Defense
State, DHS grapple with Iraqi refugee crisis
Departments appoint career officials to help make the vetting of applicants for admission to the United States run smoothly.
Pay & Benefits
GAO analysts vote for union representation
Employees vote 897-445 to bring a union into the watchdog agency for the first time.
Pay & Benefits
High-performing civil servants honored at black tie gala
Science and technology played major roles in award recipients’ work in medicine, security, service delivery and diplomacy.
Pay & Benefits
Making Better Pay Decisions
As pay-for-performance systems spread, managers who make compensation decisions need to be armed with as much data as possible.
Defense
Security official defends satellite surveillance plan
Official says DHS has conducted a full "privacy impact assessment" on the recently unveiled National Applications Office.
Tech
VA is slow to upgrade tech security, GAO says
Report finds agency isn’t moving fast enough to address the weaknesses exposed by an incident that compromised the personal information of roughly 26.5 million people.
News
Revised mining rule heartens industry, worries environmentalists
Regulatory change will increase Interior agency’s workload because staff will have more information to evaluate.
Oversight
OMB finds performance of federal programs improving
Administration rated 48 new programs in this round of evaluations, with 77 percent found to be at least adequate.
News
Agriculture secretary weighs bid for Senate seat
Mike Johanns would need to resign before he enters the election; Democrats say he has a history of resigning public office to pursue the next job.
Defense
Aerospace team urges tanker performance over content
American-European team says its aircraft would have 58-60 percent "domestic content," which would meet the "Buy America" requirements of at least 50 percent.
Defense
Defense labor relations reforms waiting on Congress
Pentagon personnel official says it wouldn’t make sense to enact changes only to have lawmakers repeal them later.
Defense
Delays in vital security programs frustrate Democrats
Department official says GAO report misrepresented progress on individual programs; comptroller general stands by the report.
Defense
Outgoing VA head cites slow progress on claims backlog
Processing delays likely to continue as long as the nation is at war, says Jim Nicholson.
Management