Congress
-
On this week's Capital Impact show, Bloomberg Government analysts participate in a roundtable discussion of the budget deal, the Volker Rule, and Bitcoin. December 12, 2013
December 12, 2013 -
Any relief the Air Force gets from a pending budget deal will be pushed into rebuilding lost military readiness, not bolstering investment programs, a top acquisition official said Wednesday.
December 12, 2013 -
Congress went after federal workers and retirees with a meat ax. But instead the new budget agreement is more of a kick in the shins for feds who have yet to be hired, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.
December 12, 2013 -
The Veterans Affairs Department's decision comes as lawmakers are putting this acquisition concept under more scrutiny. House Veterans Affairs and Small Business Committee lawmakers question whether agencies are getting the best prices and whether they are sacrificing competition. GAO, other experts say OFPP needs to develop a governmentwide policy for reverse auctions.
December 11, 2013 -
Lawmakers in districts with large constituencies of federal employees are signaling their support for the bipartisan budget deal announced Tuesday even though it would require new federal workers to contribute a greater share of their paychecks to their retirement benefits. The alternatives -- another government shutdown or a second year of the steep across-the-board sequestration cuts -- would have been worse, they argue.
December 11, 2013 -
The annual policy legislation also doesn't merge the DoD CIO and deputy chief management officer.
December 11, 2013 -
Newly hired federal workers will be required to contribute more toward their pensions and some military retirees will see smaller cost-of-living adjustments under a budget deal announced by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) Tuesday evening. The budget deal, which sets funding levels for the next two years, eases some of the bite of the automatic spending cuts, known as sequestration. The pact restores about $63 billion to agency spending through the end of fiscal 2015, split about evenly between Defense and civilian agencies.
December 11, 2013 -
Congress is poised, for the first time since Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, to miss its deadline to pass the one policy bill that's been considered "must-pass" legislation under administrations of both parties. But the measure's only chance of success also torpedoes Pentagon proposals for cutting DoD's internal cost growth. Military personnel would receive a 1 percent pay raise next year.
December 11, 2013 -
More than a dozen industry technology and business groups are asking the House to adopt language in the Senate's Commerce, Justice, Science appropriations bill that would focus on risk when buying technology products and services from companies that have connections to China.
December 10, 2013 -
Lawmakers, who face a self-imposed Friday deadline to come up with a fiscal 2014 budget plan, appear to be making progress toward a limited deal that would stave off another shutdown and give agencies the certainty of funding for the remainder of the year.But lawmakers with districts surrounding Washington, D.C. are preemptively speaking out against any proposal that, in their words, would "throw federal employees under the bus." Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), says that too often in the past federal employees' pay and benefits have "been used as pawns in budget negotiations."
December 09, 2013 -
Julie Perkins and Jenny Mattingley host a roundtable discussion of the big issues in the federal government and what's ahead for 2014. December 6, 2013
December 06, 2013 -
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), are jumpstarting a new effort to get both sides of the Capitol dome on board with a bill to make it easier for agencies to hang the "For Sale" sign outside their doors. Carper, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Chaffetz, a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, hosted a Capitol Hill roundtable with private-sector real-estate experts and former government officials Wednesday to discuss a new legislative path forward.
December 06, 2013 -
The Department of Veterans Affairs says it has made significant strides in targeting its most complicated disability claims toward its most seasoned claims processing staff, but IG audits still find errors in nearly a third of compensation claims processed for Traumatic Brain Injury.
December 06, 2013 -
The two employee unions say lawmakers shouldn't make up for sequestration cuts by forcing federal employees to contribute more to their retirement. House and Senate legislators are working on a small-scale budget deal that reportedly includes a provision to alter federal retirement benefits.
December 06, 2013 -
The Office of Federal Procurement Policy issued a memo to agencies setting the new benchmark for reimbursable costs at $952,308, up from $763,029 in 2011 for certain contractor employee salaries. The contractor cap has increased 55 percent over the last four years. OFPP blames Congress for not acting to change the formula for calculating the annual increases.
December 05, 2013