Bill Valdez

  • According to the Veterans Affairs Department's new reports detailing all major disciplinary actions for its workers, VA is on track to fire fewer people in 2017 than it has during the past six fiscal years. Federal employment experts say the new adverse action reports lack some significant details about VA's efforts to improve accountability and transparency.

    July 10, 2017
  • The House will pass the VA Accountability First and Whistleblower Protection Act, clearing the way for the President to sign the bill later this week. Some lawmakers and veterans service organizations see the bill's passage as a major win after years of debate over new accountability legislation. But federal employee groups say the bill would do more harm than good.

    June 13, 2017
  • President Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate George Nesterczuk, a former senior adviser with broad government experience, to lead the Office of Personnel Management.

    May 23, 2017
  • Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management, said she and subcommittee and Chairman James Lankford (R-Okla) will make civil service reform a major focus this year. She and Lankford are looking for ideas that attack the root causes of some of the most challenging problems facing the federal workforce.

    May 11, 2017
  • The Office of Management and Budget is asking agencies to come up with new performance management plans by June 30. Human capital experts say the OMB guidance prompts agencies to consider several important questions but focuses too heavily on addressing poor performers, and not enough on recruiting and retaining top employees.

    April 14, 2017
  • The Office of Management and Budget's plan to reorganize the government and restructure the federal workforce isn't a direct threat to agency employees, OMB Director Mick Mulvaney said. The Trump administration sees it as a way to finally recognize what Mulvaney describes as a deep-seated frustration in the federal workforce: top performers are rarely rewarded for their work, while poor-performers escape with few consequences.

    April 12, 2017
  • The Office of Personnel Management granted additional exemptions to the President's temporary hiring freeze. OPM and the Office of Management and Budget gave agencies permission to ask for others if they fall outside of the administration's original exemption guidance.

    March 13, 2017
  • The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs' federal workforce subcommittee said it's on a fact-finding mission this year. Subcommittee Chairman James Lankford (R-Okla.) said he wants to hear from federal managers about the existing authorities and processes that make their jobs more difficult.

    February 09, 2017
  • The National Treasury Employees Union and the Senior Executives Association both said they hope to better educate the new administration and Congress about the federal workforce.

    January 06, 2017
  • A provision in the 2017 National Defense Authorization creates new categories of administrative leave: "investigative" or "notice" leave. Employees under an adverse personnel action investigation may stay on leave for 10 work days.

    December 08, 2016
  • About 71 percent of senior executives received a performance bonus from their agencies in fiscal 2015, a slight bump over the roughly 68 percent who picked up an award in 2014. A new report from the Office of Personnel Management shows the average award totaled $10,746, nearly $200 more than 2014's average.

    November 02, 2016
  • The Senior Executives Association named Bill Valdez as the next SEA president. Valdez has been a member of SEA since 2000, served on the board of Directors since 2005 and chaired the board for two years, from 2011 to 2013.

    September 20, 2016
  • Does the federal government hold members of the Senior Executive Service accountable for their actions? In part three of Federal News Radio's special report, Fixing the SES, current and former senior executives respond candidly to the criticism.

    February 23, 2015
  • Fewer than half of the Senior Executive Service members who responded to an exclusive Federal News Radio online survey say they would join today. The survey results were even more dim for federal employees at the GS-15 and GS-14 ranks. In the first of our four-part special report, Fixing the SES, we examine how current senior execs feel about the SES, and what they believe is right and wrong with the service.

    February 09, 2015