Federal Daily - March 13, 2008

EEOC Cases Up, Staff Down

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is being overwhelmed with an unprecedented number of new discrimination cases that have swelled the complaint backlog while the size of its work force has shrunk. The EEOC last week posted its Fiscal Year 2007 enforcement and litigation report card, noting that it received a total of 82,792 private-sector discrimination charge filings in FY 2007, the highest such volume since 2002 and the largest annual increase (9 percent) since the early 1990s. But the EEOC’s backlog of private-sector cases is 54,970—up 38 percent in one year—and the average time it takes to process a case rose to 199 days, according to the National Council of EEOC Locals, American Federation of Government Employees. In addition, the EEOC work force has been reduced to 2,158 employees nationwide, which means that agency has lost about one-quarter of its total work force since 2002, said Gabrielle Martin, president of the National Council of EEOC Locals. “The bottom line is that the agency's workload is up—way up—but the EEOC’s shrinking work force can’t keep up.” The Fiscal Year 2009 EEOC budget request calls for adding 177 employees, Martin said, but noted that the current budget authorizes the addition of 200 EEOC positions, which still remain unfilled. “EEOC must actually hire the allotted staff,” Martin said. To see more, go to: www.eeoc.gov/press/3-5-08.html.

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GAO: Pentagon Needs to Reexamine Reliance on Contractors

DoD has become extensively dependent on private contractors to support its war effort in Iraq and needs to reexamine whether it really needs 196,000 government contractors in the overseas combat theaters, said a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. GAO officials testified March 11 before a House Armed Services subcommittee, noting that DoD obligations on service contracts rose from $85.1 billion in Fiscal Year 1996 to more than $151 billion in Fiscal Year 2006—a 78 percent increase. With this growth, DoD has become increasingly reliant on contractors both overseas and in the United States, GAO said. “Given DoD’s heavy and increasing reliance on contractors in Iraq and elsewhere,” the report said, “and the risks this reliance entails, it may be appropriate to ask if DoD has become too reliant on contractors to provide essential services.” With regard to contractor support for deployed forces, DoD has been severely challenged to provide effective management and oversight, GAO said. For example, military commanders GAO met with in 2006 said their pre-deployment training did not provide them with sufficient information on the extent of contractor support that they would be relying on in Iraq. Consequently, they were surprised by the substantial number of personnel they had to allocate to provide on-base escorts, convoy security and other force protection support to keep the contractors out of harm’s way. Also, proof of savings remain elusive, According to GAO, “although increased contractor reliance for maintenance and other logistics activities was justified by DoD based on the assumption that there would be significant cost savings, it is uncertain to what extent cost savings have occurred or will occur.” To see more, go to: www.gao.gov/highlights/d08572thigh.pdf.

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VA Launches ‘Travel Nurse’ Corps

In response to a nationwide shortage of nurses, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced on March 11 it was launching a “Travel Nurse Corps” to enable VA nurses to travel and work throughout the department’s medical system. Under the three-year pilot program, participating nurses may be temporarily assigned to distant medical centers and clinics to help nursing staffs that have vacancies, to reduce wait times and to cut the agency’s reliance on contractors, VA said in a statement. VA Secretary James Peake said the corps also “will make it easier for us to shift personnel during times of crisis.” Initially, the new unit will place as many as 75 nurses at VA medical centers across the country. The Travel Nurse Corps is headquartered at the Phoenix VA Health Care System. To see more, go to: http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=1466.

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