FederalDaily - April 10, 2007
DHS Multi-Agency Centers Need More Collaboration
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) needs to do a better job having staff from multiple DHS
agencies work together at its four round-the-clock operations centers, said government auditors. A
Government Accountability Office report dated April 5 looked at the operation and coordination of these
centers, which are run with staff pulled from the different agencies making up DHS. The department
has leveraged its resources—one key collaborative practice—by having staff from multiple
agencies work together at the centers, the report noted. But, DHS could take additional steps to achieve
a wider collaboration implementation, the report said. “Given that the collaboration in multi-agency
operations centers focuses on gathering and disseminating information on real-time situational awareness
related to disasters and possible terrorist activity,” the report said, “it is important
that the staff at the centers achieve the most effective collaboration possible.” The four centers
are: the Air and Marine Operations Center and the National Targeting Center, both from Customs and
Border Protection; the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) Transportation Security
Operations Center, and the National Operations Center-Interagency Watch (formerly the Homeland Security
Operations Center). To see more, go to: www.gao.gov/new.items/d07686r.pdf
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OPM Holds 2007 PMF Job Fair
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) held its 2007 Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) Program
Job Fair last week, offering nearly 600 finalists from around the nation a chance to interview for
positions with 83 federal agencies. OPM Director Linda Springer said April 6 that the PMF Program and
its predecessor—the Presidential Management Intern (PMI) Program—attract graduate, law
and doctoral-level students to the federal workforce. The PMF is open to graduate students in the final
year of their education. Thousands of applications are received and screened annually, Springer said,
noting that more than 6,000 PMF alumni are currently working at all levels and branches of federal
government. “The federal government expects to lose half of its most experienced and talented
leaders as its workforce reaches retirement age in the next decade,” Springer said. “We
need a new generation of talented individuals to step into the breach.” To see more, go to: www.opm.gov/news/opm-director-kicksoff-2007-pmf-job-fair,1170.aspx
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NTEU Supports Pope’s Appointment to FLRA
The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) applauded President Bush’s recess appointment of
Carol Waller Pope to the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA). NTEU President Colleen Kelley welcomed
the move and noted on April 4 that the labor union had previously called for Pope’s nomination
to the FLRA. Pope, of the District of Columbia, will serve out the remainder of an open five-year term
expiring July 1, 2009. Pope had served as an FLRA member from 2000-2006. Prior to this, she was a career
employee at the FLRA, serving as assistant general counsel in the Office of the General Counsel. The
appointment fills the Democratic seat on the three-member FLRA, which is required to have members from
both political parties, Kelley noted. An independent federal agency, the FLRA administers the labor-management
relations program for non-Postal Service federal employees. To see more, go to: www.nteu.org/PressKits/PressRelease/PressRelease.aspx?ID=1077
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