News

Federal retirements fall short while hiring booms

Fewer federal employees retired in fiscal 2002 than government officials had predicted, but the government hired more employees than it has in at least the past six years.

Pay & Benefits

TSP catch-up contributions program to start in July

Federal employees age 50 or older will be able to put extra money in their 401k-style Thrift Savings Plan accounts beginning in July, the board that runs the TSP announced recently.

Defense

Agencies now have permanent buyout authority

Federal agencies can start offering buyouts of up to $25,000 to their employees, under a regulation issued this week.

Management

Spy agency busts union

In the latest Bush administration move to rankle federal union leaders, the head of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency on Thursday revoked collective bargaining rights from the agency’s employees.

Magazine

Dignity Factor

Defense

Regulation clears way for officers’ overtime pay

The Office of Personnel Management on Thursday loosened up a regulation that could have cost federal law enforcement officers thousands of dollars a year in lost pay—and lowered their retirement benefits.

Pay & Benefits

Administration seeks to raise SES pay cap

The Bush administration wants to raise a cap on federal executives’ salaries, administration officials said Friday.

Tech

OPM contracts out federal career Web site

The company that runs the most popular online job search site will take over the federal government’s central jobs Web site, the Office of Personnel Management announced this week.

Defense

TSA awards human resources contract to California agency

The unlikely winner of a $550 million federal recruitment contract is a California government agency.

Pay & Benefits

GSA lowers mileage reimbursement rate for 2003

Federal employees who travel in their own cars on government business will receive 36 cents per mile in 2003, a half-penny less than they received in 2002.

Management

Bush management chief tapped to head IRS

President Bush will nominate Office of Management and Budget official Mark Everson to head the Internal Revenue Service, the White House announced Monday.

Life After Government

The Comeback Trail

Management

Printing office cuts price, wins bid to handle 2004 budget

OMB has picked the Government Printing Office to print the fiscal 2004 budget after threatening to contract out the job if the printing office couldn’t underbid private contractors.

News

A federal holiday poem

Pay & Benefits

TSP limits

Attention federal workers who turn 50 next year: You’ll be able to put up to $14,000 into your Thrift Savings Plan account in 2003. But don’t worry about that yet.

Management

GPO offers to cut cost of printing budget document

The Government Printing Office has offered to cut the cost of printing the federal budget by 23 percent to prevent the Bush administration from contracting out the job.

Pay & Benefits

Cape Codders lose locality pay battle

The Bush administration has rejected a recommendation to boost the salaries of federal workers in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Pay & Benefits

Closing time

Two chances to change your benefits package end on Dec. 31.

Pay & Benefits

Bush administration mulls 2 percent raise in 2004

Federal employees would get a 2 percent pay raise in 2004, the smallest pay raise in a decade, under plans being weighed by the Bush administration.

Defense

Ridge promises cooperation with union leaders

Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge has promised to involve federal union leaders in setting new personnel rules for the new Homeland Security Department, union leaders said.