By Lisa Mascaro and Kevin Freking, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A day before a potential government shutdown, the House resoundingly rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s new plan to fund operations and suspend the debt ceiling, as Democrats and dozens of Republicans refused to accommodate his sudden demands.

In a hastily convened Thursday evening vote punctuated by angry outbursts over the self-made crisis, the lawmakers failed to reach the two-thirds threshold needed for passage — but House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared determined to reassess before Friday’s midnight deadline.

“We’re going to regroup and we will come up with another solution, so stay tuned,” Johnson said after the vote. The cobbled-together plan didn’t even get a majority, with the bill failing 174-235.

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Congressional leaders labored this week to put forward a stopgap funding bill that would avert a shutdown Friday evening, with negotiators finally breaking through Tuesday evening after an extended struggle to finalize a slew of additional funding and policy provisions that will be attached to the measure.

By Stephen Groves, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is pushing toward a vote on legislation that would provide full Social Security benefits to millions of people, setting up potential passage in the final days of the lame-duck Congress.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday he would begin the process for a final vote on the bill, known as the Social Security Fairness Act, which would eliminate policies that currently limit Social Security payouts for roughly 2.8 million people.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

Agroup of 26 Democratic lawmakers across both the House and Senate on Wednesday urged President Biden to increase the pay raise planned for civilian federal workers next month to 4.5%, restoring military-civilian pay parity.

Biden turned heads among federal employee groups and Democrats last spring when he proposed just a 2.0% average pay raise for civilian federal workers, compared to the 4.5% planned for military service members. Biden formalized his alternative pay plan in August, stipulating that 1.7% would be devoted to across-the-board increases to basic pay and setting aside 0.3% to average locality pay increases.

In a letter to the president Wednesday, more than two dozen lawmakers, led by Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, D-Va., and Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., urged Biden to revise his pay plan to grant civilian federal workers the same 4.5% average increase that military service members will receive beginning next month.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

The Social Security Administration and its largest union last week finalized a deal to instill the agency’s current telework policy in the parties union contract until at least 2029, roiling Republicans intent on ending the practice.

SSA and the American Federation of Government Employees first reached the deal after Election Day, and agency head review was complete as of last week. Under the agreement, which was first reported by Bloomberg News, most agency employees will continue to allowed to telework between two and five days per week, depending on their occupation.

Field office workers are allowed two days of telework per week, while most Office of Hearings Operations employees work between three and four days per week from home. Remote workers make up 1.3% of the agency's workforce.

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

The leaders of President-elect Trump’s new advisory panel aiming to slash government spending, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, met with Republican lawmakers at the Capitol on Thursday in what leaders pitched as an informational session to share ideas.

Congressional Republicans and a handful of Democrats have embraced Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, which will function as a non-governmental commission, and on Thursday were eager to share their ideas for identifying areas for cuts. Some Republicans cautioned, however, that the advisory panel must work through the appropriate channels and win congressional support for their initiatives.

Nearly every House and Senate member that emerged from the various meetings called them productive and suggested a unifying idea supported by both lawmakers and Trump’s designated efficiency czars: recalling teleworking employees back to the office.

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Congress is down to less than three working weeks scheduled for the year, with decisions still to be made on a range of federal workforce policies and on agency funding ahead of the December 20 expiration of a stopgap measure.

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A posting on performance.gov touts several features recently added to the usajobs.gov site, including a “career explorer” feature aimed at early career professionals designed for “making it easy for rising leaders to explore their options and land meaningful jobs.”

By Ian Smith, FedSmith

As the Trump administration prepares to head to Washington in January, there have been lots of headlines about the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that will be led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. The duo have promised to thoroughly review the current federal government apparatus to make recommendations for regulatory and spending cuts.

Musk and Ramaswamy outlined their vision for DOGE in an article they wrote in the Wall Street Journal last week. They said they are outside volunteers and will not be federal employees or federal officials and that they will be assisting with identifying and hiring a team to work with the Office of Management and Budget to “pursue three major kinds of reform: regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions and cost savings.”

By Eric Katz, Government Executive -

President-elect Trump and incoming members of his administration have big ideas for reducing headcounts at federal agencies, and key lawmakers with jurisdiction over the civil service are lining up to aid him in those efforts.

Trump has spoken frequently of his desire to shrink the federal bureaucracy and has tapped businessmen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy with leading a non-governmental commission to accomplish that. He has also promised to revive his efforts, first initiated at the end of his prior term, to remove merit-based civil service protections from large swaths of the federal workforce.

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

House Republicans are planning to strategize with President-elect Trump on their path forward to funding the government past the current Dec. 20 deadline, leaders of the conference said on Tuesday.

After retaking the White House and Senate in last week’s elections and appearing likely to maintain control of the House, Republicans are looking to maximize their leverage in setting spending levels for the remainder of fiscal 2025. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and his deputies have floated various proposals, including passing another stopgap that would keep agencies funded at their current levels into March or approving full-year funding bills that set agency spending through the end of the fiscal year in September.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

Donald Trump is projected to return to the White House next January, according to the Associated Press, and is poised to spur the most dramatic reimagining of the staffing of government in more than a century.

That’s because Trump has vowed to revive Schedule F, a controversial abortive effort at the end of his first term to strip the civil service protections of potentially tens of thousands of career federal workers in “policy-related” positions, effectively making them at-will employees. Trump and many of his former staffers have frequently bemoaned that “rogue bureaucrats” inhibited his policymaking power during his first stint in the White House.

By Matthew B. Tully, Esq., FedSmith

With marijuana legalization on the ballot in four states on Election Day November 5, questions are reignited about what it means for federal employees in states where it is already, or will become, legal.

Some of the questions include whether federal employees can use marijuana if they live and work in a state where it is legal without compromising their jobs, or whether marijuana use can affect their security clearance if they hold one.

Although medical and/or adult recreational use of marijuana is legal in several states, it remains illegal at the federal level because it is still classified as a Schedule 1 drug. Therefore, federal employees are still subject to drug testing and are not protected under their state labor or cannabis laws.

By Sean Michael Newhouse, Government Executive -

One of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign promises is to establish a task force that would cut federal programs and crack down on improper payments.

Trump said the idea came from tech billionaire Elon Musk, who would lead the proposed government efficiency commission and who has donated millions to re-elect the former president.

“I will create a government efficiency commission tasked with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms,” Trump said in September. “And Elon, because he’s not very busy, has agreed to head that task force.”

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

The Office of Personnel Management last week issued new guidance to agencies as they implement regulations finalized earlier this year strengthening guard rails on the conversion of career federal workers out of the competitive service and into or across categories of the excepted service.

Last spring, OPM issued final regulations aimed at safeguarding the nonpartisan civil service from efforts by former President Trump, or any other future administration, to reinstate Schedule F, a controversial effort to convert tens of thousands of career federal employees in “policy-related” jobs into the government’s excepted service, stripping them of their civil service protections and making them effectively at-will employees.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

Officials at the Social Security Administration said this week that as a result of Congress’ inaction on the Biden administration’s request for additional funding for the beleaguered agency in September’s continuing resolution to keep the government open, the agency has had to cut back on two key tools in its fight to improve customer service.

Last month, the White House and Commissioner Martin O’Malley warned lawmakers that failure to include a budget anomaly to fund the agency at a prorated equivalent of the president’s proposed $15.4 billion fiscal 2025 annual appropriation request in a six-month CR—as initially proposed by House Speaker Mike Johnson—would lead to dire consequences, including the loss of more than 2,000 staff, a hiring freeze and significantly curtailing overtime usage.

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A VA employee who “violated the Hatch Act by sharing Facebook posts promoting partisan political fundraisers” has agreed to a 70-day unpaid suspension in a settlement with the Office of Special Counsel, the OSC has said.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

A House Republican has joined a nascent effort to issue upwards of 30% pay cuts to federal employees who engage in regular telework by depriving them of their locality pay.

Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., last week introduced the Federal Employee Return to Work Act (H.R. 10014), a measure that would bar federal employees who spend at least one day per week—or 20% of their work hours—on telework from receiving the locality pay determined by the location of their official work station, instead considering them part of the “Rest of U.S.” locality pay area, regardless of where they live or work. It serves as the House companion to legislation introduced by Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., in August.

By Ann Werts, FedSmith

Recently, an ad on Facebook (no doubt targeted at me because of my federal employee relationships) invited federal employees age 60 and older to attend a federal benefits training. Of course, these financial advisors are interested in older feds about to retire (hey, I was a financial advisor for 22 years before retiring and letting my licenses lapse – I get it).

In reality, by that point, there aren’t a lot of things employees nearing retirement can change about their employment that will have much of an impact (other than working to age 62). There’s a much greater opportunity to make a difference by reaching those who are farther from the retirement finish line where even small tweaks can matter.

This article is for those who are looking to maximize their benefits in a simple, easy-to-implement fashion. Let’s look at something manageable: your annual leave, something you’ll want to pay attention to no matter where you are in your federal career.

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A bill (S-59) to downplay the role of educational credentials in job qualifications and the role of self-evaluations in assessing federal job candidates has been readied for a vote in the Senate when Congress returns to session after the elections with the issuance of a CBO analysis—which shows that the bill would have only a negligible cost to agencies.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

The Labor Department’s largest employee union is accusing Acting Secretary Julie Su of shirking her duty to negotiate with the department’s workforce after Su announced that she will implement new telework restrictions later this year.

Last November, the Labor Department announced new restrictions on employees’ use of telework, requiring employees to spend at least five days per biweekly pay period at traditional work sites. Though initially slated for implementation in January 2024, the department postponed those plans in order to negotiate the policy change’s implementation with the National Council of Field Labor Locals, which represents roughly two-thirds of the department’s nearly 15,000 employees and is part of the American Federation of Government Employees.

By Drew Friedman, Federal News Network

It may not come as much of a surprise that federal workforce reforms can happen slowly — but that doesn’t mean things aren’t changing.

For Colleen Heller-Stein, executive director of the Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCO) Council, the Pathways Program is a prominent example where changes have finally arrived, but only after years of hard work.

“There are, frankly, times when we can’t see that return on investment for a number of years,” Heller-Stein said at an Oct. 9 event hosted by software company Cornerstone. “There was a CHCO Council working group five or so years ago that really dug into Pathways regulations and provided some suggestions and recommendations for how Pathways might be adjusted to be even more beneficial to agencies. We finally, this year, saw some updates to those regulations.”

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Federal workers will soon be able to donate unused leave to their colleagues who need time to recover after Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida Wednesday.

By Nate Osburn, Deputy Commissioner, Office of Communications, Social Security Administration

Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments for more than 72.5 million Americans will increase 2.5% in 2025, the Social Security Administration announced today. On average, Social Security retirement benefits will increase by about $50 per month starting in January.

Over the last decade the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase has averaged about 2.6%. The COLA was 3.2% in 2024.

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

The Biden administration will have sufficient resources and personnel to respond to Hurricane Milton, officials said Wednesday, despite the ongoing recovery efforts related to Hurricane Helene and other disasters.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has deployed 1,200 search and rescue personnel to Florida, where Milton is expected to make landfall on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning, who will serve in addition to the 1,000 FEMA employees already in the state following Helene. Across the country, 5,200 federal employees have deployed in Helene response and President Biden has also sent 1,500 active duty military personnel to affected regions.

By Natalie Alms, Government Executive

Senators Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Mark Warner, D-Va., want the IRS to make it easier for people to go online to get information about refunds, respond to IRS questions and more. The pair have introduced the Improving IRS Customer Service Act to push the agency to make more expansive improvements to such customer service needs.

Warner called the IRS “the source of massive headaches” in a statement, saying that he is “glad to introduce this legislation that will ease some of this frustration by increasing clear communication and making IRS resources more readily available.”

The bill — being touted by the duo now following its introduction last month — includes a requirement for the IRS to set up a dashboard with wait times for phone lines and tax return processing if the agency is dealing with delays.

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

Congress on Wednesday sent a three-month spending bill to President Biden for his signature, averting a shutdown until after the election.

The passage of the continuing resolution, which will keep agencies afloat through Dec. 20, sets up a new fight over government funding during the lame duck session of Congress just before Christmas. The House and Senate—which separately approved the CR on Wednesday—remain far divided on the path forward for full-year appropriations, but avoided forcing agencies to shutter on Oct. 1.

Congressional leaders announced a bipartisan breakthrough over the weekend after House Republicans for weeks suggested they would not back a short-term funding measure unless congressional Democrats and the White House agreed to certain partisan demands. The measure won broad bipartisan support in both chambers despite opposition from dozens of Republicans, passing the House in a 341-82 vote, and avoided any efforts to slow the bill down in the Senate.

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Agency-by-agency and government-wide policies have remained largely unchanged for many years and the results will be familiar for employees if a funding lapse occurs and triggers a partial shutdown as of the October 1 start of the new fiscal year.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

Congressional committees dedicated to federal workforce issues were busy Wednesday, as both panels advanced bills impacting federal personnel policy via markup hearings.

On the Senate side, lawmakers on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 12-2 in favor of the Telework Transparency Act, (S. 4043) a measure introduced last spring by Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, that requires that federal agencies publish their telework policies on their websites. It also requires agencies to establish automated systems to track employees’ use of telework and its impact on federal building occupancy rates and agency performance.

And the lawmakers voted 9-5 to advance the Dismantling Outdated Obstacles and Barriers to Individual Employment—or DOOBIE—Act (S. 4711), another measure sponsored by Peters, who chairs the panel. The bill would codify changes recently implemented by the Biden administration to federal hiring and security clearance policies that clarify that past marijuana consumption cannot be sole reason for denial of a federal security clearance or federal job application.

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Congress returned this week from its summer recess facing a fast-arriving deadline to keep federal agencies funded beyond the September 30 end of the current fiscal year, only to quickly return to the kind of brinksmanship that often has threatened—and sometimes has resulted in—a partial government shutdown.

By Ian Smith, FedSmith

The 2025 federal pay raise is one step closer to being finalized after President Biden issued his alternative pay plan letter at the end of August outlining the amounts he wants for next year’s pay raise for federal employees.

The president proposed a 2% raise for federal employees in March and reiterated it in his alternative pay plan letter. Assuming that is the final amount, the 2% 2025 federal pay raise will be divided between an average of 0.3% for locality pay areas and 1.7% as an across-the-board pay raise, according to what Biden outlined in the letter.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

President Biden formalized his plan to provide civilian federal workers with an average pay increase of 2% next year, in a letter to congressional leaders Friday.

Last March, Biden first announced the pay raise plan as part of his fiscal 2025 budget proposal, marking a significant decrease from previous pay raises of 5.2% in 2024 and 4.7% in 2023. Friday's announcement confirms that, if implemented, federal employees will see an across-the-board boost of 1.7% to basic pay and an average 0.3% increase to locality pay, a slight departure from the traditional 0.5% of the overall raise figure being set aside for locality adjustments.

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A new Biden administration initiative to crack down on “unnecessary headaches” for consumers will include plans for employees on the Federal Employees Health Benefits and Postal Service Health Benefits plans to submit out-of-network claims online, alongside other updates.

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Although the Senate version of the annual general government appropriations bill mirrors the House version in effectively endorsing a 2 percent federal employee raise in January (see related story) they differ on other workplace issues.

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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.

The federal government’s dedicated HR agency reported a slight uptick in its backlog of pending federal employee retirement claims for the second straight month in July.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday advanced spending legislation that would increase the Social Security Administration’s administrative budget by $500 million, setting up a standoff with the House.

Since the George W. Bush administration made overhead costs for the agency responsible for administering the two largest pieces of non-discretionary federal spending—retirement and disability benefits—part of the discretionary budget, SSA’s annual budget has been contained in the Labor-Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies appropriations bill. Although Congress sets the agency’s administrative funding levels each year, the money comes from federal payroll taxes, not the U.S. Treasury.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

Lawmakers on the Senate Appropriations Committee unveiled and unanimously advanced spending legislation Thursday effectively endorsing President Biden’s planned 2% average pay increase for federal workers in January, to the chagrin of federal employee groups and advocates.

The committee moved four of the 12 fiscal 2025 appropriations bills Thursday, including the Energy and Water Development; Defense; Labor, Health and Human Services; and Financial Services and General Government Appropriations acts. That last bill is traditionally the avenue by which lawmakers seek to override a president’s alternative pay plan, and the committee’s draft is silent on most federal workers’ compensation rates, effectively endorsing the White House’s plan.

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A new regulation is meant to ensure that federal workers who are temporarily promoted and shuffled into positions by an agency are paid for the entire duration of their detail.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) published the finalized rule on Time Limited Promotions in the Federal Register. It takes effect August 26, 2024.

By Derace Lauderdale, Federal News Network

The Office of Personnel Management is in the midst of a pilot with a small number of agencies to improve the applicant experience for its retirement systems, part of a broader push to get the organization away from paper documents altogether.

Catherine Manfre, chief transformation officer at OPM, said that their “north star has been people first. And what that has meant to us is how do we think about putting our customers first and our people first?”

“The initial focus of the pilot is really on the front end of the experience, allowing future annuitants to go through a digital application process,” she said during an interview on Federal Monthly Insights — Trustworthy AI in the Workforce. “What we’re trying to understand in the pilot phase is really the applicant experience and some of the things that we can make improvements on, to make that part of the journey more seamless and easy, for both the individual annuitant but also actually for the agency itself, because there are different handoffs in that new retirement process.”

By Sean Michael Newhouse, Government Executive

When Michelle Amante finished graduate school, she wanted to work for the federal government. But the lengthy, labyrinthine process to get a job at an agency deterred her.

“Twenty years ago, when I was doing this, it felt overwhelming. When I was graduating, I knew I couldn’t wait six months to get a job. I would have bills to pay. I had rent to pay,” she said. “So I went into a consulting firm because they were giving me an offer…even though my heart was fully in public service.”

By Sean Michael Newhouse and Eric Katz, Government Executive

If elected, Vice President Kamala Harris — the likely Democratic presidential nominee after Joe Biden on Sunday ended his reelection bid — would bring to the Oval Office significant experience in federal workforce issues and a history of advocating for employees and their labor groups.

As vice president, Harris led a White House task force that made recommendations for how agencies could reduce barriers for public and private sector workers to organize or join a union. In the year after agencies began implementing these recommendations, the number of federal employees who are dues paying members of a union increased by 20%.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

The Office of Personnel Management on Thursday encouraged federal agencies to conduct their own analyses to correct potential pay disparities within their workforces.

In 2021, President Biden signed a sweeping executive order aimed at improving diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility at federal agencies, including provisions requiring the creation of a governmentwide strategic plan on the issue and that the OPM director consider banning the use of past salary history to set pay during the hiring process. OPM followed through on that edict earlier this year.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

The head of the Senate’s panel overseeing federal workforce issues announced Wednesday that he had introduced legislation to codify the recent loosening of hiring and security clearance restrictions on past marijuana use in law.

Shortly after Biden’s inauguration in 2021, the Office of Personnel Management issued new guidance stating that a federal job applicant’s past marijuana use can no longer be the sole factor behind the decision not to hire them. Similarly, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence updated its rules to clarify that past marijuana consumption cannot be the only reason behind the denial of a security clearance for federal workers and contractors.

By Ian Smith, FedSmith

Recently introduced legislation would restrict partisan political activity of certain federal employees who are not currently covered by the Hatch Act.

The new bill (S. 4656) would include Offices of Inspectors General (OIGs) on the list of executive agencies whose employees are “further restricted” from engaging in partisan political activity and therefore subject to the Hatch Act. It was introduced by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on July 10, 2024. As of the time of this writing, Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) is the sole co-sponsor.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

The Senate on Wednesday voted 55-37 to confirm Anne Wagner as the third member of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, finally bringing the agency’s political leadership to nearly full strength.

Similar to the National Labor Relations Board’s role overseeing collective bargaining in the private sector, the FLRA governs labor-management relations at federal agencies, with a three-member board that settles unfair labor practice complaints and other disputes between unions and management.

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The FLRA will offer virtual training July 23 beginning at 1 pm Eastern time to explain and describe the application of a precedent it set last year regarding the scope of management rights in bargaining.

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A report from Republicans on the House Budget Committee has recommended increasing the contributions that federal employees must make toward their annuity benefits, among other recommended changes to federal retirement.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

House GOP appropriators have proposed a $450 million cut to the Social Security Administration’s administrative budget, in a move that Democrats warn will worsen the agency’s customer service crisis.

The cuts are tucked into the fiscal 2025 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies spending bill, which was advanced to the full House Appropriations Committee Thursday following of a subcommittee markup on the measure.

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

The Supreme Court on Thursday reversed federal agencies’ longstanding capacity to adjudicate and enforce certain federal laws, dealing the latest in a series of blows to the executive branch’s administrative powers.

In a 6-3 decision, the conservative majority on the court rejected the Biden administration's argument that existing precedent protected agencies as they adjudicated laws written by Congress, instead suggesting individuals and private entities had a right to defend themselves from civil penalties before a jury. The Seventh Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees a right to a trial before a jury of peers, applies to cases involving administrative penalties, the court ruled.

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Federal employees could face layoffs, hiring freezes or furloughs under the GOP-crafted spending bills now advancing in the House, say congressional Democrats who are consistently voting against those bills.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

It’s only June, but federal employees’ chances of receiving a pay raise larger than President Biden’s proposed 2% average increase are already waning.

Last week, House appropriators advanced their Financial Services and General Government spending bill for fiscal 2025. Though the measure is typically the avenue for overriding a president’s pay raise plan for civilian employees, it is silent on federal employee compensation, effectively endorsing the president’s proposal.

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The House version of the annual general government spending bill addresses several hiring-related issues, including encouraging OPM to continue to review policies “regarding the hiring and firing of individuals who use marijuana in states where that individual’s private use of marijuana is not prohibited under the law of the state.”

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

Civilian federal employees are still expected to receive an average 2.0% raise next year, after the House Appropriations Committee advanced a spending package Thursday that is silent of federal worker compensation.

Last spring, President Biden turned heads by releasing a fiscal 2025 budget proposal with a 2.0% average pay increase for civilian federal employees in 2025. That figure came in well below Biden’s previous pay raise plans—in 2024, federal workers saw an average 5.2% increase; in 2023, the increase was 4.6%; and in 2022, 2.2%.

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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.

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The nation’s top prosecutor pledged this week to use his authority to go after anyone making threats against career federal employees, which he said have spiked to previously unseen levels.

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The Partnership for Public Service says that a recent survey it conducted shows that “federal careers are natural fits for members of Generation Z, who often seek employers affecting positive change” but that misconceptions and the hiring process often dissuade them from even applying.

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The years-long effort to repeal a pair of controversial tax rules that negatively impact some federal workers’ retirement income got a boost Thursday in the form of the formal endorsement of the House Problem Solvers Caucus.

By Jory Heckman, Federal News Network

The Office of Personnel Management is defending a recently finalized rule meant to prevent the return of Schedule F — a Trump-era policy that made it easier to fire career federal employees in policymaking positions.

OPM’s acting director told the House Oversight and Accountability Committee that the re-emergence of such a policy would undermine civil service protections, and return the federal workforce to a 19th-century “spoils system” with major turnover.

Acting OPM Director Rob Shriver told lawmakers on Wednesday that the return of Schedule F would have a “chilling effect” on career federal employees, and prevent them from providing candid feedback on policy matters.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

Anew group of experts on government and the civil service has formed to oppose conservative-led efforts to strip federal workers of their due process protections, as well as develop a new middle ground “consensus” for reforming federal personnel policy.

The Working Group to Protect and Reform U.S. Civil Service was devised by political scientist Francis Fukuyama, University of Maryland professor emeritus and former School of Public Policy Dean Don Kettl and administrative law scholar Paul Verkuil.

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House Republicans are proposing an average of 6% discretionary spending cuts to non-defense agencies for fiscal 2025, putting it on a collision course with the Democratic-led Senate that is seeking to avoid such reductions.

By Drew Friedman, Federal News Network

A few senators on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee are digging in their heels on a federal telework bill, calling for more “accountability” of teleworking employees governmentwide.

On a list of bills HSGAC considered for advancement Wednesday morning, the Telework Transparency Act aims to paint a clearer picture of telework across agencies. But during the committee’s consideration of the legislation, more questions than answers came up among members.

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The class of 2024 is applying to more government jobs, according to a report released this month by a popular networking website for college students.

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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, Government Executive

Weeks following the news that Office of Personnel Management Director Kiran Ahuja would step down, agency Deputy Director Rob Shriver has been appointed acting director of the federal government’s dedicated HR agency.

Shriver announced the news in a post on LinkedIn.

“I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as acting director at [the] Office of Personnel Management,” he wrote. “I wouldn’t have this opportunity without the support of OPM’s outgoing director, Kiran Ahuja. Thank you, Kiran!”

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

Anew report from the Congressional Budget Office found that a gap between the combined pay and benefits of federal workers and their private sector counterparts has nearly disappeared between 2015 and 2022, raising new questions about President Biden’s proposed 2% average pay raise for the federal workforce in 2025.

Federal policymakers generally rely on one of two reports comparing the compensation of federal and private sector workers. First is an annual analysis compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for review by the Federal Salary Council, which compares only the wages of similar jobs, is the preferred citation of Democrats and federal employee unions.

President Biden kicks off Public Service Recognition Week -

Our Nation’s over 20 million public servants work hard to deliver for our families, communities, and country. Their work matters to people’s everyday lives: They keep neighborhoods safe and the buses running, and build futures for people in their hometowns. They are the lifeblood of our democracy, acting as brave first responders, election workers, and service members defending our country. This week, we recognize our Nation’s public servants, who do the humble yet critical work of keeping our country running.

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The annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey will be sent out in two phases a week apart in mid-May, OPM has told agencies, calling the survey “one of the most powerful platforms for federal employees to have a voice in sharing their work experience, critical to achieving effective agencies and responsive public service in times of significant change and adaptation.”

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

A top Office of Management and Budget official on Tuesday defended the Biden administration’s approach to telework from continued Republican scrutiny of the workplace flexibility.

Asked to explain the White House’s position on telework before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, OMB Deputy Director for Management Jason Miller said that the current expectation is that “office workers” at federal agencies should generally be asked to spend at least half of their working hours at traditional work sites. Some agencies, however, deviate from that standard based on mission needs.

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OPM has issued (at www.chcoc.gov) further instructions to agencies on complying with a 2019 law that generally limits their requests for information about a federal job applicant’s criminal history prior to making a conditional job offer.

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

AHouse panel has advanced a measure aimed at bringing more transparency to disciplinary action taken against Veterans Affairs Department employees, with supporters saying current practices sweep potential wrongdoing under the rug.

The results of any investigation into alleged wrongdoing by VA employees would be permanently noted in their records under the Personnel Integrity in Veterans Affairs Act, which the House VA Committee’s panel on Oversight and Investigations approved last week in a unanimous vote. The vote came after the committee has spent months investigating allegations of sexual harassment against several VA leaders, some of whom subsequently were reassigned, resigned or retired.

Mitchell Berger, MPH, FEDweek -

Some employees will sue their agencies and others may leave or quietly quit. Because such cases leave a publicly accessible paper trail, potential lessons can be learned from situations in which agencies face employee complaints and litigation.

Tammy Flanagan, Government Executive -

It’s important to know the difference between a postponed retirement and a deferred retirement. Experience is the worst teacher. It always gives the test first and the instruction afterward.” This is a quote by Vern Law who played 16 seasons pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team. This is a relevant quote to start today’s column because it was through some very tough experiences that it was discovered that very important instructions were not followed that would allow lifetime insurance coverage under a postponed Minimum Retirement Age + 10 retirement.

OPM News Release

Washington, D.C. - The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced today that Director Kiran Ahuja will depart from her role in the next several weeks. Ahuja, the longest serving director in more than ten years, leaves a lasting legacy of rebuilding the OPM workforce, championing federal workers, and supporting federal agencies. Ahuja was confirmed as the first South Asian and first Asian American woman to lead the agency.

“Serving in the Biden-Harris Administration, and in support of the 2.2 million federal workers who dedicate themselves to the American people, has been the honor of my life,” said OPM Director Kiran Ahuja. “From my time as a civil rights lawyer in the Department of Justice, to my years as OPM’s Chief of Staff, I’ve seen the power that public service has to change lives, rebuild communities, and make our nation stronger. We have accomplished so much these last three years at OPM, but I am most proud of the friendships and bonds we built together in public service. Thank you most to the OPM workforce for your service and dedication. We serve the people who serve the nation – and without you, our country could not move forward. Thank you.”

Erich Wagner, Government Executive -

The Office of Personnel Management issued new guidance last week rescinding some forms of COVID-19-related administrative leave, but preserving four hours of paid leave for federal employees to get vaccine booster shots.

FedManager.com -

More than a quarter of the federal workforce (27 percent) reported that they “very often” or “always” feel burned out while on the job. Two in five say they “sometimes” feel burned out on the job, according to a Gallup study which surveyed 5,410 federal workers throughout 2023.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

Lawmakers have proposed yet another bill aimed at improving transparency around federal agencies’ use of telework, this time requiring a number of data reporting changes already underway in government.

Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, last week announced the introduction of the bipartisan Telework Transparency Act (S. 4043). The bill requires that federal agencies publish the policies governing telework for their workforce on their websites, as well as establish automated systems to track employees’ utilization of the workforce flexibility, federal building occupancy data and any effects on agency performance.

Carten Cordell, Government Executive -

The Office of Personnel Management issued the final version of its regulation meant to safeguard the civil service from the return of a Trump-era policy that sought to convert most federal employees to at-will workers.

FMA strongly opposes the reintroduction of Schedule F, or any system that would remove merit protections and politicize a greater portion of the government.

Donald F. Kettl, Government Executive -

The unquestioned master of suspense, filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock was especially fond of staging a MacGuffin, an element of the story that helped move the plot along but turned out to be insignificant to solving the case.

Jaime Kucinskas and James L. Perry, Government Executive -

It’s common for political candidates to disparage “the government” even as they run for an office in which they would be part of, yes, running the government.

FEDweek -

Following are key sections of a new proposal in which the House Republican Study Committee again recommends reducing federal employment protections and benefits. While the group—a caucus of conservatives—refers to the document as a “budget,” it plays no formal role in the congressional budget process. However, it does indicate positions favored by the large majority of House Republicans.

Eric Katz, Government Executive -

The Senate approved a $1.2 trillion spending package early Saturday shortly after a portion of the government was set to shut down, staving off the threat for the remainder of fiscal 2024.

Eric Katz, Government Executive -

Lawmakers on Thursday unveiled the second and final spending package for fiscal 2024, with Congress now facing a tight timeline to pass the measure before funding expires at the end of the day Friday.

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

Lawmakers on Thursday unveiled the second and final spending package for fiscal 2024, with Congress now facing a tight timeline to pass the measure before funding expires at the end of the day Friday.

The much-delayed spending bill includes funding for the departments of Defense, Treasury, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and State, as well as other agencies, and will be considered on Friday in one “minibus” package. Leadership in both chambers and parties, as well as President Biden, threw their support behind the measure.

The House is set to shorten its normal rule of providing 72 hours between a bill’s introduction and its vote to avoid a shutdown that would begin this weekend without congressional action. The Senate will then look to move swiftly, though all 100 senators must agree to vote on an expedited timeline.

Eric Katz, Government Executive -

The federal agencies facing a shutdown threat later this week would send home more than 600,000 employees if Congress fails to enact funding by Friday, furloughing them with only the promise of backpay.

Howard Risher, Government Executive -

The continued high turnover problem of TSA’s transportation security officers confirms an important lesson: pay increases have little impact on job satisfaction. The poor performers are more likely to stay if their salary is increased. Studies also show when everyone gets the same increase, it’s the high performers who leave. Pay is a factor in recruiting – both positive and negative – but, as the TSA experience shows, it’s not the answer for solving job vacancy problems.

FEDweek -

President Biden has issued an open letter to federal employees thanking them for their “tireless service on behalf of our country.”

Such letters are issued infrequently and sometimes are tied to a special occasion such as the late-year holidays or, as in this case, at the State of the Union address.

Eric Katz, Government Executive -

President Biden unveiled nearly across-the-board spending bumps in his fiscal 2025 budget on Monday, though his proposal maintained a lower overall spending level as agreed to in recent budget deals.

Leo Shane III, Military Times -

With the fiscal 2024 budget for the federal government still unsettled, the White House will unveil plans for its fiscal 2025 spending plans on Monday, including proposed funding levels for the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

President Biden’s fiscal 2025 budget proposal, released Monday, would institute an average 2.0% pay raise for federal civilian employees next year, a significant decrease from each of the last two years.

The figure marks a departure from the president’s 2023 and 2024 budgets, which proposed some of the largest pay increases federal workers had seen in decades. The 2023 average pay raise of 4.6% was the highest since the George W. Bush administration, while this year’s 5.2% average raise marked the largest since the Carter era.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive -

President Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order aimed at expanding federal agencies’ use of apprenticeship programs to attract and develop young federal workers, as well as reinstating agency labor-management forums that have largely sat dormant since 2017.

White House officials said the measure, entitled Scaling and Expanding the Use of Registered Apprenticeships in Industries and the Federal Government and Promoting Labor-Management Forums, dovetails with the recent push by presidents of both parties to shift how federal agencies evaluate job candidates from a largely based on educational attainment to one that emphasizes applicants’ relevant skills and work experience.

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

The House on Wednesday approved a spending package in a 339-85 vote to set spending levels for some agencies for the rest of fiscal 2024, sending the measure to the Senate with just two days before a partial shutdown.

The $460 billion “minibus,” which contains funding for the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Veterans Affairs, Interior, Commerce and Justice, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and a few other agencies, won broad bipartisan support after months of delays and four stopgap bills to keep the government from closing its doors. The measures will force many agencies across government to absorb modest cuts relative to their current funding levels, though overall non-defense discretionary spending will remain flat.

Nancy Segal, FEDweek -

Like almost all positions in the federal government, positions in the Senior Executive Service (SES) are required to be posted on USAJOBS. The minimum posting time is 14 days, although many SES positions run longer.

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

Lawmakers on Sunday evening released the first of two spending packages that will set funding levels for the remainder of fiscal 2024, with many agencies throughout government in line to absorb modest cuts.

The much delayed package, which includes funding for the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Veterans Affairs, Interior, Commerce and Justice, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and a few other agencies, came together after Congress last week agreed to its fourth stopgap bill of the fiscal year. Lawmakers now have until Friday evening to approve the “minibus” package. After they do so, they will turn their attention to funding the rest of government by March 22.

Jacob Bogage and Marianna Sotomayor, The Washington Post -

Congressional leaders agreed Wednesday to a funding deal that would prevent a partial government shutdown this weekend, extending the expiration dates for federal finances until later in March as lawmakers iron out the final details of a $1.7 trillion spending package.

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

President Biden will meet with the top House and Senate lawmakers on Tuesday as Democrats and Republicans are at a standstill over fiscal 2024 budget talks just a few days before funding expires for some agencies.

Senate Democrats and House Republicans pointed fingers at each other to start the week as progress toward a funding agreement stalled. The two sides previously agreed to the overall spending level for the remainder of the fiscal year and how to divvy up the money among the 12 must-pass annual spending bills, but have remained divided over the language in the final version of the measures.

By Steven Puckett, FedSmith

Some of the biggest perks to working for the government are the benefits that you not only have while you are working but also the ones that carry over into retirement. The primary benefits of concern for most federal employees are their health benefits (FEHB), dental, vision, and life insurance (FEGLI).

Health Benefits (FEHB)

Federal health benefits coverage under the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program is some of the best and most affordable in the nation. Part of the reason it is so affordable is that the government pays around 72% of the premiums for each plan, leaving the employee to pay the remainder.

FEDweek -

The Partnership for Public Service has suggested follow-up steps to OPM’s recent guidance to agencies on making fuller use of the probationary period for a newly hired federal employee, saying improving the use of that period “is a low-hanging fruit for holding agencies and federal employees accountable for performance and encouraging emerging best practices in skills-based hiring.”

FEDweek -

The House is set to recess later this week until after the first deadline to prevent what could be a two-stage partial government shutdown, without having addressed either regular spending bills or another temporary funding measure.

David DiMolfetta, Government Executive -

The U.S. Government Accountability Office was notified of a data breach by government tech contractor CGI Federal last month that impacted some 6,600 people, the GAO confirmed to Nextgov/FCW.