Federal Daily - June 23, 2009

AFGE Urges Two SSA Office Closings, Criticizes Lack of Pandemic Plan

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) on June 19 urged the Social Security Administration (SSA) to close and sanitize two SSA offices in Wisconsin after an employee was diagnosed with H1N1 flu. The employee, who was not named, had visited multiple offices prior to being diagnosed, including the Milwaukee DT Reuss Building and the Waukesha, Wis., SSA office, AFGE said. There now are four employees at the Waukesha office with suspected cases, said Loni Schultz, president of AFGE Local 1346, which represents employees in several SSA offices in the Wisconsin area. “This has become a matter of public safety and SSA needs to act,” Schultz said. “It is appalling that SSA has taken no action to close or sanitize these offices, or notify the public of this exposure.” AFGE pointed out that a Government Accountability Office report released last week noted that SSA is one of three government agencies that have no operational pandemic plans in place. The incident in Wisconsin highlights the necessity for SSA to devise a comprehensive pandemic strategy, AFGE said. To see more, go to: www.afge.org/Index.cfm?Page=PressReleases&PressReleaseID=1007.

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FEW Applauds Bill to Diversify SES Ranks

Members of Federally Employed Women (FEW) applauded a bill that would—if passed into law—recruit more minorities and women into the Senior Executive Service (SES). In a June 19 statement, FEW urged lawmakers to adopt the bill, the “Senior Executive Service Diversity Assurance Act” (S 1180), introduced earlier this month by Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii. The bill would establish within the Office of Personnel Management an SES Resource Office to promote diversity, prescribe regulations and provide diversity guidance to agencies. The bill also would create programs to recruit women, ethnic minorities and persons with disabilities at the interagency and collegiate level. Government statistics show that although women represented 44.2 percent of the federal workforce, they only accounted for 29.1 percent of career SES employees and 37.2 percent of all employees in grades 13 through 15. The latest figures are a slight improvement over 2003, when women made up 26.2 percent of career SES. “The lack of diversity in the SES has been a longstanding concern of mine,” said Cecelia Davis, FEW national vice president for congressional affairs. “Diversity is valuable because it can bring a wider variety of perspectives and approaches to policy development and implementation.” To see more, go to: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:SN01180:@@@X or
www.few.org/index.asp.

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VA Expands Health Care Eligibility

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on June 19 announced that it soon will open enrollment to about 266,000 more veterans who previously had been excluded from health care benefits due to VA income limits. Under a new regulation effective June 15, VA will enroll vets whose income exceeds current means-tested thresholds by up to 10 percent.  These veterans were excluded from VA health care enrollment when income limits were imposed in 2003 on veterans with no service-connected disabilities or other special eligibility for care.  There is no income limit for veterans with compensable service-connected disabilities or for veterans being seen for their service-connected disabilities, VA said. Vets who applied this year for VA health care but were rejected due to income will have their applications automatically reconsidered by VA under the new income threshold formula. However, those who applied before 2009, but were rejected due to the income limits, must reapply, VA said. VA plans to conduct a marketing campaign and work through veterans organizations to alert vets to the new limits. “Over the next four years, we hope to provide enrollment to more than 500,000 Veterans,” said Gerald Cross, VA’s acting under secretary for health. To see more, go to: http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=1703.

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