Federal Daily - August 26, 2008
Controller Trainees to Use New Simulators
A bank of new state-of-the-art air traffic control simulators will be opened to controller trainees
at the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Oklahoma City training center on Sept. 2, Secretary
of Transportation Mary E. Peters said. The simulators, installed at FAA’s Monroney Aeronautical
Center, will give controller trainees a near-lifelike learning environment, Peters said. She said the
new technology was needed to help prepare the record number of new controllers the government will
be hiring and training in coming years. The simulators allow instructors to simulate air traffic conditions
at virtually any airport in the world, the agency said. “Choosing the best candidates is important;
giving them the best training and technology possible is essential,” Peters said. She noted
that the simulators also will be used to help current controllers sharpen their skills and prepare
for new assignments. To see more, go to: www.dot.gov/affairs/dot12108.htm.
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GOP House Leaders Doubtful Over 4-Day Week
House Republican leaders took a dim view of an effort by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.,
to push work schedule options for federal employees—including a possible four-day, 10-hour-a-day
work week. In a letter earlier this month to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Hoyer sought
out options to reduce gas consumption and commuting expenses in the face of rising fuel costs, including
a possible 4/10 schedule for feds. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, called for Hoyer to
retract his query, which Boehner labeled as an “insult” to American workers. “Hoyer
has finally given the American people a glimpse of the majority’s long-promised energy plan:
drive smaller cars, wait for the wind, and let bureaucrats work less,” Boehner said in an Aug.
22 statement. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., called the 4-day week a “gimmick.” Both called
on Hoyer to allow Congress to move ahead with the American Energy Act (H.R. 6566), which would—among
other things—open up offshore oil drilling in previously protected areas off the East Coast.
Hoyer’s plan has been endorsed by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). To see more,
go to: http://bachmann.house.gov/News/Document
Single.aspx?DocumentID=100469 or http://republicanleader.house.gov/News/Document
Single.aspx?DocumentID=100462.
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Groups Say VA Outsourcing Could Hurt Vets
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the union’s National Veterans Affairs
Council (NVAC) on Aug. 22 criticized a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) move to outsource the processing
of GI Bill education benefits. The groups said the privatization effort would eliminate the expertise
of federal employees—and could cost more than 400 career civilian employees their jobs. The groups
pointed out that more than 50 percent of the Education Division bargaining unit employees at the affected
facilities are vets. “Retaining the experienced federal workers currently in the Education Division
would be a far more effective approach to ensuring the veterans receive their valuable GI benefits
in a timely and accurate manner,” said NVAC President Alma Lee. NVAC said VA has told them that
the outsourcing is necessary in order to have “new GI Bill” benefits—those resulting
from the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008—on track for a Aug. 1, 2009, launch.
However, employees in the Education Division already are processing benefits under the current GI bill,
making such work an inherently governmental function ineligible for outsourcing, Lee said. AFGE and
NVAC have proposed an alternate plan they say would save taxpayer money, protect federal employees
and avoid violations in federal public-private competition laws. To see more, go to: www.afge.org/Index.cfm?Page=PressReleases&PressReleaseID=882.
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