Federal employees may have expected a number of different outcomes to the year-end drama of the fiscal cliff negotiations, but a mere two-month reprieve from the threat of sequestration--the across-the-board cuts to federal agencies called for by the 2011 Budget Control Act if Congress can't agree on alternative cuts--probably wasn't one of them.

Yet that was precisely what Congress and President Obama agreed to in a deal approved by Congress Jan. 1, ending the Bush-era tax cuts for income above $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for families.

At around the same time as the new deadline for federal lawmakers to agree on alternative budget cuts--or to repeal or again delay sequestration--the federal government will be looking for Congress to authorize a new increase in its debt limit. And less than a month later, the current continuing resolution providing funding for federal agencies through March 27, 2013, is set to expire.

For all of these reasons, federal agencies and employees may want to keep the Office of Personnel Management's recently updated guidance on furloughs handy for at least another couple of months. New sequestration negotiations also could jeopardize the 0.5 percent federal pay increase called for by President Obama for the last nine months of 2013 or lead to additional changes in federal employee benefits, such as the deal reached by Congress and Obama in early 2012 to increase retirement contributions for federal employees hired after Dec. 31, 2012.

In other public sector news:

• President Obama signed legislation (S. 2170) updating the federal Hatch Act to allow most state and local government employees, including District of Columbia government employees, to run for public office in partisan elections. The Hatch Act overhaul also will provide for a range of penalties for federal government employee violations of the Hatch Act. Previously, federal workers who violated the Hatch Act faced dismissal unless the Merit Systems Protections Board agreed unanimously to impose a lesser penalty.

• The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission approved a strategic plan establishing the agency's national enforcement priorities for fiscal years 2013 through 2016. The plan among other things directs EEOC to pursue a coordinated approach to ensure "consistent and integrated enforcement" throughout the private, public (state and local government employers), and federal sectors over which the agency has jurisdiction. 

• According to an announcement from the U.S. Census Bureau, it will complete in January 2013 its 18-month agenda to realign its field offices across the nation for the first time in 50 years. The restructuring, first announced in June 2011, closes the agency's regional offices in Boston; Charlotte, N.C.; Dallas; Detroit; Kansas City, Kan.; and Seattle.