Author Archive
Erich Wagner
![Erich Wagner](https://cdn.nextgov.com/media/img/cd/2017/08/21/DSC_7358/180x180.jpg?1714400700)
Erich Wagner is a senior correspondent covering pay, benefits, organized labor and other federal workforce issues. He joined Government Executive in the spring of 2017 after extensive experience writing about state and local issues in Maryland and Virginia, most recently as editor-in-chief of the Alexandria Times. He holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Maryland.
Policy
Feds are still slated for a 2% average pay raise in 2025 per House appropriations bill
The House Appropriations Committee advanced legislation Thursday that failed to override President Biden’s 2025 pay plan.
- By Erich Wagner
Modernization
OPM’s retirement backlog hit an 8-year low last month
Efforts to streamline the processing of departing federal workers’ retirement applications continue to pay dividends, as the inventory of pending claims hit the lowest point since 2016.
- By Erich Wagner
People
Senators’ latest telework legislation could imperil remote work
A new bill from Sens. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., would cap all telework at 40% of an employee’s work hours, potentially endangering the federal government’s nascent remote work program.
- By Erich Wagner
Defense
Deal will allow military spouses to telework from overseas
The move to allow federal employees to telework while overseas with their service member spouses is part of a larger effort to boost recruitment of military spouses.
- By Erich Wagner
Modernization
OPM reduces the retirement backlog by one-third in 2023
The federal government’s HR agency’s work on improving the retirement application process for federal workers led to the agency shattering yet another longstanding record last month.
- By Erich Wagner
Modernization
OPM retirement backlog hits six-year low for third time this year
The number of pending federal employee retirement claims fell under 16,000 for the second time since 2017 in November.
- By Erich Wagner
People
Debate over federal telework fumes in House subcommittee
Agency HR officials defended their approach to workplace flexibilities and highlighted budgetary issues as bigger drivers of poor customer service.
- By Erich Wagner
People
OPM: Federal workers’ morale, engagement rebounded in 2023
Preliminary data from the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey indicates that federal agencies have improved on employees’ engagement, job satisfaction, as well as issues of diversity and inclusion.
- By Erich Wagner
People
Bill allowing past cannabis users to become feds advances in House
The bipartisan legislation was amended this week to remove provisions allowing current marijuana users to be eligible for federal employment or a security clearance.
- By Erich Wagner
People
Regulations aimed at derailing a Schedule F revival proposed by OPM
An effort to insulate the federal workforce from future efforts to strip them of their removal protections could accelerate an “existential” debate over the nonpartisan civil service system, experts said.
- By Erich Wagner
Policy
The shutdown threat would be off the table, under newly proposed legislation
A bill from Virginia Democrats would automatically trigger a continuing resolution when there is a lapse in appropriations and restrict the Senate’s ability to consider non-spending legislation until funding is figured out.
- By Erich Wagner
Featured eBooks
Policy
OPM deputy defends administration's telework approach, touts ‘consensus-building’ in workforce policymaking
Rob Shriver argues the White House's calls to increase in-person work are consistent with the HR agency’s prior policies.
- By Erich Wagner
Policy
Biden formally announces 5.2% average pay raise for feds in 2024
The annual declaration of a national emergency preventing large automatic raises from taking effect solidifies that 0.5% of the total pay increase figure will go toward an average boost in locality pay.
- By Erich Wagner
Policy
GAO: USDA violated the Anti-Deficiency Act while planning its relocation of science agencies
House Democrats renewed calls to institute tighter regulation of agency relocations in light of the watchdog agency's findings.
- By Erich Wagner
Policy
Bill to alleviate federal pay compression introduced by House Dems
The Pay Compression Relief Act would effectively allow General Schedule employees to receive annual increases to both basic and locality pay, even if they have already hit the federal pay cap.
- By Erich Wagner
Policy
White House calls on agencies to 'aggressively' reduce telework this fall
Chief of Staff Jeff Zients instructed agencies to focus on executing plans to increase in-person work in September and October.
- By Erich Wagner
Policy
Cannabis users could become feds under bipartisan House bill
The legislation also would allow federal job applicants who were previously denied positions or security clearances over marijuana usage dating back to 2008 to have those decisions reviewed under the newly proposed policy.
- By Erich Wagner
People
Sen. Kaine revives effort to ban Schedule F through the defense policy bill
This marks the second straight year that the Virginia Democrat has sought to attach a measure requiring congressional approval for new federal job classifications to the National Defense Authorization Act.
- By Erich Wagner
Modernization
TSP participants sue agency over ‘botched’ recordkeeper transition
A class action lawsuit filed last week alleges that the federal government’s 401(k)-style retirement savings program repeatedly failed to pay out participants’ withdrawal and loan requests for months following the transition to a new recordkeeping vendor.
- By Erich Wagner
Digital Government
GOP Lawmakers Demand Telework Stats from Federal Agencies
Congressional Republicans argued that the Biden administration’s recent efforts to scale back the use of telework are insufficient.
- By Erich Wagner