The Partnership for Public Service, an organization devoted to revitalizing public service, attracting the best people to government work, and sparking innovation in the federal workplace, is accepting nominations for the Service to America Medals — the "Sammies."  The Sammies have become a hallmark for recognizing outstanding and dedicated public servants across the entire federal government workforce.  To nominate or to learn more about the prize, visit the Partnership for Public Service here.

President Bush plans to press the Senate for movement on filling vacancies at the Federal Election Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Consumer Product Safety Commission, among others.  These agencies are issuing non-binding decisions and falling behind on their internal agendas because they can’t put together a quorum of commissioners to make binding decisions.  But it looks like politics is at the heart of the problem.  The Senate is delaying confirmations in part because they now hope for a Democratic president in 2009, allowing Dems to appoint a majority of commission members.  The White House, for its part, is sending nominees that the Democratic Senate refuses to confirm for ideological reasons (which is the Senate’s prerogative).  The result is a general abdication of responsibility for the public business.  Read Kara Scannell, Amy Schatz, and Damian Palletta here.

A lawsuit is being filed against the Customs and Border Protection division of the Department of Homeland Security over searches and confiscations of laptop computers, phones, and PDAs at the nation’s airports.  Ellen Nakashima reports in the Washington Post that travelers have had laptops seized (and never returned) and cell phones and PDAs searched and confiscated.  But there seems to be no clear policy defining what can be searched and why.  Some Customs officials say they have the right to search everything — including hard drives and call listings — whereas privacy advocates say that searching someone’s computer is akin to searching their entire house.  Businesses are forbidding their employees from traveling with commercial information on hard drives as a result.  Read Nakashima here.