House VA Committee leader demands ‘airtight case’ for VA IT employees getting pay boost

A top Republican on the House VA Committee is scrutinizing the number of the employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs who are receiving a pay raise meant for hard-to-keep IT and cyber experts. The VA implemented a Special Salary Rate last summer, giving more than 7,000 employees in its Office of Information Technology (OIT) a substantial boost in pay. The SSR resulted in a 17% average pay increase for VA tech and cyber workers in 2210-classified positions. VA OIT has over 7,500 employees in these positions, and they account…

Read More...

Roundup: Republicans Boost Third-Party Threats

WASHINGTON, D.C. – MAGA Republicans are willing to do and spend whatever it takes to reelect Donald Trump in November—and that includes helping third-party spoilers like RFK Jr., Cornel West, and Jill Stein.  Earlier this week, USA Today reported that Trump’s biggest donor, Timothy Mellon, has also been boosting RFK Jr.’s campaign with millions in contributions. Since 2023, he has given $ 50 million to PACs supporting both RFK Jr. and Trump. Trump’s allies have been plotting to turn the election against President Biden by backing third-party spoiler candidates, and…

Read More...

Bureaucracy Reform: Presidential Power Struggle or Democracy Boost?

The presidential election is a year away, and an unpopular President Joe Biden is visibly losing mental acuity. “Weekend at Bernie’s III” was a sequel no one made, for good reason. The response from partisans on the left is panic, crowned by Washington Post editor Robert Kagan’s unhinged commentary, “A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable”—complete with a photo morphing former President Donald Trump into Julius Caesar. In an op-ed for The New York Times, Georgetown University professor Donald Moynihan thinks “Trump Has a Master Plan for Destroying the ‘Deep State.’” He’s…

Read More...

Congress, Biden administration look for ways to boost federal recruitment, retention of military spouses

House lawmakers are looking to offer a little more help to military spouses who may be struggling to keep their jobs. Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) and Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) introduced the READINESS Act on Nov. 21. If enacted, the bill would provide more job flexibility to the spouses of both active-duty military members and Foreign Service officers. The bipartisan legislation presents several options to military spouses working in government. Upon a military relocation, they would be able to seek an individual determination from their employing agency about whether they can…

Read More...

The Politically Incorrect Reality About How to Boost Access to American Dream

If you want to increase access to the American dream, there’s one simple trick.  But there’s a catch: It’s not a very politically correct reality.  Simply put, to optimize any kid’s chance at success, he needs to grow up with married parents.  A new book, “The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind,” shows just how starkly a child’s life can be affected based on whether he grows up with married parents or a single parent.  “[M]ounds of social science evidence … shows how the odds…

Read More...

Expanding the Quad? Opening seen to boost pro-democracy alliance against China

America’s intensifying pro-democracy alignment with Japan, Australia and India has room to grow as other nations seek ways to push back on an aggressive China that is eager to dominate Asia and beyond in the 21st century, former top U.S. officials and regional experts said Tuesday. Speaking at The Washington … The Washington Times stories: White House

Read More...