Federal Eye

Coco-crazy town's post office saved

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:56:37 -0500

Coconuts helped save one Florida town's post office. Updated 3:46 p.m. ET Among the post offices saved in the latest round of cutbacks announced Friday is the one in coconut-rich Lantana, Fla. Eye readers will recall that the town's residents sent hundreds of coconuts (yes, hundreds, not thousands as initially thought) to Postmaster General John E. Potter in an effort to save their post office. Reached Friday for comment, Lantana city manager Michael Bornstein said "“We’re thrilled. Our approach of raising awareness in an unusual way… apparently it worked.” Bornstein convinced the mayor, councilmembers, the Palm Beach County commissioner and local schoolkids to pay between $4.00 and $17.00 to mail coconuts to Washington. (Yes, you can mail a raw coconut in the mail.) “We’re going to go back to the schools and talk to the kids who did the coconuts and complete the circle about the history and the

4 D.C.-area postal locations to stay open

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:08:00 -0500

Three postal service branches in Maryland and one in the District that have been considered for closure, as the U.S. Postal Service looks to trim costs, will remain open, the agency announced Friday. Eight locations in the District remain candidates for closure, according to an updated list released Friday by the Postal Service The District's Northeast branch office on Maryland Avenue NE will stay open, as will Bethesda's Friendship Heights branch, the Landover Hills branch in Hyattsville and the Silver Spring Center branch. Nationally, 241 sites remain under consideration, down from 371 sites listed last month. Here are the eight locations in the District that might close: Station Branch Name Address Columbia Heights Finance 3321 Georgia Ave. NW Fort Davis 3843 Pennsylvania Ave. SE Ledroit Park 416 Florida Ave. NE Naval Research Laboratory 4555 Overlook Ave. SW Navy Annex 2 Navy Annex USPS Room G073 Petworth 4211 Ninth St. NW

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Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:08:00 -0500

Orszag on health care reform

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0500

Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag delivers the Obama administration's health-care reform sales pitch in a Washington Post op-ed today by focusing on the economic impact of the efforts. "If we do nothing to slow the skyrocketing cost of health care, the federal government will eventually be spending more on Medicare and Medicaid than all other government programs combined," Orszag writes. "It's time to move toward the high-quality, lower-cost health system of the future, and the reforms under discussion in the House and Senate will put us firmly on that path." He notes that the Congressional Budget Office (his former employer) determined that the House health-care reform bill would reduce the deficit by $109 billion over the first decade "and potentially by more than that over the second." The Senate version would reduce the deficit by $130 billion in the first decade and by more than half a

Eye Opener: No smoking near federal buildings?

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:30:00 -0500

Happy Friday! A New York lawmaker is trying -- yet again -- to ban smoking within 25 feet of federal buildings. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) introduced a bill this week that bans the practice, even though the General Services Administration last year banned puffing within 25 feet of federal building doorways and intake ducts. The policy closed interior smoking rooms, but does not apply to federal buildings in which people are "voluntarily or involuntarily residing," such as prisons. It also allows for "instances where an agency head establishes limited and narrow exceptions that are necessary to accomplish agency missions." Federal employees have fought the existence of interior smoking rooms, outdoor smoking areas other loopholes in the GSA policy that might allow some colleagues to carve out indoor and outdoor smoking areas. Engel's bill appears to help those efforts, if it ever passes. "This is common sense legislation," Engel said

Postal Service's Letter to Santa program lives on

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:56:40 -0500

(Spoiler alert: This report contains some details potentially unsuitable for the young and old that believe in Santa.) Have no fear, kids: The Postal Service's Letters to Santa program lives on ... just not at the post office in North Pole, Alaska. Postal officials disputed an Associated Press report Thursday that said the entire program was bust. The program will continue at participating post offices, so long as they abide by strict guidelines designed to protect young children. "We're not Grinches," insisted Postal spokeswoman Sue Brennan. The Postal Service's Letters to Santa program began in New York City in 1912, in an effort to respond to letters from needy children seeking some holiday cheer. (It is separate from several other, privately operated letter programs.) Volunteers to assist the jolly old elf in answering his mail -- many of whom are postal employees -- adopt a letter, write a response

Auditors raise doubts about stimulus numbers, but expect data will improve

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:13:00 -0500

Updated 6:33 p.m. ET Government auditors raised doubts Thursday about the number of jobs created or saved by the economic stimulus program, but they also cautioned that erroneous mistakes reported in recent weeks signal the benefits of government transparency. Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board Chairman Earl Devaney Roughly 10 percent of the recipients of stimulus dollars failed to submit quarterly reports last month, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Thursday. "I think missing reports may drive the job numbers up, and I think there are enough inaccuracies in here to drive the numbers down," said Earl Devaney, chairman of the board that operates Recovery.gov, the government's stimulus-tracking Web site. The Obama administration reported last month that the stimulus has directly created or saved 640,000 jobs thus far, but some officials cite independent estimates suggesting it has directly and indirectly created or saved more than 1 million jobs. The

More turbulence for FAA

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:33:41 -0500

Updated 1:25 p.m. ET Airline passengers can anticipate ongoing delays at some of the nation's major airports on Thursday, thanks to an early-morning glitch in the Federal Aviation Administration computer system that handles basic flight plan data. Problems with telecommunications equipment at an FAA office in Salt Lake City started around 5 a.m. ET, the agency said. The problems caused a failure of the National Airspace Data Interchange Network (NADIN), because it relies on the equipment based in Salt Lake City. NADIN distributes information to air traffic controllers across the country before planes take off, and its failure will cause a domino effect through the rest of the day as air traffic controllers sort through backlogs that started this morning. This is the second such malfunction in 15 months, according to the Associated Press. But many other systems were untouched: as The Post's Sholnn Freeman reports, NADIN does not handle

Eye Opener: Notables tapped for B'casting Board

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0500

Updated 9:00 a.m. ET Happy Thursday! President Obama has tapped several well-known names to serve on the Broadcasting Board of Governors, including a few journalism veterans and a former Bush administration official. Obama has asked Aspen Institute President and CEO Walter Isaacson to serve as board chair. The best-selling author previously ran CNN and TIME Magazine. Obama also tapped George W. Bush's final press secretary, Dana Perino, to serve on the board, along with Susan McCue, former chief of staff to Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.); Michael Meehan, former chief of staff to Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) (NOT the former Massachusetts Congresssman as previously reported incorrectly); Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton; former U.S. ambassador to Poland Victor H. Ashe; Commonwealth Partners founder and managing director Dennis Mulhaupt and Hudson Institute Senior Vice President S. Enders Wimbush. The Board operates Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Radio

GAO: clearer guidance needed for reporting stimulus funds

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:35:58 -0500

A government audit set for release Thursday urges the Obama administration to provide further guidance on how recipients of economic stimulus dollars should report jobs created with the funding. The administration has struggled to clearly define how to report new or saved jobs since it's difficult to know what role the funding played. Further complicating efforts, state and local governments have used much of the money to pay for temporary, part-time or seasonal work, making it unclear when and how such jobs should be reported. The Government Accountability Office found that almost 4,000 designated recipients who have not yet received stimulus funding reported creating or saving more than 58,000 jobs. Another 9,200 recipients reported no job creation, despite receiving a total of $965 million. The findings demonstrate the difficulty of counting jobs created by the stimulus. Some recipients may have misstated job numbers. Others may have decided to retain workers

Stimulus mistakes corrected on Recovery.gov

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:25:00 -0500

Government officials on Wednesday corrected mistakes in the reports submitted by recipients of economic stimulus funding to Recovery.gov, the government's stimulus-tracking Web site. The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which oversees the Web site, corrected mistakes that misled or confused the public, said the board's chairman, Earl Devaney. The corrections were made at the request of the Office of Management and Budget, Devaney said. That's a reversal of OMB guidance issued earlier this year, which said that mistakes on quarterly stimulus reports could only be corrected for a month after their submission. The decision to correct any mistakes follows several national news reports and criticism from senior lawmakers that pinned responsibility for the mistakes on the Obama administration. But, as colleague Alec MacGillis noted on Tuesday, the onus of responsibility rests with the recipients, not the government.

House panel approves domestic benefits bill

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:15:21 -0500

UPDATE 7:33 P.M. ET: The committee approved the bill 23 to 12 following more than four hours of debate. More details in tomorrow's Federal Diary column by Joe Davidson, and The Eye promises to post a more detailed transcript Thursday afternoon. UPDATE 7:02 P.M. ET Lawmakers reconvened at 4:15 p.m. following several votes on the House floor. Members have since considered almost one dozen amendments to the measure that would, among other things, prohibit the bill from modifying the Defense of Marriage Act, prohibit illegal immigrants from obtaining any benefits, and require the Government Accountability Office to submit regular progress reports. The debate has devolved to petty, personal attacks at several times, especially during consideration of the immigration amendment, introduced by Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.) Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) blasted the proposal, saying Republicans were trying to marginalize gay people and illegal immigrants. ORIGINAL POST: Members of the House Oversight

Biden explains stimulus mistakes

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0500

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10cJoe Biden Pt. 1www.thedailyshow.comDaily Show Full EpisodesPolitical HumorHealth Care Crisis Vice President Joseph Biden blamed bad civics lessons for the recent reports of stimulus reporting errors during an appearance Tuesday night on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." Starting at 2:45 in the video above, Biden said: "Every single solitary penny that got sent out there to a state, to a construction company, to a nonprofit, had to be accounted for. And it all got put on Recovery.gov. What happened was, out of 130,000 people reporting in what they did with the money, who they hired, how many jobs, 70 -- 70 did not account. "Seventy, when they ask, what district were they from -- thank God it's not true -- they said there were 14 Congressional districts in Arizona. Imagine all those Republicans!" Biden joked. "All kidding aside, what's

Eye Opener: Nov. 18, 2009

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:30:00 -0500

Happy Wednesday! Follow The Federal Eye on Twitter and submit your news tips here. In the news... • More Obama Nominees Announced: On Tuesday the president tapped Robert A. Petzel to serve as undersecretary for health at the Department of Veterans Affairs; Arthur Elkins Jr. to serve as inspector general at the Environmental Protection Agency; and Nicole Y. Lamb-Hale to serve as the Commerce Department's assistant secretary for manufacturing and services. Track all of Obama's nominees with The Post's Head Count. • Cabinet and Staff News: Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to tell Senate: Don't fear trial of 'coward' 9/11 plotter. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warns against ending economic assistance too quickly. National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair now gets to evaluate CIA missions. HHs Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says the Senate's health care bill will likely cut budget costs by 2019. A controversial federal court nominee survives a Senate

Latino population growth to have political impact after Census

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:31:53 -0500

The chart above shows the potential impact of Latinos on Congressional reapportionment (Image courtesy of America's Voice Education Fund) The nation's growing Latino population is likely to help eight states gain at least one more Congressional seat following the 2010 Census, according to a study released Tuesday. States expected to lose seats would fare much worse if Latinos had not moved there in record numbers. Census projections published in the study estimate that Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas and Utah will gain seats. Of those, only Georgia and Utah will likely gain their seats without Latino growth, according to the study, published by the immigration reform group America's Voice Education Fund with assistance from the think tank NDN, which has several programs focused on Hispanic issues. The study estimates that Texas will likely gain four seats and Arizona will earn two, while the others will each

Flawed stimulus numbers -- or a flawed promise to provide them?

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:40:49 -0500

By Alec MacGillis in The Post's 44 blog: Another day, another flurry of outrage over the jobs numbers claimed by the government for the administration's $787 billion economic stimulus program. House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wisc.) released a blistering statement Tuesday morning taking to task flawed data in the federal figures released on the stimulus tracking site recovery.gov Oct. 30 showing that $160 billion in spending had so far created or saved 640,000 jobs. His shot came in response to two ABC News stories. The first reported that the administration deleted 60,000 jobs from a recovery.gov list after it became clear that the jobs figures were overstated. Then, on Monday, another news report revealed recovery.gov reports had claimed $761,420 in spending and 30 jobs created in Arizona's 15th congressional district -- a district that doesn't exist. "The inaccuracies on recovery.gov that have come to light are outrageous and the