Federal Daily - July 10, 2009

Report: Federal Employees Don’t Understand “Unclassified” Labels

A new report released by a government watchdog, OMB Watch, finds that federal employees frequently do not understand crucial distinctions among various labels applied to “unclassified”, but sensitive, government documents and other informational material. Such material, while not posing immediate risks to national security, do “contain privacy information or details about an ongoing investigation” and need special handling, the report noted. Although currently used labels were created “to make employees’ jobs easier,” the report said, they instead lead to confusion—and often, worse, a “shutdown” of access to information needed by people inside and outside of government. “While many people probably have a general grasp of the meaning and importance of classified information, most probably don’t know the meaning of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), Sensitive But Unclassified information (SBU), or the host of other non‐classified labels,” the report’s authors write. “Unfortunately, too many of the people who are confused about these information categories work for the very agencies using the labels.” The report suggests several reforms—including a clarification, in writing, from the White House explaining the proper meaning and use of the different labels. To see the report, entitled Controlled Unclassified Information: Recommendations for Information Control Reform”, go to: www.ombwatch.org/files/info/2009cuirpt.pdf

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Cyber-Attack Disrupts Federal Agency, Media Web Sites

News reports based on official sources confirmed that a massive cyber attack was launched over the Independence Day weekend against several U.S. government agency Web sites. The “denial of service” attack, amounting to a concerted attempt to overload agency computers, also simultaneously targeted Web sites operated by the government of South Korea and at least one media organization, the Washington Post. White House and DoD Web sites were robust enough to maintain operations throughout the weekend attack, while less well-defended ones run by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of the Treasury were shut down for, in some cases, days. According to some reports, new attacks on some of the same sites were launched in the days that followed. As of July 9, no official federal agency source had gone on the record to provide a clear picture of the attack, or to identify the probable source of it. However, news reports offered numerous uncomfirmed dispatches alleging that North Korea is the likely culprit responsible for the wave of electronic attacks.

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Bill: Combat Pay Should Not Count Toward Income Eligibility For Aid Programs

The Senate Appropriations Committee on July 7 voted to allow military families to exclude combat pay when applying for nutrition assistance, such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). The measure, the Military Family Nutrition Protection Act of 2009 (S.581), was included in the Agriculture Appropriations bill (HR 2997/S 1407), and was approved by the committee by a unanimous vote. WIC and other nutrition programs currently count combat pay as part of a family's income when determining eligibility for such programs, said Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb, an S. 581-cosponsor. The bill would ensure that families of military personnel serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and other combat zones are not disqualified from federal child nutrition programs simply because an earner in the family is serving in a dangerous area and earning combat pay. The measure would apply to all child nutrition programs including WIC, School Lunch and School Breakfast programs, as well as day care, summer and outside-of-school programs. Johanns, secretary of the Agriculture Department under President Bush, pointed out that combat pay has been exempted from eligibility determinations for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)/Food Stamp program on an ad-hoc basis through various appropriations measures. “Our men and women in uniform should not have to worry about their families' access to federal nutrition assistance while they are defending our country on the battlefield,” Johanns said. To see more, go to: http://johanns.senate.gov/public/?p=PressReleases&Content
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