Emergency Preparedness – Are You Planning Ahead?

Preparing for an emergency now provides you your best chance of survival in the event of an actual attack.  Emergency preparedness should always be considered in the home and workplace for any unexpected event.  DOC has held several shelter-in-place exercises to help prepare their employees should a real disaster occur.  Having predetermined meeting places away from home will save time and minimize confusion should your home be affected or the area evacuated.  Everyone should consider the following:

1)  Choose an out-of-town contact your family or household will call or email; 

2)  Select a contact that lives far enough away that they would unlikely be affected by the same event;

3) Ensure the contact is informed in advance that they are chosen as the contact for emergencies;

4)  Prepare an emergency preparedness kit in an easy-to-carry container such as a duffel bag or small plastic trash can;

5) Include “special needs” items for any member of your household; and  

6)  Include some cash and copies of important family documents. 

For additional information on emergency preparedness, you can visit the Homeland Security website at www.nationalterroralert.com  or contact Rita Steele at (202) 482-0397.

Metrochek Distribution

The Department of Transportation (DOT) will distribute Metrochecks to participating employees in Room B841B of the Herbert C. Hoover Building (HCHB) March 18-20, 2008 from 8:30 am until 3:30 pm.  Please note that on March 20, 2008, DOT will be at HCHB from 8:30 am to 11:00 am only. Participating employees who miss the quarterly distribution may pick up their Metrochecks at DOT after March 20, 2008.  DOT is located at 1200 New Jersey Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C.   To get to DOT, go to Federal Triangle Metro Station; take the orange or blue line to L’Enfant Plaza Metro Station; take the green line to the Navy Yard and exit toward New Jersey Avenue. If you have questions, please call Sharon Russell, ITA Transit Benefit Coordinator, at (202) 482-3267.

ITA Alumni Reunion

ITA is planning to invite our alumni to a reunion, tentatively planned for World Trade Week, the third week in May.  We hope to provide the opportunity for ITA staff to meet and greet former employees, discuss topics of interest to ITA and assess alumni interest in working on selected projects in ITA.

We are presently compiling contact information so that we can invite alumni to join us.  If you have former coworkers that you think would appreciate the opportunity to attend the reunion, please provide their names and contact information to your office director.  Deputy Under Secretary Michelle O’Neill has asked the head of each office at the Assistant Secretary, Deputy Assistant Secretary and Office Director levels to compile contact information and provide it to Mary Ann McFate by March 21.  If you have questions about the planned reunion or about the request for contact information, please contact Mary Ann by e-mail or at (202) 482-6282.

FY 2009 Budget

On March 6th, Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez testified before the Commerce, Justice and Science subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The Secretary testifies before this subcommittee every year to present the budget request for the Department of Commerce, including ITA. This is one of the early steps in the budget process that will eventually lead to an appropriation for ITA in FY 2009. The Secretary also testified before the House of Representative's Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science on March 11th. The Undersecretary of ITA, Chris Padilla, will testify before the same House Subcommittee on April 9, 2008.  If you have any questions please contact Doug Allis at (202) 482-9151.

Operating Status of the Federal Government

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) provides information on the current operating status of the Federal government on its website at www.opm.gov.  When you click on the Operating Status block in the upper right-hand corner, which will take you to a page where employees can get information on the operating status in Washington, DC as well as the status in other geographic areas.   Employees can also sign up to receive email notices on the operating status of the government at work or home or both.  To sign up for these email alerts, click on the Operating Status box in the upper right hand corner of the OPM website.  In the lower left-hand corner of the next page, click on Select this link to get email updates.  That will take you to the site where you can subscribe to the OPERATINGSTATUS List.  If you have any questions about the Federal government’s operating status, please call Marcia Tyler at (202) 482-2850 or via email at Marcia.Tyler@mail.doc.gov.

Proposed Changes Affecting Employee Benefits

TSP Interfund Transfers

The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board has issued a proposed regulation that would limit the number of interfund transfer requests to two per month.  Under the proposed regulation, after a participant has made two interfund transfers in a calendar month, the participant may make additional interfund transfers only into the G Fund until the first day of the next calendar month.   

Sick Leave

Representative James Moran, D-Va., has introduced a bill (H.R. 5573) that would provide employees under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) with a one-time payment of up to $10,000 for any remaining sick leave at retirement. FERS retirees would receive 15 percent of the hourly rate of their final salary for any sick leave balance of more than 500 hours. All Federal employees earn 13 days of sick leave annually and can carry over unlimited amounts of sick leave from year to year. But unlike employees under the previous Civil Service Retirement System, FERS employees are not able to convert unused sick leave at retirement to increase their yearly annuity.  If you have any questions about either of this proposed benefit changes, please contact Karen Brown at (202) 482-8065 or via email at Karen.Brown@mail.doc.gov.