Oversight
Modernize FOIA to increase its Sunshine effect
COMMENTARY | A modern-day FOIA needs to adopt changes that are uniform and consistent across all the covered agencies, writes a former FOIA officer.
Pay & Benefits
Employee groups air their disappointment with Biden’s 2% raise proposal
Multiple groups representing federal employees expressed their displeasure this week at the White House’s proposed pay raise, noting that it falls both behind the cost of inflation and military compensation.
Workforce
These agencies would make the biggest workforce gains in Biden's scaled back 2025 budget
Several agencies have particularly ambitious growth plans, while some are surprisingly seeking cuts.
Management
Pentagon budget request aims to balance congressional limits, foreign needs, and innovation
“This should be the wake-up call that tells us we need to be buying different stuff,” one expert said.
Workforce
Employees ratify TSA’s first union contract since rights expansion
The American Federation of Government Employees’ new collective bargaining agreement streamlines grievance and arbitration rules and greatly expands work-life balance policies like shift trading.
Management
Civil Rights commission digs into government use of facial recognition
The tech poses “serious threats to our fundamental rights,” the chair of the commission said during a Friday briefing.
Pay & Benefits
Veterans Affairs expands IVF access to unmarried and same-sex veterans
Up to now, the VA has only provided IVF care for married veterans who were able to use their own eggs or sperm during the process, but the new announcement allows veterans to use donor eggs, sperm and embryos.
Tech
CISA targeted through Ivanti VPN vulnerabilities, reports say
The DHS agency has been issuing warnings about Ivanti products since at least 2020.
Tech
Biden's $1.67 trillion budget boosts tech, AI
The Biden administration’s FY2025 budget request provides agencies with $3 billion “to responsibly develop, test, procure and integrate transformative AI applications across the federal government.”
Management
The 9 most significant agency and program reforms in Biden's budget
See how the president is prioritizing his proposed budget increases at nearly every agency in government.
Updated
Management
Biden’s FY25 budget tops $7.3 trillion with increases for defense, agriculture
The president’s budget request emphasized ongoing climate-based initiatives but leaned into gains for the Agriculture, Defense, Education, Energy and other departments.
Updated
Pay & Benefits
Biden proposes 2% raise for feds in 2025 budget
Following multiple years of multi-decade record pay increases, the White House cited “fiscal constraints” facing agencies to justify smaller raises next year.
Management
A new federal office to gameplan for future crises?
A cadre of federal and industry officials are on a mission to scale the practice of strategic foresight across the federal government to help improve agency response to future challenges.
Management
Congress averts shutdown, locks in some agency cuts as Senate backs funding package
Lawmakers now face a March 22 shutdown deadline for the rest of government.
Oversight
OPM slices record retirement processing time in February
The overall retirement backlog ticked back under 20,000 last month, amid the federal government’s HR agency’s busy season.
Oversight
Bill enhancing contractor whistleblower protections advances to the Senate
The bipartisan proposal would close loopholes that have left federal contractors vulnerable to retaliation.
Oversight
Lawmakers try to reform federal cybersecurity again
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee passed a FISMA modernization proposal on to the full floor on Thursday.
Oversight
VIP health system for top U.S. officials risked jeopardizing care for soldiers
Some facilities “provided access to care for executive medicine patients over active-duty military patients that had acute needs,” according to the Pentagon’s inspector general.
Management
New bill aims to bring SNAP card security up to credit card standards
Security standards for SNAP cards have not kept pace with industry advancements, lawmakers say.
Management