Katherine Archuleta

  • Among the issues considered Tuesday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee were contracting practices at the Office of Personnel Management that allowed the largest background-investigation contactor -- accused by the Justice Department of taking improper shortcuts and defrauding the government -- to conduct quality reviews of its own work.

    February 11, 2014
  • OPM Director Katherine Archuleta called Justice's case an "egregious violation of the public trust." OPM has taken steps to reform and improve the oversight of the security clearance system to prevent future "dumping" of cases.

    January 27, 2014
  • What's the worst job in Washington? Some would say it is being director of the Office of Personnel Management in winter, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says. And we found out why last week.

    January 27, 2014
  • Facebook users were quick to criticize the Office of Personnel Management's decision to operate federal agencies on a two-hour delay Wednesday.

    January 22, 2014
  • Katherine Archuleta has spent her first few months as director at the Office of Personnel Management learning, listening and asking questions to figure out how to ensure continuous improvement. Archuleta said she expects a new plan to improve the agency's technology by the end of February.

    January 16, 2014
  • Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has filed a lawsuit against Katherine Archuleta, the head of the Office of Personnel Management, seeking to overturn an OPM regulation that allows lawmakers and their staffs to continue receiving government contribution toward their health insurance premiums. Under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, lawmakers and their staffs were booted from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), under which the government typically kicks in about three-fourths of the cost of federal employees' premiums, and required to purchase health insurance on the federal exchange.

    January 06, 2014
  • The federal government now employs a record number of people with a disability. The Office of Personnel Management says agencies are making progress toward the President's 2010 hiring goals.

    December 19, 2013
  • A little more than a month into Katherine Archuleta's tenure at the Office of Personnel Management, the agency is staffing up and reshuffling a handful of leadership positions. Archuleta, who most recently worked as the national political director for President Barack Obama's 2012 reelection effort, is bringing on board two fellow campaign staffers to serve as top advisers. The agency is also getting a new chief operating officer from within the ranks of the agency. Angela Bailey, the former associate director of employee services, has been named the agency's new COO.

    December 19, 2013
  • Federal employees wanting to schedule "use it or lose it" annual leave only have a few days left before their excess vacation days are forfeited. The deadline to schedule excess annual leave is this Saturday, Nov. 30, Office of Personnel Management Director Katherine Archuleta reiterated in a Nov. 26 memo to agency chief human capital officers. The leave must be used by Jan. 11, the end of the leave year.

    November 27, 2013
  • Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has issued a subpoena for records from the Office of Personnel Management, seeking more details on the agency's process for conducting background investigations. OPM's Federal Investigative Services division, which conducts 90 percent of the federal government's background investigations, has come under intense scrutiny since it was revealed earlier this year that the same contractor -- United States Investigation Services (USIS) -- performed background checks of both National Security agency leaker Edward Snowden and Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis.

    November 22, 2013
  • The Office of Personnel Management is helping agencies come up with ways to recruit new federal hires from the pipeline of national-service programs, such as the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps. In July, President Barack Obama called for expanding national volunteer opportunities by finding ways to connect the broad network of national and community-service organizations with federal agencies and their missions. As part of that effort, OPM was tasked with coming up with recruiting strategies agencies can use to recruit new hires with past experience in national-service programs.

    November 18, 2013
  • Just a week into the job and confronted with signs of the sagging morale of the federal workforce, new Office of Personnel Management Director Katherine Archuleta said she wants to take steps to make sure federal employees feel engaged in their work. Tuesday's annual public meeting of the Chief Human Capital Officers Council focused on ways to improve employee engagement and morale. OPM released its annual Employee Viewpoint Survey last week, revealing continuing declines in federal employees' overall job satisfaction and a sharp drop in satisfaction with their pay.

    November 12, 2013
  • Frustrations over federal pay, budget cuts and uncertain agency funding have weakened federal-employee satisfaction, according to the Office of Personnel Management's Federal Employee Viewpoint survey released Friday. For the second year in a row, overall employee satisfaction scores fell, dipping below 60 percent this year. Meanwhile, less than half of federal employees said they believe they have sufficient resources — such as material, staff and funding — to do their jobs effectively.

    November 08, 2013
  • The 62-35 vote comes more than five months after President Barack Obama nominated the former Labor Department chief of staff and Obama reelection campaign official to serve as the next head of the agency.

    October 30, 2013