Attorneys for Federal Employees — Nationwide

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Today at a Glance

• The House Passed a DHS Funding Bill Yesterday — The Shutdown Still Isn't Officially Over, But the Senate Is Expected to Act Quickly: The House voted April 14 to pass a continuing resolution funding most of DHS through May 22. The bill now moves to the Senate. Until the president signs it, the statutory funding lapse continues — but DHS employees should know exactly what the presidential signature triggers and what to verify when back pay processes.

• A Government Executive Investigation Found That the Schedule A Disability Hiring Pathway Left Federal Employees With Disabilities More Vulnerable to DOGE Mass Firings: Because Schedule A hires have a mandatory two-year probationary period instead of the standard one year, employees between their first and second year of service had no appeal rights that identically-tenured standard hires would have had — even if they were performing well.

• Gallup's New Data on Federal Employee Wellbeing Is Striking: The Percentage of "Thriving" Feds Dropped 10 Points in a Single Year — a Decline Gallup Calls Unprecedented in Speed and Severity Among Any Major Workforce Segment.

Top Stories:

1. A Hiring Program Designed to Help People With Disabilities Enter Federal Service Left Them More Vulnerable to DOGE-Era Firings

Source: Government Executive — April 9, 2026

TL;DR: Government Executive published an investigation documenting how the Schedule A hiring pathway — a 50-year-old mechanism allowing agencies to hire people with severe physical, psychiatric, or intellectual disabilities outside the competitive service process — inadvertently made those employees more vulnerable to the mass probationary firings the Trump administration carried out in early 2025. The probationary period for a standard federal hire is one year. For Schedule A hires, it is two years. When the administration fired thousands of probationary employees, Schedule A hires between their first and second year of service — employees who would have completed their probationary period under the standard competitive service pathway — had no civil service appeal rights. Several fired Schedule A employees told Government Executive they are still struggling to find full-time employment, and some believe they would still have their jobs had they not been hired through the disability pathway. The Trump administration has not responded to questions about how many Schedule A employees were terminated.

For federal employees, this means:

• If you were hired under Schedule A and fired during your probationary period — particularly between one and two years of service — your window for some legal claims may not have closed. Claims under the Rehabilitation Act, prohibited personnel practice provisions under 5 U.S.C. § 2302, and EEO channels remain available to probationary employees regardless of their inability to appeal through the MSPB. Talk to a qualified federal employment attorney about your specific timeline before concluding you have no options.
• If you are a current federal employee still within a two-year Schedule A probationary period, your civil service protections are more limited than a comparably tenured standard hire. Know what actions you can and cannot challenge through the MSPB, and what EEO and whistleblower protections remain available to you regardless of probationary status.
• The Schedule A story is part of a broader pattern. Across the DOGE-era firings, the populations most exposed were precisely those the system was designed to protect — recent hires, employees with disabilities, and employees whose roles the administration considered policy-adjacent. Understanding which protections apply to your specific situation is not a luxury. For employees within probationary windows, it is urgent.

Legal Insight:
Probationary employees generally cannot appeal to the MSPB unless the adverse action was based on partisan political reasons or marital status discrimination, or unless the employee is a preference-eligible veteran. However, probationary status does not eliminate Rehabilitation Act claims. Under 29 U.S.C. § 791, agencies must provide reasonable accommodation and cannot terminate based on disability, regardless of probationary status. Under the Whistleblower Protection Act, certain protected disclosures are covered during probation. And under 5 U.S.C. § 2302, reprisal for filing an EEO complaint is a prohibited personnel practice that applies regardless of probationary status. Because EEO and whistleblower deadlines are strict and fact-specific, consider talking with a qualified federal employment attorney today — do not assume a MSPB bar means no remedies exist.

2. The House Passed a DHS Funding Bill Yesterday. Here Is What the Presidential Signature Triggers — and What Every DHS Employee Should Verify When Back Pay Processes

Source: Congress.gov — April 14, 2026

TL;DR: The House voted yesterday to pass a continuing resolution funding most of DHS through May 22, 2026, as amended from the Senate-passed bill. The legislation moves to the Senate, where it is expected to pass quickly. Once the president signs it, the 60-day statutory funding lapse — which began February 14 — officially ends. That signature triggers two things: first, the formal restoration of DHS appropriations; second, the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act's back pay guarantee for all employees who worked or were furloughed during the lapse. DHS has been paying employees through executive order funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act since April 4, but has told employees explicitly that any compensation owed after April 4 will be paid "once DHS funding is restored." The bill does not include full-year DHS appropriations — it funds through May 22 only, meaning another potential funding cliff in approximately five weeks unless Congress acts on the second track.

For federal employees, this means:

• When the president signs the bill, back pay for the entire lapse period — February 14 through the signing date — triggers under GFETA. Executive order payments you have already received count toward that obligation, but the full period must be made whole. If there are days between April 4 and the signing date not yet covered, those trigger at signature.
• Verify your back pay carefully when it arrives. Compare against your pre-shutdown pay statements. The most common errors in post-shutdown mass payroll processing are: wrong number of pay periods, incorrect base pay rate, missing overtime or premium pay, and incorrect withholding on lump-sum amounts. Document any discrepancy in writing the same day you spot it and submit a written inquiry to your payroll office immediately.
• The bill funds DHS through May 22, not September 30. That is five weeks. The underlying dispute over ICE and CBP funding has not been resolved. Congressional Republicans have committed to pursuing that funding through reconciliation — a process that could take weeks to months. Watch for what happens on that second track.

Legal Insight:
Back pay under the GFETA and the Back Pay Act, 5 U.S.C. § 5596, includes interest from the date each payment was due. Agencies are required to initiate back pay processing promptly after enactment. If the amount you receive is incorrect and is not corrected after a written request, you have a statutory remedy. Because payroll correction procedures and timelines vary significantly across DHS components — FEMA, CISA, Coast Guard, TSA, and CBP/ICE civilians each operate through different HR and payroll systems — consider talking with your union and a qualified federal employment attorney if a discrepancy is not resolved within your agency's normal correction window.

3. Gallup Data Shows the Percentage of "Thriving" Federal Employees Dropped 10 Points in a Single Year — a Decline Unprecedented in Speed and Severity Among Any Major Workforce Segment

Source: Government Executive — April 11, 2026

TL;DR: A new Gallup analysis published this week by Government Executive found that the percentage of federal employees classified as "thriving" — meaning those who rate their current and future life satisfaction highly — fell from 58% in 2024 to 48% in 2025, a 10-point drop in a single year. In the same period, the percentage classified as "struggling" climbed from 37% to 47%, and the percentage classified as "suffering" rose from 3% to 5%. Gallup researchers wrote that federal employees "stand out for the severity and speed of their decline" compared to all other major segments of the U.S. workforce. By Q4 2025, the gap between thriving and struggling federal employees had effectively collapsed — roughly equal numbers of federal employees were thriving and struggling for the first time on record. The Trump administration cancelled the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey in 2025, making Gallup's data one of the only systematic external measures of federal employee wellbeing currently available. OPM did not conduct the FEVS, citing a need to revise the survey to comply with anti-DEI executive orders.

For federal employees, this means:

• The data reflects what federal employees have been living. Mass firings, denied accommodations, return-to-office mandates that eliminated flexibility for employees with medical needs, a 60-day shutdown, and the ongoing uncertainty of RIFs, PIPs, and reorganizations all land on the same workers in the same year. The decline in wellbeing is not a soft metric — Gallup research shows employees who are not thriving miss significantly more work due to health problems and are substantially more likely to be actively seeking other employment.
• For employees who have experienced a measurable decline in their health — physical or mental — as a direct result of working conditions over the past 14 months, that deterioration may be legally relevant in multiple contexts: disability retirement eligibility, reasonable accommodation requests, workers' compensation claims, and EEO complaints where hostile work environment or constructive discharge is alleged.
• The cancellation of the FEVS matters practically. The FEVS has historically been one of the primary tools through which individual employees document patterns of workplace dysfunction — data that can be relevant in EEO proceedings and congressional oversight. With the FEVS gone, employees need to be more deliberate about their own documentation. Keep contemporaneous records of what is happening in your workplace: dates, incidents, communications, denials of accommodation, and any management actions that affect your health or job status.

Legal Insight:
Workplace-induced health deterioration is relevant to disability retirement eligibility under FERS. To qualify for OPM disability retirement, you must show that your medical condition prevents you from performing at least one critical element of your current position, that the condition is expected to last at least one year, and that your agency cannot reasonably accommodate you or reassign you to a vacant position you can perform. The stressors documented in the Gallup data — overwork, denied accommodations, chronic uncertainty — are precisely the conditions that, over time, can produce or exacerbate qualifying medical conditions. If you are at the point where your health is preventing you from performing your job, do not wait for a formal adverse action before exploring your options. Disability retirement applications can be filed while you are still employed, and the process typically takes six to twelve months. Because the application process involves specific forms, medical documentation standards, and agency obligations that vary by agency, consider talking with a qualified federal employment attorney before you file. 

Legal Tip of the Day

When You’re Reassigned or Moved Without Explanation

Reassignments can sometimes feel abrupt or unclear. While agencies have discretion, these actions can raise concerns depending on the circumstances. Ask for the reason in writing and document any changes to duties or conditions. Compare your situation to others similarly situated. Keep a timeline of events. 

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