Federal Daily - May 11, 2009

Obama Seeks 11% Hike in VA Budget

President Obama’s proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 budget of $112.8 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) would allow the department to expand veterans services by 15.5 percent, the largest such increase in 30 years, VA said May 7. Obama released detailed figures for his $3.6 trillion FY 2010 spending plan, which includes an 11 percent increase over the VA funding level for FY 2009 (which ends Sept. 30). VA’s FY 2010 budget request anticipates providing health care for an estimated 122,000 more patients next year, VA said. The agency expects to end FY 2010 having served about 6.1 million individual patients—including 419,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The budget would gradually expand health care eligibility to more than 500,000 new enrollees by 2013. The budget supports improvements that would allow scheduling of 98 percent of primary care appointments within a month of the desired date, VA said. “We must be bold and demand that we begin immediately showing measurable returns on investment in a responsible, accountable and transparent manner,” said VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki. The budget also sets aside $1.9 billion for VA construction projects, which includes ongoing work at five major medical projects, seven new projects and more resources to support the cemetery system’s expansion. To see more, go to: http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=1671. 

:: Back to Top ::

NTEU Applauds SEC’s Call for Additional Regulatory Staffing

National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) President Colleen Kelley applauded efforts by top Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officials to add staff to help regulate the country’s financial markets. In testimony at a May 7 Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs subcommittee hearing, Kelley praised SEC’s call for the hiring of additional technical and analytical support staff to assist frontline employees in conducting investigations. Although the SEC Enforcement Division has about 500 non-managerial investigative attorneys, it has only nine bargaining unit “market surveillance” experts nationwide, Kelley said. She also applauded the agency’s plan to flatten its management structure to increase the ability of frontline employees to have timely regulatory impact. She also agreed with the agency’s suggestion that an improved “prioritization metric” would increase enforcement efficiency. Kelley said she also supports the SEC request for a self-funding mechanism—such as is widespread among other financial regulatory agencies—so the agency would have independence in establishing budget and staffing needs. “In the recent past,” Kelley said, “federal financial regulatory agencies moved away from their historic missions, and the nation will best be served by a return to basics on the part of these agencies.” To see more, go to: www.nteu.org/PressKits/PressRelease/PressRelease.aspx?ID=1426.

:: Back to Top ::

AFGE Praises FPS Transfer Out of ICE

American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 918—a national local that represents Federal Protective Service (FPS) employees throughout the country—on May 7 praised a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposal to move FPS out of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Language in the president’s Fiscal Year 2010 budget transfers FPS from ICE to the National Protection Programs Directorate (NPPD), AFGE said. Moving FPS from under the auspices of ICE is a good decision, AFGE Local 918 President David Wright said. “This was a bad match from the beginning,” Wright said. “The change is an important step toward improving protection and security around our nation’s federal buildings.” FPS responsibilities—such as providing physical security and policing of federal buildings, establishing building security policy and ensuring compliance—are outside the scope of ICE’s immigration and customs enforcement mission and are better aligned to NPPD, AFGE noted. The other NPPD components are: the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications, the Office of Infrastructure Protection, the Office of Intergovernmental Programs, the Office of Risk Management and Analysis and US-VISIT. To see more, go to: www.afge.org/Index.cfm?Page=PressReleases&PressReleaseID=991 or www.afgelocal918.org.

:: Back to Top ::