Federal Daily - July 22, 2008

PASS: 200 Flights Delayed by Broken FAA Data Link

About 200 flights were delayed last week when a critical data link in the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Federal Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI) failed, halting the transmission of air traffic information, according to the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS). The outage occurred July 18 when a defective line card went down in New York City, preventing telecommunications lines from feeding flight information to air traffic control, according to PASS. As a result, Inter-facility Data Service (IDAT) to Canada from all bordering Air Route Traffic Control Centers, including Boston, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Chicago, Seattle and Anchorage, broke down. PASS said the problem is emblematic of deficiencies in Harris Corp. contributions to the FTI—which provides circuitry and communications for FAA. The lack of a backup system played a large role in this FTI-related outage, PASS said. Previously, to prevent full-scale failures, FAA backup equipment automatically came online, said PASS Vice President Mike Perrone, but “FAA allowed Harris to merge backup and primary paths for these systems in order to make the FTI contract more profitable.” Perrone said that “with no services to fall back on, PASS is seeing more frequent outages throughout the country.” To see more, go to: www.newsmgr.com/publish/article_1031.shtml.

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APWU Sues Over Failure To Appoint USPS Advisory Council

The American Postal Workers Union (APWU) has filed a lawsuit against President Bush and Postmaster General John Potter over their failure to appoint a Postal Service Advisory Council (PSAC) as required by federal law, APWU said in a July 17 bulletin. APWU is seeking a federal writ of mandamus to force Bush to appoint the 11 members to the PSAC, as required under the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) of 2006. Under the law, the postmaster general serves as chairman of the council, the deputy postmaster general serves as vice-chair. The rest of the council is made up of four members nominated by postal labor unions, four representatives of major mail users, and three representing the public at large. The postmaster general is named in the lawsuit because the responsibility for forming the council may have been delegated to him as chief executive officer of the Postal Service, APWU said. Postal workers are being prevented from having the input to management that is being offered other postal stakeholders, like large mailers who make up the Mailers Technical Advisory Council (MTAC), APWU said. MTAC makes recommendations to senior Postal Service management on operations, rates and regulations; but it excludes representatives of individuals and small businesses, APWU said. “It is critical that the Advisory Council be established,” said APWU President William Burrus. “These are crucial times for the Postal Service and its employees. An advisory panel is more important now than at any time since the passage of the Postal Reorganization Act.” To see more, go to: http://apwu.org/news/webart/2008/0868-bush_lawsuit-080717.htm.

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Veterans Committee Approves Care Upgrade Bills

The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee on July 16 approved a package of seven bills intended to improve health care delivery and augment services for veterans provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The package included H.R 1527, the Rural Veterans Access to Care Act, which would establish a pilot program to allow some rural veterans to receive covered health services through a non-VA health care provider. For a three-year period, vets defined as “highly rural” who receive care in Veterans Integrated Services Network 1, 15, 18 and 19, would be permitted to receive covered health services through providers other than the VA. The panel also approved H.R. 6445, the Veterans Health Care Policy Enhancement Act, which would prohibit the collection of co-payments from veterans who are catastrophically disabled (Category Group 4) for hospital or nursing home care. The committee also passed H.R. 2192, the Establishment of the Ombudsman in the Veterans Health Administration Act, a bill that would create an office to act as a liaison for veterans and their family members on health care issues. The office would also serve as a last resort for resolving issues that cannot be resolved at local or regional level. “We have combined several bills into comprehensive and bi-partisan pieces of legislation that go a long way to address the health care needs of our veterans and provide for their necessary and earned benefits,” said Committee Chairman Bob Filner, D-Calif. To see more, go to: http://veterans.house.gov/news/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=285.

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