White House outlines sequestration cuts: DorobekINSIDER’s 7 Stories

On GovLoop Insights’ DorobekINSIDER:

• Shane Morris played a crucial behind-the-scenes role for the State Department during the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011, ensuring that U.S. embassies were able to dispatch and receive critical classified documents and equipment to fully carry out their diplomatic missions. We’ll find out how she did it.Click here for the full story.
• Management tactics — there seems to be new fads almost monthly in government. So how do you know which ones are lasting? Insights from Bill Bott. Click here for the full story.

The SEVEN stories that impact your life

1. The details are out on how the Administration will deal with sequestration. The White House said sequestration would be “deeply destructive” to national security and civilian agencies. In a new report, the Administration said civilian agencies would see their discretionary budgets cut by more than 8 percent. Federal News Radioreports the cuts would mean fewer FBI and Border Patrol agents and food-safety inspectors. Defense discretionary funds would be cut by 9.4 percent. That means non-deployed units, equipment and facilities and research and development would take the hit. But the White House remained optimistic that Congress would pass a bill to avoid sequestration. It told agencies to continue normal spending and operations.
2. Anti-U.S. protests in 20 countries led the Pentagon to dispatch elite Marine anti-terrorism teams to Libya and Yemen. The Associated Press reports the military has also positioned two Navy warships off Libya’s coast. Meanwhile, the State Department ordered all nonessential U.S. government workers and their families out of Sudan and Tunisia. The protests are in response to an anti-muslim video that was produced in the US.
3. The U.S. military’s top officer said insider attacks are a “very serious threat” to the war effort in Afghanistan. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey said something has to change, and the Afghan government needed to take the problem seriously. Federal News Radio reports, U.S. officials said they were working with the Afghan government to re-screen 16,000 local police throughout the country and improve screening of new recruits. Over the weekend, British and American soldiers were killed by Afghan policemen in two separate attacks.
4. A federal judge has hit pause on a new financial disclosure law that impacts about 28,000 federal executives. The Senior Executives Association had sued the government over the STOCK or Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act. Federal Times says the Act requires members of Congress and senior federal officials to post their financial transactions to a public website. The SEA said the law violates feds’ right to privacy and may even be dangerous. Judge Alexander Williams found the group had a good case. His temporary injunction means the parts of the law that pertain to career feds won’t be implemented until next month. But lawmakers are considering changing the law and may take it up next week.
5. The General Services Administration is cutting fees for agencies. Federal Times reports, GSA administrator Dan Tangherlini wants to lower the fees GSA charges on its Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative — where agencies can order office supplies and other common products from a select group of companies — from 2 percent of the purchase to 0.75 percent. But some agencies and outside groups say that may not be enough to win their business.
6. A new Gallup poll shows fewer Americans think the government is doing too much. Government Executive reports, the poll found 54 percent of those surveyed said the government is “doing too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses,” while 39 percent said the government should “do more to solve our country’s problems.” When Gallup asked the same question earlier this year, it found that a record 61 percent thought the government was doing too much, while 34 percent said it should do more.
7. On GovLoop, are you looking to advance your career, but you aren’t sure which direction to choose? We’ve got a new webinar that will point you in the right direction. It’s called Advancing Your Public Sector Career. The webinar kicks off next Thursday at 2pm. You can sign up here.

DorobekINSIDER water-cooler fodder

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