February, 09 2022, 10:10am EDT
Largest Federal Employee Union Identifies Top Legislative Priorities for Next NDAA
AFGE outlines priorities for inclusion in fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act affecting civilian workers at DoD and other agencies.
WASHINGTON
The American Federation of Government Employees has outlined its top priorities for lawmakers to include in the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act.
The union's priority issues include issues affecting civilian employees at the Department of Defense as well as at other agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration and Department of Veterans Affairs, and governmentwide.
"The NDAA is a key legislative vehicle for reforms and initiatives that improve the lives of civilian workers across the federal government, and we look forward to working with lawmakers from the House and Senate to ensure our top priorities are included in next year's bill," AFGE National President Everett Kelley said.
AFGE's priorities are detailed in a Feb. 8 letter to leadership on the House and Senate Armed Services committees. The key issues identified by the union for inclusion in the fiscal 2023 NDAA are:
* Address AFGE's concerns with respect to implementing Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution System (PPBES) reforms that may be under consideration by the commission established in the fiscal 2022 NDAA. These concerns were detailed in a Jan. 21 letter from President Kelley to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks.
* Repeal the remaining arbitrary personnel caps on headquarters functions in sections 143, 194, 7014, 8014 and 9014 of Title 10.
* Continue the moratorium on conducting public-private competitions under A-76.
* Strengthen implementation of section 815 of the fiscal 2022 NDAA depending on DoD's implementation of those provisions to enforce compliance with existing statutory restrictions on converting civilian positions to contract performance and to ensure the department is complying with statutory requirements to consider civilian employees for performance of "closely associated with inherently governmental" and "critical functions."
* Continue the prohibition on another round of Base Realignment and Closure Commissions (BRACs).
* Encourage DoD to hire civilian backfills when converting military medical structure to operational requirements in military medical treatment facilities.
* Encourage Commissaries to address food insecurity among military families by ending variable pricing and establishing specific pilot programs to provide free produce to eligible military families.
* Improve sustainment planning for major weapon system acquisitions by reestablishing the manpower estimate report process prior to milestone B and C decisions on the appropriate mix between Active Component and Reserve Component military, civilian employee, host nation and contract support for operating, training, and maintaining major weapon systems.
* Repeal DoD's authority for the Acquisition Demo project, which has been documented as discriminatory to women and minorities.
* Prohibit the misuse of term or temporary hiring authorities for enduring functions.
* Include the full text of HR 903, "The Rights for the TSA Workforce Act of 2021," which would put Transportation Security Officers on the same pay scale as most other federal employees, provide them with the same Title 5 collective bargaining rights as other federal workers, and ensure neutral third-party review of disciplinary matters.
* Include the full text of HR 962 and S 1888, "The Law Enforcement Equity Act," which would provide all federal law enforcement professionals - including those at the Federal Protective Service, Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, and the U.S. Mint - with the same enhanced pay and benefits as officers at certain agencies such as the FBI, Border Patrol, and Drug Enforcement Administration.
* Include the full text of HR 2499 and S 1116, "The Federal Firefighters Fairness Act," which would create a presumption under the Federal Employees Compensation Program that certain forms of cancer and other chronic diseases among federal firefighters are the result of workplace exposure, making the victims eligible for monetary and medical benefits.
* Include the full text of S 3423, "The Chance to Compete Act of 2022," which would reestablish competitive hiring as the preferred method for staffing the civil service by ensuring that vacancies are open to the public and to other qualified federal workers, establishing panels of subject-matter experts to assist with screening applicants, and allowing applicants deemed qualified for certain kinds of work to be considered for multiple jobs across the government without having to reapply for each one. AFGE also asks lawmakers to oppose non-competitive hiring and excepted service appointments in the federal government.
* Include report language requesting a review of the efficiency, effectiveness, and fairness from a due process perspective of DoD security clearance determinations, as well as a demographic survey on whether security clearance adjudications within DoD and other federal agencies have been applied in a discriminatory manner against protected civil rights categories and in favor of certain hate groups.
* Consider the adverse effects of limited access to technical data in the organic industrial base and limits to governmental access to "certified cost and pricing data" under the Truth in Negotiations Act (TINA) resulting from recent expansions of "commercial items and services" definitions through the NDAA in sole source procurements that have contributed to escalating sustainment costs and cybersecurity risks for DoD weapon systems.
* Include the text of HR 3086 and S 1561, "The Locality Pay Equity Act of 2021," which would codify report language from the prior two NDAAs directing the Office of Personnel Management to align wage grade pay localities with General Schedule locality pay areas across the country.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union proudly representing 700,000 federal and D.C. government workers nationwide and overseas. Workers in virtually all functions of government at every federal agency depend upon AFGE for legal representation, legislative advocacy, technical expertise and informational services.
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Kamala Harris Wins March for Our Lives' First-Ever Endorsement
"Kamala Harris has proven herself to be a thoughtful and forceful leader on gun violence, who has time and again listened to young people and fought for our lives."
Jul 24, 2024
March for Our Lives, which was launched six years ago after yet another U.S. mass shooting, announced its first-ever political endorsement on Wednesday, backing Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' bid for the White House.
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Warning of the threat posed by Republican former President Donald Trump—who just survived an assassination attempt—and his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), March for Our Lives said that "the country that young people will soon inherit stands at the precipice—on one side, authoritarianism that threatens our fundamental rights, including our right to live freely without fear of gun violence; on the other, a world where we can keep fighting to build the future that young people know we deserve."
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Harris began seeking the Democratic nomination for November after President Joe Biden dropped out and endorsed her on Sunday. March for Our Lives said that "we call on her to run a campaign that fights for the policy solutions that young people want, like an assault weapons ban, action on climate change, a vigorous defense of abortion, court reform, and an immediate and lasting cease-fire in Gaza. Young people are savvy voters, who will see through empty promises and cynical horsetrading. We believe that Kamala will step above that and fight for a bold, progressive future—and we will hold her accountable for that."
Since Sunday, Parkland shooting survivor and March for Our Lives co-founder David Hogg has been fiercely supporting Harris, posting on his social media frequent updates about her historic fundraising successes over the past few days.
"Kamala Harris has proven herself to be a thoughtful and forceful leader on gun violence, who has time and again listened to young people and fought for our lives," Hogg said in a statement Wednesday. "Given her strong record on gun safety and prioritizing youth voices during her time in office, I'm proud that Kamala Harris will receive March for Our Lives' first-ever endorsement, and I'm so excited for our work to mobilize young people for her campaign."
Natalie Fall, the group's executive director, toldABC News—which first reported on the endorsement—that "we see a lot of energy around Vice President Harris in this election; there's no denying that. I think everybody's seeing it right now."
"I just think young people in particular didn't really see themselves represented or reflected in the Biden ticket in the way that they wanted. It's not to say that President Biden hasn't had great accomplishments," she explained. "But I think we need someone who can meet this moment and who is up to the challenge of taking Donald Trump to task and really defeating his effort to erode all of our institutions and our democracy."
March for Our Lives members plan to participate in this year's election through creative campaigns, door-knocking, and phone banks, Fall said. In a statement, she added that the group aims to elect not only Harris but also candidates "up and down the ballot" who support its priorities.
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The gun violence prevention group's endorsement adds to Harris' mounting pile. Throughout the week, she has also received support from many Democratic governors and members of Congress as well as climate, labor, and reproductive rights groups.
As young people rally behind Harris, she is also seeing support from advocates for older Americans. Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, wrote in a Wednesday opinion piece for Common Dreams that "Joe Biden has been the best president for seniors in over half a century. Kamala Harris will be even better."
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"A cabinet minister is supposed to maintain neutrality," the 48-year-old minister conceded, "but that's impossible to do after [U.S. President Joe] Biden."
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Trump has said that Israel should "get the job done" in Gaza, while criticizing the Israel Defense Forces for posting videos showing its obliteration of the embattled Palestinian enclave.
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Dozens of Democratic lawmakers and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont have signaled they will skip Netanyahu's speech. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is also the Senate president, said she will not preside over Wednesday's session. Harris, who is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in the wake of Biden's withdrawal from the race on Sunday, said she will meet privately with Netanyahu on Thursday.
Echoing calls from groups including CodePink and the Council on American Islamic Relations, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said this week that the prime minister should be arrested for war crimes and genocide.
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Five wealthy countries including the United States have led a global surge in oil and gas development in 2024, threatening international climate goals, according to an analysis published by The Guardian on Wednesday.
The U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Norway together are projected by the end of 2024 to have issued licenses for fossil fuel projects that will emit 11.9 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions over their lifetimes—far more than in any of the previous five years, and roughly equal to a full year of emissions from China, the world's highest emitter—according to industry data analyzed by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and shared with the newspaper.
The five states are responsible for more than two-thirds of all oil and gas licenses issued globally since 2020, with the U.S. alone accounting for half of the world total. President Joe Biden's administration increased oil and gas licensing by 20% over Trump-era levels, and issued a record 758 new extraction licenses in 2023, according to the analysis.
"The U.S. has become a petrostate and is still, even under President Biden, permitting new drilling," John Sterman, a climate policy expert and professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's business school, told The Guardian. "The developed countries don't show any significant efforts to limit drilling."
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Revealed: wealthy western countries lead in global oil and gas expansion
Surge by world’s wealthiest countries – such as the US and the UK- threatens to unleash 12bn tonnes of planet-heating emissions.
By @olliemilman & @ninalakhani https://t.co/esY5IuIfi9
— jonathanwatts (@jonathanwatts) July 24, 2024
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The Conservative-led U.K. government issued a surge of North Sea licenses in the first half of this year, but lost power to the Labour Party following a general election earlier this month. It's not yet clear if Labour will be able or willing to rescind licenses already issued. Currently the U.K. is set to finish 2024 with 72 licenses for projects that would create 101 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions over their lifetimes—a 50-year high, according to the IISD analysis. Norway and Australia are also seeing major upticks this year.
Capital expenditure at the world's largest oil companies is up 60% since 2020, with $302 billion projected to be spent on well development this year, The Guardian reported. The fossil fuel expansion continues even though the reserves in rich countries are generally hard to reach, as more accessible reserves have already been tapped.
The expansion also comes in spite of disturbing climate news—2023 was hottest year on record, June was the 13th consecutive hottest month, and Monday was the hottest day, having broken a record set the previous day—and dire warnings from leading international institutions. No new fossil fuel projects can proceed if the world is to meet the 1.5° Paris agreement target, the International Energy Agency declared in 2021.
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