The Buzz

Report On Reports

An independent organization honored the Labor and State departments for strong annual performance reports in April, and noted that, in general, agencies are doing a better job reporting on goals and performance. George Mason University's Mercatus Center, which has issued score cards on the reports for the past five years, presented the awards.

The 1993 Government Performance and Results Act requires agencies to issue these annual reports, and the Mercatus Center rates them on leadership, transparency and documentation of performance. "Without good performance reporting, we're flying blind," says Jerry Ellig, senior research fellow at the center.

Labor, State, Transportation and Veterans Affairs had the highest rated reports, while Defense, Homeland Security and the Office of Personnel Management ranked lowest. Despite overall improvement, Mercatus found that almost 90 percent of federal spending in fiscal 2004 went to agencies rated below satisfactory on performance reporting. Two of the largest, Defense and Social Security, which together accounted for $1.1 trillion in fiscal 2004, were rated in the bottom five of the 24 agencies reviewed.

The State, Commerce and Justice departments were among the top-rated agencies that jumped up the scale, compared with fiscal 2003. State "has done a lot better job of defining outcomes and has shown steady improvement for several years," Ellig says, adding that the agency does an especially good job of clearly explaining its work to outsiders.

It's in the Bag

Never let it be said the Defense Commissary Agency doesn't want to save the planet. Or money. In early April, the agency issued a press release noting that Earth Day on April 22 would be a great opportunity for customers to buy into DeCA's push to reduce double bagging at its 275 commissaries.

Of course, the release acknowledged that "the principal aim is to control rising grocery bag costs by reducing double-

bagging in commissaries worldwide and to encourage a switch from plastic to paper in U.S. commissaries, but the environmental approach is a great side benefit."

DeCA officials say military service members are behind the idea of cutting down on double-bagging, and are enthusiastic about alternatives, such as returning bags for reuse. "We've heard from our customers, and they've been supportive," says Patrick B. Nixon, acting director and CEO of the agency. "Several have suggested we offer a discount for bringing in bags. As providers of a valuable military benefit, we sell groceries at cost, so we can't offer discounts for returned bags. But we certainly do encourage customers to help us control costs-and think about the environment at the same time."

Postal Politics

The U. S. Postal Service will finish the year in the black, but it's prepared to deal with financial pressure by filing for a rate increase that would go into effect in early 2006. "Without action by both the House and Senate and at least a wink from the White House, we will see the Postal Service continue in a 'death spiral,' with raising rates as its only option for fiscal

survival," says a spokesman for House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va.

The rate hike might include a 2-cent increase in the cost of a First Class stamp. That cost has risen 17 times since 1919, most recently to 37 cents in 2002. The agency said in April that the First Class increase would be part of a 5.4 percent across-the-board rate hike needed because of a requirement that it establish a $3.1 billion escrow fund. The Postal Service is pleading with Congress to reject that mandate in a pending postal reform bill.

THE PRICE OF A FIRST CLASS STAMP:

• 1917: 3¢
• 1963: 5¢
• 1981: 18¢
• 2002: 37¢

VOA Moves East

Officials at Voice of America, the international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government, confirmed in April that they plan to shut down the overnight shift of the organization's central news division in Washington and replace it with a new workforce in Hong Kong, made up partly of contractors.

The overnight employees will take new jobs on the daytime and evening rotations, with a considerable decrease in salary, says Ted Iliff, the agency's associate director for central programming. Iliff, who oversees VOA's news operations, says the move was prompted in part by budgetary concerns, and bristles at the notion that the agency is "outsourcing" jobs to China, as the America Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents VOA, has charged.

"Outsourcing means a loss of jobs," Iliff says. "Nobody [on the news staff] is losing a job." He says the agency is planning to hire 10 new reporters in Hong Kong, half of them contractors who would receive no federal benefits. The remaining five would have the status of VOA employees, but would receive fewer benefits than full-time workers.

VOA could save at least $300,000 annually by moving the night shift to Hong Kong, where the agency has a news center.

ON THE RECORD:

In mid-April, just days after his Senate confirmation, new NASA Administrator MICHAEL GRIFFIN met with reporters and discussed his plans for the agency.

On major challenges: We need to speed up development of the crew exploration vehicle and to complete the space station and retire the shuttle in an orderly manner. Those are tall challenges, and I expect it will take the rest of my term to make sure that they are fully implemented. And much will remain for the individual who follows me.

On short-term changes: We're establishing what I've called a program analysis and evaluation shop. That office will be headed by a noncareer SES. . . . NASA has got a great team. I'm not really looking at that right now; I'm looking at how do we get off the ground, moving, [and] hit the ground sprinting rather than running.

On operational decisions: Advisory groups advise. The NASA line managers have the responsibility for executing the program. We need to take our advice very seriously and very carefully and we need never to be defensive about receiving advice from outside. But at the end of the day, the people wearing government and contractor badges charged with launching the vehicle will be the ones who are responsible and accountable for their actions.

On the cost of going to Mars: I'm on record on more than one occasion of saying that I don't think missions to Mars are unaffordable with the budgets that we have if they're utilized appropriately. . . . In present-day dollars you could probably go to Mars for about what we spent on Apollo over the total period of its performance. There is no need to go to Mars in an eight-year period, the way that Apollo was done. It is-as President Bush said-a journey, not a race. So I view that at a few billion dollars a year, spaced out over a number of years, voyages to Mars are eminently doable.

On the effect on NASA's workforce of retiring the shuttle: The people in this country who know how to fly human-rated spacecraft are within NASA and NASA's contractor family. And whether they are flying the shuttle or flying the next vehicle, their skills will be needed. The trick for us here is to effect an orderly transition between what we're doing today on the shuttle and what we will be doing for the next generation of vehicle not even yet designed.

Denny's Grand Slam

What is it with Denny's and federal employees?

First, the restaurant chain had to fight for years back in the 1990s to restore its image after six black Secret Service agents said they were denied service at an Annapolis, Md., restaurant.

Then, in mid-April, The Washington Times reported that Denny's again had been forced to apologize. This time, the cause was an incident involving an employee at an Arizona franchise and a Border Patrol agent who ordered a chicken sandwich to go.

The worker identified the agent as "Border Ass Whole" in putting his order into the restaurant's computer system. The employee has since been fired-presumably for lack of civility and not bad spelling.

Officials at Denny's corporate headquarters in Spartanburg, S.C., insisted that the worker was merely a "rogue" employee, and hastened to say that the nationwide restaurant chain "supports and welcomes all Border Patrol personnel and their families." But Michael Nicely, chief of the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, didn't seem too convinced, telling the paper that the worker's actions showed "unmitigated gall."