federal-workforce
Every record this desk has filed under federal-workforce, newest first, each with the number of sources it can still show you.
GAO: the Interagency Council on Homelessness put 11 of 13 staff on 10 months' leave under an executive order a court found it implemented unlawfully; 8 are back, awaiting direction
A U.S. Government Accountability Office report, published and publicly released October 2, 2026, says 11 of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness's 13 employees spent 10 months on paid administrative leave, beginning in April 2025 after a March 2025 executive order told the agency to cut staff to the statutory minimum. A federal court found USICH's implementation of that order unlawful and set the actions aside. Eight employees returned in mid-February 2026; as of September 2026 they had no direction from the Council or the executive director.
Also filed underusichhomelessnessgaoadministrative-leaveoversight
The average wait for a U.S. visitor-visa interview was 201 days in fiscal 2025, up from 26 days in 2019, while the consular officers who mainly handle temporary visas fell from 1,342 to 904 in a year, GAO reports; it counts one global staffing review State conducted and carried out since 2019, and State neither agreed nor disagreed with GAO's call to require it.
On September 28 the Government Accountability Office reported that the average wait to get a U.S. visitor-visa interview was 201 days in fiscal 2025, almost eight times the 26 days of fiscal 2019, while visitor-visa decisions rose to 11.7 million from 9.2 million. Consular officers spending most of their time on temporary visas fell from 1,342 in fiscal 2024 to 904 in 2025, which GAO attributes to hiring freezes and attrition. In India, 68 such officers faced 1,455,255 applications and a 346-day average wait; Colombia's average was 597 days. State's Global Repositioning Exercise, meant to move consular positions to where the demand is, is not required by law, regulation or policy, State officials told GAO, and GAO counts one conducted and carried out since 2019. GAO recommends requiring it. State neither agreed nor disagreed, and says it runs the exercise annually. A footnote puts the fiscal 2024 average at 246 days, so the wait shortened as staff fell; the report does not explain why. Since October 1, 2025, State says, most applicants must interview in person.
Also filed undergaostate-departmentvisastraveltourism
A drafting error in August's layoff rule deleted the two paragraphs that say when a federal worker counts as 'displaced'. For 13 days the definition that governs their priority for other jobs had no criteria under it. OPM restored the text on September 15.
OPM's reduction-in-force rule, effective September 2, carried an amendatory instruction that told the code to replace all of paragraph (1) of the definition of 'displaced' but supplied only its opening line. The effect was to delete the two subparagraphs that say who qualifies: an employee who got a RIF separation notice, or one facing removal for refusing a directed move out of their commuting area. That definition governs who gets priority consideration for other federal jobs under the career transition program. A correcting amendment published September 15 restored the text, effective immediately, and says it makes no substantive change. It does not say how the error was found, whether any case was decided under the truncated definition during the 13 days, or what happens if one was. Two other OPM rules landed the same week: shared hiring certificates, effective October 15 with comments to November 16, and a proposal on excepted-service employment, comments to November 17.
Also filed underopmreduction-in-forcerulemakingfederal-register
DHS took more than three years to investigate most whistleblower retaliation complaints, and then took between four months and two years to decide what to do about the ones it substantiated.
GAO's September 17 report on the Department of Homeland Security found its Office of Inspector General took over three years to investigate 39 of the 73 whistleblower retaliation cases it opened and closed in fiscal years 2018 through 2025. Where a complaint was substantiated, the Secretary is expected to decide on corrective action within 30 days; GAO found those decisions waited a further four months to over two years. OIG officials cited case complexity and limited staff, and said they had focused on quality and thoroughness rather than timeliness. GAO's finding is narrower and harder to argue with: OIG policy requires timely review but has never defined what timely means in measurable terms, evaluated its own timeliness, or built any mechanism to hold itself to one.
Also filed undergaodhswhistleblowersoversight
Federal agencies spent $9.5 billion on salary for people who were not working. GAO says $6.7 billion of it was the deferred resignation program — and no one is tracking the rest of it separately.
GAO's September 15 report finds that federal use of paid administrative leave rose 435 percent between 2023 and 2025, and that agencies in its review spent an estimated $9.5 billion in salary costs on it in 2025 — six times the 2023 figure. About $6.7 billion of that is attributed to the deferred resignation program, under which OPM let employees who agreed to resign or retire stop working immediately and be paid through September 30, 2025. The finding underneath the money is an accounting one: workforce-reduction leave is booked in the same bucket as ordinary administrative leave, so, in GAO's words, OPM 'does not know the actual costs' of it. GAO also found agencies reported 144 percent more paid administrative leave in pay periods containing a public holiday — holidays being logged as administrative leave — and OPM does not plan to fix the published historical data.
Also filed undergaoopmpublic-spendingadministrative-leave
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