Democrats reintroduce bill to give feds 8.7% average pay raise next year

A bicameral pair of Democrats proposed a bill to give federal employees a pay raise in 2024, in what has become an annual tradition in recent years. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) reintroduced the Federal Adjustment of Income Rates (FAIR) Act in the House and Senate, respectively, to give most civilian employees an 8.7% average pay raise next year. Specifically, the bill includes a 4.7% across-the-board base pay raise, plus a 4% average locality pay increase. The legislation also includes a 4.7% raise for prevailing rate…

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The Logic Behind Biden’s Refusal to Negotiate the Debt Ceiling

President Joe Biden has already made the most important domestic-policy decision he’ll likely face this year. Biden and his top advisers have repeatedly indicated that they will reject demands from the new GOP majority in the House of Representatives to link increasing the debt ceiling with cutting federal spending. Instead, Biden is insisting that Congress pass a clean debt-ceiling increase, with no conditions attached. [Annie Lowrey: The trillion-dollar coin might be the least bad option] Biden’s refusal to negotiate with Republicans now is rooted in the Obama administration’s experiences in…

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Alliance of Big Tech, Dark Money Groups Partners With Counties in State That Bans ‘Zuckerbucks’ for Elections

The group that distributed most of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s controversial election grants in 2020 has designated at least two Utah counties as part of a new effort, despite a state ban on private money funding election operations.  The two local juridictions are Cache County, with a population of 137,00, and Weber County, population 267,000. The U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence, a group launched by the Center for Tech and Civic Life and other left-leaning organizations, designated the Utah counties as participants in its plans for 2024. In 2022, the…

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Reintroduced bills aim to fix hiring process, Social Security benefits for feds

Lawmakers have teed up two familiar bills that differ in their priorities, but that both have implications for federal employees, as well as retirees from the public sector. The first bill, the Chance to Compete Act, aims to revamp longstanding challenges in the federal hiring process. The House passed the bill Tuesday evening in a vote of 422 to 2. The bipartisan legislation would expand the use of shared assessments among different agencies, in effect trying to expand cross-agency hiring. Also under the legislation, subject matter experts (SMEs) would be…

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