Pay & Benefits
A Senate panel has advanced legislation to avert wildland firefighter ‘pay cliff’
Meanwhile, the Office of Personnel Management has released a draft set of qualifications for its upcoming new job series for wildland fire management.
Pay & Benefits
When you need to get the most out of your benefits: part one
The first in a series on dealing with desperate situations.
Defense
Leading the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency may be a job no one wants – but it’s an important one
COMMENTARY | “It’s vitally important that the Defense Department onboard the right person for the job, to continue to keep the workforce stabilized and growing,” writes one observer.
Oversight
House Dem sounds alarm about AI in political messaging
Rep. Yvette Clarke says 2024 “will be the first election cycle where AI-generated ads will be an integral part of how we do campaign advertising.”
Workforce
Tom Hanks thinks he would be the best ever at this federal job
The actor’s ideal career would involve working for Uncle Sam.
Workforce
New union contract offers hope for better labor relations at the Social Security Administration
The American Federation of Government Employees and Social Security management will meet on a bimonthly basis to collaborate on issues like improving training, designing a child care subsidy and more.
Workforce
Pay raise and staffing surge at the border advance at Senate panel
Bipartisan bills would approve a 14% pay bump for some personnel.
Oversight
Get serious about data, US intelligence leaders tell agencies
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s new three-year plan aims to turn data-gathering from afterthought to key asset.
Management
FEMA has so far paid out less than 1% of what Congress allocated for victims of New Mexico wildfire
The emergency management agency has paid just $3 million in claims out of $3.96 billion Congress allocated, and the bulk of the payments went to the city of Las Vegas, N.M., rather than individual fire victims.
Pay & Benefits
TSP website problems drag and Defense firefighters raise lag
Pay and benefits updates you may have missed.
Workforce
Want successful integration of AI at federal agencies? Engage employees through the unions
COMMENTARY | AI will bring dramatic, disruptive, productive changes that can improve how the work of government is carried out over the next 10 years. To prepare for it, organizations will need to learn together and plan together.
Management
Small businesses’ share of federal contracting dollars reaches ‘all time high,’ SBA says
Federal agencies paid small businesses $162.9 billion for contracting work—the most ever recorded—in fiscal 2022, although the proportion of federal contract dollars going to small businesses declined to 26.5%.
Oversight
The Biden administration is without a confirmed ethics czar
This is the first time in five years that the federal government's ethics agency has been without a confirmed director. Trump holdover Emory Rounds stepped down when his term expired earlier this month.
Tech
What will the federal government do with generative AI?
Federal employees are going to see AI tools show up in cloud-based productivity suites sooner rather than later, but it's not clear yet how the trending tech will impact public-facing digital services.
Management
FEMA disaster relief fund faces August shortfall as feds scramble to find cash
The fund is projected to go into the red in mid- to late- August.
Workforce
The House, Senate and White House all want more FAA staffing, but disagree on how to get there
All parties acknowledge the agency is facing a crisis that will cause mass disruptions to air travel absent more resources.
Workforce
Proposed funding cuts could prevent IRS, Justice and other agencies from meeting their missions, employee groups say
Controversial plans to deeply slash spending at OPM, IRS and the Justice Department have drawn the ire of the federal employees who work at or rely on those agencies. They say the cuts would harm mission delivery.
Oversight
Senate Appropriations Committee looks to claw back TMF funding
Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan. — an original backer of the law that created the Technology Modernization Fund — called the move a “mistake.”
Defense
Intel leaders, White House argue for keeping digital spy powers
Agencies have less than six months to convince a divided Congress to re-up an expiring warrantless surveillance authority.
Oversight