Telework Bill Introduced in the House and Senate

Last week, Representative Gerry Connolly reintroduced a bill (H.R. 6108) that would protect existing employee telework arrangements and encourage agencies to expand telework. The bill also provides a procedure that agencies must follow to justify any proposed reductions in telework and requires agencies to submit a report on the cost savings they achieve from telework. Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) introduced a companion bill (S. 3428) today in the Senate.

Read More

A Historic Achievement: Paid Parental Leave for Federal Employees

 The federal government will now be a more family-friendly employer with the historic approval of a paid parental leave program giving frontline civil servants the financial security to be at home during one of the most crucial times of their lives.

A 12-week paid parental leave program for federal employees is part of the defense policy bill that was signed into law on December 20, 2019. Starting October 1, 2020, federal employees will be able to use up to twelve weeks of paid leave for the birth, adoption or fostering of a child. The Office of Personnel Management is currently preparing draft implementing regulations, which the agency has indicated should be available for public comment in late spring.

Read More

Funding Update: House Passes Spending Deal with Agency Funding, 3.1% Pay Raise

On December 17, 2019, the House approved two appropriations bills to keep the government open, fund agencies for fiscal year (FY) 2020 and provide federal employees with a pay raise.

The bipartisan legislation provides for an average 3.1 percent pay increase (a 2.6 percent across-the-board pay increase and 0.5 percent increase for locality pay rates), which is on par with members of the military. This is a welcome departure from the administration's initial call for a pay freeze and later a 2.6 percent across-the board increase.

Read More

Historic Passage of Paid Parental Leave for Federal Employees

Passed by the Senate on December 17, 2019, the 12-week paid parental leave program is part of a defense bill that the president is expected to sign into law. The House approved the legislation last week. The program, beginning in October 2020, will allow federal employees to use paid leave for the birth, adoption or fostering of a child…

Read More

Update on Government Funding Agreement for FY 2020

With just over two weeks until the current Continuing Resolution expires on December 20, 2019, Congress and the White House continue to work on a final spending agreement for Fiscal Year 2020. Before the Thanksgiving holiday, congressional leaders announced an agreement on the spending limits for each of the 12 appropriations bills, which was needed to move forward on a final spending deal . . .

Read More

EPA Budget Update

On October 31st, 2019, the Senate passed its first appropriations package, but a final agreement on government funding remains elusive. The current Continuing Resolution is set to expire on November 21st. NTEU is actively working with members of Congress and urging them to properly fund federal agencies, provide employees with a fair pay raise, protect their collective bargaining rights, and avoid another disastrous shutdown. 

Read More

Government Funding Update

Both chambers will be in recess next week with legislators in their states and districts for the Thanksgiving holiday. When Congress returns the week of November 26th, there will be two weeks remaining before the current Continuing Resolution (CR)--for agencies that did not receive full-year Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 funding--expires midnight on December 7th between Friday and Saturday…..

Read More

Senators Challenge Administration on Failure to Follow Court Order

A few weeks back, NTEU and other federal labor unions won an historic victory and injunction against the anti-employee executive orders (EOs) issued by President Trump. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson enjoined “the President’s subordinates from implementing or giving effect to” the overturned portions of the EOs. Agencies, however, have continued to give force and effect to struck-down provisions of these EOs at the bargaining table and in other fora.

On Thursday, sixteen Senators….

Read More

Status of EPA Budget

Last month, President Trump signed H.R. 6157, a bill providing Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 funding for several agencies covered by the Department of Defense and Labor-Health and Human Services appropriations bills as well as a Continuing Resolution (CR) for other agencies that have otherwise not received FY19 appropriations, thereby preventing a partial government shutdown until December 7, 2018. Agencies funded by the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, Legislative Branch, and Energy and Water appropriations bill received their full-year funding under previously enacted legislation.

EPA is one of the agencies….

Read More

Writing Congress

The NTEU Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) guarantees NTEU representatives the right to reach out to Congress. Representatives are guaranteed the right to:

  • act for a labor organization in the capacity of a representative and the right in that capacity to present the views of the labor organization to … the Congress….

  • receive official time to contact members of Congress and their staffs to discuss legislative and related matters affecting the Employer and its employees.

But it’s not only union officials that can reach out to Congress. You also can contact your member of Congress on matters that concern you during your breaks and lunch periods. NTEU makes it easy to do through its congressional action website at action.nteu.org.

You can write Congress about the lack of pay raises to keep up with inflation, the removal of employee rights through the President’s anti-employee executive orders, protecting EPA’s budget, and many other issues. All you need to do is type your zip code, it will automatically locate your member of congress, pre-format a letter you can then edit or send.

Just click here to visit NTEU’s action page now.

Federal Budget Update

Congress has been working in recent months to pass FY19 appropriations bills in small groups, each called a “minibus,” after President Trump expressed displeasure in the spring at signing an omnibus appropriations bill, consisting of all 12 delayed FY18 bills, and stated that he would never do that again. As of today, both the Senate and House have passed the so-called minibus I, H.R. 5895, consisting of full year funding for the Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs funding measures. The President is expected to sign the bill.

This week….

Read More

Trump to Sign Bill Impacting Federal Employees

On Monday, August 13th, President Trump will visit Fort Drum to sign the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019. The bill includes several government-wide personnel provisions. The General Services Administration will extend its pilot telework program until December 31, 2020. The pilot telework program authorizes agencies to pay, with certain restrictions, necessary travel expenses for employees participating in a telework program. Also, agencies will be able to use direct hire authority for college and post-secondary students. This authority allows agencies to fill vacancies in specific occupations, grade levels, and locations when it can be proven that there is a critical hiring need or a severe shortage of candidates. View the text of the bill here. 

Update on Legislation Introduced to Take Away Employee Rights

Recently, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee met to consider several anti-employee and anti-union bills.

The proposed bills would eliminate collective bargaining on Information Technology decisions, upend the role of the Merit Systems Protection Board….

Read More

Pay Raise Clears Senate Appropriations Committee

Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a funding bill that would provide federal workers with an average pay increase of 1.9 percent in 2019. While inflation has been at 2.8% for the 12 months preceding June 2018, 1.9% is better than the cuts proposed by the administration.

“When the administration says federal employees don’t deserve fair pay….

Read More

Next Shutdown Deadline March 23

By now you've heard there was a budget deal signed by the President. The deal re-opened the shuttered federal government, but only through March 23.

It also sets the overall amount of money the federal government has, but not individual agency allocations. As Politico noted, it sets the overall size of the pie, but did not establish the size of the slices that each agency gets.

Between now and March 23, Congress needs to fight about the appropriation that each agency will receive. That exercise needs to be completed by March 23. If they don't succeed by the deadline, the government will either again close its doors, or they will need to pass another continuing resolution.

If you're concerned about EPA's budget or other issues, click here and email your Congressperson.

Budget Deal in the Works, CR Will Be Necessary

I'm sure you've already heard about the budget deal being worked out in the Senate today. We're on Capitol Hill this week at NTEU's legislative conference. What we've learned from our discussions with Senators, Congresspersons, and legislative staff is that it will likely take a couple weeks to work out the budget deal between the house and the Senate. That will require one or two new continuing resolutions (CRs).

Staff we spoke with expect the CR to be voted on today and to pass because neither party has an appetite for another shutdown. That will give both houses of Congress time to work out an "omnibus" budget deal.

Speaker Pelosi seems, however, unhappy that there's no DACA-fix included in the budget deal. Staff nonetheless expect that this objection will not stop a budget deal that's in the works.

The wildcard is, of course, President Trump. It is unknown whether the President will sign the omnibus into law. We'll keep you posted as we learn more.

The Clock is Running on Next Shutdown Threat

Unless you were on another planet, you know by now that another short-term continuing resolution (CR) was passed to keep the government open. This CR expires at midnight on February 8, 2018, which means that if a budget deal is not reached in Congress by then and signed by the President, the government will again shut down.

EPA announced before the last shutdown that it had funds to operate for about a week. Assuming that's true, and knowing that we've used one of those days of funds while the rest of the government was shut down, it is likely that EPA will be able to operate through February 14 or 15 before needing to shutter the doors.

NTEU National was on the Hill fighting for us and obtained two large victories....

Read More