Federal Newscast

There’s a new way to look at data about the federal workforce. The Office of Personnel Management has launched an AI chatbot to answer the public’s questions about workforce trends. The new feature has been added to OPM’s “federal workforce data” website, which details employment numbers and other information about the civil service. Users can enter questions and get AI-generated answers about government hires and separations, as well as workforce demographics like age, veteran status and education level.
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Processing times for federal retirement applications are speeding up. In September, it took the Office of Personnel Management an average of 56 days to finalize a federal retirement claim. That’s about two weeks faster than the average processing speed for August. The retirement claims backlog has also fallen to about 8,800 total pending applications. That makes September the first time in at least a year that OPM’s inventory has dipped below 10,000 claims.
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The Defense Department wasted millions of dollars helping the Department of Homeland Security increase immigration detention capacity at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay. A government watchdog found that DoD spent $2.85 million assembling tents for an initial capacity of 5,000 beds. Those tents, however, were never used, because DHS later determined that they did not meet detention standards. The Army also wasted millions of dollars on meals at Camp East Montana in Texas. Specifically, the Army did not incorporate flexibilities into the contract to account for occupancy levels below the maximum. Overall, the Defense Department obligated approximately $68 million for immigration detention.
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Democrats want to make the retirement process easier on federal employees. A new bill in the House would require the Office of Personnel Management to provide missing records, correct errors and offer benefits information to federal retirees seeking help. Feds who recently separated or retired would be able to submit requests for support for up to four years, if the bill is enacted. The legislation comes after many feds faced major retirement processing delays during last year’s sweeping workforce reductions.
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September was not a good month for the Thrift Savings Plan. All but one of the funds saw month-over-month drops. Only the G fund increased in September by .4% from where it was in August. The silver lining for September for the other 15 funds is they all experienced drops of less than 4% total. The S Fund saw the biggest month-over-month drop of 3.66%. For the year, every account but the F fund is in the black with the I Fund posting the largest year to date growth of over 16%.
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