On GovLoop Insights’ DorobekINSIDER:
- The White House has unveiled a new insider threat policy in the wake of the Bradley Manning WikiLeaks incident. How are you affected? We get the inside scoop. Click here for the full story.
- Ever wonder how government agencies might utilize the social media site Pinterest? Now they can. The GSA has just released their new terms of service. Click here for the full story.
The SEVEN stories that impact your life
- If you haven’t paid your taxes – you might be fired. Government Executive reports, a House lawmaker has reintroduced legislation this week that would allow the government to fire federal employees who fail to pay their taxes. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, has revived a bill he shepherded through the House during the 112th Congress. The legislation passed the House last summer in a bipartisan vote, but the Senate never took it up, so it died.
- President Obama has nominated Todd Jones as the new ATF director. Government Executive reports Jones currently serves as the interim director of the agency; he was installed in September 2011 in the midst of the “Fast and Furious” gunrunning scandal. The largest obstacle to Jones’s confirmation, however, has nothing to do with his biography. Rather, it’s the manner in which ATF directors are confirmed: since 2006, the position of ATF has required Senate approval, but given the perpetual political strife inherent to ATF’s domain — gun violence in particular — not a single nominee has been confirmed in almost seven years.
- Federal unions want more of a say in workplace decisions. Federal Times reports Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry had some tough words for federal managers reluctant to work with employee unions. He says the election should have resolved any doubts that agency labor-management forums are here to stay. The National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations is made up of agency human resources chiefs and union leaders. It has created a task force to study when unions should have input into agency workplace decisions. They’ll focus on the 10 percent of agencies that, Berry said, have been holding back.
- The DoD doubles down on budget cuts. Federal Times reports, the DoD is freezing civilian hiring, laying off temporary workers, considering furloughs for hundreds of thousands of civilian employees, and cutting back on contracts to prepare for the likelihood of severe budget reductions this year.
- Former US Diplomats are lining up in support of Chuck Hagel’s Defense Secretary nomination. Defense News reports, fifty former U.S. ambassadors and national security officials who served Democratic and Republican presidents are rallying around Chuck Hagel, urging senators to confirm President Obama’s pick for defense secretary.
- The House has approved a $50.5 billion disaster relief package for victims of Superstorm Sandy. Federal News Radio says conservatives had threatened to pare down the bill, saying it was laden with pork. They left it largely intact but did strip it of about $10 billion that would have gone to repair seawalls and buildings on uninhabited islands off of Connecticut. The bill does not include some cost-cutting measures that could have hurt feds. One lawmaker had tried to amend the bill to cut federal workers’ mass-transit benefit and to cut agency budgets across the board. The Senate is expected to pass the bill next week.
- And on GovLoop, meet our new fellow. Dylan. Kate. Carrie and Bryce. They will be popping up all over our site, so say hello!