Tech
White House cyber office makes new workforce-focused hire
Daniel “Rags” Ragsdale is joining the White House Office of the National Cyber Director, following work in the private sector, Defense Department and cyber research space.
Workforce
In battle with federal employee union, Biden fights to preserve the debt ceiling
The Biden administration is arguing that federal workers do not have standing in the case and it should therefore be thrown out.
Workforce
White House calls on agencies to 'aggressively' reduce telework this fall
Chief of Staff Jeff Zients instructed agencies to focus on executing plans to increase in-person work in September and October.
Oversight
The most serious Trump indictment yet – a criminal law scholar explains the charges of using ‘dishonesty, fraud and deceit’ to cling to power
All of the charges rest on the claim that Trump and his co-conspirators knew the former president lost the 2020 election.
Oversight
House GOP demands info on Biden’s implementation of vaccine mandate for feds
A subcommittee is probing several agencies to look for "wrongdoing by government officials" during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Defense
Biden to reverse Trump decision to move Space Command to Alabama
The decision to keep the command at its current home in Colorado will surely enrage Alabama politicians.
Defense
Biden picks Gen. David Allvin to be the next Air Force top officer
The general is the service’s vice chief of staff.
Defense
Biden selects NSA veteran as national cyber director nominee
White House officials named former National Security Agency official Harry Coker Jr. as the nominee to replace former National Cyber Director Chris Inglis amid the ongoing implementation of the new National Cyber Strategy.
Workforce
Biden asks Supreme Court to salvage a president’s right to issue federal workforce mandates
The White House’s vaccine mandate is no longer in effect, but the Biden administration is worried about precedent.
Management
Federal agencies plan to spend $770M ramping up their electric vehicle usage this year
The Biden administration has ambitious goals to electrify the federal fleet, but many obstacles remain.
Oversight
Why Trump’s prosecution for keeping secret documents is lawful, constitutional, precedented, nonpartisan and merited
A former national security staffer, now a scholar of secrecy law, says criticisms of Trump’s federal indictment for hoarding classified documents are unfounded.
Management
The White House promotes success stories in the government’s customer experience push
Filling out forms to recertify for disability insurance is “more frightening than cancer,” one beneficiary said. The Social Security Administration is trying to make it easier.
Management
Cocaine at the White House? Republicans demand answers
The White House says the matter is under investigation by the Secret Service.
Workforce
Schedule F architects say the plan’s critics are ‘hyperbolic’
Officials behind the Trump administration’s abortive effort to strip tens of thousands of federal workers in policy positions of their civil service protections called concerns of politicization overblown, but espoused making all federal employees at-will.
Pay & Benefits
Odds for a 5.2% pay raise for feds in 2024 improve with release of the Senate defense policy bill
The Senate version of the annual National Defense Authorization Act includes an average 5.2% pay raise for both military service members and civilian Pentagon employees.
Workforce
A gender equity group still wants better protections for feds who need abortion care
One year after the Dobbs decision, President Biden signed a new executive order potentially expanding contraceptive access for federal workers, but a gender equity group at the Justice Department says more needs to be done.
Management
Vacant White House cyber post draws concern amid global software breach
In the aftermath of a global cyberattack exposing personal data on millions of Americans, calls are growing for the White House to fill the top slot at the Office of the National Cyber Director.
Pay & Benefits
Implement locality pay changes quickly, salary council urges OPM
The annual list of recommendations, made in February but made public this month, did not alter the map of locality pay areas, but reiterated the importance of proposals already tentatively approved by the Biden administration.
Workforce
Federal Employee Unions Endorse Biden for Reelection
Labor leaders described President Biden as “the most labor-friendly president in history.”
Management