Pay & Benefits

Feds Will Pay 6.1 Percent More Toward Health Insurance Premiums in 2018

Workers can expect to pay an average of $5.57 to $12.55 more per pay period, depending on their plan.

Pay & Benefits

Reforms Allowing Agencies to Hire Faster Advance Through Senate Panel

Students, recent graduates and applicants for hard-to-fill jobs may soon be eligible for direct appointments.

Pay & Benefits

Senate Panel Approves 60% Increase in Buyout Payments for Feds

The $15,000 bump in VSIPs could make leaving government more appealing to employees as agencies look for ways to decrease the size of their workforces.

Management

How the VA Is Blocking Marijuana Research Veterans Say Could Save Lives

Some vets credit cannabis with saving their lives, but VA won’t help researchers who want to study the drug’s effects on post-traumatic stress disorder.

Pay & Benefits

Senate Overseers to Consider Bill Raising Maximum Buyout Payment By $15K

The legislation comes as agencies plan to downsize their workforces at the direction of the Trump administration.

Pay & Benefits

Defense Department Announces TRICARE Changes for 2018

Service members will be required to opt into TRICARE during next open enrollment period to continue to use the health care program.

Management

USPS Defaults on Billions in Mandatory Payments, Despite Scheduled Relief

Lawmaker joins agency in renewing call for comprehensive postal reform.

Pay & Benefits

Watchdog: OPM Denied 20 Percent of Agency Requests to Let Political Appointees 'Burrow In'

Denied requests violated merit system principles; in all political-to-career conversions that actually went through since 2010, agencies followed the rules.

Management

VA Still Well Short of the Doctors It Needs Despite Small Gains

Most of the department's new hires were offset but employees leaving, report finds.

News

Report: Feds Are Getting Older and the Government Can't Hire Young People

An exhaustive study of the public service workforce shows the age is shifting significantly older.

Management

State Dept. Reform Plan Aims to Couple Drastic Cuts With Making Employees’ Lives Easier

Department spells out five tenets of redesign; Democrats skeptical of intentions.

Oversight

House Fails to Approve Short-Term FAA Reauthorization

Bill would extend agency’s authority for six months, omits air traffic control privatization proposal.

Pay & Benefits

Lawmaker Questions Oversight of Agencies’ Buyout, Early Retirement Offers

OPM has a history of approving faulty requests for separation incentive authority, congressman says.

Pay & Benefits

VA Re-Fires Scandal-Plagued Employee in Test Case for Trump's New Law

New law took effect after initial disciplinary act against director of medical center in Washington, D.C.

Pay & Benefits

Some Agencies Say Reform Plans Won’t Focus on Job Cuts, Layoffs Unlikely

HR leaders say they will find new jobs for anyone whose function is eliminated.