Federal Newscast

Agencies are facing a push to send out a required employee survey on a tight timeline. As that happens, the Office of Personnel Management is detailing the new core questions that agencies are required to ask. It also maps those new questions against the previous 16 required items. Any surveys that agencies field on or after November 30th must use OPM’s new questions. Agencies have until December 31st to distribute their 2026 employee survey.
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The backlog of federal retirement claims is back on the rise. As of October, the Office of Personnel Management had about 10,600 claims in its inventory. That’s roughly 2,000 above what OPM had the previous month. Processing times are also slowing down, as more applications are coming in. It’s taking OPM an average of 73 days to finalize a claim. But processing times for digitally submitted applications are faster, taking an average of 59 days to complete.
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New data from the Office of Personnel Management shows that federal teleworking decreased by 73% from fiscal year 2024 to 2025. OPM’s annual telework report to Congress surveyed 97 agencies and found 55% of all employees were eligible to telework in the 2025 reporting period. That is a 6% decrease from 2024. OPM Director Scott Kupor says in-person work is the norm, but telework remains a legitimate tool for reasonable accommodation and under other limited circumstances. Participating agencies also provided a list of best practices for telework programs including continuous review of telework policies, conducting internal telework audits and providing agency-specific training.
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The Agriculture Department’s mass reorganization plan will have to remain on hold. A federal judge has denied USDA’s request to stay an injunction that’s been keeping those plans paused since mid-October. While denying the agency’s motion, the judge is also ordering both parties in the lawsuit to hold a meeting to discuss a proposed clarification of the stay order. The American Federation of Government Employees has been suing USDA over the reorganization plans, and warning that the effort will lead to mass staff attrition.
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The Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs are joining the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, or TEFCA, to increase interoperability and security of electronic health information. The two agencies are the latest to join TEFCA following the Indian Health Service, which joined in 2024. Leslie Sofocleous, director of VA’s Federal Electronic Health Record Modernization office, says the move will give service members, veterans and families secure access to their health information across providers.
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