federal-workforce

1. September 19, 2026News5 receipts3 min

   A drafting error in August's layoff rule deleted the two paragraphs that say when a federal worker counts as 'displaced'. For 13 days the definition that governs their priority for other jobs had no criteria under it. OPM restored the text on September 15.

   OPM's reduction-in-force rule, effective September 2, carried an amendatory instruction that told the code to replace all of paragraph (1) of the definition of 'displaced' but supplied only its opening line. The effect was to delete the two subparagraphs that say who qualifies: an employee who got a RIF separation notice, or one facing removal for refusing a directed move out of their commuting area. That definition governs who gets priority consideration for other federal jobs under the career transition program. A correcting amendment published September 15 restored the text, effective immediately, and says it makes no substantive change. It does not say how the error was found, whether any case was decided under the truncated definition during the 13 days, or what happens if one was. Two other OPM rules landed the same week: shared hiring certificates, effective October 15 with comments to November 16, and a proposal on excepted-service employment, comments to November 17.

   Also filed underopmreduction-in-forcerulemakingfederal-register

2. September 17, 2026News1 receipt2 min

   DHS took more than three years to investigate most whistleblower retaliation complaints, and then took between four months and two years to decide what to do about the ones it substantiated.

   GAO's September 17 report on the Department of Homeland Security found its Office of Inspector General took over three years to investigate 39 of the 73 whistleblower retaliation cases it opened and closed in fiscal years 2018 through 2025. Where a complaint was substantiated, the Secretary is expected to decide on corrective action within 30 days; GAO found those decisions waited a further four months to over two years. OIG officials cited case complexity and limited staff, and said they had focused on quality and thoroughness rather than timeliness. GAO's finding is narrower and harder to argue with: OIG policy requires timely review but has never defined what timely means in measurable terms, evaluated its own timeliness, or built any mechanism to hold itself to one.

   Also filed undergaodhswhistleblowersoversight

3. September 16, 2026News1 receipt4 min

   Federal agencies spent $9.5 billion on salary for people who were not working. GAO says $6.7 billion of it was the deferred resignation program — and no one is tracking the rest of it separately.

   GAO's September 15 report finds that federal use of paid administrative leave rose 435 percent between 2023 and 2025, and that agencies in its review spent an estimated $9.5 billion in salary costs on it in 2025 — six times the 2023 figure. About $6.7 billion of that is attributed to the deferred resignation program, under which OPM let employees who agreed to resign or retire stop working immediately and be paid through September 30, 2025. The finding underneath the money is an accounting one: workforce-reduction leave is booked in the same bucket as ordinary administrative leave, so, in GAO's words, OPM 'does not know the actual costs' of it. GAO also found agencies reported 144 percent more paid administrative leave in pay periods containing a public holiday — holidays being logged as administrative leave — and OPM does not plan to fix the published historical data.

   Also filed undergaoopmpublic-spendingadministrative-leave

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