Why federal employees are watching the political landscape more than ever

If you wonder why federal employees worry, along with everyone else, consider: mini financial crises, a stubbornly bear stock market, no breakthroughs on Social Security solvency, and the debt-ceiling debate dragging out. For one point of view, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin talked with John Hatton, vice president for Policy at the National Association of Active and Retired Federal Employees (NARFE). Interview transcript: Tom Temin People are concerned. I actually had a reader write to me asking, well, our TSP funds insured? Unfortunately, no. And nobody’s investments are insured yet,…

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Omnibus silently endorses 4.6% pay raise for federal employees in 2023

For federal employees, the most significant part of the $ 1.7 trillion omnibus spending package that Congress unveiled this week may not be contained in the text of the legislation itself, but rather found in what’s not said. The 4,155-page bill, which House and Senate lawmakers released in the early morning hours of Dec. 20, doesn’t make any reference to the 4.6% across-the-board federal pay raise, in effect silently endorsing the Biden administration’s proposal for 2023. The bill additionally supports a 4.6% pay raise for military members in 2023. But…

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New bill would abolish MSPB, create ‘at-will’ federal employees

Republican lawmakers are once again making a push that would allow the government to fire bureaucrats more easily. For the third time since 2016, members of the House introduced a bill to make all federal employees “at-will” workers. That means agencies would be able to more quickly remove employees for underperforming or behaving in a manner that goes against federal rules. “My bill would make all federal bureaucrats at-will employees — just like private sector workers — and claw back the inordinate protections some federal employees grossly abuse while helping…

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Florida suspends county health officer for daring to encourage vaccination among his employees

Republicans are really on a roll, aren’t they? First, they support Donald Trump, then Vladimir Putin—and now they’re using the copious political capital they’ve built up with the pig-ignorant half of America to go all-in for COVID-19. I shudder to think what’s next. Maybe they can repeal car-seat laws so toddlers are free to catapult into chemical freight trucks, as God and the Founders intended. So Florida—which is basically Disney World surrounded by 65,000 square miles of childish fantasy—has apparently decided that making Joe Biden look bad so its governor can…

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