Federal Daily - October 17, 2008

USPS: Don’t Change the Universal Service Obligation; Mailbox Monopoly

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) issued a report Oct. 15 recommending the Postal Regulatory Commission make no changes to either the Universal Service Obligation (USO) or the postal mailbox monopoly, which USPS says are inextricably linked. Obligations of the USO include uniform prices, access to services and six-day delivery to every part of the country. To assure financial support for these obligations, the postal monopoly provides USPS with the exclusive right to deliver letters, and restricts mailbox access solely for mail. Eliminating or reducing either aspect of the monopoly “would have a devastating impact on the ability … to provide the affordable universal service that the country values so highly,” the report said. Relaxing access to mailboxes—and opening their use to private carriers such as FedEx—also would pose security concerns and increase delivery costs, hurting USPS’s bottom line, the report said. The report noted there have been calls to privatize U.S. mail, but that privatization would entail pitfalls of its own. The report pointed to the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) as a study in the failure of privatization, and said its collapse means taxpayers will be footing the bill for the agency’s bailout. To see more, go to: www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2008/pr08_106.htm.

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Report: Feds Spending More Time Working Outside Office

More than a quarter of federal workers say they spend more time working outside the office today than they did a year ago, according to a study released last week by Telework Exchange, a public-private partnership that focuses on telework in government. The report, Out of the Office: Federal Mobile Workforce Trends, showed that among surveyed workers, 29 percent say they spend more time working outside of the office today than they did this time last year. According to the study, overall, 82 percent of surveyed federal employees said they spend work time outside of the office each month—teleworking, traveling, attending meetings, and performing other activities. The study, which summarized results gleaned via an online survey, looked at 446 employees from agencies across the federal government. To see more survey results, go to: www.teleworkexchange.com.

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NRC Issues Action Letter to VA on Cancer Treatment Errors

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Oct. 15 said it issued a confirmatory action letter to the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) National Health Physics Program following a series of errors in the prostate cancer treatment program at the VA Medical Center in Philadelphia, Pa. The issue surfaced earlier this year when VA notified NRC that the radiation dose delivered to a VA patient in Philadelphia for prostate cancer was more than 20 percent lower than the prescribed dose. The medical center’s review of all other prostate cancer treatments at the facility identified 92 medical errors out of the total of 116 treatments (79.3 percent) conducted since the inception of the program in 2002. Upon further review, VA reported to NRC there were problems at three of its 12 other facilities: Cincinnati, Ohio; Jackson, Miss.; and Washington, D.C. VA hospitals at these locations and in Philadelphia have suspended their programs until the problems are fixed. The NRC letter documents VA’s commitments to identify and address the problems and to prevent their recurrence. NRC then will verify through inspections that the items in the letter have been completed. “Facilities that use nuclear materials for medical treatment have a responsibility for administering treatments properly and safely,” said NRC Regional Administrator James Caldwell. “The confirmatory action letter will help us ensure that problems that led to medical errors at VA hospitals are addressed.” To see more, go to: www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2008/08-040iii.html.

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