Appeals court strikes down DOMA in federal employee case
A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that a law denying employment benefits to the same-sex spouse of a federal employee is unconstitutional.
Federal Players
Recruiting veterans for government service
(Sam Kittner)
Joseph Kennedy, a principal deputy associate director of the Office of Personnel Management , and his team took the lead in implementing a presidential order to recruit and hire qualified veterans.
Ensuring delivery of sensitive diplomatic materials
Shane Morris played a crucial behind-the-scenes role for the State Department during the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011, ensuring that U.S. embassies were able to dispatch and receive critical classified documents and equipment to fully carry out their diplomatic missions.
Coordinating the U.S. medical response to disasters
As the chief medical officer of the National Disaster Medical System, Dr. H. Allen Dobbs instituted major reforms that have improved care for victims of man-made and natural disasters.
Taking magnetic resonance imaging down to the nano scale
Jacob M. Taylor, a young physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has made pioneering scientific discoveries that in time could lead to significant advances in health care, communications, computing and technology.
Putting the science behind FDA’s tobacco regulation
The law giving the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco products requires that it base decisions on science. Leading this ambitious effort is David Ashley, the science director of the FDA’s Center’s for Tobacco Products.
Saving lives by improving traffic safety
To reduce highway deaths, Jeff Michael works on national strategies to change motorists’ behavior, trying to convince them to buckle up, drive sober and keep their eyes on the road rather reading and sending text messages.
Promoting the recycling of e-waste
Karen Pollard has a laudable goal: to increase the recycling of discarded electronic products in order to limit environmental harm and encourage reuse of valuable metals found in computers, televisions and mobile devices.
Modernizing the Secret Service’s information technology systems
Julia Pierson is making sure that the technology systems used to gather and evaluate critical information, coordinate special agent assignments and prepare for presidential events and travel are modernized so that the agency can do its best work.
Helping low-income Americans find jobs
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) may be best known for its housing programs, but it also is deeply involved in helping low income Americans get opportunities for job training and employment.
Keeping federal agencies on the airwaves
When federal users need additional space on the airwaves, they go to Karl Nebbia of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), whose office assigns and manages agencies’ use of spectrum, so they can perform their vital functions.
Helping the courts find interpreters
William Moran provides assistance to judges and clerks in finding interpreters fluent in some 120 different languages, ranging from Spanish, Mandarin, Russian, Arabic and Vietnamese to Haitian Creole, Nepalese and Portuguese..
Federal workers lead the fight against DOMA
Federal employees are the vanguard in the fight against an unjust federal law that legalizes discrimination against gays and lesbians. Their latest victory against DOMA came Thursday in Boston with a ruling by a First Circuit appeals court.
Resolution praising feds has bleak future
Federal Diary: A House resolution would praise federal employees and oppose several proposals affecting them.
In the Loop
In the Loop: Pot, kettle
In the Loop’s roundup: Jay Carney’s ‘sloth’ accusation comes back to haunt him; the GSA conference planner makes an exit; why Secret Service workers won’t speak up.
Background Check: Richard Cordray
In the Loop’s new feature debuts with a conversation with Richard Cordray, who’s President Obama’s consumer czar (and does not play Kenneth on “30 Rock”).
Chamber of Commerce plans to evade disclosure ruling by tweaking ads
Its political ads will specifically support or oppose candidates as a way to avoid disclosing its donors.
Experts give odds to Edwards on appeal
Legal experts contend that questions about murky campaign finance laws could offer John Edwards a good chance of winning an appeal if he is convicted.
The Influence Industry: Georgian power struggle becomes D.C. lobbying battle
A Georgian billionaire brings his political campaign to Washington, hiring a half-dozen major lobbying firms ahead of parliamentary elections in October.
Congress favors status quo in funding itself
IN SESSION | The Capitol Police and auditors at the GAO would fare well under the House funding bill, while a project to restore the Capitol Dome would take a hit.
No slogan necessary?
The last three minority parties to seize control of the House had platforms to rally around and an opposing-party president in the White House.
Where will Romney find his vice president? Probably on the Hill
Members of Congress have a hard time being elected president, but the No. 2 job tends to come more easily.
Justices pressured to revisit Citizens United
In upholding a 100-year-old state law, the Montana justices seemed to be openly defying Citizens United’s holding that the First Amendment grants corporations, and by extension labor unions, the right to spend unlimited amounts of their treasuries to support or oppose candidates.
Maryland, Virginia and the court that divides them
Maryland’s Democratic attorney general and Virginia’s Republican are at times on opposite sides at the Supreme Court.
Divining Congress’s intent
In its efforts to determine Congress’s intent when it passed a piece of legislation, the Supreme Court may turn to the legislative history of an act, but only with trepidation.
Time for military action in Syria?
Fine Print columnist Walter Pincus takes on those who are calling for more U.S. intervention in Syria.
Treaty on the seas is in rough Senate waters
The Law of the Sea Convention is having difficulty getting ratified.
Nuclear weapons just don’t make sense
Nuclear weapons are terror weapons, and basically unusable.That’s one reason why no rational strategy has ever been developed to justify them. Events in the past 10 days make my case.
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