Federal Manager's Daily Report Monday, September 20, 2004 Published by FEDweek, the federal government's largest information resource with now over one million weekly readers to its electronic newsletters. *********************************************************** Federal Manager's Daily Report is a brand new FREE daily electronic report for all federal managers and supervisors featuring the day's top stories on management and workforce issues. Please pass this information on to your fellow colleagues. You can sign up for this free daily report at http://www.fedweek.com/subscribepopup.htm. *********************************************************** Brought to you by American University
AU/OPM and Key Executive Programs http://fedweek.sparklist.com/t/294947310/821889/135/0/ We transform MANAGERS into LEADERS. Your Commitment: In fewer than 2 years including select weekends, complete an Executive Master of Public Administration degree from the top 10 Ranked School of Public Affairs -- home of Action Learning in executive education. Your Reward: Benefit from our leadership-centered curriculum that helps meet the standards for SES Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs) For general information, please go to http://fedweek.sparklist.com/t/294947310/821889/135/0/ *********************************************************** In Today's Issue: 1. GSA Announces New City Pair Airline Contracts 2. Card Restriction Struck Down 3. NTEU Lauds House Veto of Private Tax Collection *********************************************************** 1. GSA Announces New City Pair Airline Contracts The General Services Administration has announced new city pair contracts for discounted air travel on 4,345 routes, which it expects to save billions of dollars in fiscal 2005. It said it negotiated with 13 U.S. carriers for official government travel on 3,616 domestic and 729 international routes -- favoring non-stop service, which was awarded in 1,674 markets, nearly everywhere it was offered. GSA's federal supply service awards contracts to airlines based on average flight time, price, type of service, flight distribution, and number of flights. It said dual fares will remain available in more than 2,300 markets and that unrestricted contract fares will be available in all markets. It said fixed-price, unrestricted fares may help agencies plan their travel budgets throughout the one-year contract beginning October 1, and noted that federal employees generally would pay less by booking cheaper capacity controlled fares early. The city pair program offers last seat availability, fully refundable tickets and no charge for cancellations of schedule changes. 2. Card Restriction Struck Down During preliminary voting on its version of the 2005 Transportation-Treasury appropriations bill, the House struck out for technical reasons language that would have required agencies to evaluate the creditworthiness of an individual before issuing him or her a government purchase card or travel charge card. The language had been put in the measure as a reaction to a string of reports from agency inspectors general and the Government Accountability Office of abuses of the cards, including purchases of personal and other inappropriate goods and services. It would have barred issuance of those cards to those who either lack a credit history or are found to have an unsatisfactory one. The language also would have required agencies to set policies for disciplinary actions to be take for improper, fraudulent or abusive use of the cards. It was struck as impermissible setting of new policy in a spending bill. 3. NTEU Lauds House Veto of Private Tax Collection An amendment to the Transportation, Treasury appropriations bill for 2005 prohibits the Internal Revenue Service from contracting out tax collection. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., sponsored the amendment and said the inherent potential for harm in the use of private debt collectors "should be cause for alarm." Debate on the amendment demonstrated "strong bipartisan support," for blocking IRS from using funds to contract with private debt collectors, according to the National Treasury Employees Union. It cited an audit from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration that found that the "lack of oversight of contractors resulted in serious security vulnerabilities," and that "contractors blatantly circumvented IRS policies and procedures even when security personnel identified inappropriate practices." The proposal would have paid debt collectors a 25 percent bounty for money collected, something NTEU said does not make fiscal sense given IRS estimates that "a modest increase in enforcement resources" could yield $9 billion in collected debt. Published by FEDweek LLC 11551 Nuckols Rd. Suite L Glen Allen, VA 23059 (804) 288-5321 Website: http://www.fedweek.com A 100% Veteran-Owned Business [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are subscribed to federalmanagersdailyreport as [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
