June 10, 2009
When cowboys and school kids sing “Home, home on the range. . . . Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,” they probably aren’t thinking about employees of the U.S. Forest Service. But on the nearly 200 million acres of forests and grasslands the service manages, there are plenty of discouraging words to be heard.…
June 5, 2009
Thursday evening, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 258-154 in favor of H.R. 626, the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act (FEPPLA). The bipartisan bill, sponsored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and cosponsored by 55 others, extends four weeks of paid leave to federal employees with a newly born, adopted, or fostered child. Under current…
June 4, 2009
Wednesday, the Office of Management and Budget issued a Statement of Administration Policy in support of H.R. 626, the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act. The bill, introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), would extend four weeks of paid leave to federal employees caring for a newly born, adopted, or…
June 3, 2009
Last Friday, NFFE Local 2109 members welcomed Congressmen Paul Tonko (D-NY) and Scott Murphy (D-NY) to their facility, the Watervliet Arsenal, in Watervliet, New York. Joined by NFFE National President Richard N. Brown, National Vice President Timothy Ostrowski and Assistant Directing Business Representative Bill Fenaughty, Local 2109 leadership engaged the Congressmen on the pressing issues…
May 15, 2009
This week, NFFE-IAM members from across the nation packed into the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. for four days of networking, speeches, and political activism. Throughout the conference, NFFE members heard speeches from key figures in Congress and Labor, all the while lobbying their elected officials on the issues that affect them as…
May 15, 2009
Today, the office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense released new details concerning the pending review of the much-maligned National Security Personnel System. In the news release, Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn called on the Defense Business Board, an independent advisory body to the DoD Secretary on management issues, to assemble a task force…
May 8, 2009
With Public Service Recognition Week in full swing, the House of Representatives passed H.R.299, a resolution honoring the contributions of millions of public servants nationwide. The bill, introduced by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), recognizes the often thankless tasks carried out by public employees every day. “While Public Service Week lasts only seven days… I believe…
May 7, 2009
Wednesday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee passed the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act (FEPPLA), H.R. 626/S.354, a bill that will give federal workers a minimum of four weeks paid leave to care for a newly born, adopted, or fostered child. Under current law, expecting parents may take up to 12 weeks of…
May 1, 2009
Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director John Berry introduced this week his plan to jumpstart agency telework programs, giving tens of thousands of federal employees the opportunity to work from home. Today, only five percent of the 1.9 million workers employed by the federal government telework. Berry hopes to increase this number significantly in the…
May 1, 2009
This week on Capitol Hill, Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) introduced a bill calling for an across the board suspension of public-private job competitions. The Correction of Longstanding Errors in Agencies Procurements Act (CLEAN UP Act), S. 924, also contains an in-sourcing provision urging agencies to bring contracted work back in-house to public employees. Mikulski’s bill…
