The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

Some 40 thousand federal employees have resigned per the Trump administration's fork-in-the-road offer. They've been promised full pay for the rest of the fiscal year. What about pension benefits? Or access to the Federal Employee Health Benefits plans? We get some answers from long-time federal employment attorney Alan Lescht.

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A big part of the Trump administration's plans to shrink the federal workforce has hit some hurdles. U.S. District Court Judge William also ordered several agencies to reinstate thousands of recently fired probationary employees. The judge said agencies have the authority to order mass layoffs, but these firings didn't do it right? Federal News Network's Jory Heckman brings us the latest.

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What do you do when you leave the U.S. Agency for International Development? In the case of my next guest, you stay in the field of humanitarian assistance. He was national security advisor to the U.S. AID administrator. And he's the new director of communications, advocacy, and impact at the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative. Colin Thomas-Jensen joins me now.

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The Education Department under Secretary Linda McMahon plans to reduce staff by 50 percent. She said the department will continue to offer programs required by statute; student loans, formula funding, Pell Grants and a couple of others. Meantime some 600 employees accepted the earlier governmentwide offer of deferred resignation. What might be next? We get one view from a former assistant secretary for communications and outreach, Peter Cunningham.

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Successive presidents, including president Trump, have made it policy to improve the service citizens get from the federal government. But with all of the reductions in the federal workforce going on, my next guest says threaten service. American University professor emeritus Bob Tobias joins me now.

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The looming partial government shutdown would hit federal contractors when many are already feeling down. At least one company is already starting to feel the effects of the Trump administration's efforts to terminate what it says are duplicative or nonessential contracts. Now, a possible shutdown threatens even more dire circumstances for what's happening in the contractor community, Federal News Networks's Executive Editor Jason Miller.

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Today on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin

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Two former federal employees started a non-profit to help federal employees find new careers. This as the Trump administration looks for ways to reduce the federal workforce by tens or hundreds of thousands. Karen Lee and Julie Cerquerira co-founded Feds Forward, and they join me now in studio.

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Other Transaction Authority, or OTA, has been around for nearly six decades. Agencies have used this type of contracting with research labs, universities and small businesses to build prototypes. The 2016 defense policy bill changed what was once a rarely used contracting method into a popular tool, billions for moving innovative technologies into production Federal News Network's Anastasia Obis has followed this as part of our 25th year look back.

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The White House is filling out its roster at the Department of Homeland Security. President Donald Trump has picked several familiar faces to serve in leadership roles at the cyber security and infrastructure security agency and a few other DHS components, Federal News Network's Justin Doubleday has the rundown.

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