Federal government
The Federal Government of the United States is the operating backbone of the country which comprises of President Obama at the top and encompasses all the constituent organizations and people down the line.
Fighting Veteran Homelessness Becomes Easier Thanks to a Big Grant
It’s been just a few days since we reported how the veteran homelessness has reduced considerably since 2010. Now, we have some more good news for veterans who are dealing with the problem of homelessness. The veterans of San Antonio have just gotten a big grant that would be used to find them a home of their own and fight veteran homelessness. Though the grant is very valuable, experts believe that homelessness of veterans is a constant challenge that cannot be resolved with a big grant.
The Grant to Fighting Veteran Homelessness
The problem of veteran homelessness would now be solved in a better manner thanks to the efforts made by the Texas Veterans Commission. A $550 thousand grant has been approved for veterans who are already homeless or those veterans who are on the verge of being homeless in the near future. The grant would be used to help such people living in San Antonio. The details of the grant and the announcement were made by Navarra Williams who serves as the SAM Ministries President. It is pertinent to mention here that this grant is the largest of its kind that is handed out by the Commission.
The Fight
The grant was offered soon after the proclamation which stated that there has been an end to veteran homelessness in San Antonio. But the fight against veteran homelessness has been ongoing and changing each day in San Antonio according to Williams. He revealed the fact that every few days a new homeless veteran from another place makes San Antonio his home or some veteran who had a temporary home loses it and becomes homeless again.
The Challenge
Williams also shared his thoughts regarding homelessness being a bigger challenge for veterans as compared to other people. He stated that it usually takes a bit longer for a veteran to get used to not being homeless as compared to non-veterans. The reason behind the difference is that a veteran often has to deal with some issues that are not present in a normal person’s life. Post Traumatic stress is one such issue that is commonly found in veterans but not in non-veterans as they have not been traumatized on the job.
It is being hoped that the grant for reducing veteran homelessness would help a few veterans get over these challenges and make a home for themselves.
Report Questions why Full Time Union Federal Employees are Paid with Tax Dollars
A new report has found out that several federal employees who work full time as the union employees are being paid from the taxpayers’ money. Experts believe that the report highlights how much control the federal governments have over the federal agencies. They also believe that the report shows that no one wants to change the status quo as everyone is benefitting from it. Some agencies are working hard to change the status quo so that the taxpayers’ money can be put to better uses.
How Many Federal Employees are Benefitting
The report was created through the Freedom of Information Act requests. It discovered that about 490 federal employees who work as full-time union employees are getting paid by using the taxpayers’ money. The report was recently published by the Americans for Limited Government Foundation. The vital report also highlighted the departments which had the most number of such employees. The departments of Education, Commerce, Energy, Homeland Security and Labor are among them. It also includes employees from the U.S. Postal Service and the Federal Aviation Administration.
The Money Spent
The report divulged that this practice has cost about $1 billion over the past 20 years and it was paid through the taxpayers’ money. The amount increased further if the money spent by the local and state government was also counted.
Experts Speak
Jared Labell, who is currently serving as the Executive Director of Chicago-based Taxpayers United of America shared his opinion on the report. He stated that the report clearly shows that unions have a lot of influence on the federal agencies and the agencies don’t seem to have any incentive to change. This practice is benefitting the labor unions, the politicians so no one wants to change it.
The Efforts
Labell stated that this issue of paying the federal employees working full time for the union by using the taxpayers’ dollars is highlighted by his organization at the state level so that some reforms can be enacted that lessen the influence of unions on the taxpayer-funded agencies. He said that by emphasizing the issue, his organization hopes to bring changes at the federal levels as well. He also expressed hope that other organizations would join in the effort so that the issue can get maximum exposure and the speed at which the reforms are expected can be expedited.
Philadelphia Residents Contributing Least Towards Retirement Benefits
A new research has proven that Philadelphia residents contribute the least amount of money towards their retirement benefits. They are hence less prepared for the retirement and may struggle financially in their senior years. The major reason behind the fewer contributions is that most employers don’t provide a provision of retirement savings to the employees. Officials agree that this issue needs to be solved as soon as possible.
The Need to contribute more to Retirement Benefits
The research that says that most Philadelphia residents are less prepared for retirement as compared to the Americans living in other states was done for a city council committee. The committee aims to know how to improve retirement savings. The study was conducted and released by the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis on Wednesday. It was divulged during a hearing conducted by Council’s Committee. The hearing was on Labor and Civil Service.
The Current Situation
During the hearing, several witnesses testified to the fact that there is a retirement crisis in the U.S. The witnesses also stressed that the retirement crisis in Philadelphia is particularly troublesome. The study exposed that about 20 percent of retirees in Philadelphia are poor and about 30 percent have incomes between 100 & 200 percent of the federal poverty level.
The Reason
Anthony Webb who works at the Schwartz Center for Policy Analysis stated that the reason behind the Philadelphia’s people saving less for retirement is that the employers who offer retirement plans are very few. Even those who offer a plan don’t always participate in the plans. He also added that a high proportion of seniors are nearing closer to poverty and the people who are working right now are also at a high risk of retiring in poverty.
Need For Action
Webb also stressed on the need to offering a retirement plan to people who don’t have any yet. He stated that offering a retirement plan may not help them to have a retirement of their dreams but it will definitely help them to get away from the poverty and near poverty situation they are facing right now. He insisted that the sooner an action is taken in this regard, the higher would be the number of households that get help. When a swift action is taken, they will be able to save a bit more money towards retirement benefits.
Federal Employees May Lose Access to Free Yoga Classes
Federal employees who have been enjoying free yoga and Pilates classes as a fringe benefit of their job may have to lose this benefit soon. A US senator has introduced legislation to stop these classes. He has introduced a bill that wants the government to stop spending money on these classes in order to stop wasting the money of the American taxpayers. The bill was introduced after another senator pointed out a few ways in which the government was wasting taxpayers’ money.
Legislation that Impacts Federal Employees’ Fitness
Republican candidate, Sen. Matt Salmon has recently introduced legislation that aims to stop government agencies to stop spending money on the yoga and related classes of federal employees. He stated that the federal government agencies were spending more than $150,000 on these exercise sessions of employees. The figure was counted since the year 2013. The legislation is H.R. 5242 and it is a part of the Shrink our Spending Initiative taken by Salmon.
Not Competing with Startups
Salmon issued a statement in which he said that startups are offering unique benefits to their employees because they want the employees to play a role in developing the business with a new culture. But the bureaucrats in Washington are paid by the hard-earned money of the taxpayers and these sorts of fringe benefits are a waste of dollars taken away from all the American families. He also pointed out that the government should stop trying to be like Google because it isn’t like any private sector company.
The Spending
A press release from Salmon’s office has recently revealed that the two agencies, Department of Energy and the State Department have spent over $168,000 on Pilates and yoga classes of employees in the last 5 years. Out of the $168,000, the Department of Energy awarded over $30,000 in grants to employees for yoga services since the year 2013. The Energy Department also spent $11,000 to offer Pilates classes just to the employees working in California.
The Data Source
The amount of money spent on yoga and Pilates classes of federal employees was first highlighted in the report presented by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) that was offered recently. The report declared that the federal government was bending over backward to waste the taxpayers’ money. It is believed that the bill was introduced by Salmon in response to that report only.
Federal Government Cyber Security Still the Worst: Report
The federal government, state governments and even the local governments, still have the worst cyber security protocols when compared to the major private industries. The report also highlighted which agencies and sectors were the best performers and which were the poorest performers.
Federal Government Agencies’ Performance
Many federal agencies were among the poor performers as they got a low score on software patching flaws and malware, as well as, network security. NASA was most vulnerable to malware intrusions and email scams. It ranked last place in the performance chart.
The Report
The report was generated by SecurityScorecard, which is a venture-backed security risk monitoring startup. The report was prepared after measuring the current cyber security of government and private industries such as retail, healthcare, transportation, etc. The performance was measured by variables such as exposure rates of passwords, susceptibility to social engineering and defenselessness against malware infections. The report included low-performing government agencies and surprisingly, The U.S. State Department was on that list.
Worst Industries and Regions
The three industries that have the worst cyber security include pharmaceutical sector, telecommunications, and the education sector. The worst performing regions were Washington, Connecticut, Maricopa County, Arizona and Pennsylvania.
This new report has once again highlighted the government’s inability to keep its cyber security up to the mark. The government faced a lot of criticism last year when OPM was hacked and data of nearly 22 million Americans was leaked due to poor cyber security.
Best Performers
Though there seems to be major loopholes in the government cyber security initiatives, there are some government agencies that performed well on the security scores. The Hennepin County Library in Minnesota and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation were among the top performers. The regions that have good cyber security are Nevada and Clack County.
The Measures
The federal government has taken some measures to deal with the cyber security issues. The foremost have been the Obama government’s decision to seek $19 billion towards cyber security for the fiscal year 2017. The amount if approved would include $3.1 billion to be spent on technology modernization of several federal agencies.
New Mexico to Sue the Federal Government
The state of New Mexico has decided to sue the Federal Government because the government is releasing Mexican gray wolves into the wild. The New Mexico Game Commission had denied the federal government the permission to release the wolves and yet the government posted on an official website its intent to release the wolves.
Details of the Lawsuit Against Federal Government
The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish has directed its lawyers to file a notice of intent to sue and they have done so. The decision was taken after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made clear that it intended to release more Mexican gray wolves into the wild. This has been a sensitive topic for some time as last year the state denied the federal government the permission to release the wolves.
Federal Government’s Stand
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service believe that the wolves need to be released into the wild so that the endangered species could recover. The agency posted its intention to do just that on its website and wrote about releasing a pack of pups which were born in captivity in New Mexico in order to help the pups reunite with their kind.
The agency also hopes for cross-fostering of pups with packs that are already in the wild. If that happens, it will improve the genetic diversity of the wild population in Arizona, as well as New Mexico. The agency is eager to release the pups this year only.
The Long Dispute
The agency is taking this step despite the fact that the New Mexico Game Commission did not give a nod for this release. The decision to reject the federal government was taken after months of discussing the matter.
The Authority
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also stated that the authority with regard to this matter lies with the federal government and not the state so it has no intention of backing out of the plan to release the wolves.
No Official Reaction
Bob Ricklefs, who serves as the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish commissioner, stated that the commission has no official reaction on the federal government’s move but that they are not surprised. It will be interesting to see who surpasses the other in this game of power. As of now, the federal government seems to have an upper hand.
Federal Government Likely to be Sued by a Bunch of Kids
A couple of kids suing the federal government may seem like a joke to some, however, there is a case that has garnered considerable attention. This case is now much closer to a trial because a federal judge has approved it. The core of the matter is that the kids believe that the government is damaging the environment by allowing extraction of harmful fossil fuels on public lands.
Federal Government Defense Rejected
The government fossil fuels groups requested the court to let go of the case but their request was denied by Judge Thomas Coffin. The case is filed by twenty one youngsters between the ages of 8-19 who claim that the government is making a mess of the planet and it will harm the future generations worse than ever. The case which has been called as one of the most significant cases of the US history is another step closer to the trial now.
Another Hurdle
Though the major hurdle has been crossed, there is one more that remains. This hurdle is a review that is to be done by another judge. Most of the supporters of the case believe that the hurdle that has already been passed was the major one and they are hopeful of not facing any trouble in passing the review.
A Victory
It is a known fact that the case is still far away from completion but a major part of the victory for the children is the growing media attention. They have compelled people to think about climate change differently.
The case also highlights that the upcoming generations are being discriminated against as far as the U.S. propagation of climate change is concerned. They are the ones who will deal with climate issues such as heat waves, droughts, floods, rising seas, extinctions, and yet, they have no say in the political system that is continually leasing federal properties for extracting fossil fuels and increasing pollution.
The Agenda
The agenda of the entire case is to push the federal government to come up with a great plan to deal with climate change. The solutions that have been suggested by the government are not enough to meet the goal of helping the world stop warming at less than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial levels. Another vital step that is required is to get rid of all the fossil fuels by 2050.
Wind Energy Gains Momentum in US
Wind energy has been in the news for quite some time now. The supporters gave a second huge blow to the critics after the federal government gave them an approval for the transmission line intended to serve the wind power sector.
WIND ENERGY SITUATION GAINS MOMENTUM:
The department of energy has used the Energy Policy Act (2005)’s mandated authority for the first time in the bid to enable cooperation between the public and the private sector regarding rejuvenated electricity transmission programs by joining a U.S. South slated line.
The development which was led by Clean Line Energy Partners will help bring about around 4 thousand megawatts of power solely generated by wind and able to be used in Texas and Oklahoma via a 705 mile power line. This would be able to cater to the needs of around 1.5 million homes in the radius.
The director of the Southern Wind Energy Association, Simon Mahan, expressed his excitement on the development and said, “High voltage direct current transmission projects that allow for the import of substantial quantities of low-cost wind power are an important component of the clean energy strategy for utilities in the Southeast.”
Data that was released this past week by the Energy department depicted that around 41 percent of all the electric generation capacity was accounted by the wind power. When we consider states, Oklahoma and Texas were among those that were at the top of the list with regards to the new installation.
The Oklahoma company Pelco and the Clean Line Energy Partners have reached an agreement of around 300 million dollars and they are all set to build the infrastructure that will be needed to use wind power as an electricity raw production material.
While this is good news, we will have to wait for some time to see how this situation develops.
Too many expired visas Federal Government doesn’t know about
The New York Times have recently indicated that the federal government of the country is unaware of the number of foreigners that have stayed in the US despite their visas running out. This has been a problem for a while with the immigration system now.
Federal government unaware of the residing overstayed immigrants:
This issue came to universal attention when some members of Congress asked a homeland security official about the number of people that have overstayed their visas, and she was not able to give a vivid answer.
In this regard, it is worth noting that the last time Congress received some numbers on overstays (that were authentic) was way back in 1994. Mark Meadows was infuriated with the situation and how poorly it was being handled. He said that if we aren’t even aware of the number of culprits then how we are ever going to catch them. He further raised his concerns on the fact that the last time Congress was given a number was back in 1994.
Congress have always been demanding the number for quite some time now, and it got significantly dangerous after the 9/11 incident as two of the terrorists had expired visas. These figures though have still not reached Congress, and this highlights a giant hole in the security of the country.
It’s needless to say that this matter requires the immediate attention of the Homeland Security Department and that the sooner they give Congress a number, the better it’s for everyone. People that don’t consider it fit to renew their visa are either too poor to do so and are hampering the economy of the country or are too negligent even to care. In both the cases, it’s of paramount importance that they get pointed out and subsequently dealt with in whatever way fit.
