Federal employees found to have violated the Hatch Act’s prohibitions on partisan politicking would face penalties ranging from a reprimand to a five-year ban from federal employment under proposed changes published in today’s Federal Register. Up to now, the only sanction has been automatic firing, unless the three-member Merit Systems Protection Board unanimously agreed to impose a 30-day unpaid suspension. As a result, agencies were sometimes reluctant to pursue minor infractions. The Office of Personnel Management’s proposed changes follow up on the framework laid out in the Hatch Act Modernization Act, which Congress approved last December in part to give…
Browsing: OPM
The Office of Personnel Management may be little known to the general public, but perhaps no agency matters more to some 2.7 million federal civil service employees and U.S. Postal Service workers. So, they might want to keep an ear out Tuesday, when a Senate panel has scheduled a hearing on the nomination of Katherine Archuleta to become the next OPM director. The job has been vacant since April when John Berry (since selected for the Australia ambassadorship) resigned just before his four-year term was up. Filling in is OPM General Counsel Elaine Kaplan, but she’s been nominated for a…
Remember that Office of Personnel Management proposal—buried deep in its fiscal 2014 budget request—to begin charging charities a fee in fiscal 2015 to participate in the Combined Federal Campaign? Well, forget it, at least for now. “It was just an idea that was being considered,” Mark Lambert, OPM associate director for merit system accountability and compliance, said in an interview yesterday following a congressional hearing. Asked whether the proposal is now defunct, Lambert said yes. The proposal, which was intended to cover OPM’s costs for running the campaign, is distinct from the agency’s plan to begin charging charities an application…
Ramon Davila is one name in a growing list. He’s among the nearly two dozen federal background check investigators to face criminal charges in recent years for falsifying his work on investigations performed on contractors and employees seeking government clearances. But more than year after charging Davila, the Justice Department only just learned that he had a troubling past that went unnoticed during his own background investigation. It turns out, officials at another federal law enforcement agency decided nearly a decade ago to keep out of his personnel folder serious misconduct findings against Davila stemming from his years as a…
In connection with an upcoming story on the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down much of the Defense of Marriage Act, Federal Times is interested in hearing from gay and lesbian feds (and their partners) on what they think of the ruling and of the Office of Personnel Mangement’s If you want to weigh in, please email Staff Writer Sean Reilly at sreilly@federaltimes.com or call him at 703-750-8684.
Well, perhaps your humble FedLine correspondent should have held off on the previous Combined Federal Campaign post. The reason? We’ve just gotten confirmation that Wednesday’s hearing has been rescheduled until July 10. The reason is a conflict with a House Judiciary Committee markup session, according to a spokeswoman for the subcommittee’s chairman, Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas.
[UPDATE AS OF 5:15 P.M EST TODAY: HEARING HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL JULY 10] For anyone who hasn’t seen it, here is the official witness list for this Wednesday’s House hearing on the proposed revamp of the Combined Federal Campaign. Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., will lead off, followed by: Mark Lambert, Associate Director for Merit System Accountability and Compliance U.S. Office of Personnel Management Kalman Stein President and CEO EarthShare Debby Hampton President and CEO United Way of Central Oklahoma Ju’Coby Pittman President and CEO Clara White Mission Ken Berger President and CEO Charity Navigator The hearing is scheduled for…
Starting this January, federal employees and their families will have an expanded lineup of both vision and dental insurance plans to choose from, the Office of Personnel Management announced this afternoon. The number of dental plans will increase from seven to 10, according to a news release, while the number of vision carriers will rise from three to four. The last time OPM opened up the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program (FEDVIP) to new entrants was 2006. Premium rates and coverage will be announced later this year before Open Season begins, acting Director Elaine Kaplan said in the…
The proposed overhaul of the Combined Federal Campaign has gotten Congress’s attention. Although a final date hasn’t been nailed down yet, the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on the federal workforce is looking into holding a hearing late this month or in early July, Meaghan Cronin, a spokeswoman for the panel’s chairman, Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, said in an email. The purpose, she said, is “to better understand the impact” of what the Office of Personnel Management is proposing for the CFC. No witness list at this point. Confirmation of the impending hearing comes five days after OPM closed…
The feedback keeps coming on the Office of Personnel Management’s planned makeover of the Combined Federal Campaign. With just five days to go before the June 7 deadline to weigh in, OPM has gotten some 320 comments as of today, according to the government website, regulations.gov. But as FedLine has previously noted, OPM so far isn’t making any of those comments public. In response to our request, a number of you emailed your comments, and, with the permission of each individual or organization, we’re posting links below. Thanks very much to all who responded. In an emailed statement, incidentally, Keith…