings
from two studies in August. One study will examine the viability of making “long-term transition
payments” to service members separated from the military due to disability while they undergo
rehabilitation. A separate study will look at compensation levels necessary to compensate for any loss
in earnings capacity caused by service-incurred or service-aggravated conditions. Both studies also
will consider potential “quality of life” payments for disabled veterans. “This
contract is further evidence of VA’s commitment to review the full range of benefits and programs,” said
VA Secretary James Peake. To see more, go to: http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=1445.
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