NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley applauded IRS' decision to cancel its July 22 furlough day, but she says that's not enough. July 17, 2013
The embattled Internal Revenue Service faces a 24 percent cut to its budget next year, under a spending plan introduced by the House Appropriations Committee Tuesday. The IRS funding was included in the committee's Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill, which also includes funding for the Treasury Department, the General Services Administration and the Executive Office of the President. The subcommittee is set to mark up the proposal Wednesday.
With the Supreme Court's overturning of the Defense of Marriage Act, same-sex spouses of both federal employees and military personnel will be eligible for the same benefits previously only available to opposite-sex couples.
If somebody said they could save you nearly $1,800 but that it would cost you $61,000, you probably wouldn't take the deal, right? Unfortunately, the White House and Congress have signed off on it in the form of furloughs, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.
The FEHBP Drug Integrity, Transparency and Cost Savings Act would give OPM more oversight of contracts and pricing methods. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) said the bill would save the government billions.
If somebody guaranteed you $9 for every dollar you invested, would you take the deal? Most people would, but politicians who designed the sequestration process to save money may find it is also a costly exercise, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.
Customs and Border Protection became one of the first civilian agencies to notify the union that represents their employees that they want to begin discussing the implementation of furloughs under sequestration. NTEU and AFGE expect to hear from more agencies in the next two weeks if cuts from sequestration go into effect March 1.
The National Treasury Employees Union was informed by Customs and Border Protection that agency-wide furlough notices of up to 14 days will be issued in mid-March as a result of sequestration. CBP told NTEU that it will have to make $754 million in cuts from March 1 through Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year.
Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, and Federal Times reporter Stephen Losey will discuss sequestration and other issues affecting federal workers. February 13, 2013
President Barack Obama will recommend a 1 percent pay increase for federal employees in his fiscal 2014 budget request, according to federal-employee unions. The pay increase will apply to both civilian federal workers and military members. The White House is expected to release its full budget request next month.
With the House postponing a vote on extending the federal pay freeze, feds are back on course to get a slight pay increase in March — for the first time in two years. But Andrew Biggs, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and an expert on public-sector compensation, says that the pressing budget issues the government faces means the issue of federal pay probably isn't going anywhere.
OPM announced federal offices would be open Monday on a "delayed arrival" schedule. It was the first time the agency has used the classification since it revamped its closure policies last year. But it didn't go off without a hitch - OPM updated the operating status language twice and some federal employees said they were confused by OPM's communication.
Guidance from the administration on what steps federal agencies should take to prepare for potential across-the-board budget cuts has set off a war of words between federal-employee unions and industry groups. The American Federation of Government Employees says guidance exempts contractors at the expense of federal employees, but industry groups say the criticism is misguided.
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.
A series of cost-savings amendments to the Superstorm Sandy aid bill the House will consider this week has drawn the ire of a federal-employee union who say the proposals "unfairly target" government workers. Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) has proposed defraying some of the costs of the $50 billion recovery package by rescinding a mass-transit tax benefit for federal employees and by ordering more across-the-board agency budget cuts.