Federal Newscast

With rising inflation, OPM to examine some employees current pay rate

In today's Federal Newscast, some federal workers may be getting a pay raise due to rising levels of inflation.

Eric White@FEDERALNEWSCAST

March 28, 2022 11:18 am

5 min read

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Some federal workers may be getting a pay raise due to rising levels of inflation. The Office of Personnel Management is assessing current pay levels for remote workers to see if they need to be adjusted. That pay rate assessment will go to the White House and Congress by the end of the month. OPM is also looking at expanding overtime pay for overseas Navy employees. Those changes are required under the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2022.

The IRS’s private debt collection program costs more to operate than expected. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration finds the IRS under-reported program costs by $7 million between fiscal 2016 and 2019. The IRS disagrees with TIGTA’s findings, and claims unreported costs totaled less than $1 million for this period of time. The 2015 FAST Act requires the IRS to track revenue and costs associated with its private debt collection program.

The General Services Administration approves sale of the Trump Hotel lease, after years of scrutiny from watchdogs. The Trump Hotel lease is one major step closer to changing hands. GSA approved CGI Hospitality Group as a qualified transferee under its lease for the Old Post Office in downtown D.C. CGI and Hilton Worldwide Holdings plan to convert the building into a Waldorf Astoria luxury hotel. The lease became the subject of lawsuits and congressional investigations during the Trump administration. Congress and courts debated whether former President Donald Trump’s financial ties to a federal lease violated the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution. (Federal News Network)

The Supreme Court says the Navy — at least for now — can use servicemembers’ vaccination status as a factor in deciding their military assignments. The Navy had appealed lower court decisions that ruled the service couldn’t take any action at all against 35 plaintiffs in the special operations community who refused COVID vaccines on religious grounds. The justices made their ruling in an unsigned opinion on the court’s “shadow docket.” Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch said they would have sided with the plaintiffs. (Federal News Network)

Two members of the House Armed Services Committee are starting a new caucus focused on public shipyards. Representatives Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.) and Rob Wittman (R-Va.) created the caucus to discuss shipyard issues, increase stakeholder support and raise awareness. Seven other representatives from both sides of the aisle also joined the organization.

Six high-ranking Air Force leaders are announcing their retirement. As the Air Force prepares for a new cycle in budgeting, six generals are stepping down from their posts and moving into the civilian world. Among them is Maj. Gen. Mark Camerer, the commander of the Air Force Expeditionary Center. The center supports rapid operations worldwide with more than 14,000 airmen. Maj. Gen. Cameron Holt is also retiring. He is the deputy assistant secretary for contracting. He is in charge of executing programs worth $65 billion annually.

Acquisition employees at the Defense Department will receive more training under a new program with the Defense Innovation Unit. The Immersive Commercial Acquisition Program, or I-CAP, will give acquisition employees the opportunity to work with commercial partners and DIU contracting officers. Through the project, those employees will develop skills in all aspects of the commercial solutions opening process. DIU is partnering with the Defense Acquisition University on the project. DIU says the program can eventually expand to include other training areas such as program management.

The Defense Department has a new partner to help get procurement dollars out the door. The NIH IT Acquisition and Assessment Center, or NITAAC, earned an 801 certification, meaning DoD contracting officers can place an order, make a purchase or procure services without a special waiver. Previously, DoD contracting officers needed the waiver for any purchases over $250,000. NITAAC additionally says DoD can take advantage of contracting officers who received a FAC-C Level-3 Digital Information Technology Acquisition Program certification from the Office of Federal Procurement Policy training course.

GSA releases the first two pools under the Polaris small business GWAC. The first solicitations for the long-awaited next generation small business governmentwide acquisition contract, known as Polaris, are out. The General Services Administration released the requests for proposals for the small business pool and the women-owned small business pool on Friday. Under the 10-year GWAC that has a $10 billion ceiling, vendors would provide an assortment of IT services across nine areas including cloud, cybersecurity and software development. Bids for these first two pools are due May 13. GSA says the solicitations for other socioeconomic categories are coming later this spring.

Agencies are on the clock to patch dozens of new cyber vulnerabilities. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency added 66 new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerability catalog on Friday. Agencies have until April 15 to apply patches to the identified security weaknesses. CISA is recommending all organizations keep their networks patched and up-to-date due to potential cyber attacks stemming from the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

New cyber incident reporting requirements are now law, but they’re not yet effective. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency can now require critical infrastructure companies to report cyber attacks. But first the agency has to define the requirements through a rulemaking process. CISA has up to two years to release an initial notice of proposed rulemaking, and another 18 months after that to finalize the regulation. But with ransomware and other cyber threats on the rise, lawmakers are already urging the agency to move faster. (Federal News Network)

Cyber crimes in the U.S. cost victims nearly $7 billion last year. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center released it’s 2021 Internet Crime Report. It showed most of the money lost was via business email compromise scams, investment fraud, and romance and confidence schemes. Phishing scams, non-payment/non-delivery scams, and personal data breaches were among the top methods used.