GovExec Daily

Sunday marked the beginning of summer and the Biden administration is touting the 300 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered. But, the nationwide vaccination rate of 54% is still far short of the 70% White House goal as the July 4 mile marker approaches. While the country is opening up and federal agencies are submitting reopening plans, the pandemic continues to be a part of Americans' lives.

Courtney Bublé writes the Coronavirus Update on GovExec.com. She joined the show now to discuss feds' return to offices, the White House July 4 celebration and other COVID-19 stories that she's been covering,

The COVID-19 crisis forced the federal government into "maximum telework" since March 2020. As vaccination rates are on the rise and we approach President Joe Biden's July 4 deadline, the federal government is looking to move to the new normal of a hybrid work enforcement. In fact, the White House has asked agencies to have plans for "both reentry and post-reentry procedures and policies by July 19."

Stephanie Rapp-Tully is a partner and federal employment attorney with Tully Rinckey PLLC's Washington, D.C. office. She joined the show now to discuss hybrid work for feds as the pandemic restrictions recede.

In popular culture, the process by which bad employees are fired is far simpler than the reality. That is doubly true in the federal civil service, where there are often steps and processes needed to remove a poor performer. Many argue that these processes are there to insulate career civil servants from political and favoritism-style meddling from appointees, while others suggest these protections stifle the government from acting in service of the views of the voters.

James Sherk is the America First Policy Institute's Director of the Center for American Freedom. He was a Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and Labor Policy Advisor at the Executive Office of the President during President Donald Trump's term in office. He is the author of the AFPI report titled "Increasing Accountability in the Civil Service." He joined the show to discuss the report.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in recent months has offered incentives to leave the agency including early retirement and launched investigations into career senior executives to sideline or remove them, targeting about a half-dozen of the highest-ranked non-political staffers at the small independent agency. According to reports, the targeting is mostly aimed at Trump-era hires at CFPB and is likely flouting civil service protections.

GovExec Senior Correspondent Eric Katz is covering the CFPB story. He joined the show to discuss the administration's strategy, the potential for adjudication and what this means for the civil service.

President Joe Biden's budget blueprint released late last month calls for hiring across much of the federal government, somewhat spurred from expiration of the 2011 Budget Control Act's 10-year caps. If Biden's budget is a priority document, a major priority for this administration is more civil servants into government.

Dr. Reginald Wells was Deputy Commissioner of the Social Security Administration's Office of Human Resources for 15 years and is now an Executive in Residence at American University's Department of Public Administration and Policy. He joined the show to discuss how presidential budgets affect government human resources officials and their approaches to hiring.

The Thrift Savings Plan is aggressively apolitical, but that may be changing. President Biden signed a recent executive order aimed at ensuring federal agencies consider the risks of climate change in their budgeting, which could change the way the TSP invests. Similarly, members of Congress have targeted China-based funds in the I Fund as something to be removed from the fund's portfolio as a way for the U.S. to make a geopolitical point.

Dallen Haws is a financial planner and host of the "Plan Your Federal Benefits" YouTube channel as well as a podcast at PlanYourFederalBenefits.com. He is also the author of the book Building Wealth in The TSP: Your Road Map to Financial Freedom as a FERS Employee. He joined the show to talk about the recent political wrangling around the Thrift Savings Plans and what feds should do, if anything, about it.

The federal eviction moratorium protecting millions of renters is set to expire at the end of June, leaving the burden on states to create rental assistance programs to avoid a rash of evictions. The CDC moratorium provided protection for more than 43 million renters across the across the country, but the end of the ban would leave millions of households at least three months behind on rent.

Route Fifty Staff Correspondent Andrea Noble joined the podcast to discuss the eviction ban's imminent expiration and next steps.

President Joe Biden's fiscal 2022 budget blueprint would bring on more than 6,000 employees to the Internal Revenue Service, which could help ameliorate years of staff losses over the past decade. IRS chief Charles Rettig was on Capitol Hill this week to answer questions from Senators about IRS staffing and the role of the agency.

GovExec Senior Correspondent Eric Katz is covering the IRS staffing story, this week's hearing and the Biden budget proposal. He joined the podcast to discuss the potential for staffing changes at the agency.

Recently, the Office of Management and Budget issued a request for information seeking potential DEI solutions to improve a range of government activities, including service to public assistance beneficiaries and federal procurement. The RFI reflects a larger strategy of using the procurement process as a way to further DEI progress in the federal government.

Stan Soloway is president and CEO of Celero Strategies, LLC and a GovExec contributor. He formerly served as deputy undersecretary of Defense for acquisition reform and director of the Defense Reform Initiative during Bill Clinton's administration. He has a post on our site right now headlined "Diversity RFI Opens the Door to Rethinking How Government Reaches Its Goals." He joined the show to discuss his piece and the ways the administration can use procurement toward DEI goals.

Earlier this month, an email from a Biden administration task force asked agencies to submit by July 19 finalized plans for returning federal workers to their offices. This marks another step in moving toward whatever the "new normal" will be for civilian federal employees during the current state of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Courtney Bublé writes the Coronavirus Roundup on GovExec.com. She joined the show to talk about return-to-office planning and other COVID-19 stories that she's been covering.