GovernmentExecutive.com

Awkward: That's the word for what it's like when you give $50,000 to a group whose aim is to bring down the presidential candidacy of a U.S. senator, and then you get nominated for an ambassadorship by the president who defeated that senator, and then you have to answer questions from the senator at your confirmation hearing.

There's a price to be paid for designing and constructing federal buildings in major urban areas in an era when concerns about both terrorism and the state of the environment are running high. San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross report that an 18-story state of the art federal building in the city is a year and a half late and millions of dollars over budget. One problem was that "ecologically sensitive fly ash" was mixed into the cement used in construction, causing it to take much looner than expected to cure. Another was that tons of steel and concrete were added to help the building withstand a bomb blast.

Freaked out about what yesterday's stock market plunge might mean to your Thrift Savings Plan investments? Ralph Smith of FedSmith.com has two pieces of advice: Review your investment allocation to see how much you have in stocks, but "keep in mind that panic selling is not usually a good move."

You'll notice a few subtle but important changes in Fedblog today. They are the result of shifting to the Moveable Type publishing platform, and they're designed to, well, turn Fedblog into a real blog. For years, we've used a homegrown publishing system that was highly efficient and easy to use, but lacked some of the features that make blogs what they are, such as the ability to comment immediately on any post, and to link separately to individual posts.

We've tried to keep the same look and feel of the old Fedblog, so it won't appear dramatically different to longtime readers. But do let me know if you experience any problems. And let's get the dialogue going: If something jumps out at you in any post, comment on it!

Finally, while we work out the kinks in the new system, some of the older entries may look a little funny. Bear with me while we deal with that.

Congratulations to H. Joan Ehrlich, director of the San Francisco District Office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She's been appointed chair of the San Francisco Bay Area Federal Executive Board. Ehrlich says she hopes to get agencies to focus on recruiting and promoting disabled persons during her one-year term.

Bloomberg reports that the Government Accountability Office has ruled that the Air Force should reopen bidding on a $15 billion contract for 141 HH-47 helicopters, awarded last November to Boeing. Losing bidders Lockheed Martin and United Technologies had protested the award.

Republican senators are gearing up for a fight this week over legislation that would provide collective bargaining rights to airport security screeners, the Washington Times reports. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., calls the proposal, which has already been approved by the House, an "operational and homeland-security disaster." The White House has already expressed its opposition to the measure, and GOP senators are drafting a letter to President Bush seeking a veto of the bill that contains the screener unionization provision if it passes.

GovExec's Jon Marino uncovers an interesting argument against outsourcing a particular type of federal operation today: A source warns him that contracting out food service at immigrant detention centers might be a bad idea, because one of the big reasons detainees riot is the quality of the food.

Now for the latest on the sick leave challenge. Whoever is the current leader, it will be difficult to top the achievement of William Reckert, who died in April 2005 after more than 50 years in government. Here's the key part of his story, as it appeared in his obituary in the Washington Post:

Mr. Reckert began his career in the federal government in 1951 as a medical transcriber for the Veterans Administration, moving to the Justice Department five years later. When he retired with 53 years of federal service, a year and a day before his death, he had accumulated 5,500 hours of unused sick leave, which his son said he donated for use by other federal employees.

His work included projects for U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, witness interrogations for the Justice Department's civil fraud division, the antitrust division's IBM case and the Watergate special prosecution team.

His family said he discovered the infamous 18 1/2-minute gap as he typed the June 20, 1972, secret recording of an Oval Office conversation between President Richard Nixon and chief of staff H.R. Haldeman.

Now the private sector is starting to get worried about the anticipated federal retirement tsunami, AP reports. The central concern is that some agencies, such as the Patent and Trademark Office and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, already have growing backlogs of work, even before the baby boomer exodus has hit with full force.

Looks like the cover of the December issue of Government Executive has taken on a life of its own. You can't really see it in the online version, but the young woman on the cover, Kendra Kozak, happens to be wearing a small nose stud and multiple ear piercings. That look just didn't sit well with some readers, touching off a vigorous discussion in the the Letters to the Editor sections of the January and February issues of the magazine.

This weekend, the debate made its way to the pages of the Business section of the Washington Post, specifically Amy Joyce's "Life at Work" column, which noted that the "teeny, tiny nose stud caused a maelstrom that went on for two issues, starting with a retiree who wrote in to complain that the photo was offensive and embarrassing to civil servants." Oh c'mon people, can't we just all get along?

"NASA's Plan for Unstable Astronauts: Duct Tape, Tranquilizers"

Here's a video from a guy who thinks it's ridiculous for the federal government to close due to a sleet and snow storm, but that it's apparently OK to drive one's car in said storm one-handed while using the other hand to videotape the traffic around you:

By the way, the sick leave challenge is generating a lot of e-mail. Some samples:

• "I have only worked 35 years and 4 months. I have only used 1 day during this time for 3664 hours of sick leave. I do not plan on working another nine years. But I did read about a lady that worked for the director of the FBI that retired with 45 years of service and never took one day off."


• "It would be interesting to calculate just how much in dollars the 4000-plus hours of sick leave are actually worth. For starters, under CSRS he will receive approximately 84.2% of his high-3 avg when he retires......that's 4.2% above the max rate (80%) that most folks receive when they reach 42 years of service. "I have about 2100 hours of sick leave and recently found out there isn't any 'cap' on the number of sick leave hrs one can accumulate and have applied to the high 3 average computation. So, if Mr. Gibbs continues to accumulate sick leave the 82.4% figure can definitely go higher. Also, Mr. Gibbs is now accumulating his 7% retirement contribution in a special account which he will get back (plus 3% interest) when he retires. Once a person completes 41 years, 11 months of service their retirement contributions are considered paid in full. So, Mr Gibbs is accumulating a tidy additional sum that he will get back upon retirement, plus 3% interest. By the way, these dollars are tax-free since taxes have already been paid on the retirement contribution. However, the 3% interest is taxable."


• "Cannot beat [the record] but not far behind, with 4328 hours and counting with less than 44 years of service."


• "My annual leave is used for vacations and 'personal take care of stuff days.' My sick days are for exactly what they are. As for the 44 years of time tht will be paid for, I have a life outside of work. When I move on work won't remember me and I will certainly try not to remember it."


• "Now, probably he has come to work from time to time with a cold or sore throat or bad cough when he should have stayed home, thus passing it along to his coworkers, who subsequently needed to take sick leave ... So no, they couldn't have accumulated as many hours as he did over that same amount of time ... because they were sick at home (where they should have been in that case)."


• "Good thing he's not under FERS ... he'd lose every bit of it. Those of us in FERS make no attempt to save sick leave. I keep 450 hours for emergencies which I will use up when I close in on retirement."

Oh, one more thing: If you're interested in exploring the subject of what happens to your sick leave when you retire in more depth, see Tammy Flanagan's Feb. 9 Retirement Planning column.

We have a new sick leave front-runner! Angelo Fracassa of the IRS says he has accumulated 5294 hours of sick time in 51 years at the agency. He says he hasn't used a single hour of sick leave in all that time. (For the record, Charlie Gibbs says he hasn't, either.) Fracassa has a Mike Causey column to back up his claim.

Charlie Gibbs, who works at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, reports that he has accumulated 4568 hours of sick leave in more than 44 years of service. So here's today's challenge: Can anyone beat that? Let me know at tshoopgovexec.com.

NASA's getting serious about facilitating commercial space development. Yesterday, the agency announced a partnership between its Ames Research Center in California and Virgin Galactic, a subsidiary of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group. The two organizations will collaborate on developing new space suits, heat shields, hybrid rocket motors and hypersonic vehicles.

National Treasury Employees Union president Colleen Kelley has a response to yesterday's USA Today story about government retirement benefits vs. those in the private sector:

In making the argument that government salaries are higher than those of the private sector, the USA Today article ignores that valid salary surveys, conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and confirmed by the Bush-appointed Federal Salary Council, show that federal employees earn about 13 percent less than their private sector counterparts in similar positions. Those surveys also factor in locality pay, which Congress established in 1990 in acknowledgement of lagging federal compensation. Additionally, the story neglects a crucial element -- most positions in the federal workforce are professional and highly-skilled, often requiring college and advanced degrees, while many jobs in the private sector are retail and service jobs. The USA Today comparison is invalid.

Further, federal employees have enjoyed no substantive improvements in their benefits in some years. And when compared with private sector counterparts in comparable occupations, federal employee benefits are substandard. One disturbing trend in the private sector, which will harm millions of Americans, is a move by some companies to cut back -- or eliminate entirely -- such critical forms of compensation as health insurance and pensions. Let us hope the public sector never follows suit. A strong and highly skilled civil service is critical to the safety, security and stability of our county. Competitive pay and benefits are essential to that goal. Shortchanging federal agencies in their efforts to recruit and retain the best and brightest equals shortchanging our communities, our families and our lives.

I bet there's at least one thing you didn't know about the Bush administration's management chief, Clay Johnson, in the following paragraph from today's New York Times:

Mr. Johnson, the deputy budget director, met Mr. Bush in 1961 at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., when they were two 15-year-olds far from home. Mr. Johnson later ran the governor's personnel office in Austin; in Washington, he keeps a George Bush doll on his desk and is one of the few people in town to have had the Bushes at his home for dinner, motorcade, Secret Service and all.

USA Today stirs the pot today with a huge cover package on how retirement packages for government workers are much more generous than those in the private sector -- and the gap is growing. The piece magnifies the distinctions by lumping public-sector benefits at all levels -- state, local and federal --together. Some high points:

• At the federal level, the unfunded liability for military and civil servant retirement benefits is bigger, at $4.7 trillion, than the one for Social Security, which weighs in at $4.6 trillion.


• With a supplemental annuity waiting for him, Johnnie Nichols, a civilian Defense Department employee, says he's itching to get out. "The sweet spot for me is about age 56," he says. "When I run the numbers, the system almost forces me to retire" early.


• John Moorlach, an Orange County supervisor who's trying to cut benefits for civil servants, says politicians "love to give generous retirement benefits because they don't cost anything today and they'll be out of office when the payments come due." As for the public, "eyes droop with boredom when you bring up the topic," he says.

John Negroponte, a career diplomat who recently gave up his post as national intelligence director to take the No. 2 slot at the State Department, has some words of advice -- or maybe warning -- for newly minted graduates of the Foreign Service Institute, the New York Times reports: Forget about London, Paris and Rome. Take up hardship posts in Baghdad and other hotspots. Key quote: “The impact of our presence at some of those remote places, pound for pound, is really much higher than if you are in Western Europe or somewhere where you kind of blend into the scenery.”

Nine minutes late coming back from your break? You're fired! Apparently it's actually not impossible to dismiss a federal employee, FedSmith's Susan Smith reports.

If you work for the federal government, you're probably already familiar with the "leave year" concept. (If not, just remember this: It begins on the first day of the first full biweekly pay period in a calendar year, and ends on the day immediately before the first day of the first full biweekly pay period in the following calendar year.) Are you interested in knowing how leave years will break down between now and 2020? If so, the Office of Personnel Management has the answer for you.

Retired Navy Vice Adm. J. Michael McConnell today at his swearing-in as the new director of national intelligence:

For a person who began a public service career 40 years ago this summer as an ensign serving in Vietnam, this is an opportunity and a privilege of a lifetime. Mr. President, I am humbled by your trust, and I'm most encouraged by your continued commitment to the transformation of the intelligence community, to not only serve you better, but to better serve our national leadership in the future.

We will revamp security and workforce policies of past.
Our nation requires that we have the best and brightest of our citizens in our ranks to fight a very different enemy. The old policies have hampered some common sense reforms, such as hiring first and second generation Americans who possess native language skills, cultural insights, and a keen understanding of the threats we face.

The conventional wisdom holds that the federal workforce is about to change dramatically, because the attitude of Generation Y workers is so different than that of their parents. I've long been skeptical of that notion, and now I'm more skeptical than ever. The Washington Post's Steve Barr reports today on new Merit Systems Protection Board data showing that younger folks working at federal agencies came into government for the same reason their elders did: job security. Benefits and advancement opportunities were big factors, too. It's true that lots of younger folks these days expect to hop from job to job and even career to career before settling down. But not all of them do. And it looks like those that don't are disproportionately interested in federal careers.

Ouch! On 24 last night, supercounterterrorist agent Jack Bauer's evil father, who is apparently behind every bad thing that has happened on the show in the past two years, cornered Jack in a warehouse. In an effort to inflict maximum anguish on his son, he told him the most hurtful thing he could come up with: that Jack had turned his back on his family to become a mere "civil servant."

Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., has a message for Office of Personnel Management Director Linda Springer: Great job implementing the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program, signing up 700,000 employees when only 200,000 were expected to join. Now get cracking on leveraging the purchasing power of that huge group of people to get a great deal on premiums.

In the market for a travel trailer? FEMA's got a deal for you.

Folks in Brooklyn, N.Y., are apparently very curious about a strange-looking spire atop the Cadman Plaza East post office. So the Brooklyn Paper went straight to the source -- the building's owner, the General Services Administration -- for an explanation. The agency's rather unexciting response: It's just a decorative lightning rod.

If the Pentagon and the Veterans Affairs Department need official data-use agreements under federal law to share medical records about severely injured troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan to receive treatment in VA hospitals, they should work them out--pronto. Because otherwise they're going to have to endure more headlines like this one, from Al Kamen's "In The Loop" column in today's Washington Post: "Pentagon Red Tape Keeps Medical Records From Doctors of the Wounded."

The Bush administration is taking members of Congress at their word when they say they want to break the pork-barrel spending habit. The Washington Times reports today that Office of Management and Budget Director Rob Portman has told agencies to feel free to ignore requests for earmarked spending that are not written into law, but requested separately by members of Congress. Agencies have traditionally honored such requests for fear that if they didn't, their budgets would be cut the next year. And I've got to believe that some of them will continue to pay attention to lawmakers' wishes, despite what OMB says. Just don't expect them to admit it publicly.

I hesitate to use this blog to post internal news, but I thought this press release we issued today was worth sharing: "Allan Holmes to Join Government Executive Magazine."

What do Jimmy Carter, Jerry Seinfeld and Walter
Cronkite have in common? They love national parks.

Clay Johnson, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, is slated to introduce a plan today to streamline the security clearance process, USA Today reports. One idea: To cut down on the number of required interviews of friends and neighbors of applicants for top-secret clearances. "Do we really need to talk to five neighbors?" Johnson says. By the way, he insists the government is already making progress in cutting down the existing security clearance backlog.

The three top auditors who are examining federal contracting efforts in Iraq told a House panel today about $10 billion in questionable spending, AP reports. And the problem could get worse with President Bush's troop surge in the country.

Over at the Housingfinance.com blog, they've got a contest going relative to a HUD Federal Register notice about "Evaluation of Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Grantee Unit Costs." That's "six consecutive mutually modifying nouns," the blog's Martha Bridegam notes. She thinks that might be a record, and challenges anyone to find a federal reference to beat it. Anybody here up to it? If so, use the link above to send in your entry.

I guess anthrax scares aren't a thing of the past just yet. The Memphis Flyer reports that a federal employee at the Clifford Davis Federal Building in the city opened an envelope this week and discovered that it was filled with white powder. After implementing containment procedures, local officials determined the substance was talcum powder.

The Border Patrol is looking to hire 3,000 more agents to help protect U.S. borders. What better way to get the word out than advertise to hundreds of thousands of people who get the official Super Bowl printed program? At least that's what Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff thought. But folks at the National Football League thought differently, the Washington Times reports today. They rejected a Border Patrol recruitment ad, saying it was too "controversial." The ad "was specific to Border Patrol, and it mentioned terrorism. We were not comfortable with that," said Greg Aiello, a spokesman for the NFL. UPDATE, 2:41 p.m.: Oops, I didn't read the article carefully enough. The ad was designed to run in the printed Super Bowl program, not during the broadcast, so it wouldn't have been seen by "millions and millions" of people. I've updated the item to correct the mistake.

Nothing would ruin Valentine's Day more than giving your sweetheart a bouquet of flowers infested with insects, pests and diseases, right? Well, not to worry. U.S. Customs and Border Protection is on the job, inspecting plants at ports of entry. In 2006, CBP agriculture specialists in Miami processed more than 21 trillion stems of imported flowers, while their colleagues in New York and Los Angeles handled 625 billion and 127 billion, respectively.

Ever wonder what the Navy's phone bill is? A whopping $4 billion a year, reports Defense News (via Defense Tech).

I got the following helpful message from the Office of Personnel Management this afternoon:

The following message applies only to Tuesday, February 13, 2007

The Federal government in the Washington, D.C. area will close at 2:00 pm, today, Tuesday, February 13 due to pending inclement weather, except for emergency personnel.

Road conditions are expected to deteriorate later this afternoon and it is essential to get Federal workers home before dark so transportation authorities can treat the roads.

We will continue to monitor weather conditions and announce the status of government for tomorrow as soon as possible.

It would have been even more helpful had it not also included the following line: "Sent: Tue 2/13/2007 2:22 PM."

How badly does the Defense Department need translation services for the war in Iraq? Enough to issue a contract worth $4.65 billion for such services. The Washington Times reports today that DynCorp is gearing up to fulfill its portion of the contract, which will involve hiring as many as 6,000 local translators and 1,000 U.S. citizens.

John Grobe, a retirement instructor at training firm FPMI who also managed the retirement program in a large office of a federal agency for many years, isn't impressed with the latest effort to repeal the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision, which limit some federal retirees' Social Security benefits. In FPMI's FedNews OnLine, he notes the following:

Identical legislation has been introduced in every session of Congress since the offending penalty and offset have been in existence (21 years and counting.) In fact, in the last session of Congress, over 2/3 of the Representatives signed on as co-sponsors. If it’s so popular, why isn’t it law?

Good news for the FBI! According to an inspector general's report (detailed in today's Washington Post) only 160 of its laptops have gone missing in the last four years or so, compared with 317 over a two-year when the IG issued a similar report in 2002. Of course, that's still a lot of laptops, and at least 10 of them had sensitive information on them. And the FBI also can't account for 160 weapons, including shotguns and submachine guns.

Dick Franson, a 77-year-old Democrat, is running for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota. That's not surprising: It's his sixth Senate run and 23rd try to win public office in the past 40 years, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports. And that's despite the fact that from the 1970s to 1990, Franson couldn't run for office because he was a federal employee and Hatch Act restrictions prevented him from entering partisan races. He's only won once, in a bid to serve as a city alderman in Minneapolis.

The Washington Post reports today that two senior officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who had questioned the management and spending decisions of the agency's ex-administrator are being moved into new jobs -- and they don't look like promotions.

The New York Times reports today that an assessment by the Defense Acquisition University has concluded that the multibillion-dollar Coast Guard Deepwater acquisition is in trouble. The Coast Guard “should be directed to consider the products and services of companies other than” Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, the report concludes. For at least some of the ships planned for purchase under the program, the agency should drop its innovative pre-set pricing approach and conduct full competitions, the report says.

Uh-oh. Apparently not enough federal employees have risen to the challenge of exercising more often, because the Office of Personnel Management has extended the deadline to sign up for the Healthier Feds Physical Activity Challenge by two weeks. Now you have until Feb. 20 to take up the challenge. "I recently signed up," says OPM Director Linda Springer, and she wants agency heads to urge their employees to do the same.

Jon Wellinghoff, who joined the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last summer, came up with an immediate energy conservation idea, The Hill newspaper reports: Dim the lights in the agency's Washington headquarters.

Great nugget from Jane Mayer's New Yorker story this week on the politics of TV's 24:

This past November, U.S. Army Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan, the dean of the United States Military Academy at West Point, flew to Southern California to meet with the creative team behind “24.” Finnegan, who was accompanied by three of the most experienced military and F.B.I. interrogators in the country, arrived on the set as the crew was filming. At first, Finnegan—wearing an immaculate Army uniform, his chest covered in ribbons and medals—aroused confusion: he was taken for an actor and was asked by someone what time his “call” was.

Without junk mail, there might be no Postal Service, according to National Association of Letter Carriers President William H. Young. In a letter to Washington state legislators who are weighing "Do Not Mail" legislation that would allow people to opt out of receiving advertising mail, Young noted that it now makes up more than half of all mail, and said "its loss could mean reductions in current levels of service or, even worse, the collapse of all postal services. In sum, it would be detrimental to the Postal Service, its workforce and to citizens themselves to limit the mail delivered to postal patrons."

Just got this e-mail from a reader:

I wish you would stop lampooning Lisa Nowak -- If her spine snapped and she was flopping about in the street you wouldn't hold her up for ridicule. Her career demonstrates that whatever might have driven her recent behavior, it's because something "snapped" in a less physical, but nonetheless very real, sense.

This is a time for pity and empathy for Lisa and her family, especially her children who need their mother and her parents who must watch their daughter undergo public humilation. Out of common decency the press should let the story fade away so the family can manage this unfortunate
challenge with the dignity we all deserve.

You know what? I can't argue with that. So until there's a compelling reason to raise a serious issue relative to this case, count me out.

The Office of Personnel Management's decision last year to drop the requirement that charities in the Combined Federal Campaign spend 25 percent or less of their total revenue on administrative and fund-raising expenses is running into stiff opposition from charities themselves. The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that Community Health Charities of America has taken its fight against the rule change to Capitol Hill, sending letters to House Government Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and ranking member Tom Davis, R-Va. OPM has acknowledged that a "significant majority" of the hundreds of comments it received when it proposed the new regulation opposed the idea of removing the limit on administrative costs. But the agency says it doesn't have the staff to enforce the old requirement, and told Thomas G. Bognanno, president of Community Health Charities of America last week that the idea of going back on its decision "will not be considered."

Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., has an idea for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: If you're having so much trouble filling civilian positions in Iraq, maybe you could reach out to the hundreds of gay and lesbian linguists who have been dismissed from the military under the Defense Department's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

OK, I'm trying to limit myself to one post per day on the Astronaut Love Triangle case. So here's today's: From the beginning, the truly embarassing detail about this whole affair has been Lisa Nowak's decision to wear diapers during her 900-mile trek from Houston to Orlando, in an effort to avoid having to stop to use a restroom. Quickly, it emerged that Nowak might have gotten this idea from the fact that astronauts wear diapers for portions of space flights. So, the question, is, did Nowak steal some special NASA space diapers for her, um, mission? An affidavit from the Orlando Police Department (which Slate has helpfully posted online) suggests that the answer may be no. In it, a police officer says while interrogating Nowak, he asked her "why she had the baby diapers," which suggests they were standard-issue Huggies or Pampers. Which begs the the question of how she fit into them, since at 5' 4" and 110 pounds, she's not exactly toddler-sized.

President Bush, during an appearance at Shenandoah National Park today to tout his support for his National Park Centennial Initiative:

I've just submitted a budget to the United States Congress. In it we've got a billion dollars new money for operating expenses. And that really helps to honor those who work hard in our Park System. I really love being with our park rangers. These are dedicated people who have got a pretty cool job, when you think about it. (Laughter.) I just want to make sure that they got the money able to do their job.

By now, many federal employees are used to going through metal detectors on their way into work. But at the Philadelphia Mint, it's the detectors on the way out that are really important.

Interesting tidbit from Pacific Business News on the Bush administration's proposal to provide federal employees in Alaska, Hawaii and other far-flung areas with locality pay (which counts toward retirement) instead of the cost-of-living allowances they get now (which aren't taxed, but which don't count toward retirement):

It is not unusual for federal employees in Hawaii who are nearing retirement to request transfers to the Mainland for the express purpose of replacing their COLA income with locality pay in time to affect the final calculation of their retirement pay. Some then move back.

President Bush told members of his Cabinet Monday that they need to "step up to the task" in Iraq by sending more civilian employees to the country, the New York Times reports. Defense Secretary Robert Gates brought up the Cabinet meeting at a Senate hearing yesterday. Gates also let it be known that he was none too pleased with a memo from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice requesting that the military temporarily fill 350 new State Department jobs in Iraq. “If you were troubled by the memo," Gates told senators, "that was mild compared to my reaction when I saw it.”

The Times piece zeroes in on the crux of the issue:

The mounting tensions between the Pentagon and other departments are in some ways the mirror image of those that roiled the government before the 2003 invasion. Then, State Department officials grumbled that the Pentagon was usurping its role in planning the postwar civilian occupation; today, the military is eager to see others step in.

In case you're wondering what happens to you as a federal employee if you're accused of driving 900 miles to try to kill another federal employee, here's the word from NASA: Astronaut Lisa Nowak "is
officially on 30-day leave and has been removed from flight status and all mission-related activities."

Last week, we learned what federal employees think of their agencies. Now comes some data on how the American public rates the federal government. And it turns out that many agencies get pretty high marks. In mid-January, Harris Interactive conducted the latest in a series of surveys dating back to 2000 on what Americans think of a select group of agencies. And it turned out that 12 of 13 agencies got positive ratings.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention topped the list, with 90 percent of respondents saying they understood what the agency does and 84 percent giving it positive marks. Others on the list with approval ratings of 70 percent or higher included the Federal Aviation
Administration (78 percent) the National Institutes of
Health (75 percent), the FBI (74 percent), the Agriculture Department (73 percent) and
the Securities and Exchange Commission (71 percent).

At the other end of the spectrum was the Social Security Administration, with only a 40 percent positive rating, down from 51 percent in 2004 and 60 percent in 2001. (The agency's reputation among the under-50 set is plummeting.) Every other agency won the approval of more than 50 percent of respondents -- even the much-maligned IRS.

Here's House Government Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., in today's New York Times, describing how he sees his role:

• “There has been no cop on the beat. And when there is no cop on the beat, criminals are more willing to engage in crimes.”


• “I want to concentrate on the theme of waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars.”


• “I don’t think we’ve ever seen the magnitude of money that’s being wasted through fraud and abuse and just pure lack of competence."

• “I am determined to try to restore some stability and bipartisanship.”

I guess it would be too much to expect that all federal employees be free of bias and prejudice. AP reports today on efforts to seat a jury in Reno, Nev., for a trial involving a multimillion-dollar discrimination lawsuit against the Walgreen Co. drug store chain. One of the potential jurors, a federal employee, was dismissed after meeting with the judge and attorneys for both sides in the case. Why? Because the fed "thought minority complainants always prevailed," the judge said.

Here's astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak in a 2005 interview on her interests and hobbies:

I have a lot of those and probably not enough time to do most of them. I like reading a lot and doing crossword puzzles, those sorts of quiet hobbies. Also I like taking care of indoor plants, I have a lot of African violets, and outdoor activities. I like bike riding a lot and sailing. That’s just a subset, I could probably think of 10 more things and they’re all fun to do.

Not so long ago, after the controversial 1993 FBI raid on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, the city was a symbol of ideological opposition to the federal government. But now the Office of Personnel Management apparently thinks it is a potential source of the civil servants of tomorrow. OPM announced Monday that Waco/College Station, Texas, will be the latest media market to air its ad campaign pushing public service.

What federal agencies do Americans trust to protect their privacy? For the the third year in a row, the Postal Service tops the list, according to a study by the Ponemon Institute. USPS had a trust score of 83 percent, compared to an average of 47 percent for all 60 agencies studied.

The National Academy of Public Administration, the congressionally chartered organization that studies federal operations, has a new president and CEO: Jennifer L. Dorn, currently the U.S. representative on the Board of the World Bank. Dorn's been a NAPA fellow since 1992, and was on its board from 1997 to 2003.

I finally got around to reading the Sunday New York Times opus on outsourcining in government. Here's my initial reaction: It's nice that they noticed an important trend that some of us in the media have been following for quite some time. The story frames the issue nicely, and includes some nice details that will doubtless resonate with a wider audience (like noting that the Federal Procurement Data System itself has been outsourced). I'm sure that's why the story remains near the top of the most-e-mailed and blogged articles on the Times Web site. But a couple of the details didn't exactly ring true to me:

• Referring to the General Services Administration as "the government's management agency." Not exactly.


• Saying that Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., "added" the "oversight" in the name of the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee. "Restored" would be more accurate, since "oversight" was in there prior to the tenure of Tom Davis, R-Va., as chairman.

As Super Bowl Weekend rolls around again, the Census Bureau weighs in with some facts and figures on how things have changed in the country since the first Super Bowl 40 years ago:

Population

• 1967: 200 million


• 2007: 300.9 million

Number of people 65 or older

• 1967: 19.1 million


• 2005: 36.8 million

Percentage of people 25 or older with at least a high school diploma

• 1967: 51 percent


• 2005: 85 percent

Most popular baby names

• 1967: Michael and Lisa


• 2005: Jacob and Emily

"Circus Agent Pleads Guilty to Smuggling Aliens and Visa Fraud."

The Department of Health and Human Services has partnered with Dreamworks Animation to produce a series of public service anouncements aimed at getting kids to turn off the TV, put down the GameBoy and go outside to play for an hour a day. Two quick thoughts:

• If you want to break kids of their obsession with video entertainment, is using some of the world's most popular cartoon characters the best way to go about it?


• If you insist on taking this approach, is Shrek the best spokesperson? He's not what you'd call svelte.

Increased oversight of defense contracting by Democrats on Capitol Hill may have many effects, but apparently one of them isn't causing stock prices of defense contractors to fall.

The Office of Personnel Management is trying to accentuate the positive about the results of its latest employee survey by focusing on the agencies who scored well. But the word on those agencies who didn't do do very well is leaking out. Yesterday, the Washington Post's Steve Barr reported that the Homeland Security Department "scored last or almost last in job satisfaction, leadership and workplace performance." Today, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn't do very well either, with employees giving increasingly poor marks to the agency's senior leaders. And it sounds like CDC chief Julie Gerberding isn't trying to sugarcoat the results. The paper quotes from an e-mail she sent to CDC employees:

Leaders, managers, supervisors, and team leaders in every part of CDC can and will do better in supporting your ongoing incredible success ... Some may be tempted to 'spin' the information from this survey in either a positive way or a negative way, or claim that it is 'outdated', 'not representative', 'not scientific', or 'incomplete' but I'd like to set aside those concerns. I believe we should just take it at face value...

Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., thinks newly minted Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., needs to learn a thing or two about federal personnel management. The Kansas City Star reports that at a recent Senate Armed Services subcommittee hearing, McCaskill asked a Defense Department official whether employees get fired as a result of revelations of contracting waste and fraud. “The senator from Missouri will learn that there’s no such thing as firing a federal employee,” Martinez interjected. “Just doesn’t happen.” McCaskill said the remark felt like a "pat on the head."