Congress
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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 -
As lawmakers consider efforts to shore up the Postal Service's financial footing, there's still widespread disagreement over whether the current requirement for the agency prefunding requirement is fiscally responsible, as Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) argued during a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee hearing Thursday, or an "onerous mandate" only required of the Postal Service, as Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) contended.
March 14, 2014 -
Gen. Keith Alexander, who will soon retire as the first commander of U.S. Cyber Command, said his organization has matured to the point that it should join the club of unified commands that report directly to the President.
March 14, 2014 -
The Pentagon's 2015 budget request includes sharp cuts in funding for construction and maintenance on military bases, which congressional appropriators immediately denounced. But Defense officials say they could do a better job of maintaining military bases if they were allowed to close they ones they no longer need.
March 13, 2014 -
Legislation newly introduced in the Senate proposes to scrap hundreds of unneeded, outdated or repetitive reports. The House, meanwhile, is marking up its own version of the bill.
March 12, 2014 -
Amid a Congressional push to add new teeth to the 1966 Freedom of Information Act, federal officials insist they are taking steps on their own to make sure agencies release information to the public. Among the efforts is a move to standardize agency rules around FOIA and create a single Web portal for FOIA requests.
March 12, 2014