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Our online community now tops 150,000 federal workers and supporters across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Each briefing distills the day’s most consequential developments, adds clear-eyed legal analysis, and pairs it with mindfulness tools that keep you steady no matter how turbulent the news cycle becomes. If this newsletter helps you stay informed, please pass it on: https://fedlegalhelp.com/newsletter. Your advocacy broadens the protective circle for every federal employee.

Top Three News Stories:

1. Senate Reconciliation Bill Pares Back Threats to Pensions

This weekend the Senate released a new draft of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that deletes every previously-floated cut to the Federal Employees Retirement System, including higher employee contribution rates, the high-5 pension calculation, elimination of the FERS annuity supplement and an at-will employment option. The only federal-workforce language that survived is a Federal Employees Health Benefits eligibility audit projected to save $2 billion over ten years. Senate floor managers cleared the text through key budget points of order late Saturday, setting up debate after the July recess. Fed Smith

Legal Insight: 

Because the measure is moving under budget-reconciliation rules, hostile amendments can reinstate benefit cuts with a simple majority, so the reprieve is important but not final. If higher FERS contributions reappear, employees’ post-tax earnings could fall one to two percent, opening collective-bargaining and unfair-labor-practice avenues under 5 U.S.C. § 7106(b)(1) and § 7116. The FEHB audit mandate will require agencies to share enrollment data with OPM; without robust Privacy Act agreements, inadvertent disclosures could trigger civil liability. 

2. “Don’t Write Anything Down”: Secrecy Culture Spreads Across Agencies

A Washington Post investigation published this weekend describes a government-wide move toward off-the-record meetings, disappearing Signal chats and even outdoor conversations to avoid creating written records that could leak or trigger litigation. Career staff and new appointees alike report being told to skip email, sign nondisclosure agreements and omit phrases like “RIF” or “diversity” from any documentation, raising fears about transparency and morale. Washington Post 

Legal Insight:

Systematically avoiding record creation collides with the Federal Records Act’s duty to document official business; individual managers could face personal liability in some situations under 44 U.S.C. § 3106 if records are lost or never made. Suppressing documentation also heightens whistle-blower retaliation risk for Agencies, because employees disciplined for preserving evidence may have strong defenses before the Office of Special Counsel and the MSPB. Agencies cannot evade FOIA by shifting to private or encrypted platforms, as courts have held that work done on personal devices can still be an “agency record.” Counsel should advise employees to keep contemporaneous personal notes of substantive instructions and to report suspected records-management violations through protected channels.

3. Cuts to Federal Mediators Raise Stakes in Labor Disputes

An executive order issued in March slashed the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service from 143 mediators to just four, leaving ongoing strikes—such as the seven-week walkout at Butler Hospital—to drag on for want of neutral facilitation. Labor experts warn that the absence of mediators will prolong disputes, increase costs for agencies and contractors, and ripple through local economies. Boston Globe

Legal Insight:

FMCS’s mandate under 29 U.S.C. § 173 is nondiscretionary; eliminating almost its entire staff could invite litigation compelling the agency to perform its statutory function. Prolonged impasses may freeze wages and policies under the “dynamic status quo,” complicating new management initiatives. Agencies that refuse requested mediation risk being charged with surface bargaining under 5 U.S.C. § 7116(a)(5).

Mindful Moment of the Day: 

Desk-Chair Grounding     

Federal desk work often chains us to agency-issue task chairs for hours, compressing lumbar discs and breeding covert tension. Once each hour, close your eyes, feel the exact points where your sit bones meet the cushion, and trace a silent body-scan upward—hips, spine, shoulders, jaw, crown. As you reach each zone, invite a micro-release: a two-millimeter shoulder drop, a subtle neck roll, a widening of the palms on the armrests. This tiny-but-total sweep resets posture and restores circulation faster than any ergonomic gadget, and it’s invisible enough to practice during a Webex briefing on FY 25 procurement goals. You’ll log out with fewer knots and clearer focus for that MSPB brief.