WASHINGTON - The federal government may soon mandate that you avoid your usual morning traffic headaches. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., has sponsored a bill that would require all federal agencies to allow 20 percent of their employees to telework at least one day a week. "It will improve air quality, it will improve congestion, and make for a much better quality ...

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will look into the quality of agencies' decisions about bias claims, after a new report revealed that during a five-year period, the percentage of those decisions upheld on appeal declined considerably. Click here to read the new report "Federal agencies must step up their efforts to improve complaint processing time, while also focusing on quality results," ...

Participation in telework rose in 2008, but the percentage of eligible federal employees who took advantage of the alternative work arrangement on a regular basis remained small, according to a report released Wednesday by the Office of Personnel Management. Click here to read the report Last year, 102,900 federal employees worked off-site at least once a month, the report stated. That's ...

Federal agencies soon will be required to create dashboards on their Web sites tracking the amount of money they have spent on improper payments, under a new directive from President Obama. The executive order -- which Office of Management and Budget Director Peter R. Orszag previewed last week -- is aimed at increasing the transparency and public scrutiny of payments to ...

The General Services Administration's Office of the Inspector General says its work in the second half of fiscal 2009 saved the agency more than $466 million. In its semiannual report to Congress, covering April 1 to Sept. 30, the inspector general said it made more than $268 million in financial recommendations for better use of government funds. The office also made ...

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission this week unveiled a wide range of changes to how discrimination complaints in federal agencies are filed, processed and decided. The recommendations were the product of an internal agency working group, led by acting EEOC Chairman Stuart Ishimaru, and inspired by a 2002 public meeting held to solicit suggestions for improving the EEO complaint process. Peggy ...

Federal managers tend to be more enthusiastic about their work and more committed to their organizations' missions than their counterparts in the private sector, a new survey shows. The survey, conducted by McKinsey & Co. in partnership with Government Executive, found that the federal government earns higher marks than the private sector on questions relating to what McKinsey calls the "heart ...

Not long after Kristen Taddonio and Clare Rowley moved into their George Washington University dorm in 2001, the freshman roommates bonded while watching the terrible events of Sept. 11, 2001, on a Lafayette Hall television. They went their separate ways after graduation and lost track of each other, but both ended up pursuing careers with the federal government. Eight years later, ...

Latino Americans may be the nation's fastest-growing minority group, but they're also the most underrepresented among civilian federal employees. As of last September, Hispanics accounted for about 8 percent of the total civilian federal workforce, according to the Office of Personnel Management. That's well below the 13.2 percent of Hispanics in the national civilian labor force, according to Labor Department statistics. ...

The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program typically includes an array of health insurance options. But this year the choices are more limited than before because 32 health insurance plans are leaving FEHBP or reducing their coverage across the country. "It's kind of a disturbing trend," said Dave Snell, retirement benefits service department director for the National Active and Retired Federal Employees ...

By unanimous consent, the Senate on Thursday passed legislation (S. 806) to stabilize the funding and management of Federal Executive Boards, which coordinate the actions of federal offices outside the Washington area. "President Kennedy showed great foresight when he called for the coordination of federal agencies' activities in 1961, and FEBs have done a good job since then in coordinating their ...

Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry announced at a White House forum on Wednesday that he is moving 400 agency employees into a pilot program that will go beyond existing workplace flexibility and telework programs and could serve as a model for the rest of government. "If flexibility can succeed in the federal government with the unrivaled complexity of our ...

You know things are bad at a government agency when a Cabinet secretary says as much while swearing in the new boss. It happened at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in August, when Commerce Secretary Gary Locke showed up to swear in the new director, David Kappos, and told the rank-and-file that the agency's backlog had a negative impact on ...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) announced yesterday that he will bring the nomination of former FBI agent and police detective Erroll Southers to head the Transportation Security Administration to the floor of the full Senate for consideration when lawmakers re-convene next month. The move comes as federal worker labor unions respond to the South Carolina Senator who is blocking Southers's ...

Federal employees submitted more than 38,000 ideas to help the government save money. An Office of Management and Budget official says as of Oct. 14 employees suggested about 38,400 ways to make the government more effective and efficient. OMB stopped accepting official entries as of last Tuesday, but says on its Web site that it would still take ideas. The official, ...

RICHMOND, Va. - New numbers show more workplace injuries and illnesses were reported in Virginia from those in government jobs than in the private sector in 2008. According to a Virginia Department of Labor and Industry report released Monday, 97,900 workers were injured or became ill on the job in 2008. That's down from 104,200 in the previous year, Of those, ...

Who better to save taxpayers money than the federal employees who know how it's spent? This is the guiding principle of a White House contest being launched Wednesday to seek the best ideas on how to reduce government spending. Confronted with a staggering federal deficit, the White House is inviting employees across the federal sector to submit suggestions on how to ...

The federal government is wading into the supermarket aisle, making its first effort to provide better nutritional information on food products since it developed the black-and-white Nutrition Facts label 15 years ago. Margaret A. Hamburg, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said Tuesday that shoppers are bombarded by slogans ("Heart Healthy," "Good for You," "A Better Choice") on products ...

A federal judge ordered that a Chevy Chase scientist remain jailed on a charge that he tried to pass national secrets to the Israeli government in exchange for $11,000. Stewart D. Nozette, 52, was arrested Monday afternoon on a charge of attempted espionage after authorities accused him of passing classified information to an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence ...

A Republican senator is holding up legislation that would prevent Transportation Department workers furloughed earlier this month from losing pay. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said he is upset by the bill's funding mechanism. "Time and time again, Congress intentionally waits until the last minute to consider important legislation and then declares the billions of dollars in foreseeable costs as emergency spending ...