Federal Daily - January 28, 2009

VA Needs to Broaden Employment Program Incentives

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) needs to broaden financial incentives paid to disabled veterans participating in the agency’s Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VR&E) program, said a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released Jan. 26. GAO looked at how well VA was implementing a new VR&E Five-Track Employment service delivery approach which gives veterans five different program options to achieve employment based on their individual needs. Although VR&E was able to emphasize employment programs, financial incentives remain primarily focused on education and training, the report said. Vets who participate in education and training programs receive a monthly allowance, while those who use VR&E for assistance with immediate employment do not, the report said. “Senior VR&E officials told us it may be advantageous to align incentives with the program’s employment mission,” the report said, “but they had not yet taken steps to address this issue.” The program helps vets who have service-connected disabilities obtain employment or live independently if employment is not practical. VR&E’s services are particularly critical now that more than 33,000 military servicemembers have been wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001, the report noted. GAO auditors pointed out that although VR&E has improved its capacity to provide services by increasing its collaboration with other organizations—and by hiring more staff—many of its regional offices still reported staff and skill shortages. To see more, go to: www.gao.gov/highlights/d0934high.pdf.

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AFGE, Coalition Urge Obama to Strengthen Whistleblower Protections

American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) President John Gage and a coalition of public-interest groups urged President Obama to push for stronger federal whistleblower rights, according to documents posted Jan. 25 on the Government Accountability Project (GAP) Web site. In a letter sent to Obama just before the inauguration, the coalition asked him to issue a presidential directive mandating zero tolerance for retaliation against whistleblowers, and create a plan to restore exiled whistleblowers purged from the federal workforce because of their actions. “The current Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA) has failed to protect the employees who need it most,” the letter said. “The ugliest forms of retaliation and harassment are routinely rubber-stamped by a system that traps honest employees, who are repeatedly denied justice after bravely exposing wrongdoing.” Specifically, the groups sought Obama’s support for a congressional overhaul of the WPA, which would include increased free-speech protections and full access to the courts for complaints that could not be resolved administratively. They also asked Obama to issue an executive order establishing a program to review cases involving whistleblowers who had lost their jobs, and restore them to the federal workforce if they had been wrongly driven out. To see more, go to: www.whistleblower.org/doc/2008/Obama%20Letter.pdf.

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Defense Budget Delayed

The Obama administration probably will postpone until April a detailed Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 defense budget request, officials said Jan. 26. The president’s annual budget request—which normally includes the DoD budget figures—usually is submitted to Congress the first Monday in February. However, with only a week in office, the new administration will need more time for a substantial review of the DoD parts of the budget, officials said. Civilian and military financial experts have prepared a draft budget for review by administration officials, who are expected to soon issue DoD budget guidance via the Office of Management and Budget, according to officials. Nonetheless, DoD aggregate budget figures could be released earlier than April, officials said. President Bush’s FY 2009 DoD budget request, delivered last February, sought $515.4 billion for the department’s base budget—which represented a nearly 74 percent increase over 2001. To see more, go to: www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123132740.

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