Safer Federal Workforce Task Force

Feds can still take administrative leave to get COVID-19 booster shots

The Safer Federal Workforce Task Force is sunsetting, but federal employees can still take four hours of paid administrative leave to get COVID-19 boosters.

Benefits

FILE - In this Sunday, March 21, 2021 file photo a vial and syringes of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, at the Guru Nanak Gurdwara Sikh temple, on the day the first Vaisakhi Vaccine Clinic is launched, in Luton, England. AstraZeneca said Monday March 22, 2021 that advanced trial data from a U.S. study on its COVID vaccine shows it is 79% effective. The U.S. study comprised 30,000 volunteers, 20,000 of whom were given the vaccine while the rest got dummy shots. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali, File)

OMB discards COVID-19 executive orders

Federal Newscast

Federal appeals court upholds ban on vaccine mandate for federal employees

Workforce

FILE - A syringe is prepared with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination clinic at the Keystone First Wellness Center in Chester, Pa., Dec. 15, 2021. Pfizer says tweaking its COVID-19 vaccine to better target the omicron variant is safe and boosts protection. Saturday, June 25, 2022 announcement comes just days before regulators debate whether to offer Americans updated booster shots this fall. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

For contractors, the wait-and-see mode for the vaccine mandate keeps rollin’ along

Contracting

White House prepares for partial lift on federal contractor vaccine mandate ban

Agency Oversight

FILE - A Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is prepared at St Charles' Centre for Health and Wellbeing in London, Friday, Dec. 3, 2021. Everyone in Britain who is 50 or over will be offered a fourth dose of coronavirus vaccine in the fall it was announced Friday, July 15, 2022, lowering the age threshold from the previously announced 65. The Department of Health said it had accepted advice from the U.K.’s independent vaccines adviser about the autumn booster program. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, file)

Federal employees have more paid time off from OPM to get COVID-19 booster shots

Workforce

So is the vaccine mandate for federal contractors on or off?

Contracting

File - Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing, May 10, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. The U.S. will close the last avenue for Russia to pay back its billions in debt to international investors on Wednesday, making a Russian default on its debts for the first time since the Bolshevik Revolution all but inevitable. The Treasury Department said in a notification Tuesday that it does not plan to renew the license to allow Russia to keep paying its debtholders through American banks. (Tom Williams/Pool via AP, File)

Yellen memo calls for IRS modernization to help ID tax evasion schemes perpetrated by top earners

Federal Newscast

FILE - A sign is displayed outside the Internal Revenue Service building on May 4, 2021, in Washington. Conservative politicians and candidates are distorting how a major economic bill passed over the weekend by the Senate would reform the IRS and affect taxes for the middle class. The Inflation Reduction Act, which awaits a House vote after passing in the Senate on Sunday, would increase the ranks of the IRS — but it wouldn’t create a mob of armed auditors looking to harass middle class taxpayers, as some Republicans are claiming. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

IRS could have trouble spending billions of Inflation Reduction Act dollars on new employees

Federal Newscast

FILE - In this Dec. 24, 2020, file photo, a COVID-19 vaccination record card is shown at Seton Medical Center in Daly City, Calif. Los Angeles leaders are poised to enact one of the nation's strictest vaccine mandates, a sweeping measure that would require the shots for everyone entering a bar, restaurant, nail salon, gym or even a Lakers game. The City Council on Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021, is scheduled to consider the proposal and most members have said they support it as a way of preventing further COVID-019 surges. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

Task force eases COVID-19 screening guidance at federal facilities

Workforce

Task force clarifies COVID-19 travel, leave policies for agencies

Workforce

FILE - In this Wednesday, April 28, 2021 file photo, spectators, wearing protective face masks and keeping a social distance, watch the theatre play

Government events may soon look a little like before COVID-19

In today’s Federal Newscast, the Safer Federal Workforce Committee issues a slew of updates to the governmentwide policy for dealing with COVID-19.

Federal Newscast

Return to the office? That’s easy to say

Administration’s plan to pivot to in-office federal employees isn’t so clearcut.

Federal Report

FILE - A sign requiring masks as a precaution against the spread of the coronavirus is posted on a store front in Philadelphia, on Feb. 16, 2022. The Biden administration will significantly loosen federal mask-wearing guidelines to protect against COVID-19 transmission on Friday, according to two people familiar with the matter. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

New COVID guidance for federal agencies to match CDC recommendations

Federal Newscast

In today’s Federal Newscast, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force has new guidance for masking and COVID testing for federal agencies.