United States Government Agencies

Facing a sharp rise in serious Internet hacking episodes, the federal government two years ago launched its biggest counterattack on cyber-criminals, creating the National Infrastructure Protection Center to protect the nation's multibillion-dollar investment in computer networks. But with funding this year of just $18.

After the recent Alaska Airlines crash, airlines quickly embraced a federal order to inspect a suspect part on hundreds of jetliners, saying that the reviews should ease any concern among the flying public. But nine months earlier, when the Federal Aviation Administration ordered airlines to inspect another part of the same stabilizer mechanism on MD-80s, the response was much less enthusiastic.

Federal agencies are falling short on the government's 23% procurement goal for small businesses--an issue that could spark debate on whether it should be lowered when the Small Business Administration comes up for reauthorization next month. Anticipating that brawl, Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.), chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee, has thrown a preemptive punch.

President Clinton plans to sign an executive order barring federal agencies from discriminating against workers on the basis of genetic tests, a step prompted by fears about rapid advances in scientific research. The order echoes a bill sponsored by Sens. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) barring employers from refusing to hire people at risk for health problems and insurers from refusing to sell them coverage.

The Clinton administration came under fire Thursday for wide disparities in the way it has prosecuted separate cases of mishandling classified information by former CIA Director John M. Deutch and nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee, but it denied using a double standard. Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.

Several key federal law-enforcement agencies should essentially be scrapped as part of a wholesale restructuring aimed at better coordinating the nation's fight against terrorism, drug-trafficking and other growing threats, a blue-ribbon commission concluded Tuesday. The commission, headed by former FBI Director and CIA Chief William H. Webster, recommended the virtual abolishment of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Drug Enforcement Administration as they now exist.

Arguing that there is "no perfect system of sanctions," a top Treasury official told Congress Thursday that completely overhauling the Internal Revenue Service's system of penalties and interest would confuse the public. Joseph Mikrut, tax legislative counsel for the Treasury Department, told the House Ways and Means subcommittee on oversight that while some changes may be needed, they should not be drastic.

Warren Weideman was having a hard time delivering, so to speak, for the U.S. Postal Service. All it wanted was a few "positive portrayals" on TV and in the movies. But try as he might to get Hollywood to show postal workers as nice guys, all the entertainment marketing specialist saw were postmen who were mean to kids or kicked dogs or shot people--going "postal," as they say.

After holding off for nearly two months, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson has sent Congress his plan for a new, semiautonomous agency to run his department's nuclear weapons programs. The plan sent Friday calls for the director of the new National Nuclear Security Administration, who will also serve as an undersecretary of Energy, to be appointed and confirmed by March 1.

As the midnight hour moved westward across the globe, the monitors at the government's $50-million nerve center for the Y2K rollover glowed green: all systems normal. After all the months of warning about power outages and system failures, and to the surprise of officials monitoring the worldwide scene, no nation--not China, not Indonesia, not India--drew a cautionary yellow or red alert. It's "just a sea of green," the official said.