Federal Newscast

The vast majority of employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs keep working during a government shutdown. But VA Secretary Doug Collins says more than 30,000 of the department’s employees have been furloughed. That’s about double what the VA outlined in its latest contingency plans. Collins says the VA will have to furlough more staff from VA’s central office next week if the shutdown contin...

The current shutdown is taking a toll on air traffic controllers. In response to a recent union survey, 700 employees working in air traffic control jobs detailed stories of financial difficulties, like turning to local food banks, canceling medical treatments and seeking part-time jobs. The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union, or “PASS,” says those hardships can carry over into th...

Hawaii, Alaska and New Mexico are among the states being hit hardest by the partial government shutdown. A new report by WalletHub, a personal finance company, ranked the impact of the shutdown across all 50 states and Washington D.C., across five key metrics, including each state’s share of federal jobs to federal contract dollars per capita to national park access. WalletHub found Washington, D....

House Judiciary Committee Democrats have launched a new website for federal watchdogs. That comes after the Trump administration pulled funding for the Council on Inspectors General for Integrity and Efficiency. CIGIE had provided website infrastructure services for at least 28 inspectors general offices. The Judiciary committee’s website provides report repository and hotline contact information...

More resources for federal employees during the shutdown are continuing to pop up. Several credit unions are offering no-fee loans to furloughed federal employees. Local food banks are offering options for those who may need it. And feds who have been laid off this year can also get a $2,000 loan – with no fees and no interest – from the Federal Employees Education and Assistance Fund. The offerin...

Democrats are demanding that the White House follow a 2019 law to ensure back pay for furloughed employees after the government shutdown. In a letter to the Office of Management and Budget, House and Senate lawmakers wrote that the law is clear: Furloughed employees are owed back pay, just as excepted employees are. The letter comes after OMB questioned whether the law actually guaranteed pay...

The Army’s Human Resources Command has developed an internal AI chatbot called “Ask HR” — the chatbot will enter beta testing once the government is funded. The bot has access to Army regulations, Military Personnel Messages and other HR data, which allows soldiers to quickly find information. The new tool is part of a broader effort to create a “digital front door” for human resources, which comb...

Plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s latest mass layoffs will make their case to a federal judge tomorrow. The administration sent RIF notices to more than 4,000 federal employees last week. Government employee unions say reduction-in-force procedures are normally prohibited during a shutdown and that the Trump administration gave unlawful orders to exempt RIF activities....

The Pentagon is making the reinstatement process smoother for service members who were booted from the military over the COVID vaccine. In a new memo, the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness said applicants seeking reinstatement now receive special-category VIP treatment. That includes notifying commanders in advance of their arrival, getting priority processing at Military...

The number of federal employees filing retirement claims in September was the lowest all year. Just over 6,300 employees submitted their retirement paperwork to the Office of Personnel Management. At the same time, OPM also processed the fewest number of current claims in September, just over 7,900.  Despite the lower number of claims, OPM says it took six days longer, on average, i...

The number of so-called TSP millionaires is continuing to go up. As of October 1st, nearly 190,000 participants in the Thrift Savings Plan have accounts totaling over $1 million. That’s about 2.6 percent of all TSP accounts across the board. It also means roughly 19,000 more feds have crossed the million-dollar threshold in the last three months. Most TSP millionaires have spent decades inves...

Senate Democrats are charging the Department of Government Efficiency is putting federal data at risk at the Social Security Administration, the General Services Administration and the Office of Personnel Management. In a new report, Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, says staff investigations and whistleblower accounts show how...

The White House is warning of the potential for spillover effects into the broader economy because of the government shutdown, now entering its second week. The White House's Council of Economic Advisers says calculations based on the number of federal employees and federal contractors not being paid imply that a month-long shutdown would reduce consumer spending by $30 billion. The CEA says&...

In today's Federal Newscast, federal employee unions are moving against an unprecedented actions during a government shutdown See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

In today's Federal Newscast, the Thrift Savings Plan continues its run of month-over-month gains.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

In today's Federal Newscast, the Trump administration is facing another lawsuit — this time, for telling agencies to conduct more reductions in force.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

In today's Federal Newscast, with the government on the brink of a partial shutdown, one senator is pushing the Trump administration to be more transparent about what agency services will remain open should funding lapse. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

In today's Federal Newscast, the White House is officially making AI one of its science and technology priorities.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

The White House says the public will have to look at each individual agency to find out their plans for what would happen in a government shutdown. The Office of Management and Budget’s webpage which normally publishes shutdown contingency plans remained empty for months. But now, OMB says that agencies’ plans will only be available one by one, on each agency’s own website. Those contingency...

The National Guard has surpassed its recruiting goals for fiscal 2025. The Army and Air National Guard have enlisted nearly 50,000 new members this year, bringing total Guard end strength to more than 433,000. Senior leaders attributed this year’s success to initiatives such as the Future Soldier Preparatory Course and the new “Uncommon is Calling” marketing campaign for helping attract new member...

Agencies are bracing for a potential government shutdown, with less than a week left for Congress to reach a spending agreement. But so far, agencies have not released any public plans for what would happen in a shutdown. Agencies are supposed to release contingency plans, detailing which employees would keep working, and who would be furloughed. Currently, though, the White House’s website for li...

The Army is rolling out a new incentive to keep some of its most experienced technical experts in uniform. A warrant officer retention bonus will offer a “substantial financial incentive” to officers in critical specialties who commit to additional years of service. High-demand fields like cyber operations, aviation maintenance, signal and communications and special operations are identified as pr...

There is a push in Congress to expand the use of hazard pay for federal wildland firefighters. Utah Congresswoman Celeste Maloy has introduced a bill attempting to correct what she says is a gap in the benefit. Currently, wildland firefighters receive higher pay rates, called hazard pay, when fighting active fires. But hazard pay doesn’t apply to situations where firefighters are conducting prescr...

Yesterday’s Senate vote confirming nearly 50 of the president’s nominees included some big gains for the Army — filling most of that service’s senior political leadership posts all at once. Among those confirmed was Michael Obadal as the new under secretary of the Army, the service’s number-two civilian leadership position. The en-bloc vote also included confirmations for three Army assistant secr...

The departments of Interior and Agriculture say they are on track to combine their wildland firefighting forces into a single agency by January 2026. The announcement this week comes after President Trump ordered the two departments to consolidate their wildfire response efforts into a single agency: the U.S. Wildland Fire Service. An employee organization called the Grassroots Wildland Firefighte...