FederalDaily - November 12, 2007
Senate Confirms Mukasey as Next Attorney General
The Senate on Nov. 8 confirmed President Bush's nomination of retired federal judge Michael Mukasey
as U.S. Attorney General by a vote of 53-40. Mukasey replaces Alberto Gonzales, who resigned Sept.
17 amid allegations that he politicized the Justice Department and wrongly dismissed nine U.S. attorneys.
Mukasey was initially embraced by Democrats, but many later cooled to the nominee after the retired
federal judge would not testify as to whether the interrogation technique known as “waterboarding” amounts
to torture. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who opposed Mukasey, was disappointed with the nominee’s
answers to questions about torture. “If an American were waterboarded anywhere in the world,
no Senator and no American would have to know the 'circumstances' and purported justifications for
it before condemning it,” Leahy said. “No one is more eager to restore strong leadership
and independence to the Department of Justice than I. What we need most right now is an Attorney General
who believes and understands that there must be limitations on Executive power.” To see more,
go to: http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200711/110807e.html
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Bill Would Strengthen Inspector General System
A bipartisan group of four U.S. senators introduced legislation Nov. 8 that would significantly strengthen
the Inspector General (IG) system, enhance IG pay and free the IGs from political pressure, allowing
them to be the agency watchdogs that Congress intended. Sens. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., Susan Collins,
R-Maine, Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., filed the Inspector General Reform Act
(S. 2324), which is intended to ensure the independence of the IG’s from agency political maneuvering.
The bill comes after a series of accounts revealed intimidation felt by IGs across the federal government
from top agency officials. The bill would set pay for IGs appointed by the president at Level III of
the Executive Schedule, plus 3 percent. Other IGs would receive compensation comparable to other senior
level executives in the department. Under the bill, an oversight group—a Council on Integrity
and Efficiency for Inspectors General—would be established and in the event of a vacancy, the
council would recommend to the appointing authority three possible replacements. “Inspectors
general are true champions for the taxpayers and annually save taxpayers billions of dollars in their
quest to root out waste, fraud and abuse,” said Coburn. To see more, go to: http://hsgac.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Press
Releases.Detail&Affiliation=C&PressRelease_id=1584&Month=11&Year=2007
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Veterans Grow as Percentage of Federal Workforce
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released its annual report entitled “The Employment
of Veterans in the Federal Government.” Covering FY 2006, the report details the state of veterans'
employment in the federal work force from October 1, 2005 to September 30, 2006. As part of their reporting
to OPM, departments and agencies must submit a yearly accounting of their efforts to promote the Disabled
Veterans Affirmative Action Program (DVAAP), an ongoing endeavor to develop “the maximum employment
and job advancement opportunities for disabled veterans as well as certain veterans of the Vietnam
era and of the post-Vietnam era who are qualified for such employment and advancement,” the agency
said of the report. Overall, veterans represented almost 458,000, or 25.4 percent, of the non-postal
federal workforce—up from about 25.2 percent in FY 2005. The number of those who were disabled
veterans rose by more than 4,600 to about 90,470, the report said.
For more, go to www.opm.gov.
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