The Senior Executives Association’s (SEA) Leadership Summit this week honored members of the civil service who received the Presidential Rank Award in 2019, the highest civilian honor, and hosted panels and seminars on improving federal service.

Congressional leaders announced an agreement with the White House last week to fund all federal agencies through September 2020.

Darryl Gartley of Oregon pled guilty in August to two counts of sex trafficking minors. Gartley was sentenced this week to 149 months and 12 days in federal prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release.

Tune in to FEDtalk this week for our end of the year federal employee
reporter roundtable. Guests from across the reporter community will take a look
back on the big events of 2019, discuss current events, and prepare for 2020.

U.S. law enforcement has arrested former head of the Mexican Federal Investigation Agency for taking millions in bribes from Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, a well-known leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel. Genaro García Lunas, the official arrested, previously worked to root out drug corruption from Mexican law enforcement.

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released this month indicated that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) needs to grant additional focus on updating detection technology already sent to airports for use. The report, called for through the TSA Modernization Act, addressed how TSA operationalizes detection standards, the extent to which TSA considers risk when making technology deployment decisions, and the extent to which TSA ensures technologies continue to meet detection requirements after deployed to airports.

Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Mike Lee (R-UT) have introduced legislation requiring federal law enforcement to obtain a court order before using facial recognition technology for public surveillance. Lawmakers have described the legislation as an attempt to balance privacy concerns with law enforcement efforts.

The National Treasury Employees Union appealed the Federal Labor Relations Authority’s denial of its negotiability petition related to changes in the number of different possible rating levels for its members at U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

FEEA: The Federal Employee Education & Assistance Fund, has been assisting federal families in need for more than 30 years. Through college scholarships, disaster relief, emergency hardship loans, and #FedLifeHacks, FEEA has touched the lives of tens of thousands of federal families, including more than 3,000 lower-income feds who needed help during the longest government shutdown in US history in early 2019.

More and more departments are employing drone technology. Learn about how one police department uses drone technology to their advantage.

Attorney General William Barr and law enforcement partners announced this week the conclusion of a national effort to halt money mule activity. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), money mules assist fraud schemes by receiving money from victims, many of them elderly, and forwarding proceeds to foreign-based perpetrators. The two-month initiative resulted in disrupted mule networks from Hawaii to Florida and from Alaska to Maine.

In 2007, New Haven, CT became the first city in the United States to approve a municipal ID card for undocumented residents. Officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were aware of the proposed program and sent internal emails expressing concerns over the plan.

The Department of Energy Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a report detailing the department’s improvements and opportunity areas for FY2019.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General (IG) has issued a report analyzing how Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and the Secret Service have dealt with opioid use in the midst of a national opioid epidemic. The report issued in November assesses how the components have addressed both legal and illegal opioid use.

Addressing criminal conduct, challenging obstacles to lasting reform, and healing the resulting harm to individuals and communities are concerns in every society.

Huey and Maya visit the Ocean State and find that Rhode Island has an unexpected density of federal sites. They learn about NOAA grants, wildlife refuges, and a historic Coast Guard lighthouse.

For Civilian Federal Employees, the end of the calendar year marks a possibility for changes to General Schedule (GS) Pay Scales. Understanding how the system works can help you make better financial decisions for you and your family. This knowledge also allows you to make an informed career decision when comparing positions or considering a transfer. To help you make sense of it all, WAEPA has compiled a guide to GS Pay Scales.

Every Open Season brings new opportunities for the millions of dedicated men and women who work for our country to take stock of their health and well-being. Our role at the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Federal Employee Program (FEP®) is to help all of our current and future members make informed decisions about their healthcare needs.

Tune in to FEDtalk this week for a discussion on improving public service- from the institutional level to the individual level. Guests from across the federal community will discuss how they work together to build a better public service system.

A former law enforcement officer from the Westminster Police Department (WPD) has pled guilty to sexually assaulting a woman while on duty. Curtis Arganbright pled guilty in federal court in Denver, Colorado to one count of violating the civil rights of a female in his care whom he sexually assaulted.