President Obama signs into law a spending bill, averting a shutdown of federal government services, with a vote on a payroll tax bill due next week.

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Obama signs funding bill into law

Stanmore Cooper and the federal government each did something wrong. Cooper pleaded guilty for his actions and paid a $1,000 fine. Now he wants the government to pay. An attorney for Cooper, a pilot who is HIV-positive, conceded to the Supreme Court on Wednesday that Cooper lied on official forms from 1994 until 2005 about his medical condition and the medication he was taking. Read full article > >

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Justices weigh whether Privacy Act violations allow for distress damages

The federal government isn’t doing enough to regulate their use.

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Foster Children Take Too Many Psychiatric Drugs

As he campaigns for his old Senate seat, George Allen is hammering a theme that has served Virginia Republicans well in recent elections: He wants to lower taxes and reduce government spending. “It’s clear to everyone outside of Washington that government spending is out of control,” Allen said. “The families, businesses and Virginia all know how to live within their means, and it’s time that the federal government does the same.” Read full article > >

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Virginia’s GOP targets government spending, a key driver of state’s economy

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) desperately wants to spare the Government Accountability Office from deeper budget cuts this year — and he’s gone so far as to publish a 29-page report to help convince his colleagues. The nonpartisan congressional investigative office (which ranked third this week in the annual Best Places to Work in the Federal Government rankings) could face cuts of up to $42 million this fiscal year, a move that agency bosses say will result in furloughs, layoffs, delays in updating agency computers and supportive services that lawmakers fear could force cutbacks in the investigations and audits the office publishes almost daily. Read full article > >

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GAO budget cuts panned in new report

More than six in 10 Americans see a widening gap between the wealthy and the less well-off in this country, and about as many want the federal government to try to shrink the divide, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll . Democrats and independents largely support government policies to reduce the wealth gap, while most Republicans oppose such action. The issue cuts even more sharply along a new political fault line, with tea party supporters and those backing the fledgling Occupy Wall Street movement on opposite sides of the question. Read full article > >

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Poll shows most see deepening wealth gap

A California Democrat wants to ban smoking in and outside all federal buildings across the country, reigniting a years-long attempt to ban smokers from lighting up on, near and in sight of federal property. The bill, introduced late Friday by Rep. Susan Davis (D-Calif.), would ban smoking in and 25 feet around all properties owned or leased by the federal government. Smoking areas — located inside or just outside some federal properties — also would be shuttered. Read full article > >

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Bill would ban smoking at federal buildings

The federal government, after an appeal by Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R), has reversed its position and approved disaster aid to people in the area most affected by the August earthquake, authorities said Friday evening. A statement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency said “the President’s action makes federal funding available to affected individuals in Louisa County.” Read full article > >

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Federal government approves disaster aid for Virginia’s earthquake

The federal government reported Friday that on average, its employees are underpaid by 26.3 percent compared with similar non-federal jobs, a “pay gap” that increased by about 2 percentage points over last year while federal salary rates were frozen. The Bureau of Labor Statistics presented the figures to the Federal Salary Council, an advisory group of federal agency officials, union representatives and outside pay experts. Read full article > >

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Federal pay gap widens, report says

The British drugmaker Glaxo-SmithKline has tentatively agreed to pay the U.S. government $3 billion to settle multiple civil and criminal investigations, the largest settlement in the federal government’s recent crackdown on the pharmaceutical industry’s marketing practices. In a statement Thursday, Glaxo said it expects to finalize the terms of the settlement next year and put an end to the company’s “most significant” U.S. liabilities. Those include a seven-year investigation into the marketing of 10 popular Glaxo drugs, a Justice Department probe into possible Medicaid reimbursement fraud and another into the development and marketing of the diabetes drug Avandia . Read full article > >

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$3 billion settlement expected in GlaxoSmithKline drug-marketing probe

The best way for the federal government to publicize a book? Attempt to muzzle the author. You probably wouldn’t be reading about Peter Van Buren right now had the State Department not stripped him of his security clearance and suspended him after publication of his book, “ We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People .” Read full article > >

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State’s actions against Peter Van Buren offer a few lessons on use of classified info, power

A proxy battle between Google and Microsoft in their ongoing war to provide lucrative cloud computing services to the federal government appears to have resulted in a decision favoring Microsoft. The General Services Administration , which is spearheading a contract program to help federal agencies use Web-based e-mail services, must rework the deal to better address terms that would have allowed technology firms to base computing centers in countries including Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia, but not in more tech-friendly countries like Brazil, India and South Africa, according to a decision published Monda y by the Government Accountability Office . Read full article > >

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Cloud computing contract with ties to Microsoft and Google needs changes, GAO says

Senators with oversight of the federal workforce said Friday that Congress should freeze the pay of federal employees for a third year and retool calculations of federal retirement benefits in order to cut the federal deficit. Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee , also said no workers in any of the three branches of the federal government should be spared from cuts under consideration by the supercommittee on deficit reduction. Read full article > >

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Key senators back extending federal pay freeze

The fledgling Occupy Wall Street protests tap into a deep vein of public animosity toward the country’s major financial institutions, one that is on par with the deep negativity aimed at Washington, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Public distrust of the federal government is growing, and well documented. In the new poll, more than two-thirds of Americans say they view Washington unfavorably, including nearly half who hold “strongly” unfavorable impressions. These sentiments spike higher among Republicans, and continue to fuel the tea party political movement. Read full article > >

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Public ire hits Wall Street, and government

Republican candidates who once supported the federal No Child Left Behind law now say the federal government has no place in state and local education decisions.

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News Analysis: G.O.P. Anti-Federalism Aims at Education