Federal Newscast

The House Homeland Security Committee wants to reauthorize and reform the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015. The law expires at the end of this month. On Wednesday, the committee passed a bill that would extend the law for another 10 years. It would also update the law to account for advances in artificial intelligence and require the Department of Homeland Security to improve its...

All 16 funds in the Thrift Savings Plan posted positive results in August. New data from the Federal Thrift Investment Retirement Board shows that the S fund had the largest month over month increase of just over 4%, while the I fund also continued its strong performance. Every fund is positive year-to-date with 11 funds posting double digit returns for 2025. The I fund continues to earn the bigge...

The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security are teaming up to enforce compliance with trade laws. DHS and DoJ have launched a Trade Fraud Task Force to pursue enforcement actions those who try to evade tariffs and other duties. The cross-agency group will rely on the Tariff Act of 1930, the False Claims Act, and Title 18’s trade fraud and conspiracy provisions. The tas...

An appeals court might be reconsidering its recent decision that sided with the Trump administration in orders to terminate federal union contracts. One of the judges on that appeals court panel has called for a vote to decide whether to re-hear arguments in a lawsuit against the White House’s orders. The American Federation of Government Employees is suing the administration, arguing that Trump’s...

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is warning about another China-linked cyber espionage campaign. In a joint advisory yesterday, CISA and partner agencies said Chinese state-sponsored actors are exploiting vulnerabilities in routers used by telecommunications providers and other infrastructure operators. They say the campaign’s goal is to gain long-term access to critical infras...

Veterans Affairs says it’s now guaranteed 29 million home loans for service members and veterans. That’s more than $4 trillion dollars in loans issued over the history of the program. More than four million service members and veterans have active home loans guaranteed by the VA. The department’s Home Loan Guaranty Program began in 1944 as part of the G.I. Bill of Rights See Privacy Policy at...

After a high-profile hack, Senator Ron Wyden is calling for an independent review of cybersecurity in the U.S. courts system. In a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts, Wyden says the federal Judiciary has fallen short in protecting its sensitive IT systems. He pointed to a recent intrusion of the courts’ case management system. Hackers reportedly took advantage of vulnerabilities that were brough...

House committee Democrats are raising alarms about the Agriculture Department’s relocation and reorganization plans. In a letter to USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, lawmakers from the Education and Workforce Committee warned that USDA’s plans would lead to worsening services. They’re calling on Rollins to explain the rationale for relocating thousands of USDA employees in the D.C. area. They’re also...

The Senate will vote on its version of the 2026 defense policy bill on Sept. 2. The House has not yet scheduled a floor vote on its version of the National Defense Authorization Act, though the House Committee on Rules has set an Aug. 28 deadline for lawmakers to file NDAA amendments. The Senate bill authorizes nearly $925 billion for national defense, while the House version aligns with the White...

A new House bill would reverse cuts at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The FEMA Critical Staffing Act would require the agency to reinstate employees fired under the Trump administration. It would also require FEMA to bring back the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program and the flood mitigation assistance program. The bill is being sponsored by several House Democrats....

Federal employees traveling for business will not see an increase in the rates the government will pay for hotels, meals and incidentals in fiscal 2026. The General Services Administration says the per diem rates for the continental United States will stay the same for next fiscal year. GSA says the decision not to increase the rates reflects the government’s commitment to being a r...

The Air Force has paused some permanent change of station moves due to personnel budget shortfalls. It’s unclear how many Airmen are affected, but the delay only applies to moves within the United States and does not impact Space Force Guardians, reservists, Guard members, and Airmen relocating overseas. Earlier this spring, the service also delayed issuing some retirement and separation orders du...

Employees from the Department of Veterans Affairs are rallying across the country today in protest of the Trump administration’s changes to the VA. The agency workers, who are represented by a range of federal unions, warn that staffing reductions and erosion of collective bargaining at the VA will hurt the agency’s ability to support veterans. The rallies come after the VA canceled virtually all...

Veterans Affairs is setting a new record for the number of disability and pension claims processed in a single year. The VA has gone through more than two and a half million claims so far in fiscal 2025, surpassing last year’s total. The department says it’s shrunk the claims backlog by 37% since President Donald Trump took office. The backlog increased under the Biden administration whe...

A federal appeals court is giving the Department of Government Efficiency access to sensitive data at several agencies. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturned a lower court’s ruling that barred DOGE from accessing records at the Treasury Department … the Education Department … and the Office of Personnel Management. Appeals court judges ruling in favor of DOGE cited a recent S...

The Administrative Office of the United States Courts says it’s strengthening cyber protections after hackers hit the Judiciary's electronic case management system. The Judiciary says most documents are already available to the public, but that it’s putting in place more rigorous procedures to restrict access to sensitive documents under carefully controlled and monitored circumstances. Politico r...

Federal employees’ COVID-19 vaccination status will soon no longer appear on their personnel documents. The Trump administration is directing agencies to scrub vaccination information from federal HR files. That includes erasing any instances of employees not complying with vaccine mandates, or requesting exemptions from any mandates. The Office of Personnel Management says no information related...

House Democrats are pushing for details on the Department of Agriculture’s major relocation plans. The lawmakers say testimony from USDA leadership last month did not clarify how well the agency had planned ahead before announcing the relocations. The agency also failed to estimate how many employees would leave their jobs as a result of the move, according to the Congress members. In a letter to...

Federal employees submitting their retirement paperwork may have to wait longer to get their claims processed. The Office of Personnel Management reported that during July, it took the agency 59 days, on average, to process a federal employee’s retirement package from start to finish. That’s two weeks longer, on average, than it took OPM to work through cases in June. Another 8,300 federal em...

There’s a growing effort in Congress to enhance whistleblower protections for FBI employees. A new bill from Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, if enacted, would expand several portions of the existing whistleblower protections at the FBI. For one, the legislation would protect FBI agents who appeal adverse personnel decisions. The bill would also secure protections for agents who cooperate in whi...

The Defense Department is planning on reorganizing and reducing the size of the staff that supports the Defense Technical Information Center or DTIC. The Pentagon says through a reduction-in-force effort, DTIC will cut 40 civilian positions. It expects the RIF notices to go out by August 25. Additionally, Silvana Rubino-Hallman, who is the acting administrator of DTIC, wil...

Federal employees saw their retirements account grow across 14 of 16 funds in the Thrift Savings Plan in July. But the rate of growth for most of the funds was under 1% as compared to June. New data from TSP shows only the S and C funds increased month over month by more than 1%. Only two of the funds, F and I, ended up lower in July than in June, but again only by less than 1%. For...

Veterans Affairs is getting a new permanent watchdog. The Senate confirmed senior VA advisor Cheryl Mason to serve as the next VA inspector general. President Trump fired the last VA inspector general, Michael Missal, in January along with 16 other agency IGs. Mason previously served as the first woman to chair the Board of Veterans Appeals. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and...

In honor of National Whistleblower Day, the Office of Special Counsel is recognizing two federal employees with outstanding public servant awards. The two whistleblowers who earned this year’s award come from the Mine Safety and Health Administration. The employees had reported over 50 active mines in the Pacific that hadn’t been inspected since 2016 due to a clerical error. From the whistleblower...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is getting new permanent leadership. The Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s pick Susan Monarez to serve as CDC director. She’ll be the CDC’s first director without a medical degree in more than 70 years. CDC laid off about 2,400 employees in April. But the agency reinstated about a third of them.  Nearly 600 employees took voluntary incent...