Congress | Voter.org

Biden’s USPS board nominees plan to oversee reforms envisioned by Congress

March 31, 2022 envisioned, Congress, plan, Board, Reforms, Nominees, Biden's, oversee, USPS0 comment

President Joe Biden’s latest nominees to serve on the Postal Service’s Board of Governors are planning to oversee sweeping reforms at the agency, if confirmed. Dan Tangherlini, the former head of the General Services Administration, and Derek Kan, a former deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee they would take a closer look at some lawmakers’ top priorities at the agency. Those priorities include electric vehicles and the agency’s next-generation vehicle fleet, a data dashboard meant to track USPS…

Lawmakers raise concerns about EEOC return to office plans

March 27, 2022 EEOC, raise, about, Lawmakers, Office, 'Return, plans, concerns0 comment

As some agencies start to reenter office spaces, lawmakers are raising concerns about return-to-office plans for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-Va.), ranking member on the Committee on Education and Labor, and James Comer (R-Ky.), ranking member on the Committee on Oversight and Reform, said the lag on reentry would delay the commission’s ability to efficiently review and resolve discrimination charges. “We are unaware of any plan for the commission to return the remainder of its workforce of approximately 2,000 employees to in-person service,” the authors said…

New bill would mandate legacy IT inventories, modernization plans

March 23, 2022 mandate, Modernization, inventories, would, Bill, plans, Legacy0 comment

Agencies finally would be on the hook to address the ever growing need to modernize legacy technology systems. After years of reports from the Government Accountability Office that found agencies didn’t have a good idea of how many or how old their legacy systems were, Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) are trying to change that. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., introduced a new bill to require agencies to improve their plans to modernize legacy IT. (Graeme Jennings/Pool via AP) Hassan, the chairwoman of the Homeland Security and Governmental…

IRS plans to hire staff to tackle backlog faster, but struggles on competitive pay

March 19, 2022 plans, staff, faster, Competitive, backlog, hire, struggles, tackle0 comment

The IRS expects new hiring authority will allow it to bring new employees onboard within 40 to 45 days, rather than several months, to deal with a major backlog of tax returns and correspondence. The agency received direct hire authority from Congress in the fiscal 2022 spending bill that President Joe Biden signed into law this week. That spending bill also gave the IRS its highest budget in decades. IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said this hiring flexibility, combined with the agency receiving a lighter paper-based workload this filing season, puts…

Five key provisions in the just-signed 2022 intelligence authorization bill

March 15, 2022 Five, intelligence, Bill, provisions, 2022, Authorization, justsigned0 comment

The 2022 Intelligence Authorization Act hitched a ride on the $ 1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill signed into law by President Joe Biden on Tuesday. The bill authorizes funding for intelligence agencies, provides new legal authorities for priorities like emerging technologies, enacts new restrictions in some cases and gives Congress some additional oversight measures. Here are some highlights from the 2022 bill: Progress wanted on Trusted Workforce 2.0 The legislation requires the director of national intelligence and the director of the Office of Personnel Management to publish a “policy with…

Intelligence community whistleblowers finally get a little help, from Congress

March 11, 2022 Congress, from, Help, intelligence, Little, finally, Community, whistleblower's0 comment

Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Federal Drive’s daily audio interviews on <a href=”https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/federal-drive-with-tom-temin/id1270799277?mt=2″>Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href=”https://www.podcastone.com/federal-drive-with-tom-temin?pid=1753589″>PodcastOne</a>. Whistleblowers across the government have gotten increasingly more support and protection over the years. Except for those in the secretive intelligence community. They have no independent enforcement mechanisms for the protections they do have. Joining the <a href=”https://federalnewsnetwork.com/category/temin/tom-temin-federal-drive/”>Federal Drive with Tom Temin</a> with how things are about to change, the policy counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, Melissa Wasser. Interview transcript: <blockquote>Tom Temin: Ms. Wasser, good to have you on.…