This report provides an update on issues affecting federal managers. As always, I encourage you to visit www.fedmanagers.org on a regular basis for more information on these and other matters.

Also, be sure to look for the FMA Grassroots Update, where we offer links to action letters and FMA-PAC matters we do not address in the Washington Report. The grassroots newsletter is sent exclusively to non-governmental email addresses to avoid any Hatch Act violations. If you are not receiving it, contact the national office to provide your non-governmental email address.

Please feel free to provide feedback any time by emailing Adam Kay at akay@fedmanagers.org or by calling the National Office at (703) 683-8700. Thank you for your membership in FMA. It’s an honor to represent your interests before Congress and the administration.

President Biden is expected to propose a 4.6 percent raise for federal employees in 2023, although it is unknown what percentage of this would be a locality pay increase. If adopted by Congress, 4.6 percent would be the largest raise in decades. How does this raise stack up in context?

The House of Representatives passed the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 (H.R. 3076) by a vote of 342-92 on Tuesday, February 8. FMA supports the bill and urged a “yes” vote in a Federal-Postal Coalition letter to Congress.

FMA publishes a monthly partner column with FEDmanager.com entitled Hear it from FMA. The following article originally appeared in the February 8, 2022 edition.

In conversations with federal managers, one of the most common phrases the Federal Managers Association (FMA) hears is “I’ll be retiring soon.” There’s a pretty good reason for this. In 2021, 30 percent of the federal workforce was over the age of 55. With an average retirement age for feds of 62 almost a third of the federal workforce is within seven years of retirement, and far more than a third is within ten years.

On February 9, 2022, the Senate Budget Committee voted 15-6, and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) voted 8-6 to send the nomination of Shalanda Young for Office of Management and Budget Director to the Senate floor for a final confirmation vote. FMA attended the HSGAC hearing preceding this vote.

Where can you get valuable training, tell your elected representatives what you need from them, and have fun with your friends and fellow federal managers all at the same time?

Answer: the 2022 FMA National Convention. Join us in Alexandria from March 27 to March 30, 2022. This year's offerings will include everything from informative training sessions to happy hours where you can meet managers from across the federal government. We've even been promised that at least one of our Region Directors will be wearing a chicken suit in honor of the region who recruits the most new members this year.

Recent developments on the MSPB raise a somewhat philosophical question: does walking on a treadmill count as movement?

In the October 2021 Washington Report, we reported that the House had passed nine of twelve appropriations bills, while the Senate had to that point failed to pass a single appropriations bill. In the sixteen weeks since that report, no visible progress towards passing a budget for FY2022 has been made. The Senate has still failed to pass a single bill. The House still has three bills that have not been passed. Not a single bill has made it to President Biden’s desk for final signature.