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New Homeland Security Work Rules Blocked
Employee, Union Rights Not Protected, Judge Says By Stephen
Barr Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 15, 2005;
The
Department of Homeland Security, after more than two years of work on new
workplace rules, may have to scrap the plan after a federal judge questioned
whether it protects union and employee rights. The rules were scheduled to
begin today but were blocked by U.S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer in a
ruling released Friday night. A spokesman for the department, Larry Orluskie,
said officials are to meet today and "consider next steps." Talk about an
appeal or other options would be premature until government lawyers study the
decision, he said. ( read
more )  |
DHS pushes pay-for performance back a year
The Homeland Security Department announced Wednesday
[September 7] that it will delay implementation of its new pay-for-performance
system for some employees by a year. Employees who are part of the first wave
of personnel reform will not receive their first performance-based pay raises
until January 2008. That group consists of workers from DHS headquarters, the
Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Law Enforcement Training
Center, according to DHS.
(Read
more) |
Social Security Legislation
Could Be Shelved National Republican Congressional Committee
Chairman Thomas M. Reynolds will recommend to the House Republican leadership
that the party drop its effort to restructure Social Security, at least for
this year, House Republican aides confirmed yesterday. (Read more) |
Senators Concerned Bush Administration Is Overreaching With
New Pay System
A key Senate chairman yesterday signaled that she has doubts
about Bush administration plans for a new government-wide pay system that would
require more rigorous job performance ratings of employees. Sen. Susan Collins
(R-Maine), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Committee, asked whether the administration considered using pilot projects,
which can be authorized by the Office of Personnel Management, as a way to work
toward its goal of replacing the decades-old General Schedule pay system with a
performance-based approach. |
Judge rejects DHS attempt at revising personnel rules By
Karen Rutzick
A federal judge ruled Friday that the Homeland Security
Department's labor relations reforms cannot go forward, despite an attempt by
the department to remove portions of the proposal previously ruled illegal.
Rosemary Collyer, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of
Columbia, told DHS that its revised labor relations scheme did not go far
enough in providing collective bargaining rights—specifically binding
contracts—for department employees. In her original ruling, Collyer
focused on the department's authority to declare negotiated contracts void at
any time after completion. The Homeland Security Department removed that
language from its revised regulations, but the judge remained
unconvinced.
Full
story: |
New Energy Bill
 Senate Approves Energy Bill On June 28,
2005, the Senate overwhelmingly approved a wide-ranging energy bill that
provides billions in tax breaks to encourage domestic energy production,
incentives for conservation and more federal authority for approving new
liquefied natural gas terminals and electric transmission lines. While the
Senate measure provides some incentives for the oil and natural gas industry,
it focuses heavily on promoting cleaner and renewable sources of energy and
includes a non-binding resolution calling for mandatory limits on greenhouse
gas emissions -- a first for lawmakers. The legislation was approved 85 to 12
after floor debate that took place over the past two weeks. ---read more
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Medicare Rx Education Network Launches Effort to Educate
About New Medicare Drug Coverage
WASHINGTON, July 19 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Medicare Rx
Education Network was launched today at a press conference in Washington, D.C.
The network of 40 national organizations is chaired by former U.S. Senator John
Breaux, senior counsel at Patton Boggs. The network will share resources,
coordinate activities and disseminate information to Medicare beneficiaries and
their caregivers about the new Medicare Part D drug coverage.
Read more.
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Historic Voting Rights Conference Set for July
25-26
Elected officials, opinion makers, community leaders, and
grassroots activists will gather in Washington later this month to discuss the
role the Voting Rights Act has played and continues to play in transforming
communities, including the importance of the Act's special provisions.
The timing of the conference coincides with the 40th anniversary of the
Act, widely considered to be one of the most successful civil rights laws in
the nation's history. ---read
morecivilrights.org
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Members of House Offers Plan for Social
Security
On June 23, House
Republican leaders embraced a new approach to Social Security restructuring
that would add individual investment accounts to the program, but on a much
smaller scale than the President’s plan. The new accounts would be
financed by the Social Security surplus—the amount of payroll tax revenue
not needed to pay current benefits. That money is now used to fund other
government activities and is expected to run out after 2016 as the baby-boom
generation retires.----read more
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Senate Issues Apology
On June 13, the
U.S. Senate passed Resolution 39, Resolution of Apology for the
Senate's Failure to adopt Anti-Lynching Legislation, a
formal apology for its repeated
failure, despite the requests of seven presidents, to enact a federal law to
make lynching a crime. A federal law would have allowed the government to
intervene but Southern senators used the filibuster for decades. The
filibuster is a tactic, allowed only in the Senate, to delay or prevent a vote
by time-consuming talk. It can be stopped only by a 60-member vote of the
senators present and voting. ---read more
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BIG Meets Rep. John
Conyers
On June 16, 2005,
the Blacks In Government (BIG) National Legislative Committee Chair, Glenn
Smith, and Committee Member, Pat Swailes along with First Vice President,
Matthew Fogg, met with senior U.S. Representative, Congressman John Conyers in
his office at the Rayburn Office Building in Washington, D.C. This meeting was
a follow-up to BIG's support of HR 40, Commission to Study Reparation
Proposals for African-Americans Act.
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Photo Identification (left to right): Pat
Swailes,
Matthew Fogg, Rep. John Conyers and Glenn Smith |
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