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| July 20 - 27, 2010 |
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You are viewing the E-Report for the week starting Jul 20, 2010 
President Obama Nominates Jacob Lew as OMB Director
Last Tuesday, President Barack Obama announced the nomination of Jack Lew to serve as Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Currently, Lew is the Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, serving as Chief Operating Officer of the Department. Appointed by President Obama, he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 28, 2009, and sworn in by Secretary Clinton the next day. Lew was managing director and chief operating officer of Citi Alternative Investments (CAI) until January 2009. At CAI, he was responsible for operations, technology, finance, human resources, legal and regional coordination. Prior to joining CAI in January 2008, he was managing director and chief operating officer of Citi Global Wealth Management. From 2001 to 2006, Lew was executive vice president and chief operating officer of New York University, where he was responsible for budget, finance, and operations. He was also a professor of public administration. Lew served in President Clinton's cabinet as the Director of OMB. From 1998 to 2001, he led the Administration budget team and served as a member of the National Security Council. During his tenure at OMB, the U.S. budget operated at a surplus for three consecutive years. Earlier, he served as OMB's Deputy Director and was a member of the negotiating team that reached a bi-partisan agreement to balance the budget. As Special Assistant to President Clinton from 1993 to 1994, Lew helped design Americorps, the national service program. From 1988 to 1993, Lew was a partner at the Washington law firm Van Ness, Feldman, specializing in issues related to power plant development. Lew began his career in Washington in 1973 as a legislative aide. From 1979 to 1987, he was a principal domestic policy advisor to House Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr., where he served at the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee as Assistant Director and then Executive Director. There he was responsible for domestic and economic issues including Social Security, Medicare, budget, tax, trade, appropriations, and energy issues. From 2004 through 2008, Lew also served on the Corporation for National and Community Service Board and chaired its Management, Administration, and Governance Committee. Prior to assuming his current position, he co-chaired the Advisory Board for City Year New York and was on the boards of the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Brookings Institution Hamilton Project and the Tobin Project. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Academy of Social Insurance and of the bar in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. Lew received his A.B. degree magna cum laude from Harvard and his J.D. degree from Georgetown University. In announcing Lew's nomination as Director of OMB, President Obama said, "The experience and good judgment Jack has acquired throughout his impressive career in the public and private sector will be an extraordinary asset to this administration's efforts to cut down the deficit and put our nation back on a fiscally responsible path. As the budget director who left the next administration a $237 billion surplus when he worked for President Clinton, I have no doubt that Jack has proven himself equal to this extraordinary task. I am grateful he has agreed to serve in this critical role, and I look forward to working with him in the weeks and months ahead." |
House Passes Telework Legislation, Bill Now Moves to Senate
Last Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the "Telework Improvements Act of 2010,"which is intended to help ensure continuity of government services during emergencies, bolster productivity, and help the federal government compete with the private sector by allowing employees to telework. H.R. 1722, which passed the House by a vote of 290 to 131, builds on the government's current telework capabilities and requires each federal agency to establish a policy to authorize employees to telework. The Telework Improvements Act was reported out of the Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia Subcommittee on March 24, 2010 and forwarded favorably by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform by voice vote on April 14, 2010. During the record-breaking snowstorm earlier this year, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) estimated that the federal government saved approximately $30 million in productivity each day the government was closed because of the number of employees who were teleworking. H.R. 1722 is designed to build on this success and result in additional cost savings for the federal government while reducing energy consumption and traffic congestion. H.R. 1722, sponsored by Reps. John Sarbanes (D-Maryland), Stephen Lynch (D-Massachusetts), Gerry Connolly (D-Virginia), and Frank Wolf (R-Virginia), requires the head of each agency to establish a plan that authorizes employees to telework and mandates that a Telework Managing Officer be assigned or designated for the agency. The bill also directs OPM to issue regulations and guidance to other agencies and requires the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to evaluate and report on each agency's telework program. "I believe this legislation is necessary so that a formal telework policy can be enacted across the Federal Government and sustained into future Administrations," said Congressman Sarbanes. "A robust telework program will not only improve government operations during a disaster, it could be used as a tool to reduce traffic congestion in the DC area. Telework has a positive impact on productivity, quality of life and the environment. If fully integrated, it can save taxpayers money by increasing efficiency, reducing federal office space and improving employee retention." The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration. We'll keep you updated. |
President Orders Agencies to Improve Workplace Safety for Feds
President Obama on Monday ordered agencies to do more to protect federal employees from workplace injuries and illnesses. Although the federal government has made progress in recent years, the President said that federal workers (excluding those employed by the U.S. Postal Service) still filed more than 79,000 new claims and received over $1.6 billion in workers' compensation payments in fiscal year 2009. Since many of these work-related injuries and illnesses are preventable, federal departments and agencies must do more to improve workplace safety and health, reduce the financial burden of injury on taxpayers, and relieve unnecessary suffering by workers and their families, the President stated. Accordingly, the President announced that he is establishing a 4-year Protecting Our Workers and Ensuring Reemployment (POWER) Initiative, covering fiscal years 2011 through 2014. The POWER Initiative will extend prior workplace safety and health efforts of the federal government by setting more aggressive performance targets, encouraging the collection and analysis of data on the causes and consequences of frequent or severe injury and illness, and prioritizing safety and health management programs that have proven effective in the past. Under the POWER Initiative, each executive department and agency will be expected to improve its performance in seven areas: 1. reducing total injury and illness case rates;
2. reducing lost time injury and illness case rates;
3. analyzing lost time injury and illness data;
4. increasing the timely filing of workers' compensation claims;
5. increasing the timely filing of wage-loss claims;
6. reducing lost production day rates; and
7. speeding employees' return to work in cases of serious injury or illness.
Executive departments and agencies (except the U.S. Postal Service) will coordinate with the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Office of Workers' Compensation Programs to establish performance targets in each category. The Secretary of Labor will be responsible for leading the POWER Initiative by measuring both Government-wide and agency-level performance and reporting the figures to the President annually. Each executive department and agency shall bear its own costs for participating in the POWER Initiative. The Secretary of Labor is expected to publish the initiative in the Federal Register shortly. |
Legislation to Provide the FDA with Mandatory Recall Authority Introduced in House
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Edolphus "Ed" Towns (D-NY) introduced a bill last week that, if enacted, will give the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandatory recall powers. Towns announced his intention to introduce the legislation during a committee hearing in May that examined the circumstances surrounding Johnson & Johnson's recall of children's medication. The legislation (H.R. 5740), which amends the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, gives the FDA the authority to demand a recall when there is indication that a drug has been adulterated or misbranded, or when exposure to a drug may cause serious adverse health consequences or death to humans and animals. "With this legislation, the FDA will be able to carry out their mission of enforcing the safety of medicines and ensuring the health of the American people," said Towns. "Too often, the FDA has been in the position of having to persuade companies to recall suspect products. Now the FDA will have the full authority to pull contaminated medication from the market when necessary." H.R. 5740 has been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. |
Bring OmniGov's Most Popular Course to Your Agency: How to Rehabilitate or Remove the Problem Employee
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Former State Department Official Sentenced to Life in Prison for Nearly 30-Year Espionage Conspiracy
Walter Kendall Myers, a former State Department official, and his wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, have been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and 81 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in a nearly 30-year conspiracy to provide highly-classified U.S. national defense information to the Republic of Cuba. The sentences were handed down last Friday by Judge Reggie B. Walton in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. On November 20, 2009, defendant Kendall Myers, 73, aka "Agent 202," pleaded guilty to a three-count criminal information charging him with conspiracy to commit espionage and two counts of wire fraud. His wife, Gwendolyn Myers, 72, aka "Agent 123," and "Agent E-634," pleaded guilty to a one-count criminal information charging her with conspiracy to gather and transmit national defense information. The defendants, both residents of Washington, D.C., were arrested on June 4, 2009, by FBI agents and have remained in custody ever since.
Both defendants have agreed to the entry of a monetary judgment against them in the amount of $1,735,054. The assets that will be forfeited to the government towards satisfaction of that judgment include the proceeds from the sale of the defendants' apartment and vehicle, and various bank and investment accounts.
According to court documents, Kendall Myers began working at the State Department in 1977 as a contract instructor at the Department's Foreign Service Institute (FSI) in Arlington, Virginia. After living briefly with Gwendolyn in South Dakota, he returned to Washington, D.C., and resumed employment as an instructor with FSI. From 1988 to 1999, in addition to his FSI duties, he performed work for the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR). He later worked full-time in INR and, from July 2001 until his retirement in October 2007, was an intelligence analyst for Europe in INR where he specialized on European matters and had daily access to classified information through computer databases and otherwise. He received a "Top Secret" security clearance in 1985 and, in 1999, received access to "Sensitive Compartmental Information."
Gwendolyn Myers moved to Washington, D.C., in 1980 and married Kendall Myers in May 1982. She subsequently obtained employment with a local bank as an administrative analyst and later as a special assistant. Gwendolyn Myers was never granted a security clearance by the U.S. government.
In December 1978, while an employee of the State Department's FSI, Kendall Myers traveled to Cuba after being invited by a Cuban government official who had made a presentation at FSI. That Cuban official was an intelligence officer for the Cuban Intelligence Service (CuIS). This trip provided CuIS with the opportunity to assess or develop Myers as a Cuban agent. Myers kept a diary of his two-week trip to Cuba in which he explicitly declared his affinity for Fidel Castro and the Cuban government. The diary was recovered by the FBI in the investigation.
In 1979, Kendall and Gwendolyn Myers were visited in South Dakota by the same Cuban intelligence officer who had invited Kendall Myers to Cuba. During the visit, the Cuban intelligence officer recruited both of them to be clandestine agents for Cuba, a role in which they served for the next 30 years. Their recruitment by CuIS as "paired" agents is consistent with CuIS's past practice in the United States. Afterwards, CuIS directed Kendall Myers to pursue a job at the State Department or the CIA to gain access to classified information. Kendall Myers, accompanied by his wife, returned to Washington, D.C., where he pursued a position at the State Department.
During the time frame in which Kendall and Gwendolyn Myers were serving as clandestine agents for Cuba, the CuIS often communicated with its clandestine agents in the United States by broadcasting encrypted radio messages from Cuba on shortwave radio frequencies. Clandestine agents in the United States monitoring the frequency on shortwave radio could decode the messages using a decryption program provided by CuIS. Kendall and Gwendolyn Myers communicated with CuIS by this method. The shortwave radio they used to receive clandestine communications was purchased with money provided by CuIS. The shortwave radio was later recovered by the FBI.
According to the court documents, in April 2009, the FBI launched an undercover operation against the pair. Kendall and Gwendolyn Myers met four times with an undercover FBI source, on April 15th, 16th, and 30th, and on June 4, 2009. The meetings were all video- and audio-taped.
During the meetings, Kendall and Gwendolyn Myers made a series of statements about their past activities on behalf of CuIS, including how they used code names and how they had transmitted information to their CuIS handlers through personal meetings, "dead drops," "hand-to-hand" passes, and in at least one case, the exchange of shopping carts in a grocery store. The couple also stated that they had traveled to meet Cuban agents in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina and other locations. When asked by the undercover FBI agent if he had ever transmitted information to CuIS that was classified higher than "Secret," Kendall Myers replied, "oh yeah...oh yeah." He said he typically removed information from the State Department by memory or by taking notes, although he did take some classified documents home. Gwendolyn Myers admitted she would process the classified documents at home for delivery to their CuIS handlers. In the final meeting with the FBI source, Kendall Myers disclosed "Top Secret" national defense information related to sources and methods of gathering intelligence. He also admitted that he had previously disclosed the information to CuIS.
The admissions by Kendall and Gwendolyn Myers were corroborated by other evidence collected in the investigation. The FBI seized a shortwave radio in their apartment and confirmed overseas trips by the couple that corresponded to statements they made. The FBI also identified encrypted shortwave radio messages between CuIS and a handler for the couple that were broadcast in 1996 and 1997.
Furthermore, an analysis of Kendall Myers' State Department computer revealed that, from August 22, 2006, until his retirement on October 31, 2007, he viewed more than 200 intelligence reports concerning the subject of Cuba. Of these reports concerning Cuba, the majority was classified and marked "Secret" or "Top Secret." The FBI also located handwritten notes by Kendall Myers reflecting the gathering and retention of "Top Secret" information which he intended to provide the CuIS, but never did.
Finally, since at least 1983 and until 2007, Kendall Myers made repeated false statements to government investigators responsible for conducting background investigations which determined his continued suitability for a "Top Secret" security clearance. By not disclosing his and his wife's clandestine activity on behalf of CuIS and by making false statements to the State Department about their status as clandestine Cuban agents, he defrauded the United States whenever he received his government salary. Based on these false representations and promises, Kendall Myers obtained at least $1,735,054 in salary from the U.S. government for the benefit of him and his wife.
This investigation was conducted jointly by the FBI's Washington Field Office and the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security. The prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney G. Michael Harvey, from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, and Senior Trial Attorney Clifford I. Rones, from the Counterespionage Section of the Justice Department's National Security Division. |
Protecting Our Workers and Ensuring Reemployment (POWER)
This week we report on President Obama's initiative to improve workplace safety and health for federal employees by establishing a 4 year plan called Protecting Our Workers and Ensuring Reemployment (POWER). The idea behind POWER is that many workplace injuries are preventable, and doing more to improve the health and safety of federal workers reduces the financial cost to taxpayers associated with workers' compensation claims and relieves unnecessary suffering to the injured Fed and his or her family. In establishing POWER, the President pointed to 79,000 new workers' compensation claims filed by Feds in fiscal year 2009. The concern with the effectiveness of the federal employee workers' compensation program in both the processing of claims and benefits and the effectiveness of finding ways to return injured Feds to some form of duty is not new. What seems to be new is the idea of establishing a government wide initiative to reduce the potential of workplace injuries. For many federal managers, there may be little you can do to make the running of the workers' compensation program at your agency more efficient and effective. But there may be a whole lot more to be done to make your actual workplace safer. From the typical white-collar office jobs, to the typical wage grade positions, and the not so typical federal jobs (such as Forest Service firefighters, law enforcement agents, Park Service rangers and more), POWER may create the impetus for a more hands on approach by managers, rank and file employees, and the personnel staff to look for and find ways to make the workplace safer. But why wait for the Labor Department to publish its new regulations implementing POWER. If you believe there may be ways to improve the safety of your workplace, coordinate with your personnel staff now and get a head start on the President's initiative. Consider soliciting the employees for their ideas (coordinating with unions when appropriate) on ways to improve the health and safety of their workplace. And while many will focus on the physical attributes of the workplace (stairs that need better markings, improved lighting, cleansing of air filtration systems) also consider implementing a wellness program in your office where employees "compete" in an exercise and weight loss program. Healthier employees, who are physically active, may be less likely to get injured. |
July 23, 2010
This week on FEDtalk®, host Debra Roth will be joined by a variety of law enforcement associations to discuss diversity in federal law enforcement. The radio show airs this Friday, July 23rd, 2010, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time. Click here Friday to listen - www.federalnewsradio.com - or tune in to 1500 AM in the Washington, D.C. area. Join the conversation! Email your questions to fedtalk@federalnewsradio.com, or call in during the show by dialing 1-877-936-9333 (toll free). FEDtalk® is a live radio talk show produced by Shaw, Bransford & Roth, PC. Bringing you the insider's perspective from leaders in the federal community since 1993.
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Smile of the Week
I don't want to brag or make anybody jealous or anything, but I can still fit into the earrings I wore in high school.
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Weekly Leadership Reflection
Have you ever wondered which hurts the most: saying something and wishing you had not, or saying nothing and wishing you had?
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