Category: Congress

House Republicans push through defense bill limiting abortion access and halting diversity efforts

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The House passed a sweeping defense bill Friday that provides an expected 5.2% pay raise for service members but strays from traditional military policy with Republicans add-ons blocking abortion coverage, diversity initiatives at the Pentagon and transgender care that deeply divided the chamber. Democrats voted against the package, which had sailed out of the House Armed Services Committee on an almost unanimous vote weeks ago before being loaded with the GOP priorities during a heated late-night floor debate this week. The final vote was 219-210, with four…

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House GOP VA Committee members look to make firing of poor-performing VA employees easier

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House Republicans want to make it easier to fire employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Republicans on the House VA Committee are looking to advance the Restore VA Accountability Act. Committee Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.) is leading the bill and said the legislation will help the VA get rid of poor performers and those accused of serious misconduct more quickly. Federal employee unions and good-government groups say the bill will only make it harder for the VA to recruit employees. Lawmakers introduced this latest bill after the VA announced…

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Two GOP lawmakers look to defund armed regulatory officers at certain federal agencies

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Is that recording of your agency’s latest Zoom meeting a federal record? The National Archives said it probably is in many cases. A draft bulletin released by the National Archives and Records Administration this week said agencies must incorporate records management practices into their use of collaboration platforms. The use of those tools, like Zoom, Webex, Slack and Discord, has become a fixture in government over the last few years. The draft NARA bulletin said agencies should work with platform providers to ensure records can be exported with required metadata.…

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Congress should protect competition, save Section 876

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When awarding government contracts, actual pricing will always beat hypothetical pricing. Yet most multiple award task and delivery order contracts are awarded based on hypothetical pricing. To change this, Section 876, Increasing Competition at the Task Order Level, was passed in 2018 as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 2019. As the then administrator of the General Services Administration, I know the agency worked closely with Congress to pass Section 876. Unfortunately, a recent Court of Federal Claims decision severely limited the applicability of Section 876, making…

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What do people really mean when they say government should operate like a business?

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When the nearly endless debates over the debt ceiling were raging on, the United States didn’t look very businesslike to the rest of the world. Internally, though, you never stop hearing that federal agencies should operate more like a business. This is both true and not true, according to my next guest. The  Federal Drive with Tom Temin got commentary from American University professor Bob Tobias. Interview Transcript:  Tom Temin Somehow, at these times when things are stressful on the political front or whenever people turn to federal agencies like…

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