The Office of Personnel Management released a new guidebook on how agencies should begin preparing for workforce reshaping efforts. It also updated key documents on issuing administrative furloughs. Both guides are designed to help agency heads implement possible reductions in force or furloughs so that they comply with the law and do the least damage.
Veterans groups want a 10 percent overall budget increase for VA, more staffing and updated facilities to meet today's healthcare needs.
According to the Government Accountability Office, Defense Department's planning to improve asset management don’t include adequate performance measures. That’s one reason DoD supply chain management is still on GAO’s High Risk List. Zina Merritt is director of Defense capability and management issues at GAO, told Federal Drive with Tom Temin about DoD’s ongoing asset visibility problems.
The process might not be pretty, but budget experts predict civilian agencies won't face $18 billion in spending cuts during the last five months of fiscal 2017. The President submitted a budget amendment for 2017 last week, which proposed major boosts to defense and homeland security spending and civilian agency offsets.
Although President Donald Trump's skinny budget failed to mention a pay raise for federal employees, a 1.9 percent pay hike may be in the works.
A new report urges the Trump Administration to do all it can to get federal agencies focused on customer service to make government operations more efficient and lower costs. Mallory Barg Bulman, vice president for research and evaluation at the Partnership for Public Service, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss the report put out by the Partnership and Accenture.
Most buildings outlive their usefulness and get torn down. That's about to happen to five buildings on the Walter Reed Bethesda campus. Army Col. Anthony Meador, assistant chief of staff at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss where the wrecking ball will hit next.
Brenda Sprague, the State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for passport services, said the agency has made major changes to its people, process and technology to be able to handle a huge increase in passport applications over the next two years.
The Veterans Affairs Department, Congress and Government Accountability Office all agree: an outdated and inflexible hiring process and serious shortcomings with the department's human resources functions are prohibiting the agency from quickly filling at least 45,000 open health care positions.
While the Defense Department balances the threat of sequestration with additional spending money from the White House, some members of Congress are looking at ways to support military members and their families.
Top officials in two military branches say a yearlong continuing resolution would stop civilian hiring and flying hours.
A new bill that would limit how much time doctors, nurses and other employees at the Veterans Affairs Department could spend on union business has support now from VA itself. The department said having its employees spend 100 percent of their hours on official time is "necessary, reasonable and in the public's best interest."
Veterans groups are calling for an 8.3 percent increase in medical funding for the Veterans Health Administration and a 10 percent overall increase for the Department of Veterans Affairs next year. Carlos Fuentes, legislative director for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to provide details on 'independent budget' recommendations and others.
House Republican leaders are trying to wrangle enough of their own members to approve the final version of the American Health Care Reform Act, the bill intended to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act. David Hawkings, a senior editor at Roll Call, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss what could happen if the bill makes it to the Senate floor and the President eventually signs.
Beyond arguing for a larger fleet, authors of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments report on the potential boost of defense funding, say the Navy needs to be re-structured to meet likely future threats. Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the center, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss what that re-imagined fleet would look like.