- With a government shutdown less than a week away, a leading Republican Senator is calling for Congress to pass a spending bill. Senator Susan (R-Maine.) Collins, the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, said government shutdowns are inherently a failure to govern effectively and have negative consequences all across government. House Republican lawmakers unveiled their year-long continuing resolution on Friday. The bill freezes overall funding at fiscal 2024 levels but does include cuts to certain agency programs and increases to others, such as the Federal Aviation Administration and fully funds the largest junior enlisted pay raise. It also doesn’t include any language related to DOGE.
(Senate Appropriations Chairwoman calls for passage of year-long CR – Senate Appropriations Committee)
- The Office of Personnel Management is processing federal employees’ retirement claims at a record clip. During February, OPM processed more than 12,000 claims from retiring feds. On average, retirement claims that OPM finalized last month took 44 days to complete. The latest numbers from OPM, though, still largely align with OPM’s pace around this time last year. Federal retirement claims typically surge each January and February. OPM also recently processed the first ever completely digital retirement claim.
(February 2025 retirement claims processing report – Office of Personnel Management)
- The Defense Department has started placing probationary employees on administrative leave as they await official action or until their termination takes effect. Dozens of probationary employees at the Defense Health Agency were informed they were being placed on administrative leave until the official termination date at the end of March. In a memo sent to the fired DHA employees, the agency cited the Office of Personnel Management guidance to “consider whether an employee’s performance is in the best interest of the government.” While the termination memo cited employees’ failure to meet performance standards, one DHA probationary employee said he had received a good first review and had strong references from both his immediate supervisor and a senior official in the organization. Meanwhile, the Navy has placed some of its probationary employees on administrative leave for three weeks without any further guidance.
(DoD places civilian employees on admin leave before mass firings – Federal News Network)
- Members of the House Homeland Security Committee are drilling into the Transportation Security Administration’s cyber regulations. Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) and several colleagues sent TSA a letter last week seeking more details on the agency’s approach to cyber threats in the transportation sector. The lawmakers are evaluating whether TSA’s new cyber regulations have been effective in thwarting threats. They also want to know how TSA is working to detect China-connected hackers that have infiltrated critical infrastructure networks in recent years.
(Letter to TSA on cybersecurity posture – House Homeland Security Committee)
- The Trump administration is ending collective bargaining for airport security screeners. Homeland Security Security Kristi Noem has directed Transportation Security Administration leadership to terminate a collective bargaining agreement that covers more than 40,000 airport screeners. TSA and the American Federation of Government Employees signed the seven-year agreement last May under the Biden administration. But Noem said TSA employees shouldn’t get union rights unless Congress changes the law governing the agency’s personnel policies. She’s giving TSA 90 days to terminate the collective bargaining agreement.
(DHS moves to end collective bargaining for TSA officers – Federal News Network)
- The Defense Department has paused the use of government travel and purchasing travel cards for its civilian employees and directed them to cancel all future travel. One memo reduced the spending limit on all government cards to one dollar, making them unusable. The military services may authorize some civilian employees to use the government purchase cards for disaster relief or natural disaster response benefits. Another memo suspends all travel for civilian employees unless it is “in direct support of military operations.” These restrictions come as the Defense Department is laying off its probationary employees and as the Department of Government Efficiency is “rooting out department expenditures” that are not in line with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s priorities.
https://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/policy/policyvault/USA000474-25_DPCAP.pdf(DoD pauses travel most travel for civilian employees, limits government charge cards to $1 – Department of Defense) - House Democrats are pushing forward a bill aiming to reinstate all recently terminated probationary employees. Along with bringing those workers back to their jobs, the MERIT Act, if enacted, would also provide back pay for all reinstated federal employees. Under the legislation, the Government Accountability Office would have to report to Congress more details about the recent layoffs. The bill comes as a number of agencies continue firing probationary workers, while other agencies have begun reinstating employees. Over 70 cosponsors, all Democrats, have signed onto the MERIT Act. The bill was referred to the Oversight and Government Reform Committee for consideration.
(MERIT Act – Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.))
- The IRS is losing another senior executive. Guy Torres, the IRS’ acting chief procurement officer, is retiring after more than 20 years of federal service. Federal News Network has learned his last day is tomorrow, March 11. Torres has been with the IRS since September 2021 when he joined as the deputy chief procurement officer. He became acting CPO only last month. Torres also worked in industry and for the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the Small Business Administration during his career. Torres is the second senior executive to leave the agency in the last week. IRS Chief Human Capital Officer Tracy DiMartini was placed on administrative leave just over a week ago.
(IRS acting chief procurement officer to retire – Federal News Network)
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