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Civil Rights for Civil Servants
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OPM's Replacement for the Loyalty Question, Word for Word: What Federal Job Applicants Should Know
The federal hiring "loyalty question," the essay that asked applicants to name a favorite executive order and explain how they would advance it, has been replaced. A federal judge ...
OPM Capped Top Performance Ratings at 40%. Here's Why It Now Matters in a RIF.
OPM's new cap on performance ratings means no more than 40 percent of General Schedule employees at an agency can receive the top two ratings, combined. That would matter on its ow...
VA Told Congress It Cut $120 Billion in Contracts. The Inspector General Found $1.1 Billion.
A new VA Inspector General report on last year's VA contract terminations found that some staff had only hours, in some cases less than 11, to review hundreds of contracts marked f...
Forced Federal Relocations Were Sold as Savings. The Receipts Show Millions in Costs.
This summer's forced federal employee relocations were presented as cost-cutting, but public records gathered by NPR show the government is still paying millions of dollars a year ...
More Than 100 Rulings Against the Government Since 2025: What Federal Employees Have Won
Since January 2025, judges, arbitrators, and the Merit Systems Protection Board have ruled against actions taken against federal employees more than 100 times. If you have been fee...
OPM's Evidence for Faster Federal Firings: A Spreadsheet and Ten Managers
OPM's proposed rule to make it faster to fire federal employees is back open for public comment, and the new evidence OPM has put on the record is thin: a spreadsheet counting sepa...
A Record 65% of Americans Say Federal Employees Are Competent. Only 27% Trust the Government.
Public trust in federal employees is holding up far better than the headlines suggest. A new national survey from the Partnership for Public Service found that a record 65% of Amer...
Hackers Claim a File on FBI Employees and Applicants: What FBI Staff Should Do Now
A hacking group claims it has stolen data on FBI employees and people who applied for FBI jobs, and it is using that claim to pressure the Bureau. The FBI says it is investigating....
A Draft Executive Order Could Give OMB a Veto Over NIH Grants. Congress Already Paused This Idea.
A draft executive order could give the White House budget office a veto over NIH grants, according to reporting by The New York Times and Politico. The order has not been signed. B...
Is Your 2027 Federal Pay Raise Really Zero? Why the Pay Freeze Isn't Final
The 2027 federal pay raise is not settled yet, even though the White House has proposed a pay freeze. A freeze proposal is a starting point, not the final word. Whether federal emp...
The EEOC Explained in 1999 Why Your Agency Shouldn't Decide Your Case
Today, an EEOC administrative judge, not your own agency, has the power to decide a federal employee's discrimination case after a hearing, and the EEOC wrote down the reason for t...
EEOC Budget Plans Fewer Judges for the Same Federal-Sector Caseload
The EEOC's own FY 2027 budget request plans for fewer administrative judges to handle the same number of federal-sector hearing requests, even as the agency proposes limiting feder...
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