In Senate, Some Stability, Some Change

The decision of Senate Democrats to allow Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., to keep the chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has left in place a senator who has generally sided with employee organizations on issues of benefits, compensation and employee rights. Changes could yet lie ahead on the panel as assignments are reshuffled for the new Congress, though. One vacancy resulted when Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who is considered the father of the FERS retirement system and the TSP from his time chairing the civil service subcommittee in the 1980s, and who most recently has been a proponent of more telecommuting for employees, lost his reelection bid after a prolonged period of vote counting.