Workforce

  • The Internal Revenue Service has holes that look like Swiss cheese all throughout its business operations. Appropriations at the IRS are down nearly 7 percent over the last four fiscal years. And Congress won't likely pass an appropriations bill that comes close to the $13 billion President Barack Obama requested for the IR-S in fiscal 2016. Staff at the agency's Human Capital Office, Office of Chief Counsel, and Small Business -Self Employed Division has already been cut by 16 to 30 percent. Jay McTigue is director of tax issues for the Government Accountability Office's strategic issues team. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose how years of budget cuts are affecting the IRS.

    July 27, 2015
  • The Senate Appropriations Committee rejected an amendment that would give the Office of Personnel Management an extra $37 million to make IT upgrades sooner rather than later. Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) offered the amendment. She said OPM needs to fix its IT infrastructure immediately and described the amendment as "emergency funding". Zal Azmi is president and chief operating officer for IMTAS Technologies and former chief information officer at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose that agencies need to rethink cybersecurity entirely.

    July 27, 2015
  • For now, former Deputy OMB Director Beth Cobert is in charge at the Office of Personnel Management. She is already talking to congressional leaders about the way forward for OPM and she's making a good first impression on them. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) is the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose that the outreach from Cobert is rather uncommon.

    July 27, 2015
  • Senior Correspondent Mike Causey asks, what school of thought do you belong to when it comes to personal defense? Is it arm yourself and fight or is it turn tail and run?

    July 27, 2015
  • Federal News Radio speaks with Recreation News Editor Marvin Bond about interesting things to do in and near the nation's capital.

    July 25, 2015
  • Fewer than 70 percent of retirement claims are processed in less than 60 days at the Office of Personnel Management, and estimating just how much you'll get in retirement benefits can take a long time. Tammy Flanagan is the Senior Benefits Director for the National Institute of Transition Planning. She says it's smart to have an idea about what your benefits will look like long before leaving. She tells In Depth with Francis Rose about the eight most common reasons why your retirement estimate might be inaccurate.

    July 24, 2015
  • Aileen Black, host of Women of Washington, counts down the week’s top federal stories with Francis Rose.

    July 24, 2015
  • UPDATED: Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) joins a growing list of Washington-area lawmakers who are looking at whether Congress could pay for the costs from the OPM breach under emergency appropriations.

    July 24, 2015
  • Evan Lesser, founder and director of ClearanceJobs.com, joins host Derrick Dortch to discuss how federal workers with security clearances have been impacted by the OPM cyber breach. He will also talk about the state of the clearance job market. July 24, 2015

    July 23, 2015
  • The breaches of the Office of Personnel Management's networks underscore how vulnerable the government is to hackers. Every federal employee can strengthen or weaken the government's cybersecurity. Federal News Radio's Emily Kopp asked two experts to share some tips for being safe online during a training conference hosted by Gov Loop. The first voice you'll hear is Kristina Dorville, the Homeland Security Department’s branch chief for cyber education and awareness. We'll also hear from Celia Paulsen, an IT security specialist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

    July 23, 2015
  • Something as big and as shocking as the OPM data breach can be a credibility killer for any organization. Even so, former Homeland Security HR executive Jeff Neal says he's been surprised by the number of people saying OPM should be shut down and have its mission transferred to other agencies.

    July 23, 2015
  • Federal employees and other security-clearance holders do not trust the Office of Personnel Management to protect victims of the hacks on its databases, an exclusive Federal News Radio survey shows. Yet they'll accept the agency's credit- and identity-protection services. Moreover, they'll continue to give OPM their sensitive personal information if it means they'll keep their security clearances.

    July 23, 2015
  • So, you are definitely, maybe, maybe not, one of the 22 million current, retired, or former feds who’ve been hacked. That's about everybody in the states of Florida and Arkansas, says Senior Correspondent Mike Causey. Now what?

    July 23, 2015
  • Postal Service employees know the effects of a major cyber breach all too well. Hackers stole personally identifiable information for more than 800,000 employees back in November 2014. But the USPS Inspector General said the agency from the top to bottom wasn't prepared for the attack. Aron Alexander is the IT audit director in the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Postal Service. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose that the agency doesn't have the staffing and the resources to handle cybersecurity functions.

    July 22, 2015