Flurry of House activity on 2025 federal spending, but not much bipartisanship

In the House, it’s one down and 11 to go for the appropriations bills that make up the federal budget for 2025. And lawmakers are set to make a lot of progress over the next several weeks, with an aggressive schedule of votes coming up. Loren Duggan is Deputy News Director at Bloomberg Government spoke with Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Interview Transcript:  Loren Duggan This is the latest week that’s very spending focused in the House. As you mentioned, three of the…

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Proposed 2% federal pay raise gets support in 2025 defense authorization bill

With both Senate and House lawmakers advancing legislation that aligns with President Joe Biden’s 2% federal pay raise request, civilian federal employees appear to be a step closer to a smaller pay bump for 2025. The Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act last week showed support for a 2% raise for DoD civilian workers and a 4.5% raise for military members. In a vote of 22-3 on June 13, committee lawmakers advanced the 2025 NDAA to the full Senate for consideration. The House…

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Rep. Hoyer warns of ‘freezes, furloughs, layoffs’

The spending bill to support the funding for the rest of the government is facing a 25% cut. House appropriators passed the Financial Services and General Government 2025 spending bill yesterday and it is 20% below the administration’s request and 10% below this year’s enacted levels. But Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said the reductions, especially those to the IRS of some $ 2 billion, will have a much bigger effect than any one agency’s budget. “This bill funds every other bill you are going to consider or it funds paying…

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Coast Guard ‘stymies’ Senate’s investigation of sexual assault

The Coast Guard’s failure to provide Congress with sufficient information regarding the service’s handling of sexual assault cases points to a “continuing culture of cover-up,” lawmakers said Tuesday during a highly-anticipated congressional hearing on the Coast Guard’s investigation of sexual misconduct at the service’s academy. Last year, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee requested all records related to Operation Fouled Anchor, the Coast Guard’s internal investigation of sexual assault cases at the Coast Guard Academy. Lawmakers said the records provided to Congress are highly redacted and include a…

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Former senior officials join rising calls for an alternative to Schedule F

A group of former senior officials is making a new and near last-ditch call to action aiming to prevent the possible resurrection of the controversial Schedule F executive order from the Trump administration. The five former national security officials, who sent a letter to congressional committee leaders Thursday, are approaching the years-long Schedule F debate with what has been a steadily growing angle: They proposed a middle-ground answer to the question of federal workforce accountability. Along with warning of what they said would be a dangerous return of Schedule F,…

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Congress looks to require military drone corps, which Army leaders oppose

The House Armed Services Committee’s draft defense policy bill would require the Army to establish a separate drone branch, but Army leaders continue to push against the idea. A provision in the House Armed Services Committee’s version of the defense bill would require the Army to establish a drone corps as a basic branch of the service. Gen. James Rainey, who leads the Army Futures Command, said it is too early for setting up a separate drone branch. One of the main priorities for the service right now is to…

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