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Federal Cybersecurity Workforce: Background and Congressional Oversight Issues for the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security [January 8, 2016]
"The federal cybersecurity workforce is responsible for protecting U.S. government systems and networks against cyber threats and attacks. Federal agencies, however, have reported difficulty in assessing the size and capabilities of their cybersecurity workforces. DOD and DHS, which play prominent roles in the nation's cybersecurity posture, have also noted certain obstacles affecting the recruitment and retention of qualified cybersecurity professionals to fulfill their departments' cybersecurity missions.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is constructing a dataset to catalog all federal cybersecurity positions in the executive branch. The dataset had not been released to Congress or the public."
Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
Francis, Kathryn A.; Ginsberg, Wendy R.
2016-01-08
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Trump Administration and the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions [November 29, 2017]
"The Trump Administration's first Unified Agenda, which was issued on July 20, 2017, and was referred to by the Administration as the 'Update to the 2017 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions,' contains information on many deregulatory actions that the Trump Administration has undertaken so far. For example, the Agenda lists 469 actions that agencies have withdrawn since the previous (Fall 2016) edition of the Unified Agenda and 22 major and/or economically significant actions that were reclassified from 'active' under the Barack Obama Administration to 'long-term' under the Trump Administration. The 2017 Update lists a total of 58 economically significant 'active' actions, as compared to 113 such actions that had been published in the Fall 2016 edition."
Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
Carey, Maeve P.; Francis, Kathryn A.
2017-11-29
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Statutory Inspectors General in the Federal Government: A Primer [January 3, 2019]
"Statutory inspectors general (IGs) are intended to be independent, nonpartisan officials who prevent and detect waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement within federal departments and agencies. To execute their missions, IGs lead offices of inspector general (OIGs) that conduct audits, investigations, and other evaluations of agency programs and operations and produce recommendations to improve them. Statutory IGs exist in more than 70 federal entities, including departments, agencies, boards, commissions, and government-sponsored enterprises."
Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
Francis, Kathryn A.
2019-01-03
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New Law Requires Agencies to Report on Outstanding IG Recommendations [Updated January 28, 2019]
"On January 3, 2019, President Donald Trump signed into law the Good Accounting Obligation in Government Act (GAO-IG Act), which requires agency reporting on outstanding inspector general (IG) recommendations, among other things. The act requires covered agencies to include in their annual budget justifications information on outstanding recommendations made by their respective IGs, including [1] a list of each public IG recommendation that was published at least one year before submission of the annual budget justification and for which no final action was taken; [2] the status of each aforementioned public IG recommendation, which contains an explanation as to why no final action or action not recommended was taken and a timeline to implement each outstanding unimplemented recommendation that the agency has decided to adopt; and [3] an explanation of any discrepancies between information on IG recommendations required under the GAO-IG Act and the semiannual report required under Section 5 of the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended (IG Act)."
Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
Francis, Kathryn A.
2019-01-28
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Inspector General Community Launches Oversight.gov to Increase Accessibility to Reports [August 15, 2017]
"On August 2, 2017, the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) launched Oversight.gov, a central repository for Office of Inspector General (OIG) reports that is intended to 'improve the public's access to independent and authoritative information about the Federal Government.' The website is currently being beta tested. As of August 2, 2017, 36 of 73 OIGs were participating in the beta test. The establishment of, and participation in, the website is not statutorily required. Oversight.gov is intended to be the first one-stop shop for OIG reports. Section 8M(b)(1) of the Inspectors General Act of 1978, as amended, requires all OIG audit, evaluation, or inspection reports to be posted on individual OIG respective websites. Several factors, however, may affect the accessibility and utility of reports on individual OIG websites. For example, OIG reports might be difficult to locate due to varied website layouts and the lack of keyword search functions. Further, it may be difficult to compare report findings and recommendations across OIGs for similar or shared issues, such as compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)."
Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
Francis, Kathryn A.
2017-08-15
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Department of Defense Acquisition Workforce: Background, Analysis, and Questions for Congress [July 29, 2016]
"Congress and the executive branch have long been frustrated with waste, mismanagement, and fraud in defense acquisitions and have spent significant resources seeking to reform and improve the process. Efforts to address wasteful spending, cost overruns, schedule slips, and performance shortfalls have continued unabated, with more than 150 major studies on acquisition reform since the end of World War II. Many of the most influential of these reports have articulated improving the acquisition workforce as the key to acquisition reform. In recent years, Congress and the Department of Defense (DOD) have sought to increase the size and improve the capability of this workforce. The acquisition workforce is generally defined as uniformed and civilian government personnel, who are responsible for identifying, developing, buying, and managing goods and services to support the military. […] This report provides background on the Department of Defense (DOD) acquisition workforce. Specifically, the report addresses the following questions: (1)What is the acquisition workforce?; (2) What is the current size of the acquisition workforce?; (3) How has Congress sought to improve the acquisition workforce in the past?; and (4) What are some potential questions for Congress to explore in the area of acquisition workforce management to improve acquisitions?"
Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
Schwartz, Moshe; Francis, Kathryn A.; O'Connor, Charles V.
2016-07-29
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DOD Issues Additional Guidance on Federal Hiring Freeze [March 20, 2017]
"On February 2, 2017, the Department of Defense (DOD) issued initial guidance on implementing the federal hiring freeze instituted by President Trump--an order that suspends the hiring of civilian employees in the executive branch. On March 7, 2017, the DOD issued additional guidance (available upon request) that supplements the initial guidance by adding new exemptions from the freeze for (1) essential military and base operating services, (2) infrastructure sustainment, and (3) family readiness programs; delegating exemption approval authority to lower-level officials for exemptions required by law; and authorizing processing of all hiring actions (except job offers) for all non-exempt positions. DOD issued the additional guidance amid (1) reports that implementation of the hiring freeze, based on the initial guidance, has reduced or canceled services for military members and their families--particularly services at Child Development Centers (see Table 1); and (2) concerns that positions critical to military readiness are not explicitly exempt, such as those in the defense acquisition workforce and some civilian positions at shipyards and depots. The reported service reductions and concerns may stem, in part, from implementation of initial department- and component-level guidance, particularly (1) the lack of exemptions for critical positions, (2) the interpretation and use of exemptions, (3) exemption approval processes, and (4) ongoing recruitment issues."
Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
Francis, Kathryn A.
2017-03-20
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The Civil Defense Acquisition Workforce: Enhancing Recruitment Through Hiring Flexibilities [November 22, 2016]
"Policymakers and defense acquisition experts have asserted that improved recruitment for the defense acquisition workforce is a necessary component for comprehensive acquisition reform. To help rebuild the workforce and enhance recruitment, DOD has used several hiring flexibilities authorized by Congress, the President, and OPM in recent years. Hiring flexibilities are a suite of tools that are intended to simplify, and sometimes accelerate, the hiring process. [...] Congress could consider several oversight options to help gauge and improve the effectiveness of flexibilities in improving the civilian defense acquisition workforce. Such options might help Congress determine whether flexibilities should be expanded or newly created, consolidated or removed, or otherwise restructured."
Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
Francis, Kathryn A.
2013-11-22
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U.S. Postal Service Workforce Size and Employment Categories, FY1995-FY2014 [October 21, 2015]
"This report provides data from the past 20 years on the size and composition of the U.S. Postal Service's (USPS's) workforce. Reforms to the size and composition of the workforce have been an integral part of USPS's strategy to reduce costs and regain financial solvency, particularly between FY2007 and FY2014. Since 2007, USPS has experienced significant revenue losses that have affected its ability to manage its expenses. Personnel costs are one of the primary drivers of USPS's operating expenses. As such, USPS has employed strategies to reform the size and composition of its workforce in an effort to cut personnel costs, primarily through attrition and separation incentives and increased use of lower-cost employees. These strategies reduced personnel expenses between FY2013 and FY2014. The sustainability of these reduced expenses and their overall impact on USPS's ability to regain financial solvency, however, is unclear. The size of the USPS workforce has declined in the past 20 years. The number of employees has dropped by 257,095 (29.4%) in the past 20 years, from 874,972 in FY1995 to 617,877 in FY2014. USPS, however, had 163 more employees at the end of FY2014 than it did at the end of FY2013. Declines in workforce size between FY2010 and FY2014 were driven, in part, by USPS's efforts to reduce its workforce size through attrition and separation incentives. Between FY2010 and FY2014, 55,473 career employees accepted a separation incentive to retire or resign early. On January 9, 2015, USPS instituted a reduction in force for 249 postmasters who did not accept a separation incentive offered in 2014."
Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
Francis, Kathryn A.
2015-10-21
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U.S. Postal Service Workforce Size and Employment Categories, FY1994-FY2013 [October 7, 2014]
"This report provides data from the past 20 years on the size of the U.S. Postal Service's (USPS's) workforce. Further, this report examines trends in its workforce composition, particularly focusing on shifts in the ratio between career and non-career employment. The size of the USPS workforce has declined over the past two decades. The most substantial declines have occurred since 2007, at which time the USPS began to undertake workforce reductions as a cost-cutting strategy in response to the onset of significant financial challenges. Since FY2007, there has been a reduction of 168,215 employees (21.4%) from USPS's workforce. The USPS has indicated that it intends to continue to reduce its workforce size and has established a goal of reducing its career workforce to 400,000 employees by 2017. The USPS has reduced its workforce primarily through attrition and separation incentives to retire or resign. Throughout 2013 and 2014, USPS offered several retirement incentives to its employees, including postmasters, mail handlers, postal clerks, and supervisors. USPS employed 617,714 persons as of September 30, 2013 (FY2013). USPS's workforce size has dropped by 170,772 employees (27.5%) in the past 20 years, and it had 11,314 (1.8%) fewer employees at the end of FY2013 than it did at the end of FY2012"
Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
Francis, Kathryn A.
2014-10-07
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Administration Proposal to Reorganize the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) [May 1, 2019]
From the Document: "The U.S Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the federal government's central personnel agency, is an independent establishment in the executive branch. Created by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, the agency's statutory authority is codified in 5 U.S.C. Chapter 11. In June 2018, President Donald Trump issued reorganization recommendations that included a proposal to transfer several OPM functions to the Executive Office of the President (EOP) and the General Services Administration (GSA). The President's FY2020 budget restated the reorganization proposal, including that the entire agency would be reorganized."
Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
Schwemle, Barbara L.; Francis, Kathryn A.; Isaacs, Katelin P., 1980- . . .
2019-05-01
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Defense Primer: DOD Appropriated Fund Civilians [March 12, 2019]
From the Document: "The Department of Defense (DOD) workforce consists of military personnel, civilian employees, and contractors. A DOD civilian does not serve in the military but is instead appointed to the federal civil service. DOD civilians work for the military departments (i.e., Army, Navy, and Air Force) as well as other defense agencies and field activities (e.g., Defense Health Agency). Federal civilians have supported the armed forces as far back as the American Revolution. For example, in World War II, civilians provided medical and logistics support to military personnel. The DOD civilian workforce has evolved over time to meet the growing needs of the department and the changing landscape of national defense."
Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service
Francis, Kathryn A.; Diaz, Ramona J.
2019-03-12
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