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Congress has been criticized for kicking the can down the road when it comes to federal spending, but as the government shutdown clocks ticks closer to midnight — and agencies dust off their contingency plans — some are wondering if that kicked can might be the best option right now.
Linda Springer, a senior adviser at the Office of Management and Budget, said in part 2 of her exclusive interview about the Trump administration’s reorganization plans that the White House wants to give agencies a lot of freedom in how they execute their plans.
Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says now that EPA is handing out buyouts, it's likely other agencies will follow suit.
The Office of Personnel Management recently released a long-awaited report on official time for fiscal 2014. It found agencies used slightly more official time that year than fiscal 2012, the last time OPM completed a governmentwide report on the topic. The report's release comes as Congress looks to limit federal employees' official time use.
DoD analysts and former officials are recommending direct hiring and pay authority over civilian Pentagon workers.
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."
The Environmental Protection Agency faces a 31 percent cut to its budget, a number that agency advocates say will harm the workforce and public health.
President Donald Trump offered a first look at his upcoming management agenda in the 2018 budget blueprint. The agenda will focus on eliminating agency reporting requirements on IT, acquisition, human capital and real property and letting "managers manage." It also suggests the budget and reorganization executive order initiatives will drive future agency workforce cuts.
Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said proposed budget reductions for agencies such as EPA or HUD are based on the administration’s goals and priorities, and leaders at those agencies will be able to decide how best to address smaller budgets.
Two lawmakers have introduced legislation that would leverage pensions and benefits in an effort to reign in use of official time and has resulted in hours of debate and a deeper divide over the subject of unions.
Proposed budget cuts to civilian agencies in fiscal 2018 may mean that the Social Security Administration will have to issue furlough notices to its employees. A union that represents SSA field operations and phone service center employees said the agency's workforce could see five days of furloughs for every 1 percent cut to the Social Security administration budget.
Significant cuts to EPA's state programs and workforce have sent agency executives and employees' unions scrambling to get a better understanding of what direction the Trump administration wants to take the department.
Some advocates of the House Veterans Affairs Committee's new employee accountability bill say it's different enough from previous attempts to tackle this issue and should assuage past concerns. But others fear the legislation revives familiar worries.
A recent Government Accountability Office report on the Veterans Affairs Department and its employees' use of official time is renewing a debate among lawmakers: Does official time have a place within agency operations, and how much time is too much?