Union Prime

Tired of once-a-week communication from the Union? Got a boss that's requiring a lot more of your time than you would like? Want extra time and quicker access to your Union representatives than most employees?

NTEU Chapter 280 announces Union Prime, a special subscription service offering:

• FREE hotline access direct to the Chapter President, 24-hours a day, 7-days a week
• ADVANCE notice of personnel changes before non-Prime union members
• FREE Same-Day release-date delivery on all Union paraphernalia 
• FREE streaming video of your Chapter 280 officials 24 hours a day so you are the first to know of important developments
• GUARANTEED arbitration of stupid cases that we would never arbitrate in a million years for normal members
• FREE once a year dunk-tank benefit where you get to send your manager to the bottom of a tank of ice-cold water
• FREE streaming music of Union-oriented theme music to keep your union spirits up
• 2-Day access to Administrator Pruitt and his top deputies*
• 2 FREE waivers of disciplinary action from management for actions that would normally get you in deep trouble
• Prime Reading: You can borrow Union books, magazines, and more from the Union Prime Reading catalog and read them on your tablet, e-reader, or reading apps for iOS and Android.
• Don't need your discipline waivers and other benefits?  Earn rewards for future purchases.

Union Prime is only $99 per month more than the standard NTEU dues. NTEU Chapter 280 will roll out new benefits for Union Prime members throughout the year.

*not available in some offices like the Office of Research and Development

Employee Computer Surveillance

Many of us know that EPA has a policy allowing limited use of EPA's computers for certain personal activities. As a result, many of you do the occasional personal web surfing, check your personal email, or check Twitter or Facebook. EPA's policy notes that the policy is "to provide you with a professional and supportive work environment while meeting taxpayer expectations that tax dollars will be spent wisely."

The policy allows "limited personal use ... during non-work time:

• if it involves minimal additional expense to the Government;

• if it does not reduce your productivity or interfere with your official duties or the official duties of others;

• if you are already authorized to use the equipment for official Government business; and

• if it is legal and appropriate."

What you may not have considered, however, is that EPA is looking over your shoulder while you're doing that limited personal use. EPA may be viewing the Facebook accounts that you view, the tweets that you view, your emails and photos, and anything else that comes over its network. So if one of your friends thinks it's funny to send you a nude photo to your personal email account, when that photo loads on your government computer, the government can, if it wants to, see that photo even though you did not save a copy. A copy of that photo is automatically saved, whether you want it or not, on your computer's hard drive web "cache" and can be used against you later.

Tools EPA uses or can use to monitor your activities include:

• Keystroke loggers

• Microphone activation

• Remote Camera Activation

• Monitoring Screen up time

• Mouse activity

• Log-ins and smart card insertions

• Website history (pages, clicks, images, and video)--cache

• "man-in-the-middle" tools to monitor encrypted communication

Our advice is that you significantly limit your personal use on your government computer. Use your phone. Use your personal laptop. Use your home computer. But keep your personal browsing and other activities off government computers as much as possible. Put a cover over your laptop camera.  Mute your microphone.  But keep in mind that there are workarounds where the agency can activate the microphone against your wishes and record each keystroke you type.

If you're focusing on your work rather than on personal surfing, you're fine. But it's good to be cautious. Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you!

Next Shutdown Deadline March 23

By now you've heard there was a budget deal signed by the President. The deal re-opened the shuttered federal government, but only through March 23.

It also sets the overall amount of money the federal government has, but not individual agency allocations. As Politico noted, it sets the overall size of the pie, but did not establish the size of the slices that each agency gets.

Between now and March 23, Congress needs to fight about the appropriation that each agency will receive. That exercise needs to be completed by March 23. If they don't succeed by the deadline, the government will either again close its doors, or they will need to pass another continuing resolution.

If you're concerned about EPA's budget or other issues, click here and email your Congressperson.

Budget Deal in the Works, CR Will Be Necessary

I'm sure you've already heard about the budget deal being worked out in the Senate today. We're on Capitol Hill this week at NTEU's legislative conference. What we've learned from our discussions with Senators, Congresspersons, and legislative staff is that it will likely take a couple weeks to work out the budget deal between the house and the Senate. That will require one or two new continuing resolutions (CRs).

Staff we spoke with expect the CR to be voted on today and to pass because neither party has an appetite for another shutdown. That will give both houses of Congress time to work out an "omnibus" budget deal.

Speaker Pelosi seems, however, unhappy that there's no DACA-fix included in the budget deal. Staff nonetheless expect that this objection will not stop a budget deal that's in the works.

The wildcard is, of course, President Trump. It is unknown whether the President will sign the omnibus into law. We'll keep you posted as we learn more.

Shutdown Averted: Congress Passes Spending Bill

The Grinch has been stopped at the border. January 19 is the next showdown.

Thursday night Congress averted a government shutdown, but only temporarily. According to Roll Call, "the Senate voted 66-32 to clear a continuing resolution that would fund the government through Jan. 19, provide funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program and community health centers through March 31, appropriate $2.1 billion for a private care access program for veterans and temporarily extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act until Jan. 19."  

This comes on the heels of the House's vote earlier. The bill now heads to the President's desk. The President is expected to sign the bill.

We'll be back at this brinkmanship come mid-January. Stay tuned.......

Budget CR/Update: December Shutdown Unlikely; Next Showdown in January

From a friend of NTEU Chapter 280.....

“After House Republicans decided late last night against proceeding with their defense-only cromnibus, it looks like NDD and DOD both will be extended at current levels through January 19th. I have been told there are a few goodies for defense in this deal, but it is not a full-year defense appropriation.

It is not yet clear what - if any - deal has been struck to adjust the BCA caps in this CR to avoid a sequester in mid-January. At that time, current level funding will exceed the BCA-specified FY 2018 discretionary caps for both NDD and DOD. It is this BCA mid-January sequester deadline that led Congressional leaders to choose Jan 19th as the expiration date for the pending CR.

This deadline will force Congress to develop and pass some form of an amendment to the BCA. This amendment could adjust discretionary spending caps for all the remaining years of the BCA, not just FY 2018. For this reason, it is urgent that we keep up our demand for NDD parity.

It was concern about disaster aid that brought down the House Republican defense-only cromnibus bill. Some of the key R votes needed to pass the $81 billion aid + cromnibus package balked at adding so much to the deficit. Leaders have since decided to move the disaster aid package separately as stand-alone legislation.

There is language that provides price support for a certain type of cotton in the House disaster bill. Some Senators want price supports for dairy products as well, so the aid package is still being negotiated.

The NSA surveillance reauthorization, or any extension of it, is set to move separately also.

While this last minute defense funding retreat by House Republicans probably avoids a pre-Christmas government shutdown, it sets the stage for another confrontation between defense and NDD in January. Dems may have more leverage at that point because the surveillance and disaster aid elements will have been dealt with. At least that’s the plan. However, those items may be delayed by a month also, in which case the complex mix of issues complicating agency funding will continue.

The major issue remaining in the pending CR is whether the Alexander-Murray (AM) bill can be added successfully to what is now a more routine funding extension House Republican opposition to AM without specific prohibitions on abortion is poised to sink McConnell’s deal with Collins. Even Collins does not want this disagreement to force a shutdown.”