FederalDaily - November 3, 2006
Forest Service Centralizes Business Operations
The Forest Service has opened the doors to a new centralized business operations center in Albuquerque,
N.M., the most significant change in the way the service does things in its 101-year history, said
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns. A group of dignitaries, led by Johanns Nov. 1, toured the 92,455-square-feet,
three-story building. The Forest Service expects the facility soon will create 100 new jobs. The center’s
current operations employ 109 workers providing human resource services to 4,530 Forest Service employees,
Johanns said. By September 2007, the center will have 360 employees located in Albuquerque serving
approximately 39,000 employees. “Centralizing the Forest Service’s administrative services
makes good common sense,” Johanns said. “This change enables the Forest Service to redirect
crucial funds from administrative functions back to mission-critical programs.” To see more, click
here.
:: Back to Top ::
Senator to Press Senate for FBI Funding
Frustrated by election-year politics, Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.V., said he will push—after the
congressional recess—for a $449 million funding package for the FBI’s operations based
in Harrison County, W.Va., a $50 million boost. The FBI’s Clarksburg fingerprint database employs
about 2,500 federal workers. Another 1,000 contract personnel in West Virginia have jobs linked to
the facility. Byrd Oct. 31 charged that the Senate Republican leadership purposely delayed legislation
to fund the FBI—as well as the U.S. Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Agency and state/local
law enforcement efforts—until after the election. “We all know that the FBI Complex in
Harrison County is an important part of keeping criminals off the streets. That facility also plays
a key role in America’s counterterrorism efforts,” Byrd said. The FBI’s fingerprint
warehouse includes information on some 40,000 known or suspected terrorists as part of a database of
approximately 47 million sets of fingerprints. To see more, go to: http://byrd.senate.gov/newsroom/news_oct/fbi_funding.html
:: Back to Top ::
Social Security Is Key Safety Net for Military Families
Although Social Security is best known as a retirement program, it also is an important income source
for military families with children who lose a loved one in the service of their country, a public
interest group pointed out this week. In a brief released Nov. 1, the National Academy of Social Insurance
(NASI) calculated that the surviving spouse and three children of a deceased servicemember (who had
been making about $18,000 annually) would be eligible for about $15,820 a year in Social Security survivor
benefits. That family also would be eligible for Dependency Indemnity Compensation through the Department
of Veterans Affairs, NASI said. Total benefits payable to the surviving family could equal 225 percent
of the servicemember’s prior pay, according to the brief. “While income can never replace
the lost life of a father or mother, these benefits protect families against financial hardship related
to their sacrifice,” said Virginia Reno, NASI vice president for income security and co-author
of the brief. To read the brief, go to:
http://www.nasi.org/usr_doc/SS_Brief_No23_Oct_06.pdf
:: Back to Top ::
|
