At the direction of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has released guidance to agencies regarding the potential impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). OPM coordinated this guidance with the National Security Council (NSC), Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Department of State (DoS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), General Services Administration (GSA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Federal Protective Service (FPS).

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is partnering with agencies to increase use of assessments to determine which employees can be reskilled to meet changing workforce needs. The assessments are also being used within agencies to streamline the selection process for employees with skills to meet critical skills gaps.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) are both under a hiring freeze, according to reports from individuals working within the agencies. For TSA, the freeze appears to be based on budgetary constraints. For USCIS, the agency has indicated the decision was based on continued evaluations of staffing needs.

The Census Bureau has requested assistance by local law enforcement to protect employees going door to door to engage in the Decennial Census count. The count, which is set to begin in the continental U.S. in April, is the largest enumeration the federal government takes every ten years and requires more than a half million government employees, known as listers or enumerators, to visit homes to collect data on the U.S. population.

Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) have introduced the Ethical Use of Facial Recognition Act to stop federal government use of facial recognition until comprehensive ethical guidelines can be created. The legislation provides exceptions for some federal law enforcement use and creates a commission to recommend uses for facial recognition in the future.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has appointed Shanna Devine to serve as the first Director of the Whistleblower Ombudsman Office of the House of Representatives. The office was created in the House Rules package passed at the outset of the 116th Congress to assist the House in developing best practices for whistleblower intake and to provide trainings to House offices on how to safely and confidentially receive information from whistleblowers.

The White House has released the President’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 budget request complete with sweeping agency cuts and some new reorganization proposals. While the budget request rarely translates into law due to compromises in Congress, it does signal the president’s priorities for the year.

As states such as New York attempt to pass laws which allow individuals living in the country illegally to obtain drivers licenses and limit department of motor vehicle (DMV) cooperation with federal immigration services, Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Chad Wolfe, is responding by limiting the state’s access to certain DHS programs.

The Pentagon issued the final contractor standards under the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) last week and explained long-term plans for implementation. The new framework is built from five levels of security standards known as Version 1.0 of the plan. The initial phase will be rolled out through requests for information this summer.

During the State of the Union, President Trump placed focus on the importance of border security and supporting federal law enforcement. The president noted the work of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and voiced support for legislation that combats immigration “sanctuary cities.” Law enforcement groups echoed these sentiments in response.

Looming concerns over the federal government’s use of foreign unmanned aircraft systems has caused the Secretary of the Interior to call for the temporary cessation of all non-emergency unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) effective immediately. The Department of the Interior (DOI) has been using drones to carry out a variety of wildfire responses and surveillance missions.

During a White House event Monday, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requested ideas from across the federal community on ways to improve acquisition and supply chain management. The summit focused on various initiatives to reduce costs and improve the efficiency of contract management. The “call for ideas” is meant to continue these conversations and pose additional questions on ways to improve the system.

In his first public appearance as Assistant Director for Cybersecurity at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Bryan Ware set out the agency’s plan for 2020. 

Following a closed-door hearing on security clearance reforms, Senators on the Senate Intelligence Committee announced that the security clearance backlog has reached the long –awaited “steady state.”

GAO struggled to isolate the impacts of the Kingpin Act with other government initiatives to combat illicit drug trafficking and recommended more uniform methods for agencies to report on their efforts in relation to this law.

A bipartisan pair of Senators have introduced legislation to strengthen the Office of Inspector General (OIG) within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

We are pleased to announce that, thanks to the generous support of the Bill Bransford Fund and the law firm Shaw Bransford & Roth, FEEA will begin awarding a new scholarship to first-generation college students who are the children of eligible federal employees or are federal employees themselves.

New data released last month from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) found that federal employee suicides have reached their highest level in at least 15 years. Law enforcement and national security agencies continue to lead with the largest percentage of suicides within the federal workforce.

The President’s Pay Agent has approved of a series of recommendations from the Federal Salary Council in a report released by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) last month. Among these recommendations is the creation of a new locality pay area. The report also called upon Congress to reform the federal compensation process to be more reflective of how the total compensation federal employees receive compares to the private sector.

The initiative is aimed at combatting violent crime in the seven most violent cities in the country through an influx of federal resources.