FRIDAY, MAY 28, 2010
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WHAT YOU SAID
Would freezing pay raises be a good way to cut government spending?
Rochelle S. Dornatt
federal worker, Washington
I fear the motivation behind the Republican proposal to do so is not based on economic reali- ties but a partisan desire to malign all things government. In this instance Republicans seek to make federal employees the scapegoat for all that is wrong to- day. As a 28-year veteran of federal
service, I am tired of being vil- ified just for making a contribu- tion to my country by daily trying to make the system work. The Republican proposal feeds an at- titude that gives rise to people feeling justified in attacking civil servants. Let’s not forget that the victims in Oklahoma City were simply federal employees going about their daily tasks. Or that the letter carriers who died from anthrax were federal employees, too, and only trying to deliver cit- izens’ mail. Freeze our pay? Yes, if it were couched in a collective sacrificial effort to overcome a national emergency. But as part of a parti- san plan to dismantle govern- ment? No way.
Edward Roach
National Park Service employee Dayton, Ohio
Freeze federal pay raises?
What a joke. What the country needs to do is cut “defense” spending. That would make a dif- ference. . . . Employee cost-of-liv- ing raises aren’t much of any- thing in the scope of the entire federal budget.
Daniel Goss
Severn, Md.
Seniors did not get a Social Se-
curity raise last year, nor will they get one this year. Plus, a lot of state workers are being forced to bite the bullet, so should feder- al workers.
Gerda Nutwell
Churchton, Md.
Social Security recipients did not receive a COLA in January “because there was no rise in the cost of living.” Maryland State and Counties retirees were just notified that a COLA also was not forthcoming for the same reason. Your paper reports on the rising cost of MetroAccess for the dis- abled. Private sector employees, if not unionized, have not seen any raises for some time; they are trying to hold onto their jobs. Federal employees have more or less secure jobs and outstand- ing benefits. Did their cost of liv- ing rise? I hope that these spend- ing cuts are not solely being played out on the backs of sen- iors and private sector employ- ees. Everybody has to share in spending cuts. President Obama should not have requested 1.4 percent pay raise for government workers.
Jack Nargundkar
Germantown
I think all federal civilian
workers, including and especial- ly members of Congress, should take a pay freeze until all of our troops (except essential person- nel) come home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Hossein Ildari
Chantilly
Cutting federal pay across the board is not a good way to reduce government spending. An effective way to reduce gov- ernment waste and spending would be to give federal manag- ers appropriate responsibility and authority to expeditiously fire the deadwoods who have been given reasonable time to improve their performance but have failed to do so.
Theresa Fleming
federal retiree, Woodbridge
I don’t think federal employees need a cost-of-living raise, most employees receive step increases and bonuses each year. That is enough. The best way to give a raise, would be to hold the cost of medical insurance to the current levels and not let the insurance companies raise their rates. Jobs are scarce, and most fed-
eral employees should really be grateful that they do have jobs. While the Bush administration caused this problem, the Obama administration needs to fix it. I would rather see a pay freeze and allow the government to hire more, then allowing pay to in- crease and less people being hired.
SARAH L. VOISIN/THE WASHINGTON POST
Timothy Boyd, a statue preservation worker in the resource management section of the National Park Service, cleans the statue of Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas on Thomas Circle in downtown Washington. A torch is use to heat the statue, then wax to protect it. It takes close to a month to finish cleaning one statue. Monuments on the Mall are cleaned annually and the other ones on a rotating schedule for maintenance.
from readers.
A column about legislation designed to develop a more equitable gender balance in toilets in federal buildings brought this response: Thanks for spotlighting the
T
legislation on this problem. It is funny, absolutely, but only if one is not desperate and wants to joke to pass the time while waiting in line. I’m a biomedical librarian employed by the federal government. In my previous position, at the University of Michigan, I was once asked by a faculty member for research on comparative restroom use by men and women. The core findings were that, for an equal population of men and women, three times the number of “units” were needed for women as for men in order for the lines to move at the same speed. The reasons include more complicated clothing, menstrual periods, having children with us and simple physics preventing us from sharing a urinal. We’re also slower to leave the restroom because more women wash their hands. That also has been documented.
Lawmaker goes to bat for Md. in seeking GSA facility leases
Pr. George’s officials press their case for fair competition
by Ed O’Keefe
A lawmaker who represents
Maryland is questioning how the General Services Administration selects facilities to lease for feder- al agencies, suggesting the gov- ernment’s primary landlord has bypassed commercial high-rise office space in Prince George’s County in favor of locations in the District and Northern Virginia. County officials think their communities have missed out on the residential and retail devel- opment enjoyed by Ballston and Clarendon in Arlington County or the District’s NoMa corridor as thousands of federal workers move into new high-rise build- ings and spend thousands of dol- lars each year at bars, restau- rants, dry cleaners and clothing stores.
Rep. Donna F. Edwards (D-
Md.) raised concerns about two recent GSA solicitations seeking office space for the departments of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security at a House subcommittee hearing late last week. Changes made to the original solicitations regard- ing ceiling heights and zoning re- strictions made it impossible for Prince George’s locations to com- pete for the leases, Edwards said. “This prospectus, given what’s required in the zoning and plan- ning process, means that one ju- risdiction would never be able to compete,” said Edwards, whose district includes portions of Prince George’s and Montgomery County. “GSA has to come up with an answer for why it has created the kind of disparity in this region that has left an entire community out of GSA competition,” she said. Edwards’s comments come amid a five-year battle between Prince George’s officials and the GSA over the type of facilities it leases in the county. The agency collected $1.7 billion in rent from federal agencies in fiscal 2009 for 55 million square feet of office and warehouse space in the
By the numbers
Jurisdiction
Alexandria Arlington D.C. Fairfax County Fairfax City Falls Church Loudoun
Montgomery Prince George’s Prince William
87% 100% 99% 75% 63% 100% 96% 94% 62% 100%
Offi ces Warehouses Percentage of
13% 0% 1%
25% 37% 0% 4% 6%
38% 0%
SOURCE: General Services Administration THE WASHINGTON POST
Washington region. GSA leases a higher percentage of warehouse space in Prince George’s than in any other county in the region. Prince George’s is also home to large federal office campuses, including the U.S. Census Bureau headquarters and NOAA Satellite Operations Cen- ter in Suitland and a Food and Drug Administration laboratory in College Park. Kwasi Holman, president of
the Prince George’s County Eco- nomic Development Corpora- tion, said warehouses and office campuses don’t generate the type of ancillary economic benefits that attract private businesses and retail outlets. Holman cited a National Trust for Historic Pres- ervation study that federal work- ers spend about $5,000 annually on goods and services at retail outlets near their office build- ings. “We’re trying to break a cycle
that has most of the office leases going to the western part of the region as opposed to the eastern part of the region,” he said. “The only way to do that is to allow us to compete for these solicitations on a fair basis.” Bart Bush, a GSA regional com- missioner for the Washington re- gion, said the agency “is commit- ted to maintaining a strong feder- al presence in Prince George’s County and will continue to en- sure that Prince George’s County is given fair and competitive ac- cess to government leases as the area office market continues to develop.” The agency occupies 17 percent of the county’s avail-
able office space and owns or leases a higher percentage of the county’s office market than any other Maryland or Virginia coun- ty’s, Bush said. “Prince George’s County has a smaller amount of developed of- fice space, and we’re renting a higher proportion of available of- fice space in Prince George’s County than any other county in the region except for D.C.,” Bush said.
Edwards and Holman disputed
that the county lacks developed office space, noting that it is home to 15 Metrorail stations and dozens of locations that meet GSA space requirements in Bow- ie, College Park, Greenbelt, Lar- go, Laurel, New Carrollton, the National Harbor hotel site and Suitland. “It just begs the question of
why it is, what it is about the process that disfavors Prince George’s County,” Edwards said in an interview. “I guess what I want is parity,
transparency and a sense that there’s an even playing field for areas to compete around the re- gion,” she said.
ed.okeefe@washingtonpost.com
When I was collecting this information, I spoke to the Ann Arbor state representative, who noted that the Michigan law covering restroom construction for state facilities had been changed when older male legislators became tired of waiting for their wives. I lack time and energy to pursue this with members of Congress, but I do wish that the proposed legislation were based on research findings instead of guesswork and estimates. There are social costs to this, particularly with our aging population, and fiscal implications.
—Pam Sieving, Bethesda
Dependents’ benefits
A column with the headline
“Health legislation aims to help employees’ adult children” didn’t draw a sympathetic response from this reader:
I fail to get exercised about the benefits of children of federal employees or retirees when I, as a retiree from the Department of Defense, am required, in order to continue my health benefits into retirement, to pay for a family plan even though I have no dependents under the age of 26 or in fact no dependents except my spouse.
—Loy H. Bloodworth, Ellicott City
SSA customer service
After seeing a column on how
growing workloads at the Social
Coast Guard center on oil spills at issue
An administration decision three months before the spill to scale back a response coordination center is at the heart of a debate over the government’s ability to regulate offshore drilling.
The Fed Page, A22
THE FEDERAL WORKER
A monumental rubdown
FEDERAL DIARY
Joe Davidson
Potty parity should be based on more than anecdotal data
he Federal Diary gets lots of mail, some of it fit to print. Here are a few letters
Security Administration affect customer service, one reader offered these suggestions:
Our leaders have trouble thinking outside the box. Our employed don’t want to change the system unless they can get more for less.
Some out-of-the-box recommendations for improving SSA customer service: 1. Digitize the customer questions (both Internet and voice/phone) and answer them automatically from the computer database. Benefits: No waiting, correct answers and no need for SSA employee response/involvement. 2. Unable to do the first recommendation yet? It can be done for free by well-qualified volunteers who will work for only tax-deductible donation receipts. It can be done by temps who get no holiday pay, no pension benefits and no medical benefits and for less pay than full-time employees receive. 3. Convert from using the
Postal Service to e-mail. Have everyone’s e-mail address in the SSA database.
—Ralph Myers, Sterling
Coast Guard diversity
In response to a column with the headline “Coast Guard acts quickly on diversity, but not without problems,” this reader expressed surprise that diversity remains an issue that needs work.
First, I’m amazed that we are still “implementing” diversity programs. It was at President John F.
Kennedy’s inaugural parade that he noted that the military academy marching groups did not look like they represented America. Since the ’60s, I would opine, the Armed Forces have represented the most diverse workforces in the United States (if not the Western world). Second, without context, the
article (or the hearing) did not give the reader an
understanding about where the Coast Guard stands versus a standard or compared to others. Filed complaints can mean problems or a healthy use of the system. Numbers have to be compared to something. I could not agree more that outcomes are far more important than directives or plans. A key statistic is the presence of minorities and women at the commander/captain and GS-14/15 levels.
—Lloyd Grable, McLean; former director of civilian manpower and equal employment,
Department of the Navy
Let us know what’s on your mind and send news tips and column ideas to
federaldiary@washpost.com.
New law explained, on glossy paper
The administration says a brochure is being sent to 40 million Medicare recipients to keep them informed. Some Republicans in Congress see the mailing as a major waste of taxpayer money.
The Fed Page, A22
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