Oversight
Bisignano draws scrutiny as his former company falters
Just months after the Social Security commissioner and Internal Revenue Service CEO divested nearly $600 million in Fiserv investments, the business’ stock value tanked more than 40% on the news that Bisignano had issued overly rosy earnings guidance.
Workforce
Federal employee groups want to reopen government. They disagree on how
While the nation’s largest federal employee union called for Congress to enact House Republicans’ short-term funding deal, another association for federal workers and retirees warned it isn’t as “clean” as proponents say.
Workforce
Nation’s largest federal employee union calls for 'clean CR' with backpay guarantee to reopen government
Labor leaders said Monday that a House-passed proposal to fund the government through mid-November with additional language guaranteeing furloughed workers’ backpay is “the best we’re going to get.”
Pay & Benefits
Cost-of-living adjustments will stay relatively static in 2026
Civil Service Retirement System retirees will see a 2.8% increase to their defined-benefit annuities next year, compared to just a 2% bump for Federal Employees Retirement System annuitants.
Pay & Benefits
Dueling plans to pay feds on-time fail in Senate, though a bipartisan path forward appears
Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., appeared to agree to negotiations Thursday afternoon on a plan to pay federal employees and potentially contractors amid the ongoing government shutdown.
Pay & Benefits
House Dems urge utilities to keep lights on for feds amid shutdown
With the prospect of their first full missed paycheck just days away, federal workers already are seeking outside support, whether via food banks or side jobs.
Workforce
SSA is denying excepted workers’ time off and telework requests, seemingly defying shutdown guidance
Though OPM guidance states that agencies should seek to accommodate the needs of excepted workers during lapses in appropriation, employees who have fallen ill or simply can no longer afford to commute without getting paid have been labeled AWOL and threatened with discipline.
Workforce
Trump’s latest order requires strategic plans reflective of presidential ‘priorities’ to resume hiring
While experts agree that agencies should seek to address new skills gaps created by the Trump administration’s efforts to downsize the federal workforce, language enshrining “administration priorities” into those plans could politicize hiring of career workers.
Pay & Benefits
Dems, Murkowski demand White House guarantee backpay for furloughed feds
The White House continues to insist that the 2019 Government Employees Fair Treatment Act does not guarantee backpay to furloughed federal workers after every shutdown.
Workforce
Legal challenges against Trump’s union EOs continue to proliferate
The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers has filed its second lawsuit seeking to block President Trump’s effort to strip collective bargaining rights from two-thirds of the federal workforce, this time on behalf of NASA workers.
Pay & Benefits
Federal and postal workers to see double-digit health care premium increases again next year
Federal employee groups decried the second consecutive year of premium increases eclipsing 10 percent amid a government shutdown and a proposed 1% pay raise for non-law enforcement personnel.
Pay & Benefits
Trump administration’s claims against automatic furloughed worker backpay lack legal, historical basis
Experts say the White House’s new theory that the 2019 Government Employee Fair Treatment Act does not guarantee feds backpay following a shutdown fails a basic tenet of legal analysis.
Updated
Pay & Benefits
OMB deletes reference to law guaranteeing backpay to furloughed feds from shutdown guidance
An Office of Management and Budget FAQ document now states that only excepted employees forced to work without pay are guaranteed backpay at the conclusion of a lapse in appropriations.
Management
Bisignano to lead IRS in addition to SSA duties, raising questions about the Senate confirmation process
Experts warned that the move could further facilitate the consolidation of Social Security and IRS databases for use in immigration enforcement.
Pay & Benefits
Democrats introduce bill to ease TSP withdrawals, loans during shutdowns
The Emergency Relief for Federal Workers Act would clarify that lapses in appropriations qualify federal workers to take a hardship withdrawal from the federal government’s 401(k)-style retirement savings program and eliminate the associated 10% penalty in those instances.
Workforce
RIF threat sparks union lawsuit as shutdown continues
AFGE and AFSCME argued that an Office of Management and Budget memo instructing agencies to launch mass layoffs during the government shutdown violate the Antideficiency Act and most agencies’ own authorizing statutes.
Pay & Benefits
TSP funds continue to tick upward in September
For a second consecutive month, all of the funds in the Thrift Savings Plan increased in value.
Workforce
Judge blocks Trump’s anti-union executive order for IFPTE-represented workers
U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said the president “clearly” exceeded his authority when issuing an edict stripping two-thirds of the federal workforce of its collective bargaining rights.
Workforce
Bureau of Prisons the latest federal agency to cancel its union contracts
Labor leaders said the effort to bust their union is particularly ill-timed, given the prospect of a government shutdown that could begin as soon as Wednesday.
Workforce