Congress
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Congress is turning to federal pay and benefits to find cost savings. To sort out all the proposals for you, Federal News Radio compiled a list of the bills that could affect your compensation. This list will be updated regularly with status changes and the addition of new bills.
September 18, 2012 -
DoD's top financial manager says the Pentagon is pressing forward to meet Congressional edicts for auditable financial statements. But constant federal budget emergencies are sapping huge amounts of energy from the financial workforce tasked with preparing for audit.
September 17, 2012 -
A district court judge has put a hold on the section of the STOCK Act that requires 28,000 federal executives to publish their financial information online.
September 14, 2012 -
Pentagon says planning for future contingencies will include contract management from the get-go rather than letting be an afterthought.
September 13, 2012 -
Despite the prospect of an extended pay freeze, many nonpostal workers have their "wigs" to keep them warm, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says. So, how do you get a 3 percent raise while salaries are frozen at 2010 levels?
September 13, 2012 -
The six-month stopgap spending bill unveiled by the House Appropriations Committee this week officially continues the federal pay freeze until at least March. The continuing resolution, which runs through March 27, gives lawmakers more time to make appropriations for the coming year and staves off the threat of a government shutdown. When a broad CR was first announced last month, the full Congress had not yet approved any fiscal 2013 spending bills. President Barack Obama proposed last month a 0.5 percent pay raise that would only take effect once Congress passed a 2013 budget — a de facto extension of the current two-year freeze. The CR makes the extension official.
September 11, 2012 -
Defense industry executives criticize the impending sequestration, which they say would lead to the loss of more than 1 million defense-related jobs.
September 11, 2012 -
Lawmakers returned to Washington, D.C., this week with a packed agenda. Topping the list of priorities is hammering out final details of a stopgap spending measure to keep the government running beyond the end of the fiscal year -- Sept. 30. Amid the election-year politicking, the list of unfinished business also includes legislation to restructure the financially ailing U.S. Postal Service and a cybersecurity bill that aims to safeguard the nation's critical infrastructure. Perhaps looming largest of all is what Congress plans to do about automatic, across-the-board cuts, known as sequestration, set to take effect Jan. 2. Failure to avert the cuts could send the country over a "fiscal cliff," budget experts warn.
September 10, 2012 -
The administration is considering using an executive order to promote and encourage critical infrastructure providers to improve their cybersecurity. The draft EO, which Federal News Radio obtained details of, mirrors major sections of the second version of the Lieberman- Collins comprehensive cyber bill.
September 07, 2012 -
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff said he needs congressional approval to manage cybersecurity on the electric grid.
September 06, 2012 -
Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.), whose district in the Washington, D.C., suburbs is home to many federal employees, said he understands the frustration voiced by federal unions about a de facto extension of the federal pay freeze. Sarbanes said too often lawmakers used federal pay and benefits as a "piggybank" in deficit- reduction efforts.
August 27, 2012 -
Jenny Mattingley hosts of roundtable discussion of legislation pending in Congress that affect federal workers. August 24, 2012
August 24, 2012 -
A 15-minute training video that cost $52,000 to make joins the examples of excessive spending at two Veterans Affairs' conferences last year with a total pricetag of $5 million.
August 23, 2012 -
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is probing more than 150 conferences hosted by 11 agencies since 2005 where wasteful spending or excessive spending may have have occurred, according to a committee release. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the oversight chairman, said the committee is using the lavish $823,000 regional conference hosted by the General Services Administration in 2010 as a "benchmark" to compare other agencies' conference spending. The committee found the Defense Department has held 64 such conferences.
August 22, 2012 -
President Barack Obama told congressional leaders Tuesday that he was implementing a 0.5 percent pay increase for federal employees that would go into effect next April. Congress is expected to pass a Continuing Resolution when it returns to Washington in September to avoid an Oct. 1 government shutdown. Obama extended the pay freeze through the duration of that CR.
August 22, 2012