By Carol Morello and Ed O’Keefe Two Republican lawmakers are raising questions about the U.S. Census Bureau’s decision to lease space in an office building owned by a Falls Church mosque. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Rep. Darrell Issa of California each sent letters this week to the General Services Administration asking for detailsRead… Read more »
A Transportation Security Administration agent surrendered to authorities on Tuesday and was charged with stealing almost $500 from a wheelchair-bound woman passing through a security checkpoint at Newark Liberty International Airport. The TSA has suspended agent Leroy Ray, 44 of Newark, adding yet another incident to a growing list of troubling cases involving agency workers.Read… Read more »
The Senate could vote on a bill extending fringe benefits to the same-sex partners of gay federal employees “within weeks” and well before July 4, according to aides to Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.). The Nutmeg State senator is lead sponsor of the measure, which would cost an estimated $310 million through 2020, according toRead… Read more »
President Obama last week “encouraged” Spain to follow through with plans for an austerity budget, which includes a 5 percent pay cut for the country’s federal employees. Colleague Chuck Lane endorsed the president’s nudge last week, noting that much of the money the U.S. borrows helps underwrites the International Monetary Fund, which is helping bankrollRead… Read more »
Happy Tuesday! How will Americans use the Internet in 2020? Will we all use cell phones? Will we still have snail mail? A team of experts at the U.S. Census Bureau is asking those questions in preparation for the 2020 Census even as temporary workers are knocking on doors to complete the 2010 Census. FinalRead… Read more »
Happy Monday! Among all the others, here are three stories especially worth your time today: • Congress may override efforts by Secretary Gates to cut defense spending: It started with the House passing a higher pay increase than requested, and now lawmakers from both parties are poised to override Robert Gates and fund the C-17Read… Read more »
Happy Friday! The folks keeping tabs on the economic stimulus program took a big technological step recently by moving the government’s popular stimulus-tracking Web site to “the cloud.” “Cloud computing” allows data and software to be stored in remote data centers rather than on-site servers, providing significant savings to an organization’s capital costs and environmentalRead… Read more »
Lawmakers disregarded Defense Secretary Robert Gates‘s calls for fiscal restraint on Thursday, approving a military pay raise higher than President Obama and the Pentagon requested. The House Armed Services personnel subcommittee approved a 1.9 percent pay bump for uniformed military personnel, half of a percentage point higher than Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget. The markup alsoRead… Read more »
Happy Thursday! Here’s an interesting nugget in the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll regarding the BP oil spill: 45 percent of respondents think the government hasn’t done enough in response to the spill, while 43 percent say it has done enough. The numbers are a bit worse for British Petroleum: 50 percent say theRead… Read more »
A Denver lawyer is suing the Securities and Exchange Commission for the names of agency workers disciplined in the past five years for viewing pornography on government computers. Kevin D. Evans filed suit in Denver federal court on Friday, accusing the agency of violating federal law by not disclosing the names of 33 current andRead… Read more »