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

A Bill to Hamstring Agency Rulemaking Passed the House Despite Veto Threat

The Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act would require all new major regulations by federal agencies to first be approved by both the House and Senate.

Oversight

Trump Indictments Won’t Keep Him From Presidential Race, But Will Make His Reelection Bid Much Harder

Because the Constitution does not require that the president be free from indictment, conviction or prison, it follows that a person under indictment or in prison may run for the office and may even serve as president.

Workforce

‘Flexibility’ Will Be Key to Agencies Retaining Military Spouses, Biden Says

President Biden signed an executive order last week tasking agencies with developing new plans to recruit and retain spouses of military service members and said telework will play a key role.

Oversight

Trump Indictment Unsealed – A Criminal Law Scholar Explains What The Charges Mean, And What Prosecutors Will Now Need To Prove

The 49-page document details how Trump kept classified government documents – including papers concerning U.S. nuclear capabilities – scattered in boxes across his home at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, long after his presidency ended in 2021 and the government tried to reclaim them.

Workforce

Biden Killed the Vaccine Mandate for Feds. He’s Still Threatening to Take the Case to the Supreme Court.

The administration is looking to avoid a potentially far-reaching decision that would limit presidential authority over the federal workforce.