Author Archive
People
Feds brace for return of Trump personnel policies
Federal employee unions sought to balance reassuring members that they will fight the return of measures undermining feds’ civil service protections with asserting their commitment to nonpartisan service.
People
What Trump’s win means for the federal workforce
The Republican former president has vowed to remake the civil service in his image with the reinstatement of Schedule F.
People
Employee group urges centralized response to increase in doxxing and threats against federal workers
The Department of Justice Gender Equality Network urged department leadership to create a centralized “triage” team to better tackle instances where members of the public doxx or threaten employees online.
People
OPM moves to standardize General Schedule, blue collar locality pay areas
For years, federal employee unions have bemoaned that the pay systems’ differing maps of high-cost regions created pay inequity within agency workforces.
People
Lawmakers file discharge petition to repeal controversial tax rule affecting federal retirees
The Social Security Fairness Act has broad bipartisan support both in Congress and among federal employee unions.
Policy
Trump vows to establish an 'efficiency commission' with Elon Musk at the helm
The former president said the Tesla CEO has “agreed” to head up a task force aimed at cutting federal programs.
People
Biden formally announces 2% average pay raise for feds in 2025
The president each August must declare an “economic emergency” to prevent large automatic increases to locality pay from taking effect, in accordance with the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act.
People
Trump calls federal workforce 'crooked,' vows to hold them 'accountable'
In an interview with a right-wing Youtuber, the former president seemingly alluded to reviving Schedule F and other Trump-era policies aimed at making it easier to fire federal employees.
Digital Government
Teleworking feds are spending 60% of their time working in person, OMB says
In a congressionally mandated report, the Office of Management and Budget rebuffed many common complaints by congressional Republicans about the popular workplace flexibility.
People
OPM’s retirement backlog continued to creep higher in July
The Office of Personnel Management processed nearly 500 fewer retirement requests than it received last month, causing its backlog to inch up for the second straight month.
People
Cassidy ties proposed 30% pay and benefits cuts to federal telework
The Louisiana Republican has introduced bills to bar federal workers from receiving locality pay if they telework at least once per week and excising locality pay from all future feds’ pensions.
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Modernization
Senators take another crack at solving over-classification
The bipartisan Classification Reform for Transparency Act would establish a new task force to narrow the criteria for classifying documents and make it harder for agencies to exempt records from automatic declassification.
People
'Fire every single mid-level bureaucrat': Vance on federal employees
Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, has been at the center of GOP efforts in Congress to “dismantle” diversity, equity and inclusion programs at federal agencies, and has suggested that if Trump wins re-election, he should fire “every mid-level bureaucrat” in government.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
