Federal Daily - July 23, 2009

Industry Says Training, Clearer Policies Needed to Rebuild Acquisitions Workforce

The head of a leading defense industry organization this week offered a House panel a series of recommendations for improving and rebuilding the government acquisitions workforce, and warned of a growing shortage of candidates who can meet the educational and security requirements for acquisitions positions. Larry Farrell, president and CEO of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), told the House Armed Services Committee Defense Acquisition Reform Panel that the DoD plan introduced this year to convert 10,000 contractor positions and add an additional 10,000 acquisitions pros by 2015 would “help address longstanding shortfalls in the Defense acquisitions workforce” by restoring the in-house force to it 1998 levels. But Farrell said the rebuilding must be accompanied by a long-term commitment to funding, and a clearly drawn and uniformly applied policies governing what constitutes an “inherently governmental function.” Those issues aside, Farrell warned that “the major issue is there are too few government acquisition personnel with the right measure of critical skills such as system engineering, program management, contract oversight, and cost estimating to name a few,” and that replacing the “depleted” federal acquisitions ranks poses “a real and practical challenge for all federal agencies.” In addition to calling for enhanced recruitment processes, increased training and amended retention priorities, Farrell voiced support for performance-based personnel policies “based upon learning and organizational contributions, not time in grade,” and stressed the importance of offering pay and benefits competitive with the private sector in order to draw talented candidates into federal acquisition careers.  To see more, go to: http://armedservices.house.gov/hearing_information.shtml.

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Some TRICARE Enrollees Will Have to Waive Access-to-Care Standards

Non-active duty TRICARE Prime beneficiaries who live more than a 30-minute drive from the military treatment facility (MTF) where they are enrolled must obtain a TRICARE access-to-care drive-time standards waiver to remain enrolled, beginning Oct. 1, TRICARE announced earlier this month. To provide the best care, TRICARE said, a primary care manager should be located within a 30-minute drive of a beneficiary’s residence. The access-to-care drive-time standards are in place to help to ensure continuity of care by PCMs, and urgent care within a reasonable distance, TRICARE said. If a waiver is approved for beneficiaries who reside more than 100 miles from an MTF, it will remain in effect through the beneficiary’s current enrollment period, so long as they do not change residences, the announcement said. If a request is initially denied or a waiver is not renewed at the end of an enrollment period, there are several other TRICARE options, including, enrolling at another MTF in the area; enrolling with a civilian PCM or enrolling in the US Family Health Plan, TRICARE said. To see more, go to: www.tricare.mil/Access-to-Care%20Waiver.pdf.

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NTEU to Meet With TSA on TSO Bargaining Rights, Working Conditions

Obtaining bargaining rights for Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) will top the agenda of an upcoming meeting between representatives from the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) and senior officials at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), NTEU said in a statement this week. NTEU President Colleen Kelley and local leaders from NTEU’s TSA chapters will meet July 29 with the head of TSA and other top brass to discuss a broad range of issues affecting employees. In addition to talking about TSO collective bargaining rights, Kelley said, NTEU wants to discuss workers’ compensation and reasonable accommodation issues, training and remediation, leave and attendance (including employee rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act) and the outsourcing of the agency’s personnel operations. “I expect that this will be the first of many meetings between TSA employees, employee representatives and senior leadership,” said Kelley. “We have an opportunity to demonstrate to the TSA workforce and the nation that we can work together to build a world class airport security agency.” To see more, go to: www.nteu.org/PressKits/PressRelease/PressRelease.aspx?ID=1462.

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