Congress
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The Republican-controlled House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is starting over on postal reform legislation and taking as its template a surprising source — the White House's fiscal 2015 budget request. Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) told members of the committee and the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget that he intends to "embrace to the greatest extent possible" the entire slate of legislative proposals for overhauling the Postal Service included in the President's budget request.
April 08, 2014 -
Hitting a July 4th deadline for your agency's budget bill is getting tighter because Congress isn't going to be around much between now and then. David Hawkings, senior editor at Roll Call, tells In Depth with Francis Rose the hearing and markup list is long this week.
April 07, 2014 -
The House will soon vote on a measure making it easier for the Veterans Affairs secretary to fire or demote senior career executives at the department, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said at a Capitol Hill briefing Thursday. The VA Management Accountability Act allows the VA secretary to remove or demote members of the Senior Executive Service (SES) based on their performance.
April 03, 2014 -
Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) introduced the Veterans Information Security Improvement Act that would explicitly require VA to take steps to repair operational and procedure holes in its network and computer security processes.
April 03, 2014 -
The Pentagon's current proposals for wringing savings out of its health care system involve additional fees for beneficiaries, but also try to induce them to use less-costly treatment options.
April 03, 2014 -
Is your 2015 pay raise going to be 1 percent or 3.3 percent? Are federal workers going to stay in their own health plans or will they be forced to move into one of the exchanges set up by the Affordable Care Act? Read Senior Correspondent Mike Causey's column for more.
April 02, 2014 -
The Army is the first service to begin an analysis of its excess real estate after a Congressional prohibition against even studying the subject expired. Early results show up to a quarter of its stateside infrastructure isn't being used right now, and the Army will need even less as it shrinks in size.
March 31, 2014 -
In the wake of across-the-board budget cuts, furloughs and slim -- or no -- annual pay raises, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee says he's concerned about a nose-dive in federal-employee morale. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) is now asking the Government Accountability Office to look into recent trends in feds' job satisfaction. The lawmakers are concerned declining satisfaction "may be compromising the federal government's ability to serve the American people."
March 28, 2014 -
Military officials say overseas contingency operations dollars are vital to ongoing operations around the world, even after the wars end. All the services tell the House Armed Services Committee that OCO funding is helping with readiness and maintenance challenges.
March 28, 2014 -
Is that 3.3 percent proposed federal pay raise missing an important political component? Some would say it needs the R word to be a winner, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.
March 28, 2014 -
Defense officials say they are eagerly awaiting next year's report from a congressionally-chartered commission that's currently examining military compensation. But officials say intense pressure on the top-line defense budget demands significant changes to personnel spending.
March 27, 2014 -
House Democrats are pushing for federal employees to get a pay raise next year that's more than three times larger than President Barack Obama proposed. A bill introduced Wednesday by Reps. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) and Jim Moran (D-Va.) would provide federal employees with a 3.3 percent across-the-board pay raise in 2015.
March 26, 2014 -
The Army says it is now replacing funds in its readiness accounts that were depleted when cuts under sequestration first kicked in a year ago. But last year's readiness problems are likely to repeat in 2016 and beyond if Congress allows the automatic Defense cuts in current law to persist.
March 26, 2014 -
Congress is back in session starting this afternoon and its schedule this week makes it look like the budget is on their minds. David Hawkings, senior editor at Roll Call and host of the Hawkings Here blog, talks to In Depth with Francis Rose about the upcoming budget battles.
March 24, 2014 -
Air Force officials say their service already was facing readiness issues because of the high operational tempo of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. But sequestration worsened the problems, and continuing the budget caps will set back a readiness recovery.
March 17, 2014