Federal Managers Association

To register for the National Convention, the Management Training Seminar, the Retirement Planning Seminar, or for more information on the event please visit FMA online at www.fedmanagers.org.

REGISTER TODAY FOR THE CEC ETHICS FORUM

The Coalition for Effective Change (CEC), of which the Federal Managers Association (FMA) is a member, is hosting a free ethics forum open to FMA members. The event will take place March 19, 2008, from 8:15 am to 12 pm at the National Academy for Public Administration (NAPA) in Washington, D.C. Attendees can expect to receive a wealth of knowledge from the leading experts on ethics for federal employees and not-for-profit associations. Featured lecturers include Marilynn Glenn, General Counsel for the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) and Ana Galindo-Marrone, Chief of the Hatch Act Unit at the Office of Special Counsel (OSC). A panel discussion on special ethics situations for associations and their members will also be held.

Participants must register in advance with registration open through March 7, 2008 for FMA members. Registration will be open to the public beginning March 8th. To register, please call Maya Laws at 202-463-8400 x327 or email mlaws@shawbransford.com with your name, mailing address and phone number.

The Coalition for Effective Change was formed in 1993 as a non-partisan alliance of associations representing current and retired federal managers, executives, and professionals. CEC provides a channel for these public employees to contribute to the success of improving government. CEC meets with executive branch officials to discuss efforts to improve government. CEC shares information with Congress and works with others on initiatives for government wide change. For more information on the Coalition, please visit: http://www.effective-change.org/.

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WHAT’S HAPPENING ON CAPITOL HILL?

APPROPRIATORS HEAR FROM STAKEHOLDERS ON SSA BACKLOG

Last week, House appropriators on the Labor/HHS/Education subcommittee heard from stakeholders on the current state of the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) disability case backlog. As of last month, the number of cases pending was over 750,000 and it takes an average of 500 days to process a claim.

During his testimony, SSA Commissioner Michael Astrue detailed the agency’s “Hearings Backlog Reduction Plan,” which, based on the President’s fiscal year 2009 budget, anticipates processing 85,000 more hearings than in FY08. Astrue stated in his testimony, “It is a moral imperative to reduce the disability backlogs, which have caused an incredible hardship for disabled workers and their families as they cope with the loss of income and often medical insurance as well due to a severe disability.”

Also included in the plan is funding to hire additional Administrative Law Judges (ALJs). In fact, job offers have gone out to 144 of the 175 judges SSA is looking to hire this year. However, Ronald Bernoski, President of the Association of Administrative Law Judges, testified that support staff is necessary to aid the judges in preparing cases in a reasonable time frame, an argument FMA has also been making to Congress over the last several years.

“Congress has under-funded the President’s request for SSA administrative expenses by $1.3 billion over the last ten years,” commented FMA National President Darryl Perkinson. “It is no surprise we are in the situation we’re in. I am encouraged to see the House Appropriations Committee taking a closer look at the issue.”

TELEWORK LEGISLATION SPEEDS AHEAD

The HouseOversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia held a mark up of H.R. 4106, the Telework Improvements Act, on February 28th. Chairman Danny Davis (D-Ill.) consulted with other stakeholders involved on this issue and modified the legislation to address some of the concerns expressed by other subcommittee members.

The original version of the bill not altered by the mark-up allows agencies to decide which employees can telecommute. H.R. 4106 will incorporate telework training into an agency’s new employee orientation. Additionally, the legislation establishes a Telework Managing Officer appointed by each executive agency to implement telework policies.

The legislation was modified to allow an agency to temporarily restrict an employee from teleworking in the event of an emergency. The revised legislation requires the General Services Administration (GSA) to maintain a central telework web-site. H.R. 4106 will allow the GSA the right to waive the legislation’s requirement that a Telework Management Officer (TMO) be at least a GS-15 or equivalent. Further, the legislation limits the Government Accountability Office (GAO) annual reporting requirement to ten years. The legislation delineates telework as covering all authorized activities that can be performed from an alternate worksite. The legislation now awaits action by the full committee.

If passed, the legislation will incorporate teleworking into the continuity of operations planning of agencies. The legislation does not allow federal employees who handle sensitive information, work on national security and intelligence matters, or have a position that requires their physical presence in the office, to telework.

H.R. 4106 is analogous to the Senate version, S. 1000, with one exception. The House version mandates eligible federal employees telework one day per week.

For more information on these bills please visit: http://www.thomas.loc.gov/.

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WHAT’S NEW IN THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH?

PRESIDENT CALLS FOR PORTABLE SECURITY CLEARANCE PROCESS

When federal employees with security clearances move to a new agency, they often have to obtain a new security clearance as their previous one was not recognized by their new employer. This problem has been culminating to such a crescendo that President Bush broached the subject in a memorandum to federal departments and agencies on February 5, 2008. President Bush noted the urgency of having cleared employees by stating in his memorandum, “The Federal Government needs a qualified, trusted workforce available to successfully execute its missions. However, longstanding practices used in the security processing of individuals and contractors to work for the Government pose challenges to the speed with which these individuals can begin their work or move from one role to another.” The President deduced the current state of the security clearance backlog in his memorandum, remarking, “[T]he processes for collecting and analyzing this data are not sufficiently standardized or coordinated to allow for individuals to efficiently move between agencies and positions of Government covered by one or more of these processes.”

The issue of a security clearance backlog was echoed at the Human Capital Management for Defense 2008 Symposium held at the Marriott Crystal Gateway in Arlington, Virginia on February 28th by Margaret Burns, Vice President of Information and Knowledge Solutions, Lockheed Martin Enterprise Solutions and Services. Mrs. Burns offered another perspective on the security clearance process at the Symposium. The private sector is also grappling with hiring employees with the right security clearances. Some defense contractors offer twenty to fifty thousand dollar signing bonuses because there is a shortage of people with clearances. Burns highlighted the amount of time it takes for an employee to obtain a security clearance - an average 200 days. Employees obtaining Top Secret clearance can expect to wait 300 days. Lockheed Martin took the approach of streamlining the process within their company by establishing a security clearance center to handle all security clearances for company employees. Sixty percent of their employees have clearances and 20,000 new and reinvestigated clearances are conducted annually.

The results of streamlining the clearance process on Lockheed Martin’s end expedited the amount of time for their employee’s clearances to be accepted. The company has reached an average wait time of 100 days for secret clearance, and 140 to 152 days for top secret clearance. The clearance rejection rate is one percent, while the industry averages 15 percent. Mrs. Burns’ solution for the federal government would be a universal application for all security clearances and the policy of conducting only one investigation that is accepted by all agencies and corporations.

President Bush’s memorandum can be viewed at http://www.whitehouse.gov/.

OPM UNVEILS NEW RETIREMENT ADMINISTRATION PROCESS

Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Linda Springer announced on February 25th a new technology-focused retirement administration process known as RetireEZ that will quickly and accurately calculate retirement benefits.

The first wave of federal retirees falling under RetireEZ are in agencies whose payroll is handled by the General Services Administration (GSA). These agencies include OPM, GSA, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) and the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB), among others. This rollout will affect 26,000 active federal employees.

RetireEZ will allow employees to receive their full annuity at the first payment, rather than after a period of reduced interim payments. Because employees often transfer among agencies, and sometimes change retirement systems, calculating pensions can be difficult. The new retirement administration program will move federal agencies to the 21st century by ending a labor-intensive, paper-based process to a modern process, complete with all of the federal military service records needed to compute the annuities of federal employees. This technologically-reliant process will improve the storage, retrieval and transfer of employment and benefits information making the transition into retirement easier.

Federal employees in the Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches, as well as employees in the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will enroll into RetireEZ by February 2009. For more information on RetireEZ, please visit http://www.opm.gov/.

TSA OFFICERS RECEIVE WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTIONS

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced on February 27th an agreement to provide enhanced whistleblower protection for transportation security officers (TSOs) whose bosses retaliate against them for blowing the whistle on waste, fraud and abuse. The memorandum of agreement was signed by TSA and the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB).

Currently, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) has the ability to investigate TSO whistleblower retaliation complaints and recommend TSA take disciplinary action when warranted. Under the brokered agreement between the TSA and MSPB, transportation security officers will be able to appeal whistleblower retaliation complaints to the MSPB.

TSA Administrator Kip Hawley remarked, "Transportation security officers are on the frontlines, protecting the traveling public. For their sake and the sake of security, this agreement with MSPB provides TSA officers another independent avenue for whistleblower concerns."

Not everyone was happy with the outcome of the agreement. National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) President Colleen M. Kelley weighed in on the issue by releasing a statement that declares the Union’s intent to codify this protection with the passage of H.R. 985; legislation which would provide TSA employees whistleblower rights by statute. President Kelley commented, “Rather than leave the extension of this much-needed right for TSOs to the agency’s discretion, we are going to continue seeking legislation on this issue.”

NTEU was not the only union to offer their perspective. American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) AFL-CIO National President John Gage remarked, “AFGE is pleased that TSA has seen the error of its ways, but this agreement falls short of affording TSOs full whistleblower protections.”

Please visit http://www.tsa.gov/ for more information.

PRESIDENT’S BUDGET CUTS FUNDING FOR PROGRAMS AND GRANTS

President Bush offered a glimpse at the fiscal year 2009 federal budget, paving the way for the administration of federal agencies and programs for the year. President Bush remarked, “As we work to keep taxes low, we must do more to restrain spending. My Budget proposes to keep non-security discretionary spending growth below 1 percent for 2009 and then hold it at that level for the next 4 years. It also cuts spending on projects that are not achieving results – because good intentions alone do not justify a program that is not working.” Bush’s budget plan intends to cut $18 billion in discretionary spending from 151 programs in 2009. The Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) has been employed by the Administration as a means to rationalize cutting or eliminating programs by rating policies’ effectiveness in delivering services.

The President intends to slow the growth rate of mandatory programs such as Medicare, from the current growth rate of 7.2 percent to 5 percent for the next five years. Additionally, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) is expected to receive $726 million less than last year and the Department of Commerce (DOC) will shave $200 million from the amount it received last year. The Department of Education was the agency hit the hardest by the cuts, with a $3.261 billion decrease from last year’s budget.

Over the next five years, the President’s budget plan slows spending growth resulting in $208 billion in net savings. According to the White House, the budget “will result in savings to taxpayers and improved Government services by eliminating or restructuring low-priority and duplicative programs as well as programs that are not producing results.”

Intentions and outcomes do not always work in tandem, considering the differing priorities of the Congress and the President.

To review the President’s budget information, please visit: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/.

PRESIDENT TOUTS NEW PROCUREMENT PROVIDER

President Bush issued a memorandum on February 11th requesting federal agency procurement officials to acquire products and services from the AbilityOne Program, an initiative that gives disabled Americans the opportunity to contribute to the nation’s workforce. Bush called for federal support of the disabled by stating, “Expanding employment opportunities for these individuals will help ensure that our economy is drawing on the talents and creativity of all its citizens and that America remains a place of opportunity for all.”

The AbilityOne Program is overseen by the federal entity, the Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Disabled. The Committee is tasked with working with 600 not-for-profit associations’ nationwide providing employment opportunities for 43,000 individuals.

The Program can trace its roots to 1938 as part of the Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act. This initiative was an effort to provide employment opportunities for blind Americans and was modified in 1971 to include people with severe disabilities.

President Bush’s memorandum can be viewed at http://www.whitehouse.gov/. For general and product information produced through the AbilityOne Program, please visit http://www.abilityone.gov/jwod/index.html.

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GET INVOLVED AT THESE EVENTS!

LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER FOR FMA’S 70TH NATIONAL CONVENTION!

The Federal Managers Association 70th annual National Convention will take place March 9 – 13, 2008, at the Hilton Crystal City Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. Delegates can expect to receive a wealth of knowledge from private sector and government leaders under this year’s convention theme, Empowering America’s Workforce for the Challenges of Today, Tomorrow and Beyond.

Registration for the convention is still available! The current registration fee is $550. Detailed hotel and convention information is available on FMA’s Web site. Make your reservations today!

Please continue to check the “Events” section of the FMA Web site, www.fedmanagers.org, for the most up-to-date information. We look forward to seeing you next week!

APPLY FOR AN FMA-FEEA SCHOLARSHIP

Through the Federal Employee Education & Assistance Fund (FEEA), FMA has built a burgeoning scholarship program (administered by FEEA exclusively for FMA), which serves to award academic scholarships to deserving candidates through generous contributions from FMA members. It’s available to all FMA members, dependents and spouses, as well as FMA retirees. Thirteen winners from FMA families were awarded scholarships last year. To apply for the FMA-FEEA Scholarship, visit: www.fedmanagers.org/public/benefits.cfm. Instructions and a complete application for this scholarship can also be found in each year’s winter issue of The Federal Manager.

The Federal Employee Education & Assistance Fund has a new CFC number this year: 1-1-1-8-5. FEEA’s new number – 11185 – is the one to use when making a pledge. Make a donation, or learn more about how FEEA uses your contribution, by visiting www.feea.org.

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Long Term Care Partners, LLC, FMA Corporate Partner.  Long Term Care Partners is the administrator of the Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program.  Sponsored by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the Program is available to Federal and U.S. Postal Service employees and annuitants, active and retired members of the uniformed services, and their qualified relatives.  With more than 210,000 enrollees, it is the largest employer-sponsored long term care insurance program in the country.  FLTCIP policies are simple to understand and offer enrollees some distinct advantages, including comprehensive coverage, competitive and stable rates, international coverage, and administrative service standards that are the highest in the long-term care insurance industry.  Policies are sold direct through a highly-trained, non-commissioned staff with no high pressure sales tactics – simply sound advice.  Visit www.LTCFEDS.com or http://www.opm.gov/insure/ltc/index.asp for more information.

Blue Cross Blue Shield Association Federal Employee Program, FMA Sustaining Corporate Partner:  The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association represents the independent, locally operated Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans. The 40 local member companies of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association have provided millions of families with top-quality, affordable health insurance for more than 70 years.  For the one in four Americans who carry Blue Cross and Blue Shield cards, the Blue Plans symbolize health security.  Visit www.fepblue.org and join the best, most-recognized group of health insurance providers in the world.

GEICO, FMA Corporate Partner:  GEICO was created over 60 years ago to insure Federal employees.  Over the years GEICO has continuously strengthened its affiliation with the Federal workforce.  Today GEICO has a special program established to support the Federal community.  GEICO’s Federal program participates in the following organizations and programs: GEICO Public Service Awards, which  have honored Federal workers (active and retired) who have contributed to the public good since 1980; and GEICO Federal Leave Record Cards, which for over 40 years have been provided by GEICO to Federal employees, free of charge, to help them track their annual leave.  Find out how much you could save with GEICO auto insurance as an FMA member by getting a line-by-line rate quote at:  www.geico.com.

Shaw, Bransford, Veilleux and Roth, P.C., (SBVR) concentrates its law practice on the representation of Federal employees, with a special emphasis on the representation of executives and managers.  SBVR serves as General Counsel to the Federal Managers Association and is uniquely situated to recognize the interests and viewpoints of Federal managers.  For up to two free half-hour legal consultations and reduced legal fees as an FMA member, please visit:  www.shawbransford.com.

The Federal Managers Association and Management Concepts have teamed up to present the Federal Managers Practicum — a targeted certificate program for Federal managers. As the official development program for FMA, the Federal Managers Practicum helps FMA members develop critical skills to meet new workplace demands and deepen their managerial capabilities.  FMA’s leadership fully recognizes the need to prepare career-minded federal employees to manage the demands of the 21st century workplace with greater competence and fully supports this unique and comprehensive certificate program.  For more information, please visit:  www.managementconcepts.com/fmp/fmpodp.asp.

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The Washington Report is published biweekly by the Federal Managers Association.
Jessica Klement, Editor; FMA Staff Writers.

The Federal Managers Association, established in 1913, is the oldest, largest, most influential association representing the interests of the nearly 200,000 managers, supervisors and executives serving in today’s Federal government.

1641 Prince Street ~ Alexandria VA 22314-2818 ~ (703) 683-8700 ~ FAX (703) 683-8707 ~ E-Mail Info@fedmanagers.org

Washington Report Archives