Image: Katherine Welles/Shutterstock.com
A House committee has rejected a proposal to revive and put into law the central Trump administration executive orders on the federal workforce which the Biden administration promptly revoked on taking office.
Those orders included a trio from 2018 that would have given management a stronger hand in disciplinary matters, limited the scope of bargaining and the availability of official time, while a 2020 order would have created a new excepted service “Schedule F” that would have revoked civil service protections from many thousands of career federal positions involved with policy matters.
On a party line vote, the House Oversight and Reform Committee rejected a bid by Republicans to attach that language to a bill to a measure (HR-6104) to create an office within OPM to oversee the government’s various internship and fellowship-type programs.
The committee previously had approved a bill (HR-302) to put into law a ban against any future excepted service category similar to Schedule F, a measure that continues to await a vote in the full House.
The committee passed the internship bill along with HR-7683, to boost training for federal employees on artificial intelligence; HR-521, to preserve the special retirement benefits of law enforcement officers who become disabled; HR-7331, to increase oversight of GAO recommendations that agencies have not implemented; and HR-7535, to set standards for making agency IT systems resistant to quantum computing technology.
Meanwhile, the full House has approved HR-903, to put TSA employees under standard federal personnel rules including for purposes of pay, union and appeal rights (see related story); and HR-2499, to provide that certain health conditions are presumed to be caused by employment for purposes of workers’ compensation benefits for federal employees who worked in fire protection activities.
All’s (Still) Quiet (for Now) on the Vaccine Mandate Front
Report Faults DHS Employee Vaccination Program
Proposed Covid Exposure Bonus for TSA Employees Could Set Precedent
MSPB Backs Employee Protections in Performance-Based Discipline
Federal COLA Count Hits 6 Percent
TSP Responds to Criticisms of Fees, Other Investment Window Policies
Report: Unfunded Liability of Federal Retirement Program Already Peaked
