OPM removes language on back pay for furloughed feds from shutdown guidance

With a partial government shutdown underway, the Office of Personnel Management has updated its shutdown guidance to remove references to the guarantee of back pay for furloughed federal employees once a funding lapse ends. OPM’s previous shutdown guidance from September 2025 stated that furloughed employees will get paid once a lapse in appropriations ends, at the earliest date possible. The September guidance also referenced the 2019 Government Employee Fair Treatment Act (GEFTA), a law meant to ensure retroactive compensation for both excepted and furloughed federal employees during government shutdowns. After…

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VA in 2026 looks to get EHR rollout back on track, embark on health care reorganization

The Department of Veterans Affairs is embarking on major changes next year. It’s looking to get the rocky rollout of a new Electronic Health Record back on track. VA medical facilities already using the system have been beset with problems for years. Meanwhile, the VA is planning to roll out the biggest reorganization of its health care operations in decades. Here’s a look ahead at VA’s plans for 2026. VA EHR next steps VA is planning for its new EHR from Oracle-Cerner to go live at 13 sites in 2026…

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Tentative Senate deal reaffirms back pay, reverses RIFs for federal employees

The Senate’s initial agreement toward ending the longest-ever government shutdown includes provisions that would secure back pay for all federal employees, as well as reverse the Trump administration’s recent reductions in force. Though much is still up in the air and subject to possible changes, the early steps in the process indicate that, if the Senate bill’s current language is maintained, both excepted and furloughed federal employees would receive back pay dating to Oct. 1, the day the shutdown began. Federal employees, regardless of whether they are furloughed or excepted,…

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House Republicans Back President Trump’s Crackdown on DC Crime

It’s no secret that violent crime is spiraling out of control in our cities.  Some would have you believe that rampant crime is just a fact of life when you live in a big city, but that’s not true. Rampant crime is a consequence of failed policy and moral leadership. For the last 20 years, the city of Washington, D.C., has had an average of three homicides a week. In 2024, 29,348 crimes were reported in Washington, including 3,469 violent offenses, 2,113 robberies, and 5,139 vehicle thefts. In 2025, there…

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The Wrong Way to Win Back the Working Class

Sign up for Trump’s Return, a newsletter featuring coverage of the second Trump presidency. In its period of exile, the Democratic Party has a lot of decisions to make. One of those decisions concerns its relationship with organized labor. Joe Biden and members of his administration—and, indeed, much of the party’s leadership—believed that forming a historically tight partnership with organized labor would help arrest the party’s decline with the working class. They turned out to be wrong. Working-class voters, even the small and shrinking share of them who belong to…

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Is There Any Way That Democrats Can Get Back Into Power?

Yes, if Democrats can take back the House in 2026, then we can stop Trump from continuing to strip away Americans’ rights. There are things we can all be doing right now to get Trump out of office.  Remember, Democrats need to flip only three seats to flip the House. Just three seats.  In his first six months as president, Trump has already slashed America’s budget and signed dangerous bills into law. Trump and Republicans have taken away Americans’ health care, their SNAP benefits, and their cancer research funding. MoveOn…

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