Federal Employees

Today, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 657, the Follow the Rules Act, legislation introduced by Representatives Sean Duffy (R-WI) and Gerry Connolly (D-VA). The bill seeks to address a misinterpretation of the Whistleblower Protection Act by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in the case of Rainey v. MSPB. The legislation would clarify that, under the Whistleblower Protection Act, an employee who refuses to obey an order that would require the employee to violate a law, r... Read more

Faiz Siddiqui A congressional spending bill set to be voted on this week maintains full federal funding for ­Metro, a positive sign for the struggling transit agency as it seeks continued support from a Republican-controlled Congress, officials said Monday. The bill authorizes $150 million in grant funding through the end of September, but it’s unclear whether Congress will approve funding for the remainder of the 10-year, $1.5 billion federal program — or renew it after the two remaining years ... Read more

Today, Representatives Will Hurd (R-TX), Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Robyn Kelly (D-IL) and Sentor Mark Warner (D-VA) introduced the Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act. The legislation builds off the MGT Act which unanimously passed the House of Representatives in 2016. “I am proud to join Representatives Hurd, Kelly, and Senator Warner in reintroducing this critical IT modernization legislation,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly. “The MGT Act builds on the success of the bipartisan Federal IT Acqui... Read more

Joe Uchill A bipartisan group of lawmakers has reintroduced a bill aimed at modernizing federal information technology, returning focus to an issue Congress attempted to tackle last year. The Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act provides two funding channels for the purchase of new IT equipment that would be cheaper to run and more secure. The legislation allows agencies to borrow money from a general modernization fund that is repaid with the savings from new equipment. It also allows ag... Read more

Today, Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, led by Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, sent a letter to Chairman Jason Chaffetz requesting that he allow Committee Members to vote on H.R. 305, the Presidential Tax Transparency Act, which would require President Donald Trump and all future presidents to disclose their tax returns to the American people. The letter was signed by Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, Vice Ranking Member Gerry Connolly, and Reps. Maloney, Holmes... Read more

Today, all members of the bipartisan Virginia congressional delegation called for Virginia education officials to encourage flexibility in financial aid deadlines due to the removal of an online tool commonly used to upload income information from tax returns. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Data Retrieval Tool (DRT) is an important resource that allows students and families to automatically import their tax information onto the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and it is typi... Read more

Jason Squitieri A member of the House Oversight Committee expressed his outrage Tuesday night after the leaders of his committee revealed that President Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn failed to properly disclose payments from Russia and Turkey, saying there is no doubt Flynn broke the law and that he could be looking at years behind bars. Asked about Flynn during an interview on CNN's "Erin Burnett Outfront," Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia said, "There's no qu... Read more

by Dave Emke — April 24, 2017 As the federal government inches closer to a possible shutdown at the end of the week, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) says the local economy would be severely affected if no agreement is found. “As we witnessed during the 2013 Republican government shutdown, Northern Virginia’s economy would be significantly affected. That 16-day shutdown cost nearly $24 billion in lost economic output,” Connolly said in a prepared statement Monday. “It is a reckless way to govern that... Read more

Billy House and Anna Edgerton There may be only one way for Speaker Paul Ryan to avoid a government shutdown: Ask his Democratic counterpart, Nancy Pelosi, for help. The problem is, the two don’t have much history of deal-making together. They don’t even know each other that well. But after spending weeks trying -- so far unsuccessfully -- to ram through legislation to undo Democrats’ signature health-care law, Ryan will almost certainly need Pelosi’s support to keep the government open after Ap... Read more

Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA) released the following statement on General Manager Paul Wiedefeld's proposed Metro reforms: "This is a strong business plan proposed by Metro General Manager Wiedefeld that will require big sacrifices by jurisdictions and labor. A tough sell but some necessary medicine. Metro still needs more federal financial support." Read more