Category: Congress

Bills, amendments linger in Congress with lasting implications for feds

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Lawmakers have until Dec. 16, when the current continuing resolution expires, to pass the rest of the appropriations bills and fund the government next year, but it’s not the only item on the congressional to-do list with big implications for the federal workforce. Many of those additional items are included as amendments under the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2023. There are more than 1,000 amendments to the NDAA, and at least a handful of them have the potential to change the federal hiring process, federal benefits, retirement and…

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Congressmen want to know what agencies are doing to ensure clean water across America

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Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Federal Drive’s daily audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne. Two House Democrats are asking questions about agency efforts to ensure clean and safe drinking water across the country. Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said the Department of Homeland Security and the Environmental Protection Agency are crucial to overseeing water and wastewater utilities. Now, they’re asking for a Government Accountability Office review of how DHS and EPA prioritize funding for utilities that are…

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Bill designed to standardize federal-election mail-in ballots heads to the House floor

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Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Federal Drive’s daily audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne. A bill meant to standardize mail-in ballots for federal elections is heading to the House floor. The Vote-by-Mail Tracking Act would help the Postal Service manage a rise in mail-in voting by requiring all mail-in ballots to include a scannable barcode. The bill made it out of the House Oversight and Reform Committee with a bipartisan majority vote. An earlier version of the bill has a provision to reimburse state and local…

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You’re not the only one squinting to understand what’s happening on Capitol Hill

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Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Federal Drive’s daily audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne. The duck is officially lame with apologies to our real life feathered friends, the 117th Congress. At least the House will be back in session this week and casting votes. For a look at what remains before the arrival of the 118th Congress, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin  turned to Bloomberg Government Deputy News Director Loren Duggan. Interview transcript: Tom Temin: And this really is one of those kind of special…

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Can a 10-year federal infrastructure plan really sustain itself for 10 years

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Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Federal Drive’s daily audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne. The action plan from the Biden administration for the Infrastructure Bill seeks to ensure projects across the nation get done on time and on budget. They’ve already hired 2,500 people to help state, local and tribal governments. But the plan has a 10-year horizon. And that could spell trouble. The Federal Drive with Tom Temin   gets analysis from Professor Bob Tobias of American University. Interview transcript: Tom Temin: And Bob, this…

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50,000 companies on hold because of GSA’s UEI validation problems

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Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Federal Drive’s daily audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne. Editor’s Note: Updated on Nov. 2 with comments from GSA about the UEI validation service backlog. It’s now November, and the General Services Administration still hasn’t fixed the Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) transition to the new validation service that began in April. And as many as 50,000 companies and grantees still are waiting to fix validation issues that is causing delays in awards and in getting paid. The almost six-month old problem…

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