BOSTON — Gov. Deval Patrick said Wednesday that the federal stimulus program has created or saved more than 23,000 jobs in Massachusetts since February. State agencies have received $4 billion from the national $787 billion package, and have spent $1.9 billion. The expenses include $1.3 billion for such benefits as unemployment insurance and $500 million on programs and infrastructure. The 23,533 ...

Top Homeland Security officials on Thursday announced that by 2013 all law enforcement agencies across the country will be able to use a technology program aimed at identifying illegal immigrants held in jails and prisons -- assuming Congress provides the necessary funding. Under the Secure Communities program, which is run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, state and local law enforcement ...

President Obama recently noted that, by itself, government cannot replace the 8.2 million jobs lost over the past two years. What government can do, he said, is “help to create the conditions” for renewed hiring. We couldn’t agree more. The question is whether Congress will do what is needed. The job situation is dire. But Republicans have apparently decided that grandstanding ...

A second class of student ambassadors have completed their internships with the federal government, and six of them will return to their college campuses talking about the Energy Department. Of the 30 participants in the 2009-2010 Federal Service Ambassador Program sponsored by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, six college students were enrolled in a new Energy Department-specific internship. Energy's program ...

Nearly two months after they were furloughed because of a temporary expiration of the Highway Trust Fund, 2,000 Transportation Department workers will receive back pay for the two days of missed. "I have seen nothing but dedicated, hardworking folks doing the work of the American people," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wrote on his blog. "It was unfortunate that they had to ...

CHICAGO, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With national unemployment topping 9 percent and many Americans seeking online information and new technology skills that can help keep them and their families afloat in hard times, U.S. public libraries are first responders in a time of economic uncertainty. "Libraries Connect Communities 3: Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study 2008-2009," a new report released ...

WASHINGTON — A provision to build an additional 300 miles of pedestrian fence along the U.S.-Mexico border has been stripped out of a $42.8 billion spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security. The provision by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., was removed at the behest of House members from Texas, Arizona and California who called the fencing a waste of taxpayer ...

Layoff notices were set to go out Friday to nearly 3,000 city workers, including hundreds of police officers and firefighters, as the cash-strapped city struggles to close a massive budget gap. Mayor Michael Nutter said the layoffs, which are effective Oct. 2, would mark the largest ever reduction in the city's work force. The cuts would include 739 police officers and ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Accusations of sexual abuse at the hands of federal prison workers doubled in the past eight years, according to a new government report released Thursday. Justice Department inspector general Glenn Fine found that claims made against Bureau of Prisons staff members increased dramatically from 2001 to 2008. Claims of sexual misconduct more than doubled, rising 130 percent in ...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell has appointed lieutenant governor Bill Bolling his administration's new jobs czar and made it a position in his cabinet. McDonnell also appointed retired Fortune 500 CEO Bob Sledd to be his commerce secretary and named longtime aide and adviser Janet Polarek Secretary of the Commonwealth. Bolling's new title won't mean a raise in his ...

Delivering on President Obama's promise to boost the labor movement, the administration has announced a $35 million federal construction project in New Hampshire that requires union representation for the workers and forces nonunion employees to pay dues and contribute to a union pension fund. Mr. Obama issued an executive order in the first weeks of his presidency that would make the ...

The Senate is on track to achieve one of President Obama's top priorities this year, a major overhaul of the country's healthcare system. The Senate is expected to hold a series of votes this week on the legislation, with final passage set for Christmas Eve unless Republicans relent and allow an early vote. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., admitted Sunday on Fox ...

More than five months after she was confirmed by the Senate as deputy director of the Office of Personnel Management, Christine Griffin this week begins her new post overseeing federal personnel issues. "I am very pleased to be able to work with Christine on important issues that directly affect the federal government and its workforce," OPM Director John Berry said in ...

"When the Senior Executive Service began 30 years ago, all the assistant secretaries for administration in the government," said Carol Bonosaro, "were career executives. Over time, you will now find only two who are career executives and that's because of statute." Which is a real shame, according to the president of the Senior Executives Association. Bonosaro told the Federal Drive that ...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill Tuesday designed to prevent more than 600,000 children from losing health insurance provided through the state's Healthy Families program. "I'm proud to say that amidst the toughest of times and the most difficult choices we have found an innovative way to protect the health of our most precious resource, our children," Schwarzenegger said at ...

WASHINGTON — California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger praised President Barack Obama's drive to overhaul the nation's health care system on Tuesday and urged fellow Republicans to join in efforts to finish the job this year. Although Schwarzenegger stopped short of embracing a Democratic bill, his words of encouragement came on the heels of similar statements from other Republicans outside Congress, including former ...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's an annual ordeal for many seniors living on a budget. Medicare's coverage gap for prescription drugs - $3,610 next year - has steadily gotten bigger since the benefit's inception. But if Democrats have their way on health care overhaul, the dreaded "doughnut hole" will shrink by $500 right away and go away altogether by 2019. With ...

The Department of Veterans Affairs' problems with the Post-9/11 GI Bill's benefits seem to linger, no matter what the government does. Tens of thousands of veterans, active-duty servicemembers and their dependents have been waiting for promised higher-education benefits from VA since fall classes began last month. The agency attempted to address the backlog by granting $3,000 in emergency checks, but that ...

Pay increases will be the same in 2010 for almost all Defense Department employees, regardless of whether they are covered by the controversial pay-for-performance or General Schedule system, the Pentagon has decided. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates's conclusion provides yet another measure of the troubled state of pay-for-performance, the National Security Personnel System, which was created by the Bush administration to ...

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota lawmakers balanced the state budget and erased a $3 billion deficit Monday, wrapping up their work for the year in a way that allowed Democrats and Republicans alike to claim some credit but also set the terms of the election debate to come. The deal struck by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, presiding over his last legislative session, ...