Archives for February 2021

Poland protesters take weekend off for fundraiser

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — From soccer star Robert Lewandowski to opposition politicians, Polish citizens on Sunday donated at least 71 million zlotys ($19 million) to a charity’s fundraiser for health causes that has been criticized by the conservative government for its liberal agenda.

Anti-government protesters angry about a near-total abortion ban suspended their marches for the weekend to show solidarity and ensure that they didn’t steal the spotlight from the event.

The annual Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity is held to support the chronically strapped health care system, and its main event is always held on a Sunday in mid-January. This is the 29th edition and it was postponed by two weeks because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The 71 million zlotys ($19 million) collected is significantly less than over 180 million zlotys collected last year, but the event was to continue until midnight, and making donations was also possible later. This year, the money is going toward laryngology, or disorders of the ears and the voice box, and for equipment for testing head issues.

The fundraiser, which has traditionally backed a message of tolerance and support for minorities’ rights, has been criticized by the government of the Law and Justice party, which promotes traditional family and conservative values.

Senate appropriators propose federal pay freeze for civilian employees in 2021

Senate Republicans are including a federal pay freeze for civilian employees as part of a 2021 appropriations bill, which they released Tuesday morning.

The proposal is a break from President Donald Trump recommended back in February and what the House endorsed over the summer, setting up further debate on federal pay over the course of the next four weeks.

According to Senate Republicans, the freeze would also apply to senior executives and senior-level employees, unless they’re promoted to a new position with higher-level duties and pay.

The vice president and political appointees would also be subject to a 2021 pay freeze, according to the proposal from Senate Republicans.

These provisions are included in a draft of the financial services and general government bill, which Senate Republicans released Tuesday morning. They also released their own drafts of the 11 other appropriations bills, which congressional leaders anticipate will serve as the basis for negotiations between both the House and Senate over the course of the next few weeks.

The current continuing resolution expires on Dec. 11. The lame-duck Congress must pass either a second temporary stopgap or a complete omnibus spending package to avoid a government shutdown next month.

Rather than proceed with a second CR, congressional leaders have said they’d prefer to complete a full omnibus.

“Our goal is to work with the House to conference all twelve appropriations bills and avert a government shutdown,” Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Tuesday in a statement. “We only have four weeks to do it. In order to accomplish our work, we need Senate bills to work from. The 12 bills being released by the chairman on Tuesday will help us move forward in this process. Many of the bills were the result of bipartisan work, and I appreciate those areas where we were able to come to agreement. However, there are significant issues that we will want to address in negotiations with the House.”

The Senate likely won’t vote on individual appropriations bills — there isn’t time. Instead, these appropriations bills serve as a starting point for the Senate’s negotiations with the House, which passed 10 of 12 bills earlier this summer.

“By and large, these bills are the product of bipartisan cooperation among members of the committee,” Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement. “As negotiations with the House begin in earnest, I look forward to working with Chairwoman [Nita] Lowey (D-N.Y.), Vice Chairman Leahy, and Ranking Member [Kay] Granger (R-Texas) to resolve our differences in a bipartisan manner. Time after time, we have demonstrated our willingness to work together and get the job done. We have before us the opportunity to deliver for the American people once again.”

The House remained silent on the issue of federal pay so far this year, essentially endorsing the president’s own proposal. President Donald Trump proposed a 1% across-the-board federal pay raise for civilian employees back in February. His proposal didn’t include any locality pay adjustments.

As House and Senate appropriators begin budget negotiations, there are a few outcomes that could impact federal employees and their paychecks next year.

Lawmakers could adopt the Senate’s proposal and freeze federal pay at 2020 levels. Or they could remain silent as the House has done, giving way for the president to determine his course for federal pay via the typical end-of-year executive order. In that case, Trump could continue with his original 1% federal pay proposal from February.

He could also freeze federal pay on his own. No pay adjustment for next year is official until the president signs an executive order setting pay rates for 2021.

Federal employee groups and Democratic lawmakers were critical of the proposal.

“As our federal employees work every day to deliver vital services to the American people, Republicans continue to try to strip them of their rights, politicize the merit-based system and deny them fair pay for their hard work,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said in a statement. “We cannot let this stand. I will fight tooth and nail to stop this proposed pay freeze and ensure that the good work of federal employees is fairly compensated.”

The National Active and Retired Federal Employees (NARFE) Association encouraged Congress and the president to recognize the federal workforce with a raise.

“This is a year when federal employees have stepped up to respond to a global pandemic, with tens of thousands on the frontlines working on behalf of the American people and contracting COVID-19 in the process,” Jessica Klement, NARFE’s staff vice president for programs and policy, said in a statement to Federal News Network. “Yet they face the prospect of a pay freeze. That’s not just an affront to public service; it’s a policy that risks losing highly competent and productive employees from the ranks of our federal government, to the detriment of the citizens they serve.”

The American Federation of Government Employees described the Senate’s proposal as a “slap in the face.”

“Trying to outdo President Trump in disrespecting federal employees by eliminating even the paltry raise he put forth is completely unwarranted and will only worsen the government’s ability to function effectively,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement.

Beyond the proposed pay freeze, Senate appropriators also included a provision that would prohibit the Thrift Savings Plan from making investments in countries that don’t comply with American accounting regulator inspections or oversight.

This provision appears to be intended to relieve concerns from a bipartisan group of lawmakers, who criticized the TSP’s plans to expand benchmark for the international fund into emerging markets, including China.

The TSP pulled back on these plans earlier this year amid pressure from the White House.

In addition, Senate appropriators included a $25 million funding boost for the Office of Personnel Management over the previous year. OPM, according to its inspector general, is still dealing with the financial consequences of the 2019 transfer of the security clearance business to the Pentagon.

The House appropriators were less generous with OPM. Their bill included an $8.5 million budget boost for the agency.

The Senate proposal would also allow the General Services Administration to spend $228 million more out of the Federal Buildings Fund.

The Treasury Department would also see slightly more funding next year — about a $20 million increase over 2020 levels — under the Senate proposal. It maintains spending levels for the IRS but includes provisions that would allow Treasury’s Do No Pay Center to utilize the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File in effort to cut back on improper payments.

Va. congressman wants to know vaccination plans for federal employees

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Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) wants clarity on the plan to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to the federal workforce. Beyer wrote a letter to National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, and Office of Personnel Management Acting Director Michael Rigas stating, “After weeks of no substantive response to my staff’s inquiry, I write to request any and all COVID-19 vaccine distribution plans or guidance for federal employees.” He also wrote a letter to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, asking for more transparency and data sharing on the national effort to distribute and administer vaccines.
The Senate is expected to register a two-thirds vote later this week to override President Donald Trump’s veto of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act. The chamber is widely expected to pass the bill over the president’s objections, as the House did on Monday. Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) is blocking a speedy vote over Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s refusal to bring a larger COVID-19 stimulus package to the Senate floor. The Senate approved the NDAA earlier this month by a vote of 84-13, well above the supermajority-threshold needed to override a veto. (Federal News Network)

Trump’s veto of the 2021 defense authorization act could affect the pay of service members and health professionals. The National Defense Authorization Act has passed 59 years in a row and it usually gives a raise to the military and extends special pay for certain occupations. If the Senate cannot override the president’s veto before Jan. 3, all of that could be in jeopardy. The military may not get a 3% raise, military nurses going to school will lose stipends and incentive pay to keep highly talented troops in the service will disappear. Some benefits will also go by the wayside like free national park passes for Gold Star families and priority housing for military spouses providing daycare. (Federal News Network)

The IRS is wasting no time distributing the latest round of COVID-19 relief funds. The Treasury department said the IRS started processing direct deposits yesterday, just two days after Trump signed the spending package Congress passed earlier this month. Paper checks will start to go out in the mail today. There will be one-time payments of $600 for most Americans unless Congress approves an additional package backed by the president and some lawmakers.

Amid a tough private sector job market, the Navy saw big gains in the number of sailors who chose to reenlist in 2020. Navy officials thought their 2019 retention rates were “outstanding,” but this year’s numbers beat them handily. In the service’s youngest and largest cohort — those with less than six years of service — 69% of sailors eligible to reenlist chose to do so. That is compared to a goal of 57% the Navy set for 2020. The Navy saw similar gains in older age groups and beat its own retention targets by at least seven percentage points in every category.

Womack Army Medical Center in North Carolina will join other military installations as the newest testing ground for coronavirus vaccines. It will participate in the phase three clinical trial of the American-made Novavax vaccine. Novavax is the third coronavirus shot developed in the United States to battle COVID-19. The trial calls for 30,000 participants in the U.S. and in Mexico. Other bases involved in the trial include Naval Medical Center San Diego in California and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland.

Train transportation in the United States is safer now, thanks to completion of a long-standing federal project. The Federal Railroad Administration, part of the Transportation Department, said a technology called positive train control is now in place nationwide. Congress had set a deadline of Dec. 31 for the 12-year project. It covers more than 57,000 miles of freight and passenger track and the locomotives of 41 railroads, including Amtrak, Virginia Railway Express and MARC. Positive train control uses sensors, networks and on-board controls to help keep trains from colliding, derailing or going too fast. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said getting the controls installed everywhere mandated by Congress was a top priority.

The IRS recovered nearly $500 million in fiscal 2020 thanks to its whistleblower program. The agency made awards to more than 160 whistleblowers worth nearly $87 million. But the IRS whistleblower office said that recovery of funds is the lowest level it has seen in three years. The agency, for example, recovered more than $1.4 billion in 2018 thanks to whistleblower tips. Since 2007, the whistleblower office has recovered more than $6 billion in taxes owed and has paid out more than $1 billion to whistleblowers.

Military retirees, survivors will see 1.3% increase in COLA for 2021

Cost of living adjustments for military retirees are continuing their downward trend in 2021. Those who retired from the military and family members who receive a special survivor indemnity allowance will get a 1.3% increase in 2021.

That’s a slight downturn from the 1.6% increase in 2020 and a further decrease from the 2.8% plus up retirees received in 2019.

Pay increases will start on Dec. 31, 2020.

Survivors eligible for the special survivor indemnity allowance will have their annuity increases capped at $327.

The COLA adjustment is tied to the consumer price index (CPI) comparing the previous year to 2020 stopping at the third quarter. The biggest factors that influence the COLA are the prices of food, clothing, housing, fuel, medical services and drugs. However, more than 80,000 items are factored into the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ CPI calculation.

There are about 2.18 million military retirees.

Social Security recipients are also getting a 1.3% increase in 2020, which averages to about $20 a month for the average worker.

The increase comes as some families are still seeing the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Market volatility may be harmful to private retirement investments.

NFL scrambles to keep charitable Super Bowl events in Tampa

Befitting the championship game of the nation’s most popular sport, the Super Bowl is about more than football.

Yes, who wins the NFL championship is what fans remember most. For hundreds, maybe thousands of others, the legacy of the Super Bowl stretches far beyond the field.

During the pandemic, staging the league’s annual charitable and community efforts before and during its final game has called for some scrambling. The NFL is determined that those initiatives remain impactful in the Tampa Bay area.

“Due to the pandemic this year we definitely had to pivot our thinking behind community events, which are usually a great way to engage with the NFL in a Super Bowl city,” says Melissa Schiller, the league’s director of community relations. “We had to transition them to virtual events and also make sure those that are taking place (in the Tampa area) are COVID-19 compliant.”

One of Super Bowl week’s biggest events is the NFL PLAY 60 kids day of youth health and wellness, held in partnership with the American Heart Association. Usually, about 2,000 youngsters are involved locally for basically a football festival of learning, participating and, well, fun. Due to the pandemic, the event has gone virtual and been opened up nationally. More than 100,000 youngsters have signed up for the event on Wednesday.

“We’re creating a one-hour experience with kids whether they are in the classroom or at home for which they can really tune in and engage,” Schiller says.

On Wednesday, through the NFL’s Inspire Change initiative, Jefferson High School students will participate in EVERFI’s 306 African-American history program. They will be discussing Black trailblazers in business with a panel that will include NFL players. Funded by the league, the EVERFI 306 program provides schools nationwide that otherwise might not have the resources with a digital African-American history curriculum.

Some students will be on site, while others will view the conversation virtually. Guest panelists will join the class remotely. As part of efforts to help address the digital divide, the NFL, in collaboration with the Hillsborough Education Foundation, will make a contribution to assist students throughout Tampa Bay. NFL partner Bose is also donating noise cancelling headphones to Jefferson High School to assist with their technological needs as part of this event.

“The way (Super Bowl week) has changed things on the social justice front, some events are virtual and some in person,” says Clare Graff, the NFL’s senior director of social responsibility and community affairs. “And also the topic that the pandemic has brought to light is the digital divide, and the ways kids are having trouble connecting in communities of need. We pivoted our focus.”

The Super Bowl Legacy Grant Program in which the NFL Foundation makes a $1 million contribution to improve local communities — the Super Bowl host committee matches it — will have an on site news conference two days before the game. The grants will support Forever 55, the host committee’s primary social legacy initiative, and will focus on early childhood education; food insecurity; at-risk, unsheltered and veteran families; health and wellness; sustainability; and systemic justice.

“On the NFL Foundation side, it’s definitely the case that we have ramped up our funding support,” explains Alexia Gallagher, the foundation’s vice president of philanthropy and executive director. “It is important, more so than ever. We’re not seeing other donors not being able to do so as well.”

As part of the Huddle to Tackle Hunger program, the foundation committed $250,000 to Feeding Tampa Bay to combat food insecurity in the region. The grant will assist in supporting local restaurants that have been significantly affected by COVID-19, and provide meals to those in need. The program will run for 44 weeks following the Super Bowl.

Two volunteer events will encourage local residents to sign up to volunteer with Feeding Tampa Bay to help fight hunger within their community, handling such tasks as food packing and distribution.

“Knowing how the pandemic hit communities so hard, and what we do in relation to the Super Bowl is providing this giveback to this community,” Gallagher says, “it was important we do something a little different to really help support the community and the population that is struggling in terms of hunger relief and supporting the restaurants.”

In Raymond James Stadium on game day, a “Fans In The Stands” cutout program will raise funds. For $100, fans can upload a photo of themselves or someone they consider a hero, and the cutout will feature that person. Cutouts will be installed throughout the stadium between pods of ticketed fans.

With the purchase of a cutout, fans will be entered to win two tickets to the 2022 Super Bowl in Los Angeles.

The proceeds will be donated to Feeding Tampa Bay on behalf of the Buccaneers, and to City Year on behalf of the Chiefs.

“I think the pandemic, for better or worse, made all of us as employees and parents and teachers be creative and do things differently,” Graf says. “There’s been plenty of downsizing due to COVID, but that caused all of us to be more creative.”

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More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL

Archives for February 2021

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