With the fallout of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade still settling two years later, House lawmakers added a provision to the fiscal 2025 defense appropriations bill that restricts leave and reimbursement benefits for federal employees seeking an abortion or related procedures. On Friday, the $833 billion bill was approved in a 217-199 vote.

“Biden’s Department of Defense is using taxpayer dollars to fund time off, lodging and travel expenses for elective abortions, directly violating the long-standing Hyde Amendment in yet another attempt to promote abortion,” said Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Tx., who led that amendment to the defense bill.

In 2022, Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a memo permitting three weeks of “administrative absence,” which doesn’t charge leave balance, for service members to receive reproductive health care or support a dependent seeking it. The policy came after states began initiating legislation to restrict abortion after the Supreme Court overturned the longstanding constitutional protection in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

As of April, 41 states have some kind of abortion restriction in place, 14 of which are a total ban, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that advocates for reproductive rights worldwide.

The benefit in question only provides reimbursement of travels costs to get access to otherwise noncovered reproductive health care services; it does not pay for the actual procedures with government funds. The policy also permits time off for appointments that may be related to infertility treatments.

On Thursday, Senate Republicans blocked a sweeping bill that would’ve made IVF more affordable and accessible to veterans, service members and feds.

Just this March, the Pentagon released numbers showing how many in the department used the abortion travel policy since it was implemented in 2022. Between June and December 2023, the policy was used 12 times across the services, costing roughly $45,000.

Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said at the time that count may include individuals who used the policy more than once.

In addition to overriding the 2022 memo establishing these policies, the amendment makes an attempt to bar any future rules with the same objective.

“The bill furthers Republicans’ goal of making abortion illegal nationally by making it harder for women in our military to obtain reproductive care,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee. “No woman deserves to have her health care and family planning decisions made by politicians, but especially those who have put their lives on the line to protect all Americans’ rights and freedoms.”

Now that the House has passed its version of the defense bill, it will send it to the Senate for consideration.

Both chambers must reconcile their differences before the spending bill can become law.

That could not be done without tremendous resources from the already lean force that experts say has been underfunded for much of its modern history.

On the scene were four Coast Guard cutters, 36 barges, 27 tugboats, 22 floating cranes, 10 excavators, one dredger, one skimmer and at least 10 more maritime platforms. And required are the individuals who operate these vessels and tools, including 27 Coast Guard civilians, 275 active duty service members, 82 reservists and 23 volunteers, said Nick Ameen, a spokesperson for the joint information center responding to the crisis.

These employees were drawn from their home stations all over the country, including some as far as Alaska and California. That also means these stations are donating staff to the recovery effort in Maryland, but the Coast Guard doesn’t have much to spare as it is, the service’s operations lead said.

“There’s an immediate-area impact to readiness, certainly, but what we know is that for unplanned incidents like this where we mobilize a lot very quickly, there are also readiness impacts that happen well beyond the initial site,” Vice Adm. Peter Gautier, the Coast Guard’s deputy commandant for operations, said during a May 15 hearing on the bridge incident.

“Going into what’s likely to be a pretty severe hurricane season, I think the main thing here is that in order for the Coast Guard to reconstitute and be ready for the next [emergency], we need to have continued and enduring financial appropriations [from] Congress,” he added.

The strain is evidenced in steps the Coast Guard is already taking, including evaluations to flag certain regions for potential consolidation. Other units, including stations in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Tennessee and West Virginia, have been identified for temporary closure of boat operations.

Rodrigo Nieto-Gomez, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, described the Coast Guard as a “Swiss Army knife” given its diverse array of statutory authorities that give it much to do in civilian and military spheres.

“The regulatory environment that affords them a lot of activities and leniency is … all compiled in a single agency, and they have a very small workforce,” he told Federal Times. “On a normal day, they operate at that level of capacity. They don’t have any surcharge capacity [for when things get] worse. Now you have something like the bridge incident, and you will be sucking down … a big percentage of resources for that area.”

The Coast Guard is not even the largest sub-agency housed within the Department of Homeland Security. Its force of 57,000 active duty, reserve and civilian personnel falls below that of Customs and Border Protection and the Transportation Security Administration.

Yet, experts and officials within the service have pointed out the far-reaching and diverse duties it’s charged with: drug interdiction, immigration, environmental protection, emergency response, waterway and coastal security, intelligence gathering, and defense. It acts as a law enforcement body, a prong of the military and a regulatory civilian agency. It works over 3.4 million square miles of exclusive economic zones and defends a coastline that is longer, by most estimates, than the border between the U.S. and Mexico.

In the next decade, the Coast Guard will face several challenges: cyberattacks, submersibles in the drug trade, climate change and worsening natural disasters, unpredictable international conflict, and personnel shortages.

The good news, Nieto-Gomez said, is that the service has most of the actual authorities it needs to be able to respond to these emerging dangers — with some exceptions.

“There is a difference between having the statutory authority or having the capability,” he said.

For fiscal year 2025, the Coast Guard requested $12.3 billion, which includes a plan to overhaul the personnel-staffing approach that undergirds its human resources system. The service already rolled out a plan for a permanent recruiting specialty for enlisted members, matching what other military branches have. Still, the recent collision affecting the Key Bridge shows disasters don’t wait for funding or readiness to be where they need to be.

“This incident unfortunately comes at a time of strained resources and a 10% workforce shortage,” Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., said during the hearing.

Gauthier said the force has already spent about $20 million in direct and indirect incident costs, and there’s “no guarantee over time” that the Coast Guard will be able to perform at this level without support from Congress for things like more aids-to-navigation and cutter modernization — or recapitalization.

Earlier this month, a cutter returned from a counter-narcotics deployment in the Eastern Pacific Ocean where it was patrolling more than 12,000 nautical miles — roughly the size of five spans of the continental United States.

Nieto-Gomez said he was once told that this breadth of work is like patrolling the state of Kansas with a single police car.

“Now you take them and you move them to a bridge that needs to be dealt with, and you are pulling metal and you have a ship that’s still stuck there with a crew that remains on board. [There] was already a limited workforce to do a very important job that needs to be done,” he said. “And frankly it’s very possible that nobody else can do it.”

Congress has shown its intent to take action. The House cleared a bill on May 14 to authorize $12 million to fund recruiters and offices for Coast Guard Recruiting Command and an additional $9 million for recruiting capability in fiscal 2025. That passed in a 376-16 vote.

The bill also aims to improve quality of life for Coast Guard service members, a factor that, like pay competitiveness and work-life balance, may give the private sector an edge.

“While the service is cautiously optimistic regarding FY2024 recruiting efforts, we must continue to generate more awareness of the Coast Guard’s value to the nation, message the benefits of military service and identify more candidates for potential recruitment,” the deputy commandant for mission support, Vice Adm. Paul Thomas, told lawmakers on May 6.

Ashish Vazirani, acting Under Secretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, said in a May 28 report that other federal agencies paid entry-level nurses “substantially more,” and that his office is working in conjunction with others to add and update special salary rates to attract and retain employees at medical facilities. It’s using the Department of Veterans Affairs as a model.

“The agency is fully engaged and postured to continue to maintain or achieve pay parity with the VA and receive competitive special salary rates that align with current market pay,” the office said in its response to the inspector general report.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which at its height saw a 150,000 weekly hospitalization rate in the U.S., severely disrupted the federal health care sector. The Bureau of Prisons, Veterans Health Administration and Medicare- and Medicaid-operated nursing homes were understaffed during the pandemic, federal data shows.

While it’s unlikely anything could’ve prepared the federal government for such an emergency, the Pentagon had been experiencing medical personnel shortages even before the coronavirus spread in 2020. As of last year, inspector general identified at least 6,000 vacant civilian positions in its sample of medical facilities, with nearly a third operating at 30% vacant or more.

Officials blamed the shortage on an inability to set competitive pay and other instances of bureaucratic red tape slowing down onboarding for health care workers. Shortages were particularly acute at medical centers serving metro areas, where pay lagged even more given the higher costs of living and incomparable private sector rates.

Workers became burned out, with some working 80 to 100 hours per week. Others couldn’t get access to bases that had the resources they needed. For service members, the effects of understaffing led to a decrease in preventative screenings and care, and delays in deployments because mandatory COVID-19 tests couldn’t be processed quickly enough.

“Service members left the military because of their experiences during the COVID‑19 pandemic, such as continued expectations of filling in for callouts and working overtime,” according to the report.

One unnamed official interviewed cited a delay in diagnosis and treatment for a tumor of a pediatric patient because a majority of the available doctors were deployed elsewhere for pandemic response. Another gave an example of a patient who died by suicide three days after visiting the emergency department, where psychiatrists were not able to evaluate patients in person due to pandemic protocols, low staffing and “task saturation.”

“… A senior enlisted leader at another [medical treatment facility] stated that their health care personnel were exhausted from the extra work caused by personnel shortages, and they were worried that it was only a matter of time before a provider would ‘miss something,’” according to the report.

Madigan Army Medical Center at on Joint Base Lewis-McChord logged the highest vacancy rate at 38%. Close behind was the 88th Medical Group at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base at 36% and the 51st Medical Group at Osan Air Base at about a third.

So far, DoD has leveraged Title 38 pay flexibilities for physicians and dentists, but not for nurses. But a separate report submitted to Congress in 2023 notes that registered nurses and licensed practical nurses are most likely to leave the Defense Department in search of other work. They also account for about 46% of the overall Defense Health Agency workforce.

With approval from the federal government’s HR office, these authorities that adjust the usual pay rules can allow agencies to offer more money for certain positions that are either hard to fill or in demand. However, the usefulness of that is somewhat dampened by the complexities and limitations involved with implementing them, officials said.

Agencies have to grapple with available funding, collective bargaining and pay caps when adjusting pay rates that can limit the range of effectiveness of these authorities even once they’re granted. Some medical treatment facilities were able to attract nurses with a special salary rate, but that was not uniform across all areas. Some centers were advised to consider alternatives before requesting a special rate, according to internal guidance.

In any case, officials said in the report that it stood up a tiger team last year to reevaluate pay.

Per the Office of Management and Budget, two business days before funds expire, agencies are to notify employees of the status of appropriations. A Biden administration official said initial communication to agencies about lapse planning began Wednesday.

Senate lawmakers are poised to pass a budget extension on Thursday, funding all government operations through March 1 and some — including the Department of Defense — through March 8. The legislation still only allows spending at fiscal 2023 levels, limiting new program starts and equipment purchases. But it would prevent a partial government shutdown prompted by an appropriations lapse.

“No one back home wants to see a shutdown or chaos, so let’s quickly pass this and work to finalize serious appropriations bills, free of partisan poison pills, that protect key investments in our country’s future,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a statement on the budget plan Monday.

House leaders have said they will take up the measure ahead of the Friday night deadline, but the timing — and support for that — remains unclear.

Far-right members of the House GOP caucus have said they do not want any more short-term budget measures. At the same time, other Republicans are trying to steer away from massive omnibus packages, signaling perhaps the original intent behind the two-step continuing resolution.

Should another extension fail, funding for the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Veterans Affairs would all end, forcing a series of closures at each of those agencies. Some military construction funding would also be impacted.

Shutdown impact

Most VA operations were funded through advance appropriations approved last year, meaning the effects of a budget lapse would be limited.

In a statement, VA press secretary Terrence Hayes said if Congress misses the Friday deadline “there would be no impact on veteran healthcare, burials would continue at VA national cemeteries, and VA would continue to process and deliver benefits to veterans, including compensation, pension, education, and housing benefits.”

However, most outreach services would shutter, he said. Public-facing regional offices would be closed, as would career counseling and transition assistance programs. Cemetery grounds maintenance would be postponed until a budget deal is reached.

About 4% of the VA staff — around 18,000 VA staffers — could be furloughed during a partial shutdown, although exact numbers would depend on what other funding is available to department planners.

At the Department of Agriculture, about 59% of the agency’s 97,000 employees would be furloughed in the event of a shutdown. Certain functions funded by the Inflation Reduction Act or other funding legislation would be allowed to continue, like the Farm Service Agency’s loan program and the Forest Service. Regulatory food inspections to maintain public health are also deemed critical functions. Other administrative, research and clerical work would cease.

About 18,000 Department of Transportation workers would face furloughs, equally roughly a third of the workforce, according to the agency’s shutdown plan on file with OMB. However, sub-agencies paid out of the Highway Trust Fund or Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act are not solely reliant on annual appropriations and thus may continue operating.

Further, the Federal Aviation Administration would retain about 63% of its workforce to maintain air traffic control, though there could still be disruptions to travel if employees must work without pay. Aviation policymaking, bringing on new air traffic controllers, and facility inspections would be halted.

The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy would continue to operate on funding other than annual appropriations in the name of national security.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development, a largely public-facing agency that assists with housing and rental assistance, would close its headquarters and field offices if funds run out. The majority — about 80% — of employees are barred from working during a shutdown. The department said in its plan that monthly subsidy programs and fair housing activities could be impacted severely by a shutdown.

Much of the Department of Energy’s funding is multi-year or “no year.” But if available funds are exhausted by a lengthy shutdown, that could stop any non-essential work and lead to subsequent furloughs. As of August, the department said 1,040 employees are fully or partially funded by multi-year appropriations and could keep working even if the department’s base funds are depleted. The National Nuclear Security Administration would continue to safeguard nuclear reactors and other scientific equipment.

The Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works division also receives some funding under the Energy-Water appropriations bill. In any case, operations to secure hydropower plants, commercial locks and flood control projects would continue with minimal staffing.

It’s the gift that keeps on giving for roughly 6 million current and former federal employees as many are looking to file for retirement in the coming weeks or organize their finances in preparation for tax season.

The TSP has been around for decades and has been cited as one of the unique benefits of working in the public sector. In a 2023 survey conducted by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, 82% of participants reported being satisfied with the TSP, though that figure has fallen over the last three years.

Those in the newer Federal Employees Retirement System get matching contributions up to 5%, while those who retired under the Civil Service Retirement System receive no match but can still contribute.

Overall, the TSP managed $726 billion in assets as of September 2022, the latest year for which data is available.

Here’s how the TSP did in December:

— The S fund, which aims to match stock indexes comprised of small and medium-sized U.S. companies, performed the best last month with returns of 10.45%. While still in the green, the government securities investment, or the G fund, grew the smallest at 0.39%.

— Year to date, the C fund has the highest return of 20.8% and the G fund has hovered around 4%.

— Each of the ten lifecycle, or L, funds also improved in December, as they did in November.

As the IRS prepares to begin tax season on Jan. 23, here are some reminders for TSP account holders:

In November, the agency announced contribution limits for 2024, which increased to $23,000 for regular contributions and an additional $7,500 for catch-up contributions for those 50 and older.

And recall that any withdrawals taken Dec. 28 or 29 count as taxable income for 2024.

Additionally, employees who wish contributions to begin on the first pay date of 2024 had to have made their TSP selections for pay period 26, which ended Dec. 30.

In 2024, there will be 26 pay dates.

For annuitants anticipating 1099-R tax forms from the government, the Office of Personnel Management traditionally mails those out by the end of the month, but beware that you may not receive it until February, depending on delivery times.

In the past, OPM has said retirees can sign in to their online retirement services account starting the third week in January to digitally access their tax form.

Lawmakers voted 59-40 to confirm Harry Coker, Jr., a 20-year Navy veteran and previous third-in-command at the National Security Agency, to head the Office of the National Cyber Director.

Recently, Coker has been an operating partner at C5 Capital, a London-based firm that funds businesses in the cybersecurity, energy security and space industries, according to a biography by the Potomac Officers Club. He’s also served as an adviser at Primis Principiis, an outside director at JSI and is a senior fellow at the McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security at Auburn University.

“Harry Coker is an accomplished leader and dedicated public servant who is well-qualified to lead this importance office,” Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., said on the Senate floor Dec. 12

Coker’s confirmation fills a 10-month vacancy that was left after the inaugural national director, Chris Inglis, stepped down in February. Kemba Walden had taken over as acting director of the office but was ultimately not nominated for the position.

ONCD has a major role to play in overseeing progress of the Biden administration’s National Cybersecurity Strategy implementation plan, unveiled in July, and in shaping budget proposals in line with these initiatives. Coker will also have a seat on the White House’s AI Council.

At his nomination hearings this fall, Coker stressed not only the importance of partnering with industry to ward against increasingly complex cyber threats, but of looking inward at how the government is recruiting the next generation of IT talent to lead and sustain these efforts.

It’s a well-known statistic by now that just 7% of permanent full-time federal employees are under the age of 30. To help expand the workforce underpinning the Biden administration’s cyber strategies, Coker said the government should extend its recruiting efforts beyond traditional four-year colleges and urban areas to diversify the pool of candidates.

ONCD is just one of several federal bodies that have influence over the federal government’s IT and cybersecurity posture, especially as Congress and the White House have made it clear that every agency, tech-oriented or not, has a responsibility to modernize its digital defenses.

This year alone, a slew of major policies were published to set deadlines and expectations for progress in these areas, including pending guidance from the Office of Management and Budget on AI.

Role for industry

Meanwhile, the technology itself marches on, and cyber attacks increasingly endanger public infrastructure and small and mid-size businesses, as well as large entities and the federal government.

“The quality of the cybercriminals has come up to the level that I used to only see from state actors four or five years ago,” said Alex Stamos, chief trust officer of Sentinel One during a Committee on Homeland Security hearing on Tuesday.

As industry fights these threats on the front lines, Coker said partnerships with it is essential. He’s acknowledged that while his office may have a leading role to play, “solutions cannot be about any one entity – or even just the federal government.”

“I’ve been in situations where that partnership wasn’t a true partnership. Where it was more one way: ‘tell me what you got, tell me what you know, and I’ll see you later,” he said during a Nov. 2 hearing. “That cannot — that will not — be effective in cybersecurity.”

Cybersecurity may also find an intersection with AI tools that can process mounds of data quickly and produce actionable intelligence to decision makers, Coker testified.

Twenty agencies have identified more than 1,000 AI use cases, or specific challenges or opportunities that AI could solve, according to an a report published Dec. 12 by the Government Accountability Office.

The latest version of the National Defense Authorization Act, which is expected to pass through the House and Senate this week, includes a provision that would recognize previous military service in calculating family and medical leave for veterans working in the federal government.

“By crediting time in uniform towards paid parental leave for the federal government, we will help retain the best and brightest America has to offer,” said Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., in a statement Tuesday. Lawmakers have said family-friendly policies help ensure the public sector has competitive benefits to attract and retain employees amid workforce shortages in cyber and HR.

Other supporters of the policy include Reps. Don Beyer, D-Va., Don Bacon, R-Neb., Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and Chris Smith, R-N.J.

With the defense bill teed up for passage in Congress, President Joe Biden has signaled he will sign the measure into law later this month. If it clears both steps with the provision, a federal employee with at least a year of active military service will have met requirements for the Family and Medical Leave Act.

The FMLA, which passed in 1993, provides up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave without pay for the birth, adoption or foster of a child, a serious health condition or caregiver leave. Health insurance coverage is also retained during that time. To access that benefit, federal workers have to be in their position for at least a year.

Previously, service members were not eligible to credit their prior military time for FMLA if they had transitioned to the government. However, active duty service by members of the National Guard or Reserves is counted.

Federal agencies employ more than half a million veterans, which is to say about one in every four civil servants has prior or existing military experience, according to the government’s HR agency. In a memo to agency leaders in February, the Biden administration urged the creation and support of policies that would grant leave during employees’ first year of work, when they may not yet have accrued enough time to be eligible for other benefits.

Last winter, legislation was also introduced to make FMLA fully paid, though that has yet to become law. A law passed in 2019 makes leave for parental duties paid under FMLA in certain circumstances.

“Every American worker deserves access to family and medical leave, and the provision we secured in the NDAA will recognize time in military service like time in the federal civil service,” said Rep. Beyer in a statement.

Military Times reporter Leo Shane III contributed to this report.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2024, only traditional TSP balances will be subject to mandatory withdrawals. Historically, a required minimum distribution, or RMD, applied to the combined balance of the traditional and Roth TSP account. Participants could’ve skirted that by choosing to take an RMD only from their traditional balance, but that left it subject to tax.

“This means an overall smaller amount of [the] TSP is subject to the RMD, which effectively creates a smaller RMD and does indeed allow TSP participants to maintain more dollars inside their accounts,” said Thiago Glieger, a private wealth expert for Maryland-based RMG Advisors, to Federal Times in an email.

That’s simply because the bigger the balance, the larger the RMD is, according to the formula.

That’s one of many changes for retirees provided by the Secure 2.0 Act, which passed last year and intends to make retirement planning more flexible. It also brings TSP account holders more in line with the private sector, which never subjected Roth IRA accounts to RMDs during the account holder’s lifetime.

According to the IRS, Roth accounts in a 401(k) or 403(b) plan are subject to the old RMD rules for 2023. Beginning in 2024 and beyond, the change for the TSP will be in effect, according to the rule published in the Federal Register on Oct. 31.

“You must still take RMDs from designated Roth accounts for 2023, including those with a required beginning date of April 1, 2024,” the agency said.

Other changes affecting RMDs under the law include a reduced penalty of 25% instead of 50% on the withdrawal if a retiree fails to take it. The age when a retiree must take their first withdrawal is also increasing to 75 from 73 in 2033.

“This change means that if you turn 72 in or after 2023, you can delay your RMDs one more year, allowing the funds in these accounts to grow tax-free for longer,” writes Jim Miller in a column for the American Legion.

In years past, when inflation has been high, Congress has been urged to pass a provision to temporarily suspend RMDs so retirees don’t deplete their savings in a time of high prices.

More than 6 million people use the TSP, which manages approximately $709.6 billion in assets.

The Social Security Administration announced on Thursday that the COLA for 2024 will be 3.2%, which beneficiaries will see reflected in their statements come January. That means retirees would see an average increase of $59 each month, according to the AARP.

The adjustment is significantly less than last year’s, which at 8.7% was the largest bump in four decades following a period of high prices for consumer goods during the COVID-19 pandemic. About 7.7 million veterans and retirees receive some sort of stipend affected by the announcement, and Social Security benefits account for about 30% of income for people over the age of 65.

In May, Congress approved legislation guaranteeing that veterans receiving disability and support benefits will see the same cost-of-living boost in 2024 as Social Security recipients.

The move was non-controversial but required annually so veterans’ payouts will keep pace with other federal stipends. Military retirees will also see the same increase in their benefits.

COLAs are applied each year if there are changes to the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, which tracks the costs of essential goods over time.

This year, financial advisers have said a smaller COLA is a good thing because it means inflation is trending down. Still, retirees and veterans should keep in mind that a COLA is not likely to completely counteract lingering high prices, especially for medical care, which has also become more expensive over the last decade.

“Those living off fixed incomes and retirement savings are some of the most vulnerable in our society to rising costs, and recent years of high inflation have placed a significant burden on retirees,” said William Shackelford, national president of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, in a statement. “While inflation has cooled relative to recent years, the pain is still considerable.”

In years when there are no increases in the CPI-W, there are no adjustments, which underscores the fact that COLAs are not pay raises. They merely help retirement benefits keep pace with inflation.

Federal employees also may receive a smaller version of the increase if they are a part of the Federal Employee Retirement System, which covers most civil servants who were hired after 1983.

Those under FERS get the full amount if the CPI-W increase is less than 2%. If it increased between 2% and 3%, the COLA is a flat rate of 2%. If it increased more than 3%, the COLA is the value of the CPI-W minus one.

Social Security begins notifying people about their new benefit amount by mail starting in early December. Individuals who have a personal my Social Security account can view their COLA notice online, the agency said.