Tech
Contracts featuring automation and built-in security can boost agencies’ cyber defenses, VA officials say
As the federal government looks to harden its cyber resilience, officials from the Veterans Affairs Department said agencies should work to modernize outdated technologies and ensure that vendor contracts include more rigorous security standards.
Management
Cost-cutting measures will coincide with new goals to slash emissions, USPS says
The Postal Service has laid out new plans to cut its carbon footprint significantly by 2030.
Management
National Archives tees up new rules for UFO records
New legislation mandates a governmentwide repository of records dealing with "unidentified anomalous phenomena."
Pay & Benefits
TSP and Required Minimum Distributions
Rules around these mandatory withdrawals changed under the Secure 2.0 Act.
Workforce
Efforts to right-size agency real estate portfolios are often stymied
COMMENTARY | “There is a path forward and relevant, recent examples exist,” writes one former federal real estate official who urges the Biden administration to embrace the hybrid work model.
Tech
How Congress is gearing up to take advantage of generative AI
The House is working on new AI specific policies, guidance and training.
Management
House fails to impeach DHS secretary
Alejandro Mayorkas is no longer in peril after the failed vote. If the measure had passed, it would have been the first time a cabinet secretary had been impeached in nearly 150 years.
Tech
Proposed contractor cyber reporting rule sets a ‘significantly problematic’ bar, industry groups say
The groups, which represent tech and cybersecurity companies sometimes contracted by the government, say the proposals are too rigorous and inconsistent.
Management
IRS says its hiring surge and funding boost could generate $560B more than it thought
Improvements to IT, increased use of data analytics and deterrence factors will improve the return on IRS spending infusion, Biden administration says.
Pay & Benefits
Lawmakers urge OPM to update parental leave policy docs
The federal government’s HR agency’s self-imposed deadline of the end of 2024 to ensure the federal employee handbook and public-facing web pages reflect the enactment of 12 weeks of paid parental leave should be “a floor and not a ceiling.”
Tech
Autonomous tech featured in Senate border and foreign aid bill
The Senate’s proposed $118 billion immigration and foreign aid package includes more than $260 million to deploy emerging technologies to secure the border.
Tech
Who should be in charge of protecting our water systems from cyber threats?
Federal officials don’t agree. Recent hacks on water systems exposed their vulnerabilities. But while some want the EPA to play a stronger role, others emphasized that local systems are best suited to defend themselves.
Pay & Benefits
Some Coast Guard personnel can’t find housing in vacation-rich areas, GAO says
The watchdog said that despite some government housing and a private sector housing allowance, some Coast Guard personnel can’t find affordable lodging stationed in either remote areas or ones where rentals are positioned for vacation economies.
Tech
Vet centers need better systems, data to enhance support services
Watchdog officials warned lawmakers that the community-based counseling centers for returning veterans use a platform for identifying those at high risk of suicide that is “neither effectively nor consistently utilized.”
Updated
Workforce
Hiring and pay reforms accompany staffing surges in bipartisan border deal
After months of negotiations, Senate group unveils measure to ramp up border security, provide foreign aid and largely meet President Biden's request for thousands of new federal employees.
Workforce
The jobs boom is hitting the federal sector, too
Federal agencies added 11,000 jobs in January and hit a 20-year high for non-census years.
Workforce
OPM offers guidance for agencies implementing salary history ban
Federal agencies will have until October to excise the solicitation and use of job candidates’ past compensation when setting pay for new hires.
Defense
What's at stake as Congress hashes out the 2024 defense budget
A guide to the biggest differences between proposals for the four-months-late defense appropriations bill.
Oversight
Agencies contend with new metrics, another missing hearing for IT acquisition reform
Cracks are showing in the usual, bipartisan buy-in for oversight on 2014 Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act progress.
Tech