Trying to take skills-based hiring a step further, Reps. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) introduced the bipartisan ACCESS Act Tuesday. If enacted, the legislation would remove college degree requirements from jobs in the federal contracting space.

The concept of prioritizing hands-on skills over educational background for job candidates is not new. Beginning in the Trump administration, and now continuing through the Biden administration, skills-based hiring efforts for the federal workforce have remained a priority for agencies as they recruit for federal jobs.

An executive order from the Trump administration initially urged agencies to focus on skills over education. After the Biden administration upheld the order, the Office of Personnel Management issued guidance to agencies on how to implement it.

Despite the continued emphasis, a spokesperson for Mace said the pace of skills-based hiring efforts remains unclear.

“This bill is meant to accelerate those efforts,” the spokesperson said in an email to Federal News Network. “The Biden administration maintained [the Trump administration’s] executive order, though it’s unclear how effectively they are implementing it.”

Currently, cybersecurity, human resources and acquisition remain the three major governmentwide, mission-critical skills gaps, OPM has said. Many experts, however, view skills-based hiring as one way to help address these gaps.

Now, the ACCESS Act seeks to stretch that concept to encompass personnel working on federal contracts, in addition to the federal workforce overall. Specifically, the legislation would bar contract solicitations from including minimum experience or educational requirements for the proposed contractor personnel.

Contracting officers, however, could still include degree requirements in some cases, but only if they include a written justification explaining why personnel with college degrees would be necessary for the specific solicitation.

Additionally, under the ACCESS Act, the Office of Management and Budget would be required to give agencies implementation guidance and help them establish the new requirements within 180 days of the bill’s enactment.

“We believe in empowering talent over credentials, and the ACCESS Act embodies this principle. By removing unnecessary degree barriers, we’re not just opening doors, but unlocking a wealth of untapped potential,” Mace said in a statement. “It’s about recognizing skills, not just diplomas, and ensuring that everyone, regardless of their educational background, has a fair shot at contributing to our nation’s workforce and innovation landscape.”

Skills-based hiring has become a priority in large part due to long-standing skills gaps in the federal workforce. Skills gaps appear when agencies don’t have the right skills or enough employees in the first place, on board.

In turn, skills gaps can create persistent challenges for agencies and their programs. In fact, more than half of the areas on the Government Accountability Office’s 2023 High-Risk List stem from issues related to mission-critical skills gaps. Strategic human capital management, or the ability for agencies to address mission-critical skills gaps, has remained on GAO’s list since 2001.

OPM has pointed to several promising practices from agencies as they work to increase their use of skills-based hiring.

For instance, the Interior Department reported that 74% of its job announcements use an additional assessment for candidates beyond the typical self-assessment questionnaire. Self-assessments often lead to inaccurate self-ratings, unwieldy applicant pools and large numbers of unqualified applicants, OPM said in its Workforce of the Future playbook.

The concept of skills-based recruitment is also included in the Chance to Compete Act, a bill which the House passed in a vote of 422 to 2 near the start of 2023. The Senate version of the bill was referred to the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, but so far has not had further action.

For the ACCESS Act, a spokesperson for Mace said for now, there is no leading partner for a Senate version of the legislation.

The post Lawmakers push skills-based hiring for federal contractors first appeared on Federal News Network.

Twelve members of Congress shave been appointed to a new commission to lead the House’s exploration of AI’s transformational opportunities and potential challenges. Their mission? To create guiding principles, recommendations and bipartisan policy proposals for the regulation of AI. One of those members joined Federal News Network’s Eric White on The Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss the task ahead: Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.)

Interview Transcript:  

Eric White We have been bombarded with hearing about the potentials of AI. And so I’m sure that as a member of Congress, you’re hearing from your constituents as well as their concerns and things that might be brought up if it is implemented fully. So how did this task force on AI all come together?

Don Beyer Eric, for a few years, there’s been an artificial intelligence caucus. Democrats and Republicans coming together once a month to just talk about AI, but no legislation was really moving. It wasn’t clear which committees had jurisdiction, wasn’t clear where there was really momentum behind specific pieces of legislation. So Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), back before the infamous vacation of the chair, had talked about forming a task force, never happened. And eventually, just a few weeks ago, speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) And Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) appointed these members very bipartisan, an even number of Democrats or Republicans. And we’ve met a couple of times already. Were now meeting every fly out morning at 9:00. And the goal is by the end of the year to present a completely written up report on AI and what Congress should be doing. And hopefully, Eric, on the way, we’ll also actually pass four or five or six foundational bills. Bills we can build upon in the years to come.

Eric White Yeah. What can you tell me about the discussions that you just mentioned? Everybody loves to talk about the divisions in Congress and everything. But this issue, you might have a luxury of everybody generally wants a safe thing, a safe, efficient way for AI to be implemented into everyday life. What are you all mostly discussing when you have those conversations?

Don Beyer Eric, it’s been interesting. In the first couple of meetings, I spent a lot of going around the room saying, what are your priorities? And they’re all over the place. For example, one Democratic member from New York had been very concerned about the use of AI delivering porn, especially with child sexual images. Where instead of the old terrible way of kidnaping children and forcing the reform porn in some garage, they actually generate it using large language models and stuff. It’s just as evil, but without an actual child in play. So you can get a lot more of it a lot faster, which is even sadder. On the other hand, you get people that are really concerned about deepfakes and what it will mean for elections this year. We all know that more people will vote in 2024 than in any year in the history of mankind. Oh, all over the world and very big elections here in the United States. So it varies, but you could boil it down into 12 main topics. And then the notion is how do you address each one of them? What role does Congress really have or federal government have in these 12 different areas?

Eric White And that’s a perfect segue into my next question of what is Congress’ role in this? Obviously, you have a vested interest in stopping some of the terrible things that can come from AI that you just mentioned. But as far as getting ahead of it and coming out with some overarching principles, is that where you see Congress’ enacting a role in working with other branches of government?

Don Beyer Yeah, very much so. So far, we’ve been really thrilled that there’s been little partizan bickering, very little partizan divide. There’s nothing like the divide we have on guns or on the right to reproductive freedom, things like that. So I’m optimistic about us being able to move forward. And on the role, it’s interesting the Europeans who the European Union have recently passed their EU Artificial Intelligence Act, the EU AI act. And they were, I heard it referred to recently, is that they are super regulatory power. They really like regulation. Our tendency, both Democratic and Republican, is to focus on innovation and creation and new uses that can change the way our lives unfold. So almost all of us, across party lines, want to have a relatively light touch from a regulation perspective, unlike the Europeans.

Eric White It’s interesting. Usually we’re trying to find ways to reduce red tape, and the Europeans tend to say, no, we need more red tape here. We’re speaking with Virginia Congressman Don Beyer. Congress has always been a punching bag for the American public. And they’re seen as sometimes being a little bit behind on when new technologies come in. And there are those viral clips of some of your fellow congressmen describing some things that maybe are off the cuff or out there. Where do you see as this is improving Congress’ understanding of AI? Because it’s a new technology and not too many people actually get with the facts of what it actually takes to create those deep fakes or actually have technology that will change Americans lives.

Don Beyer Well, the good part, Eric, is that while there are only a handful of actual technologists who serve in Congress, the 24 people on this task force, almost all of them are pretty sophisticated about AI across the political landscape. So I’m really encouraged by that. When Speaker Johnson and Leader Jeffries pointed, they were looking for people who already had expressed a deep interest in artificial intelligence and done a lot of reading and a lot of visiting, a lot of experimenting. So that’s a really good piece of it. And I also think while Congress always lags the American public, that’s because that’s the way our founding mothers and fathers set it up. It’s two different entities, the House and the Senate. There’s a filibuster in the Senate. You really have to spend a lot of time to get to a middle ground before something actually becomes law. And sometimes that slowness frustrates us. But it also can often be wise, because we’re not overreacting or doing something quickly and hastily that we later need to reverse.

Eric White Let’s talk about you yourself. You got appointed to this mostly because we’ve interviewed you before. You’ve taken a deep interest in AI, and even have taken some classes in learning more about the technology. What can you tell me of where you stand personally in your understanding of it?

Don Beyer I’m learning very quickly. I just came back from a four day AI conference with some of the smartest people I’ve ever met, and I had lots and lots of questions. And with every exposure, I learn a little bit more. By the way, having my coding background now, just in Python three and in Java, is also helping. No, I can’t be a huge AI scientist right now. I’m years away from doing that, but I have a good inkling about how they’re going about it and why, which helps. Although, ultimately, here in Congress in this task force, we’re not going to be writing any code. We’re going to be trying to come up with the right sets of policies for things like the democratization of artificial intelligence. We don’t want to just to be owned by the big four. By ChatGPT, by OpenAI and Microsoft and Google. We want to make sure that people like you and me also have access to it. The small businesses and medium sized businesses do it, and researchers everywhere. So the democratization is a big piece of it. And I also think that we have to look really deeply at the potential downsides. How many AI optimists? I think it’s could do much more good than harm. But as members of Congress, our job is to protect the American people. So thinking about the potential downsides is very important to you.

Eric White Providing me an opening to ask about those big four and the plethora of famous technologists that we’ve seen making the rounds on news programs, talking about it. Are you bringing in any sort of experts during these conversations with your task force, or are you just kind of reaching out on your own accord and then coming back and reporting to the task force?

Don Beyer It’s a really good question here, because it’s sort of in between. We have had, from Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.), who chairs the overall conference with Ted Lieu (D-Calif.). I think he’s been deluged with different people who want to come present to the task force, enough so that they can take up the next three or four years just listening to people tell us their ideas. So he’s going to be judicious in terms of the people we bring before us. But so far, it’s been the leaders of the big four, but also people like Dario Gil, who’s head of research at debt, at IBM. So some of the really great intellectuals and founders of this field are talking to us both in small groups and of big groups. Mark Andreasen, who is an early major technologist, has already come to talk to us. But we’re also hearing interesting, Eric, from not just the technologist, but people who’ve been affected by it. For example, we had one fascinating meeting with the folks that do photography and illustrations, and who write music and who published books, who are seeing artificial intelligence as perhaps taking all of their creative work and making it for free on the internet through the large language models. So what’s the business model that allows a photographer still makes a living other than at weddings?

The post New Congressional task force looks to make sure it’s not left behind by AI advancements first appeared on Federal News Network.

The Pentagon proposed a fiscal 2025 budget of $849.8 billion, about 1% higher than this year’s budget request. The top line figure aligns with the Fiscal Responsibility Act passed last year, which sets limits on defense and non-defense discretionary spending. Defense officials said the 1% increase would not be enough to cover inflation.

“Overall, [fiscal 2024] was a good budget. As we pivot toward this year, I think it’s a much more difficult budget, we’re gonna see some very difficult trade-offs. I’m not sure if we’re going to see as positive outcomes as all communities might want see,” Matt Borron, the Association of Defense Communities executive director, said during the Defense Communities National Summit on Tuesday.

2024 being an election year adds complexity to negotiating and passing the 2025 defense budget. Members of Congress will go back to their districts in July and return sometime in the fall to pass a continuing resolution to temporarily fund the federal government. After that, they won’t be back until after the presidential election.

“I think every year we seem to find new ways to make this hard. And yet, we generally still manage to get it across the line. But this year does feel particularly difficult. And election years can play either way. You can have folks willing to make a deal to get things done before they go home and try to keep their jobs. But it doesn’t feel that way right now. So I think it is going to be rough,” Jeanine Womble, the House Armed Services Committee staff lead, said. 

Passing the 2025 NDAA

Borron said while there were some contentious issues during the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act negotiations, they weren’t “as contentious as they might have come across in some of the debates.”

“That’s why I think you got a relatively quick passage of the NDAA certainly, as compared to the appropriations bill,” said Borron.

The same social issues, such as the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion spending, will most likely come up during this year’s NDAA negotiations. But the resolution of those contentious issues will hinge on the results of this year’s election.

“I think you’re gonna see those same social issues come up for discussion. I don’t see necessarily a different outcome this year,” said Borron.

“All of that is really dependent on the election. I think they can resolve many of those issues, but the more contentious ones are going to have to wait until we know who’s in charge of the White House, who’s running the Senate, who’s running the House. I think in general, there’s a desire to make members as happy as possible. But I don’t think those contentious issues have really changed. The needle hasn’t shifted. We’ll see a rehash of it. And the outcome will be dependent on the elections.”

Womble believes that despite the contentious issues that will come up during this year’s round of debates, the NDAA will ultimately pass.

“I can’t give you a certain date when it will pass, but I believe it will,” said Womble.

“Maybe not quite before October 1, but in the neighborhood. I truly believe that Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and the members of [the House Armed Services Committee] very much want to get it done every year. There are contentious issues every year, there are things that go to the very end. In a bipartisan way, the committee finds a way.”

The post Passing 2025 defense spending bill will be ‘particularly difficult’ first appeared on Federal News Network.

• After a scorching report, one Senator wants to see the federal government overhaul its cybersecurity practices. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore) on Monday released draft legislation to set minimum federal cyber standards for collaboration technologies, like Slack and Teams. Under the bill, the National Institute of Standards and Technology would establish interoperable standards for those technologies. The legislation would also require the use of end-to-end encryption. The bill comes after a Cyber Safety Review Board report blamed Microsoft's inadequate cybersecurity culture for multiple federal hacks. Wyden argued that interoperable standards would reduce the federal government's reliance on Microsoft.
  (Wyden releases draft legislation to end federal dependence on insecure, proprietary software in response to repeated damaging breaches of government systems - Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.))
• Radha Plumb has officially assumed the role of the Defense Department’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer. Prior to her new role, Plumb served as the deputy under secretary of Defense for acquisition and sustainment. Deborah Rosenblum, the assistant secretary of Defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs will take over Plumb’s previous role starting April 8. Plumb will replace Craig Martell, who became the Pentagon’s first permanent chief digital and artificial intelligence officer in 2022.
  (Plumb officially assumes CDAO role - Defense Department )
• Underutilized federal buildings could turn into affordable housing if a House bill makes it through Congress. The Government Facilities to Affordable Housing Conversion Act would require agencies to identify vacant and underutilized buildings that would be suitable for converting into residential use. The bill provides funding to study the effectiveness of converting office space into housing and also creates a grant program for state and local governments to undergo these conversion efforts. Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) are leading the bill.
  (Air Force enterprise information technology directorate gets new director - USAF)
• Some new recommendations aim to kick-start federal shared services. In the five years since the Office of Management and Budget relaunched the federal shared services initiative, experts said progress has languished. The Shared Services Leadership Coalition (SSLC) said in a new report that agencies have not achieved any of the goals outlined in the 2019 memo and federal shared services remain resource starved. The good-government group outlined four legislative and regulatory policy recommendations to get agencies moving in the right direction. SSLC's recommendations include mandating shared services as a required business blueprint and creating a new Senate-confirmed position called, "The Commissioner of Government Operations" at the General Services Administration.
  (4 policy recommendations to kick-start shared services - Shared Services)
• The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is reminding employees of their whistleblower rights after being called out by a lawmaker. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said an ATF memo, issued late last fall, chilled lawful whistleblowing. It warned employees against disclosing unclassified information without prior authorization. But it contained no references to lawful disclosures to Congress or federal watchdogs. After Grassley pressed the agency on the memo earlier this year, ATF recently issued an update with repeated references to the Whistleblower Protection Act and other disclosure rights.
  (Grassley successfully ensures ATF employees know their whistleblower rights - Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa))
• Over the next five years, the General Services Administration (GSA) will eliminate the use of PFAS, known as "forever chemicals," in the cleaning of federal buildings. GSA is requiring government contractors to purchase cleaning products that are free of the toxic chemicals. Instead, contractors will be required to use alternative products, certified to ecolabels such as EPA’s Safer Choice and certain Green Seal® certifications. GSA’s Public Building Service has more than 600 contracts for custodial services at more than 1,500 government-owned buildings at a cost of more than $400 million per year. GSA expects that most of these contracts will include the new and safer specifications within five years.
  (GSA, EPA team up to eliminate 'forever chemicals' from federal buildings - General Services Administration)
• James Lee, who led the IRS-Criminal Investigations office for the last three years and served 29 years in the federal government, retired on March 31. He has joined Chainalysis as its global head of capacity building. Lee said his initial focus will be helping international law enforcement agencies develop solutions against cryptocurrency-based crime. During his time at the IRS, Lee led IRS and federal law enforcement efforts to shut down Hydra, the world’s largest darknet market. He also conducted the largest crypto-seizure connected to terrorism financing and rescued 23 children and arrested 337 child abusers around the globe after taking down Welcome to Video, the world's largest distributor of child sexual abuse material.
  (Former IRS-Criminal Investigations chief lands new role in industry - Chailalysis)
• The office of the Air Force chief information officer just got a new director of the enterprise information technology directorate. Keith Hardiman will oversee the management, planning, governance and resource allocation for the department's information and cyber enterprise, which has a budget of nearly $7 billion. Prior to his new role, Hardiman served as the director of the Air Force's information management and chief information office, where he led the Air Force's declassification and publications distribution offices.
  (Air Force enterprise information technology directorate gets new director - USAF)
• Leaders of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee are pushing for a higher cost-of-living increase for veterans and their surviving family members. The higher COLA would impact disability payments, clothing allowances, and compensation for surviving spouses and children of veterans. The cost-of-living adjustment would be determined by the annual COLA adjustment set by the Social Security Administration, and would go into effect December 1, 2024. Committee Chairman Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Ranking Member Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) are leading the bill.
  (Tester, Moran push for cost-of-living increase for veterans - Senate Veterans Affairs Committee)

The post Oregon Senator fed up with data breaches, blasts Big Tech, demands mandatory standards first appeared on Federal News Network.

• Service members are apparently not getting enough sleep each night to properly do their jobs. A watchdog organization found that service members are consistently getting less than 6 hours of sleep. Military personnel say they fall asleep on the job, which Government Accountability Offce said creates serious safety concerns. The GAO wants the Pentagon to conduct an assessment of DoD's oversight structure for fatigue-related efforts. And the Defense Department recommended that troops get seven hours of sleep each night.
  (Service members don’t get enough sleep, putting their lives at risk - GAO)
• Attention vendors, who provide grants services to the government, this RFI's for you. The Grants Quality Service Management Office (QSMO) is ready to expand its marketplace of service providers. But first, it is taking the pulse of the vendor community to gauge the capabilities of the sector. The QSMO's new Request for Information (RFI) is asking vendors for details about their grants management system, including whether it is set up as a software-as-a-service, whether it integrates with SAM.gov and login.gov and whether it is highly configurable and does not require code changes. Responses to the RFI are due by April 30.
  (Grants shared services office kicks off marketplace expansion - General Services Administration)
• Agencies have likely escaped budget cuts due to sequestration for another year. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analyzed the fiscal 2024 spending bills and estimated that the discretionary budget authority for defense and non-defense agencies falls under the caps established in the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. CBO, however, said the final decision about whether cuts are needed under sequestration will come from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), based on its own estimates of federal spending. OMB told Congress in August it did not think sequestration cuts would be necessary based on current estimates, but it will send another letter to Congress later this year with the final decision.
  (CBO estimates sequestrations cuts not necessary for fiscal 2024 - Congressional Budget Office)
• There is a new artificial intelligence chief at the top U.S. spy agency. John Beieler has been named the chief AI officer at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He also serves as the top science and technology adviser to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines. Beieler now leads a council of chief AI officers across the 18 components of the intelligence community. One of the first tasks for that group is developing an AI directive for the IC. Beieler said it will cover everything from data standards to civil liberties and privacy protections.
  (Intelligence community gets a chief AI officer - Federal News Network)
• The Postal Service may soon ask for a sixth rate increase, since November 2020, that would go into effect this summer. But the Postal Regulatory Commission is taking a closer look at whether this new pricing model is actually helping USPS improve its long-term finances. The regulator is asking for public feedback on whether the current pricing model is working for USPS and its customers — and if not, what modifications to the ratemaking system should be made, or what alternative system should be adopted? The regulator will accept comments through July 9.
  (Postal Regulatory Commission seeks feedback on USPS pricing model - Federal News Network)
• The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is preparing to host its biggest biannual cybersecurity exercise. Dubbed “Cyber Storm,” the event will kick off this month with more than 2,000 participants from government and industry. The weeklong exercise simulates the response to a cyber attack on multiple critical infrastructure sectors. This year’s Cyber Storm comes as CISA rewrites the national plan for responding to major cyber incidents. CISA expects to release the updated plan by the end of 2024.
  (CISA’s ‘Cyber Storm’ will help it update National Cyber Incident Response Plan - Federal News Network)
• The IRS is looking to take the next steps in its most ambitious project under the Inflation Reduction Act. The IRS is letting taxpayers in 12 states test out its “Direct File” platform this filing season, as it gets feedback from earlier users, in the hopes of scaling up the pilot program. In a roundtable discussion with Direct File users, the IRS said all participants said they would recommend Direct File to eligible friends and family. Roundtable participants included college students, military veterans, as well as nonprofit and government employees.
  (IRS' direct file platform receives positive initial feedback - Treasury Department)
• The Air Force wants to bypass governors in seven states and transfer the National Guard space units to the Space Force. Air Force officials are calling for legislation to bypass existing law requiring them to obtain a governor’s consent before making changes to a National Guard unit. It would allow the service to transfer 14 Air National Guard space units located in New York, Florida, Hawaii, Colorado, Alaska, California and Ohio and make them part of the Space Force. Not surprisingly, the idea is facing criticism from governors.
  (Air Force wants to override law in 7 states, transfer Guard units to Space Force - Federal News Network)

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With Congress back in action next week, many eyes are on how it’s going to handle international affairs. Speaker Mike Johnson is still getting his feet wet in the role, and he may already be facing calls for his resignation. For details on what’s happening, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin talked with WTOP Congressional Correspondent Mitchell Miller.

Interview Transcript: 

Mitchell Miller Congress really has a lot on its plate coming back, and it’s going to be a particularly testing time for House speaker Mike Johnson. Among the things that he’s got to deal with, of course, is Israel and Ukraine. And then on top of that, while they were on break, of course, we had the big collapse of the Key Bridge in Baltimore. And there is a huge push, of course, with President Biden visiting Baltimore last week to get the legislation moved into the House so they can start working on an emergency aid package. But one of the biggest things really will be to figure out how Mike Johnson is going to deal with Ukraine. This is something that he has basically pushed off for month after month, and now it’s coming to a head, and it really is coming into a head for him because the conservative wing of the Republican Party, specifically Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, has the threat of ousting him from the speakership if he brings something to the floor on Ukraine that she doesn’t like. Now she’s only made this as a threat. It’s not clear whether or not she’s actually going to trigger it. But this is certainly hanging over his head. So, there’s a lot of questions right now about what is going to happen with aid for Ukraine. Of course, the Senate passed an aid package, a supplemental that included aid for Ukraine as well as Israel and parts of the Pacific. But that has just been, as they say around here, collecting dust for a while until the speaker decides what to do. So, it’s going to be interesting also because of what’s been happening with Israel on the Democratic side. There is a lot of dissension about what is going to happen with more military aid for Israel in light of the humanitarian convoy that was hit, and several people were killed. A lot of tension right now among Democrats trying to put more pressure on Israel. There was a thought a while back that they would split the Israel and Ukraine packages. But now that is really in doubt. And some people think that the House speaker will actually, at some point be forced to take the Senate supplemental and try to take it up on its own, because just breaking everything up and starting over will be too difficult.

Eric White And somewhere Kevin McCarthy is probably smiling, saying, okay, you see, you want this thankless job, you can have it. This is definitely one of the first major test for Mike Johnson, kind of teetering the sides of both sides of his own party and both sides of Congress. How’s he how’s he going to do that?

Mitchell Miller You know, there’s really a lot of questions within his own party as well as among Democrats. Democrats have been kind of on the side just waiting to see what he would do. But he is getting so much pressure from his right flank. And that is why he has put this off for so long. But really, he can’t put it off any longer because things are of course, getting worse in Ukraine. We’ve seen the evolving situation in Israel, and really it is the biggest question mark hanging over Congress right now, because on the Senate side, you still have the Senate’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell, pushing very hard to get Ukraine $60 billion worth. And on the other side, you have Marjorie Taylor Greene, the aforementioned lawmaker from Georgia, saying if you bring that $60 billion bill to the floor, I am going to make the motion to vacate. And there potentially could be a vote on the floor related to what Kevin McCarthy had to deal with, which, of course, eventually left him not only out of the speakership, but out of Congress. Now, some Democrats have said they might come in to save Mike Johnson because they just don’t want more dissension. And of course, there are many Republicans that really don’t want this to happen either, because we’re in the middle of the election year. And as we remember the last time that the speaker was kicked out, it was more than three weeks before Republicans could figure out who they wanted to lead the party. So, a lot of big questions hanging over Congress right now.

Eric White And apart from the international affairs, we have domestic affairs. You mentioned the Key Bridge. That was the major story, you know, of the month of March. What are the next steps, I guess, in getting the package that President Biden did promise? I imagine there’s going to have to be some boxes that need to be checked to make sure that that does come through.

Mitchell Miller Absolutely. And this will be a big week for that. On Tuesday, there will be a meeting, including the Maryland congressional delegation, including the senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin, along with the head of OMB, Shalanda Young, to try to figure out what kind, of course can they move forward with to get the money that is needed not only to replace the bridge, but also to help accelerate things with opening up the port of Baltimore? And there’s been a lot of talk about trying to do more to help all of these idled dock workers that just don’t have any money coming in, because everything is just frozen right now, aside from a few boats. A small channel or two going through Baltimore. So, what they’re trying to do is figure out, how big is this big emergency package going to be, is it going to be everything where it includes the long term? Look at what’s going to be taken to reconstruct the bridge, which is conceivably in the billions of dollars at least over $1 billion. And then on the other side, there are some people, particularly Republicans. I was speaking with Maryland Republican Andy Harris, and he suggests that they should not take this all at once and that they should do it more incrementally. So, it’s not such a financial jolt to the system that perhaps getting a smaller package right away to help with the port and then start to move forward in bits and pieces on the longer-term issue of reconstructing the bridge, which will, of course, take several years. The first bridge that collapsed, that took five years to build, and that was after everything was all put in place financially. So, this is going to be a very, very long-term slog for Congress.

Eric White And it’s a shame about those dockworkers, you know, that they can’t have some sort of option to telework loading on the docks. But the federal workforce does have the option to telework. And I understand the Senate is going to be looking at giving out more information on what they want to see from agencies. As far as telework goes, what do you have on that?

Mitchell Miller Right. Well, even though they were on break, Senators Gary Peters of Michigan and Joni Ernst of Iowa have both proposed the Telework Transparency Act. And what they’re really trying to do, as you know, and as Federal News Network has reported, is trying to get more transparency from the federal agencies on exactly what is happening with telework. It’s interesting that we’ve kind of come full circle. We had for years lawmakers pushing to get more people to telework and get all the agencies in line on that. And now in the wake of the pandemic, there’s been this big push, of course, to get people back into the office. And as you’re well aware, Senator Joni Ernst is really on the forefront of this. She is putting a lot of political heat on federal agencies trying to find out exactly what they’re doing, how many people are actually getting back into the office, how many days are they getting back into the office? And also, what kind of efficiency is taking place? Are things better or worse, depending on where people are working from. So there’s going to be a bigger push, I think, continuing from lawmakers, trying to get this, telework information because there’s been, you know, general information coming through OPM, but lawmakers are trying to get down a little bit more into the weeds and try to find out exactly what agencies are doing to meet some of the push and some of the federal guidelines that they want put in place.

Eric White And one other piece of legislation with some federal workforce implications, how does it start from, you know, being part of some sort of partisan, I guess, you know, chicanery back and forth is kind of a wink at the other side. But Representative Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, submitting the Guard act, which would say anybody who is convicted of a crime is not allowed to have access to classified material. Probably not a bad idea. But, you know, obviously the sights are set on President Trump and his many legal issues, but it also might affect legislators in her own state. What have you heard on that?

Mitchell Miller Right. This is the Guard act guarding the United States Against Reckless Disclosures Act. And it would, as you indicate, not only bar lawmakers, but bar the president, the vice president, and federal candidates from receiving classified information if they are charged with an obstructing an official proceeding. Now, that was aimed, of course, at former President Trump and January 6th. But really now this legislation potentially could affect Senator Bob Menendez, who, ironically, is from New Jersey, which is where Mikie Sherrill is from. But she is proposing that this be put into place. And there really has been a lot of questions here on Capitol Hill, particularly related to Senator Bob Menendez, including from members of his own Democratic Party. A lot of people questioning, you know, since he has been charged, he’s under indictment. Of course, he has denied all charges. But part of the indictment alleges that he was involved with doing favors illegally for the country of Egypt and others. And some lawmakers have really questioned about whether or not he should be receiving classified briefings. And every time he is asked about this, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer tries to get away from the question a little bit. He does definitely criticize Menendez for the allegations that he’s under, but it still remains to be seen whether or not Senator Menendez is really going to be kept out of a lot of these classified briefings, which there have been many of them recently. And then, of course, he lost his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to Maryland’s Ben Cardin. He basically stepped down after these charges came against him. So, I’m really interested to see how this is going to move forward, since it’s now, as you indicated, has a kind of bipartisan bent. Which was not the way it started.

Eric White Yeah. And I can’t imagine somebody having to brief a president saying, we can’t tell you exactly what’s going on, but we need your decision, right?

Mitchell Miller Right. And all of this with the backdrop, of course, of the legal case involving former President Trump and the classified documents that. So given the fact that we’re also in the middle of a political election year, it’s hard to see how this might actually move all the way to getting approved. But we’ll just have to wait and find out.

The post There’s a lot to do, as Congress returns first appeared on Federal News Network.

Few workforces have been studied and dissected as much as that of the two million-strong executive branch of the federal government. There’s another smaller, if no less crucial workforce. It belongs to Congress. The latest research shows wide-and-deep dissatisfaction among congressional staff members. For details, the Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with the President and CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation, Brad Fitch.

Interview Transcript: 

Tom Temin And you have surveyed members of the congressional staff. What is it? About 30,000 plus or minus. Tell us about the survey and what you were asking and what you found out.

Brad Fitch Well, we wanted to explore their attitudes about the functionality, civility and the capacity of the U.S. Congress to do its job as a Democratic legislature. Probably the main finding was not positive, but not shockingly, that only two out of ten staffers would say that Congress is functioning as a legislature should. And this was equal number of Democrats and Republicans. Generally speaking, I have that view. They also had differing views on staying in the Congress. Nearly half of them said they were going to leave the Congress or thinking of leaving the Congress, especially on the Republican side. Six out of ten staffers on the Republican side said they were thinking of leaving the Congress due to heated rhetoric within their own party. So clearly, the Partisan divide that has been affecting a lot of things in our nation is also affecting the congressional staff workforce.

Tom Temin So it sounds like the acrimony that seems real, you know, among members flows down to the people that are actually doing the day-to-day work of crafting bills, or do they still kind of get along with the people from the other party?

Brad Fitch I’d have to say yes and no. One of the unknown sort of secrets of Washington is that there is a great deal of bipartisan collaboration, especially in the Senate, between parties of staff members and senior staff members. And we actually saw that that there was great agreement among Democrats and Republicans when we asked whether or not civility was very important to a functioning legislature. 85% of Republican staff and 70% of Democratic staff said civility was very important. 60% of Republicans and 51% of Democrats said encouraging bipartisanship was very important and a huge degree. 96% of Democrats and 98% of Republicans agree with this statement. It is necessary for senators and representatives to collaborate across party lines. So, on one level, you’re right. There is certainly a degree of partisanship that exists even at the staff levels. But there’s also and you saw this in the open-ended answers, a rich desire among staff members from members of Congress to collaborate in a bipartisan way to address the needs of the American public.

Tom Temin And one of the findings I found, well, maybe not so surprising, given the state of affairs in Washington, D.C. and surrounding areas, but there actually is some level of anxiety about safety, physical safety of people working on the Hill.

Brad Fitch Yeah. In fact, both Democrats and Republicans said that they are experiencing threatening messages at least somewhat frequently. And these are high numbers, like 73% of Republicans, 68% of Democrats. And it’s kind of terrible to think about where you work, and you have to go to an environment where you’re going to be receiving death threats. And we all know that since 2016, the Capitol Police have reported there’s been an increase in death threats of 5 to 10 times in magnitude coming in to the Capitol Hill switchboard. Unfortunately, the other finding and there was a bit of a divide between Democrats and Republicans. When asked whether members of staff feel safe doing their jobs. Only 21% of Democratic staff were satisfied with that, compared to 61% of Republican staff. And in the open-ended answers to the questions we posed, we just have to accept that, especially for Democrats, we still live in a post January 6th world. I’m a Washingtonian. I’ve been here for four decades. And you don’t go a few days without another article being in the news about a January 6th rioter. An insurrection is either being arrested or convicted or going on trial. And that’s just a recurring, you know, nightmare for many staffers. And clearly the data shows that it’s having an effect on Democratic staff, especially.

Tom Temin We’re speaking with Brad Fitch. He’s president and CEO of the nonprofit Congressional Management Foundation. This is the second of this type of survey you’ve done. And sort of like the Fed’s survey that is done in the executive branch by OMB every year. Do you think you’ll do this regularly?

Brad Fitch I hope to. We believe that this is a better benchmark for how the Congress is performing as a legislature than some of the other, we’ll call it popular media tools that have been used, such as the number of days in session or the number of bills introduced or passed. This is a survey of senior congressional staff. More than half of the respondents had ten years experience or more. So, you’re really dealing with a very seasoned, very intelligent workforce, very dedicated workforce is public servants much in the way the executive branch is. But the difference is, of course, is they do have to deal with this highly partisan difficult work environment. And clearly the research is showing it’s taking a toll on many of them.

Tom Temin And we’ve been primarily talking about people who work on the committee and personal staffs of the members. What about those in the Congressional Research Service? The congressional? Budget Office. Is there a sense that the Partisanship has pretty much stayed out of those which are considered the reference points for both sides in research and data about what it is they’re doing?

Brad Fitch We didn’t survey the institutional support agencies you referenced. We focused on, as you noted, personnel, staff, committee staff and leadership staff. I will add one thing, though, in the area of institutional support, we did find a ray of good hope in the survey research in that the satisfaction levels of congressional staff with some of the more we’ll call it institutional capacity areas, H.R. professional development. It all improved in a matter of two years, and this is likely a direct result of the work of the Select Committee on Modernization and the Subcommittee on Modernization, which is now been around for a year and a half. And the members of Congress who engaged in that effort starting in 2019, did it in a completely bipartisan way. It was an equal number of Democrats and Republicans. The same is true of the new subcommittee chaired by Stephanie Bice, congresswoman from Oklahoma. And it’s a real testament that if members of Congress decide to roll up sleeves, collaborate in a bipartisan way, work constructively to solve problems, it can work. And that was really, in some respects, the positive highlight of the report, that in a matter of less than two years, staff satisfaction in all the areas related to capacity had gone up. It’s still very low, but we saw improvement in every metric.

Tom Temin Yes, because the technology basis of Congress was pretty primitive. They still published 2000-page bills that aren’t even searchable PDFs, let alone, you know, HTML. And so, I think for people coming in that might be idealistic about the nature of the work they would expect to work environment that seems 21st century and Congress is inching that way, you might say.

Brad Fitch I would say they’re going in more than inches. They’re going in yards these days. And they’ve actually made some significant progress in the digitalization of some of their work. I was just talking to a staff member just yesterday. And, you know, even the simple act of getting a co-sponsor for a bill required very much an 18-minute process that involved producing PDFs and signatures and all this stuff. And now they can all do it electronically. And she said, it takes about a minute now. So, there’s very good progress happening, especially in the House of Representatives. The professional development offerings in the House have just skyrocketed. It’s really terrific what they’re offering new staff members in the area of professional growth that research shows in the HR community should lead to more job engagement, should lead to more job retention, and that results in a better workforce for the American people, because ultimately, this is designed and all these efforts are designed to improve services that the American people take advantage of.

Tom Temin All right. I wish they’d modernize flag ordering. That would make things a lot easier because they.

Brad Fitch Are actually doing their job. And believe it or not, they actually started to move that to an electronic format. Most people don’t realize you can buy an American flag that was flown over the U.S. Capitol. It’s a business that’s run out of each individual congressional office, and it’s now gotten a lot more efficient as a result of some of the reforms they’ve done in the last five years.

Tom Temin Well, I’ve got three of them so far. So, they’re good things to own. And just finally, I want to return to that question of the importance of civility and constructive dialog. These are not merely academic or social niceties, but they actually improve. Well, not to be dramatic, but the performance of the Republic.

Brad Fitch In the end, it all leads to compromise, which we sometimes forget our eighth-grade social studies classes and reminding us that America was founded on the grand compromise, the Sherman compromise, the idea of a bicameral legislature. We don’t live in a direct democracy or a parliament. We live in a republic. And compromise is essential to the functioning of our legislatures. And to get compromise, you have to have collaboration and civility. And this report shows that senior Democratic and Republican staff agree that’s the path to improving our national legislature.

The post Dysfunction in Congress spoils the work life of congressional staff first appeared on Federal News Network.

• The Biden administration's final rule to block Schedule F is in place, but the push still continues in Congress. Many advocates say the new regulations securing job protections for career feds are a step in the right direction. But some are concerned it will not be enough to stop Schedule F's resurrection in a future administration. Democratic lawmakers are urging the passage of the Saving the Civil Service Act. The bill aims to prevent career civil servants from being made at-will and easier to fire. The legislation has not seen much action, but the new final rule spurred lawmakers, like Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), to press harder and call for its passage.
  (Saving the Civil Service Act - Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.))
• New guidance is out to improve the management of more than a trillion dollars in federal grants. The Office of Management and Budget released the 2024 revisions to the Uniform Grants Guidance. This is the first update in four years. OMB's Deputy Director for Management Jason Miller said among the major changes is improving NoFos, the notice of funding opportunities. "The Uniformed Grants Guidance includes a streamlined NoFo template for agencies to use to help with shortening and simplifying their grants announcements," Miller said. This is one of several substantial revisions to the guidance, which seeks to clarify and reduce the burden on grantees. OMB received more than 3,200 comments to the draft.
  (OMB updates governmentwide grant management guidance - White House)
• The Biden administration is working on hiring tools to help agencies compete for AI talent. The White House is planning to hire 100 AI professionals into the federal workforce by this summer. Some of those hires will come from a “Tech to Gov” virtual hiring fair on April 18. Participating federal and state agencies are looking to fill AI and AI-enabling positions. Kyleigh Russ, a senior adviser at the Office of Personnel Management, said her agency is also working on an AI and Tech Talent Playbook to show how agencies can effectively onboard these in-demand hires. “We know that this talent is very sought-after and that there will be constant competition, both across government and the private sector," Russ said.
  (Biden administration working on hiring tools to help agencies compete for AI talent - Federal News Network)
• The 2024 Vital Signs report from the National Defense Industrial Association provides a look into the challenges facing the defense industrial base. The Vital Signs 2024 Survey asked the industry to identify areas of improvement for the DoD when working with private companies. Some 65% of respondents want to see a clear and consistent demand signal through contract vehicles. More than 40% of respondents would like the DoD to provide specific points-of-contact in program offices. The report also recommends that the Office of the Under Secretary for Acquisition and Sustainment to engage with industry before finalizing the classified implementation plan for the National Defense Industrial strategy.
  (DoD needs to send stronger demand signal, increase investment in critical supply base - National Defense Industrial Association)
• Agencies and federal unions have marching orders from the Biden administration to re-establish labor-management forums. In some cases, it is possible for these forums to be met with resistance from either party, or even employees themselves. The Office of Personnel Management is offering advice on how to wade through any trouble spots in implementation. For one, OPM encourages management to have discussions with union leaders before making any top-down decisions.
  (OPM outlines how agencies, unions can recreate labor-management forums - Federal News Network)
• The Postal Service is missing more than half its service targets for mail products on which it has a monopoly. Its regulator told USPS it did not meet service performance targets for 15 out of 27 market-dominant products in 2023. The regulator is calling on USPS to take corrective action and to come up with a plan to improve its performance. USPS said 98% of households are getting their mail and packages within three days and that 50% of mail and packages arrive a day ahead of their service standard.
  (PRC issues report evaluating USPS service levels and rates - Postal Regulatory Commission )
• The Environmental Protection Agency is aiming to make permitting for environmental projects easier. EPA said its new website not only fulfills its commitment under the Biden administration's Permitting Action Plan, but also makes its information and process more transparent. Through the new site, EPA is posting information about the permitting process, such as permit applications and public meetings. The goal is to improve the timelines, predictability and transparency of federal environmental review and authorization processes for covered infrastructure projects, which include offshore wind energy under the renewable energy production sector.
  (EPA launches new permitting site - EPA)
• The public can now track defueling and decommissioning operations of the Red Hill fuel facility in Hawaii. A new app will provide the latest developments on tank cleaning, the decommissioning plan, environmental clean-up and regulatory approvals. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a full closure of the facility after jet fuel leaked into the Navy’s water distribution system. The app to track the closure efforts is available for download at Apple's App Store and the Google Play store.
  (New app will track Red Hill fuel facility closure - Navy Closure Task Force)

The post Some lawmakers offer more teeth to Biden’s Schedule F takedown first appeared on Federal News Network.

That, as you might have guessed, constitues the status of work life for staff members of the Congress of the United States. This finding comes from the Congressional Management Foundation, which surveyed 138 senior staff members. Only 5 percent of the people surveyed answered, but the foundation’s president, Brad Fitch, said the results show clear trends; principally, that the staff of the Congress labors under a peculiar group of people.

I”ll spare you yet another take on the principal issues impeding the car wreck that is Congress. Congressional staff occupy a galaxy less visible to the public, and even to much of the executive branch bureaucracy. Even in my own 32 years of covering government, I’ve spoken to only a handful congressional staff members, fewer even than members themselves. Staff learn early the value of self-attenuation in the shadows of their often egotistical bosses.

But don’t think they’re diffident. In fact, traipsing through the brick tunnels of the Capitol complex are some of the most informed and practically-minded people you’ll find anywere. Name the issue, and you can find members of the congressional staff that possess expert knowledge. And since politics often has the surface grace of ballet but the tactics of a prison yard, staff of one party sometimes know better than their members how to devise compromises with those of the opposite party.

When first-elected members come to town with perhaps green personal staffs, you can bet they learn lot from the committee staffs.

I say this only because the staffs of members of Congress constitute a sometimes underappreciated contributor to the nation’s well-being. If the Congress itself is semi-functional, the blame goes to many factors. Staff isn’t one of them. So it’s good to see at least a sampling survey of the health of this workforce. By contrast, the executive branch workforce is the object of intense, detailed and never-ending study. The annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey provides rich data and insight.

Here is a bit of what the Foundation survey found:

• Only 19% of the staff members thinks Congress “correctly functions as a democratic legislature should.” That breaks down to 31% of Republican respondents, 12% of Democratic.
• Only 20% agree that Congress provides “an effective forum” for debating the important questions.
• 81% of Republicans and long serving staff members tend to disagree that “current procedures” give members of Congress the information they need from the executive branch to do their congressional duties. Sure, there’s a Democratic administration. But 46% of Democrats also find information from the executive branch wanting.
• Two thirds of Democratic and Republican staff members would like elected leadership to “enforce the rules and norms of civility and decorum in Congress.” At least they don’t march into the chambers and whack one another with canes.

I spoke with Brad Fitch, the president of the foundation that surveyed congressional staff. A longtime watcher of Congress, Fitch said he doesn’t think the acrimony among members seeps down into staff relations. Otherwise, literally no bill might get written, much less ones the members reject anyway.

Fitch said — and the survey shows this — that the congressional staff sees positive movement in the technology, the workplace tools that have arrived in recent years. The Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress helped here. It sunsetted last year, but now there’s a follow-on caucus. Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Washington) ably chaired the remarkably bipartisan committee. It came up with a couple of hundred recommendations, a couple of dozen of which Congress implemented. Senior staff are better paid now, and they have somewhat better IT systems.

It seems bizarre that an institution as important as the United States Congress engenders agreement about its own brokenness among its own members, the citizenry, historians and just about everyone else. Just don’t blame the staff.

The post Understatement: Congress doesn’t function properly first appeared on Federal News Network.

A pair of bipartisan senators is now looking to up the ante with a new bill, calling on agencies to report more detailed, timely information on their federal telework policies.

The Telework Transparency Act, which Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) introduced Wednesday morning, aims to provide up-to-date information on federal telework, while also assessing factors like productivity, office space, and recruitment and retention.

The telework data currently available from agencies has been a major sticking point for Congress in the return-to-office debate. The lawmakers said although the Office of Personnel Management publishes an annual report to Congress on federal telework, that data is more than a year old by the time it makes the rounds. In OPM’s yearly report, agencies often use different types of data to determine how many and how often federal employees are teleworking. Some agencies face limitations on their ability to collect accurate or complete information, according to the latest report from December 2023.

In an effort to make the telework information more consistent and reliable, the new bill from Ernst and Peters, if enacted, would set more reporting requirements for agencies. They would have to closely monitor the effects of telework on customer experience, backlogs and wait times, costs to operations, security, property management, technology investments, and recruitment and retention.

And to assist agencies with the bill’s proposed requirements, OPM would also have to set clearer data standards and protocols for agencies as they track employees’ participation in telework. Within two years of the bill’s enactment, OPM would be required to create and maintain an online tool showing agencies’ data on teleworking employees.

Under the legislation, agencies would also have to go through periodic audits of what locality-based pay rates teleworking employees receive, as well as the utilization rates of office space — both of which have remained concerns for lawmakers in the return-to-office debate.

In terms of office space, the Telework Transparency Act aims to create more consistent benchmarks for measuring utilization, something that the Government Accountability Office has said can be difficult to determine.

Ernst has long been pushing agencies for information on the costs and impacts of federal telework following the COVID-19 pandemic. Just last week, Ernst wrote a letter to Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su seeking details about a return-to-office protest of Labor Department employees.

“Since ‘temporary’ telework policies went into effect over four years ago, the remote lifestyle comes at the expense of the people federal agencies are meant to serve,” Ernst said in a statement to Federal News Network. “My bipartisan bill will provide full transparency into the inefficiencies of telework, so taxpayers are no longer on the hook for expensive wasted space at federal headquarters and misspent locality pay.”

Peters, the Democrat cosponsor for the bipartisan Telework Transparency Act, did not immediately respond to Federal News Network’s request for comment.

The federal return-to-office debate has been in full swing since the White House began pressing agencies to set higher requirements for in-office work of federal employees.

The new bill from Peters and Ernst dovetails with other efforts from Congress to get more information on federal telework. Part of the fiscal 2024 Financial Services and General Government bill set a 90-day deadline for agencies to give Congress their return-to-office “action plans” outlined earlier this year.

The action plans, initially required in an Office of Management and Budget memo from April 2023, outline agencies’ federal telework and in-office requirements, as well as measurements for workforce factors like productivity and employee engagement.

For the better part of a year, Republican lawmakers on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee have also been pushing for more details from agencies on their telework policies and return-to-office plans.

The post Senate bill aims to set more federal telework reporting requirements first appeared on Federal News Network.

House Small Business Committee Vice Chairman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.) said in a March 20 oversight hearing that he was “extremely skeptical” of SBA’s request for a 20% budget increase in fiscal 2025, “as there is no evidence the agency is operating effectively or efficiently.”

Among his concerns, Luetkemeyer said SBA has “implemented an extremely minimal return to work policy.”

“This is a direct slap in the face to our entrepreneurs who don’t have the luxury of a day off or the ability to sit in their pajamas and work from home,” Luetkemeyer said.

SBA Administrator Isabella Guzman told lawmakers that employees are in the office at least five days a pay period, “complying with the standards” set governmentwide by White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients.

“We have 50% occupancy on any given day, at a minimum,” Guzman said. “The whole of SBA, across the country, has returned to work.”

Rep. Mark Alford (R-Mo.) said members of the committee toured SBA’s headquarters on Dec. 3, 2023, and saw “empty office spaces” throughout the building.

“If we’re not going to use these buildings, let’s shut them down. Let’s consolidate and save money for the American taxpayer,” Alford said.

“I’ve long been concerned with SBA’s lax work-from-home policy, and what that means for our nation’s 33 million small businesses, getting them the help they need, when they need it,” Alford said.

Guzman said SBA occupies two-thirds of its headquarters building, and that three other agencies occupy the rest of the space.

“We went to the floors that SB A fully occupies,” Guzman told lawmakers. “We are looking constantly at our space requirements, aligned with our facilities’ needs.”

Acting American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 228 President Niklas Gustafsson said bargaining unit employees are expected to work in the office a minimum of four days per pay period, “with additional days, depending on the position.”

“Managers have the discretion to have a higher amount, if there’s a particular need,” Gustafsson said. “For example, if you are a receptionist or work in the mail room. If you’re in a position that requires more in-office presence, that would then be required.”

SBA managers and members of the Senior Executive Service, he added, are expected to work in the office at least five days per pay period.

“Employees recognize that there are in-person, in-office functions that need to be accomplished, and SBA bargaining unit employees are professionals and don’t object to that,” Gustafsson said. “However, many employees are confused and do not understand what it is they are accomplishing in the office, when they are in the office, that is different from when they are teleworking.”

Gustafsson said that he and his coworkers are carrying out the same duties each day, whether or not they’re in the office. That means SBA employees sometimes spend their in-office days in videoconference meetings with colleagues located across the country.

“My in-office days look no different than a telework day, from a work process or productivity point of view, and I think that’s true for the vast majority of our bargaining unit,” he said.

Committee Chairman Roger Williams (R-Texas), Luetkemeyer, Alford and five other committee Republicans say SBA office space remains mostly underutilized and is wasting taxpayer dollars.

The lawmakers are asking SBA to clarify its return to office requirements, and are asking why the agency is asking for $42 million for its rent budget in it 2025 budget proposal — a 30% increase from 2023 levels — when it already has “rows and rows of empty desks.”

“Despite the Biden administration’s belated realization that work-from-home policies are counterproductive to servicing the American public, it appears that the SBA has failed to implement an effective strategy to return its employees. Nearly a year after the Biden Administration ended the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, the SBA is still not back to work,” lawmakers wrote in a March 27 letter to Guzman.

Congressional Republicans have repeatedly pointed to SBA as an agency with underutilized office space.

Senate Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee Ranking Member Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) placed SBA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development on the top of her “naughty list” of agencies with underutilized offices last December.

Data from the Government Accountability Office shows HUD and SBA both had a 7% average utilization rate in early 2023 — the lowest rate of all other major agencies.

HUD and SBA officials told GAO their headquarters buildings were undergoing renovation during the data collection period, contributing to a decrease in attendance.

GAO, in a report this summer, found all 24 of the agency headquarters offices it reviewed had excess space, including 17 that had an average building capacity of just 25%.

Discover more now:

Return to office in 4 parts: Fed facing the May 5 deadline 

Education’s return-to-office announcement ‘perplexing’ to union

Census Bureau reconsidering remote work policy

Labor employees protest at their office for more telework riles up lawmakers 

The post GOP lawmakers pan SBA return-to-office plans as ‘extremely minimal’ first appeared on Federal News Network.

Congress is out on recess now, so some might surmise that nothing too horrible can happen. But, still, they have got issues to deal with, including some “local” ones, like how to fund the a replacement bridge in Baltimore. And, there are some global issues, like aid to Ukraine. For a rundown on all things Congress, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke with Bloomberg Government Deputy News Director Loren Duggan.

Interview Transcript: 

Tom Temin And that seems to be the mode nowadays, even though they’re on recess. The verbal and political action never quite stops, does it?

Loren Duggan It doesn’t. And sometimes it’s issues that are carrying over. And as you noted, now they have a new thing to deal with. With the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the Baltimore area and the effects that will have on shipping and all sorts of things. So, although it’s a local bridge collapse. It’s definitely something that has a national and global impact business wise, given that things can’t move in and out of that port right now. So, Congress will be continuing to talk about a potential solution to that. And, you know, as they get back a week from now, we’ll see if that’s turned into legislation or how that might proceed.

Tom Temin Yeah, I mean, that was pretty quick for the administration. I think it was to say the government will pay for the new bridge. And that came, as I say, suddenly. But Congress has to agree to that. Correct.

Loren Duggan There’s some money that the Department can send over. I think they sent 60 million over last week that Secretary Pete Buttegieg announced there are some emergency programs and pools of money they can tap into. But the amount of money that it’s going to take for a project like that will most likely require some legislation, as we saw many years ago with the I-35w bridge. When that collapsed in Minnesota, there was a supplemental appropriation for that. So, we might be looking at a similar approach to the bridge in the Baltimore area.

Tom Temin And there will probably be hearings. It keeps saying it collapsed. I keep saying it was knocked over. So, it didn’t just suddenly give up the ghost and plunge itself into the river. But nevertheless, there will be hearings on probably bridge design and whether you can put bumpers to keep ships from banging into the uprights and that kind of thing.

Loren Duggan Right? I mean, there’s a lot of civil engineering groups that talk all the time about the challenges facing U.S. infrastructure. And then you have an incident like this, and everybody focuses on it again. So, I think we’re probably heading to one of those moments where there will be a lot of attention on bridges all across the U.S.. I mean, this is one of thousands of bridges in the country. This one had a unique incident. Happened to it, obviously, but I wouldn’t be shocked if we have a series of hearings, both about bridges in general and this one in specific.

Tom Temin Yeah, it’s been more than 40 years since a ship knocked down a bridge in the United States that was on the West Coast, and there was, of course, aid also Ukraine. This just does not stop buzzing, does it?

Loren Duggan It doesn’t. And, you know, some of what we were looking for is to wrap up the fiscal 2024 regular bills. And we had that right before the recess, down to the wire and maybe even technically over it. With the Senate acting on that Saturday morning to clear the bills. But this will be the top spending question as well on people’s mind when they come back. What to do? The Senate has passed its package. Send it over. There’s been some reluctance to take that up. There is a bipartisan proposal from Brian Fitzpatrick with a mix of Ukraine and Israel, money, and border provisions. So, we’ll see if either of those has traction. There will be growing pressure to do something, but also pressure from within the conference not to do something. As we saw with Marjorie Taylor Greene filing her motion to vacate the speakership after the passage of the spending package there. So, there’s a lot of dynamics that will be buffeting Speaker Johnson as he plots, of course, here. But, you know, there will be calls, certainly, to do something about this in the coming weeks.

Tom Temin Right? He may personally be inclined to want to give aid to Ukraine, but as you say, members of that caucus, including the ones that quick to vacate button, are not. So, he’s still got this political weirdness that he’s in.

Loren Duggan He does have political awareness and kind of a procedural thicket to work through because getting a bill to the floor, you know, we talk about discharge petitions, which is rarely used and rarely successful. You know, he might be looking at other ways to do this. So, we’ll be watching this very closely, because as they get closer to coming back, there will be talk about, so what are we doing when we get here. So, we’ll be monitoring that over the recess.

Tom Temin Yeah. And this as Vlad the Impaler over there in Russia keeps trying to knock down apartment buildings in Ukraine. We’re speaking with Lauren Dugan, deputy news director at Bloomberg Government. There are some issues for the federal government itself, the trial and that Chuck Schumer was talking about that on TV on Friday of DHS Secretary Mayorkas. And that’s going to be a little bit of a circus, maybe when they get back.

Loren Duggan Yeah, that pause button was hit on that after the House adopted their articles of impeachment. There are two of them to get that trial started. What Speaker Johnson said last week was that he’s looking to send those over when they come back around April 10th or 11th May get that going. So, what we’ll see is the House will at least formally bring those over and announce the charges, and the senators will likely be sworn in as jurors. But we’ll see what happens there. If it’s an actual trial, they could maybe even vote on dismissing it. Some Republicans want to go forward with the trial and try to weigh the evidence that’s going to be laid out by the House, so we’ll see something on that in that first comeback week.

Tom Temin That’ll be interesting, because you know what the outcome will be in the Senate because the Democrats are in control of the Senate just as the impeachment votes against President Trump. When the Republicans had the Senate.

Loren Duggan Right. And, you know, I don’t know if we’ll see any Democratic defections on any of those votes. Obviously, we saw one on one of the Trump trials and more than that on the second Trump trial. But this is going to be a largely party line decision anyhow, and it takes two thirds to remove somebody in this process. And it seems extremely unlikely that would be happening.

Tom Temin And a couple of issues just in general government that were left out when they did finally get those appropriations bill for fiscal 2024. There’s a FISA court deadline.

Loren Duggan Expiring provisions of the FISA law, which deals with electronic surveillance. Those lapsed April 19th. And there’s been a lot of difficulty in figuring out a path forward here. And it’s one that, unlike the partisanship we’ve talked about on some of these other issues, there’s sort of a group of Republicans and Democrats on both sides of this issue, more establishment folks and more of the civil libertarians’ side as well and trying to figure out a path forward on that. What to do with warrant requirements could be tricky. The deadline on that is April 19th. We’ll see if they can work out something there, or if, you know, the administration will seek some other options on that. And then there’s the FAA with an early May deadline. That’s the authorization. So, it has its funding, but it also needs authorization law. And they need the tickets and the spending authority from the trust fund in place on that. So, a May 10th deadline of working out that piece of legislation.

Tom Temin Yes. Because the FAA itself is still kind of busy these days. It still has Boeing related issues, among others, that it’s dealing with. And these are long term issues. And I think a few structural problems are possible issues within the FAA itself.

Loren Duggan Yes, definitely. And those matters could be dealt with here. You know, pilot training has been one of the discussion points here. There are grant programs in that legislation, the airport improvement program, and other things like that. And then this could be a place to deal with some Boeing related matters if they wanted to. They made some progress but need to get that bill over the finish line. We’ll see if they can do it.

Tom Temin And then there is the white House 2025 appropriation request, which landed with its usual thud before the break. And then they’ll maybe take that up in some manner.

Loren Duggan Well, they’ll start the process or continue at some of the committees started holding hearings right after that landed on their desk. And we’ll probably see more of the agency and department heads go up and defend what they’ve asked for. The process. Of course, September 30th isn’t that far away. That’s when they need to do something. They’ll probably extend current funding and then deal with this after the election. But they want to make progress on bills at some point this year.

The post What Congress will face when it returns from Easter recess first appeared on Federal News Network.

New rules have taken effect for procurement from AbilityOne contractors. Those are the companies, mostly non-profits, whose employees have disabilities. The rules were ordered by Congress back in 2017 and they bring more competition to the program. For details, The Federal Drive with Tom Temin talked with the Executive Director of the AbilityOne Commission, Kim Zeich.

Interview Transcript: 

Kim Zeich The AbilityOne program provides employment opportunities to individuals who are blind or have significant disabilities through the Federal Acquisition System. Historically, the AbilityOne program has been an exception to competition in contracting. So the U.S. AbilityOne commission announced a new final rule supporting competition in the AbilityOne program. It is limited competition, and we’ll talk about that. But it does deliver on a top priority of that congressional oversight panel.

Tom Temin Right. Because of the wage structures and the nonprofit, I believe, status of many of the companies. You don’t want them chasing lower and lower prices all the time, and yet you want competition. So how does it actually work then?

Kim Zeich The final rule strikes a balance between those important objectives, between meeting our government customers expectations for best value on AbilityOne contracts. At the same time, the final rule helps us advance the AbilityOne mission by taking into account employment and career mobility for individuals with disabilities as factors in the competition.

Tom Temin And how does it do that? What are some of the strictures now that agencies have to follow?

Kim Zeich A typical competition involves, of course, technical proposals, past performance and consideration of price. So when the AbilityOne program commission approves the competition, these will be limited to the largest contracts in the AbilityOne program. The Commission will consider those factors, but at the same time, the Commission will consider and reward what we call mission related factors or the social impact of the AbilityOne employer. So that means the Commission will look at training, it will look at career mobility, and it will look at the overall employment opportunities that an AbilityOne provider brings to the table, in addition to, again, the traditional competitive factors.

Tom Temin Well, does the commission stand in between the requisition or the acquiring agency and the contractors?

Kim Zeich The Commission will have an important oversight role. The Commission will approve a request for competition. Those will be limited. One of the safeguards that we have built into this rule is who can request a competition. So that will come from a high level in the organization, in the customer organization that will come from a senior executive or a general officer. The commission will look at our suitability criteria before approving a competition, and then the Commission will ensure, again, a balance of factors. So technical past performance, price and that social impact that we will look at in terms of the career opportunities for people with disabilities.

Tom Temin And do you expect most of the requests for competition to come from the Defense Department?

Kim Zeich The Department of Defense is the largest AbilityOne customer. The Department of Defense has been requesting the opportunity to have competition. So we foresee some requests will come from DoD. At the same time, we have a lot of civilian agencies who are our customers as well. And so the final rule in fact, takes that into account. It sets a dollar threshold for DoD that is different from our civilian customers. So only again, the largest AbilityOne contracts, whether coming from defense customers or civilian, will be eligible for competition.

Tom Temin What are those dollar thresholds?

Kim Zeich The threshold for defense contract is $50 million total contract value. So that’s 10 million annual value for our civilian customers who tend to have smaller contracts that say $10 million total contract value threshold. So $2 million per year.

Tom Temin Got it. And these are often not high priced types of items that they’re buying. There are items in AbilityOne, but there’s also services to correct.

Kim Zeich And the competition rule applies specifically to AbilityOne service contracts. So we perform a wide range of services. Where I see the competition rule coming into play would be your large base support operations contracts, where AbilityOne may handle the public works for an entire military installation. Could also come into play for some of our civilian contracts, where we have perhaps total facilities management of a large building complex.

Tom Temin We’re speaking with Kim Zeich. She is executive director of the AbilityOne Commission. And what has been the reaction so far or the acceptance on those services contractors.

Kim Zeich The final rule that was just published March 22, and it reflects extensive stakeholder engagement. It directly responds to, I would say, adapts the public comments that we received. So the Commission expects our stakeholders to feel more comfortable with the final rule than they did with the proposed rule. We heard a lot of feedback, we’ve taken about a year since the initial rule is proposed to go through all of those comments, all of those recommendations, and to come out with a final rule that we think achieves the balance all of our stakeholders are looking for, whether their customers or AbilityOne employers.

Tom Temin So you got comments from the ability one companies and also from the federal agencies.

Kim Zeich Correct. We received well over 100 comments. We had listening sessions, in addition to the opportunity for the public to submit written formal comments, and those were taken into account. So the final rule, I would say was informed by and improved by the public comments.

Tom Temin Now, this, I understand, was ordered up by Congress in the NDAA back in 2017. What took so long?

Kim Zeich You’re absolutely right. The 2017 National Defense Authorization Act established an oversight panel to recommend improvements in the AbilityOne program. So the panel took about four years to make a large number of recommendations and to review the Commission’s progress in implementing the recommendations. And the panel reached its sunset point a couple of years ago, we began working on this rulemaking process. The notice of proposed rulemaking was published about a year ago. So establishing regulations is a time consuming process, particularly if you have broad comment and public outreach process, which the commission sought to implement here. And the rulemaking should take time. I would say the rulemaking process worked the way it’s supposed to, in this case, because we did listen to the stakeholders and it adopted an adapted so many of their comments in the final regulation.

Tom Temin And how does this all square of this idea of competition? And there is a price element in there when the AbilityOne, as I understand it, contractors are on a drive, if you will, to get wages up to the minimum wage level, which has been kind of a sticking point for the people that are employed, because they are people even though they have disabilities. And so more and more of them are receiving at least the federal minimum wage. So wages are generally higher. Can this all square.

Kim Zeich It is all part of how the Commission has been working to modernize the AbilityOne program. For the past year, we’ve been pleased to say that everyone in the AbilityOne program working on AbilityOne contracts will earn no less than the federal minimum state minimum wage or the prevailing wage, which on federal contracts tends to be much higher. Our average wage in the AbilityOne program is over $18 an hour on our AbilityOne service contracts. And the competition rule applies within and among AbilityOne employers. So we have a level playing field. Everyone who will be subject to or eligible to compete in a competition will be paying the same wages.

Tom Temin Understood. Ok. Yeah, that is an important development. And what about modernizing in terms of the range of disabilities? You mentioned blindness first, and I think that’s kind of the grandfathered in condition that gave rise to AbilityOne. But in performing services, facilities maintenance, janitorial type of stuff, then probably blind people can’t do a lot of that type of work. So the range of disabilities incorporated has that also been expanding.

Kim Zeich The AbilityOne program does serve a very diverse population among those who are blind, visually impaired or have significant disability. So many of our program employees, and I would say there almost no limits to what individuals who are blind, visually impaired or have significant disabilities can do within the program. But we certainly have a population that encompasses people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, individuals who may have mental health disabilities, as well as those with physical disabilities, hearing loss or deafness, just a very broad range of disabilities. And what we see on these large AbilityOne contracts, there’s often an opportunity to employ people with a very diverse set of skills to provide them with the supports and services they need to be successful on the job.

 

The post New rules take effect for agencies buying from AbilityOne contractors first appeared on Federal News Network.

• Labor Department employees are facing criticism for protesting in front of their offices in Boston about the agency’s telework policy. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Rep. Scott Franklin (R-Fla.) called the decision by AFGE employees to show up at their offices to seek more telework privileges "hypocritical." In a letter to acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, the lawmakers are seeking answers to three questions by April 10. Among the details Ernst and Franklin want to know is how much official time did employees log in the four weeks preceding the March 19 rally and what did the protest cost the Labor Department.
  (Lawmakers call Labor employees’ in-person protest for more telework hypocritical - Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa))
• Tensions over telework are affecting yet another area for the federal workforce. At least half of recent cases at the Federal Service Impasses Panel have to do with either return-to-office, or work-life balance. The panel, an independent branch of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, generally helps settle disputes between agencies and federal unions. Now, after agencies began returning employees to the office more often, the panel has found that issues like hoteling are commonly leading to impasses in collective bargaining.
  (Federal telework, work-life balance often top issues in collective bargaining - Federal News Network)
• Federal agencies face new requirements to vet artificial intelligence tools before putting them to use. The Office of Management and Budget is requiring agencies to publicly report on how they are using AI, the risks involved, and how they are going to manage those risks. If agencies do not follow those steps for a particular use case, OMB said that in most cases, they will have to stop using those AI tools. Vice President Kamala Harris said the guidance ensures safe, secure and responsible use of AI across the federal government. "When government agencies use AI tools, we will now require them to verify that those tools do not endanger the rights and safety of the American people," Harris said.
  (OMB sets 'binding requirements' for agencies to vet AI tools before using them - Federal News Network)
• The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has released new and far-reaching regulations. CISA’s proposed cyber incident reporting rules will apply to about 316,000 organizations across 16 critical infrastructure sectors. CISA kept the definitions in the rules broad. The agency said it needs a lot of data to analyze cyber risks and share information quickly across sectors. The goal of the regulation is to prevent hacking campaigns and other incidents from spinning out of control. The new rules will not be finalized until the end of 2025. CISA is taking comments on the proposed rules through June 3.
  (CISA’s cyber incident reporting rules will apply to 316K entities - Federal News Network)
• Agencies will soon have more options to buy commercial products. The General Services Administration is expanding the number of providers under the Commercial Platform Initiative (CPI) from three to eight, including six new ones. Along with current platform providers, Amazon Business and Fisher Scientific, GSA awarded spots to a range of companies including Staples and Grainger and four small business e-commerce platform providers. The awards come as the use of e-commerce platforms by agencies has been growing. GSA said for 2023, 34 agencies spent $80 million through the three CPI platforms. That is double the amount of money spent in 2022.
  (GSA’s commercial platforms program to grow by five providers - Federal News Network)
• Blue Star Families want to hear from military and veteran families about issues affecting their lives. The largest annual military family lifestyle survey is now open and all active-duty service members, veterans and their spouses are encouraged to tell their stories. The survey is designed to understand issues affecting military families, including housing, employment, access to health care and food insecurity. It remains one of the most comprehensive data sets for lawmakers, the Pentagon leadership, and community partners. You can find the survey by googling "Blue Star Families."
  (Largest military family lifestyle survey is now open - Blue Star Families)
• The Pentagon’s policy that allows service members to be reimbursed for travel when seeking reproductive care out of state, was used 12 times from June through December of last year. The department spent around $44,000 on transportation and lodging expenses for service members seeking such procedures as an abortion, in vitro fertilization, and egg retrieval. The policy was the reason Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) put a hold on military promotions for nearly a year.
  (Pentagon’s reproductive care policy used 12 times from June to December - DoD)
• Republican lawmakers said teleworking employees at the Small Business Administration are not making full use of their office space. SBA said about half of its workforce is in the office on any given day. But House Small Business Committee Chairman Roger Williams (R-Texas) and seven of his colleagues, said the agency's buildings remain underutilized and are wasting taxpayer dollars. Lawmakers are asking SBA about its return-to-office plans and why the agency is asking for a 30% increase in its rent budget for 2025.
  (Eight committee Republicans pen letter to SBA over work from home policy - House Small Business Committee )
• The Treasury Department will work with the financial sector to make more fraud data available for training artificial intelligence models. A new report from Treasury on AI cyber risks, said a fraud data gap is one of the major challenges for the financial sector. The report also points to a lack of consensus across the sector on what exactly constitutes an AI system. Treasury said it will work with other agencies and industry partners to develop a common lexicon of AI terminologies most relevant to financial institutions.
  (Managing artificial intelligence-specific cybersecurity risks in the financial services sector - Treasury Department)
• Federal employees donated more than $68 million to this year’s Combined Federal Campaign. Each year, feds can contribute to the charitable donation program, which spans more than 5,000 different charities. The donations go toward programs that offer, among other things, housing, education, food supplies, and job training. The 2024 campaign wrapped up this week with an awards ceremony in the nation’s capital. Since its inception more than 60 years ago, the Combined Federal Campaign has raised over $8.6 billion. Next year’s campaign will begin this fall.
  (2024 finale and awards ceremony - Combined Federal Campaign)

The post Lawmakers call telework protest ‘hypocritical’ first appeared on Federal News Network.

After a months-long hiring freeze, the Social Security Administration is once again facing even further declining staffing numbers.

But with agency spending now determined for the rest of fiscal 2024, and hiring now unfrozen, SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley is readying the agency’s plans to rebuild its workforce as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Currently, SSA is at its lowest staffing levels in 27 years, while serving more customers than ever before, O’Malley told lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee during a hearing last week. As a result, customer service has worsened — there are longer wait times on phone lines, and longer delays in receiving decisions on disability applications and appeals.

The perfect storm of challenges, largely due to years of continuing resolutions and hiring freezes, is leading to overworked employees who often leave their jobs within just a year or two, O’Malley said during the joint hearing of the Social Security and Work and Welfare subcommittees.

“We need to do better by them,” O’Malley said. “They’re overwhelmed, stressed out — but still, every day, they’re trying to make it work.”

In the 2024 spending agreement Congress reached last week, SSA received $14.2 billion for its administrative expenses. It’s a slight increase over SSA’s enacted budget of $14.1 billion for 2023.

“It’s a lot better than a cut — and I know cuts were on the table,” O’Malley said.

Spending proposal for 2025

A couple years back, SSA was successful in boosting its staffing numbers — at least for a short time. But the agency quickly faced attrition, particularly in teleservice centers and state disability determination services (DDS), as a result of overworked, overwhelmed employees who didn’t receive enough training to do their jobs effectively.

Although SSA’s latest hiring freeze has ended, there have already been net staffing losses as a result of a months-long string of continuing resolutions — landing the agency once again at the lower staffing levels it had a year ago.

“Unfortunately, we expect that backlogs and wait times will grow in 2024 due to the hiring freeze and minimal overtime,” SSA said in its 2025 budget request justification document. “While we expect to process more cases this year, we will have significantly less staff at the end of the year than at the beginning.”

O’Malley called the declining staffing numbers a “severe setback.”

Right now, SSA employees “are understaffed, and they are overwhelmed,” O’Malley said. “Not surprisingly, when somebody’s been on hold for an hour, they come off that call hot. We right now have an attrition rate of about 24% in our teleservice centers.”

Much more is necessary for the agency to improve staffing, and by extension customer service, for years to come, O’Malley said. The Biden administration is requesting $15.4 billion for the Social Security Administration’s 2025 budget.

The goal is to bring the agency back above the end-of-year staffing levels from 2023 — aiming to reach nearly 60,000 employees, and at the same time, begin to process more cases.

The request would invest in more SSA staffing across the board — with a proposed $269 million for field offices, $85 million for processing centers, $89 million for hearing centers, $79 million for teleservice centers and $2.8 billion for DDS.

More plans to rebuild staffing

To try to make the proposed investments worthwhile, O’Malley is outlining a specific, targeted hiring plan for the agency, aiming to improve not only hiring, but also retention of employees.

“We need to change our strategy as an agency,” O’Malley told lawmakers. “I think we target too much on college graduates and not enough on high school and community college graduates. And with proper training, that could really be an investment that holds for a long time.”

After the Senate confirmed O’Malley as commissioner in December, he spent his first few months on the job visiting Social Security Administration offices across the country to learn about the challenges staff face on the job and to look for possible solutions.

As the agency looks to rebuild, taking into consideration conversations with staff, O’Malley detailed plans for how the agency will hire for the long-term, aiming to avoid attrition and mitigate high turnover rates SSA has historically experienced.

Over the next year, SSA is planning to focus in part on veterans hiring, training and retention, while also partnering with universities and institutions that work with underserved communities. SSA is also requesting funding to hire 1,500 interns in 2025.

“We are increasing the use of social media platforms to recruit students, recent graduates and direct hire applicants and attract top talent from anywhere in the country,” SSA said.

Concerns remain in Congress

Still, some lawmakers, including subcommittee Chairman Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.), called on O’Malley to target improvements for the Social Security Administration in the immediate short-term.

“My free advice is to get the existing workload under control — get it back on track before we go dumping more cases into it,” Ferguson said during last week’s hearing.

A few other lawmakers also pointed to the importance of IT modernization as a way to ultimately improve workforce performance and morale.

“We improve people’s work experience by investing in these technologies to make their job satisfaction go up,” Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah) said. “You get better productivity out of them, and we’ll see better hiring come from this type of stuff.”

Even so, O’Malley said, currently 90% of SSA’s IT budget goes toward simply maintaining outdated, legacy systems — and not toward actually modernizing SSA.

“Think, if you will, about the city of Jerusalem being built up over years, except this is cobalt and green screens,” O’Malley said during the hearing. “Only 10% of [the budget] goes to modernization.”

The budget request for 2025 includes $1.7 billion to invest in IT modernization. The funding will in part go toward efforts to expand online services and provide SSA employees with more user-friendly systems and tools to perform their work.

The Social Security Administration has the next 90 days to provide a report to congressional appropriations committee members with details on full-time employees, new hires in each agency component and retention rates of staff.

The post O’Malley outlines plans to rebuild Social Security Administration workforce first appeared on Federal News Network.