GovCentral

For a long time there has been a lot of empty noise about the federal hiring process. Now the squeaky wheel is finally getting some high-level grease. Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, has put agency and department heads on notice about the urgent need to fix federal hiring. He gave them six months to make progress ...

Citing the ongoing economic crisis and a ballooning federal budget, President Obama announced he would use his authority to set a 2 percent pay raise for federal employees starting in January 2010. The proposal angered employee groups and lawmakers who have pushed for pay parity between civilians and members of the military, who are slated to receive a 3.4 percent raise ...

Never let it be said that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano doesn't know how to kick off National CyberSecurity Awareness Month. "I'm pleased to announce today that we've been given direct authority to hire up to 1,000 additional cyberspecialists within the Department of Homeland Security, to assist, and make our efforts more robust and vibrant than they are right now." The ...

President Obama on Monday signed an executive order designed to boost the number of veterans in the federal workforce. The directive creates Veterans Employment Program offices in federal agencies, to match veterans with job openings and help them navigate the application process. The offices also will give veterans guidance on how to adjust to civilian life after they are hired. "This ...

Disappearance raises new mystery as West assesses Iran's nuclear program

Scandals are like car accidents. No one wants it to happen to them, but everyone still rubber-necks to see that poor soul when things hit the fan. GovCentral has shown serious dedication and sacrifice by scouring the Internets to bring you the most memorable scandals of Summer 2009. Obama Kills a Fly. Shows No Remorse [page] The Colbert ReportMon - ...

Civilian agencies should increase their acquisition workforce by at least 5 percent by 2014, according to a memo the Office of Management and Budget released on Tuesday. In a second memo, OMB sought to limit the use of noncompetitive and higher-risk types of contracts. "These steps are essential to achieving the president's goal of $40 billion in annual savings through contracting ...

If President Obama's plan to attract lots of bright people to work for the feds by making "government cool again" doesn't quite do the trick, money might. Congress is considering legislation to create a program that makes such good sense, you might wonder why no one thought of it before. The Roosevelt Scholars program would draw young people to key positions ...

WASHINGTON - From federal government clerk positions to grocery store cashiers, the competition for jobs is phenomenal. Applications for all types of positions are flooding in. "We are pretty much overwhelmed with the number of applications that we are receiving for every job posting," says Deputy Associate Director of the Center for Talent and Capacity Policy at the U.S. Office of ...

"It's a done deal," says Senior Correspondent Mike Causey when he joined the Federal Drive. It is a trifecta win for all federal employees because NSPS is going to be phased out, the FERS Flu is going to be cured, and retired federal employees are going to be allowed to return to work without harming their annuities. The Defense Authorization Bill ...

Long-sought changes to the pay and benefits structure for current and former federal employees await President Obama's signature. The defense authorization bill passed by the Senate on Thursday night included alterations to benefits and practices first announced earlier this month. Perhaps the biggest change is that members of the Federal Employees Retirement System will be able to get credit for unused ...

One of the most common complaints among federal employees who enforce Uncle Sam's laws and regulations is that there are too few of them to properly protect the public. But one area where one would expect that not to be the case, given our nation's recent history, is border protection. Yet testimony before a House subcommittee Thursday painted a picture of ...

WASHINGTON — The $787 billion economic recovery package also is stimulating growth in the federal government as agencies hire thousands of workers and spend millions of dollars to oversee and implement the package, according to government records and spokesmen. Fourteen of the top federal agencies responsible for spending under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act say they've hired about 3,000 workers ...

Applying for a job with the federal government can be a miserable experience. Announcements of vacancies are often written in arcane, incomprehensible jargon; applications can stretch for dozens of pages; one branch of an agency might not have any idea of the hiring needs of a second branch. This is not the opinion of jilted job-seekers. Instead, it was the frank ...

The White House and the Office of Personnel Management this week announced hiring initiatives aimed at halting a decline in the representation of disabled employees in the federal workforce. President Obama earlier this week said he hoped the government could become a model for other employers. "Across this country, millions of people with disabilities are working or want to work, and ...

Federal employees and their unions should remember Oct. 7, 2009: It's the day they got to cross several items off their wish list. The conference committee working on a compromise version of the Defense authorization bill (pdf) delivered several long-sought reforms impacting current and former federal employees, their salaries and the way the government measures their performance. The big one: a ...

Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday encouraged federal agencies to incorporate into their daily operations the business practices they have instituted to meet the Recovery Act's transparency, efficiency and accountability requirements. "Running the risk of setting myself up for a test I may not be able to pass 18 months from now... I've asked, at the end of the day, ...

On Nov. 3, 2008, Elizabeth Colton, a Foreign Service officer, received an e-mail with good news: She had been offered a two-year posting as chief of the political-economic section at the U.S. Embassy in Algiers. "Congratulations!" wrote Maggie Nardi, acting director of the Office of Maghreb Affairs in the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. "On behalf of NEA and ...

CHICAGO – Cell phone footage showing a group of teens viciously kicking and striking a 16-year-old honors student with splintered railroad ties has ramped up pressure on Chicago officials to address chronic violence that has led to dozens of deaths of city teens each year.

BALTIMORE, Md. — After days of public displays of profanity and abuse – in Congress, at the U.S. Open tennis championships, during the MTV Video Music Awards – news came Wednesday of another such incident closer to home. Baltimore County police released details of the arrests of two women accused of dispensing an obscenity-laden tirade against a police officer who pulled ...