- Senators are urging their colleagues to prevent a 22% pay cut for federal employees working overseas. Congress has until the end of the month to reauthorize Overseas Comparability Pay. Those funds ensure Foreign Service officers and other feds abroad get paid close to what they’d make in the U.S. Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Dan Sullivan (R-Ark.) are calling on their leadership to act before the deadline. They serve as co-chairmen of the Senate Foreign Service Caucus.
(Van Hollen, Sullivan make bipartisan push for critical fix to Foreign Service pay – Sen. Chris Van Hollen )
- Nearly 1,400 Air Force reservists perform space-related operations. The Air Force Reserve is in the midst of transferring space missions to the Space Force. The transition will occur in phases, with full-time reservists moving to the Space Force over the next two years. Part-time reservists interested in joining the Space Force will be able to apply in 2026. By 2028, the Air Force Reserve will no longer be involved in the space mission.
- Congress, and the department of Defense and Veterans Affairs have taken many steps in recent years to recognize and compensate veterans who were exposed to toxic substances. But a detailed new report finds the help often arrives much too late. The new study by Disabled American Veterans and the Military Officers Association of America finds veterans have waited, on average, more than 30 years between the time they were exposed to toxic substances and the time they get medical assistance and compensation from VA. Among other things, the report recommends Congress enact a new framework for establishing a presumption that a veteran was exposed to toxic substances during their service.
- The Department of Veterans Affairs is one step closer to avoid a disruption in veterans’ benefits payments. The House passed a $3 billion dollar VA supplemental funding bill to avoid an imminent budget shortfall. The Senate VA Committee advanced the bill, and its members are calling for a full Senate vote. Under Secretary for Benefits Joshua Jacobs said Congress needs to approve the funding by Friday to avoid delays in payments. “Any funding shortfall of even $1 would prevent VA from processing its September pay file, and as a result, delay benefit payments to approximately 7 million Veterans and survivors,” Jacobs said.
- A few House lawmakers are gathering in front of the Capitol building this morning to call for a repeal of two long-standing Social Security provisions. A bill to revoke the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset would give more than 2 million public servants a full Social Security benefit. Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and Garret Graves (R-Pa.) have organized union officials and other federal stakeholders outside the Capitol building. They’re urging members to sign the discharge petition they filed for the Social Security Fairness Act last week. 188 lawmakers have so far signed the petition. If it gets another 40 signatures, the bill would be forced to a floor vote in the House.
- Federal health and retirement benefits are a major recruitment and retention incentive. Early-career employees ranked the importance of federal benefits more highly than older employees. That’s according to the results of the Office of Personnel Management’s 2023 Federal Employee Benefits Survey. Specifically, 94% of millennial and Gen Z respondents said the FEHB was either “important” or “extremely important” to them, compared with 84% of baby boomers and older generations who gave the same response. OPM conducts the benefits survey every other year to understand how feds feel about the benefits available to them, and where there might be room for improvement.
- The Senate is advancing a bill that would update federal hiring practices regarding past marijuana usage. The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee yesterday passed the Dismantling Outdated Obstacles and Barriers to Individual Employment Act, otherwise known as the DOOBIE Act. The bill would prohibit agencies from rejecting a job candidate based solely on past marijuana use. It would also ensure that a prior history of using pot isn’t the sole reason somebody is denied a security clearance. The legislation now heads to the full Senate for a vote.
- The Defense Intelligence Agency has a leg up over other agencies when it comes to recruiting technical specialists. DIA is seeing a big recruiting boost from a cyber and STEM pay supplement approved by the Pentagon last year. The supplement allows DIA and other defense intelligence components to offer higher salaries for certain job positions. DIA Career Service Manager Kimberly King said it’s really helping with recent college graduates. “We’re able to increase the pay that they get. That’s been a really powerful recruiting tool,” King said during a Sept. 17 webinar hosted by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance. King also said DIA is working hard to build young talent development pipelines and find people with skills in areas like data and artificial intelligence.
- The U.S. Cyber Command’s new roadmap for integrating artificial intelligence into military cyber operations aims to enhance analytic capabilities, scale operations and improve the command’s ability to disrupt adversaries. The plan includes over 100 activities across various mission areas, including security and contested logistics. A task force within the Cyber National Mission Force will lead the roadmap’s implementation, addressing challenges related to talent acquisition, infrastructure development and policy constraints. The roadmap also focuses on advancing computing and AI capabilities in partnership with the National Security Agency.
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