GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

Executive Brief

Sat. Apr. 26, 2008


Curse of the Baldrige Award

For whatever reason, a curse seems to be attached to the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award. You win it, and something unpleasant often follows.

The curse has hit again, apparently. Risk management author Robert Charette notes on Government Executive’s Next Gov.com that the winner of last year’s Baldrige Award, given by the president in honor of President Reagan’s Commerce secretary, is following in the line of winners, including Motorola, Caterpillar, and AT&T, that have been visited by bad news.

In November, the Armament Research, Development, and Engineering Center, also known as Picatinny Arsenal, in New Jersey became the first Defense Department organization to win the Baldrige Award. Last week, a 2-pound metal fragment from a routine munitions test at the center traveled more than a mile instead of the predicted 1,300 feet. It crash-landed on a two-story house off the base, tore into a child’s bed, and critically injured a cat. The feline had to be put to sleep.

The Army, which is investigating what happened, suspended further tests and apologized to the family.

Ex-Cons on the Front Lines

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., spurred headlines this week by releasing statistics showing that the Army and Marine Corps last year accepted more recruits with serious criminal records than it had in previous years. “Some recruits were even granted waivers for felony convictions involving sexual assault and terrorist threats,” he said.

Army spokesman George Wright presents a different picture of waiver rules. The Army, he says, never gives waivers to applicants convicted of sexually violent acts, alcoholism, or drug distribution. He also notes that criminal laws vary by state. “We are a reflection of American society and the changes that affect it: Today’s young men and women are more overweight, have a greater incidence of asthma, and are being charged for offenses that in earlier years wouldn’t have been considered a serious offense, and might not have resulted in charges in the first place,” he said.

S. David Mitchell, an associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Law, argues that once you have fulfilled your criminal penalties, all of your rights should be “automatically restored and you should have the right to join the military unconditionally.” Still, Mitchell allows for exceptions—if there is a “rational relationship between the offense itself and the offender’s occupation and what they are being denied to do.” —Winter Casey/National Journal

Higher Drug Costs Hit Federal Workers

Many federal employees who fall ill with anemia, hepatitis C, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, or certain kinds of cancer will get a nasty shock along with their diagnosis: much higher out-of-pocket costs for the prescription drugs used to treat those conditions.

More than 87,000 federal workers are covered by one of 49 health plans that require them to pay a percentage of the price of “specialty” drugs, rather than a set co-pay. Another big insurer, Kaiser Permanente, this year began to require its 63,000 federal workers to do so as well. But on April 11, it reversed course.

The National Treasury Employees Union and the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association both expressed surprise that these plans had become so widespread, and they called for explanations.

“The cost of these specialty drugs can be enormous,” said Lorraine Dettman, assistant director for insurance services programs at the Office of Personnel Management. “The question becomes, what is the industry going to do about those costs? It’s very expensive for individuals to bear [them], but it’s also very expensive for group programs, even as a shared cost.” —Alyssa Rosenberg/Government Executive