Congress Returns to Focus on Federal Employee Accountability
The new Congress has in effect picked up where it left off in 2016, but with a busier agenda ahead …More
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Still Few Details on Federal Hiring Freeze, Other Trump Plans
With little more than a week until it takes office, the incoming Trump administration still has provided little detail on …More
Federal Employee Pay, Retirement and Rights on Table for House
The chairman of the key House panel overseeing the federal workforce has said he will pursue a range of changes …More
OPM Cites Need for Civil Service Reforms
The civil service is “is long overdue for modernization,” OPM has said in an “exit memo” recapping the agency’s initiatives …More
OPM Facing Leadership Void at Crucial Time
The Trump transition team so far has remained silent on plans to nominate an OPM director, a position that Beth …More
Vacancies Limit MSPB Ability to Decide Federal Employee Appeals
The MSPB governing board is now down to only one member, following the resignation of chairman Susan Tsui Grundmann, whose …More
Benefits Bills Offered, Advance in Early Days of Congress
The House has passed HR-247, to expand and put into law a GSA policy allowing federal employees on official travel …More
Largest Federal Pay Raise Since 2010 Set to Take Effect, with Differences
The largest pay raise since January 2010 is set to take effect Sunday (January 8) for most federal employees, but …More
Note Impact of Pay Raise on TSP Investments
Getting a raise–whether a wide-scale one as is coming up or on an individual basis, such as on a promotion …More
All TSP Funds Post Gains for 2016
Each TSP fund produced a gain for calendar year 2016–the first time that has happened since 2012–led by the small …More
Changes to Administrative Leave, Boost in DoD Buyouts Signed
President Obama has signed into law the annual DoD authorization bill, a measure that, as it turned out, contained many …More
Holiday Schedule Reminder
The Martin Luther King, Jr. federal holiday will be observed nationwide on Monday the 16th but Inauguration Day on Friday …More
Interim Rules Broaden Veterans Preference
OPM has issued interim final rules to carry out a late-2015 change in law expanding “derived” veterans preference in federal …More
New Year Brings New Pay Raise for Federal Employees
The arrival of the new year brings changes in the financial pictures of federal employees and retirees, some due to …More
Medicare Part B Costs Increasing–By More for Some
The 2017 Medicare Part B (physicians and related services) premium is $109 a month for most enrollees, an increase of …More
TSP Investment Limits Stay Flat
The investment limit on tax-favored retirement savings plans such as the TSP will remain $18,000. That’s the cap on regular …More
Social Security Figures Rise
The Social Security withholding “FICA” tax of 6.2 percent will to apply to salary up to $127,200, up from the …More
Key Interest Rate Falls
The interest paid in the voluntary contribution retirement savings program available to CSRS (but not FERS) employees will fall to …More
Open Season Choices Take Effect
Insurance elections made during the recent benefits open season also take effect in January–as of the first of the month …More
No Word on Extra Time Off; Raise Order Still Pending
There have been no developments through this morning (Thursday) on two issues federal employees have been watching closely. One is …More
CBO ‘Budget Options’ Report Provides Starting Point for Cuts
The Congressional Budget Office has issued one of its occasional reports on potential budget cuts, once again mentioning several involving …More
CBO Lays Out Pros, Cons of Hiring Freeze
The latest CBO report on deficit-cutting options lays out, without taking sides, arguments for and against a partial federal hiring …More
CBO Lists Potential Cuts to FEHB Premium Sharing, COLAs, Other Ideas
In its latest budget options report, the CBO once again mentions the concept of changing the formula for setting the …More
OMB Nominee Has Supported Hiring Freeze, Tight Budgets
President-elect Trump’s choice for OMB director, Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., has a record of supporting spending cuts similar to those …More
No Word Yet on New OPM Leader
With the Trump transition team now moving its focus from Cabinet-level departments to the larger independent agencies, there still has …More
Donations an Option for Unusable Annual Leave
Employees who will be unable to use all their “use or lose” annual leave by the time the current federal …More
Agencies Funded Through April; Much Else Kicked Down the Road
Congress’s adjournment ends a year in which it changed several important federal employment-related policies but left much on the table …More
One Last Action Needed to Finalize Pay Raise
One more formal action is needed to finalize the federal employee raise in January, an executive order containing detailed pay …More
DoD Bill Creates New Leave Policies, but Not Right Away
Language in the DoD authorization bill (S-2943) passed by Congress creates a new “investigative leave” as a carve-out of administrative …More
More Focus on Accountability Ahead
The government-wide restriction on administrative leave in disciplinary situations that was enacted just as Congress prepared to adjourn was one …More
