Agriculture Close To Avoiding Furloughs
Sequester Hits Disaster Relief
Feds Respond to Oklahoma Tornadoes
Making Government 'Simpler'
OK Senator Wants Aid Offset by Budget Cuts
Boldly Go Where No Fed's Gone Before
AUTHOR ARCHIVES
Brittany Ballenstedt
Blogger
Brittany Ballenstedt writes Nextgov's Wired Workplace blog, which delves into the issues facing employees who work in the federal information technology sector. Before joining Nextgov, Brittany covered federal pay and benefits issues as a staff correspondent for Government Executive and served as an associate editor for National Journal's Technology Daily. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Mansfield University and originally hails from Pennsylvania. She currently lives near Travis Air Force Base, Calif., where her husband is stationed.
State Department reaches settlement over personnel violation
July 2, 2007 Officials at the State Department improperly reissued a recruitment announcement after their preferred candidate failed to qualify the first time, an independent investigative agency announced last week. In a confidential report, the Office of Special Counsel described an informal settlement with State in response to a January report on a ...
Lawmakers urge DHS to speed up financial consolidation
June 29, 2007 The Homeland Security Department has made little progress in developing an integrated financial management system to address financial weaknesses the agency has inherited, a Government Accountability Office representative said Thursday. At a hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, McCoy Williams, director of ...
Health Savings Shortfalls
June 28, 2007 President Bush has championed high-deductible health care plans and the savings accounts that accompany them as a viable solution to escalating medical costs. But now, two years after the option was added to the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, employees have not yet warmed to the idea. High-deductible health plans ...
House backs 3.5 percent civilian pay raise
June 28, 2007 The House on Thursday approved a bill granting civilian federal employees a 2008 pay raise of 3.5 percent, a figure equal to the adjustment already authorized in the House for members of the military. The House approved the raise as part of the fiscal 2008 financial services appropriations bill. The ...
Stronger training urged for front-line supervisors
June 26, 2007 Investing in training for front-line supervisors at federal agencies will significantly improve employee performance and help agencies meet growing challenges, a public administration specialist said Tuesday. James Thompson, an associate professor of public administration at the University of Illinois-Chicago, said front-line supervisors have a bigger influence on employees' day-to-day performance ...
High court ruling protects feds from racketeering lawsuits
June 26, 2007 The Supreme Court ruled Monday that six Bureau of Land Management employees are not subject to individual damage claims related to actions they took as part of their official duties. In a 7-2 decision written by Justice David Souter, the high court ruled that a Wyoming rancher cannot sue the ...
Report touts progress linking execs’ pay, performance
June 25, 2007 Agencies have improved since 2004 in linking senior executives' salaries and awards more closely to job performance, according to a new report by the Office of Personnel Management. The report highlights fiscal 2006 rating, pay and awards data for Senior Executive Service employees working under pay-for-performance systems in more than ...
Union files unfair labor practice charge against GAO chief
June 22, 2007 A federal labor union on Thursday filed an unfair labor practice charge against the head of the Government Accountability Office, claiming he has made inappropriate statements interfering with employees' rights to unionize. The charge, delivered to Comptroller General David M. Walker by the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, ...
Payband Balancing Act
June 21, 2007 Whether or not pay-for-performance systems can work effectively across an entity as large and varied as the federal government remains an open question. And it's also not clear whether federal employees -- many of whom have grown accustomed to nearly automatic pay raises each year -- would ever view such ...
State Department urged to beef up mental health support
June 21, 2007 The State Department should make debriefings mandatory for civilian employees returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, in an effort to head off potential post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health problems, members of a House subcommittee said Tuesday. At a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East ...
