Viewpoint: Latest Reports from The Washington Posts ‘Federal Insider’

No quick fix for shortage of Customs officers

There will be no quick fix for the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) staffing shortage that has led to long hours of overtime for its officers and long lines for travelers.  Hiring difficulties have resulted in “more work being handled by fewer staff,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Homeland […]

Federal agencies cautioned against sending employees to Zika-affected areas

The federal personnel director on Monday cautioned agencies against sending their employees to areas where the Zika virus is being transmitted, although she stopped short of a ban on such travel. “With the worldwide mobility of the Federal workforce, agencies should monitor this situation closely.  We urge supervisors and managers to be mindful of the […]

Retired Secret Service agent pleads for day in court for African-American agents

After 16 years watching less-experienced white agents zoom past him on the promotion ladder at the Secret Service, straight-laced Ray Moore grew so fed up in 2000 that he led a group of fellow black agents in suing the Service for a pattern of racial discrimination. Now, 16 more years after filing that lawsuit, and […]

Slow hiring can mean long overtime for customs officers

Some overtime now and then can be a good thing. But long hours of overtime, over and over, can be just too much. Just talk to some Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers — who say working almost two days in one is not unknown. Here is Jorge LLanos, a veteran officer speaking as the […]

Whistleblower might add to his complaint against Agriculture Department

Government scientist turned whistleblower Jonathan Lundgren’s case against the government was withdrawn on Thursday, but his attorney says she made the move to buy time to assess whether to expand the scientist’s complaint against the Agriculture Department. Lundgren, an entomologist and 11-year veteran of the department’s Agricultural Research Service, filed a complaint in October with the […]

Federal labor leaders might need hard hats to protect against GOP bills aimed at unions

Federal labor leaders might want to don their hard hats. It’s a risky time for federal unions. Republicans in Congress are pushing legislation that could make the work of labor organizers much more difficult or in one case, make an agency union go poof, simply disappear. The latest move came Tuesday, when a House committee […]

Was VA watchdog dismissive of whistleblowers reporting wrongdoing?

Inspectors general are like cops on the beat. IG offices include law enforcement officers among others who patrol their agencies — something like neighborhoods — hunting waste, fraud and abuse. But what happens if IGs, watchdogs who operate independently of agency management, are dismissive of those who report wrongdoing? That’s the upshot of a report […]

John Palguta, a force behind Best Places in Federal Government reports, retires

Few people, if any, know the federal workplace better or have spent more energy trying to improve it than John Palguta. Now he is ready to retire. He first joined the federal service in 1968 as a letter carrier while in college. His career in federal personnel management began after graduation with a Civil Service […]

Official overseeing breached OPM computer systems retires just ahead of House hearing

A key official overseeing the government computer systems whose breaching resulted in the theft of the personal information of more than 22 million people announced her retirement effective immediately on Monday, two days before she was scheduled to appear at a House hearing. Donna Seymour, chief information officer at the Office of Personnel Management, was […]

OPM asked to show whether federal employee performance counts for awards or discipline

A House committee chairman has asked the Obama administration to document whether federal agencies are paying awards only to their well-performing employees and whether consequences flow from poor performance. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), said his Oversight and Government Reform Committee is trying to “better understand the state of the federal workforce” and “ensure that federal […]

The IRS has improved but still provides bad customer service

From the customer care the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) provides, you wouldn’t know it collects $3.3 trillion every year. Even with some improvements this year following a $290 million budget increase, the IRS continues to leave taxpayers and its own employees frustrated with the agency’s inability to deliver an acceptable level of service. “The customer […]

Federal online job site gets update

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) says it “will transform” USAJOBS, the federal government’s employment jobs website, with a series of improvements. OPM said the new features are designed to make the website less “confusing, difficult and frustrating for applicants.” Applicants found the previous experience so difficult, according to the personnel office, that it drove “some […]

VA’s carrot-and-stick plan: Raise salaries, limit appeal rights for its executives

The Obama administration has proposed a carrot-and-stick approach to revamping the senior executive cadre at the Department of Veterans Affairs, holding out the prospect of higher salaries while proposing further limits on executives’ rights to appeal disciplinary actions. A proposal sent to Capitol Hill seeks to put into law an idea the department raised recently […]

Is Obama administration’s new security clearance plan just ‘happy talk’?

The subject of the congressional hearing was the Obama administration’s new system for federal security clearance investigations, but a departed federal official and a recently appointed one could not escape attention. Among some praise, there were probing and skeptical questions about the plan to develop a new agency, the National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB), within […]

Will update fix main problems with USAJOBS, the federal jobs board?

History really does repeat itself. Particularly at the Office of Personnel Management. “With the changes made to USAJOBS, and with our commitment to creating a simpler and more transparent Federal hiring process, we are giving applicants the information and tools they need to find the best Federal job for them.” Then-OPM Director John Berry said […]

Government contractors group selects DOD official as new leader

The Professional Services Council (PSC) has chosen David J. Berteau as its new chief executive, succeeding Stan Soloway, who ran the trade association for 15 years until last fall. PSC represents government contractors and has nearly 400 members. Berteau is currently assistant secretary of defense for logistics and materiel readiness, a position he has held since […]

House panel moves to limit ‘administrative leave’ for federal employees

A House committee on Tuesday addressed, on a mostly bipartisan basis, two often-controversial situations in which federal employees who are not performing their official duties are paid as if they were. The House Oversight Committee passed a bill to generally cap at 14 days per year the use of “administrative leave” when employees are facing […]

Are actions of a dozen officials in various agencies void because court says they are ineligible for office?

For an agency still reeling from a massive cybertheft affecting a population almost the size of Australia’s, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) does not need a legal opinion that says its chief is illegitimate. That’s the case with Beth Cobert’s status as acting OPM director. Once President Obama nominated her to the full-time position, […]

Agencies strike out too much on employee appeals? Any ballplayer would love management’s batting average.

The agency that hears appeals of disciplinary actions against federal employees is coming under increasing criticism that it is too eager to side with workers. But management wins far more often there than the employee. The Merit Systems Protection Board has drawn fire from both Congress and the Obama administration for three recent decisions in […]

OPM director nominee can’t serve as acting agency head, inspector general says

The acting federal personnel director is ineligible to remain in office while her nomination is pending before the Senate, and any decisions she has made in the last three months are “void,” according to the Office of Personnel Management’s inspector general. A letter from the inspector general to Beth Cobert, who has been acting OPM director […]

VA, Hill aims to further cut workplace protections

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials, upset that a few rulings have not gone their way, now want to eliminate a key means of outside review for agency senior executives facing disciplinary actions. If the officials, and their congressional allies, get their way in this rare, public dispute between federal agencies, it potentially could weaken […]

We’re not coddling poorly performing federal employees, appeals agency says In a highly unusual move, the federal agency that hears appeals of disciplinary actions against federal employees has defended itself against assertions that it is misapplying the law and coddling poor performers. The Merit Systems Protection Board, an independent agency that acts like an internal government judicial system, has posted a statement on its website regarding […]

Why USPS doesn’t celebrate rare net profit; and a big service-cut plan dies

After years of singing the blues, postal officials had reason for a praise song. For the first time in almost five years, they reported a U.S. Postal Service quarterly net profit. The $307 million in net income for the first quarter of fiscal year 2016, which ended Dec. 31, is a $1.1 billion turnaround from […]

Tighter limits on appeal rights of VA execs being considered

Senior executives at the Veterans Affairs Department would be even further restricted in their rights to challenge disciplinary actions against them under a plan being discussed between the department and congressional committees overseeing the VA. While the roughly 350 Senior Executive Service members at the department already have fewer rights than their counterparts at other […]

Obama bequeaths praise legacy, but little money, to feds in his final budget

In the last budget proposal of Barack Obama’s presidency, he bequeathed his workforce strong words of praise, even if he couldn’t leave them much money. The “Strengthening the Federal Workforce” section of the budget released Tuesday contains a paean to federal employees, lauding them for making administration policies a success. “In 2015 alone, Federal employees […]

Homeland Security to amp up social media screening to stop terrorism, Johnson says

The Department of Homeland Security is expanding its social media presence in an effort to protect the country, reacting to growing concern about terrorists being radicalized online, Secretary Jeh Johnson said Thursday. In his annual State of Homeland Security address, Johnson said that in response to a recent recommendation from a social media task force within […]

Limits sought on paid time off for federal employees facing discipline

A Senate committee is set to act today on one of the few federal employee issues where there is bipartisan agreement: that too many agencies put too many employees on paid time off for too long beyond their regular leave time. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee plans to take up a bill […]

As concern grows over terrorists on social media, Senate bill calls for national strategy

A U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday will take up a topic that has caused growing concern in recent months: the influence of social media in recruiting potential terrorists. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will consider a bill that would require the Obama administration to draft a comprehensive strategy to combat terrorists’ use of […]

Will Democrats get a larger raise for federal employees?

As Obama administration officials and journalists gathered in cozy meeting rooms around Washington for budget briefings Tuesday, federal employees rallied in a cold rain on a muddy lawn across from the U.S. Capitol. It was a metaphor for their power in a town where Congress is controlled by Republicans and their Democratic friends in the […]

For federal employees, budget seeks 1.6 percent raise, paid parental leave   President Obama’s budget proposal contains the previously announced plan for a 1.6 percent January 2017 raise for federal employees, and it repeats some recommendations on benefits that have not passed Congress and drops some others. A budget document says that the 1.6 percent figure would represent the eighth straight year of federal raises falling below an indicator […]