Federal Daily - April 29, 2009

Bill Would Permit Trusts for Special Needs Survivors

Rep. Bill Foster, D-Ill., on April 27 introduced a bill that would, if signed into law, allow military retirees to designate survivor benefits to their special needs children through a special needs blind trust. The bill, H.R. 2059, would amend the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP). A special needs blind trust would allow special needs survivors to claim assistance from Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security, as well as their parent’s SBP. Under current law, special needs children can receive only Social Security payments or SBP payments, Foster said. “Right now, military retirees cannot designate their survivor annuities in a blind trust fund for their special needs children,” said Foster. “My bill simply gives our military retirees the same legal tools that other government workers have to protect their special needs children.” Foster introduced the bill after he found one of his constituents could not transfer survivor benefits to his special needs son. To see more, go to: http://foster.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=124112.

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NTEU Seeks Cosponsors for Bill to Give Union Rights to TSOs

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) urged lawmakers to cosponsor a bill that would—if passed into law—grant Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) the same union rights and workplace protections afforded to other federal employees. In an April 27 letter, NTEU asked lawmakers to support H.R. 1881, the Transportation Security Workforce Enhancement Act, introduced by Reps. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., and Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Texas. The bill would apply to about 50,000 employees across the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), including about 42,000 TSOs. The bill would amend the 2001 law that created TSA to provide TSOs with civil service protections—including collective bargaining rights—and would move them onto the General Schedule, eliminating TSA’s pay-for-performance personnel system, the Performance and Accountability Standards System (PASS). “Given the crucial position of TSA employees in protecting our nation’s airports and securing the safety of the traveling public, giving them a fair voice in the workplace will undoubtedly serve our country well,” said NTEU President Colleen Kelley said. Kelley said NTEU also is working with the Obama administration to secure collective bargaining rights through executive action. To see more, go to: www.tsaunion.org or www.nteu.org

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DOT IG Report Critical of FAA Staffing of California Towers

A Department of Transportation Inspector General (IG) report was critical of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) staffing efforts at three busy California air-traffic control facilities where a significant proportion of controllers are still in training. The IG looked at staffing at three major California FAA facilities: the Los Angeles International Airport Traffic Control Tower (LAX), the Southern California Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) (SCT), and the Northern California TRACON (NCT). Together, the three facilities handled about 4.5 million operations in 2008, the IG said. Of the three, SCT—FAA’s busiest TRACON—has the highest percentage of existing and planned new controllers of the three facilities, the report said, and has experienced a sharp decline in certified controllers over the last five years. As of December 2008, SCT had 32 percent of its 237 total controllers in training, exceeding the national average of 27 percent. Although FAA has offered relocation and retention bonuses at LAX and SCT, those incentives should be expanded to entice more experienced controllers to accept positions or defer retirements, the IG said. FAA also should ensure the appropriate use of overtime hours, which have risen sharply over the last two years—by 868 percent at LAX, 400 percent at SCT and 120 percent at NCT. “The FAA’s failed ‘run it like a business’ approach the past few years is rearing its ugly head,” National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Patrick Forrey said in an April 27 statement. “The FAA continued to dig itself a hole, all the while denying there was a staffing problem.” To see more, go to: www.oig.dot.gov/StreamFile?file=/data/pdfdocs/CA_ATC_
Controller_Staffing_issued_April_23_508.pdf

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