Trump claims big jump in VA trust scores, but data shows modest gains
Patient satisfaction rates have improved steadily at VA in recent years, but Trump insists his changes have reformed the entire department.
Oversight
VA cancels plans for employee satisfaction survey this year
VA has conducted a poll of federal employees every year since 2006, but won't distrubute one this year amid multiple reforms to the workforce.
Congress passes bill to shore up Postal Service, delivery
Congress mustered rare bipartisan support for the Postal Service package, dropping some of the more controversial proposals to settle on core ways to save the service and ensure its future operations.
Vaccine mandate for federal employees awaits court ruling
A requirement that federal contractors and subcontractors require employee vaccinations is on hold. A federal judge in Georgia blocked that mandate nationwide and the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit appeals court is to hear arguments in that case April 8.
Washington must do more to support companies facing Russian hackers
Moscow has repeatedly demonstrated that its hackers — which include military and intelligence cyber units as well as “independent” proxies — have the capability to inflict untold damages on the infrastructure and companies the global economy depends upon.
OPM announces new chair of federal pay rate committee
The Federal Prevailing Rate Advisory Committee (FPRAC) advises the OPM director on pay rates for trade, craft and laboring federal employees via the Federal Wage System, ensuring those rates are aligned with prevailing wages at the local level.
How federal agencies can adapt to the unbounded workforce
For nearly two years, we have witnessed a rapid deterioration of the norms that governed both physical and digital workspaces. Without such norms, interpreting behavior and understanding risk has become increasingly complex. Organizations have struggled to maintain visibility of their assets, and both internal and external attackers have capitalized on weaknesses revealed by ambiguity and uncertainty.
State of the Union: Biden vows to halt Russia, hit inflation
Aiming to build on momentum from the speech, Biden will head to Wisconsin on Wednesday in an effort to show Americans that his domestic agenda is working. His vice president and Cabinet members will fan out around the country to amplify the message.
Nearly half of Biden’s 500M free COVID tests still unclaimed
Wild demand swings have been a subplot in the pandemic, from vaccines to hand sanitizer, along with tests. On the first day of the White House test giveaway in January, COVIDtests.gov received over 45 million orders. Now officials say fewer than 100,000 orders a day are coming in for the packages of four free rapid tests per household, delivered by the U.S. Postal Service.
Report: Feds should create guidelines on less-lethal weapons
The report — released Friday by the Police Executive Research Forum, an organization dedicated to improving the professionalism of policing — examines how police departments handled the thousands of protests and civil unrest in the U.S. in the summer of 2020, after George Floyd was killed at the hands of officers in Minneapolis.
Biden nominates Jackson, first Black woman, to Supreme Court
President Joe Biden on Friday nominated federal appeals court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, making her the first Black woman selected to serve on a court that once declared her race unworthy of citizenship and endorsed segregation.
