Attorneys for Federal Employees — Nationwide

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Today at a Glance

• The State Department Is Recruiting New Foreign Service Officers — While 250 Officers It Laid Off Last Year Are Still Sitting on Paid Administrative Leave, With No Explanation and No End Date: A Federal News Network investigation published last week found that laid-off diplomats have received no communication about when — or whether — they will be officially separated or reinstated. The department told House lawmakers it has no plans to rehire them. It is recruiting new officers anyway.
• Congress Is Back. A DHS Shutdown Vote Is Possible Today — But the Same Standoff That Has Produced 59 Days of Shutdown Hasn't Changed: All furloughed DHS employees reported back to work Monday under the executive recall. Whether they keep getting paid past the current window of available funds depends entirely on what happens on the House floor this week.
• Federal Unions Are Sounding the Alarm on the 2027 Pay Freeze — and Building Their Case for Congress to Override It: The National Federation of Federal Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union both escalated their public campaign Monday, calling the administration's proposed civilian pay freeze "disastrous" and pushing Congress to step in the way it did during Trump's first term.

Top Stories:

1. The State Department Is Recruiting New Diplomats While 250 Laid-Off Foreign Service Officers Have Been in Limbo for Nine Months

Source: Federal News Network — April 7, 2026

TL;DR: The State Department launched a new Foreign Service recruitment campaign this spring, even as approximately 250 Foreign Service officers who received RIF notices last summer remain on paid administrative leave — not working, not separated, and receiving no information about their status. A senior State Department official told the House Foreign Affairs Committee last month that the department has no plans to reinstate the laid-off officers or allow them to compete for vacant positions. Those officers have been in limbo since July 2025, when the department sent layoff notices as part of its largest reorganization in decades. A federal court in California blocked their formal separation last December, and the court-ordered hold has remained in place. One of those officers told Federal News Network: "We have literally no idea what the plan is. They won't tell us anything." The department is simultaneously preparing to issue performance evaluations that could push out additional Foreign Service officers — the Under Secretary for Management told Congress the department is preparing to offer fewer top ratings and that supervisors who rate too many officers highly will face consequences.

For federal employees, this means:

• If you are one of the approximately 250 Foreign Service officers who received a RIF notice last summer and have been on paid administrative leave since, your status remains in active litigation. The court order blocking your formal separation has not been lifted. You are still a federal employee with legal rights, including the right to EEO counseling, the right to file with the MSPB if a covered personnel action is taken, and the right to information about your personnel file under the Privacy Act. Do not assume silence means resolution.
• If you are a current State Department employee subject to the upcoming performance evaluation cycle, the department has explicitly stated that it will limit top ratings and penalize supervisors who give them too generously. An artificially suppressed performance rating can affect your retention standing in a future RIF, your eligibility for promotion, and in extreme cases your position on the Service's low-ranking process. Document your actual performance outcomes now, before ratings are issued.
• The broader pattern here — recruiting new officers at entry level while keeping laid-off experienced officers in limbo — reflects a deliberate restructuring of the Foreign Service workforce toward officers who can be trained from scratch in the current administration's priorities, rather than retaining experienced officers who may have differing institutional knowledge. If you are a Foreign Service specialist or generalist in a position that the administration has historically targeted, understanding your retention rights is not premature.

Legal Insight:
Foreign Service officers have a distinct legal framework from civil service employees. They are covered by the Foreign Service Act of 1980 rather than Title 5, and their appeal rights, grievance procedures, and RIF protections differ accordingly. If you are a Foreign Service officer who received a RIF notice, your situation is subject to both the ongoing litigation and the specific grievance and appeal procedures under the Foreign Service Grievance Board — not the MSPB. If you are a civil service employee at the State Department, your RIF appeal rights remain with the MSPB, subject to the ongoing litigation over OPM's proposed rule to transfer RIF appeals to OPM. Because the legal framework and available remedies are complex and currently in flux, consider talking with a qualified federal employment attorney who handles Foreign Service or State Department matters before concluding you have no options.

2. The DHS Shutdown Is on Day 59. Congress Is Back. A Vote Could Happen Today — But the Standoff Hasn't Changed.

Source: Federal News Network — April 10, 2026

TL;DR: All furloughed DHS employees reported back to work Monday under Secretary Mullin's Friday recall order, using funds from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The shutdown itself — a lapse in statutory appropriations — has not ended. Day 59 is the longest agency-specific shutdown in U.S. history. The House returned to session yesterday and was back this morning. A floor vote on the DHS funding bill is now procedurally possible for the first time since Congress went on recess April 1. The two competing bills remain: the Senate-passed bipartisan measure funding most of DHS except ICE and CBP, and the House Republican 60-day continuing resolution that funds all of DHS but which Senate Democrats have called dead on arrival. Neither bill has passed both chambers. House Speaker Johnson has not committed to a vote on either bill today, and the House's legislative calendar also includes action on an Iran war powers resolution that Democrats are pressing.

For federal employees, this means:

• If you are a DHS employee who returned to work Monday, your pay for this week is being covered by the available funds DHS identified under the executive order. The official notice from DHS was explicit: if those funds run out before an FY2026 appropriation is enacted, you will receive another notification. Monitor communications from your agency today and this week.
• If a bill passes the House this week and the Senate agrees, the shutdown ends and the GFETA back pay guarantees kick in for the full period from February 14 to the date of enactment. Until that happens, no statutory back pay obligation has been triggered. The executive order payments are a bridge, not a settlement.
• If the House does not vote this week, and DHS exhausts its available funds, the department could be forced to furlough employees again — potentially with less notice than the initial February shutdown. The DHS notice from Friday was explicit about this possibility.

Legal Insight:
Every day the shutdown continues without a statutory appropriation is a day the GFETA clock ticks — accumulating an obligation that agencies must ultimately satisfy once funding is restored. Under the Back Pay Act, 5 U.S.C. § 5596, that obligation includes interest on unpaid amounts. Keep your pay records from before the shutdown, document every pay period of the lapse, and compare the executive order amounts you have received against your regular pay rate. Because the back pay calculation after a 59-plus-day shutdown is complex and errors are common in mass payroll processing, consider talking with your union and a qualified federal employment attorney if any discrepancy arises after the legislative resolution.

3. Federal Unions Are Escalating Their 2027 Pay Fight — Calling a Proposed Civilian Pay Freeze "Disastrous" and Pushing Congress to Override

Source: Federal News Network — April 13, 2026

TL;DR: The National Federation of Federal Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union both intensified their public advocacy Monday, calling the White House's FY2027 budget proposal — which includes no civilian pay raise while requesting a 5-7% military raise — "disastrous" for the federal workforce and demanding that Congress step in. NTEU has been promoting the FAIR Act, sponsored by Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-Va.) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), which would provide a 4.1% raise for civilian federal employees next year. The unions are specifically invoking the historical precedent of Trump's first term, during which he proposed pay freezes in three of four years but Congress overruled him each time, providing raises between 1.4% and 2.6%. The final decision on a 2027 civilian pay raise will not come until the president submits an alternative pay plan to Congress, typically by August 31, and issues an executive order, typically in December. Neither has happened yet.

For federal employees, this means:

• No civilian pay freeze is final until the president issues an executive order — typically by December 31 of the calendar year before it takes effect. The FY2027 budget proposal is an opening position, not a done deal. Last year, OPM passback documents indicated a pay freeze for 2026 and the final result was a 1% raise. The same dynamic could play out again.
• If you are in the process of evaluating a VSIP or VERA offer, or a deferred resignation, your current salary is the base for your high-3 average retirement calculation. A year of flat pay — or a second consecutive year of minimal pay growth — does reduce your long-term retirement annuity in real terms, even if modestly. Consider whether that factors into your analysis of any separation offer.
• The union campaign matters mechanically: Congress has the authority to appropriate a different pay amount than the president proposes, and bipartisan support for federal pay has materialized in past standoffs. The 2026 midterm elections, now seven months away, are adding political pressure on both sides. Whether that translates into a legislative override of a pay freeze is genuinely uncertain.

Legal Insight:
A pay freeze is not an adverse action subject to MSPB appeal, and it does not by itself give rise to an EEO or whistleblower claim. Its legal significance arises in downstream contexts: retirement annuity calculations, the value of any separation package offered relative to your current earnings, and in collective bargaining contexts for employees whose unions have pay-related provisions in their CBAs. If you received or are considering any separation offer — VSIP, VERA, or DRP — and you want to evaluate how a pay freeze affects the financial calculus, consider discussing it with a qualified federal benefits advisor or federal employment attorney before you sign.

Mindful Moment of the Day

Hybrid Day Switch Hat Ritual

On days you shift between telework and in‑office, your brain can feel like it’s lagging behind your body. Create a small “switch hat” ritual—when you put on your badge or work shoes, pause for three breaths and silently name how you want to show up today, like “steady,” “kind,” or “focused.” When you get home and take off the badge or shoes, do the same thing in reverse and name a word for home, like “present” or “resting.” These tiny moments tell your nervous system that roles are changing, so you’re not half at work all evening. 

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