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This one's almost too good to be true. Two VA employees were charged Tuesday with taking kickbacks on purchases made for the agency's Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy in Murfreesboro, Tenn. What were they buying? Red tape.

After receiving a fair amount of ribbing yesterday about his novel theory that the Philadelphia Eagles may have somehow violated antitrust laws by suspending malcontent wide receiver Terrell Owens for the rest of the season, Sen. Arlen Specter has decided to drop this hot potato in the lap of the Justice Department. "I have discussed this matter with lawyers at the Antitrust Division at the Department of Justice and I think it is better left to them rather than to the Judiciary Committee because of our heavy workload," Specter said. Please tell me the lawyers at Justice have more important antitrust issues to deal with.

The EEOC's back in New Orleans. The agency has reopened its office in the heart of the city. Commission Chair Cari M. Dominguez commended the agency's "dedicated staff who, despite trying personal situations, voluntarily reported to EEOC offices in other states or teleworked after Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast."

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a message about this year's record-setting hurricane season: Get used to it.

Here's another reason why I don't want to let my teenage daughter leave the house until she turns 21. The Office of National Drug Control Policy reports that a survey shows that the second-most popular place for teenagers to smoke pot is in a car. ("At a friend's house" came in first place.) Almost as many teens say they've driven under the influence of marijuana as admit to having driven drunk.

Donald Rumsfeld has decided that Iraqis fighting to undermine the U.S. occupation and the country's nascent government don't merit the term "insurgents." But in the same news conference in which Rumsfeld revealed his Thanksgiving weekend "epiphany" on the subject, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace used the term because he couldn't come up with a suitable alternative. It seems unlikely that Rumsfeld's unwieldy suggested terminology--"enemies of the legitimate Iraqi government"--will catch on.

Time for me to eat a little crow. In my item yesterday on the possibility of a mass retirement exodus in the federal workforce in the coming years, I speculated that figures used by the Partnership for Public Service relied on combining those eligible for regular retirement with those who potentially could retire early. John Palguta, vice president for policy and research at the Partnership, has set me straight: the numbers they used do not include those eligible for early retirement.

Palguta makes a series of other salient points about the retirement issue that are worth noting. Among them:

• "While not all retirement eligible employees leave upon first eligibility, they do eventually leave one way or another. ... For each of the last five years, the number of full-time, permanent employees who retired was greater than the year before, e.g., 54,285 retired in FY 2004 compared to only 43,661 in FY 2000. While this might not qualify as a tsunami, it is a very significant--even if gradual—increase in the drain of talent from government.





• "This talent bleed need not be a problem if an organization has been engaged in good succession planning and has been proactive in ensuring that talented employees are already on-board and prepared to step up and take over for those who are leaving, particularly at the supervisory and management levels. Unfortunately, the evidence is that good succession planning and associated talent acquisition and development is the exception rather than the rule.








• "The question isn’t whether there will be at least marginally qualified people outside of the federal government willing to take a federal job (there always will be) but rather a) can the federal government bring in the very best talent available for the jobs to be done, and b) can it provide the type of work environment and leadership necessary to retain and motivate that talent once it’s on board?"

I agree wholeheartedly with the part about this being a significant but gradual increase in retirements that ought to be taken seriously. But I'm betting the increase will remain gradual. Not only do "not all" retirement eligible employees leave when they're first eligible, many wait years before doing so. And I honestly fear that continuing to say a "tsunami" is about to hit could create a Chicken Little effect: People will think there's no problem at all if there's not a huge shift in a short time frame.

AP has a backgrounder today on U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth that goes at least a little way toward explaining why he's so obsessed with the endless Indian trust fund case. Still not explained: Why, if Lamberth is so bent on seeing the Indians get justice in the case, he keeps issuing outlandish rulings that get overturned on appeal, thereby continuing to bog the process down for years.

The Pittsburgh-Post Gazette has a genuine tear-jerker of a story today on Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jamie Dana and the act of Congress that will be required to allow her to adopt her bomb-sniffing dog, Rex, after both were injured when a bomb exploded under the Humvee they were riding in after searching an Iraqi village. The Air Force originally said regulations prevented such adoptions until dogs are ready to be retired from service, but then worked with Rep. John E. Peterson, R-Pa., to get language inserted into the fiscal 2006 Defense appropriations bill to approve an exemption from the rules.

20 billion. That's how many cards, letters and packages the Postal Service expects to deliver between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve.

My skepticism on the allegedly impending federal retirement "tsunami" (see Oct. 31 item below) is apparently having little effect. The good folks over at the Partnership for Public Service were pushing the notion again last week, with an "issue brief" on the "Federal Brain Drain." The statistics are, as always, alarming:

According to U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) estimates, among all full-time permanent employees in the federal workforce as of October 2004, 58 percent of supervisory and 42 percent of non-supervisory workers will be eligible to retire by the end of FY 2010.

But the folks at OPM aren't giving up on the notion. According to Steve Barr's Thanksgiving Day Federal Diary column in the Washington Post, OPM now projects the big retirement wave will start in 2008, and run through 2010.

That could happen, and it almost certainly will occur at selected agencies and in certain kinds of positions across government. As the Partnership notes, there are pockets of government where the cause for concern seems very valid: For example, 87 percent of claims assistants and examiners in the Social Security Administration and 94 percent of the agency's administrative law judges will reach retirement eligibility by 2010.

Mostly, though, I still get the impression that this "retirement wave" stuff is mostly being used as a recruiting tool to lure young people into government (check out the headline on Barr's column: "A Cornucopia of Government Jobs May Be Just Around the Corner") and to prod agencies to streamline their hiring systems in order to attract better candidates for those positions that do come open.

FBI agent Richard B. Marx managed the effort to comb through almost 2 million pounds of World Trade Center debris at a Staten Island, N.Y. landfill to look for evidence that might help in the investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks. His work earned him a spot as a finalist in the 2003 Service to America Medals competition, co-sponsored by Government Executive. Unfortunately, it also drew the attention of investigators at the Justice Department inspector general's office, who thought he may have been letting FBI agents take material from the landfill as souvenirs. It turned out that the allegedly missing evidence was in fact sent to museums and FBI headquarters, the Washington Times reports today. Still, IG investigators said Marx "lacked candor" in interviews, and the bureau handed him a 10-day suspension and letter of reprimand--a punishment which Marx's supporters say stems from a "gross abuse of authority."

There was a time when "plain language" regulations were all the rage. (In fact, there still is a Plainlanguage.gov Web site.) Now it appears that the Office of Management and Budget will settle for getting agencies to issue reasonably clear guidance to the public on what their regulations actually mean.

As you sit down for your Thanksgiving feast, ponder this, courtesy of Scripps Howard News Service:

The amount of food available for Americans to eat has increased 16 percent over the last 35 years, from 1,675 pounds in 1970 to 1,950 pounds in 2003. That translates to about 2,757 calories per person each day--about 500 daily calories more than was available for consumption in 1970, the Department of Agriculture says.

Eat up, everybody!

By knocking out a gene in the brain, NIH-funded scientists have created a fearless mouse. Hmm, a mouse without fear...where have I seen this before? Oh yeah, here. Or maybe here.

The Sacramento Bee reported yesterday on the plight of workers laboring for Forest Service contractors to maintain national forests in the West. Many of the employees are undocumented migrants. Injuries they suffer on the job often go unreported, and safety inspections are few and far between. The Forest Service's response? An exercise in buck-passing. Here's agency spokesman Matt Matthes:

We're the Forest Service. We're not the INS or the Department of Labor.

(By the way, Mr. Matthes, the INS isn't the INS any more, either. It's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.)

Great little snippet of a quote from State Department spokesman J. Adam Ereli's briefing Friday in the "Verbatim" feature on the Washington Post's Federal Page today:

Q: Do you have any reaction to the comment of [Venezuelan] President [Hugo] Chavez saying that President Bush is a killer and a madman?

Ereli: It's not true.

The FBI issued a warning Monday about scam e-mails, purportedly from the agency or the CIA, indicating that recipients' Internet use is being monitored. Meanwhile, agency officials report they continue to see cyber-scammers trading on the FBI's s name in an effort to lure the gullible to parting with their money.

Some excerpts from the less-than literate spam message that's been floating around cyberspace for a couple of years now:

Our records show that you have closed an internet transaction with David Harrys. We are now able to inform you that this person is an internet scam artist. For almost 2 years he had ripped off over 100 internet buyers using Western Union for payment. We were not able to catch him until now because we don't have enough proves and details about him. Here is what we suggest:

Please pretend that you are interested in buying a product from him and accept any offer that he will make you. Follow all the instructions you receive from him regarding the payment procedure via Western Union wire transfer. We will watch this particular transaction and arrest him when he will try to pick up the funds at the Western Union office.

This way we will be able to stop his illegal activity and you will receive this amount you will have to send now and a $10,000 bonus from FBI for your cooperation.

"We don't have enough proves and details"? A $10,000 bonus for cooperating with law enforcement? These are what's known as red flags, people.

The Transportation Security Administration has some news for kids flying over the river and through the woods this holiday season: You little ones need to be prepared to part with your stuffed animals, and you older ones might end up in federal custody if you think it's funny to joke about threats to aircraft. From the agency's news release on holiday tips:

When traveling with children, a discussion in advance of airport security may be helpful. At the checkpoint, children will need to temporarily part with such things as blankets and stuffed animals, and older children need to know that any comment suggesting a threat to an aircraft or its passengers is taken seriously by TSA security officers.

Last year, federal agencies reached an all-time high in customer satisfaction. The government received a score of 72.1 out of a possible 100 on the American Customer Satisfaction Index.

This year, Americans are expressing their satisfaction with organizations of a different sort. The latest customer satisfaction ratings show that consumers are more satisfied than ever with the quality of beer produced by Anheuser Busch, Miller, and Coors.

Between fiscal 2000 and 2003, as the war on terrorism cranked up, the FBI added 1,400 agents to its National Foreign Intelligence Program. At the same time, the number of agents assigned to investigations of organized crime, drugs, white-collar crime, and violent offenses was cut by more than 1,800. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., wants to swing the scales back--at least partially. He has introduced a bill to add 1,000 agents to focus exclusively on the FBI's traditional crime-fighting mission.

When I saw the headline on a press release issued by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. yesterday ("Levin Amendment to Correct 'Catch-22' for 'Aliens of Extraordinary Ability' Headed for Congressional Approval"), I started to think that maybe there actually was something to those rumors about Area 51. But it turns out the legislation was just an effort to win speedy approval of the citizenship application of ice dancer Tanith Belbin, who lives in Michigan, so that she can compete for the United States in the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Still, if we ever do make contact with extraterrestrials, Levin's amendment makes a lot of sense: After all, why shouldn't E.T. get on the fast track to citizenship, what with his extraordinary ability to heal the sick just by touching them with his long, bony finger?

Three Democratic senators--Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Tom Carper of Delaware--have a message for the Bush administration: Go ahead and fill the political ranks of most federal agencies with hacks and cronies, but Homeland Security must be run by people who actually know something about their jobs. Yesterday, the trio introduced the Department of Homeland Security Qualified Leaders Act, which, they said, would "establish minimum qualification standards for most Senate-confirmed positions" in the department.

Eschew the elevator: That's the message GSA will soon be sending. It's the law--or it will be when the House and Senate pass the fiscal 2006 Transportation-Treasury appropriations bill. A provision tucked away in the bill states: "The General Services Administration shall conduct a program to promote the use of stairs in all federal buildings." (Thanks to David P. for the tip.)

This week, the New Yorker outed "Article III Groupie," the blogger behind a popular site about the federal judiciary called "Underneath Their Robes." The magazine's Jeffrey Toobin wrote that the provocative blogger, who prefers to be called A3G, "writes like a boozy débutante, dishing about the wardrobes, work habits, and idiosyncrasies of the 'superhotties of the federal judiciary' and 'Bodacious Babes of the Bench.' " And he revealed that A3G is actually a man--and even more surprising, a federal employee: David Lat, a Newark, N.J.-based assistant U.S. attorney. Having learned that, you doubtless won't be surprised to hear that "Underneath Their Robes" has suddenly disappeared.

GovExec's David Perera reports that Treasury CIO Ira Hobbs told attendees at the Input FedFocus 2006 conference in Washington yesterday that the department's bureaus and divisions really were becoming one big happy family. “We’re moving to do more in a holistic sense that adds value for the whole," he said. But he also added, “It’s good for families to have fights, because it's through fights that we all grow.”

Here's a little hint, courtesy of the folks at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement: If you're going to participate in a bizarre plot to find a homeless man so he can be murdered and his body used to fake the death of someone facing federal prosecution on immigration fraud charges, you might want to make sure the person who's death is being faked is roughly the same size as the victim. James Rand, 49, was found guilty by a federal jury of aiding and abetting in murdering William White, a 47-year-old homeless man who was suffocated in an effort to fake the death of Joseph Kalady. But ICE agents were tipped off to the scheme by the fact that White weighed about 175 pounds, while Kalady tipped the scales at fully 450 pounds.

The Health and Human Services Department is tooting its horn in its annual Performance and Accountability Report, noting that it has achieved a clean financial audit opinion for the seventh year in a row.

Here's a little pre-Thanksgiving news flash: Apparently, turkeys are like NFL linemen--they just keep getting bigger. The National Agricultural Statistics Service reports that the average weight of turkeys slaughtered in 2005 was 28.2 pounds, up from 27.2 pounds a year ago. It's all part of a long-term trend: Turkeys' average weight has increased 57 percent since 1965, when a typical bird weighed only 18 pounds.

As Hurricane Katrina lingered off the coast of the United States in late August, representatives from a range of agencies were engaged in a training exercise about handling a disaster of a different sort: the loss of a nuclear missile from a submarine in shallow coastal waters. Participants in the exercise--many of whom worked in heavy protective suits in hot humid, Georgia weather--pronounced it a success. But a news release from Sandia National Laboratories shows that they also learned a lesson that Bush administration, Homeland Security and Defense officials were about to absorb in a real-world way:

The exercise revealed the strengths and weaknesses--both bureaucratic and naturally occurring--of the massive attempt at coordinating numerous government agencies to achieve a common task.

It's becoming increasingly clear that the main impediment to a settlement in the age-old lawsuit over the Interior Department's management of Indian trust funds is Royce Lamberth, the U.S. district judge overseeing the case. Yesterday, a federal appeals court ruled that Lamberth's order requiring a detailed historical accounting of the management of the trust funds was unreasonable--as in, it would take 200 years to complete the task. Here's the first clue that Lamberth's order was out of whack: Neither side in the case thought it made sense.

Congratulations are in order for some distinguished civil servants who have completed their training and are ready to enter the battle to defend the homeland. Twelve new teams of dogs joined the Transportation Security Administration’s National Explosives Detection Canine Team Program following graduation last week at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.

David Walker is nominally the head of the Government Accountability Office. But really, he's a professional Gloomy Gus, having taken on the unenviable job of telling anybody who'll listen that we're headed toward a fiscal catastrophe of epic proportions. After Walker finished up his "demographic tsunami" routine for a group of reporters recently, USA Today reports, one reporter finally asked the question that must cross every person's mind at some point as they listen to the GAO chief's litany of impending woe: "Aren't you depressed in the morning?"

It doesn't look like ex-OMB procurement chief David Safavian's effort to defend himself against lying and obstruction of justice charges is off to that great a start. According to an AP story, at a hearing Monday, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman was unimpressed with the argument of Safavian's lawyer, Barbara Van Gelder, that he was targeted for prosecution merely to win his cooperation in the investigation of superlobbyist Jack Abramoff. "Unless you can meet the very high threshold for selective or discriminatory prosecution, then so what?" Friedman said.

As if terrorist attacks, roadside bombs, and sniper fire weren't enought to be concerned about, now U.S. troops in Iraq have to worry about rabies, too.

Attention BlackBerry-obsessed federal employees: The Justice Department has your back. The department has filed a "statement of interest" in the massive patent dispute case involving BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion Ltd., saying that even if a judge orders the company to temporarily stop selling the devices (and the e-mail service that goes with them), federal workers must be allowed to continue using them. "It is imperative that some mechanism be incorporated that permits continuity of the federal government's use of BlackBerry devices," the filing said.

The Senate is considering fast-moving legislation to create a new Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency. Here's what would make the new entity unique: It would be the first federal agency in history to be fully exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. “Information that relates to the activities, working groups, and advisory boards of the BARDA shall not be subject to disclosure under [FOIA], unless the Secretary or Director determines that such disclosure would pose no threat to national security,” the bill states. We journalists don't like that prospect. Not one bit.

Ex-FEMA chief Michael Brown is finally off the agency's payroll, AP reports. Homeland Security officials had let him continue to collect his salary for 30 days after he left the agency, while he provided information for an ongoing inquiry about the Katrina response. Then, amazingly, they extended the deal for another month. But apparently Brown himself eventually realized the PR nightmare this was creating, and told the agency to cut him off.

I hope you'll understand why I feel like yesterday's news of the release of a Homeland Security inspector general's report on the proposed merger of the Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureaus sounded like, well, yesterday's news. Because I assume that you, like me, knew all about this report way back in September, when GovExec's Justin Rood obtained it and wrote about it.

Here's a little Veterans Day reminder from the Office of Special Counsel: You're not supposed to deny reemployment rights to employees who leave to serve in the military--even if you're a Defense Department organization. OSC has petitioned the Merit Systems Protection Board to force the Army Corps of Engineers' Jacksonville District to give Russell G. Jones his job back. Jones had left the Army Corps for a tour of duty with the Air Force, but the agency refused to give him his old job back when he finished--despite the fact that, according to OSC, "there was no change in the agency’s circumstances that made it impossible or unreasonable to reemploy Jones." That, OSC says, is a clear violation of the 1994 Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act.

"NRC Considering Request by Minnesota to be an Agreement State." As a native of Minnesota, I can tell you that it's always been an "agreement state." In fact, they might as well do away with that whole "Land of 10,000 Lakes" thing on the license plates and just go with "The Agreement State."

The Center for Consumer Freedom--an advocacy group backed by restaurants and food companies that says its mission is to counteract the "growing cabal of 'food cops,' health care enforcers, militant activists, meddling bureaucrats, and violent radicals who think they know 'what's best for you"--wants Uncle Sam to tell Americans that there's no avian flu risk from downing a bucket of fried chicken. The group sponsored a survey which found that 47 percent of Americans think eating an infected chicken can give you the disease.

That's preposterous, says David Martosko, CCF’s director of research. "Even if an infected bird reached the U.S. food supply, properly cooking it would kill the avian influenza virus. Our government should be reminding Americans of this on a regular basis." Oh, sure, that should do the trick: "Hey Americans, that chicken you're eating could have come from a flu-ridden bird. But don't worry, if it's properly cooked, you're in the clear!"

The Army is looking for a few good entertainers. This week, the service posted a solicitation on the FedBizOpps Web site for "a tour manager and artists" to head over to the Middle East to perform for troops providing continuing support to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Specifically, the soliciation seeks acts in the following areas: Top 40, country, rap/soul/r&b, comedy, Latin/Hispanic, Polynesian dance (I swear I'm not making that up) and "AC/DC tribute band." I think that last one's a giveaway that they want ThundHerStruck on the tour.

Oh, and by the way, lest any of these performers get the wrong idea, the solicitation specifically spells out that during the performances, "an acknowledged deity will not be referred to in a manner that would offend a follower of any faith," and "profanity, vulgarity, or connotations of sexual depravity and perversion will not be used."

A Defense Department reader argues that labor unions challenging the new National Security Personnel System are making "a tactical error of strategic proportions. They have tried to present NSPS primarily as a union-busting issue rather than a taxpayer protection issue." He uses his own experience as an example:

Under NSPS, three of my last five bosses would’ve killed my career because I questioned their ethics and public responsibilities--and not necessarily overtly. One was a consummate liar, one was a sexual harasser (not of me but I provided damaging testimony), and one hated reservists and veterans. Under NSPS, they would have had nearly unlimited ability to not only stifle the traditional end-of-year bonuses (which some did) but also cost-of-living and longevity increases. All tried to demand fealty to them and not to the taxpayers. Ultimately, my ability to provide for my family would have been seriously compromised so that I could not continue public service. And that is just plain wrong.

Here's AFGE President John Gage on the lawsuit filed by a coalition of unions challenging the Pentagon's new National Security Personnel System:

As I’ve said before, to call this a "National Security" system is a joke. A better name for this personnel plan would be "The Cronyism Chronicles."

Fewer and fewer members of Congress have any direct experience with the military. One way to remedy that is for legislators to join the reserves. But Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is finding that sometimes, that can get you in hot water. Graham, an Air Force reservist, was appointed two years ago to the service's Court of Criminal Appeals. Now, USA Today reports, an airman is seeking to have his conviction on cocaine charges thrown out on the grounds that Graham--one of three appellate judges who reviewed the case--shouldn't be allowed to serve on a military court because of separation of powers concerns. He argues that because Graham is a politician, legal decisions he makes might be calculated to please the voters back home.

Lawyers for the airman also make another novel argument: that as head of the Senate Armed Services Committee's panel on military personnel issues, Graham has a conflict because he has oversight over pay and benefit issues that could affect him directly.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., has some new marching orders for the Environmental Protection Agency: Stop Canada from dumping its trash in her state. “Nearly 415 trash trucks roll into Michigan from Canada every day,” Stabenow says. “These trucks dump more than 11.5 million cubic yards of trash into Michigan landfills every year, threatening our health, our environment and our homeland security.”

I'm sure Canadian trash is smelly, disgusting, and at least as hazardous to your health as good ol' American garbage. But a threat to homeland security? Bit of a stretch there.

There's a long history in Congress of coming up with creative names for pieces of legislation, and many of them even catch on--like the No Child Left Behind Act. But I think a proposal by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. to rename the budget reconciliation bill currently under debate in the Senate isn't likely to gain much support, especially from his colleagues in the Republican majority. Lautenberg wants to call the measure the Moral Disaster of Monumental Proportion Reconciliation Act. (Thanks to Karen R. for the tip.)

Senate Rejection of Unfair Payment Limits is “Hard-Fought Victory for Rice”. That rice--what a battler.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Food Safety and Inspection Service are taking another crack at that age-old problem of rationalizing federal food safety efforts. For now, the general rule is that FSIS oversees meat and poultry products and FDA takes everything else. But that leads to some weird lines of distinction when it comes to processed foods. For example, FSIS has responsibility for corn dogs, while FDA oversees bagel dogs.

A joint FDA/FSIS task force has crafted a Solomonic bureaucratic solution to the problem, as follows:

The working group has recommended an approach that will utilize defined conditions and factors when making jurisdictional decisions for existing and future food products containing meat and poultry. Food products that primarily contain meat and poultry ingredients, such as bagel dogs, meat and poultry-based sandwiches, and natural casings, are recommended to be regulated by FSIS. Those food products that contain meat and/or poultry as ingredients for the purpose of accentuating flavor only and do not contribute to the identity of the food product, such as pizza, are recommended to be under FDA’s jurisdiction.

That clears everything up, right?

In a Washington Post op-ed today, Baton Rouge-based writer Jennifer Moses gets in this dig:

Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, came to Baton Rouge to praise the efforts of local churches. (Well he should, too, since the federal government has all but abandoned us to our own resources.)

• More than 72,000 unified federal personnel were deployed.


• More than 49,800 lives were saved and rescued.


• 1,189,000 households received more than $3.51 billion in disaster assistance.


• Approximately 54,800 housing damage inspections were completed.


• More than 73 percent of affected drinking water systems in Louisiana and 78 percent in Mississippi were restored.


• 93 Disaster Recovery Centers were opened across the Gulf Coast.

The Minerals Management Service is back. The Interior Department agency has returned to its New Orleans offices, after spending several weeks working out of a temporary facility in Houston. About 350 employees are working on five floors of the agency's office building on Elmwood Park Blvd., even though repairs of the building haven't been completed yet. Another 100 are scattered in field offices nearby, and 150 remain in Houston until the repairs are finished.

The National Park Service's plan to overhaul its guidelines for managing the parks took a bipartisan beating on Capitol Hill yesterday. Here's Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Idaho, who heads the Energy and Natural Resources' national parks subcommittee: "It's very controversial and [the Park Service] put the wrong emphasis on it." Here's Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.: "There's no reason to do this when you're going to diminish what's in the parks." And, finally, Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.: "Strikes me this is a slippery slope and a very major change."

Here's the response of Park Service Deputy Director Steve Martin: "This is a draft, and if we have inadvertently dropped a sentence that is that important, we can have a discussion and put it back in."

Sounds to me like the senators are looking for more than the reinstatement of a few dropped sentences.

From the executive order creating a "Coordinator of Federal Support for the Recovery and Rebuilding of the Gulf Coast Region:"

Sec. 4. Duties of Heads of Departments and Agencies. Heads of executive departments and agencies shall respond promptly to any request by the Coordinator, and shall, consistent with applicable law, provide such information as the Coordinator deems necessary to carry out the Coordinator's mission, and shall otherwise cooperate with the Coordinator to the greatest extent practicable to facilitate the performance of the Coordinator's mission.

Sec. 5. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) authority granted by law to an agency or the head thereof;

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budget, administrative, or legislative proposals; or

(iii) the chain of command over the Armed Forces provided in section 162(b) of title 10, United States Code.

Oh, and the coordinator (Donald Powell, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, as it turns out) reports not to President Bush but to Homeland Security's Michael Chertoff. Other than that, he's a czar.

The Postal Service has decided to scale back a sweet perk for executives: payments of up to $25,000 to cover moving expenses. Now the bonuses will be capped at two weeks salary. "Policies are always under review," Gerry McKiernan, spokesman for the Postal Service, told the Associated Press. "We like to stay current with economic and market conditions." Sure. And they also like to stay current with the demands of Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who had sharply criticized the bonus program.

"Bush Announcing Strategy to Battle Flu." Lots of rest, fluids, and acetaminophen or ibuprofen to reduce fever and aches always works for me.

Lots of folks are indignant about the push in the Senate to freeze federal pay next year. Many are writing in to say that if senators are so concerned about cutting costs, they should look at their own pay. I hate to break it to you, but senators have already turned down their raise next year.

Here's a disturbing milestone: Environmental Protection Agency officials announced yesterday that 1 million pounds of household hazardous waste has been collected in Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. That includes cleaning products, lawn and garden products, pesticides, herbicides, fuels, paints and batteries.

My favorite e-mail so far in response to yesterday's item on the allegedly impending mass exodus of baby boomer feds:

It is not going to a take a rocket scientist to figure out when the civilian retirement wave will come. It will be the day after the first new personnel system review for performance pay is completed! Especially in DoD! I know that will be mine!