Federal Eye

Happy Friday and Happy Fourth of July! The Eye lays low over the next three days, spending time with Almost Mrs. Eye and his parents, watching Tiger Woods at his golf tournament and doing one of his absolute favorite things -- watching fireworks! (See above for the conclusion of last year's D.C. show.)

There are however some key federal news must-reads reported today by The Eye's esteemed Post colleagues. Read them from beginning-to-end, then grab a drink, head to the grill or pool and enjoy your holiday weekend. See you on Monday!

• Purity of Federal 'Organic' Label Is Questioned: By Kimberly Kindy and Lyndsey Layton

• DHS Cybersecurity Plan to Involve NSA, Telecoms: By Ellen Nakashima

• McCain, Feingold Team Up Again Over FEC: By Dan Eggen

• Justice Seeks More Time For Report on Interrogations: By Peter Finn

• New White House Office to Redefine What Urban Policy Encompasses: By Robin Shulman

• Slow on the Hiring Front? Not in the Obama Administration: By Al Kamen

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Federal Eye readers and sources have asked to see all of the documents obtained by The Washington Post earlier this week in regards to the dismissal of Corporation for National and Community Service Inspector General Gerald Walpin.

The 33 documents below were provided earlier this week to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. They stretch from April 2008 to June 2009 and demonstrate the difficult working relationship between Walpin, the Corporation's bipartisan board of directors, chief executive officer, general counsel and agency staffers.

For his part, Walpin has said the agency's claims lack merit and do little to build a case for his dismissal.

"That is a job of the IG: to comment on what the IG thinks is the most efficient use of the money," Walpin said recently, acknowledging his frequent disagreements with agency leadership.

The documents are posted below in chronological order. Read them if you want then leave your thoughts in the comments section below:

Actor Karl Malden, pictured here in 2000, was a member of the U.S. Postal Service's stamp selection committee. (Courtesy USPS)

Admittedly random, yes, even for a slower news week, but the U.S. Postal Service has released a statement mourning the death yesterday of Oscar- and Emmy-winning actor Karl Malden at age 97.

It turns out that the star of "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "On the Waterfront" also served on the Postal Service's Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee from 1990 to 2002. He continued with the panel as an emeritus member until his death.

"The Postal Service has had no better friend than Karl," Postmaster General John E. Potter said in a statement. "Whenever we needed him, and whatever the role, Karl always stepped up to the plate for us."

Malden served on the subcommittee responsible for selecting the topics, industries or people worthy of commemoration on a postage stamp. So everything from Bob Hope to The Simpsons to the Purple Heart would have earned his approval.

The current board includes Harvard professor and TheRoot.com editor Henry Louis Gates Jr., Olympic swimming champion Donna De Varona and Joan Mondale, wife of former vice president Walter F. Mondale.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has canceled a scheduled appearance today at the Aspen Ideas Festival due to a cracked tooth, according to Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller. The attorney general was scheduled to appear at the forum today for an interview with CBS newsman Bob Schieffer.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. (Photo by Getty)

An oral surgeon will remove the cracked tooth today, according to Miller. Holder cracked it last night and went to see his dentist this morning, who ordered the tooth's removal. Miller did not know which tooth was impacted or how the incident occurred, but did say Holder was in Washington last night when it happened.

For those of you keeping score, Holder is the third major Obama administration official, or nominee, to suffer personal injury in recent weeks. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor slipped and broke her right ankle in early June at New York's LaGuardia Airport. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has canceled a trip to Russia next week with President Obama after falling and breaking her right elbow on June 18 while leaving the State Department.

Holder, for his part, could be a victim of bruxism, or teeth grinding, "an affliction common among Type A people who move to Washington for stressful jobs," according to a Post article from last year.

The annual Aspen pow-wow attracts academic, artistic, business and political leaders. In Holder's absence, guests can instead enjoy discussions today about "The Science of Being Human," "Innovations in Education," "Living Digitally" and "The Middle East."

Happy Thursday! (Even better: Happy Getaway Day!) At some point last month, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said she would refuse to fill out anything more than the number of people in her household on her Census questionnaire. She argued that questions other than how many people live in her home are unconstitutional and feared that political groups, including ACORN, might try to sway final Census numbers.

Republican colleagues have now called her boycott illogical and illegal.

“Every elected representative in this country should feel a responsibility to encourage full participation in the census. To do otherwise is to advocate for a smaller share of federal funding for our constituents," Reps. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) and John Mica (R-Fla.) said in a statement. The trio is members the House Census Oversight Subcommittee.

They argue that her boycott only increases the likelihood of political interference, because Census staffers and volunteers would have to visit her home to do a followup interview.

"Anyone who completes and returns their census form will remove any need for a census taker to visit their residence," the group said.

Census officials stress that the agency's community partners (including ACORN) might go door-to-door, but only to promote participation and not to collect personal information. Bachmann's statements also seemed to confuse the 2010 Decennial Census questionnaire with the American Community Survey, a longer questionnaire that gets randomly sent to households every year to ask a series of Census and economic questions.

Observers have called Bachmann's Census statements "wildly wrong" and her statements on various issues have raised Eyebrows before (there's even a blog that chronicles her activities). Still, her concerns about Census questionnaires are nothing new: several prominent Republican leaders have raised concerns in the past.

Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

• Cabinet and Staff News: The magic number at the White House appears to be 172,000. Dollars, that is. Per year. Obama slammed for skipping the Cabinet's rural tour. Earl Devaney says he won't impede IG investigations into economic stimulus funding. Hillary Rodham Clinton cancels plans to travel with Obama to Russia; still plans to visit India in mid-July.

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Washington Post Digital Vice President and General Counsel Sherrese Smith will join the FCC as legal adviser to chairman Julius Genachowski. Smith's last day with The Washington Post Company is tomorrow. The company announced her departure in an e-mail sent to staffers today. Genachowski named Smith and several other staffers on Monday, his first day on the job.

Washington Post Digital General Counsel Sherrese Smith (Courtesy of Washington Post Digital)

In her role with the parent company of washingtonpost.com, Smith also handled legal matters for The Slate Group, which includes Slate.com, TheRoot.com, TheBigMoney.com and ForeignPolicy.com. Prior to joining WPD, Smith worked on intellectual property issues for the Arnold and Porter law firm.

Smith serves on the board of the American Bar Association's Forum on Communications Law and is a frequent lecturer on media, publishing, Internet and intellectual property issues.

Two other former Washington Post employees have joined the Obama administration: Former Sunday Outlook deputy editor Warren Bass now serves as a senior adviser and speechwriter for U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice and former Post science reporter Rick Weiss left for the Center for American Progress before serving as communications director and senior policy strategist for the White House Office of Science and Technology.

Genachowski was confirmed by the Senate last Thursday. A close friend of President Obama, he also worked on his presidential campaign and helped raise money from the telecommunications sector.

UPDATE: 2:14 p.m. ET:

Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry has replied to an e-mail requesting comment on Brown's death. Berry wrote that, "Rick was a 'Salt of the earth' guy and a giant who always defended the best interests of our federal employees. His passion and persistence were perfectly tempered with great good humor, which made him beloved by all. I am heartsick over this terrible loss and send my deepest and sincerest condolences to all of our brother and sisters at NFFE."

ORIGINAL POST:
Richard N. Brown, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees and a leading spokesperson for federal employee issues, died unexpectedly yesterday at his Arlington apartment, according to a statement released today by the union.

NFFE President Richard Brown appeared last week at a meeting about the future of NSPS.

An NFFE staffer went to Brown's apartment midday yesterday when he failed to show up for work, according to a union spokesman. Police officers were called to the scene, entered Brown's apartment and found him unresponsive. A cause of death is still unknown.

"We’re just torn up about this, it was very unexpected," said NFFE Legislative Director Randy Erwin. Brown was 47.

“Federal employees have lost a great spokesman who’s going to be difficult, if not impossible to replace," said Ron Ault, a veteran union leader and head of the AFL-CIO's Metal Trades Department. Ault called Brown his "little brother," saying they became fast friends after meeting in 2001.

"He was one of the guys who just didn’t bite his tongue. If he had something to say to you, you didn’t have to wait long for him to say it," Ault said.

Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry also weighed in, saying Brown “lived a life of service and leadership, and this is a tragic loss. I only knew Rick for a short time, but his dedication shone through in our work together on issues that matter deeply to federal employees and working people everywhere."

In recent days, Ault said Brown had expressed strong concerns that the Obama administration had yet to end the controversial National Security Personnel System. The two planned to meet next week with other federal union leaders to update their strategy to lobby against the program.

Brown appeared last week at a Defense Business Board meeting on NSPS. The pay-for-performance operation used to measure the work of approximately 211,000 Defense Department civilians has vocal critics and few defenders.

"Defense workers have already made up their minds on NSPS. They want it gone once and for all," Brown told the board. "I agree with this assessment. I believe that NSPS is unsalvageable and the best possible course of action is full repeal."

In addition to his vocal opposition to NSPS, Brown is credited with expanding NFFE's membership and increasing its presence on Capitol Hill. He became union president in 1998, having previously served as a national vice president and president of NFFE Local 2109 in Watervliet, N.Y.

Brown also served on several boards and working groups, including the Federal Salary Council, Employee Thrift Advisory Council, Federal Advisory Council on Occupational Safety and Health and the National Partnership Council.

Brown was born October 22, 1961 in Schenectady, N.Y. He was engaged to Cate McGregor of Albany, N.Y. He is also survived by his father, two siblings and their families.

Secretaries Tom Vilsack, Arne Duncan, Hilda Solis and Ken Salazar are some of several Cabinet secretaries making roadtrips this summer. (Photos by AP and Getty)

Cabinet secretaries were first dispatched earlier this year to take the temperature of middle class Americans. Then they celebrated Earth Day and hit the road to mark the first 100 days of the economic stimulus. More recently, they've put in time at community service projects across the country.

Now some of the executive branch's managers will visit rural communities over the summer to tout the administration's plans for those areas of the country.

But don't be fooled: These visits are all happening in presidential swing states and other corners of the country where their mere presence might sway some skeptical minds. Cabinet secretaries will visit Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina and New Mexico -- all states frequently visited last year by Barack Obama and John McCain. They will also visit three traditional red states: Louisiana, Alaska and Nebraska.

With these newly announced trips added to the mix, it appears Ohio has received the most White House-sponsored Cabinet visits. Frequent trips to the Buckeye State should come as no surprise, considering its bellwether status. The New Orleans region also has received at least three trips, mostly for hurricane relief-themed events. Virginia, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania have had at least two visits each from two or more secretaries. Cabinet secretaries have made several solo appearances in these and several other Midwestern and Southwestern states, as well.

The full White House rural tour schedule appears below:

President Obama steers a golf cart with his golfing partner, Vice President Joe Biden, left, as they finish 18 holes at the Fort Belvoir Golf Club together on Father's Day, June 21. (AP)

Happy Wednesday! As Americans prepare to break away for the holiday weekend, The Eye has golf on his mind. (He's taking his parents and Almost Mrs. Eye to see Tiger Woods at the AT&T National in Bethesda this weekend.)

We also noticed from this past weekend's White House pool reports that Commerce Secretary Gary Locke has spent a significant amount of time with President Obama on the golf course. The president has managed to get in eight visits to the links since his Inauguration and the commerce secretary has joined him twice, making him the only Cabinet secretary we know of to earn the honor. (The White House isn't entirely forthcoming on the details of golf outings and who plays, but Locke's been mentioned twice.)

So is Locke good?

We're told he's played for at least the last 10 years and even started a golf tournament back in Washington State to benefit foster children. Last September's tournament attracted a few of the state's former governors to help raise $530,000 for a foster child college scholarship program.

No word on Locke's swing or handicap, thanks to tight-lipped aides (perhaps unwilling to upstage Obama's golfing skills?) but we know he's joined foursomes stacked with talented White House staffers and Obama friends Eugene Kang and Marvin Nicholson.

Documents delivered to lawmakers this week expose a frequently confrontational and petty relationship over the past several years between officials at the Corporation for National and Community Service and the group's inspector general, Gerald Walpin. President Obama fired the Bush appointee last month, citing a lack of confidence.

Former Corporation for National and Community Service Inspector General Gerald Walpin. (AP)

Lawmakers almost immediately raised concerns with the dismissal, suggesting the White House failed to follow proper procedure in removing the Bush appointee and did not provide adequate reasons for the dismissal. The White House outlined its concerns in a letter to lawmakers, suggesting Walpin appeared confused, disoriented and unable to answer questions at a late May Corporation board meeting.

This week Corporation staffers delivered even more evidence suggesting a difficult working relationship with Walpin, sending the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee several e-mails, memos and even a mock newsletter for their review.

In an interview yesterday, Walpin once again suggested the agency’s claims lack merit and do little to build a case for his dismissal. He is scheduled to be interviewed today by Senate committee staffers, according to the panel’s spokeswoman.