OPM proposes new dates for health insurance open season

The Office of Personnel Management wants to move up the health insurance open season for federal employees and retirees by two weeks, beginning this year.

In a Federal Register notice April 19, OPM proposed holding the annual month-long Federal Employees Health Benefits Program open season every year beginning Nov. 1 and ending Nov. 30. Currently, the open season runs from the Monday of the second full workweek in November to the Monday of the second full workweek in December.

"This will simplify the annual announcement of the time period for open season and allow agencies and employees to better plan for the enrollment opportunity since they will know well in advance when it will occur each year," OPM said.

OPM is accepting comments on that proposal until June 18, and will likely make a final decision on the open season later this summer.

OPM is also lifting the deadline for federal employees to remove family members from dental or vision coverage after a major life event.

Currently, feds can only remove spouses or children beginning 31 days before the major life event — such as death, divorce, or the marriage or 22nd birthday of a child — up until 60 days after the event. Today, if a fed misses that deadline, he has to keep paying premiums for an ineligible family member until the next year's coverage begins.

But beginning May 20, a federal employee will be able to remove an ineligible family member at any time of the year, beginning 31 days before the life event, according to a Federal Register notice issued April 20 by OPM. And the employee will be reimbursed for premiums he paid for that relative after the relative became ineligible. Currently, the enrollment changes are not retroactive and take effect the first pay period after the removal request is made.

Watchdog group seeks better-quality contract data

The McDonnell Douglas Corp. received just over a $1 billion in government contracts in fiscal 2009, ranking the company 66th among all contractors, according to the federal contractor database USAspending.gov.

One problem, though — the aerospace firm was bought out by Boeing Corp. in 1997. Boeing is No. 2 on the list with more than $20 billion in contracts.

This irregularity is one of several pointed out by the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight in a letter sent April 22 to Martha Johnson, head of the General Services Administration, which manages the procurement database. The letter also went to Office of Federal Procurement Policy chief Dan Gordon and federal chief information officer Vivek Kundra.

Neil Gordon, an investigator with POGO, said the organization noticed the problems while using USAspending.gov to compile its Federal Contractor Misconduct Database.

Other apparent errors highlighted by POGO: ITT Corp. appears twice on the Top 100 list for fiscal 2009, at No. 17 and No. 97, and Northrop Grumman Corp. is No. 3 while its Northrop Grumman Ship Systems Inc. subsidiary is listed separately at No. 35.

"It does kind of shake our confidence" in the database," POGO's Gordon said. "It seems like the kind of thing that could be easily fixed if they did a more thorough scrubbing of the data."

He said POGO will continue to use the USAspending.gov data, and POGO's letter acknowledged that "government contract data has come a long way" and that USAspending.gov has provided federal contracting information to the public in a more timely and user-friendly manner.

GSA officials did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

As public sours on government, OPM aims to ‘re-polish' federal image

The Office of Personnel Management is working on a new marketing campaign intended to boost the public's opinion of federal employees.

OPM Director John Berry said his agency is surveying liberal and conservative citizens about their impressions of federal workers and issues most important to them. Once that survey is done, OPM will contract with a marketing firm to "come up with the right vocabulary, the right messaging and the right energy that we believe will re-polish the public servant's image," Berry said at the April 19 Excellence in Government conference in Washington.

Berry said that the government's outreach efforts should focus on employees' specific jobs to counter the perception of civil servants as bureaucrats.

"If you ask people, ‘What do you think about federal workers,' they think, ‘Oh, my gosh, they all stink,' " Berry said. " ‘They're all faceless, gray, pasty people who push paper.' [But if you ask] what do you think about park rangers, it's ‘Oh, I love park rangers.' When you ask, what do you think about researchers at [the National Institutes of Health] who are curing childhood cancer, [people say] ‘My kid had leukemia. I really value that. Don't cut that portion of the budget.' "

Berry's comments came a day after the Pew Research Center released a survey showing that the public's trust in the federal government has reached historic lows.

Just 22 percent of Americans say they can trust the government almost always or most of the time, the survey found. That's down from 31 percent in January 2007, and down form 40 percent in February 2000.

Surveys conducted by other organizations in late 2009 and early 2010 yielded similar numbers. The last time national polls consistently showed this level of mistrust was in the mid-1990s.

Public discontent could hurt government agencies' ability to recruit and retain employees, said Tim McManus, vice president for education and outreach at the Partnership for Public Service.

McManus said his organization's research has found that older, more experienced job seekers are particularly turned off by negative attitudes that persist over a long time.

"The continued decline is not a good thing if you're looking to bring those folks in," he said.

He said government employees may also be discouraged by the low public opinion.

"No one wants to walk into their house after a long day of work and be disparaged about how everything they're doing is wrong," McManus said.

Respondents to the Pew survey were more dissatisfied with Congress than with government agencies. Favorable ratings for Congress dropped off a cliff in the last year, from 50 percent in 2009 to 25 percent in the new survey.

Ten of 13 agencies included in the survey had favorable ratings of higher than 50 percent, but only two — the IRS and the CIA — had improved in the public eye since 1998. The biggest decliners were the Education Department (40 percent favorable in 2010, down from 61 percent in 1998) and the Food and Drug Administration (58 percent favorable, down from 75 percent).

According to the Pew survey, common criticisms of government are that it runs its programs inefficiently, has the wrong priorities, is too big and powerful, and doesn't do enough to help the average American. The Pew report speculated that the recent economic downturn, a partisan backlash against the current administration, and discontent with the performance of elected officials have all contributed to the decline in public trust.

McManus said agencies should work harder to highlight their accomplishments because people tend to like the federal government more as they learn more about it. He pointed out that the U.S. Postal Service, which interacts frequently with the public, had the highest favorable rating (83 percent) of any agency included in the survey.

Berry said many talented people are still interested in civil service, despite the uptick in public anger at government. Presidential Management Fellows applications have more than doubled over the last year, he said, from about 4,000 last year to nearly 9,000 in 2010.

Berry said recruiters — especially those reaching out to college students — should focus on the wide variety of opportunities federal service provides.

"I tell kids, you want to be James Bond? I hire James Bond," Berry said. The federal government "is an amazing place that allows you to do good for people and [has plenty of] options. You want to work outside? We manage 3 million acres outside. America's backyard is the federal government's. It's a very attractive pitch to kids."

Berry also said OPM and the General Services Administration are planning to build an "innovation lab" to test new technologies such as Apple's iPad as soon as they come out and find ways to integrate them into the federal workplace.

"We're going to figure out how to … get it into the workplace faster, so we can be cooler, and offer the latest gadgets," Berry said. "Because kids want them."

Potter renews plea for postal reforms

After testifying before a House committee a week earlier, Postmaster General John Potter reiterated his plea before a Senate panel last week that the U.S. Postal Service needs to transition to five-day delivery. And Postal Service Inspector General David Williams stressed the importance of recouping the $75 billion they say USPS overpaid into a retirement fund.

"Our action plan provides us a solid path to ensure that the Postal Service remains strong, healthy and viable into the future," Potter said. The officials testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee on federal financial management, government information, federal services, and international security.

While Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said eliminating Saturday delivery is "a net benefit economically," he said the Postal Service should also be focusing on decreasing labor costs, which account for 80 percent of its expenses.

"To say we shouldn't consider the terms of the labor input in solving this problem, [means] we'll never solve it," Coburn said.

Committee members also questioned why eliminating 17 percent of the delivery schedule would result in just 5 percent savings, a point raised by Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii.

Potter responded by saying that gross savings would be greater than 5 percent but would be offset by reduced revenue, lowering the net savings. He added that 90 percent of the Postal Service's revenue comes from commercial entities that already don't receive mail on Saturdays.

The Postal Service is facing a worst-case scenario of losing $238 billion over the next 10 years, according to the Government Accountability Office.

"We need to realize that the day of reckoning for the Postal Service may not come in 2020 or some other distant date," said subcommittee chairman Thomas Carper, D-Del. "It could come next year."

Potter said the Postal Service could cut costs by changing the way it funds retiree health benefits. Those obligations currently cost about $5.5 billion annually, and with about 300,000 employees eligible for retirement within the next 10 years, spreading payments over a longer period of time may be a path toward viability.

Carper called restructuring the payment schedule for retiree health benefits "common sense."

Potter stated that after exploring new revenue-generating opportunities, it became clear the best way for the Postal Service to make more money is to spend less.

Williams said the Postal Service got "way too big before the economic downturn" and emphasized the urgency to get the department "right-sized."

"We owe it to our customers to have an organization that is the proper size, and we owe it to our employees to be as faithful to them as they have been to us," Williams said.

But Ruth Goldway, chairwoman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, emphasized that elimination of Saturday service is not a foregone conclusion. The PRC will consider the Postal Service's proposal, but she said it could take nine months before it issues recommendations.

Carper said the process shouldn't take that long.

"If the 9/11 Commission took seven months and came up with 70 recommendations, my guess is you can beat that nine-month timeline."

Archives cites poor records management at most agencies

Nearly 80 percent of agencies are at significant risk of improperly destroying records, according to a new report from the National Archives and Records Administration.

Of 224 agencies that conducted self-assessments at NARA's request, 36 percent were found to be at high risk and 43 percent at moderate risk.

One area of particular concern is e-mail records management, where NARA found nearly half of respondents at high risk. Policies for managing records that are transferred or stored via e-mail are often either nonexistent or poorly communicated to employees, the report found.

Judged at higher risk are those agencies that may not be creating and managing records effectively or keeping them around long enough, the report states. This can be damaging to those agencies' operations, diminish accountability and reduce access to historically important records, according to NARA.

The agencies judged to be at high risk include the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis; U.S. European Command; Navy; the Homeland Security Department's Customs and Border Protection and Transportation Security Administration; the Transportation Department's Federal Transit Administration and National Highway Transportation Safety Administration; the International Trade Commission; and the National Endowment for the Arts.

NARA plans to work with Congress, the Office of Management and Budget and agencies to improve records management.

Archivist of the United States David Ferriero said in a statement that "this level of risk is of great concern to me, and the National Archives will take action with federal agencies to address this unacceptable risk."

DHS official: Virtual border fence a ‘complete failure'

The Homeland Security Department last week said its virtual border fence has been a "complete failure," and is trying to figure out how to proceed on the troubled $2 billion project.

Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that some individual pieces of surveillance technology in the SBInet program have worked. But integrating them together into a comprehensive system — which was to be the heart of the SBInet program — has proven to be more complicated than current technology can handle, Bersin said.

"I wouldn't say that theoretically, at some point, we couldn't have the kind of sophisticated technological integration that SBInet originally projected," Bersin said. "But in the near term, wholesale integration is not a goal that is practicable," Bersin said.

Bersin would not say whether Homeland Security would cancel the contract.

Homeland Security hired Boeing in 2006 to install thousands of video and infrared cameras, radars and ground sensors to provide constant surveillance along the Southwest border. Computers and software were meant to combine that information to produce a real-time picture of smugglers and migrants.

But after spending between $700 million and $800 million to build a 28-mile pilot version of the system in Arizona, Homeland Security has almost nothing to show for it. The system has difficulty seeing clearly and often transmits false alarms.

Bersin said Homeland Security is now conducting an assessment of the program to see if the project can continue, or, if not, if anything can be salvaged. The department is also reviewing each sector along the U.S.-Mexico border to figure out what technologies would help them secure their areas against smugglers and illegal immigrants. He did not say when those assessments would be completed.

Lawmakers are outraged at the project's failure. Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., said that the Government Accountability Office should conduct an investigation to find out how it got so badly off-track.

And Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said that SBInet's failure is especially troubling while Mexican drug cartel violence is growing and risks spilling over into American border towns like El Paso.

"It's a disgrace," McCain said.

TSP board nominees urge education for younger employees

The board governing the Thrift Savings Plan must do more to educate federal employees and military members who are not saving for their retirements, said two people nominated to join the board.

Dana Bilyeu, who is one of President Obama's picks to join the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, said that expanding that outreach effort is especially important for young military service members.

"Those that are in the beginning of their careers — 18, 19, 20-year-olds — often are those that have the hardest time deciding to participate in these programs," Bilyeu told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee on oversight of government management, the federal workforce, and the District of Columbia. "They are actually the group that needs to start participating early."

Bilyeu said one of her first actions if she is confirmed would be to review the board's financial literacy education efforts. But she and Michael Kennedy, the other FRTIB nominee, said the board has made good progress recently in adding more interactive tools to its Web site.

Bilyeu also wants the board to tell participants more about the risks accompanying each TSP fund.

"Financial literacy means being able to have an individual be able to assess what their own risk tolerance is and to learn about various risks of the funds as they go forward," Bilyeu said. "Introducing a risk component to the education process is something I would want to see happen."

But Bilyeu said she will make sure the board strikes the right balance on education, and does not improperly lead participants to make particular choices about their investments as it educates them about wise financial decisions.

Bilyeu is executive director of the Public Employees' Retirement System of Nevada.

Kennedy, a senior client partner at Korn/Ferry International based in Atlanta, pledged to work with the TSP staff to make sure its Web site upgrade goes as planned.

FRTIB Executive Director Gregory Long said on Monday that the new Web site's debut, which had been planned for the end of May, could slip into June because load testing took a few weeks longer than expected. Long said the TSP had to test the site to ensure it can manage tens of thousands of visitors at a time.

"We want to make sure that when we go live we're able to handle substantially higher volumes than we would normally see," Long said.

Bill would prevent IRS expansion under health care law

Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., introduced a bill April 15 to prohibit the IRS from hiring or transferring employees to enforce provisions of the new health care law.

The IRS under the health care law is responsible beginning in 2014 for collecting penalties from people who don't have health insurance and from businesses with more than 50 employees that don't provide health coverage.

Forbes said he introduced his bill, HR 5054, to "stem the growth in big government's control and authority … especially at a time when [American citizens are] facing an avalanche of federal debt and an economic recession."

Forbes objects to projections of both IRS spending and expansion under the bill.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the IRS mandate will cost $5 billion to $10 billion over the next decade.

"The simple truth is that spending $10 billion for the government to force federally mandated health care on families and businesses will not initiate business growth or create lasting career opportunities for Americans," said Forbes, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Republicans on the committee claim IRS will need more than 16,000 new auditors and investigators to enforce the new law. But IRS officials say that the agency is still developing a staffing plan and that the new enforcement will be handled largely through a new information technology system.

Forbes acknowledged the figures may be inaccurate but maintained it is important to curtail big government, "whether preventing 1,000 new IRS agents or 16,000 new agents."

GSA seeks contractor for headquarters renovation

The General Services Administration is used to tackling major building renovation projects across government, but now the government's landlord is taking on a decidedly personal project: itself.

GSA's headquarters in northwest Washington is about to undergo a major facelift. GSA expects to spend between $200 million and $250 million in Recovery Act funds to renovate and expand the 1917 building, which was last updated in 1935.

The building will be outfitted with the latest electrical, plumbing, communication and other building systems; perhaps most noticeably, a new central air conditioning system will replace the hundreds of window units that now adorn the structure. Courtyard atriums will be enclosed, expanding the building by 20 percent to nearly 800,000 square feet. Inside, narrow hallways and enclosed offices will be replaced with a more modern, open layout.

Washington-based architectural firm Shalom Baranes Associates has completed the design work. Now GSA is searching for a construction firm to carry out the renovation, which is expected to last five years.

Details of the solicitation are posted at www.fedbizopps.gov under the following number: GS11P10MKC0025. Proposals must be submitted by 3 p.m. May 26.

Recovery Act speeds cleanup of nuclear waste sites

The Energy Department will reduce the size of former nuclear waste sites needing environmental cleanup by 40 percent by the end of 2011, fueled largely by Recovery Act funding, a top official said.

The footprint of Cold War-era sites to be cleaned up will be reduced from 900 square miles to 540 square miles during fiscal 2011, said Ines Triay, assistant Energy secretary of environmental management. The department's goal is to clean up 90 percent of contaminated areas by 2015.

Energy received $6 billion in Recovery Act funds to accelerate cleanup efforts. To date, $5.6 billion in stimulus funds has been obligated and $1.7 billion has been spent, Triay told the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces at an April 21 hearing.

Stimulus funds will be used for many projects: Accelerate by seven years the removal of radioactive waste at 11 sites; remove 2 million tons of waste material from the uranium mill in Moab, Utah; and build the infrastructure required to support high-level waste processing operations. In addition, Recovery Act funds will be used to speed up completion of cleanup activities at three small sites: Brookhaven National Laboratory and Separations Process Research Unit in New York, and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in California.

"We have a substantial amount of work that has been dedicated for the Recovery Act," she said.

By leveraging Recovery Act dollars to expedite cleanup efforts, Energy will be able to generate more than $7 billion in savings through reductions in lifecycle costs and avoided expenses, Triay said. That translates to a return on investment of 120 percent.

Army, AF seek 2011 funding for training facilities, housing

The Army and Air Force are seeking billions of dollars next year to expand training facilities, build new housing and relocate tens of thousands of service members and civilian employees.

The fiscal 2011 budget seeks funds for critical construction projects that will ensure both the Army and Air Force have the facilities needed to support their ongoing missions, leaders from both services told Senate appropriators at an April 22 hearing.

The Army's $7.9 billion request represents the "minimum amount needed" to carry out various initiatives, including adding 74,000 soldiers to the Army by 2013 and transferring roughly one-third of the force to other locations through the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) and related actions, said Jerry Hansen, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for strategic infrastructure.

The Army is requesting $891 million to continue a longstanding effort, now in its 18th year, to replace outdated barracks with more modern, dorm-style suites. Another $191 million will be used to build six new training barracks at four installations: Forts Benning, Bragg, Jackson and Leonard Wood. The Army also is seeking $92 million for new family housing construction, including 64 new homes in Baumholder, Germany.

The Army's military construction request is down from the $11.3 billion received this year, although that's largely because most of the money to comply with BRAC was previously funded. When BRAC funding is excluded, the Army's military construction request for 2011 is up nearly 10 percent compared with this year.

The Air Force is seeking $5.5 billion for construction and related activities in 2011, up nearly 4 percent from 2010. More than half of the request, $3.1 billion, will be used to maintain and repair existing facilities, said Terry Yonkers, assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, environment and logistics.

Another $1.5 billion would be spent on new construction projects, including $23 million for two new Air Force training facilities at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., and Camp Guernsey, Wyo., for employees involved in operating, maintaining and securing nuclear weapons.