Search Tags:  Congress

Postal Service backs down on ending Saturday mail

The U.S. Postal Service has reversed its decision to end Saturday mail delivery service, saying Congress gave it no choice when it passed a 2013 appropriations bill last month that continued a ban on five-day delivery.

Tags: USPS , House , budget , mail delivery , Darrell Issa , Tom Carper

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Redundant agency programs wasting billions of dollars

From catfish inspections to military uniforms, redundancy problems within government agencies span virtually every major department and agency across government, according to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro. The latest report from Dodaro's Government Accountability Office brings the number of redundant or inefficient mission areas within agencies to 162.

Tags: GAO , duplication , Jared Serbu , management

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Changes to COLAs, retirement benefits included in Obama's 2014 budget

President Barack Obama is calling for the implementation of the "chained Consumer Price Index" to measure inflation. The change will reduce cost-of-living adjustments for retired federal employees and Social Security recipients. The 2014 budget is officially scheduled for release on Wednesday.

Tags: budget , 2014 budget , Barack Obama , chained CPI , COLA , retirement , Social Security

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Federal budget cuts ground Air Force aircraft

Tags: budget , budget 2014 , Air Force , Barack Obama , DoD

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Analysis: Pay, benefits, O&M will swallow entire DoD budget by 2024

Absent structural changes, the combination of 10-year budget caps Congress has already approved and rising growth in personnel costs mean DoD would be able to sign paychecks, administer healthcare benefits and not much more.

Tags: workforce , DoD , budget , 2014 budget , sequestration , Center for Strategic & Budgetary Assessments , Todd Harrison , Jared Serbu

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Bill would tie Congressional pay to spending cuts

Democratic Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton says she'll introduce a bill next week that would subject Congressional salaries to any future automatic, across-the-board cuts like those that took effect last month.

Tags: Eleanor Holmes Norton , budget , sequestration

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PRC to analyze impact of changing Saturday mail delivery

The U.S. Postal Service continues to insist changes are necessary to help deal with budget woes in the face of congressional resistance. The Postal Service also is accelerating the closure of 53 mail processing plants.

Tags: management , budget , PRC , Gerry Connolly , Darrell Issa , Tom Coburn , Larry Frum

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Veterans fight changes to disability payments

Tags: Veterans Affairs , Congressional Budget Office , Jeff Miller , Bernie Sanders

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Congress urged to drop online financial reporting for senior execs

A new report says a law requiring the online posting of senior federal executives' financial information would likely impinge on employees' privacy and wouldn't do much to deter conflicts of interest. The National Academy of Public Administration was tasked by Congress with studying the STOCK Act — short for "Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge" — in response to concerns about privacy and identify theft.

Tags: NAPA , STOCK Act , management , insider trading , financial disclosure , oversight , workforce , SES , Jack Moore

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Coburn calls on OPM to fire feds 'paid to do nothing'

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) has written to Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry, saying the office should take steps to offload federal workers and contractors who don't show up for work, aren't performing official duties or "are simply not working at all." In the letter, Coburn, the ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said doing so could prevent the need to furlough critical employees under sequestration.

Tags: Senate , OPM , Tom Coburn , John Berry , official time , standby pay , furloughs , workforce

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