Congress returned from its recess this week to a busy agenda and, most pressingly, only ten days to act before the federal government shuts down.

In an interview last week on Federal News Radio’s Federal Drive with Tom Temin, Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) reminded federal employees that dodging the $32 billion in cuts to federal retirement that were components of both the White House and House of Representatives budget proposals does not mean federal employees no longer have cause for concern.

During a meeting today, President Donald Trump indicated his goal is to sign a tax reform bill before Christmas, a statement that increases the pressure on Congressional Republicans who have thus far found difficulty agreeing on what specific shape various aspects of a tax overhaul proposal should take.

President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Capitol Hill today to meet with Republican lawmakers in a discussion with wide-ranging implications on legislative proposals, most notably on the shape of any forthcoming tax reform proposal.

Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD), the Ranking Member on the House Oversight and Government Reform (OGR) Committee has announced an investigation into the Department of Interior’s reassignment of roughly one-fifth of the agency’s Senior Executive Service (SES) employees.

A report from the House Budget Committee on the House version of republicans' proposed budget resolution provides a clear glimpse of how impacted federal employees could be, under a "worst case scenario."

A bill introduced last week by Senator James Lankford (R-OK), the Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment Adjustment Act of 2017 (S.1888), is slated for markup by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Relations Committee (HSGAC). Lankford serves as chairman of HSGAC’s Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management.

A bill intended to provide short-term funding for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) failed to get the necessary votes for passage yesterday.

The third round of Senate amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) – the major appropriations bill setting spending levels for the Department of Defense – will include language from the Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act, a bill that would seek to provide the funding necessary to enable agencies to modernize the technology on which they rely.

This week, the Department of Justice announced that the Trump Administration still has no plans to prosecute Lois Lerner, the former director of the IRS’ Exempt Organizations Unit, who became the face of a public, contentious scandal in 2013.

A new report released by the National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC) has issued stark warnings regarding America’s ability to effectively harness its cyber capabilities.

In a recent letter from the Office of Government Ethics – the federal government’s top watchdog – the agency’s acting director noted the White House had provided minimal guidance pertaining to the Trump administration’s “oversight and implementation of Executive Order 13770, which establishes an ethics pledge for certain executive branch appointees, including White House personnel.”

Agencies can breathe a sigh of relief after the Congressional Budget Office confirmed its earlier findings that that discretionary spending will not force agencies to face sequestration in the final six weeks of the fiscal year.

In an interview Sunday with WJLA’s Government Matters TV show in Washington, D.C., Frank Kendall, who served until this January as the undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics at the Department of Defense, said the Pentagon’s newly-released reorganization plans are “not a step forward.”

After initially displaying reticence to go along with the cuts to federal employees proposed in President Trump’s budget blueprint, House Republicans this week included similar measures in their own budget blueprint.

The rollout of USASpending.gov, the culmination of three years of work to implement the requirements of the DATA Act of 2014, represents a laudable example of the federal government successfully tackling an enormous project efficiently and effectively, as noted by Government Executive.