GovernmentExecutive.com

A few months ago, the Washington Post reports, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne decided his department needed a new motto. Here's what a group of employees came up with:

"In our commitment to uphold the highest standards, we affirm these core values: integrity, respect, stewardship, and excellence. Respect: We treat all people with civility, dignity, and professionalism. Integrity: We are honest, ethical, and fair, adhering at all times to the letter and spirit of the law. Stewardship: We serve our nation and its people by managing responsibly the resources entrusted to our care. Excellence: We expect world-class performance and we strive for improvement in all we do."

Too long, Kempthorne said. He challenged the employees to try again, restricting themselves to nine words or less. The result:

"Stewardship for America with Integrity and Excellence."

A little bland, but not bad. Which makes me think we ought to have a little contest. Pick an agency, and, using Kempthorne's nine-word criterion, come up with a motto. Add it using the comments box below. I'll publish the best entries.

The folks at NASA are very proud of their Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer, an underwater robot that recently successfully navigated the depths of Mexico's huge Sistema Zacaton sinkhole. That, agency officials say, was good practice for a future mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, which is thought to be home to an ocean.

But NASA's description of the robot's strengths is straight out of 2001: A Space Odyssey: "The Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer," the space agency says, "is a 3,300-pound, computerized, underwater vehicle that makes its own decisions ... it decides where to swim, which samples to collect and how to get home."

Over at Danger Room, Sharon Weinberger, who spent a month in 2003 as a public diplomacy officer at the U.S. Embassy in Doha, Qatar, has an interesting perspective on the massive new embassy going up in Baghdad. "In reality," she writes, "American embassies are increasingly cut off from those very countries in which the U.S. is supposed to be fostering better relations, and worse, create caricatures of the detached diplomat more interested in tennis than work." But there's a reason for that, she adds: to provide "setback," that is, distance between an embassy and the people who might attack it. More from Weinberger's post:

It would be simple to blame the State Department for cutting itself off from the world, but that’s not really fair. The embassies are the way they are for the same reason that we are deploying increasing numbers of armored vehicles to Iraq: a response to attacks. The embassies are targeted because they are symbols of America; we fortify them to protect Americans and to deny enemies an easy target.

With almost half of the CIA's workforce new to the agency since 9/11, the agency is taking more risks these days, says its director, Michael Hayden. He told USA Today that the agency has actually hired 15 percent of its workforce in just the last two months. The agency is eliminating 10 percent of the contractors who support its core operations, and is requiring some intelligence analysts to work out in the field alongside spies.

In a column published today, Miss Manners weighs in on the issue of dress codes and diplomatic venues. She takes up a letter from a government employee who occasionally leads official delegations to foreign countries, and is peeved that one U.S. embassy overseas attempted to dictate the dress code for an event the employee was hosting at the facility. Miss Manners refuses to pass judgment without knowing the exact provisions of the dress code in question. But, she coyly adds, "Certainly a U.S. embassy can insist that people entering it not be dressed in such a way as to undermine the dignity of the venue."

An agriculture specialist at U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspects flowers for insects:

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, is not happy about recent reports about an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid that found an Oregon company working under contract to the Forest Service had employed 14 undocumented workers. Smith sent a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Rob Portman today asking, “How can we expect the federal government to enforce a massive new guest worker program when it does not abide by current laws?” Smith asked Portman to require agencies and their contractors to join a pilot employee verification program to prevent such incidents in the future.

"Feds Were Wrong To Take Alley, Lawyer Says"

I'm just catching up with a Sunday piece in the Arizona Republic about the Van Bateman, a Forest Service fire management officer who has pleaded guilty to deliberately setting two fires. "Why, the paper asks, "would an expert on the lethal devastation of wildfires suddenly begin setting them after 34 years of public service?"

Bateman actually makes the answer to that question pretty clear: He simply didn't think the rules of the bureaucracy applied to him. Listen to his description of his actions in setting one of the fires:

"I'm saying I came out here, and I was doing my job. I came out, and I lit this thing. Did I obtain the proper authorizations? No, I did not . . . (But) I wasn't trying to start an arson fire. I was just trying to clean this piece of country up. . . . I would be shocked if there's anybody who's spent their career in forest management who hasn't done this."

Larry Humphrey, a retired wildfire supervisor at the Bureau of Land Management who worked with Bateman, calls what he did "a damned minor infraction. There's not a fire management officer who didn't do that sort of thing. . . . If you had to bend the rules a little, you bent the rules."

Do you enjoy exploring America's national parks, monuments, historic sites and other protected federal lands? Do you bring your camera along when you do? Then you could be a winner in the 2007 Share the Experience Photo Contest, sponsored by Ford Motor Co. and the National Park Foundation in partnership with the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service. The contest, which kicked off over Memorial Day weekend, runs until the end of the year. Last year's winner is Terry Worstell of Naperville, Ill. whose photo of the Alabama Hills National Recreation Area will be featured on the 2008 Federal Lands Pass.

With a huge field of presidential candidates and ever-lengthening campaign season, the Secret Service is stretched thin. Since 9/11, the Washington Post reports today, the Bush administration has more than doubled the number of federal officials granted Secret Service protection, from 26 to 54. One solution to the agency's staffing woes? It plans borrow more than 2,000 immigration officers and federal airport screeners next year to help guard presidential candidates.

Ever wondered what it's like to ride on the space shuttle? You can find out, the Associated press reports, in NASA's first foray into the theme park ride business: the Shuttle Launch Experience at Kennedy Space Center.

The Haskell Library occupies a unique position: It straddles the border between Canada and the United States. For years, that meant that patrons could park their cars in Quebec and stroll around and enter the library's front doors in Vermont. But now, the Associated Press reports, Border Patrol officials want to change all that, forcing visitors to detour through one of two official ports of entry before entering the library. Smugglers, they say, are taking advantage of unguarded side streets near the library.

This week's Washington Post Magazine has the answer. And it, like the building itself, is multifaceted.

Ever wanted a view like this one?

It could be yours, the Newport News Times of Oregon reports. Three homes on a 2.81 acre parcel of land adjacent to the Central Oregon Coast Ranger District-Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area office in Waldport, Ore., are up for sale. The homes had been used as temporary housing for employees in the Siuslaw National Forest employees.

Now the General Services Administration, working on behalf of the Forest Service, is going to sell the houses as a group in an online auction. (Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the listing.) The auction starts June 19, and the opening bid is $100,000. If you're interested in bidding, GSA's invitation for bids says you're free to visit the property to check it out, but "please do not disturb the neighbors or the Forest Service employees."

Linda P. Campbell, a columnist and editorial writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, can't figure out why some federal employees would fleece taxpayers by illegally reselling the transit vouchers they receive from their agencies. "What were these 'public servants' thinking while they picked our collective pocket?" she writes. Then she adds this:

"I keep thinking about my father, who during 28 years as a federal employee wouldn't even read the newspaper or a magazine at work unless it was on his lunch break so he wouldn't deprive his employer of a full day's work."

Buz Livingston, a financial planner writing for the Motley Fool, couldn't put it more simply: "When it comes to retirement planning," he writes, "there's no doubt: the Thrift Savings Plan is the cream of the crop." It's better than 99.44 percent of private 401(k) plans, he says. What makes the TSP better? "Simplicity coupled with miniscule costs."

(Hat tip: FedSmith)

As Memorial Day weekend approaches, I’m making room for Government Executive editor at large Bob Brewin to weigh in with his opinion on the weekend’s events in Washington. Bob served in Vietnam as a field radio operator with 2nd Battalion, Ninth Marine Regiment and 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 1965-66. Here’s his take:

Memorial Day used to be a time for solemn reflection and a quiet time to honor those who answered the nation’s call to service -- especially those enshrined on the Wall at the Vietnam Memorial and honored in the serried ranks of simple graves at Arlington National Cemetery.

But not anymore. Instead, Washington has become the site of the world’s largest single-day motorcycle rally, known as Rolling Thunder. This gathering will bring 400,000 motorcycles to the nation’s capital this weekend, the majority ridden by folks who are not veterans.

Rolling Thunder has been shattering the quiet peace of Memorial Day weekend for the past 20 years, and it’s time to call an end to it.

It is time for the National Park Service and the District of Columbia to stop issuing permits for this event -- which ensnarls the streets with obnoxiously noisy machines -- and return Memorial Day to the rest of us who want to remember and mourn in a quiet tribute.

I want to say hello to my friends memorialized on the Wall and trek over to Arlington without having to dodge the three day Rolling Thunder “tribute,” which has become more hollow each year for the past 20 years.

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday approved a 3.5 percent pay raise for members of the military. The committee backed the portion of the 2008 Defense authorization bill containing the 3.5 percent increase during a markup that is expected to end Friday. The 3.5 percent figure, which the House already has approved, is half a percent higher than the raise proposed by the Bush administration. It likely will give federal labor unions an edge in pushing for an equivalent raise for civilian federal employees. This year's civilian federal pay raise is likely to be included in the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, expected to be marked up in June.--Brittany Ballenstedt

The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Thursday asked the head of the General Services Administration to testify regarding statements she made during an investigation into potential violations of a law limiting political activity in the federal workplace.

In a letter to GSA Administrator Lurita Doan, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said he was concerned about her allegations that employees who testified about her statements at Jan. 26 meeting at GSA headquarters were biased and poor performers.

Waxman also said Doan may be asked other questions at the hearing relating to the veracity of her statements to the committee and to Office of Special Counsel investigators. Waxman asked Doan to appear on June 7 at 10 a.m.

“Government employees who cooperate with congressional and federal investigations perform a vital service to the nation,” Waxman said in the letter. “It would be a serious abuse if your statements were part of an effort to retaliate against these witnesses for cooperating with the Oversight Committee's investigation.”

A GSA spokeswoman said that the agency had just received the letter Thursday evening. She said that Doan will review it and respond to Congress.--Daniel Pulliam

Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. is about to put on a second hat. Under a memorandum of understanding signed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, Clapper also will become director of defense intelligence within the Office of the DNI. According to Clapper, the move won't have any impact on the the day-to-day operations of defense intelligence agencies. "The objective here is to facilitate staff interaction and promote synchronization," he said.

Yesterday wasn't one of the great days in the history of political-career relations, was it? The revelation that the Office of Special Counsel has concluded that GSA Administrator Lurita Doan violated the Hatch Act didn't even make the front-pages. It got pushed off by the testimony of Monica Goodling, a senior aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who told the House Judiciary Committee that she had used political criteria in evaluating applicants for career Justice Department positions. Best quote from the Washington Post account of her appearance: "I do acknowledge that I may have gone too far in asking political questions of applicants for career positions and may have taken inappropriate political considerations into account on some occasions. I regret these mistakes."

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards gave a big foreign policy speech today at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Here are a couple of interesting proposals included in the speech, according to a campaign fact sheet:

Repair the Tremendous Damage Done to Civil-Military Relations: The past few years have brought the biggest crisis in civil-military relations in a generation. The mismanagement of the Pentagon has been so severe that many of our most decorated retired officers are speaking out. As president, Edwards will institute regular, on-on-one meetings with top military leadership. He will also reinstate a basic doctrine of national security management that has been demolished by the Bush Administration: military professionals will have primary responsibility in matters of tactics and operations, while civilian leadership will have authority in all matters of broad strategy and political decisions.

Root Out Cronyism and Waste and Increase Efficiency in the Pentagon: The Government Accountability Office has found that of Pentagon’s 26 biggest acquisition programs, 40 percent are above expected costs and 20 percent are behind schedule. The top five weapons programs have increased in costs by average of 29 percent, or $122.4 billion. As president, Edwards will launch a comprehensive, tough review of fraud, waste, and abuse, such as missile defense and offensive space-based weapons, that are costly and unlikely to work. He will also overhaul the rules governing privatization, to punish mismanagement, and reform DOD compensation policies to reward performance.

The Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, working with the University of Texas, has launched an effort to explore a shipwreck lying in 4,000 feet of water 40 miles off the coast of Louisiana. That makes it the "deepest shipwreck in the world ever to be scientifically excavated for a non-commercial purpose," MMS says. Very little is known about the ship, which sank between 1780 and 1820, but archaeologists speculate it might be a merchant ship or privateer. Meaning that it just might contain some very interesting "minerals," no?

I always like finding an excuse to report some sports news. But this isn't on-the-field news, nor is it very pleasant. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that the Agriculture Department has gotten involved in the investigation of possible dogfighting in a Virginia house owned by Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick. Up until now, it had been strictly a local investigation. At first Vick said he's "never at the house," and that he simply provided it to family members. Now he's not commenting at all.

In a search conducted in connection with a drug probe involving Vick's cousin Davon Boddie, law enforcement officers discovered nearly 70 dogs on the property, including five with scars and other injuries, the paper reported.

"Thirty years ago, Star Wars defined summer blockbuster movies and evolved into a pop culture phenomenon," reads a press release that just landed in my in-box. "This year, Americans can experience the excitement once again." Yes! I love Star Wars! Tell me just how I can get the excitement back! "With a set of Star Wars blockbuster stamps, which will be available Friday," says the release, from the Postal Service.

Oh.

With all due respect, that's not exactly the same.

Looking to buy a big house? Head to Utah. The Census Bureau reports that Utah leads the nation in large domiciles, with 39 percent of homes having four or more bedrooms. Runners-up in the huge home sweepstakes are Maryland, Colorado, Delaware, Minnesota, North Dakota and Virginia. In general, American homes are getting bigger -- at least as measured by the number of bedrooms -- Census researchers found.

Looks like Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has a thing for pop culture -- specifically TV shows. Last fall, she appeared on Jeopardy!, where, in case you don't recall, she lost to one of the guys from Spinal Tap. Now she's slated to appear tonight on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, USA Today reports. And on top of that, Spellings also recently attended a taping of American Idol. Part of the explanation: She has daughters aged 20 and 15.

The Transportation Security Administration has named Mel Carraway its new general manager for field operations in the agency's Office of Security Operations. Carraway has been in the job on an acting basis since the beginning of the year, after serving as federal security director of Albuquerque International Sunport in New Mexico. But that's not the most interesting item on his resume. That would be the fact that he "holds a bachelor's degree in vocal performance from Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio" and "has performed worldwide in operas, weddings and concerts." (But before you jump to any conclusions about Carraway's qualifications, you should know that he also was a state trooper in Indiana for 22 years.)

The Small Business Administration has filled some high-level positions. The agency announced today that Art Collins has taken over as director of government contracting in the Office of Government Contracting and Business Development, and Grady Hedgespeth is the new director of financial assistance in the Office of Capital Access. Collins has held several high-level positions at SBA since 1993. Hedgespeth, former secretary of economic affairs in Massachusetts, most recently served as chief financial officer at the Structured Employment and Economic Development Co.

"Avoid Getting Fired: Practical Advice for the Likely-to-be-Tanked Federal Employee" (from Fedsmith).

So on Mother's Day, my wife had only one request: That we go get some frozen yogurt after dinner at TCBY. I was more than happy to oblige. So I went to the TCBY Web site to use their handy store locator to find the nearest outlet -- and in no time found one that was pretty convenient. But it was one of the other listings in the results that caught my eye:

The White House
Eisenhower Exec. Office Bldg
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Rm404
Washington, DC 20502

The listing also included a phone number, and a call to it showed that it's not actually a TCBY franchise per se, and not a location that any old person can walk into for a yogurt fix: It's the White House mess.

"Bingo Hall in Hands of Federal Government"

Even if you work outside the General Schedule, you may be eligible for a recruitment, retention or relocation bonus. OPM has published a list of agencies who have won approval to offer such incentives to specified categories of non-GS employees.

I missed this on Friday, and figure it's worth noting: The New York Times reported that at least 146 contract workers were killed in Iraq in the first three months of this year, according to Labor Department records. That's by far the highest level for any quarter since the war began. All told, at least 917 contractors have been killed in Iraq, and more than 12,000 wounded. By comparison, 244 military personnel were killed in the first three months of the year.

While the Border Patrol is under so much pressure to recruit 6,000 new agents to patrol the Mexican border that is resorting to such measures as sponsoring NASCAR vehicles, the State Department is seeking to take some experienced border agents and send them to Iraq. The department has asked contractor DynCorp International to find 120 people with customs and border enforcement experience to go to Iraq to train its officials in how to secure their borders, the Associated Press reports. Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson say the deal "makes no sense." They told President Bush that "we should be focused on supporting our nation's security efforts along the Mexican and Canadian border instead of hampering [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] by sending our best agents to a war zone in Iraq."

The Associated Press reports today that a nonprofit group is challenging the Smithsonian Institution's policy of claiming the right to prevent people from reproducing images under its control. The group is posting thousands of the images on public photo-sharing sites. I was struck by this part of the AP story:

Images made by federal government employees are exempt from copyright law and are considered to be in the public domain, said Robert Brauneis, a George Washington University intellectual property law professor. Most Smithsonian employees are considered federal workers because their salaries come from taxpayer funds.

So I ask again: How can the National Park Service claim it has exclusive rights to an image of Lewis and Clark that it created that was later used by a book publisher?

I just wanted to take a minute to address a couple of issues regarding comments, both on articles on GovernmentExecutive.com and items here on Fedblog.

First, we're getting lots of comments in the new boxes that we've included on all of our stories, but several readers have inquired about the status of our old Mailbag section. That's the part of the pre-redesigned version of our site that aggregated comments from readers on all of our stories. We initially thought we'd do away with that section as a destination, because comments on our stories are now integrated directly on the story pages. But since many people seemed to find the Mailbag page itself useful, we've restored it. You can find it here: http://www.govexec.com/mailbag.cfm.

Second, you may have noticed that there haven't been a lot of comments here on Fedblog over the past week or so. That's because it finally dawned on me today that the spam filter settings on the blog were set way too high, filtering out the good comments as well as the junk. So I'm working my way through the process of approving the hundreds of comments that have been posted recently. You'll be seeing all of them soon. And keep 'em coming!

Update, 5/21, 12:46 p.m.: After promising the Mailbag would be available, I went and published a link that wasn't accessible to outside our offices. It is now. Sorry for the confusion.

President Bush wants better training for civil servants in national security positions. Yesterday, he issued an executive order requiring the development of a "National Strategy for the Development of Security Professionals" within 60 days. That strategy, Bush said, "shall set forth a framework that will provide to security professionals access to integrated education, training, and professional experience opportunities for the purpose of enhancing their mission-related knowledge, skills, and experience and thereby improve their capability to safeguard the security of the nation." After the strategy is approved, a steering committee headed by Office of Personnel Management Director Linda Springer and including the heads of several Cabinet departments and independent agencies is supposed to implement the plan.

This just in: a federal appeals court has overturned a district court's decision striking down the labor relations portion of the Defense Department's civilian personnel reform effort. For the next couple of years, at least, the Pentagon can go ahead, the appeals panel ruled.

Key quote from the decision:

We hold that the National Defense Authorization Act grants DoD temporary authority to curtail collective bargaining for DoD’s civilian employees. By its terms, the Act authorizes DoD to curtail collective bargaining through November 2009. But after November 2009, with certain specified exceptions, DoD again must ensure collective bargaining consistent with the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. We reverse the District Court’s judgment, and we uphold the DoD regulations at issue in this appeal.

Last September, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England told Congress that due to delays in implementing the new National Security Personnel System caused by the legal challenge, the Pentagon might ask Congress to extend the 2009 deadline. The House, of course, currently is moving in the opposite direction, voting yesterday not to wait until 2009, but to restore employees' previous bargaining and appeal rights now.

We're reporting this story, and will be back with a full news article later today.

Update: The Office of Personnel Management and the
American Federation of Government Employees have issued statements on the ruling.

The National Capital Area Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration is holding its annual awards ceremony on June 13 in Washington. This year, the following federal officials are being honored:

• David O. Cooke Award for Federal Public Service: Gen. James Clapper, undersecretary of Defense for intelligence.


• Elmer B. Staats Award for Public Accountability: Robert Shea, associate director for management, Office of Management and Budget.


• Special Achievement Award: Frank J. Anderson, Jr., president, Defense Acquisition University.
  

In addition, the organization will honor Myra Howze Shiplett, senior adviser at the National Academy of Public Administration, with its President's Award for Outstanding Public Service.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced today that it has identified 4,150 high-hazard work sites to focus inspections on in the coming year as part of its Site-Specific Targeting program. The locations were chosen based on data collected from about 80,000 employers on their injury and illness numbers."This approach allows us to focus our enforcement efforts on those workplaces with the highest numbers of injuries and illnesses," said OSHA chief Edwin G. Foulke Jr.

But doesn't it also provide an incentive for employers to underreport their numbers to avoid OSHA inspections? The agency says it's on to that scam, saying it also will "randomly select and inspect approximately 100 workplaces (with 100 or more employees) nationwide that reported low injury and illness rates for the purpose of reviewing the actual degree of compliance with OSHA requirements."

Where are you likely to find candidates for the 6,000 new border agent jobs that are supposed to be filled by the end of next year? How about among the millions of fans of NASCAR across the country? That's the Border Patrol's logic, anyway. The Washington Times reports that the agency has struck a $975,000 deal with Jay Robinson Racing to sponsor its No. 28 Chevrolet for the 25 remaining races in the 2007 NASCAR Busch Series season. "This partnership is exactly what we needed to rev our recruiting and hiring into high gear," said U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner W. Ralph Basham.

Are federal employees engaged in insider stock trading? Reps. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., and Brian Baird, D-Wash., want to make sure they're not, The Hill reports. They've introduced a bill that would make it a crime for civil servants and members of Congress to use inside information they've gained in their jobs to profit in the stock market. The Securities and Exchange Commission would get the responsibility for enforcing the law -- but, of course, wouldn't be likely to get new staff to take on the work. “We could potentially expand [the agency], but not by much,” Baird said.

(Hat tip: Fedsmith.)

In the April 1 issue of Government Executive, Karen Rutzick reported on efforts at the Mine Safety and Health Administration dating back to 2004 to address a looming rise in the percentage of federal mine inspectors who would be eligible to retire. The agency decided to use the Federal Career Intern Program to quickly bring on new employees. Now the Government Accountability Office has assessed that effort in a new report to Congress.

The good news, GAO says, is that the approach seems to be working. It "has led to a number of improvements in inspector recruiting and hiring, such as being able to identify applicants with the basic skills needed to be a successful inspector early in the process and decreasing the time it takes the agency to hire new inspectors," the report says. Since MSHA began using the Federal Career Intern Program, the agency has hired 236 new coal mine inspector trainees.

But GAO says that's not good enough. MSHA's human capital plan, the watchdog agency reports, "does not include a strategic approach for addressing the large number of retirements expected in the next 5 years." More than 40 percent of inspectors will be eligible for retirement by 2012.

In a response included in the report, MSHA chief Richard E. Stickler says GAO needs to bone up on the distinction between retirement eligibility and actual rates of retirement -- especially in an age when increasing numbers of employees are covered by the Federal Employees Retirement System, which provides incentives for them to stay in their jobs longer to maximize their retirement benefits. "We again assert that being eligible to retire is much less a dominant factor than employees projected to actually retire," Stickler wrote. "Although we estimate that 40% of underground inspectors will be eligible to retire in 1-5 years, the data trends show that at most 15% actually will retire. More employees stay on the job after reaching eligibility due to the FERS benefit system and other personal decisions."

President Bush's new "war czar," Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, may be coming directly from the Pentagon, but the Washington Post reports today that apparently he thinks the key to success in Iraq increasingly lies outside the Defense Department. Key section of the Post piece:

One priority in his new assignment, they said, will be to hammer away at civilian agencies, particularly the State Department, to do more to revitalize the Iraqi economy, provide jobs, demobilize militias and give Iraqis hope for the future.

"He'll start asking people: 'What are you doing? How can we get you to contribute?' " said retired Gen. Gordon R. Sullivan, president of the Association of the United States Army. "This is the kind of guy who can ask those questions. . . . What Doug brings is a good understanding of the importance of using the full panoply of U.S. power."

That will require him to force cooperation among agencies that have squabbled through much of the four-year-old war -- a tall order for a three-star officer dealing with onetime superiors and Cabinet members. "If necessary, he will kick people in the pants to get things done," said an officer who works with him. "And he will not be shy about telling his opinion."

Here's what getting on a GSA supply schedule can do for a business. United Rentals, the biggest equipment rental company in the world, announced this week that the federal government had become its single largest customer. The company, which operates a network of nearly 700 rental locations, has held a GSA schedule since 2005. Of course, federal contracts still made up less than 1 percent of the $3.6 billion in total revenues United Rentals received in 2006.

Do you have to be a United States citizen to work for the federal government? Not necessarily, says the Office of Personnel Management. The government "gives strong priority to hiring United States citizens and nationals, but non-citizens may be hired in certain circumstances," according to new guidance for federal human resources officials.

The New York Times weighs in today with a piece about Wicca and how the people who follow this particular form of paganism face a struggle for acceptance in American society -- and apparently, in the federal bureaucracy. From the story:

One such person is a 58-year-old former Roman Catholic who has been an auditor for 30 years in what he calls “one of the most buttoned-down departments in one of the most sacrosanct agencies” of the federal government.

“I put on this Joe Taxpayer suit, and it’s like living two lives,” he said. “A minority would have a problem with me, but it would be a big problem. They would assume we are doing weird things, illegal, immoral things, at all hours. They wouldn’t want to really know what we do, but they would go with their presuppositions instead.”

The auditor said that by “coming out of the broom closet,” he risked ostracism at work and perhaps being pushed into early retirement, which would affect his pension. “I don’t even want to contemplate it,” he said.

Ben Long of Kalispell, Mont., wrote a book several years ago called Backtracking: By Foot, Canoe and Subaru Along the Lewis and Clark Trail. But now, his publisher, Sasquatch Books of Seattle, is being forced to recall and destroy paperback copies of the book that have been sent to bookstores. Why? Because the publisher included a silhouetted image of Lewis and Clark on the cover that the National Park Service developed. The Park Service, the Associated Press reports, demanded that Sasquatch Books "cease all use of this official artwork."

Can someone with a legal background explain this to me? This logo was created with taxpayer dollars. The Park Service is part of the federal government, which, after all, is the representative of the people. So how can the government own this and other images and logos independently of its citizens? I can see why the Park Service and other agencies don't like people profiting from their work, but I don't understand how and why they can stop it.

Forget what the American people think: FEMA says it's ready for this hurricane season. "You're not going to see the same kind of response" as in Katrina, FEMA chief David Paulison told House lawmakers yesterday, according to a USA Today report. "You're going to see a federal government that is very proactive."

A local coalition in Groton, Conn., was instrumental in saving the nearby Naval Submarine Base New London from being shut down in the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process. Now the group has a new strategy for keeping the facility open for the long haul, the Associated Press reports: Change its name to Naval Station Groton. "In the BRAC world, submarine bases don't do so well but naval stations do survive," said John Markowicz, coalition chairman. "It is a large facility and the name naval station shows that more than calling it a base."

It sounds like a logical idea: Use land that currently is home to General Services Administration warehouses in Springfield, Va., to provide space for some of the 22,000 employees slated to relocate to Fort Belvoir under the latest Base Realignment and Closure plan. But, as you might guess, it's not that simple, the Examiner reports today. A measure to transfer the land to the Pentagon is included in the fiscal 2008 Defense authorization bill the House is slated to take up this week, but it's still not clear exactly how many jobs the Army wants to relocate to the GSA site, or what will happen to the warehouses. An Army study has found that developing the GSA site could be expensive and that facilities there might not be open by the 2011 deadline set in the BRAC law.

The Office of Personnel Management has an update for federal personnel officials: Based on a recent Merit Systems Protection Board ruling, if an agency opens a job and accepts applications outside its own workforce, it must let eligible veterans apply regardless of where they are located. Prior to the ruling, OPM had operated under the assumption that veterans applying for federal positions under the Veterans Employment Opportunities Act were subject to the same area of consideration limitations as other applicants.

Some bad news from the federal Department of Evil: "All of You Must Die," the Onion reports.

Today's Wall Street Journal tells the story of Stephen Epstein, director of the Defense Department's Standards of Conduct Office. Epstein's claim to fame is that he's the author of the Encyclopedia of Ethical Failures, which the paper characterizes as "a hit parade he publishes on the Internet to regale bureaucrats with tales of shenanigans and shockingly bad judgment that have shot down the careers of fellow public servants across government." The examples, which come from agencies across the federal bureaucracy, involve everything from misuse of government resources to time and attendance violations. A sampling of titles of entries from the latest edition of the encyclopedia, which runs to 133 pages:

• Watch Promoting Your Business on Government Time!


• One Happy Family Spends Time Together in Jail


• Stealing Isn’t the Only Way to Misuse a Government Issued Credit Card


• To Defraud or Not To Defraud? That’s an Easy Question!


• Fantasy Football IS Gambling


• Like a Private Helicopter Ride to Work? How About a Model Ship?


• Stopping at the Base Eatery Not an “Official Visit”


• Using Government Vehicle to “Chill” Earns Down Time By Suspension

Republicans and Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee agree on one thing, the Washington Post reports: that Commerce Department Inspector General Johnnie E. Frazier needs to back off while the panel investigates whether he misued travel funds, inappropriately gave selective bonuses to certain employees, and retaliated against whistleblowers. Committee members from both parties have sent a letter to Frazier saying that they have received "credible allegations" that IG office employees who have cooperated with the investigation have been threatened and retaliated against. "It is a violation of federal law to interfere with a congressional inquiry," the members noted.

The battle between the National Border Patrol Council and the agency's chief, David V. Aguilar, continues to escalate. Now the council has filed an unfair labor practice complaint against Aguilar, the Washington Times reports. The complaint alleges that Aguilar "willfully and blatantly" violated federal guidelines when he sent Senior Associate Border Patrol Chief Jeff Self to meetings of field agents to ask for "show of hands" votes of support for the chief. Self's effort came after the Border Patrol Council issued a vote of no confidence in Aguilar last month.

If you live on the eastern seaboard or the Gulf Coast, what can you do to prepare for this year's hurricane season? Well, if you receive Social Security benefits, the Treasury Department has some advice for you: Switch to direct deposit instead of receiving regular checks. That way, even if you have to evacuate, you'll be able to access your money from anywhere you can find an ATM.

What is it with President Bush and music lately? First he can't resist the urge to get up and dance with an African troupe at the White House. Then yesterday, at ceremonies commemorating the founding of Jamestown 400 years ago, he grabbed the baton from conductor JoAnn Falletta and took over leading an orchestra in a rendition of "Stars and Stripes Forever." Check out Falletta's diplomatic response when asked about the president's performance: "He was not shy about conducting at all. He conducted with a great deal of panache."

Things are heating up at the Border Patrol. First, the the National Border Patrol Council, which represents field agents at the agency, took no-confidence vote last month in its leader, David V. Aguilar, last month. Now the Washington Times reports, a senior Aguilar associate has showed up at morning briefings held at field offices in Tucson and Nogales, Ariz., seeking a show of hands of agents who actually support Aguilar. Such "intimidation tactics," union officials say, are aimed at undermining support for the no-confidence vote and the union.

Meanwhile, over at Fedsmith, an unnamed reader contributes a column saying that Border Patrol Council president T.J. Bonner needs to get over himself. Key quote:

Chief Aguilar is a federal official, serving in a position to which he was appointed in accordance with the established procedures for filling such jobs. He was not elected to the position—certainly not by the Border Patrol union—and serves at the pleasure of the President, not the union. Accordingly, a vote of no confidence, some confidence, or lots of confidence by the union is about as meaningless as those “unanimous” votes held every few years in the old Soviet Union.

Brandon Arnold, director of government affairs at the Cato Institute, is not getting into the spirit of Public Service Recognition Week. In a piece entitled "Happy Bureaucrat Week" on National Review Online, he writes that the whole idea "reveals Congress’s skewed view of the importance of bureaucrats, and by extension, the government." That government is big, expensive, and ineffective, Arnold says. Even its heroes -- whistleblowers -- wouldn't be needed if the rest of the bureaucrats were doing their jobs properly. He won't even concede that civil servants are drawn to their work by a sense of civic duty and patriotism. "I would guess," he writes, "that many work for the federal government because the pay is pretty good and the job security excellent."

A couple of decades ago, the name Katrina was regularly among the 100 most popular in the United States. Not any more. The Associated Press reports that new Social Security Administration data show that only about 850 baby girls were named Katrina last year. It now ranks at number 382 among girls' names, its lowest point since the 1950s. Of course, the name had already slipped to 247th by 2005, even before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.

In case you're wondering, Emily and Jacob continue to lead the list of most popular girls' and boys' names, like they have since forever.

The White House has threatened to veto legislation passed by the House yesterday that would provide incremental funding for operations in Iraq, holding back most money until the Bush administration completed a status report in July on the war. At that point, Congress could pass fast-track legislation setting a date for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. In addition to being ideologically opposed to such deadlines, President Bush objected to the House measure (H.R. 2206) on management grounds. From the statement of administration policy on the bill:

Incremental funding will cause breaks in production schedules of critical equipment, delay the delivery of equipment to deploying forces, halt the hiring of needed civilian personnel, lead to far more expensive and burdensome short term procurements, and undermine the [Defense] Department’s ability to relieve stress on the force. It will also disrupt daily operations at installations, driving up costs and impacting support activities for military personnel and their families, affecting quality of life, morale and retention.

Whatever your position on the war, it's hard to argue that point.

"The Nation Is Divided as to Whether It Is Too Early For Presidential Election"

Well, I hope everybody agrees it's too early for the election right now. The campaign, of course, is another matter...

Here's today's federal procurement snapshot, courtesy of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Two years ago, Tapco, a family business in Elm Grove, Wis., didn't have any federal contracts. The state and local market had a far bigger demand for the company's products -- street signs and traffic signals. Now, with a little help from an outfit called the Wisconsin Procurement Institute, the firm does more than $2 million in business with the Defense and Homeland Security departments and the National Park Service. That includes making traffic signs in English and Arabic for use at military checkpoints in Iraq.

President Bush's nominee to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Michael Baroody, has run into a roadblock on Capitol Hill. USA Today reports that Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., has placed a hold on Baroody's nomination, arguing that the vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers is ill-suited to run one of the government's leading consumer-protection agencies.

But the manufacturers' association released a letter of support for Baroody from Roland Droitsch and James Henry, two high-level civil servants who worked with him at the Labor Department in the Reagan administration. They wrote:

"The (high) volume of output of health and safety rules during his tenure set a record … unmatched before or since. The fair-minded and intellectually honest man we know is unrecognizable to us in the reported depictions of him by some critics."

Nearly 40,000 federal employees, retirees and family members representing more than 50 agencies participated in this year's HealthierFeds Physical Activity Challenge, the Office of Personnel Management reports. The agencies with the highest number of employees participating were the Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services departments. The agencies with the highest percentage of employees taking part in the challenge were as follows:

Large Agency

1. Office of Personnel Management


2. State Department


3. NASA

Medium Agency

1. Farm Credit Administration


2. Railroad Retirement Board


3. (Tie) Executive Office of the President and National Labor Relations Board
   

Small Agency

1. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board

A group of senators introduced legislation today aimed at guaranteeing protections for federal employees against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The effort is the latest in a series of attempts to respond an an effort initiated by Scott Bloch, head of the Office of Special Counsel, in January 2004 to review federal anti-discrimination statutes as they relate to sexual orientation. Bloch said at the time that OSC clearly has authority to protect government workers from discrimination for attending gay rights rallies or engaging in other public behavior. But discrimination stemming from simple knowledge of a colleague's sexual orientation, or inferred conduct within the home, falls in a gray area, he argued.

But in April 2004, Bloch issued a statement affirming that OSC would continue to accept and investigate complaints of sexual orientation discrimination by federal employees.

Still, Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, who sponsored the legislation introduced Wednesday, said the bill is necessary because "one administration official's personal interpretation of the law cannot be permitted to undermine the merit system or the rights and protections of federal workers."

"NASA Finds Extremely Hot Planet..."

The Pentagon's top personnel official has a message for Defense Department's employees: Pay your taxes. The Examiner reports today that David S.C. Chu has sent a memo to Defense leaders lamenting the fact that the tax delinquency rate among the department's civilian workforce is the highest of all federal agencies. "Please ensure your personnel are aware of their obligation to file their tax returns and comply with all applicable tax laws," Chu wrote.

The EPA inspector general has advised the agency to take employee wrongdoing more seriously, and improve on the average 200 days that it takes to initiate disciplinary actions when misconduct is found. Some of the EPA's actions that weren't tough enough, according to the IG: an oral admonishment to an employee who was absent without authorization for a total of more than 50 days, and a letter of reprimand issued to an employee who pled guilty in court to stealing a credit card from another agency and using it for personal purchases. EPA officials generally agreed with the IG’s recommendations.--Jenny Mandel

Inspectors general have long been the bane of many federal managers, with their withering audits and investigations into all manner of agency activities. But now some of them are finding out what it's like to be on the receiving end of an inquiry. The Project on Government Oversight has a rundown on all of the IGs who are currently under some form of investigation themselves.

TSA has announced that in the wake of the loss last week of a computer hard drive containing Social Security numbers, bank data and payroll information for about 100,000 employees, it has implemented a benefits package for those affected. The package includes free credit monitoring for up to a year, ID theft insurance up to $25,000, fraud alerts and access to identity restoration specialists in the event an employee is a victim of identity theft.

Meanwhile, authorities have launched a "full-blown criminal investigation" into the incident, USA Today reports.

Chris Freking, 39, is a GS-12 technician at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center who in his 16-year federal career has risen to a position overseeing a system that coordinates veterans' electronic medical records. But in the eyes of the government, the San Francisco Chronicle reports today, Freking also is a draft dodger, and that means his federal employment must come to an end.

Freking was born and raised in the Phillippines. But his father was an American citizen. That meant that after Freking came to the United States in 1990, he was supposed to register for the draft, like all American males between 18 and 26. Failure to do so means you can't get education assistance or training from Uncle Sam -- or a federal job.

Freking says he didn't know he was supposed to register, and his human resources office didn't tell him he had to either -- an oversight for which the agency accepts some measure of responsibility. But that doesn't matter, says the Office of Personnel Management. A rule's a rule, and Freking must go. In February, the agency rejected his appeal of an earlier decision that he must be dismissed.

Republican presidential candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani doesn't see the impending federal retirement tsunami as a "human capital crisis." In fact, he views it as an opportunity. In a speech to the Heritage Foundation last night (see the Washington Post report on it here) Giuliani took note of a projection that 42 percent of civilian federal employees would retire during the next two presidential terms. "Some politicians assume that we'll just replace all of them," he said. "I bet there are some politicians in the other party -- I don't know, maybe in ours -- that think we ought to increase them. . . . Here's what I would do: I would seek to replace only half of them."

Giuliani, the Washington Times reported, said such a move would save $70 billion a year. "The challenge will be, of course, to convince the Democrats that there's such a thing as a nonessential government employee," he said.

In the speech, Giuliani also argued for an across-the-board cut in non-Defense spending.

GSA has installed its first-ever chief emergency response and recovery officer. It's Richard Reed, who had been serving as director of continuity of operations policy at the White House Homeland Security Council. Before that, he was director of the Operations Division of the Office of National Security Coordination at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. GSA's new Office of Emergency Response and Recovery, the agency says, "is responsible for coordinating all GSA resources in support of first responders, emergency workers and recovery teams across all levels of government."

Not only is the National Park Service raising fees, it's also increasingly likely that the people who are on the job in the parks -- performing day-to-day tasks and answering questions from visitors -- are volunteers. Last year at Yellowstone, the Jackson Hole Star-Tribune reports, more than 2,500 volunteers worked 100,000 hours -- the equivalent of 50 full-time employees.

(Hat tip: Fedsmith)

This may be one time when bureaucrats may actually appreciate being treated like nobodies. On Friday, ABC News 20/20 aired its report on the list of names given to the network by Deborah Jeane Palfrey, who is on trial for allegedly running a prostitution ring. According to a Washington Post account, 20/20's Brian Ross said the list included a federal prosecutor who recently died, several military officers, and a NASA official. So why weren't they outed, like the two other people whose names have been made public? Because "their names won't mean anything to our audience," Ross said. "They just weren't newsworthy enough."

At one point, Ross was hot on the trail of someone who had told the escort service he was a White House economist. When it turned out he actually worked for the Treasury Department's Office of Thrift Supervision across the street from the White House, the network left him alone.

By now you've surely noticed that we've got a whole new look. Hope you like it. If you're interested in the details of the changes we've made, you'll find them here. As always, we're interested in your feedback. We love it if it's positive and we can take it if it's negative.

The Senior Executives Association has issued its position on the brewing criticism over bonuses for top executives at the Veterans Affairs Department, calling it "unfair and misdirected." Concerns about the bonuses coming at a time of funding shortfalls at the department should be directed at policymakers in the Bush administration, not the career executives who implement their policies and manage what has been recognized as one of the best health care systems in the world, the organization says. Furthermore, SEA President Carol Bonosaro notes:

The pay system which applies to these career executives– unlike the rest of the civil service – provides for no annual cost of living increases and for no locality pay adjustments. Rather, all pay adjustments are based on performance, and the bonus system is an integral part of that pay system. In addition to bonuses, the pay system provides for Presidential Rank awards, such as the $33,000 award cited in one article. Nominations for these awards are made by the executives’ departments and agencies, reviewed by the Office of Personnel Management, and approved by the White House.

In Al Kamen's column in the Washington Post today, Paul Light is back with more dire news about the over-layering of the federal bureaucracy. The latest issue? The proliferation of chiefs of staff at agencies. There weren't any until 1981, Light says, when Health and Human Services Secretary Richard Schweiker created one to help him cut through bureaucracy at the department. Then the position "quickly metastasized," Kamen writes, until now every Cabinet member has one. That doesn't strike me as being that big a deal, if such folks are actually effective at helping Cabinet secretaries work better -- and if they're people who would've been hired as "senior advisers" or somesuch anyway. But Light argues that the staff chiefs under the Bush administration are less bureaucracy busters than political animals, with "at least a dotted line to Karl Rove."

CoreNet Global, a real estate association, has honored a new San Francisco office complex managed by the General Services Administration with an award for "sustainable design." The slender 18-story structure features a translucent tower, glass facades and a metal screen. GSA says that most workspaces in the building will have sunlight, reducing energy required for lighting by 26 percent. And more than 70 percent of the facility will be cooled with natural ventilation. That's good, because the new complex wasn't cheap and wasn't easy to build.

Farewell to the only astronaut to have flown on on the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions, and a true hero of my youth.

OK, this is more a local government story, but I can't resist it. Roy L. Pearson Jr., an administrative law judge with the District of Columbia government, is suing his local dry cleaner over a pair of lost pants. And what's he seeking in the way of damages? $65 million.

"Manure Treatment System Erases Greenhouse Gases"

The Postal Service "has a suggestion for a unique gift that will help sons, daughters and grandchildren everywhere put a little love in the mail to Mom." What's their big idea? Gourmet cookies. But not just any kind. Cookies made with sugar-coated, edible stamps. "Flowers, the popular Love stamp series, teddy bears and candy hearts are available to adorn the tops of cookies," USPS says. The cookies, made by Good Fortunes, a Postal Service licensee, also come with sprinkles or pink hearts, if you so desire.

Now the Justice Department's inspector general and its Office of Professional Responsibility have launched an investigation into whether a former top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales tried to politicize the ranks of career federal prosecutors. From today's New York Times:

The inquiry focuses on whether the former adviser, Monica Goodling, sought to determine the political affiliations of job applicants before they were hired as prosecutors — potentially a violation of civil service laws and a break with a tradition of nonpartisanship in the career ranks at the Justice Department.

Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen is under investigation, Reuters reports. A White House spokeswoman is reported as saying the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, which consists of presidentially appointed inspectors general, is investigating Bowen. The story, quoting a "former SIGIR employee who asked not to be named" says several ex-SIGIR employees "filed complaints about Bowen in 2006, focusing on charges that he failed to come to work for long periods at a time, and used SIGIR staff to work on a book about the broad lessons of Iraq reconstruction."--Jenny Mandel

NASA is pondering what to do if an astronaut dies on a three-year mission to Mars and back, the Associated Press reports. It's also addressing other questions of medical ethics, such as whether or not to pull the plug on a critically injured astronaut who's using up precious oxygen. But agency doctors and scientists aren't going near another issue: What to do about astronauts who want to have sex in space. That's long been a taboo subject at NASA, and the medical folks say it's a behavioral matter that others at the agency will have to deal with.

Post-traumatic stress disorder: It's not just for warriors any more. USA Today reports that U.S. diplomats who have served in Iraq are returning with some of the same stress-related symptoms as military service members. That has prompted the State Department to commission a mental health survey of the 1,400 diplomats who have completed assignments in Iraq.

From David Samuels' profile of Condoleezza Rice in the June issue of the Atlantic (subscription required):

Rice’s obsession with sports makes it easier for her to function in a world of men who may not be immediately comfortable taking direction from a younger black woman, but who will respect anyone who can name the winning quarterback for every Super Bowl off the top of her head. Rice works out regularly with a trainer, has dated NFL All-Pro receivers Rick Upchurch and Gene Washington, is a talented classical pianist, and wears sophisticated clothes that show off her long, athletic legs, facts that may seem trivial, but actually provide valuable clues to an underlying truth about the secretary of state: She is an extreme personality who dresses with a degree of flamboyance that hasn’t been seen in the State Department since the high-collar days of John Hay.

Which is not to say that she doesn’t have a bureaucratic, boring side. Ten years before she became the president’s chief foreign-policy adviser, she was a junior Sovietologist on his father’s National Security Council, and she retains the ability to master briefing books and speak in bullet points that makes a good staff person invaluable. When she talks about big ideas and important moments in history, her expression becomes solemn and fixed, and she leans forward, holding her shoulders back a little as she speaks.

It's a shameless plea for free advertising, and, well, it worked. The folks at Snapple have announced that they have petitioned NASA to become the exclusive beverage sent on any flights to the Earth-like planet discovered last week by a team of European astronomers. "While the as yet unnamed planet is more than 20 light years away," Snapple says in a tongue-firmly-in-cheek press release, "Snapple is already preparing to make its first delivery to the cosmos. Obtaining distribution rights for the new planet will give Snapple a first-to-market advantage."

Here's some news from the White House on the folks who oversee your Thrift Savings Plan investments:

The President intends to nominate the following individuals to be Members of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board:

Andrew Saul, of New York, for an additional four-year term expiring 09/25/10 and upon appointment designate Chair;

Alejandro Modesto Sanchez, of Florida, for an additional four-year term expiring 10/11/10;

Gordon James Whiting, of New York, for an additional four-year term expiring 09/25/10.