Federal Daily - September 10, 2008

VA to Allow Facility-Based Voter Registration Drives

Abruptly changing course, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced Sept. 8 that it would allow facility-based, third-party voter registration drives on VA property as long as organizers coordinated their activities with VA officials. VA issued what it called a clarification, saying that VA would welcome state and local election officials and non-partisan groups to its hospitals and outpatient clinics to assist VA officials in registering voters. “Such assistance, however, must be coordinated by those facilities in order to avoid disruptions to patient care,” a VA statement said. The ban imposed by VA Secretary James Peake—which prohibited VA offices and facilities from allowing on-site voter registration services—raised considerable opposition. The House this summer adopted a measure that would have compelled Peake to drop the ban. It was included as language in the $118.7 billion Fiscal Year 2009 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act (H.R. 6599). A bipartisan group of secretaries of state from more than 20 states also had issued a letter calling for VA to reconsider its directive. To see more, go to: http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=1564.

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Federal Worker Assistance Fund Distributes Record Payments

Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund (FEEA), which provides scholarships and financial assistance to federal workers and their families, distributed a record amount of financial aid last month, FEEA said in a Sept. 8 statement. FEEA, based in Lakewood, Colo., provided more than half a million dollars of aid—which included emergency assistance, childcare support and scholarships—to more than 1,000 federal employees and their dependents around the country. In August, FEEA distributed first-semester scholarship checks totaling $300,000, as well as childcare subsidy payments of nearly $150,000 for lower income federal employees. But the group said the greatest increase was in payments from its emergency assistance program, which provides no-interest loans for basic living expenses, such as shelter or utilities. Payments are made directly to creditors, and federal employees pay FEEA back through payroll allotment, with no interest. Requests for these loans topped $47,000 in August, a 100 percent increase over the same month last year. Because federal employment is a requirement for FEEA’s program, those who receive an FEEA emergency loan currently are employed. “Look at the needs we see among those who are 100 percent fully employed,” said Rosanne Martillaro, director of the emergency assistance program. “I often feel that I have a front-row seat on this economic downturn, and from my vantage point, things are much worse than even the news reports are telling us.”  To see more, go to: www.FEEA.org.

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AFGE to Challenge Air Force A-76 Competition as Untimely

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) announced Sept. 8 that it will challenge the Air Force’s decision to outsource 180 federal jobs at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas. AFGE alleges that the A-76 competition decision is well beyond the 30-month statutory time limit mandated by procurement law. AFGE said it will file a complaint on behalf of employees at Sheppard Air Force Base with the Government Accountability Office, citing the time limit violation. The Sheppard study has been ongoing for the past five years, “wreaking havoc on employee morale and carelessly wasting taxpayer dollars,” the union said in a statement. The Air Force is moving forward in contracting out civil engineering at the installation and handing over 180 federal jobs to a private contractor, said Gary Johnson, president of AFGE Local 779. “Our members on the base are angry, frustrated and scared,” said Johnson. “These employees have made every conceivable sacrifice a civilian employee can make for the Air Force and now they are just going to be tossed out.” To see more, go to: www.afge.org/Index.cfm?Page=PressReleases&PressReleaseID=885.

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