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VHA on track to meet 2023 staffing targets, but House lawmakers urge further hiring reforms

May 17, 2023 Meet, Targets, Reforms, hiring, Further, 2023, staffing, House, urge, Lawmakers, Track0 comment

Ongoing recruitment challenges for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ health care workforce are gaining more attention — and concerns — from Congress. The Veterans Health Administration is on track to reach its year-end target increase for its total number of employees. But problems persist in VHA’s hiring and onboarding processes, lawmakers on the House Veterans Affairs Committee said. “We all know that this is a crisis situation. It was a crisis before COVID. It’s a bigger crisis now. And we have to treat it accordingly and work on this in…

Why Biden Caved

May 17, 2023 Biden, caved0 comment

The White House and Congress have not made much progress in their talks to avert an unprecedented, and potentially calamitous, national default that could occur as soon as early June. But on the most fundamental point of dispute, President Joe Biden has already caved: He’s negotiating with Republicans over the debt ceiling. For months, the president’s ironclad position has been that the debt ceiling is not a bargaining chip. No longer would Democrats allow Republicans to hold hostage the nation’s creditworthiness and economic prestige. Paying the government’s bills by raising…

Biden, Schumer ‘Backed Off Their Idea’ to Not Negotiate, McCarthy Says

May 17, 2023 negotiate, Schumer, McCarthy, Biden, says, Their, backed, Idea0 comment

President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., “have finally backed off their idea that they won’t negotiate” on the debt ceiling, according to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. “They finally backed off the insane, un-rational, un-sensible idea that you just raise the debt ceiling,” McCarthy said at a joint press conference on Wednesday with Republican lawmakers in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. “The president’s selected two individuals, the [Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young] and [counselor to the president Steve] Ricchetti, to sit down…

Biden’s reelection pitch that he can govern well faces daunting challenges with debt, border, more

May 13, 2023 Govern, border, We'll, Biden's, daunting, more, debt, faces, Pitch, Challenges, reelection0 comment

A showdown with Congress that has the nation’s creditworthiness at stake; a frenzied scene at the border as pandemic restrictions ease; a pivotal foreign trip meant to sustain support for Ukraine and contain a more assertive China in the Indo-Pacific. The Washington Times stories: White House

GOP resurrects effort to make some feds at-will employees, thus easier to fire

May 13, 2023 Resurrects, ‘atwill’, thus, Easier, Some, Fire, employees, effort, Feds0 comment

Republicans have renewed their push to try to make it easier for agencies to fire federal employees. GOP lawmakers in both the House and Senate reintroduced a bill to make feds at-will workers. Proponents of the Public Service Reform Act said it would make it easier to remove poor performers, and create more accountability and efficiency. It is an idea that former President Trump originally touted through a now-revoked executive order that created the Schedule F position classification. Republicans’ new bill would also abolish the Merit Systems Protection Board. Democrat…

The Abortion Absolutist

May 13, 2023 abortion, Absolutist0 comment

This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. Sign up for it here. T he sky above Boulder was dark when the abortion doctor picked me up for dinner. I had to squint to recognize Warren Hern in his thick aviator glasses and fur-trapper hat. At the restaurant—a kitschy Italian spot along a pedestrian mall—Hern ignored the table the waiter offered us, pointed at one in the corner, and clomped over in…