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March 29, 2007
Headlines - Appellate Courts Go Live on Case Management/Electronic Case Files
- DOD OIG Audit of Timeliness of Payments for Reenlistment Bonuses in the Army
- DOT OIG Audit on Value Engineering and Testimony on Outsourced Maintenance Facilities
- CDC Reports 43.8 Million Are Without Health Insurance
- Former Army General's Strategic and Operational Assessment of Security Operations in Iraq
- White House Use of Non-Government Issued Email Accounts Under Scrutiny
- GAO Reports on Next Generation Air Transportation Systems
- Early Release of Selected Estimates Based on Data From the January-September 2006 National Health Interview Survey
- United States Policy Towards Iran
- EPA OIG Releases Audits on Topics Including Database Security, Hurricane Katrina and Other Agency Related Contracts
- DHS Provides More Than $490 Million To America's Firefighters
- Conyers Announces Justice Department Deal to Begin Staff Interviews
- U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Releases Strategic Plan 2007-2012
 Appellate Courts Go Live on Case Management/Electronic Case Files : "Some day in the not-too-distant future, locating and reading a brief filed in a federal appellate case will become as easy as finding an appeals court opinion. And electronic appellate briefs will feature hyperlinks to lower court rulings, statutes, regulations, and other cited materials. "Judges generally are excited about having attorneys file briefs that contain hyperlinks to citations," said Gary Bowden, chief of the Administrative Office's Appellate Court and Circuit Administration Division. "And through PACER (the Public Access to Court Electronic Records system) these briefs will be available to everyone." Until late last year, 10 of the 12 regional appellate courts were using an antiquated system of receiving, storing and tracking their cases, a system that at age 20 was long overdue for retirement." The St. Louis-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit took a giant step in December when it became the first of those 10 courts to go live with Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF). The rest are to follow by the end of 2007." See also: Credit Card Security Code Required in CM/ECF - "Beginning February 1, 2007, all district and bankruptcy court CM/ECF filers who pay fees on-line via a credit card will be required to enter the security code field to complete the transaction. Credit card security codes, the 3-4 digits printed on the back of a credit card, are used to reduce fraud by verifying that the purchaser has the credit card in hand when making a purchase on the Internet."
DOD OIG Audit of Timeliness of Payments for Reenlistment Bonuses in the Army D-2007-077 Timeliness of Payments for Reenlistment Bonuses in the Army (3/28/2007) (Project No. D2006-D000FP-0253.000)
DOT OIG Audit on Value Engineering and Testimony on Outsourced Maintenance Facilities Value Engineering In The Federal-Aid Highway Program, March 28, 2007: "The audit objectives were to determine whether FHWA's oversight is adequate to ensure that: (1) value engineering studies are performed on all Federal-aid projects that have an estimated cost of $25 million or more; (2) value engineering studies are performed on all Federal-aid projects that have a high potential for cost savings; and (3) all value engineering recommendations that can be implemented are approved, permitting the greatest degree of potential savings to be achieved." FAA's Oversight of Outsourced Maintenance Facilities, Testimony of DOT OIG, House Infrastructure, Subcommittee on Aviation, March 29, 2007
Former Army General's Strategic and Operational Assessment of Security Operations in Iraq Via Defense Tech, a detailed March 26, 2007 action report, on Iraq authored by former Army general and U.S. Southern Commmand commander Barry R. McCaffrey, that includes the following statements: "Iraq is ripped by a low grade civil war which has worsened to catastrophic levels with as many as 3000 citizens murdered per month. The population is in despair. Life in many of the urban areas is now desperate. There is no function of government that operates effectively across the nation--- not health care, not justice, not education, not transportation, not labor and commerce, not electricity, not oil production. There is no province in the country in which the government has dominance...In my judgment, we can still achieve our objective of: a stable Iraq, at peace with its neighbors, not producing weapons of mass destruction, and fully committed to a law-based government. The courage and strength of the US Armed Forces still gives us latitude and time to build the economic and political conditions that might defuse the ongoing civil war." See also Operation Iraqi Freedom: Preliminary Observations on Iraqi Security Forces' Logistics and Command and Control Capabilities GAO-07-503R, March 28, 2007.
White House Use of Non-Government Issued Email Accounts Under Scrutiny "Rep. Waxman Requests Information on White House E-Mail Policies Following new revelations that White House officials have been conducting official business using nongovernmental e-mail accounts, Chairman Waxman asks White House Counsel Fred Fielding for information and a briefing regarding White House e-mail policies." Computerworld: "For official government business, staff members in the Bush White House use government-issued e-mail accounts where all communications are then stored, archived and preserved for eventual inclusion in the National Archives. But for several years, some high-ranking Bush staff members have also apparently been using outside e-mail accounts for nongovernmental, political communications. Those accounts, through the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the 2004 Bush-Cheney re-election campaign, allowed the officials to keep up with both their official and political responsibilities while not violating the Hatch Act. That law forbids many government officials from engaging in political activities from their workplaces." ABA Journal eReport: Alberto Gonzales and E-Mails: Is Silence Golden? The U.S. attorney general doesn't send e-mails—and he's not alone.
GAO Reports on Next Generation Air Transportation Systems Joint Planning and Development Office: Progress and Key Issues in Planning the Transition to the Next Generation Air Transportation System GAO-07-693T, March 29, 2007 NASA: Issues Surrounding the Transition from the Space Shuttle to the Next Generation of Human Space Flight Systems GAO-07-595T, March 28, 2007: "NASA is in the midst of a transition effort of a magnitude not seen since the end of the Apollo program and the start of the Space Shuttle Program more than 3 decades ago. This transition will include a massive transfer of people, hardware, and infrastructure. Based on ongoing and work completed to-date, we have identified a number of issues that pose unique challenges to NASA as it transitions from the shuttle to the next generation of human space flight systems while at the same time seeking to minimize the time the United States will be without its own means to put humans in space."
Early Release of Selected Estimates Based on Data From the January-September 2006 National Health Interview Survey Press release: "In this release, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) updates estimates for 15 selected health measures based on data from the January–September 2006 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and presents estimates from 1997 through 2005 for comparison. The 15 Early Release measures are being published prior to final data editing and final weighting to provide access to the most recent information from NHIS. The estimates will be updated on a quarterly basis as each new quarter of the NHIS data becomes available. Due to small sample sizes, estimates based on less than a year of data may have large variances, and caution should be used in analyzing these estimates. Patterns for such estimates may change as more data become available." "The 15 measures included are lack of health insurance coverage and type of coverage, usual place to go for medical care, obtaining needed medical care, receipt of influenza vaccination, receipt of pneumococcal vaccination, obesity, leisure-time physical activity, current smoking, alcohol consumption, human immunodeficiency virus testing, general health status, personal care needs, serious psychological distress, diagnosed diabetes, and asthma episodes and current asthma." Complete copy of release 3/28/2007 (107 pages, PDF)
United States Policy Towards Iran R. Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary for Political Affairs Testimony Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Washington, DC - March 29, 2007: "The United States is committed to pursuing a diplomatic solution to the challenges posed by Iran and we are making every effort to improve U.S.-Iranian relations. But that cannot happen without a change in the Iranian regime's actions and policies."
EPA OIG Releases Audits on Topics Including Database Security, Hurricane Katrina and Other Agency Related Contracts 2007-P-00018 EPA Did Not Properly Process a Hospital Disinfectant and Sanitizer Registration, [Report PDF - 33 pages] [At a Glance PDF] March 29, 2007 2007-P-00017 EPA Needs to Strengthen Financial Database Security Oversight and Monitor Compliance, [Report PDF - 24 pages] [At a Glance PDF] March 29, 2007 2007-P-00015 New Housing Contract for Hurricane Katrina Command Post Reduced Costs but Limited Competition, [Report PDF - 20 pages] [At a Glance PDF] March 29, 2007 2007-P-00013 Performance Track Could Improve Program Design and Management to Ensure Value [Report PDF - 57 pages] [At a Glance PDF] March 29, 2007 2007-P-00012 EPA's Allowing States to Use Bonds to Meet Revolving Fund Match Requirements Reduces Funds Available for Water Projects, [Report PDF - 33 pages] [At a Glance PDF] March 29, 2007 2007-P-00011 Interagency Agreements to Use Other Agencies' Contracts Need Additional Oversight, Report No. 2007-P-00011 [Report PDF - 21 pages] [At a Glance PDF] March 27, 2007
DHS Provides More Than $490 Million To America's Firefighters Press release: "The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced today the start of the fiscal year 2007 application period for the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) program. More than $492.3 million will be awarded this year to fire departments and nonaffiliated emergency management organizations across the nation, bringing the total provided through this program since 2004 to roughly $2.2 billion."
Conyers Announces Justice Department Deal to Begin Staff Interviews Follow up to previous postings on the firing of U.S. Attorneys, this press release: "Today, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, Jr. announced an agreement with the Justice Department (DoJ) to start interviewing Justice staffers who may have been involved in the recent mass firing of U.S. Attorneys. Following a series of phone and written negotiations, DoJ agreed to make at least eight current and former employees available for transcribed interviews with House and Senate Democrat and Republican investigators, starting tomorrow at 10 A.M. with Michael Elston, Chief of Staff to the Deputy Attorney General."
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Releases Strategic Plan 2007-2012 USPTO press release from Jon Dudas: "I am pleased to release the United States Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2007 through 2012. This plan builds upon the record-breaking progress the USPTO made during fiscal year 2006 in the areas of quality,production, electronic filing and processing, teleworking, and hiring." Strategic Plan 2007-2012 [PDF] Strategic Plan 2007-2012 Summary [PDF] COMING SOON: E-Mail with Direct Link to Issued Trademark Office Action to Replace E-Mailed Office Actions - Beginning in late spring, the USPTO will notify applicants who have authorized e-mail communication with the USPTO of each issued Trademark Office action by an e-mail message containing a direct link to the Office action in Trademark Document Retrieval (TDR). The USPTO will not send a separate e-mail with the Office action attached.
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