Five months after the election of President Donald Trump, progress filling agencies with his political appointees has been decidedly slow, as highlighted by a recent piece in the Washington Post.

Last week, the latest iteration of the biannual scorecard jointly developed by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was released.

A bill to clarify that the Whistleblower Protection Act, in fact, shield federal employees who disobey orders because they are illegal, was presented to the President last week after passing both houses of Congress.

The House unanimously passed a bill last week to grant federal employees more time to have their personnel cases heard while Merit System Protection Board’s (MSPB) hands are tied due to lack of political appointments.

Released today, President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2018 budget proposes a series of cuts to the federal retirement system that would significantly impact current retirees and employees, plus future federal employees, according to federal financial experts.

Inspectors general from 24 agencies say they are suffering under President Donald Trump’s hiring freeze.

Three Democratic Congress members sent a letter this week suggesting the government borrow private-sector practices to improve federal hiring and training in order to bolster the cybersecurity workforce.

Lawmakers agreed on a deal early Monday morning to fund the government and avoid a shutdown by week’s end.

Days away from a potential government shutdown, President Trump and Republican Congressional leaders are at odds on funding the President’s wall.

With two weeks to go until government funding runs out on April 28, and considering Congress has not passed a budget on time for seven of the last eight years, Congress is working on borrowed time for its 2017 budget.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee held a roundtable last week for agencies and good-government groups to weigh in on civil service reform.

While President Trump’s budget proposal includes $239 million in cuts to the IRS, Democrats are pushing back with a request of their own for the tax-collecting agency.

This week, President Donald Trump signed House Joint Resolution 37, which stated Congress’ disapproval of the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule, in addition to stating that “such rule shall have no force or effect.”

The Trump administration announced plans to recommend a 1.9 percent pay raise for federal workers to take effect January 2018, according to a budget document and senior budget official.

Members of the Democratic leadership in the Senate are urging Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to carefully consider what will be included in the essential government funding bill that must pass next month, warning that they would shut down the government if any “poison pills” – such as funding for the proposed border wall – are included.

Following reports that several military bases have had to shut down childcare programs due to the hiring freeze, two Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee (OGR) sent a letter requesting an exemption from the freeze.

With the prospective $54 billion increase in the budget for the Department of Defense, the Trump administration is expected to offset those costs through cuts to non-Defense agencies.

Several single line bills have been introduced to terminate federal departments and agencies, including H.R. 861, which would eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and H.R. 899, which would do away with the Department of Education.