Author Archive
Workforce
How a pair of executive orders and a memo could fast track the civil service’s politicization
Good government experts warn that President Trump’s revival of Schedule F, inserting new criteria into the hiring process and demand for a list of all feds who are still on their probationary period portend a mass firing of career workers as the new administration seeks to reshape the federal bureaucracy.
Updated
Workforce
Trump: Agencies should fire 'all' bureaucrats
Atop the president’s anticipated actions this week are executive orders moving to reinstate Schedule F, reduce unions’ bargaining rights and broad rollbacks of telework at federal agencies.
Pay & Benefits
Democrats introduce bills to provide feds 4.3% average pay raise in 2026, standardize retiree COLAs
Lawmakers have reintroduced annual bills aimed at setting a marker for the upcoming federal pay raise debate and to end bifurcated cost-of-living increases for federal retirees.
Workforce
House Oversight Republicans open Congress with rants against telework, unions
The first hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was ostensibly about telework yet frequently devolved into anti-union rhetoric.
Management
OPM officials tout agency’s transformation under Biden
Leaders at the federal government’s dedicated HR agency said the organization has come a long way since being targeted for elimination by the first Trump administration.
Pay & Benefits
OPM set to finalize rules standardizing General Schedule, blue collar locality pay maps
The final rule implementing the long-requested adjustment to the Federal Wage System’s map of wage areas won’t be published until after President-elect Trump’s inauguration.
Workforce
Ernst targets D.C.-area federal workers with trio of bills
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, proposed legislation this week that would force agencies to move 30% of their D.C.-based workforce out of the region, mandate telework tracking, and push agencies to move their headquarters out of the nation’s capital.
Featured eBooks
Pay & Benefits
EEOC: The federal gender pay gap gets worse with age
The discrepancy between what men and women make in the federal government is substantially larger for those over 40 years old than that of their younger counterparts.
Pay & Benefits
OPM outlines pay, benefits rules for appointees resigning on Inauguration Day
The federal government’s HR agency also highlighted the ramifications of Jan. 20 coinciding with Martin Luther King Day for D.C.-area federal workers.
Pay & Benefits
Biden signs windfall elimination provision repeal into law
The Social Security Fairness Act ends both the WEP and the government pension offset, increasing the Social Security checks for more than 2 million retired public servants.
Pay & Benefits
Thrift Savings Plan funds end the year on the downswing
Only one of the portfolios within the federal government’s 401(k)-style retirement savings program finished December in the black.
Pay & Benefits
Biden finalizes 2% pay raise for feds next month
The president was apparently unmoved by federal employee groups and some House Democrats’ pleas to restore pay parity between the civilian and military workforces.
Pay & Benefits
Your guide to pay and benefits during a shutdown
Congress has just hours to reach an agreement to fund the government past midnight Friday, after President-elect Trump and his confidante Elon Musk scuttled a bipartisan deal earlier this week.
Workforce
Federal employee unions dismayed—but not surprised—by sudden shutdown threat
President-elect Trump and Elon Musk on Wednesday blew up a bipartisan deal to fund the government past this week, increasing the odds of a government shutdown Saturday.
Featured eBooks
Pay & Benefits
Bill to repeal windfall elimination provision clears a key Senate hurdle
The Senate voted 73-27 to invoke cloture on the Social Security Fairness Act, clearing the way for a final vote to pass the bill later this week.
Management
Bill enshrining skills-based hiring heads to Biden’s desk
The Senate last week passed the Chance to Compete Act by unanimous consent, and the House followed suit with a voice vote Monday.
Workforce
Last-ditch effort to block Schedule F’s return thwarted by Senate Republicans
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., sought unanimous consent on the Senate floor to pass the Saving the Civil Service Act, but his motion was opposed by Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.
Workforce
OPM finally issues regulations implementing 2016 administrative leave reforms
An environmental advocacy group sued the federal government’s HR agency earlier this year in an effort to prod the federal government’s HR agency to implement a law aimed at ending lengthy periods of paid administrative leave.
Workforce
Immigration judges seek renewed union recognition
In a controversial November 2020 decision, the Federal Labor Relations Authority overruled its regional director and decertified the National Association of Immigration Judges.
Workforce
Here are the agencies that saw the biggest shifts in employee morale in 2024
In a year where federal agencies tied record highs for employee engagement, some agencies saw wide swings in their workforce’s job satisfaction.
