President Obama just named Kathie Ann Whipple to be acting director of the Office of Personnel Management. Whipple, who had been deputy general counsel, will immediately replace Michael Hager, who served as acting OPM director since last August. Whipple thanked Obama for the appointment in a statement issued this morning: I am humbled to have been designated by President Obama to serve as the acting director of OPM, an agency it has been my pleasure to serve for the past eight years. I look forward to leading OPM until the president appoints and the United States Senate confirms the next director.
Browsing: Office of Personnel Management
The speculation that President-elect Barack Obama has all but named National Zoo Director John Berry to be the next Office of Personnel Management director may be a little premature. Federal Times has just learned that Berry told a Senate staffer yesterday that Obama has not offered him the job yet, though he has been engaged in preliminary discussions with the transition team. So while it looks like Berry is indeed in the running, OPM is not as close to having a new boss as we thought yesterday.
The open season for the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program is being extended through the end of January due to a dustup over billing for out-of-network surgeries. Previously, participants would have had to make their choice by the end of today. But what about people who made a choice before learning of Blue Cross Blue Shield’s controversial billing system, and now want to change their plan? Are they out of luck? Don’t worry, said Michael Orenstein of the Office of Personnel Management. Even if you’ve already chosen a plan, you can change your mind as many times as you want…
Feds in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau, Alaska, will have to tighten their belts a little after Dec. 3. That is the day those employees’ cost-of-living allowances will drop from 24 percent to 23 percent, the Office of Personnel Management said in a Nov. 3 Federal Register notice. The reductions are based on cost-of-living surveys OPM conducted in 2006. And the COLA in those cities could drop even further. OPM in August proposed reducing the allowance to 22 percent. That reduction would not occur until December 2009 at the earliest. The COLA for federal employees in other parts of Alaska will remain unchanged at…