Pay & Benefits
OPM has new tools to fight improper health insurance enrollments
Watchdog agencies and Congress have previously chided the federal government’s HR agency for the lack of internal controls ensuring that family members of federal workers and retirees remain eligible for the federal workforce’s health insurance program.
Workforce
Pekoske touts impact of pay increases at TSA budget hearing
Workforce attrition has halved since the implementation of a new pay system that mirrors the General Schedule, while employee morale has reached its highest ever, according to the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey.
Management
Biden’s FLRA nominees move closer to Senate confirmation
Senators appeared poised Wednesday to advance the nominations of aspiring leaders in labor-relations.
Management
OPM Director will leave the Biden administration
Kiran Ahuja oversaw efforts to transform the federal government’s HR agency into a government-wide leader on human capital policy, issuing new policies governing interns, telework and civil service protections.
Workforce
Biden rescinds COVID-era executive orders, folding safer federal workforce task force
The Office of Personnel Management issued new guidance last week rescinding some forms of COVID-19-related administrative leave, but preserving four hours of paid leave for federal employees to get vaccine booster shots.
Management
Skills-based hiring for contractors advances in the House
The Allowing Contractors to Choose Employees for Select Skills Act would remove degree requirements from federal contract work in some instances.
Workforce
OPM finalizes reforms to federal internship programs
Biden administration officials hope improvements to the federal government’s Pathways Program will make it more appealing for potential applicants and easier to use as an agency recruitment tool.
Updated
Pay & Benefits
House panel advances bills to improve FEHBP oversight and fix CBP retirement snafu
A 2022 Government Accountability Office report estimated that ineligible family members covered through the federal government’s employer-sponsored health care program could cost the government between $250 million and $3 billion per year.
Pay & Benefits
OPM continued to make strides on retirement process in March
The backlog of pending retirement claims fell below 17,000 last month, a feat that did not occur until June in 2023.
Workforce
Senators take another crack at improving federal telework data
The latest bipartisan bill aimed at better measuring the workplace flexibility’s effectiveness would require agencies to publish their telework policies, as well as implement already planned improvements to data collection on its usage.
Workforce
Employee groups laud Biden’s anti-Schedule F regulations
Unions and management organizations alike applauded the Office of Personnel Management’s effort to at least slow a future Republican administration’s efforts to strip federal employees of their civil service protections.
Pay & Benefits
TSP funds touts well-rounded gains in March
Every portfolio in the federal government’s 401(k)-style retirement savings program posted increases last month.
Oversight
MSPB political firing case raises new questions on Schedule F
The Housing and Urban Development Department’s 2017 firing of a probationary employee over alleged leaks was politically motivated, the agency tasked with enforcing civil service laws said last week.
Management
Biden administration finalizes first demographics data standards update in nearly 30 years
No longer will “race” and “ethnicity” be bifurcated into separate questions in federal datasets and questionnaires such as the U.S. Census, and people of Middle Eastern or North African ancestry will have their own distinct category.
Management
Biden vows to rebuild collapsed Baltimore bridge as feds lead emergency response
Six people remain missing after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed into the Patapsco River early Tuesday when a cargo ship lost control and crashed into a support column.
Pay & Benefits
House conservatives recycle federal worker pay and benefit cuts in budget document
The Republican Study Committee’s fiscal 2025 budget plan would drastically cut federal workers’ retirement and health care benefits and end across-the-board annual pay hikes.
Workforce
O’Malley urges lawmakers to support hiring money for Social Security
President Biden’s fiscal 2025 budget proposal would boost the beleaguered agency’s funding by 9% over fiscal 2023 levels, which the new commissioner said is key to improving customer service.
Pay & Benefits
Public Service Loan Forgiveness passes $60 billion in erased debt
Since a series of tweaks to make the program easier to access, more than 850,000 Americans have had their loans forgiven in exchange for a decade of public service.
Updated
Oversight
House committee leaders want Biden to oust the acting Commerce IG
Lawmakers on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee said the current acting inspector general is “entangled” in the allegations that led to his predecessor’s ouster, adding that they lack confidence in “any” senior staffers to lead the watchdog office.
Workforce
D.C. lawmaker wants to restore due process to feds in ‘sensitive’ posts
A new bill would overrule a 2013 federal appellate court decision that denied roughly 200,000 federal employees access to the Merit Systems Protection Board.
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