About this episode

The episode discusses significant changes affecting federal employees and retirees, including digital retirement processing and healthcare cost pressures.

The conversation focused on major changes affecting federal employees and retirees for the week of July 5–11, 2026. One concept discussed was the Office of Personnel Management’s shift to digital-only retirement processing, which has resulted in faster claim handling but requires meticulous form completion and a six-month cash reserve. A key theme that emerged was cost pressures, with significant FEHB premium increases and debates over OPM’s proposed access to medical records. The discussion explored Thrift Savings Plan performance, recent reforms like penalty-free withdrawals, and limits on postal rate increases. Several points were raised, including judicial preservation of Public Service Loan Forgiveness rules and sweeping reforms to performance appraisals—such as removing “minimally satisfactory” ratings and allowing forced distributions—that drew strong union and agency opposition. The reinstatement of Schedule F converted thousands of senior employees into at-will positions, stripping civil service protections. Additional issues highlighted include changes to hiring, decentralization of the Employee Viewpoint Survey, workplace training opportunities, significant leadership…

People in this episode

Host: Dave Faulk

Topics covered

• federal employee changes
• retirement processing
• healthcare costs
• Thrift Savings Plan
• performance appraisal reforms
• Schedule F reinstatement
• workforce changes

Keywords

• federal employees
• retirement
• healthcare premiums
• Thrift Savings Plan
• performance appraisals
• Schedule F
• workforce changes

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Office of Personnel Management, Thrift Savings Plan, Public Service Loan Forgiveness, Schedule F

More episodes of The FED Weekly

• The FED Weekly 12-18 Jul 2026 (Episode 59) · July 19, 2026 · 17 min
• The FED Weekly 28 Jun - 4 Jul 2026 (Episode 57) · July 5, 2026 · 20 min
• The FED Weekly 21-27 Jun 2026 (Episode 56) · June 28, 2026 · 16 min
• The FED Weekly 14-20 Jun 2026 (Episode 55) · June 21, 2026 · 20 min
• The FED Weekly 7-13 Jun 2026 (Episode 54) · June 14, 2026 · 26 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The FED Weekly podcast page.