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 | Compensation for FERS unused Sick Leave Proposed |
 How much money is enough to persuade a federal employee not to abuse
his sick leave benefit? Five thousand dollars? Ten thousand?
That’s the question in play now as federal manager groups, congressional staffs and the
administration try to fashion a bill aimed at preventing feds who are approaching
retirement from taking unused sick leave when they are not sick.
After two months of wrangling, Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., floated a draft bill that would
pay up to $5,000 to feds for their unused sick leave. The benefit would help only those
in the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), who currently get no
compensation for their unused sick leave when they retire. Employees under the older
Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) are compensated for unused sick leave, and
as a result, have far more unused sick leave accumulated when they retire.
But last week several management groups criticized the draft bill, saying it doesn’t compensate FERS-covered employees enough. They called on Moran to raise the cap to $10,000 and to pay a higher rate of compensation — 15 percent of hourly pay instead of the current 10 percent — for unused sick leave that exceeds 1,000 hours. Read the full article in The Federal Times at this link: http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=3255567 |
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Posted by eaglescouter on Tuesday, December 18 @ 13:56:00 EST (59 reads)
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| NAFEC Supports Moratorium on County Office Closures |
NAFEC Supports Moratorium on County Office Closures
Dennis Kuhlengel, President of the National Association of Farmer Elected Committees (NAFEC) has expressed his organization’s appreciation to key leaders on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee for inclusion of a moratorium on Farm Service Agency (FSA) county office closures as part of the recently completed committee draft of the 2007 farm bill. “NAFEC, an organization composed of and lead by farmers, nominated
and elected by farmers, and serving all farmers in each of their county
FSA offices, is indebted to Senators Baucus, D-Mont., Nelson, D-Neb.,
Salazar, D-Colo., and Thune, R-S.D., for their initiative and leadership
in the introduction and passage of an amendment to the Senate’s
proposed farm bill which will retain ‘Critical Access’ FSA county offices
for the duration of the 2007 farm bill,” declared Kuhlengel. “We also
owe our appreciation to Chairman Harkin, D-Iowa, Ranking Minority
Member Chambliss, R-Ga., and the rest of the committee for their
support of this vital provision.” “If history has taught us anything about federal farm legislation, it is
that each bill gets more complicated and difficult to administer than its
predecessors,” explained Kuhlengel. “We seriously doubt that the 2007
farm bill will be any less difficult to administer than the current bill and
we are pleased that the committee also recognized this fact. It would be
very short-sighted to reduce service to farmers and ranchers by closing
county FSA offices at this time.” “NAFEC fully supports the intent of this provision in the Senate’s draft of
the farm bill and calls for its inclusion through the conference process
with the House and enactment by President Bush, to its final passage,”
concluded Kuhlengel. “Keeping these ‘Critical Access’ FSA county offices
open for the duration of the 2007 farm bill will ensure producer service
in remote rural areas and provide economic stability to many rural
communities.” |
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Posted by eaglescouter on Wednesday, November 07 @ 13:37:36 EST (81 reads)
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| Still no FSA Modernization Plan in Sight |
Still no FSA Modernization Plan in Sight according to Rosa DeLauro,
chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture. "I
don't see a plan." At the Appropriations hearing Wednesday, DeLauro
said the computer problems at the Farm Service Agency were known for
years, yet "we have yet to see a modernization plan", "There's a real
disconnect."
Sam Farr asked why USDA did not seek money to resolve these computer
issues, "How important is this to you?" he asked, "You know everything is
broken."
FSA Administrator Teresa Lasseter said in a statement there was "an
increasing rate of hardware failure at our central processing center"
[web farm] but no money for new equipment.
USDA has a central processing center [web farm] for the FSA and NRCS
web based applications, and hardware failures at this location caused a
bottleneck which stopped FSA and NRCS offices nation wide from performing
their work earlier this year.
USDA did not ask for money for a web farm upgrade as part of its latest
budget request, but Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Keenum acknowledged
informal estimates that say $500 million is needed for modernization.
Background:
FSA service center agencies (FSA, NRCS and RD) are moving from a
distributed computing environment (servers and or AS/400 computers
located in most county locations) to a single consolidated web farm.
This web farm has been in place for a few years and new processes
are transferred to the web farm each year. The web farm collapsed
under the load of eligibility processing this spring as FSA and NRCS
worked online to process eligibility records for an NRCS program called
EQIP.
FSA Administrator Teresa Lasseter has acknowledged that problems
at the web farm may force FSA to manually process applications for
benefits that are part of the Farm Bill that is currently under consideration
in Congress.
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Posted by eaglescouter on Thursday, May 03 @ 11:47:51 EDT (310 reads)
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| USDA wants FSA offices closed BEFORE next farm bill |
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USDA wants FSA offices closed ahead of next farm bill Wednesday, April 18, 2007, 4:15 PM
by Peter Shinn
A concept that has proven controversial is the ongoing state-by-state process to close
county Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices. State plans have already been released in
Nebraska and South Dakota, and those plans have proven wildly unpopular at the local
level.
But during a press conference in Kansas City Wednesday, Johanns told Brownfield
USDA is following a process already approved by Congress. And he said closing
smaller offices has to be done to give FSA the resources it needs to
implement the next farm bill.
"When the farm bill is passed this year, we're going to ask our offices the farm bill
next year," Johanns said. "And if there's hiccups, then nobody's going to be happy
about that, whether you're a House member or a senator.
South Dakota Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D) has introduced legislation
that would keep USDA from closing any local FSA offices until after the next farm bill is
implemented. But FSA Administrator Teresa Lasseter told Brownfield after the
press conference that she believes the FSA office closures need to happen
before her staff in the field has to implement the next farm bill.
"I think it would be best before," Lasseter said. "That would be an optimum goal to
have them in place before, but it's definitely not something we should keep waiting
to do."
But that may be an unrealistic goal. A Lasseter aid told Brownfield 22 states still don't
have their plans for FSA office closures turned in. And even after that happens,
additional public hearings need to be held in those states.
But both Johanns and Lasseter said they are convinced those closures would ultimately
result in better service for farmers and ranchers. Johanns suggested today's
tech-savvy farmers are nearly as used to doing business via phone, fax and
Internet as they are face-to-face.
"For them, doing stuff on the computer is as natural as the work that they
would do during the day on their crops," Johanns asserted. "I just think we
have to move this whole system forward, and it really is time."
As for ag producers who might be affected by the county FSA office closures, Lasseter
said she's sympathetic. But she also recommended that ag producers think hard about
new ways of conducting transactions with USDA.
"Look at how many times you're actually visiting your office - is there a need to go
every time you go to that office? Is there a different way you can get that need
serviced by the fax machine or the computer?" Lasseter queried. "Let's see if
there's a better way of doing business, a different way - that's what I'm saying
to people."
You can express your opinion about this article by voting in our poll:
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE POLL
Read the full article at Brownfield
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Posted by eaglescouter on Thursday, April 19 @ 11:32:57 EDT (1079 reads)
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| Gove County suggests alternate cost savings |
Gove County still hoping to reverse FSA decision Apr. 5, 2007
Representatives from the 11 counties that include offices targeted for closure by the Kansas Farm Service Agency will be traveling to Washington later this month to talk with the agency’s director. There, they will be presenting a series of proposals that are designed to save the agency money, and allow it to forgo closing the offices, according to Wayne Cook, one of three Gove County residents to attend the meeting Tuesday in Salina.
Gove was among 11 Kansas counties targeted by FSA state director Bill Fuller for closure. The Natural Resource and Conservation Service plans to close the same 11 offices.
Although Cook declined to offer specifics about the plan that will be outline, he said the ideas could save as much as $4 million annually.
The Gove County delegation, he said, turned down suggestions of offering the buildings rent-free or reducing payments to farmers by 2 percent annually. Cook was joined at the meeting by Brian Packard, chairman of the Gove FSA and Delmar Kaiser, a Gove County commissioner. The meeting was called to try to fend off efforts to close the offices around the state and was prompted by an individual who met with FSA national director Theresa Lassiter, who said the streamlining process wasn’t just about closing offices.
"We just need to try to find a way to save money," Cook said of the message delivered at the Salina
meeting.
But Cook was concerned about details leaking out before the meeting with the FSA national director.
"I don’t think we better be putting that in the paper," he said of the pitch that will be made.
Cook said Gove County was given accolades for its public meeting by Harold Stones, a representative of Sen. Pat Roberts.
"There’s other ways to do it besides closing offices," he said.
At the meeting, it was determined that the costs to close the offices would be staggering. While it would save the FSA about $260,000, it would transfer even greater costs to the farmers. In the 11 counties, Cook said, about 7,000 farmers would be affected. Of those, farmers would be driving an average of 40 miles to an outlying FSA office at least four times a year. At the going IRS deduction rate of 48.5 cents a mile, that figures out to extra costs of more than $1 million to the farmers.
"That’s a lot of gallons of fuel," Cook said of the extra miles that would be driven.
Full article can be read here:
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Posted by eaglescouter on Thursday, April 05 @ 17:06:32 EDT (123 reads)
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| Kansas State House resolution opposes office closures |
The resolution would prevent closing FSA offices.
The Kansas House passed a resolution Wednesday that opposes a federal plan that would close
several Farm Service Agency offices.
The House resolution touts the benefits of agriculture and states that the office closing would negatively impact rural Kansas communities that already have economic hardships. The resolution will be sent to several offices in Washington, including the president's office and to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Full story here
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Posted by eaglescouter on Tuesday, April 03 @ 11:15:22 EDT (104 reads)
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| NFU Speaks Out on Proposed FSA Office Closings |
NFU Speaks Out on Proposed FSA Office ClosingsFor Immediate Release: March 19, 2007
Contact: Liz Friedlander, 202-314-3191
WASHINGTON (March 19, 2007) – National Farmers Union Vice President Alan Bergman told a Kansas panel
today Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices provide invaluable services and it is in rural America’s best interests
for these offices to remain open. Bergman spoke at a public meeting in Chase County, Kan. The Chase County FSA office is one of 11 Kansas
FSA county offices targeted for closure. NFU members from across the country passed a special policy position earlier this month in support of county
FSA offices and rebuffing USDA’s latest efforts to close and/or consolidate FSA county offices. “County FSA offices are the primary contact for administrative delivery of every major farm assistance
program,” Bergman said. “Additionally, Congress is soon to begin consideration of the 2007 Farm Bill, which
will require the expertise and accessibility of county personnel to assist producers sign up to new and
continued programs.” Disaster assistance is expected to be passed in Congress in the coming weeks and FSA offices will be vital to
ensuring this aid is distributed to farmers and ranchers in a efficient and timely manner. Bergman said that eliminating FSA offices is not the answer to the country’s federal budget problem, as total
federal spending on agriculture is less than one percent and the 2002 Farm Bill has actually saved more
than $13 billion. “If every sector in the federal budget were as responsible as agriculture, we wouldn’t have
the sea of red ink,” he said. |
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Posted by eaglescouter on Tuesday, March 27 @ 10:27:36 EDT (581 reads)
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| Representative Jerry Moran speaks out about office closures |
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“This is not about saving money,” Moran said in a statement. “FSA has not provided adequate assurance
that this plan will result in better services for producers or be a significant savings of taxpayer money.
Furthermore, it is premature to close FSA county offices before Congress writes the 2007 Farm Bill, when
future administrative and program needs will be decided.”
This is not the first time that Moran has urged FSA officials not to close the offices. Instead, he has
suggested — as he did Tuesday — that Congress be allowed time to incorporate the costs into the 2007
farm bill.
He also keyed off complaints that closing FSA offices flies in the face of rural development efforts that cost
the U.S. Department of Agriculture millions of dollars.
“Part of the mission of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is rural development,” Moran said. “It seems
counterproductive that while the Rural Development Agency is promoting opportunities in rural areas,
another agency of USDA would diminish the viability of small Kansas communities.”
In asking for the delay, Moran said that several suggestions were made to revise the consolidation plan.
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Posted by eaglescouter on Thursday, March 22 @ 10:38:28 EDT (328 reads)
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| Congress funds IT as a separate line item |
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The $463.5 billion fiscal 2007 spending resolution to fund domestic agencies until October contains language
that may hint at the information technology priorities of the new congressional leadership.
The measure, which passed the House Wednesday and is expected to move to the Senate next week ( H.J. RES. 20), has specific line items for technology projects that would keep agencies from siphoning away that money to other areas. The Agriculture Department received $107.9 million for its common computing environment program, which is $1 million less than the fiscal 2007 budget request. The original House version of the bill would have funded the 11-year program to replace the agency's national computing infrastructure at $38.4 million. The Senate had not provided any money for the program and had recommended funding it through other agency accounts. The full story can be read at: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=36041&dcn=e_gvet
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Posted by eaglescouter on Monday, February 05 @ 12:35:58 EST (152 reads)
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| Old Articles | |
| Tuesday, January 30 | | · | Montanna Office Closures |
| Tuesday, January 23 | | · | House Ag Committee-Assignments |
| Friday, December 08 | | · | Kentuky Announces FSA Office Closures |
| Wednesday, December 06 | | · | Senators Call for Resources to Make Farm Payments More Effecient |
| Wednesday, October 25 | | · | Kansas FSA closing 11 offices |
| Friday, September 01 | | · | FSA Releases list of eligible counties for new drought program |
| Wednesday, August 30 | | · | Drought Program For Ranchers, But Not Thru Local FSA |
| Thursday, August 24 | | · | Georgia announces FSA office closure plan |
| Monday, August 14 | | · | Secretary Of Agriculture addresses NASCOE Convention |
| Tuesday, August 08 | | · | DR. J.B. Penn resigns |
Older Articles
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