Feds can take extended leave to care for relatives in the military

Federal employees can now use their Family and Medical Leave Act benefits — up to 12 weeks of leave each year — to help a family member who is in the military and deployed overseas, according to a March 5 memo issued by the Office of Personnel Management.

Feds now can use their FMLA leave to arrange for childcare of a deployed relative's son or daughter, attend official ceremonies related to the service member's deployment, or make funeral arrangements if the service member is killed. Employees can use sick or annual leave under FMLA, but if they run out, must take unpaid leave.

OPM said federal employees can take leave to:

• Attend military or American Red Cross family support or assistance programs related to the deployment.

• Enroll the service member's child in a new school or day care facility and attend meetings with school or day care staff.

• Meet with government agencies on behalf of the service member to obtain or appeal military benefits.

• Make or update financial or legal arrangements for the service member, such as preparing a will.

• Attend counseling for themselves, the service member, or for the service member's child, as long as the counseling is related to the deployment.

• Take care of a child when there is an urgent and immediate need, but not on a regular basis.

The employee must be a spouse, son, daughter or parent of a deployed service member to be eligible for leave.

Feds also can take up to 26 weeks of paid or unpaid leave per year to help a family member who is sick or injured as a result of previous active duty military service, OPM said.

Congress expanded employees' benefits under FMLA as part of the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act that was passed last fall.

VA investigating new data breach

The Veterans Affairs Department is investigating reports that a former VA physician's assistant stored unauthorized personal patient data on a personal laptop.

The data breach occurred at the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center, said VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts. In a written statement, Roberts said protecting patient privacy is one of VA's top priorities.

"VA's Office of Information and Technology is trying to gather more details about the circumstances, including the number of veterans whose information was involved and the nature of the information affected. The results of the investigation and analysis will help determine whether to send notifications and offers of credit protection services to the affected veterans," Roberts wrote.

NextGov first reported the breach, and VA's Chief Information Officer Roger Baker posted comments on the Web site clarifying how the employee copied patients' personal data. VA officials declined to make Baker available for comment.

"The employee in question was never able to connect her unencrypted laptop to the VA network. Port-blocking technologies are enforced in Atlanta, and she was denied access. Thus, no ‘downloading' of information ever occurred. Any information existent on the personal laptop was hand-entered, and as you point out this violates all kinds of policies and training at the VA," Baker wrote.

This isn't the first high-profile data breach at VA. In 2006, a VA data analyst downloaded 26.5 million records onto his laptop, which was later stolen. The laptop was recovered, and analysts said none of the personal information it contained was compromised. VA expanded its data security programs, encrypting all of its laptops and educating employees on data protection.

Industry group warns against wanton contractor cuts at DHS

The Homeland Security Department needs to rebalance its contractor-to-federal employee ratio, but the department shouldn't do anything until it thoroughly studies how many contractors it needs, the Professional Services Council (PSC) said today in a letter to lawmakers.

At a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing last month, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the department has about 200,000 contractors — a roughly 1-to-1 ratio with civilian employees. That prompted an outraged reaction from Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., the committee chairman, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the ranking member, both of whom said that was too many. Lieberman called the numbers "shocking and unacceptable."

PSC's letter to Collins and Lieberman cautioned against DHS making any significant cuts until it studies its contracting needs.

"There's more rigorous analysis that needs to be done," Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president of the industry group, said in an interview. "What's the right number? The department doesn't know yet."

Chvotkin acknowledged that the department might be too reliant on contractors, particularly in areas of what he called "staff augmentation" — using contractors for acquisition management or human resources, for example. Lieberman and Collins also focused on those areas during recent congressional hearings.

"The sheer number of DHS contractors currently on board again raises the question of whether DHS itself is in charge of its programs and policies, or whether it inappropriately has ceded core decisions to contractors," Lieberman and Collins wrote in a letter to Napolitano last month.

Chvotkin said DHS would continue to need a substantial number of contractors, particularly for ambitious information technology projects like the SBInet "virtual fence" along the Mexican border and for the Coast Guard's Deepwater modernization program.

PSC also said prime contractors should give the department more detailed information on their subcontractors. Elaine Duke, the department's undersecretary for management, said in an interview earlier this year that DHS often doesn't know exactly how many contractors it has — because prime contractors won't divulge their subcontracting arrangements.

Chvotkin said that information should be available to the department when there's a compelling need for it, like when DHS needs to issue security credentials to contractors.

"We've never been a big fan of counting just for the sake of counting heads," Chvotkin said. "It's appropriate for the department to have visibility of who's doing the work ... but the numbers don't tell you anything; the number is going to change every single day."

Recent reports have documented a number of problems with contracts at the department: An inspector general report released last week, for example, found that DHS often doesn't follow federal procedures for awarding noncompetitive contracts. Napolitano said last month that the department plans to hire several hundred new acquisition managers to bulk up its procurement staff.

Agencies paying more incentives, despite sluggish economy

The federal government paid federal employees more than a quarter-billion dollars in recruitment, retention and relocation incentives in 2008 — a 37 percent increase over the previous year.

Agencies paid 39,511 incentives worth nearly $285 million to employees in calendar year 2008, an average of more than $7,200 per award, according to OPM's report on 2008 incentives, released March 5. In 2007, the government paid 32,484 incentives worth almost $208 million to employees, an average of $6,400.

Last month, OPM Director John Berry told agency leaders he was concerned about the growth in incentive payments, and said he wants the government to do a better job monitoring their use. While unemployment nationwide remains near 10 percent and the private-sector job market is still sluggish, the government may not have to pay so many incentives to attract and retain talented workers, Berry said.

And a closer examination of some of the longer-term trends of various types of incentives shows even greater growth.

Relocation incentives paid to federal employees almost quadrupled between 2006 and 2008. The government paid out $43 million to 3,307 employees in calendar year 2008 — a 270 percent increase over the $11.6 million paid to 1,009 employees in 2006.

Recruitment and retention incentives also increased in 2008.

The Defense, Veterans Affairs, Justice and Agriculture departments made the most use of relocation incentives. Agriculture told OPM it offered incentives to convince employees to fill vacant positions in other states where traditional recruiting efforts failed. Agriculture also used incentives to get senior professionals to relocate, to attract employees to high-cost areas, and to get employees to move to areas that have poor weather or limited housing and medical care.

Defense used relocation incentives to convince employees to accept extended assignments in Iraq and Afghanistan, or other overseas locations where they do not receive locality payments.

VA used relocation incentives to help moving employees who were having difficulty selling their houses during the economic downturn that began in late 2008.

Recruitment incentives increased by 161 percent between 2006 and 2008, from $32.9 million to $86 million. And the number of recruitment incentives handed out nearly tripled during those years, from 3,952 to 11,396.

The amount of retention benefits handed out increased by 23 percent between 2007 and 2008, to $155.8 million. Due to a change in how retention incentives were administered in 2006, OPM could not compare statistics before 2007.

Retired Army major general is Obama's 2nd pick to lead TSA

President Obama will nominate Robert Harding, a retired Army major general, to take over the top job at the Transportation Security Administration, the White House announced this afternoon.

Harding is Obama's second nominee for the TSA administrator's job; the first, Erroll Southers, a former FBI agent, and the assistant chief of homeland security and intelligence with the Los Angeles World Airports police department, withdrew his name from consideration in January after Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., placed a hold on his nomination. Southers was accused of lying to Congress about improperly conducting a background check on his estranged wife's new boyfriend. But his nomination was also stalled by his promise to study collective bargaining rights for TSA employees — a move DeMint opposes.

Harding spent much of his career working in intelligence. He served for four years as the Defense Intelligence Agency's director of operations; one year as the director of intelligence for the Army's Southern Command; and nearly three decades in other intelligence positions. Harding founded a security consulting firm in 2003, after retiring from the Army, and sold the company in 2009.

"I am confident that Bob's talent and expertise will make him a tremendous asset," Obama said in a written statement. "I can think of no one more qualified than Bob to take on this important job."

The collective bargaining issue will almost certainly come up during Harding's confirmation. He hasn't made any past public statements on the subject, and labor unions say they're not sure where he stands on the issue.

"We haven't had the opportunity to research this candidate as we have some of the other White House nominees," said John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees. "However, if the administration believes him to be the best person to lead TSA, we will trust that decision until given a reason not to."

Gage said his union — which recently asked the government to hold an election to decide which union would represent TSA screeners — would continue to pursue collective bargaining rights.

So did Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union; in a statement to Federal Times, Kelley said that and other personnel issues should be near the top of Harding's agenda.

"[TSA] has a pay system that fails to recognize and reward employee contributions," she said. "[And] its workforce does not have the same critically important whistleblower rights as other federal employees."

NTEU's top priority: collective bargaining at TSA

The National Treasury Employees Union today said securing collective bargaining rights for Transportation Security Administration screeners will be its top legislative priority this year.

But NTEU National President Colleen Kelley doesn't think that any real progress towards organizing TSA will be made until the agency has a new administrator.

Kelley said NTEU is leaning on both the White House and Congress to get either of them to grant bargaining rights to TSA.

But while President Obama supports unionizing the government's 40,000 screeners, the administration has said it first wants to have a permanent director at TSA. And though a bill granting collective bargaining rights, HR 1881, could soon be voted on by the full House, a companion bill has not yet been introduced in the Senate.

NTEU said it is talking to Senate leaders such as Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., about introducing a bill. But NTEU said Lieberman also wants to see a permanent administrator in place before taking any action.

The White House yesterday said it would nominate retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert Harding to run TSA.

"The announcement yesterday hopefully will put that issue to rest shortly and then maybe we can move on that problem," Kelley said. "NTEU has been lobbying for these collective bargaining rights for a very long time."

Harding has not yet made any public comments on his stance on collective bargaining. Obama's first choice to run TSA, Erroll Southers, dropped out in January after Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., placed a hold on his nomination. DeMint's hold was largely motivated by Southers' pledge to study collective bargaining rights for TSA employees, which DeMint strongly opposes.

NTEU's chief rival, the American Federation of Government Employees, last month asked the Federal Labor Relations Authority to hold an election to decide which union will represent TSA employees. Kelley said NTEU is ready to file to be added to the ballot once FLRA decides to hold an election.

NTEU also wants Congress to pass bills that: provide health care, retirement and other benefits for same-sex partners of gay and lesbian federal employees; reform how the government buys federal employees' prescription drugs; and permanently take away the Homeland Security Department's ability to create an alternative personnel system like the defunct MaxHR system.

And if Congress increases the 2011 pay raise for military service members, NTEU said it wants Congress to provide an equal pay raise for federal employees. The White House last month proposed a 1.4 percent pay raise for both feds and service members.

House OKs bill to repay furloughed DOT employees

The House today passed a bill that would allow the Transportation Department to reimburse 1,922 employees who were furloughed for two days last week.

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who sponsored HR 4786, said the bill will allow Transportation to use $937,000 in already-obligated funds to reimburse employees furloughed March 1 and 2, and will not cost any additional money.

The employees were caught in the middle of a budgetary dispute after Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., blocked a bill to extend unemployment benefits and provide highway funding. Bunning had objected that the bill would add $10 billion to the deficit, but he relented on March 2 and the bill passed.

Transportation said last week the highway funding bill did not provide funds to reimburse the employees and that the agency could not use other funds to pay them.

A congressional staffer said Transportation is now talking to key senators to get them to pass HR 4786 or a similar bill.

Connolly said Congress repaid furloughed employees during the last government shutdowns in late 1995 and early 1996.

"It was the right thing to do then, and it's the right thing to do now," Connolly said.

The furloughed employees were at the Federal Highway Administration, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Research and Innovative Technology Administration.