Congress

  • The House has postponed a vote on a bill to extend the federal pay freeze through the rest of 2013. In its place, the House is set to vote on a measure withholding congressional pay unless lawmakers pass a budget — part of a broader deal to extend the debt limit.

    January 22, 2013
  • Later today, the full membership of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will begin to consider legislation to reduce wasteful IT spending.

    January 22, 2013
  • Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) introduced a bill that would block a 0.5 percent pay raise for federal workers slated to go into effect March 27. In an executive order issued late last month, President Barack Obama mandated a 0.5 percent pay increase.

    January 16, 2013
  • Cindy Auten of the Telework Exchange talks about a new report on BYOD. Robert Khuzami explains why he is stepping down as the SEC's enforcement director. Peter Schroeder of The Hill newspapers discusses the looming debt-ceiling showdown.

    January 16, 2013
  • Like Hollywood superheroes, federal workers managed to escape going over the fiscal cliff. But coming up in this regular mini-series is a possible shutdown because of the White House-Congress fight over the debt limit. If you survive that, there is the sequestration time bomb that is ticking and due to go off in March. Other than that, have a nice day.

    January 16, 2013
  • The House soundly rejected an amendment to the Superstorm Sandy aid bill that would have required an across-the-board 1.63 percent cut to agency spending to offset the emergency funding. Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) introduced the amendment last week along with a separate proposal to revoke a mass-transit subsidy for federal workers.

    January 15, 2013
  • Senior Correspondent Mike Causey wants to know: Is your job essential, emergency or mission-critical, and what does that mean? What would happen if you or your agency are told to turn out the lights and go home?

    January 15, 2013
  • Agencies across government should intensify their planning for across-the-board sequestration cuts, according to a Jan. 14 memo to the heads of executive department and agencies from Jeff Zients, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget. The memo comes on the heels of similar guidance issued last week by the Defense Department. Meanwhile, the Navy warned of the threat of reduced funding from a short-term spending measure.

    January 14, 2013
  • Air Force commanders will get orders in the next few days to plan for the possibility of fewer flying hours, providing fewer office supplies and working on fewer IT upgrades. Part of the service's planning will be to figure out how many civilian workers would need to be furloughed and for how long.

    January 14, 2013
  • Inside the Beltway is crisis central. The media must report 24/7 and, during the fiscal cliff showdown, they did. But while earlier stories also included a lot of eye-rolling, could the latest sequestration crisis mean it's "this time for sure?"

    January 14, 2013
  • Host Derrick Dortch hosts a roundtable discussion of veteran's issues, with representatives from the Veterans of Foreign Wars. January 11, 2013(Encore presentation January 25, 2013)

    January 11, 2013
  • Defense Deputy Secretary Ashton Carter told DoD components Thursday to draw up plans for full-year continuing resolution, plus sequestration. The approach to deal with across-the-board cuts would be to freeze civilian hiring, cut training, travel and conferences and reduce business technology expenditures.

    January 11, 2013
  • On this week's Bloomberg Government Capital Impact show, analysts examine NASA's acquisition forecast for this year, and the legislative agenda on Capitol Hill. January 10, 2013

    January 10, 2013
  • Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said he plans to introduce legislation allowing for the elimination or consolidation of outdated or redundant agency reports. Cutting back on unnecessary reporting requirements is part of the 2010 Government Performance and Results Modernization Act.

    January 10, 2013
  • New version of sequestration would reduce overall tab to DoD but compress across-the-board cuts into just seven months. A leading-think tank's "back of the envelope" calculations show the military would have to furlough almost every civilian.

    January 10, 2013