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It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. - Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
I’ve attached a couple of articles of interest but first I hope you’ll allow me a few comments concerning the upcoming presidential election. I’ve spoken with many people who have already made up their minds but I have also talked to a surprising number of folks who are just slightly leaning one way or the other or are in the throws of indecision. If you’re in the latter groups the following information may provide service to you as a possible tie breaker.
There are a lot of lies going around.... and half of them are true. - Winston Churchill
For the folks in Missouri and Iowa especially, and to a lesser extent Kansas and Nebraska, we are in store for the treat of more political commercials from the campaigns and their associated interest groups. You can rest assured that the content of these ugly attack ads will at best contain minor truths that are skewed and out of context. At worst the information provided will be blatant lies. The idea of course is to slam the opponent with a negative smear in the hopes it will turn you against a candidate or at least disillusion you to the extent of skipping the voting process altogether. Unfortunately that’s just the way our unique form of democracy stumbles along in this country nowadays and if you think it’s been bad in these last few months, just wait, it will get worse.
In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies. - Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
So how do you cut through the spin? I’d highly recommend www.factcheck.org (don’t use the .com address that Dick Cheney used in the VP debate, that links you to a Soros foundations sight that is definitely no friend of the administration … oops). WWW.factcheck.org is a nonpartisan sight that does just what it implies, it fact checks statements and claims made in the media, ads and debates concerning the presidential election. It will tell you in an unbiased way (backed up with the real data) what the truth is. The site is wonderfully even in trouncing Kerry’s and Bush’s claims and I consider it a must for cutting through the mounds of BS we are all getting fed to us on a daily basis.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
Now on to the actions of this administration concerning federal agencies and employees in general and the FAA and air traffic personnel specifically. We are seeing the results of the application of administration ideology in our workplace. This philosophy holds that any service performed by the federal government is inherently bad because no company or corporation is making a profit off it (with few exceptions that don’t include air traffic) and the same services provided a private company is inherently good (regardless of public interest or safety concerns, the marketplace will supposedly act as a watchdog for this and cost savings are presumed solely by virtue of the service being provided by a private entity). Countless people have asked me just how in the world they could even consider the safest yet most complex and efficient air traffic operation in the world as deficient and throw it to the lowest bidder? Well the answer, I regret to say, is that irrespective of our success we don’t fit into their definition of a good operation (private). And the interests of the general public or the economy for that matter are not believed to be relevant or overriding enough to provide an exception from the ideology. We have seen this in covert and overt actions from the stripping of “inherently governmental” status from Air Traffic Control to the re-designation as a commercial activity. The bitter fight to exempt FAA air traffic from privatization being bitterly opposed by the FAA Administrator and the White House even when it was overwhelmingly supported by the house and the senate. Back door dealings in a conference committee that was closed to moderate Republicans and all Democrats outrageously violated their own rules by stripping unified language out and replaced it with language authorizing privatization of 69 towers. We got a consolation win after an historic recommitting of the bill back to congress which removed all language and finally a letter granting a one year “stay of execution” from the FAA Administrator (that expires in a few weeks).
A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject. - Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
The ideological goal for cost containment (also exacerbated by the lack of funds from deficit spending) is to “starve” agencies with across the board budget cuts with no particular acknowledgement of relative need. We have seen the results of this with cuts of 50% or greater in modernization and equipment budgets. The controller staffing and retirement issue, which the agency occasionally admits exists in the midst of all their denials in the face of GAO, CBO and independent reports to the contrary has resulted in shortages in numerous facilities throughout the country. And how many new controllers is the agency requesting funding for? Zero, the big goose egg. It makes you wonder how in the heck they can maintain safety and integrity of the system. Maybe they have some juicy plan to spin off air traffic to some bigger campaign contributors. Needless to say NATCA and others see no rhyme or reason to it.
Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others. - Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
And the attacks on labor in general are too numerous to mention them all. Some of the highlights being the near random declaration of entire groups of employees as involved with national security and therefore too risky a proposition to have represented by Unions. The Agency has felt free to disregard our contracts, stonewall on contracts of our new bargaining units and send resolutions to Congress rather than attempt any real bargaining. And what do we have to fall back on? An FLRA that has been stacked with ideologues who feel free to rewrite precedent of the last 40+ years. Oh yeah and you might want to consider the new overtime regulations and their potential impact on you.
So whatever your political leanings (mine by the way have been Republican for all of my voting life) make sure you consider individuals and their record or potential impact. I have always felt that only a fool would vote a straight party ticket regardless of the party. And just as I am assisting campaigns both Democrat and Republican, my actions in the voting booth will reflect support or opposition to candidates based on individual merit. So please take the time to cut through all the spin and venomous rhetoric of the campaigns and educate yourselves and most important of all VOTE! Just as how you vote in my mind will give you (or deny you) “bitching” rights to potential events in the next few years, not voting removes you from any legitimate complaints. Our system isn’t perfect but it’s the best thing going.
Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the 'worst' form of Government except all those others that have been tried from time to time. - Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
Have a great week and feel free to call or drop a line if you have any questions.
Grant Anderson mailbox 50501 cell 417.894.6887
Here are two articles you might find of interest.
From Fedweek October 12, 2004
Overtime Rules Under Review
Office of Personnel Management officials say that OPM is reviewing rules issued by the Labor Department that took effect in August changing certain overtime policies in the private sector. Overtime policy in the federal government is set according to separate rules published by OPM; the Labor rules do not have a direct effect on federal employees apart from some quasi-corporate agencies. However, OPM officials say they are looking at the Labor rules to determine whether adjustments in the OPM rules are needed. Any changes would be subject to the notice and comment procedures for revising regulations. Efforts are being made in Congress to repeal the Labor rules, although the Bush administration is working to keep them on the books.
Government Executive: Compromise on job competition protests gets mixed review By
Amelia Gruber
A legislative compromise broadening federal employees' rights to appeal job competition decisions is getting a lukewarm reception. The compromise, reached late last week during House-Senate negotiations over the fiscal 2005 Defense authorization bill, grants "agency tender officials," the formal representatives of in-house teams, legal standing to challenge public-private job competition results at the Government Accountability Office. Under the conference agreement, the agency officials could initiate GAO protests on their own, or at the request of a majority of employees involved in the competition. Proponents said Tuesday that the compromise language grants federal employees equitable appeal rights and at the same time safeguards against frivolous protests. The Office of Management and Budget's May 2003 revision to Circular A-76, the competitive sourcing rule book, allows in-house team officials to challenge job competitions at the agency level, but remains silent on outside appeals. "We can't overstate that this protest right on behalf of federal employees is a huge step forward," said David Marin, a spokesman for Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va. "No such right has ever been recognized by the courts or GAO." But critics decried the measure as a watered-down and ineffective version of appeals rights language sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and passed in June as an amendment to the Senate version of the Defense authorization bill. Collins' provision would have amended the 1984 Competition in Contracting Act to allow either the agency tender official or a separate official elected by in-house team members to file appeals at GAO. The option for elected in-house representatives to file protests is critical because agency tender officials can't necessarily be trusted to act in the federal employee team's best interest, union officials said. Dan Duefrene, head of the National Federation of Federal Employees, said he is "extremely disappointed" with the compromise language because decisions to file protests remain primarily under management's control. "Senior managers are charged with carrying out the agenda of the sitting president," said John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees. "When it comes to [the] Bush administration's privatization agenda, senior managers do not have the incentive, do not have the autonomy and do not have the resources to adequately represent the interests of federal employees." But Stan Soloway, president of the Professional Services Council, an Arlington, Va.-based contractors association, noted that the compromise requires agency tender officials to appeal A-76 decisions to GAO at the request of in-house team employees unless there's no "reasonable basis" for such an appeal. When tender officials decide to act against the request of the majority of in-house employees, the officials must explain themselves to congressional oversight committees. Agency tender officials have an "ethical and legal responsibility" to file protests when they believe in-house team members have a valid complaint, Soloway said. He added that he supports the right of the tender official to file an appeal at GAO, as long as the challenge involves allegations of procedural errors substantial enough to potentially alter the outcome of the competition. "There's more oversight in Congress on A-76 competitions than any other procurement I've ever seen," Soloway said. "The congressional notification requirement will raise the visibility of every case that is not pursued," Marin said. "Given the intense interest in competitive sourcing in Congress, I don't see how there will be anything other than persistent scrutiny." But John Threlkeld, a lobbyist for AFGE, said that the union has "brought numerous instances of contracting injustices" to the attention of the House Government Reform and Armed Services committees, to no avail. He cited an EEOC decision to contract out a national customer service center without first offering the work to federal employees as one example. "Based on their own records, asking the chairs of those two committees to act as impartial checks on agency tender officials is futile," Threlkeld said. "We'd have more luck petitioning the contractors." Angela Styles, former head of OMB's Office of Federal Procurement Policy, called the appeals rights compromise a "step in the right direction," but said that agency tender officials may lack incentives to file protests at GAO. "Maybe there will be some out there who feel an obligation," she said. But to file an appeal, tender officials would need financial backing and legal support from the agency's general counsel, Styles noted. General counsels may be reluctant to provide that support because they would in effect be suing their own agency, she said. The conference committee compromise also leaves in-house teams without any legal means of challenging tender officials' decisions to reject requests for GAO protests, Styles said. If Congress is the only body overseeing tender officials, complaints from in-house team members might get "lost in the mix," she said. Collins, the author of the original protest rights language, said she believes the compromise "is good for federal employees because it now gives them the power to force a protest about outsourcing decisions, and it allows employee representatives to argue their case before GAO." She pledged to "monitor closely the effectiveness of this provision and continue with efforts to ensure that federal employees are able to compete for projects with confidence that they will have a chance to have a neutral third party review of adverse agency decisions."
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