Management

  • The White House typically gives agencies both funding and policy updates for the upcoming budget request by Thanksgiving. This year OMB decided to hold off on passback guidance because of the current fiscal negotiations with Congress. Several senior agency officials said this lag will compress the timeline to respond to the information and require them to prepare for something that may never happen.

    December 20, 2012
  • If Congress and the White House change the yardstick used to measure inflation, will retirees barely notice or will they have to go on a diet of Hamburger Helper and Ramen Noodles? Check out Senior Correspondent Mike Causey's column for more.

    December 20, 2012
  • Federal Times senior writers Sean Reilly and Stephen Losey will update us on sequestration, buyouts, and the big issues affecting federal workers in 2013. December 19, 2012

    December 19, 2012
  • Congress has cleared the way for a $633 billion defense policy bill that includes mandated reductions to the Defense Department's civilian and contractor workforces. Leaders of a House-Senate conference committee, tasked with reconciling competing versions of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act, included in the final report the automatic workforce reductions that opponents say would result in about 36,000 job losses.

    December 19, 2012
  • Director John Berry said the agency's Innovation Lab is helping to take a different, more rapid approach to developing the proposed rule to implement the new program. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) also is suggesting the creation of a "leave bank" for workers who leave federal service but plan to return. Berry said that's an innovative idea OPM may look at.

    December 19, 2012
  • In the fiscal-cliff talks, it now appears that both sides have blinked. Republicans appear willing to accept some higher taxes and Democrats seem to have agreed that Social Security's growing costs must be curtailed. Slightly and slowly. So how will the proposals affect you? Check out Senior Correspondent Mike Causey's column.

    December 19, 2012
  • Gigi Schumm, vice president and general manager Public Sector of Symantec, talks about computer security. December 18, 2012

    December 18, 2012
  • In the latest proposals traded back and forth between the White House and Boehner, the President proposed changing the formula the Labor Department uses to measure inflation — which would reduce annual COLAs for Social Security beneficiaries, including federal and military retirees. Federal-employee unions and groups remain worried the COLA proposals are still very much on the table.

    December 18, 2012
  • Federal News Radio hosted an online chat with Charlie Armstrong, assistant commissioner and chief information officer at Customs and Border Protection. If you missed it live, view an archived version of the chat here.

    December 18, 2012
  • If a compromise does not take place by Jan. 2, sequestration will kick in potentially causing challenges for federal agencies and contractors. So do federal agencies and contractors have plans in place or are they crossing their fingers in the meantime?

    December 18, 2012
  • The four ideas received the most votes over the last four months out of more than 10,000 ideas. This is the fourth year OMB has held the SAVE Awards. The winner presents their idea to President Obama and gets it included in the 2014 budget request.

    December 18, 2012
  • The 10-year-old law created a centralized oversight and advocate in OMB for IT management and programs. It also focused on making the government more citizen-centered and having agencies collaborate on delivering services to the public.

    December 18, 2012
  • Latest edition of a biennial survey, sponsored by a contracting industry group, finds acquisition leaders have the same challenges they had a decade ago. But they fear tighter budgets will reverse progress toward improving the government's acquisition workforce.

    December 18, 2012
  • If Congress and the White House cut a last-minute deal to avoid sequestration and the fiscal cliff, some of the compromise may come out of your hide, whether you are active or retired, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.

    December 18, 2012