The General Services Administration has requested permission from the Office of Personnel Management to offer early retirements and buyouts to the GSA’s employees, according to Government Executive. The GSA will extend the offers to nearly five percent of its workforce if OPM grants the request. A GSA spokesperson said several of the agency’s offices identified [...]

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has unveiled a plan to close 259 of USDA’s domestic offices, labs and facilities, Government Executive reports. USDA will close about seven foreign offices as well. “The USDA, like families and businesses across the country, cannot continue to operate like we did 50 years ago,” Vilsack said. “We must innovate, modernize, [...]

The U.S. Agency for International Development is looking to increase competition for contracts in order to make programs more accessible to small businesses, according to the Washington Post. This is all part of the agency’s reform effort, as it has considered itself to have “fallen short” on awarding small and disadvantaged businesses in the U.S. and [...]

The recently passed spending package, funding the government until September, has helped prevent the U.S. Postal Services from defaulting on its multi-billion retiree health care benefits. The Postal Service now has until August to pre-fund the retirement packages to its employees, according to the Washington Post. “We are pleased that the action taken by Congress [...]

The White House has recently released its cybersecurity plan, “The Trustworthy Cyberspace: Strategic Plan for the Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Program.” Authors of the plan say the program promotes three main principles. Those principles include research aimed at cybersecurity deficiencies and focused on root causes of vulnerabilities, having the plan channel resources from a [...]

House Democrats Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas and Donna Edwards of Maryland are introducing a bill that provides $300 million to research the founding of a national public safety broadband network, according to The Hill newspaper. Johnson and Edwards say the Public Safety Broadband Network Enabling Act would fund the National Institute of Standards and [...]

The Postal Service is delaying the closing or consolidation of its offices or mail processing facilities to May 15, 2012. In a statement on its website, the agency said it is responding to requests from lawmakers as it waits for legislation to help fix its financial woes. “Given the Postal Service’s financial situation and the [...]

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted unanimously Thursday for a resolution to have the General Services Administration, landlord of the federal government, move the FBI away from the J. Edgar Hoover Building to a new site in greater Washington. “The sheer overcrowding at the J. Edgar Hoover Building and the lack of physical [...]

The Army is moving forward with plans to reduce the size of its civilian workforce, according to a Friday statement from the Defense Department. About 8,700 reductions will take place by September 2013 with 37 states being affected. The Army said about 90 percent of the cuts will take place within Installation Management Command, Army [...]

A House-Senate conference on the year-end omnibus spending package is convening today, according The Hill newspaper. Democratic and Republican lawmakers are meeting to discuss and come to a compromise on a piece the funding bill, which primarily covers military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs. It could turn into a $900 billion spending package [...]