Congress

  • Federal courts are using money from filing fees and long-term appropriations to stay open during the shutdown, but that money is about to run out. Jim Silkenat, American Bar Association president, says Congress needs to pass a budget that addresses the costs of the shutdown and sequestration.

    October 15, 2013
  • Whatever you did yesterday, good, bad or indifferent, it doesn't matter. Thanks to the shutdown mode of government and various agency interpretations on it, Columbus Day was a nonevent for a lot of people, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.

    October 15, 2013
  • While furloughed federal employees can hang onto the hope Congress will authorize backpay once the shutdown ends, government contractors will likely face the reality of lost wages and revenue.

    October 14, 2013
  • President Barack Obama is being updated by members of the White House about the impact of the government shutdown on key federal agencies and programs. Over the weekend, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough briefed Obama on the shutdown's impact on the government's research efforts, according to the White House.

    October 14, 2013
  • Preliminary figures suggest next year's benefit increase will be roughly 1.5 percent, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. The increase will be small because consumer prices, as measured by the government, haven't gone up much in the past year.

    October 14, 2013
  • The success of the U.S. private sector is connected to a healthy U.S. public sector, and we are letting our public sector deteriorate, says David Bray, CIO of the FCC.

    October 14, 2013
  • Federal employees who are "excepted" from furloughs have remained on the job despite the government shutdown, which is now stretching into its third week. OPM updated its shutdown guidance Friday to include instructions on how to handle "brief or intermittent unpaid absences" by excepted federal employees. Overall, OPM has made more than a dozen changes to its shutdown guidance since congressional appropriations for fiscal 2014 lapsed two weeks ago.

    October 14, 2013
  • When a Washington based web solution firm received an email from a furloughed fed looking for temporary work, the firm immediately jumped on the idea to create a website with job postings for freelance work. From idea to execution, unfurlough.us was launched in just five hours.

    October 14, 2013
  • Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke by phone Sunday but failed to agree on a deal to raise the nation's borrowing authority above the $16.7 trillion debt limit or reopen a government still shuttered on its 14th day.

    October 14, 2013
  • Evan Lesser, founder and director of Clearance Jobs.com, will discuss the impact of the government shutdown on contractors and employees with security clearances. October 11, 2013

    October 11, 2013
  • A new staff report from the Senate Commerce Committee highlights some of the ways in which the government shutdown is throwing sand in the gears of the private economy. But the authors also point to several ways in which federal furloughs are jeopardizing public safety.

    October 11, 2013
  • With the shutdown of the federal government heading into its third week, Federal News Radio has prepared this snapshot of how federal agencies, programs, employees and contractors are faring.

    October 11, 2013
  • Millions of federal retirees will have to wait to find out the size of next year's cost-of-living adjustment. The Labor Department says it won't report inflation statistics on time this month, which will delay the Social Security Administration's COLA calculation.

    October 11, 2013
  • For every day that the government shutdown drags on, federal managers face a potentially growing morale crisis in the federal-employee ranks. For federal managers, returning from the shutdown, however, will offer them the opportunity to refocus on the "federal brand," the set of ideals and sense of mission that the federal government is uniquely suited to offer.

    October 11, 2013