Labor Groups Ask Obama To Reject Proposals That Target Feds In Deficit Reduction Plan
Coalition tells White House that federal employees, retirees have sacrificed enough
WASHINGTON – A coalition of labor and management groups sent a letter to President Obama today urging him to reject proposals that would require federal employees and retirees to shoulder more of the cost of lowering the nation’s deficit.
President Obama is scheduled to submit a deficit reduction plan to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction on Sept. 19. The plan will detail how to pay for the $447 billion jobs bill that Obama announced Sept. 8, as well as suggest other steps to reduce the nation’s debt in the long term. Read more
Federal-Postal Employees Coalition Urge Obama To Reject Proposals Damaging To Workforce
Filed under: politics, postal, postal news, retirement, white house
A coalition of federal and postal employee organizations wrote a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to reject proposals aimed at the federal workforce. The groups major concern is the proposal to require federal employees to contribute a much higher share towards their retirement annuity which in effect is a pay cut. Read more
Idaho Retired Vet and Postal Worker flies Nazi flag in protest of Obama’s policies
“Flying his Nazi flag is one way Gene Martin has chosen to express his disdain for the political direction of the United States.
Obama: All new federal light duty vehicles must be alternative fueled by 2015
Filed under: postal, postal news, press releases, usps, white house
Presidential Memorandum–Federal Fleet Performance
The Federal Government operates the largest fleet of light duty vehicles in America. We owe a responsibility to American citizens to lead by example and contribute to meeting our national goals of reducing oil imports by one-third by 2025 and putting one million advanced vehicles on the road by 2015.
Living up to that responsibility means the Federal fleet should operate only as many vehicles as needed to work efficiently, leveraging Federal purchasing dollars to build manufacturing capacity for more alternative fueled vehicles, and reducing petroleum consumption through efficiency and alternative fuels.
In Executive Order 13514 of October 5, 2009, Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance, my Administration set a goal of reducing petroleum use in the Federal fleet. In order to provide guidance to executive departments and agencies (agencies) to help achieve my Administration’s Federal fleet performance goals, and to ensure that agencies are in compliance with Executive Order 13514, I hereby direct the following:
Section 1. Vehicle Technologies. (a) By December 31, 2015, all new light duty vehicles leased or purchased by agencies must be alternative fueled vehicles, such as hybrid or electric, compressed natural gas, or biofuel. Moreover, agency alternative fueled vehicles must, as soon as practicable, be located in proximity to fueling stations with available alternative fuels, and be operated on the alternative fuel for which the vehicle is designed. Where practicable, agencies should encourage development of commercial infrastructure for alternative fuel or provide flex fuel and alternative fuel pumps and charging stations at Federal fueling sites.
(b) Pursuant to motor vehicle management regulations, set forth at 41 C.F.R. 102-34.50, executive fleets are required to achieve maximum fuel efficiency; be limited in motor vehicle body size, engine size, and optional equipment to what is essential to meet agency mission; and be midsize or smaller sedans, except where larger sedans are essential to the agency mission. Within 180 days of the date of this memorandum, any executive fleet vehicles that are larger than a midsize sedan or do not comply with alternative fueled vehicle requirements must be disclosed on agency websites.
(c) The Department of Energy shall assist the United States Postal Service (USPS) in evaluating the best alternative fuel technologies for the USPS fleet.
Sec. 2. Optimum Fleet Size. Within 90 days of the date of this memorandum, the General Services Administration (GSA) shall develop and distribute to agencies a Vehicle Allocation Methodology (VAM) for determining the optimum inventory with emphasis placed on eliminating unnecessary or non-essential vehicles from an agency’s fleet inventory and ensuring lifecycle cost-effectiveness of maintaining such inventory. In addition, the VAM shall address composition for agencies’ light duty fleets based on their missions. In doing so, the GSA shall consider existing Federal VAMs as appropriate. The VAM shall assist agencies in selecting vehicle options based on lifecycle cost analysis, including projected fuel costs, warranty, operations, mileage, maintenance, and disposal.
Sec. 3. Fleet Management. (a) Within 180 days of the GSA’s dissemination of the VAM referenced in section 2 of this memorandum, agencies shall determine their optimal fleet inventory using the VAM, and shall post their optimal fleet inventory targets on agency websites. At the same time, agencies shall submit to the Administrator of General Services (Administrator) fleet management plans to achieve these targets no later than December 31, 2015.
(b) Within 30 days of receiving agency fleet management plans, the Administrator shall submit a summary of the plans to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and to the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality.
(c) Within 90 days of receiving agency fleet management plans, the Administrator shall provide each agency and military service with recommendations for the acquisition of alternative fueled vehicles to implement fleet optimization plans, including shared fleet-on-demand services where applicable.
(d) Agencies shall incorporate new fleet management plans into their Annual Strategic Sustainability Performance Plans prepared in furtherance of Executive Order 13514, beginning with their June 2012 plan submission.
Sec. 4. Applicability. (a) With respect to law enforcement and emergency vehicles, the GSA shall, within 180 days of the date of this memorandum, and in coordination with the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, and the Treasury, and other appropriate agencies, issue guidance to agencies on the applicability and implementation of alternative fueled vehicle requirements.
(b) Consistent with the guidance developed in section 4(a) of this memorandum, the head of an agency may exempt vehicles used for law enforcement, protective, emergency response, or military tactical operations of that agency from the provisions of this memorandum.
(c) This memorandum shall apply to the activities, personnel, resources, and facilities of each agency that are located within the United States. The head of an agency may apply this memorandum to activities, personnel, resources, and facilities
of the agency that are not located within the United States, to the extent the head of the agency determines that doing so is in the interest of the United States.
Sec. 5. Definitions. (a) “Alternative fueled vehicle” means an alternative fuel vehicle as defined by Executive Order 13514 and an alternative fueled vehicle as defined by 42 U.S.C. 13211(3), including a “new qualified fuel cell motor vehicle” as defined in 26 U.S.C. 30B(b)(3) and a “new qualified hybrid motor vehicle” as defined in 26 U.S.C. 30B(d)(3).
(b) “Agency” means an agency as defined in Executive Order 13514.
(c) “United States” means the fifty States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the United States Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands, and associated territorial waters and airspace.
Sec. 6. General Provisions. (a) This memorandum shall be implemented consistent with applicable law, including international trade obligations, and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(b) Nothing in this memorandum shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(1) authority granted by law to a department, agency, or the head thereof; or
(2) functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(c) This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
BARACK OBAMA
Office of Press Secretary
USPS: Certain Photos Of Obama Or Romney Not Allowed In Workplace
Filed under: politics, postal, postal news, usps, USPS News Link
HATCH ACT PROHIBITION: CERTAIN IMAGES NOT ALLOWED IN WORKPLACE
If you have a photo in your workspace of a candidate for president of the United States, you may be violating federal law.
The Hatch Act prohibits postal employees from engaging in political activity while on duty in any government office, while wearing an official uniform or while using a government vehicle. Among other restrictions, postal employees also may not wear items — such as shirts, hats or buttons — displaying the name or likeness of a candidate or political party while at work, nor may they post pictures of political candidates in their workspace.
On April 4, President Barack Obama announced his candidacy for re-election. As a result, only official photographs of the president can be displayed in USPS workspaces. Official photographs include the traditional portrait photograph of the president displayed in federal buildings, and photographs of the president conducting official business. News clippings and pictures from the Internet are not official photographs.
Employees may display photographs of President Obama or any other political candidate if the picture is of the employee and the political candidate, if it was taken at a non-political event such as a wedding or school reunion, and the photo was on display prior to the candidacy.
Photos of Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, also must be removed from workspaces. Romney announced his candidacy for president April 11.
Violations of the Hatch Act carry serious penalties — including possible termination. For more information about the Hatch Act, contact USPS ethics officials at 202-268-6346 or send an email to ethics.help@usps.gov.
source: USPS News Link
Postmasters League Overview Of President Obama’s budget proposal
February 18, 2011 - Legislative Council Bob Brinkmann’s overview of President Obama’s budget proposal
Obama’s Budget and the Postal Service
Earlier this week, the President released his budget. For the first time, it deals directly with the Postal Service’s financial situation, and specifically with the overpayment situation. It does not, by any means, go far enough but it nevertheless is an important start that will have positive political ramifications in the future.
Understand that the President’s budget does not legally change anything. It only is a statement of the financial state of the government, and what the executive branch sees as next year’s expenses and income, and also how they should be allocated among the various parts of the government and various programs. It does give a general view of the trend in outlays and income, and what the administration would like to do. Specifically, in its 1300 some hundred pages, it includes details about most of the government’s programs, and in this sense, is a statement of policy by the executive branch.
As to the details of the Budget, in terms of the Postal Service, it does favor giving the Postal Service $4 billion of forgiveness towards the retiree health payment in September 2011, and would favor re-amortizing the rest to make the rest of payments payment smaller. It would favor returning some of the FERS $6.9 billion overpayment back to the Postal Service over time, to the tune of $550 million per year. It also would favor eliminating the revenue foregone provision, to the tune of $29 million. That would be $29 million per year that the Postal Service no longer would get. While this is a very positive step, and would help in 2011 were it to be enacted, this relief is not a long term fix.
Moreover, please understand that none of this would go into effect unless the Congress (including the House Republicans) enacted this as their budget, a not-very-likely possibility. However, this move by the White House is significant, for it shows that the White House is paying attention to this issue, and is willing to act in a positive way if Congress presented the President with a reasonable solution. Prior to the release of this budget, the White House had not really weighed in on the Postal Service funding issues so directly.
Postal Organizations and Unions urge President Obama to take action on USPS Pension overfunding. Click to view January 12th letter (pdf)
source: National League of Postmasters
Federal-Postal Coalition Letter Urging President Obama To Reject Deficit Commission Proposals
As Federal News Radio reported today, a coalition of 15 Federal and Postal organizations sent a letter to President Obama calling on the White House to reject proposals by the Deficit Commission that would cut federal civilian retirement and health benefits, freeze federal pay and reduce the federal workforce by 10 percent. National Deficit Commission Proposed Big Hits on Feds and Postal Workers, Retirees
“The letter, which was signed by employee and management groups alike, asks the president to reject these proposals and exclude them from the Fiscal Year 2012 budget proposal. The letter refutes each proposal, explaining why such actions would be harmful to the federal workforce and agencies’ ability to accomplish their missions.”
“For example, proposed changes to the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program would guarantee “additional cost-shifting onto an enrollee population that has suffered major increases in premiums over the past several years,” the letter states.”
“Additionally, “Cutting the federal workforce by 10 percent is more about politics than good human resource management,” particularly when 60 percent of all federal workers will be eligible to retire in the next five years, the letter says.”
Sincerely,
American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
Federal Aviation Administration Managers Association (FAAMA)
Federal Managers Association (FMA)
Federally Employed Women (FEW)
International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF)
Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA)
National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE)
National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC)
National Association of Postal Supervisors (NAPS)
National Association of Postmasters of the United States (NAPUS)
National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association (NRLCA)
National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU)
Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS)
Professional Managers Association (PMA)
Obama and Letter Carriers President Rolando Meet At White House
President Barack Obama, NALC President Fredric V. Rolando meet:
NALC President Fredric V. Rolando, along with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and about a dozen labor leaders in all, met with President Barack Obama Friday in the Roosevelt Room at the White House. They had a productive discussion about jobs and how to address the difficult times facing American workers. President Rolando had the opportunity to raise the issue of U.S. Postal Service finances and how to address the challenges facing the Postal Service and letter carriers.
Obama Proposes 2-Year Pay Freeze For All Civilian Federal Employees
The White House has issued the following “Fact Sheet: Cutting the Deficit by Freezing Federal Employee Pay”
Because of the irresponsibility of the past decade, the President inherited a $1.3 trillion projected deficit upon taking office and an economic crisis that threatened to put the nation into a second Great Depression. He moved quickly to get the economy moving again. Now, the economy is growing, and we have gained private sector jobs for the past 10 months. But families and businesses are still hurting, and our top priority is making sure that we are doing everything we can to help boost economic growth and spur job creation.
Now, we need to turn our attention to addressing the massive deficits we inherited and the unsustainable fiscal course that we are on. Doing so will take some very tough choices. Just as families and businesses around the nation have tightened their belts so must their government. That must be done in a targeted way that focuses our investments in what works and in what will lay the foundation for job creation and economic growth for years to come while cutting back elsewhere in our budget.
That is why the President has decided to propose a freeze in civilian pay for federal employees for two years, 2011 and 2012.
* This two-year pay freeze will save $2 billion for the remainder of FY 2011, $28 billion over the next five years, and more than $60 billion over the next 10 years.
* It will apply to all civilian federal employees, including those in various alternative pay plans and those working at the Department of Defense – but not military personnel.
This was a decision that was not made lightly. From the doctors and nurses who care for our veterans to the scientists searching for better treatments and cures, the men and women who care for our national parks, and the thousands who make sure that the Social Security check is in the mail and that students get their scholarships, federal workers serve their fellow Americans. They do so often with great sacrifice and motivated by a patriotic love for their country. This freeze is not to punish federal workers or to disrespect the work that they do. It is the first of many actions we will take in the upcoming budget to put our nation on sound fiscal footing – which will ask for some sacrifice from us all.
This move also is another step in what the Administration has done as part of its Accountable Government Initiative to cut costs, save taxpayer dollars and do more with less in the federal government:
* Upon taking office, the President froze salaries for all senior White House officials; in last year’s budget, he proposed to extend this freeze to other top political appointees; and he eliminated bonuses for all political appointees.
* The President directed agencies to dispose of excess real estate to save $8 billion over the next two years.
* The President set an aggressive goal of reducing improper payments by $50 billion by the end of 2012.
* In each of his budgets, the President put forward approximately $20 billion in terminations and reductions, encompassing more than 120 programs all of which have strong supporters.
* The President put forward more than $1 trillion in deficit reduction in his 2011 budget, including a three-year freeze in non-security spending – which will bring non-security discretionary spending to its lowest level as a share of the economy in 50 years.
Ultimately, reining in our deficits will take tough decisions and sacrifices made by us all. We look forward to working with both sides on Capitol Hill over the next several months to forge a commonsense deficit reduction strategy that will rein in our deficits, keep our economy growing, and lay the foundation for American competitiveness for years to come.
Letter: USPS And NALC
Confessions of a Former Station Manager: Letter to President Barack Obama, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Elton Gallegly
US Postal Service and The National Assocation of Letter Carriers
1. It has become clear that a wide chasm is being formed between the workers and the rulers in America. This is true, also, in the US Postal Service. We’re told to save as much time as we can each day “Ten Minutes a Route” while upper level executives are getting away with outlandish white collar ethics violations and potential criminal exploits. Our OIG does nothing to collar them. The Inspection Service does nothing to enforce the laws these few executives are breaking. Both agencies report to the executive branch of our agency which shelters those who need to be placed under investigation. The NALC, or National Association of Letter Carriers, is the only group dedicated to policing the activities of those in charge. They are, even now, meeting at a convention in our home state to discuss things such as this. What are you doing about Ethics and possible Criminal Activities by Executives in the US Postal Service?
2. I realize everyone has a motivation for doing what they do. When people want to deny days of service, local post offices, and safe mail delivery to the American Public, I wonder what their motivation is. Are they intent on helping America have affordable mail service 6 days a week? Are they setting themselves up for rewarding jobs in private agencies after they destroy the US Postal Service? Are they sending accurate and correct information to the representatives of the American People? I feel you should do your part to investigate. What have YOU done in this area?