Federal Daily - November 25, 2008

DOT IG Initiates Audit into Hiring, Placement of Controllers

The Department of Transportation (DOT) Inspector General (IG) on Nov. 19 announced that it had opened an audit into the way the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) screens, hires, trains and places new air-traffic controllers. The audit was in response to a request from Rep. Jerry F. Costello, D-Ill., chairman of the House Subcommittee on Aviation, according to a memo from Lou Dixon, DOT assistant inspector general for Aviation and Special Program Audits. Specifically, Dixon noted, Costello expressed concerns about whether FAA’s screening test—the Air Traffic Selection and Training, or AT-SAT—effectively identifies candidates’ potential to become air traffic controllers and whether the FAA Academy adequately trains candidates before FAA places them at facilities. Auditors will also look at how FAA determines whether candidates have the essential abilities to become successful controllers and what procedures the FAA uses to place controllers at air traffic facilities. To see more, go to: www.oig.dot.gov/StreamFile?file=/data/pdfdocs/
Announcement_Letter.pdf.

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HHS Opens FDA Offices in China

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last week opened Food and Drug Administration (FDA) offices in China as part of its overall strategy to locate overseas inspection offices to improve the safety of food and drug shipments headed to this country. HHS opened FDA offices in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shangai in the People’s Republic of China, HHS said in a Nov. 18 statement. HHS is working to have an FDA presence in five geographic regions: China, India, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. Eight senior FDA officials have been selected for transfer to the offices in China. They include inspectors and senior technical experts in foods, medicines and medical devices. The HHS/FDA office in Beijing will be located in the U.S. Embassy. In Guangzhou, it will be located in the U.S. Consulate General, and in Shanghai it will be part of the U.S. consular mission there, but will be situated in the Shanghai Centre, HHS said. To see more, go to: www.dhhs.gov/news/press/2008pres/11/20081118a.html.

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Lawmakers Seek Presidential Pardon for Imprisoned Border Agents

A group of lawmakers last week petitioned President Bush to commute and order the immediate release of two ex-Border Patrol agents imprisoned for shooting an unarmed fleeing suspect in 2005. At a Nov. 20 press conference, Reps. John Culberson, R-Texas, Ted Poe, R-Texas, Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., William Delahunt, R-Mass., and Ed Royce, R-Calif., presented the petition on behalf of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who are serving 11-year and 12-year prison sentences, respectively. They were convicted in the shooting just north of the border near El Paso, Texas. Both men claimed they shot at Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, an illegal immigrant and admitted drug smuggler, in self defense. The lawmakers said that the ex-agents have already served about two years and that their sentences are unnecessarily long. In the final days of their presidencies, presidents customarily select cases in which to grant clemency. To see more, go to: www.culberson.house.gov/news.aspx?A=504 or www.royce.house.gov/News/Document
Single.aspx?DocumentID=106054/.

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