Tag: Amid

OPM defends rule to hamper Schedule F’s return, backs telework amid return to office push

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The Office of Personnel Management is defending a recently finalized rule meant to prevent the return of Schedule F — a Trump-era policy that made it easier to fire career federal employees in policymaking positions. OPM’s acting director told the House Oversight and Accountability Committee that the re-emergence of such a policy would undermine civil service protections, and return the federal workforce to a 19th-century “spoils system” with major turnover. Acting OPM Director Rob Shriver told lawmakers on Wednesday that the return of Schedule F would have a “chilling effect”…

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Amid safety concerns, AFGE urges Congress to increase Bureau of Prisons funding

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Union officials are urging Congress to provide more funding to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. BOP has spent years struggling with staff attrition, and safety and security issues. The American Federation of Government Employees said the fiscal 2024 budget for BOP, as part of the recent government funding deal, would only worsen the agency’s current 40% staffing shortage. And AFGE warned that a 38% cut to funding for facility maintenance would make federal prisons more dangerous environments for both employees and inmates. (BOP needs more funding, not Less, to address…

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Whistleblower protection legislation stalls amid congressional chaos

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Whistleblower protection legislation often has bipartisan support. Yet it seems to take forever. A bill to extend federal protections to contractors was supposed to get marked up in January in the House Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. But now it is sidelined. For more, the Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Joe Spielberger, the policy counsel at the Project on Government Oversight (POGO). Interview Transcript:  Tom Temin And this new bill, then is pretty significant. Let’s talk about the bill itself. What does it purport to do…

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EXCLUSIVE: Medical Group Backs State AG’s Emergency Order on Transgender Interventions Amid Legal Threat

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FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey issued an emergency regulation Thursday restricting the use of experimental transgender interventions on minors. An organization of doctors, nurses, and health care professionals supported Bailey’s order, despite pro-transgender activist groups condemning it as based on “debunked claims” that ignore “medical evidence” and threatening a lawsuit to block it. “We absolutely support the efforts of Attorney General Bailey and his efforts to restrict transgender medical interventions,” Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, chairman of Do No Harm, told The Daily Signal in a statement Friday.…

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Federal building security agency short-staffed amid rise in threats

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Federal employees and their office buildings are facing an increase in threats at a time when the agency sworn to protect them is running into challenges to fill law enforcement vacancies. The Federal Protective Service secures 9,500 federal buildings across the country. But FPS Principal Deputy Director Kris Cline said last month that about 21% of its authorized positions remain vacant, and that filling them is a “continued challenge.” Cline said told the oversight subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee that FPS has an authorized end strength of 1,131 law enforcement…

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