Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY), John Thune (R-SD), Todd Young (R-IN) and Joni Ernst (R-IA) arrive to speak after a Republican policy lunch on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on January 29, 2019. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters) U.S. Senate must safeguard its authority The U.S. Constitution provides that the president “shall […]

Top 10 Things VA Employees Should Know the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act If you are an employee at the Department of Veterans Affairs, you have likely heard that a new law limits your rights, even while portending to protect whistleblowers. If you are a VA employee, and especially if you are a VA […]

Shutterstock.com By Debra D’Agostino – January 25, 2019 It’s the law. Specifically, 5 U.S.C. §7311, specifies that federal employees may not participate in a strike, assert the right to strike, or even belong to a union that “asserts the right to strike against the government of the United States.” Driving the point home, 18 U.S.C. §1918 […]

The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 provides back pay for furloughed employees and those excepted employees required to work without pay. Furloughed employees and government contractors are eligible for unemployment benefits. Some states are providing unemployment benefits to excepted employees. Federal employees will be required to repay unemployment benefits. Furloughed and excepted employees […]

Mayor Muriel Bowser tours the Capital Area Food Bank with President Radha Muthiah ahead of a press conference on January 22, 2019. (WTOP/Megan Cloherty) DC mayor bucks fed gov’t with bill to offer ‘essential’ workers unemployment By Jack MooreJanuary 22, 2019 5:32 pm WASHINGTON — D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser says she will introduce emergency legislation that […]

Which federal workers affected by the shutdown qualify for unemployment? By Kate Ryan | @KateRyanWTOPJanuary 21, 2019 9:07 pm WASHINGTON — In the past week, some federal employees — including those still on the job but not getting paid — have found they’re having to scrape together money for essential goods, from food to gas money. Now, many […]

By Andrew Wagner | Published Thursday, January 17, 2019 By Andrew Wagner | Published Thursday, January 17, 2019 To view video please click here. Ricardo Pitts-Wiley, partner at the Federal Practice Group, outlines what federal employees can do to make additional money, and why you should check your agency’s rules before applying for an interim […]

State Department Defends Unusual Recall of Furloughed Staffers, With Pay By Charlie Clark – January 17, 2019 65Comments By Sorbis / Shutterstock.com In an unusual step during an unusual government shutdown, the State Department on Thursday notified thousands of furloughed employees that it had freed up some existing funds so that the idled staff must […]

Furloughed with nowhere to go, feds give ‘gig economy’ a shot By Jory Heckman @jheckmanWFED January 18, 2019 9:33 am      With a spike in the number of furloughed federal employees seeking unemployment benefits in January, some agency workers have sought to make up for lost income by taking advantage of the “gig economy.” They […]

As the partial government shutdown enters a third week—and 800,000 federal employees miss a paycheck—nearly 400,000 furloughed employees face hard decisions, including whether to take a second job to make ends meet.