Eric Katz, Government Executive -

The Trump administration is abiding by a court order to pause layoffs across most federal agencies, but it is still finding ways to shrink the federal workforce through involuntary means.

FMA opposes Schedule F and any other effort to politicize the federal government.

Erich Wagner, Government Executive -

Though the Office of Personnel Management has estimated around 50,000 federal employees, or 2% of the workforce, would be stripped of their civil service protections under the controversial initiative, lawmakers warned a failure to define "policy-related” positions will cause far more to become at-will employees.

FEDweek -

A federal court has ordered that federal agencies stop conducting RIFs and reorganizations under a Trump administration executive order and follow-up guidance, a ban that the administration immediately appealed.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

The Office of Personnel Management announced last week that it will roll out a new “paperless” retirement application for use across the federal government next month. But experts warn the milestone in OPM's decades-long effort to modernize the retirement process is not the panacea that the Trump administration has touted it to be.

According to a memo from acting OPM Director Charles Ezell to agency heads, effective June 2, the federal government’s HR agency will require all new retirement applications to be submitted electronically via its new Online Retirement Application form. OPM is working with various agency payroll providers to prepare for the changeover next month.

FEDweek -

 Private sector companies value telework for its positive impact on recruitment and retention, the GAO has said in a report that lands just after the Trump administration’s return-to-office policy has severely cut back that option in federal agencies.

By Drew Friedman, Federal News Network

Editor’s Note: This story was updated to add more information about the impacts of the proposed elimination of the FERS annuity supplement on employees subject to mandatory early retirement.

As federal employees weigh the difficult choices of taking an early retirement, opting into the deferred resignation program or trying to hold steady in their jobs, Congress is fueling further confusion as it presses forward with a slew of proposals aimed at chopping federal benefits and civil service protections.

In addition to current employees, many federal retirees are also expressing deep concerns about how the proposals to cut retirement benefits may or may not impact them.

Erich Wagner, Government Executive -

Federal workers who accepted President Trump and Elon Musk’s so-called ‘fork in the road’ fear Republicans have “pulled the rug out from under” their retirement plans.

The advancement of a series of proposals to cut federal workers’ retirement benefits in the House this week has revived long-simmering worries about the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program among employees who have accepted or are still considering the so-called ‘fork in the road.’

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted Wednesday mostly along party lines to advance a series of proposals that would require federal workers to pay more toward their retirement benefits and reduce the value of those benefits, despite criticism from Democrats and one of their own members.

As part of the GOP’s effort to pass legislation under budget reconciliation to extend and expand tax cuts for the wealthy first implemented during President Trump’s first term, the panel’s leadership unveiled plans to reduce federal spending by $50 billion, mostly by making federal workers’ contribute more toward the defined benefit portion of their retirement benefits, while simultaneously changing the formula to calculate their monthly annuity payment to be less generous.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

House Republicans last week unveiled a proposal to institute a new round of cuts to federal workers’ retirement benefits, including the imposition of a new pension surcharge unless a new hire elects to serve on an at-will basis.

The House Oversight and Reform Committee will meet Wednesday to consider the panel’s portion of the GOP’s budget reconciliation package to extend and expand tax cuts for the ultrawealthy, first implemented during President Trump’s first term.

Atop the panel’s laundry list of benefit cuts would involve the four-year phase-in of the 2013 Federal Employees Retirement System employee contribution hikes across government. When first enacted more than a decade ago, the increase of FERS employee contributions to 4.4% of basic pay did not apply to federal workers hired before December 2013, and those hired during 2013 contribute 3.1% toward their FERS annuity.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

Afederal judge in Washington, D.C., on Friday issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from implementing a March executive order that purported to strip collective bargaining rights from two-thirds of the federal workforce.

Last month, President Trump signed an executive order citing a rarely used provision in the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act to bar unions from representing workers at a myriad of federal agencies, from the Defense and Homeland Security departments to the Internal Revenue Service and the Environmental Protection Agency, under the auspices of national security.

Erich Wagner, Government Executive -

Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek this month instructed staff to prepare to convert wide swathes of his agency to the revamped Schedule F, a move that experts say would stretch even the Trump administration’s wide definition of “policy-related” jobs “beyond all recognition.”

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive -

The Office of Personnel Management on Friday filed proposed regulations that would formally revive Schedule F, setting the stage for tens of thousands of federal workers to be stripped of their civil service protections, making them effectively at-will employees.

The proposal, which will be published in the Federal Register on April 23, outlines the new excepted service category, now called Schedule Policy/Career, purports to remove “cumbersome adverse action procedures” for employees in what the administration deems to be policy-related jobs and accused the Biden administration, which filed its own regulations last year seeking to prevent Schedule F’s return, of “protecting poor performers.”

OPM estimates that around 50,000 federal workers will be placed in the new job category, or around 2% of the civilian workforce.

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

The Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed the reinstatements of thousands of federal employees the Trump administration has sought to fire, dealing a blow to the workers and groups challenging one of the administration’s key efforts to upend the civil service.

Most of the 16,000 employees impacted by the court’s decision are—for now—still protected under a separate injunction issued by a Maryland-based federal judge, whose ruling is separate from the one that made its way to the high court. The Supreme Court ruled that the allegations of the non-profit groups that brought the case were insufficient to establish standing. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson noted that they would have denied the request for a stay.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

Two of President Trump’s picks to lead federal HR and the management division of the White House budget office evaded questions related to the administration’s early-term efforts to downsize the federal workforce and sang the praises of at-will employment before a Senate panel Thursday.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Thursday took testimony from Scott Kupor, who has been tapped to serve as the director of the Office of Personnel Management, and Eric Ueland, Trump’s pick to be the Office of Management and Budget’s deputy director for management.

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

The Trump administration is not complying with a federal judge’s order to reinstate fired probationary employees, with the court ruling that the placement of those workers on administrative leave is failing to meet his demands.

Instead, said Judge William Alsup, from the U.S. District Court for Northern California, employees should be placed fully back in their roles and permitted to carry out their normal duties. All six agencies impacted by Alsup’s order to reinstate employees fired during their probationary periods last month—as well as virtually all of those impacted by a broader, similar ruling from a federal court in Maryland—have placed those workers in a paid leave status. The workers have largely not regained access to their emails or work systems and have been instructed not to report for duty.

By Sean Michael Newhouse, Government Executive -

The likelihood of a government shutdown increased Wednesday after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that Democrats would not provide the votes needed to approve a House-passed continuing resolution.

Schumer posted on X that Democrats are united behind a “clean” measure that would maintain spending levels for 30 days to enable bipartisan negotiations.

House Republicans on Tuesday passed in a mostly party-line vote legislation that would largely maintain current funding amounts for the rest of the fiscal year. If the Senate doesn’t pass the House bill or otherwise reach an agreement, a shutdown would begin after Friday.

By Sean Michael Newhouse, Government Executive

The House on Tuesday passed, 217-213, in a narrow, mostly party-line vote legislation to largely maintain current funding levels for the rest of the fiscal year in order to avert a government shutdown.

"In a shameful display of coordinated political theater, Democrats are willing to run out the clock on funding the government in a failed attempt to block the America First agenda," Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., posted on X following the vote. "Now it’s decision time for Senate Democrats: cast a vote to keep the government open or be responsible for shutting it down."

Senate Democrats are needed to attain the 60 votes for passage. They have been generally mum on if they’d support it. Some have said they want to use the shutdown fight to push back against cuts across government spearheaded by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency.

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

Federal agencies are scrambling to cobble together plans that meet President Trump’s demands to slash their workforces, though career staff involved in the process are taking steps to mitigate the number of involuntary layoffs they will have to impose.

Whether those more cautious plans—the first drafts of which are due to the White House and the Office of Personnel Management on Thursday—are accepted by political appointees within their agencies and the rest of the Trump administration remains to be seen. Agency officials are hopeful other efforts to trim workforce costs, such as continuing hiring freezes, reorganizing offices and offering separation incentives, will soften the inevitable blow from reductions in force.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

The Social Security Administration in recent days has initiated a flurry of actions aimed at decimating its workforce and that Democrats warn are an effort to sabotage the agency and prepare to privatize its functions.

After a rash of abrupt retirements of senior leaders across the agency last week, the agency on Friday confirmed that it is seeking to shed 7,000 employees, which would bring its workforce down to 50,000 people. Last fall, the agency hit a 50-year staffing low after congressional Republicans refused to agree to append the agency’s funding to account for fixed cost increases as part of a continuing resolution to keep agencies open.

With that came an announcement that the agency will consolidate its current 10 regional offices down to four, as well as reorganize headquarters. And Elon Musk’s DOGE operatives have cancelled the leases for 45 field offices across the country, as well as the Office of Hearings Operations in White Plains, N.Y.

By Robin Bravender, Scott Streater, E&E News by Politico -

President Donald Trump, who pledged to send up to 100,000 federal workers outside of Washington, could move quickly to eject energy and environmental agencies from the nation’s capital.

The administration on Wednesday directed agencies to submit by April 14 any proposed relocations of bureaus and offices from the nation’s capital to “less costly parts of the country.” Trump also issued an executive order aimed at downsizing the federal government’s real estate footprint as part of a broader push to shrink the size and scope of the bureaucracy.

Energy and environmental agencies — including EPA and the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management — could be among the Trump team’s top targets for relocations or downsizing.

By Benjamin Siegel, ABC News

The Trump administration is directing all federal agencies to "promptly" begin preparations for large-scale layoffs and restructuring, and submit plans for doing do so by March 13, according to a new memo obtained by ABC News.

The memo, from White House budget director Russ Vought, and Charles Ezell, the head of the Office of Personnel Management, was issued Wednesday morning, and includes instructions for agencies to follow as they work to downsize their workforces, and in some cases, physical footprints.

The move could formally clear the way for the administration to begin dismantling or shrinking agencies like the Department of Education and will likely prompt a new flurry of lawsuits as the process takes shape.

"President Trump required that 'Agency Heads shall promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force (RIFs), consistent with applicable law.' President Trump also directed that, no later than March 13, 2025, agencies develop Agency Reorganization Plans," the memo states.

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

Some federal employees fired by the Trump administration while in their probationary periods have at least temporarily won back their jobs, a federal board that hears appeals from civil servants has ruled.

The Merit Systems Protection Board has granted a 45-day stay requested by another independent agency, the Office of Special Counsel, which had deemed the Trump administration’s mass firings as likely unlawful. The case involved six federal workers, each at different agencies, who must now be placed back into their positions.

The case was heard by Raymond Limon, one of the three Senate-confirmed members of MSPB's central board, who noted federal statute and case law required him to grant OSC’s stay request unless it was “inherently unreasonable.”

By Drew Friedman, Federal News Network

Social Security beneficiaries impacted by the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset may begin receiving their one-time retroactive payments as soon as this week.

The Social Security Administration has significantly shortened its timeline to start distributing benefit payments to public sector workers whose Social Security benefits have been impacted by WEP and GPO. SSA said it began distributing the one-time retroactive payments this week, and most payments will process incrementally over the next month.

The agency said in a press release Tuesday that most beneficiaries should receive their one-time retroactive payments by the end of March. The retroactive payments are backdated to January 2024.

By Steve Peoples, AP

NEW YORK (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been given little more than 48 hours to explain what they accomplished over the last week, sparking confusion across key agencies as billionaire Elon Musk expands his drive to slash the size of federal government.

Musk, who serves as President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting chief, telegraphed the extraordinary request Saturday on his social media network.

“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk posted on X, which he owns. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

By Eric Katz and Meghann Myers, Defense One

The Defense Department is preparing for mass firings of civilian employees, according to several current employees and internal communications, bringing the Trump administration’s federal-workforce-reduction efforts to the government’s largest agency.

The dismissals are expected to begin on Friday or even earlier, according to multiple employees informed of the plans.

After the department was largely exempted from President Trump’s federal hiring freeze, much of its civilian workforce had expected it would again be carved out from the mandate to fire probationary employees—generally speaking, that means workers hired or promoted within the past year. The administration gave word this week, however, that it expected the Pentagon to cut its own workforce.

By Natalie Alms and Eric Katz, Government Executive

The Internal Revenue Service is preparing to conduct mass firings of 6,700 employees beginning Thursday, according to multiple employees notified of the plans.

Staff in their probationary periods—mostly recent hires, though in some cases longtime federal workers—received notice that they must report into the office Thursday and bring all of their government equipment, identification cards, parking permits and other documents. Managers have received instructions to report to the office so they can help with "separating" staff, which in some cases will be employees who do not report to them but those whose managers are in a different location. IRS has even created a portal on its internal site to keep employees apprised of “recent workforce updates.”

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

Multiple law firms are moving forward with class action complaints to challenge the Trump administration’s mass firings of recent hires and other employees on their probationary periods, claiming the terminations were illegal and the workers should be reinstated.

Already thousands of employees have signed up to participate in the challenges, with impacted staff across government saying the stated reason for their firings—poor performance—is at odds with the administration’s rhetoric and the sweeping nature of the dismissals. The terminations are ongoing and not expected to wrap up until Wednesday evening, according to the Office of Personnel Management, which is helping to orchestrate the personnel moves, but is likely to sweep up tens of thousands of employees.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

The federal judge who had temporarily blocked President Trump and Elon Musk’s plan to offer most federal workers paid administrative leave if they resign by September 30 reversed course Tuesday, dissolving the temporary restraining order upon concluding he lacked jurisdiction in the case.

The American Federation of Government Employees had sued to block the "deferred resignation" program, arguing that its chaotic rollout and shifting legal justifications constituted violations of the Administrative Procedure Act’s protections against “arbitrary and capricious” decision-making, and that the promise to pay employees past the March 14 shutdown deadline could constitute an Anti-Deficiency Act violation.

By Ralph R. Smith, FedSmith

 Plans by the Trump administration to restructure the federal workforce are proceeding. While a significant step was the deferred resignation program, a new Executive Order has now been issued as a follow-up to that plan.

The deferred resignation plan initially offered deferred employees a choice of leaving government service prior to the end of the fiscal year with the ability for some to stay at home instead of going to an office, go on administrative leave, and continue to get paid until September 30, 2025.

The initial expiration date for opting into this plan was February 6th. That has been extended for a time due to a delay imposed by a federal court ruling. No one knows how the plan will fare as it goes through the judicial system.

By Eric Katz,  Government Executive

President Trump has removed a Democratic member of the quasi-judicial federal agency that hears appeals to firings and other disciplinary actions the government takes against its employees, clearing the way for the White House to install a Republican majority to the board as it seeks to push through efforts to upend the civil service.

The White House notified the Merit Systems Protection Board on Monday evening that it had terminated Cathy Harris’ position on the agency’s central, three-member board. Ray Limon, another Democrat, had his position of vice chair stripped. On his first day in office, Trump named Henry Kerner, a Republican, as acting chair of the board.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

A federal judge on Monday extended his order blocking the Trump administration from implementing Trump and Elon Musk’s controversial “deferred resignations” program, just hours before the new deadline for federal workers to accept the offer by Monday night.

U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole Jr., a Clinton appointee in Massachusetts’ federal district court, previously paused the administration’s February 6 deadline for federal employees to decide whether to stay in their jobs or accept eight months’ worth of pay and benefits in exchange for not working and resigning by September 30. The American Federation of Government Employees, who filed the lawsuit against the program, have argued that the plan violates the Administrative Procedure Act due to its shifting legal justifications and chaotic rollout.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

A federal judge in Massachusetts on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to cease all activities aimed at implementing Trump and Elon Musk’s controversial "deferred resignation" program until next week.

On Tuesday, the American Federation of Government Employees, AFSCME and the National Association of Government Employees sued the Office of Personnel Management in an effort to halt the program, which offered most federal workers the chance to quit this month while retaining their pay and benefits until the end of September, provided they agree to resign by midnight Thursday. The unions argued that the program violates the Anti-Deficiency Act by pledging federal payments past the current March 14 government funding deadline and its ever-changing provisions and legal justifications violate the Administrative Procedures Act.

By Drew Friedman, Federal News Network

The Trump administration’s Office of Personnel Management is sharing details on how it plans to move forward with a full return-to-office push for federal employees, despite current telework agreements with federal unions.

A memo Monday, signed by OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell, directed agencies not to implement any provisions of collective bargaining agreements that “purport to restrict the agency’s right to determine overall levels of telework.”

The memo also called any telework provisions in union contracts that limit an agency’s ability to set telework policy “likely unlawful and unenforceable,” and stated that setting telework eligibility is a “management right.”

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

With just two days remaining before the deadline for federal workers to accept or reject the Trump administration’s so-called deferred resignation program, agencies are again defending its legality and increasingly coaxing feds to take the deal.

Federal workers have until Thursday to respond to one of a series of emails offering what Trump officials are calling “buyouts,” in which a federal worker is paid their current salary and benefits until Sept. 30 though will have effectively quit by the end of February. Administration officials say employees who accept the deal will be placed on paid administrative leave—in an apparent effort to circumvent the $25,000 cap on Voluntary Separation Incentive Payments—while the Office of Personnel Management has already begun granting agencies Voluntary Early Retirement Authority for eligible federal workers.

By Drew Friedman, Federal News Network

The Trump administration is looking further scale down the size of the federal workforce by giving federal employees governmentwide the option to voluntarily resign from their positions in exchange for eight months of pay.

In an email the Office of Personnel Management sent out to all federal employees Tuesday evening, the Trump administration offered most of the 2.2 million employees in the career federal workforce the option of resigning from their roles in what it called a “deferred resignation program.”

Employees who choose to resign from their roles have to let OPM know of their decision by Feb. 6, according to the email, obtained by Federal News Network. The employees would be placed on paid administrative leave until the effective date of their resignation, which OPM said should be no later than Sept. 30.

By Drew Friedman, Federal News Network

Agencies have a 90-day deadline to review and create lists of federal positions to potentially be converted to the Trump administration’s new “Schedule Policy/Career” federal employee classification, in effect defining who in the career federal workforce will see many of their job protections removed.

In a memo published Monday morning, Office of Personnel Management Acting Director Charles Ezell detailed how agencies should move forward with implementing President Donald Trump’s executive order on “restoring accountability to policy-influencing positions within the federal workforce,” while also announcing the suspension of portions of the Biden administration’s regulations aiming to prevent a return of the Trump administration’s previous Schedule F policy.

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

The Trump administration on Tuesday will freeze vast swaths of federal agency spending, issuing a directive that pauses any funding efforts related to government grants, loans or assistance.

The memorandum drew quick rebuke from Democrats and organizations that rely on federal funding, who warned the pause would wreak havoc across federal agencies and their constituencies, and may be illegal. The pause is necessary, Office of Management and Budget acting Director Matthew Vaeth said in the memo, to ensure all federal spending and activities are "consistent with the president's policies and requirements."

Various executive orders President Trump has issued have already frozen spending on foreign aid, Inflation Reduction Act spending and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding, leading to stop-work orders on contracts and uncertainty inside agencies over how to proceed.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

As Republican lawmakers craft a wide-ranging budget reconciliation bill to lock in and potentially expand President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and fund expanded immigration enforcement, federal workers are once again in the crosshairs.

A 50-page document, compiled by GOP members of the House Budget Committee and first reported by Politico, outlines a list of provisions that could be included in the package, which would not be subject to the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold, includes a litany of proposals increasing federal workers’ contribution to their retirement and health care benefits, in exchange for worse payouts.

By Ian Smith, FedSmith

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has published the anticipated guidance on President Trump’s memo directing federal employees to return to in-person work that he issued his first day in office.

OPM’s memo states:

"The PM [presidential memorandum issued by President Trump] reflects a simple reality. The only way to get employees back to the office is to adopt a centralized policy requiring return-to-work for all agencies across the federal government. Seeking to cajole individual agencies to try to get employees to return to the worksite has not succeeded."

Consequently, OPM directs federal agencies in its guidance memo to do the following by Friday, January 24, 2025, at 5 PM EST:

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

Federal agencies must develop plans to reduce the size of their workforces through efficiencies and attrition, President Trump announced on Monday, spelling out in a memorandum that they must roll out those proposals before lifting the hiring freeze he has put into place.

Trump froze federal hiring on Monday in a presidential memorandum, following the practice he established when he took office in 2017. The federal workforce reduction plans also mirror those he required in order to lift the hiring moratorium he instituted in his first term. Most agencies in that instance never wound up producing definitive plans to slash their workforces and the White House later denied it ever asked for the blueprints for cuts.

By Sean Michael Newhouse, Government Executive

President-elect Donald Trump’s goal to shrink the government workforce, which is being championed by the advisory Department of Government Efficiency, could give a boost to federal contractors who otherwise face a tough outlook under the incoming administration.

“DOGE has forecast that if they decrease regulations, there'll be less agency activity, so you'll need fewer government employees. But at the same time, there's still going to be certain tasks that the government needs to do,” said Aaron Ralph, a government contracts and disputes partner at Pillsbury law firm, during a Tuesday webinar. “In the past, when we've seen the government cut the federal workforce, we've seen an increase in government contractors.”

By Ian Smith, FedSmith

The first round of bills that target federal employees have been introduced in the new Congress since it was seated on January 3, 2025. The bills are not new, but may have more significance with a new administration in Washington.

Telework

Whether or not federal employees should be allowed to telework has become a contentious political issue, and Republicans are generally not in favor of it. President-elect Trump has gone on the record as saying that federal employees must return to the office or that “they’re going to be dismissed.”

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

Congress early Saturday approved a stopgap spending bill to keep agencies afloat through March 14, allowing the federal government to remain open despite lawmakers technically missing the midnight deadline.

The measure includes more than $100 billion in disaster aid to victims of hurricanes Helene and Milton, as well as other events, and economic assistance to farmers. The bill required a two-thirds majority for passage in the House, meaning a large portion of Democrats had to join Republicans for the bill to advance. Nearly all Democrats did so and the bill moved to the Senate, which passed it with ease after a series of failed amendment votes.

The continuing resolution now heads to President Biden's desk, who is expected to quickly sign it into law.

By Drew Friedman, Federal News Network

The Senate passed the Social Security Fairness Act to deliver higher Social Security benefits to millions of public sector retirees.

The bill now heads to President Joe Biden’s desk for a signature after the Senate cleared the legislation just after midnight on Saturday by a vote of 76-20.

The legislation to repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset has been reintroduced each Congress for decades but had not received a vote in either chamber until just this year. The House previously passed the bill in November.

By Lisa Mascaro and Kevin Freking, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A day before a potential government shutdown, the House resoundingly rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s new plan to fund operations and suspend the debt ceiling, as Democrats and dozens of Republicans refused to accommodate his sudden demands.

In a hastily convened Thursday evening vote punctuated by angry outbursts over the self-made crisis, the lawmakers failed to reach the two-thirds threshold needed for passage — but House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared determined to reassess before Friday’s midnight deadline.

“We’re going to regroup and we will come up with another solution, so stay tuned,” Johnson said after the vote. The cobbled-together plan didn’t even get a majority, with the bill failing 174-235.

By Stephen Groves, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is pushing toward a vote on legislation that would provide full Social Security benefits to millions of people, setting up potential passage in the final days of the lame-duck Congress.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday he would begin the process for a final vote on the bill, known as the Social Security Fairness Act, which would eliminate policies that currently limit Social Security payouts for roughly 2.8 million people.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

Agroup of 26 Democratic lawmakers across both the House and Senate on Wednesday urged President Biden to increase the pay raise planned for civilian federal workers next month to 4.5%, restoring military-civilian pay parity.

Biden turned heads among federal employee groups and Democrats last spring when he proposed just a 2.0% average pay raise for civilian federal workers, compared to the 4.5% planned for military service members. Biden formalized his alternative pay plan in August, stipulating that 1.7% would be devoted to across-the-board increases to basic pay and setting aside 0.3% to average locality pay increases.

In a letter to the president Wednesday, more than two dozen lawmakers, led by Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, D-Va., and Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., urged Biden to revise his pay plan to grant civilian federal workers the same 4.5% average increase that military service members will receive beginning next month.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

The Social Security Administration and its largest union last week finalized a deal to instill the agency’s current telework policy in the parties union contract until at least 2029, roiling Republicans intent on ending the practice.

SSA and the American Federation of Government Employees first reached the deal after Election Day, and agency head review was complete as of last week. Under the agreement, which was first reported by Bloomberg News, most agency employees will continue to allowed to telework between two and five days per week, depending on their occupation.

Field office workers are allowed two days of telework per week, while most Office of Hearings Operations employees work between three and four days per week from home. Remote workers make up 1.3% of the agency's workforce.

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

The leaders of President-elect Trump’s new advisory panel aiming to slash government spending, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, met with Republican lawmakers at the Capitol on Thursday in what leaders pitched as an informational session to share ideas.

Congressional Republicans and a handful of Democrats have embraced Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, which will function as a non-governmental commission, and on Thursday were eager to share their ideas for identifying areas for cuts. Some Republicans cautioned, however, that the advisory panel must work through the appropriate channels and win congressional support for their initiatives.

Nearly every House and Senate member that emerged from the various meetings called them productive and suggested a unifying idea supported by both lawmakers and Trump’s designated efficiency czars: recalling teleworking employees back to the office.

By Ian Smith, FedSmith

As the Trump administration prepares to head to Washington in January, there have been lots of headlines about the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that will be led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. The duo have promised to thoroughly review the current federal government apparatus to make recommendations for regulatory and spending cuts.

Musk and Ramaswamy outlined their vision for DOGE in an article they wrote in the Wall Street Journal last week. They said they are outside volunteers and will not be federal employees or federal officials and that they will be assisting with identifying and hiring a team to work with the Office of Management and Budget to “pursue three major kinds of reform: regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions and cost savings.”

By Eric Katz, Government Executive -

President-elect Trump and incoming members of his administration have big ideas for reducing headcounts at federal agencies, and key lawmakers with jurisdiction over the civil service are lining up to aid him in those efforts.

Trump has spoken frequently of his desire to shrink the federal bureaucracy and has tapped businessmen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy with leading a non-governmental commission to accomplish that. He has also promised to revive his efforts, first initiated at the end of his prior term, to remove merit-based civil service protections from large swaths of the federal workforce.

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

House Republicans are planning to strategize with President-elect Trump on their path forward to funding the government past the current Dec. 20 deadline, leaders of the conference said on Tuesday.

After retaking the White House and Senate in last week’s elections and appearing likely to maintain control of the House, Republicans are looking to maximize their leverage in setting spending levels for the remainder of fiscal 2025. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and his deputies have floated various proposals, including passing another stopgap that would keep agencies funded at their current levels into March or approving full-year funding bills that set agency spending through the end of the fiscal year in September.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

Donald Trump is projected to return to the White House next January, according to the Associated Press, and is poised to spur the most dramatic reimagining of the staffing of government in more than a century.

That’s because Trump has vowed to revive Schedule F, a controversial abortive effort at the end of his first term to strip the civil service protections of potentially tens of thousands of career federal workers in “policy-related” positions, effectively making them at-will employees. Trump and many of his former staffers have frequently bemoaned that “rogue bureaucrats” inhibited his policymaking power during his first stint in the White House.

By Matthew B. Tully, Esq., FedSmith

With marijuana legalization on the ballot in four states on Election Day November 5, questions are reignited about what it means for federal employees in states where it is already, or will become, legal.

Some of the questions include whether federal employees can use marijuana if they live and work in a state where it is legal without compromising their jobs, or whether marijuana use can affect their security clearance if they hold one.

Although medical and/or adult recreational use of marijuana is legal in several states, it remains illegal at the federal level because it is still classified as a Schedule 1 drug. Therefore, federal employees are still subject to drug testing and are not protected under their state labor or cannabis laws.

By Sean Michael Newhouse, Government Executive -

One of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign promises is to establish a task force that would cut federal programs and crack down on improper payments.

Trump said the idea came from tech billionaire Elon Musk, who would lead the proposed government efficiency commission and who has donated millions to re-elect the former president.

“I will create a government efficiency commission tasked with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms,” Trump said in September. “And Elon, because he’s not very busy, has agreed to head that task force.”

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

The Office of Personnel Management last week issued new guidance to agencies as they implement regulations finalized earlier this year strengthening guard rails on the conversion of career federal workers out of the competitive service and into or across categories of the excepted service.

Last spring, OPM issued final regulations aimed at safeguarding the nonpartisan civil service from efforts by former President Trump, or any other future administration, to reinstate Schedule F, a controversial effort to convert tens of thousands of career federal employees in “policy-related” jobs into the government’s excepted service, stripping them of their civil service protections and making them effectively at-will employees.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

Officials at the Social Security Administration said this week that as a result of Congress’ inaction on the Biden administration’s request for additional funding for the beleaguered agency in September’s continuing resolution to keep the government open, the agency has had to cut back on two key tools in its fight to improve customer service.

Last month, the White House and Commissioner Martin O’Malley warned lawmakers that failure to include a budget anomaly to fund the agency at a prorated equivalent of the president’s proposed $15.4 billion fiscal 2025 annual appropriation request in a six-month CR—as initially proposed by House Speaker Mike Johnson—would lead to dire consequences, including the loss of more than 2,000 staff, a hiring freeze and significantly curtailing overtime usage.

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A VA employee who “violated the Hatch Act by sharing Facebook posts promoting partisan political fundraisers” has agreed to a 70-day unpaid suspension in a settlement with the Office of Special Counsel, the OSC has said.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

A House Republican has joined a nascent effort to issue upwards of 30% pay cuts to federal employees who engage in regular telework by depriving them of their locality pay.

Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., last week introduced the Federal Employee Return to Work Act (H.R. 10014), a measure that would bar federal employees who spend at least one day per week—or 20% of their work hours—on telework from receiving the locality pay determined by the location of their official work station, instead considering them part of the “Rest of U.S.” locality pay area, regardless of where they live or work. It serves as the House companion to legislation introduced by Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., in August.

By Ann Werts, FedSmith

Recently, an ad on Facebook (no doubt targeted at me because of my federal employee relationships) invited federal employees age 60 and older to attend a federal benefits training. Of course, these financial advisors are interested in older feds about to retire (hey, I was a financial advisor for 22 years before retiring and letting my licenses lapse – I get it).

In reality, by that point, there aren’t a lot of things employees nearing retirement can change about their employment that will have much of an impact (other than working to age 62). There’s a much greater opportunity to make a difference by reaching those who are farther from the retirement finish line where even small tweaks can matter.

This article is for those who are looking to maximize their benefits in a simple, easy-to-implement fashion. Let’s look at something manageable: your annual leave, something you’ll want to pay attention to no matter where you are in your federal career.

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A bill (S-59) to downplay the role of educational credentials in job qualifications and the role of self-evaluations in assessing federal job candidates has been readied for a vote in the Senate when Congress returns to session after the elections with the issuance of a CBO analysis—which shows that the bill would have only a negligible cost to agencies.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

The Labor Department’s largest employee union is accusing Acting Secretary Julie Su of shirking her duty to negotiate with the department’s workforce after Su announced that she will implement new telework restrictions later this year.

Last November, the Labor Department announced new restrictions on employees’ use of telework, requiring employees to spend at least five days per biweekly pay period at traditional work sites. Though initially slated for implementation in January 2024, the department postponed those plans in order to negotiate the policy change’s implementation with the National Council of Field Labor Locals, which represents roughly two-thirds of the department’s nearly 15,000 employees and is part of the American Federation of Government Employees.

By Drew Friedman, Federal News Network

It may not come as much of a surprise that federal workforce reforms can happen slowly — but that doesn’t mean things aren’t changing.

For Colleen Heller-Stein, executive director of the Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCO) Council, the Pathways Program is a prominent example where changes have finally arrived, but only after years of hard work.

“There are, frankly, times when we can’t see that return on investment for a number of years,” Heller-Stein said at an Oct. 9 event hosted by software company Cornerstone. “There was a CHCO Council working group five or so years ago that really dug into Pathways regulations and provided some suggestions and recommendations for how Pathways might be adjusted to be even more beneficial to agencies. We finally, this year, saw some updates to those regulations.”

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Federal workers will soon be able to donate unused leave to their colleagues who need time to recover after Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida Wednesday.

By Nate Osburn, Deputy Commissioner, Office of Communications, Social Security Administration

Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments for more than 72.5 million Americans will increase 2.5% in 2025, the Social Security Administration announced today. On average, Social Security retirement benefits will increase by about $50 per month starting in January.

Over the last decade the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase has averaged about 2.6%. The COLA was 3.2% in 2024.

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

The Biden administration will have sufficient resources and personnel to respond to Hurricane Milton, officials said Wednesday, despite the ongoing recovery efforts related to Hurricane Helene and other disasters.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has deployed 1,200 search and rescue personnel to Florida, where Milton is expected to make landfall on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning, who will serve in addition to the 1,000 FEMA employees already in the state following Helene. Across the country, 5,200 federal employees have deployed in Helene response and President Biden has also sent 1,500 active duty military personnel to affected regions.

By Natalie Alms, Government Executive

Senators Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Mark Warner, D-Va., want the IRS to make it easier for people to go online to get information about refunds, respond to IRS questions and more. The pair have introduced the Improving IRS Customer Service Act to push the agency to make more expansive improvements to such customer service needs.

Warner called the IRS “the source of massive headaches” in a statement, saying that he is “glad to introduce this legislation that will ease some of this frustration by increasing clear communication and making IRS resources more readily available.”

The bill — being touted by the duo now following its introduction last month — includes a requirement for the IRS to set up a dashboard with wait times for phone lines and tax return processing if the agency is dealing with delays.

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

Congress on Wednesday sent a three-month spending bill to President Biden for his signature, averting a shutdown until after the election.

The passage of the continuing resolution, which will keep agencies afloat through Dec. 20, sets up a new fight over government funding during the lame duck session of Congress just before Christmas. The House and Senate—which separately approved the CR on Wednesday—remain far divided on the path forward for full-year appropriations, but avoided forcing agencies to shutter on Oct. 1.

Congressional leaders announced a bipartisan breakthrough over the weekend after House Republicans for weeks suggested they would not back a short-term funding measure unless congressional Democrats and the White House agreed to certain partisan demands. The measure won broad bipartisan support in both chambers despite opposition from dozens of Republicans, passing the House in a 341-82 vote, and avoided any efforts to slow the bill down in the Senate.

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Agency-by-agency and government-wide policies have remained largely unchanged for many years and the results will be familiar for employees if a funding lapse occurs and triggers a partial shutdown as of the October 1 start of the new fiscal year.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

Congressional committees dedicated to federal workforce issues were busy Wednesday, as both panels advanced bills impacting federal personnel policy via markup hearings.

On the Senate side, lawmakers on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 12-2 in favor of the Telework Transparency Act, (S. 4043) a measure introduced last spring by Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, that requires that federal agencies publish their telework policies on their websites. It also requires agencies to establish automated systems to track employees’ use of telework and its impact on federal building occupancy rates and agency performance.

And the lawmakers voted 9-5 to advance the Dismantling Outdated Obstacles and Barriers to Individual Employment—or DOOBIE—Act (S. 4711), another measure sponsored by Peters, who chairs the panel. The bill would codify changes recently implemented by the Biden administration to federal hiring and security clearance policies that clarify that past marijuana consumption cannot be sole reason for denial of a federal security clearance or federal job application.

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Congress returned this week from its summer recess facing a fast-arriving deadline to keep federal agencies funded beyond the September 30 end of the current fiscal year, only to quickly return to the kind of brinksmanship that often has threatened—and sometimes has resulted in—a partial government shutdown.

By Ian Smith, FedSmith

The 2025 federal pay raise is one step closer to being finalized after President Biden issued his alternative pay plan letter at the end of August outlining the amounts he wants for next year’s pay raise for federal employees.

The president proposed a 2% raise for federal employees in March and reiterated it in his alternative pay plan letter. Assuming that is the final amount, the 2% 2025 federal pay raise will be divided between an average of 0.3% for locality pay areas and 1.7% as an across-the-board pay raise, according to what Biden outlined in the letter.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

President Biden formalized his plan to provide civilian federal workers with an average pay increase of 2% next year, in a letter to congressional leaders Friday.

Last March, Biden first announced the pay raise plan as part of his fiscal 2025 budget proposal, marking a significant decrease from previous pay raises of 5.2% in 2024 and 4.7% in 2023. Friday's announcement confirms that, if implemented, federal employees will see an across-the-board boost of 1.7% to basic pay and an average 0.3% increase to locality pay, a slight departure from the traditional 0.5% of the overall raise figure being set aside for locality adjustments.

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A new Biden administration initiative to crack down on “unnecessary headaches” for consumers will include plans for employees on the Federal Employees Health Benefits and Postal Service Health Benefits plans to submit out-of-network claims online, alongside other updates.

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Although the Senate version of the annual general government appropriations bill mirrors the House version in effectively endorsing a 2 percent federal employee raise in January (see related story) they differ on other workplace issues.

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The Office of Personnel Management processed nearly 500 fewer retirement requests than it received last month, causing its backlog to inch up for the second straight month.

The federal government’s dedicated HR agency reported a slight uptick in its backlog of pending federal employee retirement claims for the second straight month in July.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday advanced spending legislation that would increase the Social Security Administration’s administrative budget by $500 million, setting up a standoff with the House.

Since the George W. Bush administration made overhead costs for the agency responsible for administering the two largest pieces of non-discretionary federal spending—retirement and disability benefits—part of the discretionary budget, SSA’s annual budget has been contained in the Labor-Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies appropriations bill. Although Congress sets the agency’s administrative funding levels each year, the money comes from federal payroll taxes, not the U.S. Treasury.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

Lawmakers on the Senate Appropriations Committee unveiled and unanimously advanced spending legislation Thursday effectively endorsing President Biden’s planned 2% average pay increase for federal workers in January, to the chagrin of federal employee groups and advocates.

The committee moved four of the 12 fiscal 2025 appropriations bills Thursday, including the Energy and Water Development; Defense; Labor, Health and Human Services; and Financial Services and General Government Appropriations acts. That last bill is traditionally the avenue by which lawmakers seek to override a president’s alternative pay plan, and the committee’s draft is silent on most federal workers’ compensation rates, effectively endorsing the White House’s plan.

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A new regulation is meant to ensure that federal workers who are temporarily promoted and shuffled into positions by an agency are paid for the entire duration of their detail.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) published the finalized rule on Time Limited Promotions in the Federal Register. It takes effect August 26, 2024.

By Derace Lauderdale, Federal News Network

The Office of Personnel Management is in the midst of a pilot with a small number of agencies to improve the applicant experience for its retirement systems, part of a broader push to get the organization away from paper documents altogether.

Catherine Manfre, chief transformation officer at OPM, said that their “north star has been people first. And what that has meant to us is how do we think about putting our customers first and our people first?”

“The initial focus of the pilot is really on the front end of the experience, allowing future annuitants to go through a digital application process,” she said during an interview on Federal Monthly Insights — Trustworthy AI in the Workforce. “What we’re trying to understand in the pilot phase is really the applicant experience and some of the things that we can make improvements on, to make that part of the journey more seamless and easy, for both the individual annuitant but also actually for the agency itself, because there are different handoffs in that new retirement process.”

By Sean Michael Newhouse, Government Executive

When Michelle Amante finished graduate school, she wanted to work for the federal government. But the lengthy, labyrinthine process to get a job at an agency deterred her.

“Twenty years ago, when I was doing this, it felt overwhelming. When I was graduating, I knew I couldn’t wait six months to get a job. I would have bills to pay. I had rent to pay,” she said. “So I went into a consulting firm because they were giving me an offer…even though my heart was fully in public service.”

By Sean Michael Newhouse and Eric Katz, Government Executive

If elected, Vice President Kamala Harris — the likely Democratic presidential nominee after Joe Biden on Sunday ended his reelection bid — would bring to the Oval Office significant experience in federal workforce issues and a history of advocating for employees and their labor groups.

As vice president, Harris led a White House task force that made recommendations for how agencies could reduce barriers for public and private sector workers to organize or join a union. In the year after agencies began implementing these recommendations, the number of federal employees who are dues paying members of a union increased by 20%.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

The Office of Personnel Management on Thursday encouraged federal agencies to conduct their own analyses to correct potential pay disparities within their workforces.

In 2021, President Biden signed a sweeping executive order aimed at improving diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility at federal agencies, including provisions requiring the creation of a governmentwide strategic plan on the issue and that the OPM director consider banning the use of past salary history to set pay during the hiring process. OPM followed through on that edict earlier this year.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

The head of the Senate’s panel overseeing federal workforce issues announced Wednesday that he had introduced legislation to codify the recent loosening of hiring and security clearance restrictions on past marijuana use in law.

Shortly after Biden’s inauguration in 2021, the Office of Personnel Management issued new guidance stating that a federal job applicant’s past marijuana use can no longer be the sole factor behind the decision not to hire them. Similarly, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence updated its rules to clarify that past marijuana consumption cannot be the only reason behind the denial of a security clearance for federal workers and contractors.

By Ian Smith, FedSmith

Recently introduced legislation would restrict partisan political activity of certain federal employees who are not currently covered by the Hatch Act.

The new bill (S. 4656) would include Offices of Inspectors General (OIGs) on the list of executive agencies whose employees are “further restricted” from engaging in partisan political activity and therefore subject to the Hatch Act. It was introduced by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on July 10, 2024. As of the time of this writing, Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) is the sole co-sponsor.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

The Senate on Wednesday voted 55-37 to confirm Anne Wagner as the third member of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, finally bringing the agency’s political leadership to nearly full strength.

Similar to the National Labor Relations Board’s role overseeing collective bargaining in the private sector, the FLRA governs labor-management relations at federal agencies, with a three-member board that settles unfair labor practice complaints and other disputes between unions and management.

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The FLRA will offer virtual training July 23 beginning at 1 pm Eastern time to explain and describe the application of a precedent it set last year regarding the scope of management rights in bargaining.

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A report from Republicans on the House Budget Committee has recommended increasing the contributions that federal employees must make toward their annuity benefits, among other recommended changes to federal retirement.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

House GOP appropriators have proposed a $450 million cut to the Social Security Administration’s administrative budget, in a move that Democrats warn will worsen the agency’s customer service crisis.

The cuts are tucked into the fiscal 2025 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies spending bill, which was advanced to the full House Appropriations Committee Thursday following of a subcommittee markup on the measure.

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

The Supreme Court on Thursday reversed federal agencies’ longstanding capacity to adjudicate and enforce certain federal laws, dealing the latest in a series of blows to the executive branch’s administrative powers.

In a 6-3 decision, the conservative majority on the court rejected the Biden administration's argument that existing precedent protected agencies as they adjudicated laws written by Congress, instead suggesting individuals and private entities had a right to defend themselves from civil penalties before a jury. The Seventh Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees a right to a trial before a jury of peers, applies to cases involving administrative penalties, the court ruled.

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Federal employees could face layoffs, hiring freezes or furloughs under the GOP-crafted spending bills now advancing in the House, say congressional Democrats who are consistently voting against those bills.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

It’s only June, but federal employees’ chances of receiving a pay raise larger than President Biden’s proposed 2% average increase are already waning.

Last week, House appropriators advanced their Financial Services and General Government spending bill for fiscal 2025. Though the measure is typically the avenue for overriding a president’s pay raise plan for civilian employees, it is silent on federal employee compensation, effectively endorsing the president’s proposal.

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The House version of the annual general government spending bill addresses several hiring-related issues, including encouraging OPM to continue to review policies “regarding the hiring and firing of individuals who use marijuana in states where that individual’s private use of marijuana is not prohibited under the law of the state.”

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

Civilian federal employees are still expected to receive an average 2.0% raise next year, after the House Appropriations Committee advanced a spending package Thursday that is silent of federal worker compensation.

Last spring, President Biden turned heads by releasing a fiscal 2025 budget proposal with a 2.0% average pay increase for civilian federal employees in 2025. That figure came in well below Biden’s previous pay raise plans—in 2024, federal workers saw an average 5.2% increase; in 2023, the increase was 4.6%; and in 2022, 2.2%.

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Efforts to streamline the processing of departing federal workers’ retirement applications continue to pay dividends, as the inventory of pending claims hit the lowest point since 2016.

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The nation’s top prosecutor pledged this week to use his authority to go after anyone making threats against career federal employees, which he said have spiked to previously unseen levels.

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The Partnership for Public Service says that a recent survey it conducted shows that “federal careers are natural fits for members of Generation Z, who often seek employers affecting positive change” but that misconceptions and the hiring process often dissuade them from even applying.

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The years-long effort to repeal a pair of controversial tax rules that negatively impact some federal workers’ retirement income got a boost Thursday in the form of the formal endorsement of the House Problem Solvers Caucus.

By Jory Heckman, Federal News Network

The Office of Personnel Management is defending a recently finalized rule meant to prevent the return of Schedule F — a Trump-era policy that made it easier to fire career federal employees in policymaking positions.

OPM’s acting director told the House Oversight and Accountability Committee that the re-emergence of such a policy would undermine civil service protections, and return the federal workforce to a 19th-century “spoils system” with major turnover.

Acting OPM Director Rob Shriver told lawmakers on Wednesday that the return of Schedule F would have a “chilling effect” on career federal employees, and prevent them from providing candid feedback on policy matters.