Pay & Benefits
An Open Season checklist for active federal employees
Tips for saving money on health care and to help guide you through the process of choosing a plan in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.
Workforce
OPM issues guidelines on military spouse executive order
Telework, leave policies and “compassionate transfers” between agencies should all be utilized to recruit and retain spouses of members of the military and reserve services, officials said.
Management
House GOP floats telework restrictions, drastic spending cuts as Congress weighs options to avert shutdown
House and Senate have diverging plans to temporarily keep agencies afloat as Republicans propose budget rescissions and civilian job reductions.
Workforce
Honoring our heroes and a call to serve at the VA
COMMENTARY | The Veterans Affairs Department offers an unparalleled opportunity for doctors, nurses, and mental health professionals to give back to those who have already given so much.
Management
How Greenbelt won the FBI’s new headquarters
The agency’s pick for its new headquarters won out over sites in Virginia and Maryland despite being the smallest buildable offering. The choice has sparked some controversy.
Pay & Benefits
Answers to some of your common questions about CSRS and FERS
Federal retirement expert Tammy Flanagan says “the devil is in the details.”
Management
House GOP pulls funding bill covering IRS, GSA, OMB and more
The leadership team around new House Speaker Mike Johnson removed the bill — which would have defunded GSA’s digital services team, 18F — from floor consideration because of an intra-party policy dispute.
Tech
OMB previews tech accessibility guidance
Federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana said coming guidance will focus both on external- and internal-facing government tech.
Pay & Benefits
Senate version of bill to standardize retiree COLAs emerges
The reintroduction of the Equal COLA Act by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., comes just weeks after the 2024 cost of living adjustment announcement revived complaints about how the government calculates annual increases across retirement systems.
Management
The White House launches a contractor initiative centered on better data and performance
The Office of Management and Budget detailed an enterprise-wide government contracting plan Wednesday centered on data-based buying and projected to save $10 billion annually.
Workforce
Biden administration defends substantial immigration hiring surge as Congress debates emergency spending
Republicans say a more robust package is required to address the southern border.
Management
The Women’s Bureau has spent 100 years improving work for women — but the House wants to eliminate it
For the first time in at least a decade, the House has put forward a funding bill that includes no money for the only federal agency to “represent the needs and interests of working women.”
Defense
Service member influencers are helping DOD recruit, Pentagon official says
Social media posts shared by “genuine service members on their own” are helping the Pentagon recruit more young Americans into the U.S. military, according to the deputy secretary of defense.
Pay & Benefits
As shutdown looms, fed firefighters express concern over continuity of pay and benefits
If Congress fails to stop a funding cutoff "many of us might not get paid, or at least won’t get paid on time, and that’s a real problem," says one firefighter.
Management
IRS hits key digitization goal months ahead of schedule
Although Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plugged progress in IRS efforts to tame paper in the agency, she also emphasized that “playing politics with IRS funding is unacceptable.”
Workforce
Scientific federal agencies have restaffed to pre-Trump levels
While the Biden administration is finding success in its hiring efforts, a report finds diversity efforts are lagging.
Workforce
Union coalition throws support behind OPM’s anti-Schedule F rules
A group of 14 labor organizations led by the National Treasury Employees Union urged the federal government’s HR agency to adopt its proposal to hamstring future efforts to strip feds’ job protections “promptly.”
Management
GSA plans $2 billion in cleaner construction projects
The agency is utilizing funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to support 150 construction projects using “low-embodied carbon” materials.
Management
Passenger rail gets ‘unprecedented’ $16B investment
The grants to replace aging infrastructure along the Northeast Corridor come as Republicans in Congress look to cut back funding for Amtrak.
Defense