Pay & Benefits
Oversight Dems: Commerce reneged on probationers’ health benefits
Some recently fired probationary workers have also been unable to access their personnel records to show to insurance companies and prospective employers.
Workforce
Feds on the job hunt are taking advantage of professional development opportunities tailored to them
Initiatives are focusing on topics ranging from wellness and career coaching to artificial intelligence.
Pay & Benefits
Senators fix their sights on OPM’s pay memo for political appointees
Eight Democrats decried recent guidance encouraging agencies to pay Schedule C political appointees the maximum federal salary of $195,200 as an attempt to hire “underqualified and overpaid political elites.”
Workforce
OPM ‘merit’ hiring plan includes bipartisan reforms, politicized new test
The federal government’s HR agency on Thursday instructed agencies to cease collecting data on the demographic makeup of their workforces.
Management
Here's where the State Department is planning its layoffs and changes
Various national security offices, as well as units that cover Asia and the Middle East, will be consolidated or slashed. Thousands of employees across divisions are targeted for cuts.
Workforce
Democratic bills would rehire axed National Parks and Forest Service employees
Both agencies have already undergone workforce reductions with more layoffs still planned.
Management
Trump administration begins cracking down on federal employees' use of leave for voting
Agencies have begun notifying employees they can no longer take administrative leave for election-related activities.
Contracts
SBA declares tribal and Alaska Native programs not affected by Trump's DEI rollback
The Small Business Administration's general counsel responded to concerns raised by the Native American Contractors Association.
Workforce
Appeals board creates new path to renew reversals of probationary firings
At least some fired feds can pursue their case through a class action, administrative judge says.
Workforce
DHS says it won’t eliminate oversight offices but is still pursuing layoffs
Progressive legal organizations are suing to stop the Trump administration from winding down the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties as well as two ombudsmen focused on immigration.
Breaking News
Oversight
Supreme Court allows Trump to fire federal employee appeals board members at will
In dissenting opinion, justices say the decision will provide Trump the most subservient executive branch “maybe ever.”
Pay & Benefits
House passes reconciliation bill that cuts federal employee retirement benefits
Though Democrats were able to excise a plan to base federal retirees’ annuity payments on their highest five years of salary, rather than the current high-3, proposals to eliminate the FERS supplement and to charge employees for their civil service protections remain on the table.
Workforce
Judges issue promising rulings for groups fighting Trump’s anti-union order
A federal judge in Kentucky tossed the Trump administration’s bid to secure a court victory prior to formally rescinding union contracts under the guise of national security, while another jurist sought new avenues to potentially block the March executive order’s implementation.
Oversight
Government oversight employees detail fears of retaliation under Trump administration in new Senate report
President Donald Trump has, so far, fired 19 inspectors general, who are independent watchdogs that investigate waste, fraud and abuse in federal agencies.
Pay & Benefits
Retirement cuts tweaked in House reconciliation package
The latest draft of the GOP’s plan to cut federal spending to pay for tax cuts and increased immigration enforcement no longer un-grandfathers federal workers hired before 2014 from increased retirement contribution rules passed in the 2010s and delays implementation of the FERS supplement.
Management
NIH director bemoans RIFs, mocks ‘5 things’ email and says agency shoulders blame for COVID outbreak in first address
New agency head also says some laid off employees may be recalled, including to help address supply shortages at labs and medical centers.
Workforce
The Trump administration is pausing RIFs but probationary firings are resuming
Some agencies have walked back their layoffs, but the court order spurring that action is not preventing re-firings.
Workforce
FBI to reassign 1,500 employees outside of D.C. area, vacate current HQ, Patel says
The location of the FBI’s headquarters has been a contested issue for more than a decade, as the downtown Hoover building deteriorates.
Workforce
Federal contract employees who alleged discrimination forced to wait as enforcement agency is dismantled
Layoffs are scheduled to take effect at the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs on June 6. Between the reduction in force and separation incentives, the agency’s workforce is expected to shrink by about 90%.
Management