Attorneys for Federal Employees — Nationwide

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Today at a Glance

• OPM Is Seeking Monthly Identifiable Medical Records for 8 Million Federal Employees, Retirees, and Their Families — With No Stated Rules on What It Will Do With That Data: A notice published in December and reported publicly this week by KFF Health News, CNN, and Government Executive requires 65 FEHB and PSHB insurers to submit monthly medical claims, pharmacy records, encounter data, and provider information. Health law experts say the request appears to seek personally identifiable data and that OPM has given no guidance on how it will secure it or prevent it from being shared with other agencies.
• DHS Employees Will Begin Receiving Shutdown Back Pay Starting Tomorrow — But Future Paychecks After April 4 Depend on Congress: The Department sent an all-hands message this week confirming that back pay covering February 14 through April 4 will arrive as early as April 10 and no later than April 16. But the message also makes clear: any compensation after that date requires Congress to end the shutdown. The House is not back in full session until April 13.
• Trump’s FY2027 Budget Maps Out Where the Federal Workforce Grows and Where It Keeps Shrinking: Agriculture loses 19,000. SSA grows 2%. VA adds 9,000 medical hires. Education cuts 500 more. The net result across the executive branch is a projected gain of approximately 3,000 positions — but the agency-level picture is uneven, and several of the proposed gains depend on transfers rather than new hiring.

Top Stories:

1. OPM Is Seeking Monthly Identifiable Medical Records on 8 Million Federal Employees, Retirees, and Their Families — With No Published Rules on How the Data Will Be Used

Source: Government Executive — April 8, 2026

TL;DR: A notice OPM sent to FEHB and PSHB insurance carriers in December 2025 — first reported publicly this week — requires 65 insurers covering more than 8 million federal employees, retirees, postal workers, congressional staff, and their family members to submit monthly reports containing medical claims, pharmacy claims, encounter data, and provider data. The notice does not instruct carriers to de-identify the data before submission, and health law and policy experts who reviewed it for KFF Health News concluded that OPM appears to be seeking personally identifiable health information. OPM did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Experts expressed alarm both about the legal basis for the collection under HIPAA and about the absence of any stated guardrails on how OPM would use or share the data. One health law professor noted that the administration could use the data to identify employees who sought abortion care or gender-affirming treatment. A former OPM official said he sees value in de-identified claims data for program analysis but called the apparent scope of this request “shocking.” At least one major insurer, CVS Health, flagged potential HIPAA compliance concerns. The public comment period closed February 10, 2026.

For federal employees, this means:

•  If you are enrolled in an FEHB or PSHB plan — or if your spouse or children are covered under your federal health benefits — your medical records are potentially within the scope of this request. That includes your prescriptions, your diagnoses, the length of your medical visits, and the notes your provider submitted to your insurer.
• The comment period has already closed. The proposal is not yet final, and it has not been implemented. But OPM sent the notice to carriers in December without public announcement, and experts are only now raising alarms. Watch for legal challenges and for any agency-level guidance OPM issues about data handling.
• If you have sought medical care that you would not want your employer to know about — including reproductive care, behavioral health treatment, or any care related to a protected characteristic — the scope of this proposal and the absence of stated access controls is information you need to have.

Legal Insight:
Under the Privacy Act of 1974, 5 U.S.C. § 552a, federal employees have the right to request access to any records OPM maintains on them, to learn whether those records have been disclosed and to whom, and to seek correction of inaccurate records. Those rights exist now and do not depend on what OPM does next with the FEHB data. HIPAA’s minimum-necessary standard, 45 C.F.R. § 164.514(d), requires covered entities — including insurers — to limit the disclosure of protected health information to the minimum necessary for the stated purpose. Whether the OPM notice satisfies that standard is a legal question that advocacy organizations including Democracy Forward have already flagged in formal comments. If you believe information about your medical care has been accessed by your agency and used in an employment decision against you — including a performance action, a disciplinary action, a denial of accommodation, or a termination — that may implicate the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Privacy Act, and potentially Title VII or the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act depending on the nature of the care. Consider talking with a qualified federal employment attorney.

2. DHS Employees Will Receive Shutdown Back Pay Starting Tomorrow — But Future Paychecks After April 4 Depend on Congress Ending the Shutdown

Source: Federal News Network — April 8, 2026

TL;DR: DHS sent an all-hands message to employees this week confirming that back pay covering the full period from February 14 through April 4 — the end of the last complete pay period — will begin arriving as early as tomorrow, April 10, and no later than April 16 depending on the employee’s financial institution. The payments are funded through a provision of last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act that gives the president some flexibility to redirect funds to DHS operations. But the message also drew a clear line: “Any additional compensation owed to you will be paid once DHS funding is restored.” That means pay for the pay period beginning April 5 is not covered by the executive order and will require congressional action to fund. Congress returns from recess on April 13. The shutdown is now on day 54 with no legislative resolution in place.

For federal employees, this means:

• If you are a FEMA, Coast Guard civilian, or CISA employee who has been working without pay since February 14, your back pay for that entire period should arrive by April 16. Review the amounts carefully when they arrive. Confirm the number of pay periods covered, the base pay rate applied, and whether any overtime or premium pay owed is included.
• The executive order covers through April 4. Unless Congress passes a funding bill and the president signs it before your next pay date, the pay period beginning April 5 is at risk. April 13 is the earliest Congress can take a floor vote; passage the same week is possible but not guaranteed.
• If your back pay amount is incorrect when it arrives, document the discrepancy in writing immediately and submit a written inquiry to your payroll office the same day. The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 guarantees statutory back pay for all work performed or furloughs endured during the lapse — that right does not expire if the executive order amount falls short.

Legal Insight:
The GFETA guarantee covers all pay periods in the lapse, not just those addressed by the executive order. If the executive order payment is accurate for the period it covers but Congress does not fund the subsequent period, the statutory right to back pay for the post-April 4 period attaches upon the shutdown’s legislative end. Keep payroll records from before the shutdown to verify your correct rate, and document any anomalies in what arrives tomorrow. Because payroll dispute timelines and correction mechanisms vary by agency component — with FEMA, TSA, Coast Guard, and CISA each having separate HR and payroll operations — consider talking with your union and a qualified federal employment attorney if a discrepancy is not resolved within your agency’s standard correction window.

3. Trump’s FY2027 Budget Maps Out Where the Federal Workforce Grows Next Year and Where It Keeps Shrinking

Source: Government Executive — April 7, 2026

TL;DR: The FY2027 budget released last week includes detailed agency-level headcount projections for the coming fiscal year. The net picture across the executive branch is a projected gain of approximately 3,000 positions — but the story is not uniform. Agriculture would lose 19,000 employees, though roughly 13,000 of those reflect the transfer of wildland firefighting into a new Interior Department agency rather than true separations. The Forest Service would still shed thousands beyond the transfers. Education would cut an additional 500 positions, including from the Office of Civil Rights and the student aid office. SSA, which lost thousands of employees over the past 15 months and has seen wait times surge, plans to grow by 2% with a focus on frontline staff. VA would add approximately 9,000 employees, almost all in medical services. Justice would add significantly, mostly for immigration courts, DEA, and the Bureau of Prisons. Interior grows by 4,500 including the wildfire transfer. As with all presidential budget requests, these are proposals, not enacted law — Congress determines actual staffing levels through appropriations.

For federal employees, this means:

• If you are at Agriculture, Forest Service, or Education, the budget signals continued pressure for additional separations beyond what has already occurred. It does not guarantee a RIF — but it is the administration’s stated planning assumption for fiscal year 2027 beginning October 1.
• If you are at SSA or VA medical services, the budget signals a hiring posture. At SSA in particular, the growth projection follows a period of significant workforce loss that has already produced demonstrable service degradation — the agency has publicly acknowledged backlogs and wait time problems. Growth at SSA is a political and operational acknowledgment that prior cuts went too far.
• Presidential budget proposals are regularly modified by Congress. The FY2026 budget proposed 22% cuts to non-defense discretionary spending; Congress enacted something far more modest. The FY2027 proposals follow the same pattern — they are opening bids that signal priorities, not final decisions.

Legal Insight:
A budget projection of staffing reductions is not, by itself, legal notice of a RIF. Before an agency can conduct a RIF, it must issue written notice to each affected employee at least 60 days in advance under 5 C.F.R. Part 351. That notice must include your competitive area, your competitive level, your tenure group, and your retention standing — which is determined by your veterans’ preference status, length of service, and performance ratings. If you are in an agency where the FY2027 budget signals continued workforce reduction and you have not yet received a RIF notice, that does not mean one is not coming. It means the 60-day clock has not started. Consider reviewing your retention standing now — before the notice arrives — so that you understand your position in any future RIF competition. Because retention standing calculations are fact-specific and errors by agencies are common, consider talking with a qualified federal employment attorney before or immediately after receiving any RIF notice.

Mindful Moment of the Day

Coming Back From Leave Without Panic 

Returning from vacation, sick leave, or FMLA to a wall of emails can make you want to run back out of the building. Before opening anything, take two minutes to sit, feel your breath, and remind yourself, “I will not finish it all today, and that’s okay.” Then scan your inbox only for items that are both time‑sensitive and truly yours, and put just three of them on a separate short list for today. Let everything else wait while you work that small list first, so your body learns that coming back doesn’t have to mean instant overwhelm.