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Civil Rights for Civil Servants
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Your FY2026 Performance Rating Now Carries RIF Points: Four Moves to Make Before It Closes
Your FY2026 performance rating is worth RIF retention points now, and for many federal employees the appraisal period closes on September 30. Seven points: that is what a Level 5 r...
Merit or Loyalty? Measuring OPM's Merit Claim Against the Record
Merit system principles are back in the public conversation. OPM Director Scott Kupor argued in the Washington Post that this administration is reviving merit in the federal workfo...
GAO Audited DOGE's Wall of Receipts. The Numbers Did Not Hold Up.
A new GAO audit of DOGE's "Wall of Receipts" found that the savings claims used to justify two years of federal workforce cuts do not hold up when checked against the government's ...
September 2: OPM Starts Deciding Appeals About Its Own Rules
On September 2, 2026, three categories of federal employee appeals — reduction in force, probationary and trial period actions, and suitability actions — move out of the Merit Syst...
Congress Required This DoD Office by Law. It Went From 40 People to 9.
Federal employees have watched a familiar pattern repeat across agencies this year, and a Pentagon office offers one of the clearest examples yet: an office Congress required by st...
Government Shutdown Looming October 1: Three Moves for Federal Employees to Make Now
A government shutdown could begin as soon as October 1, 2026, and federal employees who wait until the fiscal year ends to prepare may find themselves scrambling. Congress has pass...
State Department Is Hiring for Jobs It Just Cut — Know Your RIF Rights
A year after the State Department separated roughly 1,350 employees in a reduction in force (RIF), the department is recruiting again for many of the same roles — and laid-off empl...
Is USDA's Reorganization a RIF in Disguise? What a New Court Filing Alleges
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says its reorganization "is not" a large-scale workforce reduction. A new court filing from federal employee unions argues USDA's own internal pl...
OPM Wants to Stop Measuring Federal Employee Morale. A New Survey Shows Why That Matters.
A new survey of federal employees who lost their jobs shows lasting damage to their finances and mental health, and it comes right as the Office of Personnel Management proposes cu...
Education Department IG Report: RIF Cuts May Have Left Legally Required Work Unstaffed
A new Inspector General report on the Department of Education's rapid workforce reduction reveals something more troubling than headline job-loss numbers: staffing cuts may have el...
RIF Separation and Federal Hiring Rights
Federal employees who have been separated through a reduction in force often carry more than a job loss. They carry the fear that future agencies will quietly treat the RIF as a ma...
USAID Contractor Ruling: Why “Bad Faith” Matters
A recent decision from the U.S. Court of Federal Claims should get the attention of every federal employee watching ongoing agency restructuring. In Dan Zieger v. United States (Ap...
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