Last Thursday, after weeks of back-and-forth regarding whether federal employees could expect to see a proposed 1.9% pay increase in 2019, House Republicans reportedly “struck a tentative deal on a federal pay raise for civilian federal employees,” according to Federal News Network and The Washington Post.

Despite positive signs that pointed to an earlier and favorable conclusion, with nearly 200 lawmakers expressing support of a 1.9% federal pay raise in 2019 and Congress’ budget conferees also generally supportive of the proposal, federal employees will need to wait a bit longer before receiving final word on their pay for next year.

Last week, according to Nicole Ogrysko at Federal News Radio, Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) introduced the Reforming Government Act of 2018, a bill that would give “OMB the authority it needs to merge, transfer, consolidate an independent regulatory agency and its functions – or abolish an agency altogether.”

U.S. Senators Ron Johnson (R-WS) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) – the Chairman and Ranking Member, respectively, of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (HSGAC) – were joined by Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Gary Peters (D-MI) – the Chairman and Ranking Member, respectively, of the Committee’s Subcommittee on Federal Spending Oversight & Emergency Management – in sending “letters to the chief financial officers of 13 federal agencies Tuesday raising concerns about potentially wasteful spending in the final weeks before the end of the fiscal year.”

Following President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would zero-out previously planned pay increases and locality pay adjustments for federal employees in 2019 -- a proposal that drew widespread and bipartisan criticism from the Hill and a diverse array of governance and employee groups – signs from Congress indicate the matter might not yet be settled.

Late last week, four members of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee (HSGAC), including Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), the committee’s chairman, and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), the committee’s ranking member, sent letters to the FEMA Administrator and Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) regarding FEMA’s July “investigative report concerning allegations of misconduct and mismanagement by former Chief Component Human Capital Officer Corey Coleman.”

Late last week, the U.S. Senate voted in favor of an $854 billion spending bill that funds huge swaths of the federal government, including $675 billion in defense funding and additional funds for the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, the Department of Labor, and other agencies.

Following recent news that the U.S. Department of Agriculture would be relocating as many as 700 employees across two of its major components, the agency “has initiated the 30-day notice to Congress about its plans to move two bureaus outside the Washington, D.C. area,” according to a Federal News Radio exclusive from Jason Miller.

On Monday, President Trump signed the latest National Defense Authorization Act into law, a $717 billion defense legislation package that will provide $639 billion in base funding for the Department of Defense, set aside another $69 billion for a fund called “Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO), and provide $21.9 billion for the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons programs.

House Oversight and Government Reform (OGR) Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) have signaled that they will hold a hearing on recent allegations that emerged following an internal investigation at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Late last week, Congressman Mike McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, equated the pursuit of a breakthrough on quantum computing to the nuclear arms race, arguing that the technology would be a game-changing tool, according to FedScoop’s Carten Cordell.

This Thursday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is scheduled “to hear from the president’s nominees to fill all three open board seats at” the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), writes Nicole Ogrysko at Federal News Radio, noting that “MSPB’s authorization expired back in 2007.” Perhaps more notably, “It’s also lacked a quorum for more than a year-and-a-half.”     

Senator Heidi Heitkamp, the Democratic North Dakota Senator who won the Senate seat in a state that voted 63 percent in favor of Republican President Donald Trump, is facing a tough reelection battle.

The Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act of 2018 would “ensure that federal employees have access to up to 12 weeks of paid leave for the birth or adoption of a child,” writes Jessie Bur of Federal Times. The bill was introduced last week by Congresswoman Barbara Comstock (R-VA).

The U.S. Senate last week voted unanimously – 96-0 – to tell the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that it does not have a right to block the VA Inspector General’s efforts to investigate “records related to VA’s new Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection, which the department has refused to provide,” according to Government Executive.

Senators Jon Tester (D-MT), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) have sent a letter to the Inspector General at the Department of Veterans Affairs, asking that the IG look into how the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act has been implemented, according to an exclusive written by Nicole Ogrysko of Federal News Radio.

With five states holding elections today, the U.S. House of Representatives could look a bit different by the day’s end.

Roll Call’s Simone Pathe highlighted an “unusual move” by the right-leaning organization Americans for Prosperity (AFP), which late last week launched a series of digital ads in support of Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, who faces a re-election challenge from Republican state representative Kevin Cramer.