President Obama created the Veterans Employment Initiative to spur hiring veterans by helping federal agencies identify qualified veterans, clarify the hiring process for veterans seeking employment with the federal government, and help them adjust to the civilian work environment once they are hired.

“It’s working,” said OPM Director John Berry. “The President’s Council on Veterans Employment established and pursued aggressive goals, and for our veterans, meeting those goals means jobs that serve the American people and help sustain the growth that supports the propriety and leadership in the world. I’m proud of the Council’s success in keeping these highly trained and experienced individuals working for our nation, particularly the over one million who served in Iraq.”

According to OPM data, veteran new hires were 28.5% of total hires in FY 2011. That represents an approximately 4.5% increase over the FY 2009 total of 24% and an approximately 2.9% increase over the FY 2010 total of 25.6%.

If you or someone you love is a federal employee who needs legal representation, please contact the federal employment lawyers of the Vaughn Law Firm at 877-615-9495.

*** Source Article: http://www.fedsmith.com/article/3218/veteran-hires-highest-20-years.html ***

The financially troubled agency officially proposed the change to its regulator, changing its national standard for regular first-class mail — mail that requires a 44-cent stamp for the first ounce — to two to five days from the current one to three.

The measure is tied to a plan to slash hundreds of mail processing facilities, which would mean that 28,000 postal workers could be out of a job by the end of next year.

Officials say the move is necessary to preserve the future of the U.S. Postal Service, which is on the brink of insolvency. The changes are being proposed to address an estimated 47% drop in regular mail expected over the next 10 years.

Regular first-class mail tends to pay most of the U.S. Postal Service’s bills, according to Postal Service Network Operations Vice President David Williams.

“We can’t sit back and wait for another 6 to 10 years to make these changes,” Postmaster Patrick Donahoe said.

If the Postal Service gets its way, regular mail would no longer be delivered the next day as early as April. And most of the 250 mail processing facilities on the list would be closed next year.

Why Congress can’t save the Postal Service
Right now, consumers on average receive regular first-class mail the day after it was mailed, according to the Postal Service. After the changes, first-class letters that used to arrive the next day, would now take about two days. And letters that used to arrive within two days would take three days or more, Williams said.

“We have to make this change for the postal service to become financially viable,” Williams said.

The proposed rules are not a big surprise. The postal service asked for public comment in September on “eliminating the expectation of overnight service” for regular mail.

But the moves could have a major impact on consumers, especially those who still use the mail to pay their bills.

The Postal Service has racked up $5.1 billion in debt this year and faces a deadline to make another $5.5 billion payment to its health care retirement fund on Dec. 18.

Lawmakers in the House and Senate are working on different bills to save the postal service.

The talk of the impending cuts to service and jobs hasn’t gone over well in Congress so far.

UPS ups rates
Rep. Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat, was so angry about the news of cuts he suggested in a House floor speech on Monday that “this so-called postmaster general should be fired because of a lack of any imagination or initiative,” especially when it comes to laying off postal workers.

“One hundred thousand people laid off! Oh, that’s just what we need in America today — let’s lay off 100,000 people. Great idea!” DeFazio said on the House floor, referencing a related plan by the Postal Service to shrink its work force by 120,000 jobs by 2015.

The Postal Service can’t cut jobs in those numbers unless Congress gives it the power to break union contracts.

Sen. Tom Carper called the proposed cuts to mail plants and the slowdown of regular mail “less than ideal.” But without congressional help, the Postal Service has been forced to “take matters into their own hands,” said Carper, a Delaware Democrat who runs the Senate panel that oversees the service.

House Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican, said the postal service has known they’ve needed to reduce mail processing operations since 1964.

“Had USPS acted earlier, savings could have almost certainly been achieved without any impact on service,” Issa said. “USPS needs to embrace comprehensive reform legislation to return to solvency.”

Cutting back on next-day delivery of regular first-class mail would help make the mail processing system more efficient, postal officials said.

Right now, the Postal Service runs mail processing equipment about six hours to six and a-half hours a day, on average, Williams said. The goal is to run the equipment 16 to 20 hours a day, Williams said.

But, the cuts are quite controversial.

As a part of the cost-savings plan, Postal Service proposed in September to cut 252 mail processing plants. Generally, they’d like to bring the number of mail processing facilities down to under 200 from the 463 that exist today.

Since that September announcement of possible closures of mailing facilities, the agency has already closed 26 that were not on the list of possible closures.

Unions have opposed any moves that degrade the quality of mail service and, as a result, lose customers. They’d like Congress to solve the agency’s cash crunch by relieving it from the burden of having to make multi-billion dollar payments to a fund for future health care retiree benefits.

The postal service and the unions are deep into negations on union contracts, which are scheduled to expire on Dec. 7. Both postal officials and unions say those contracts may include some cost-cutting measures.

***Source Article: http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/05/news/economy/postal_service/index.htm***

Providing his first public commentary on postal reform packages, Donahoe argued for providing the Postal Service with a more flexible business model that would enable the Postal Service to quickly implement cost cutting measures. “Unfortunately, both bills have elements that delay tough decisions and impose greater constraints on our business model. Taken as they are, they do not come close to enabling cost reductions of $20 billion by 2015 – which they must do for the Postal Service to return to profitability.”

“If passed today, either bill would provide at best one year of profitability, and at least a decade of steep losses,” said Donahoe. “However, by taking the best of both the House and Senate approaches, Congress can provide the Postal Service with the legal framework and the business model it needs.”

The Postmaster General expressed his gratitude for the strong leadership and engagement of the Congress and the Administration in advancing reform legislation, and expressed confidence that an effective solution would be enacted. Both HR 2309 and S 1789 were introduced earlier this year to respond to an urgent liquidity crisis and to address long-term structural constraints in the Postal Service business model.

Throughout its recent fiscal crisis the Postal Service has advanced proposals that would allow it to operate more as a business would, with greater flexibility to quickly reduce costs and respond to a dynamic marketplace for mailing and shipping services.

The Postal Service is seeking changes in the law that would provide it with the authority to: determine delivery frequency; develop and price products quickly; control healthcare and retirement costs; rapidly realign mail processing, delivery and retail networks; operate under a streamlined governance model; and leverage its workforce with greater flexibility.

Within the constraints of its current business model, the Postal Service has aggressively cut costs, reducing the size of its workforce by 128,000 career employees and annual operating expenses by $12.5 billion over the past four years.

“America needs a Postal Service that can operate more like a business,” said Donahoe. “I have no doubt the Postal Service will endure as a great American institution. But to do so, we need to operate with a great business model.”

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

If you or someone you love is a federal employee who needs legal representation, please contact the federal employment lawyers of the Vaughn Law Firm at 877-615-9495.

***Source Article: http://www.fedsmith.com/article/3198/postmaster-general-predicts-decade-losses-from.html***

Internet use, combined with an ongoing recession, has resulted in an unprecedented impact on our country’s mail volume and put the Postal Service on a track to insolvency. “The options under our control we have pursued aggressively by slashing our annual operating expenses by more than $12 billion and reducing our size by 110,000 career positions over the past four years,” said USPS Capital District Manager Kelvin Williams.

USPS continues to consolidate mail processing facilities to reduce personnel, energy and transportation costs, and is studying approximately 3,700 retail offices for possible closure. A new strategy, the Village Post Office, provides expanded access.

Despite the aggressive efforts to control costs, more is needed to close the projected budget deficits.

“For us to remain viable, we need Congress to act on legislation before the end of September that would eliminate the current mandate requiring retiree health benefit pre-payments, which costs the Postal Service $5.5 billion annually. Legislation also is needed to return a $6.9 billion overpayment into the Federal Employees Retirement System to the Postal Service. If not for the unique health benefit pre-funding requirement, the Postal Service would have recorded a cumulative profit of $1 billion from 2007 to 2010,” said Williams.

USPS is exploring legislative proposals to establish its own health benefits program, administer its own retirement system, and adjust the size of the workforce to match operational needs of the changing marketplace.

It also is seeking legislation that will give authority to determine the frequency of mail delivery, which can save the Postal Service roughly $3 billion each year.

The Postal Service is not seeking tax subsidies or additional borrowing authority. It receives no tax dollars for operating expenses. Operations are funded through the sale of postage, products and services to fund operations. It is not seeking additional borrowing authority, but does want the ability to access monies previously over-paid into the retirement fund.

“The Postal Service delivers 167 billion pieces of mail annually to more than 150 million addresses, or more than 40 percent of the world’s mail. The Postal Service remains critical to the economy. We anchor a mailing industry that represents more than 8 million jobs and more than $1 trillion in commercial activity annually,” said Williams.

“The core function of the Postal Service and core need of our customers will always exist. In order for the Postal Service to be put on the road to solvency, Congress must take action to give us the flexibility to operate as a business. We have done our part to control escalating costs. Now it is time for Congress to do its part. We need substantive legislation to transform the Postal Service business model, and we need it now.”

If you or someone you love is a federal employee who needs legal representation, please contact the federal employment lawyers of the Vaughn Law Firm at 877-615-9495.

**Source Article: http://www.fedsmith.com/article/3097/us-postal-service-urges-congress-act.html ***

Per Perry’s plan, “”The federal workforce has ballooned under the current administration, with 175,000 new positions being created since 2009. Americans deserve a leaner, more efficient federal workforce, not one that pays its employees far more than what comparable private employees receive, or one that hands out bonuses and promotions regardless of performance. Federal bureaucrats should not receive real increases in pay while taxpayers are losing their jobs and struggling to pay their bills.”

The bright spot for federal employees is that Perry is recommending a plan to automatically prevent the shutdown of the government. Per http://www.fedsmith.com. “the plan also recommends instituting automatic government shutdown prevention. This would fund discretionary federal spending at the previous year’s level of spending if no budget or specific spending bills were signed into law before the end of a fiscal year”.

If you or someone you love is a federal employee who needs legal representation, please contact the federal employment lawyers of the Vaughn Law Firm at 877-615-9495.

**Source Article: http://www.fedsmith.com/article/3160/perry-freeze-federal-civilian-hiring-salaries.html”

This past August, a Chinook helicopter was struck by an enemy rocket-propelled grenade in Afghanistan which killed 30 American servicemen. On board were 22 Navy SEALS responding to a distress call from Army Rangers. The investigation, conducted by Command Central, says the grenade hit a rotor blade which resulted in an explosion.

This incident is the single most deadliest incident in the war. According to the military and Department of Defense, military forces have become interchangeable and it is not uncommon for the Navy to assist the Rangers and vice versa.

If you are facing possibly disciplinary action, contact the federal disciplinary action lawyers of the Vaughn Law Firm by calling 877-615-9495.

The lawsuit claims that the banks went around the Federal Claims Act, which says banks cannot charge attorneys’ fees and settlement closing fees, by charging veterans for “title search ” and “title examination” fees instead. The whistleblowers’ attorney says that of the 1.2 million refinance loans made to veterans in the past 10 years, nearly 90% were charged unlawful fees.

If you or someone you love has been the victim of unlawful retaliatory action following a whistleblowing action, contact the federal whistleblower defense lawyers of the Vaughn Law Firm at 877-615-9495 today.

According to the school’s retirement plan, teachers who retire at a younger age receive greater economic benefits compared to those who retire at an older age. The commission states that this violates the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. The school district argues that the policy is there to help protect the retirement program.

The EEOC hopes that the lawsuit will prohibit further discrimination and reinstate the compensation retirees should have received had the discrimination not been in place.

If you or someone you love has been the victim of discrimination in the field of federal employment, contact the federal anti-discrimination lawyers of the Vaughn Law Firm at 877-615-9495.

She claims that the managers did nothing to stop the inappropriate conduct. Other employees have come forward and claimed they, too, had been subjected to unwelcome contact by workers but were told by the owners that they would fire them if they complained to the corporation.

The woman is suing for pre and post-judgement interest as well as compensatory and punitive damages.

If you have been fired and you believe that the reasons seem unjustifiable, contact the federal unlawful termination lawyers of the Vaughn Law Firm today at 877-615-9495.

As quoted from www.whitehouse.gov, “The President’s plan calls for legislation that would make it unlawful to refuse to hire applicants solely because they are unemployed or to include in a job posting a provision that unemployed persons will not be considered.” However, it will be difficult for individuals to prove they were discriminated against due to their current unemployment status since employers can still consider someone’s employment history into their decision.

If you or someone you love has been unjustly refused employment by the federal government, contact the federal refusal to hire attorneys of  the Vaughn Law Firm today at 877-615-9495.