By Adam Mazmanian
The Presidential Rank Awards are back in 2021, after a one-year hiatus. The awards pay significant cash bonuses to recipients in the Senior Executive Service and individuals in senior level and scientific or professional (SL/ST) positions.
An announcement from the Office of Personnel Management, which administers the awards, said that the resumption represents the Biden administration s commitment to supporting the federal workforce and recognizing federal employees who serve with distinction.
The program was established by the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act, and there are multiple tiers of awards. Distinguished Rank awardees can receive a cash award amounting to 35% of their base salary. Such recipients cannot comprise more than 1% of the career SES or SL/ST workforce. Winners of the Meritorious Rank awards are eligible for a cash award of 20% of their base salary. No more than 5% of the senior workforce can be recognized with this distinction.
The government s leading cybersecurity agency is ordering all federal civilian agencies to provide a status report on its usage of Microsoft Exchange products by noon on Friday.
Quick Hits
Greg Sisson has been named permanent chief information security officer at the
Department of Energy. He had been serving as acting CISO for six months prior to his permanent appointment. Sisson has previously served at Energy as deputy CISO and director of cyber operations. The
National Security Agencyissued guidance last week on the implementation of zero trust principles as a cybersecurity model. Embracing a zero trust security model, and re-engineering an existing information system based on this security model, is a strategic effort that will take time to achieve full benefits, the document states. It is not a tactical mitigation response to new adversary tools, tactics, and techniques.
By Natalie Alms
The Eisenhower Executive Office Building, home to the Office of Management and Budget. (Image credit: Andrea Izzotti/Shuterstock.com)
The Biden-Harris administration isn t done reversing Trump era damage to the federal workforce, a White House official charged with working on federal management and agency performance issues said on Monday. In my less than one month here, I ve come to learn anecdotally and quantitatively just how systematically the federal workforce has been damaged, disrespected and demoralized over the last few years, said Pam Coleman, a former Obama White House official, who s serving as the director for performance management within the Office of Management and Budget and leading efforts to revitalize the federal workforce. Each week we seem to uncover more damage.