Federal Newscast

Congress is considering exempting some federal employees from losing their union protections. The version of the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act that cleared the House would let DoD civilian workers keep their collective bargaining rights. The provision in the House’s NDAA comes in response to President Trump’s broad cancelation of collective bargaining earlier this year. The p...

A government watchdog found that the Department of Defense’s Transportation Command did not have sufficient and comprehensive data about its Global Household Goods contract, which was canceled in June. The Government Accountability Office found that TRANSCOM officials were aware of the contractor’s capability constraints, but had limited information and could not verify whether the company could h...

Nine Senate Democrats are calling on Immigration and Customs Enforcement to halt its use of a mobile facial recognition application. In a letter to ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons, the lawmakers ask for more details on ICE’s Mobile Fortify app. The technology reportedly allows ICE to identify individuals they encounter on the streets using multiple federal databases. The Senate lawmakers say ICE sh...

Federal pay caps are contributing to ongoing recruitment and retention challenges in the Defense Department’s blue-collar workforce. A new report from the Government Accountability Office has found that multiple DoD installations are struggling to keep employees in the Federal Wage System, due to longstanding pay limitations set by Congress. GAO also pointed to evidence that the pay rates for...

The House passed its version of the 2026 defense policy bill, which includes a 3.8% pay bump for service members. House Republicans pushed the bill through largely without Democratic support after adding conservative provisions and blocking debates Democrats sought on issues like expanding the use of the military inside the country. House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith, wh...

The Pentagon has published the final acquisition rule implementing the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program. The rule, released in yesterday’s Federal Register will allow Defense Department procurements to include CMMC assessment requirements. The assessments are intended to ensure defense contractors are following cybersecurity standards for protecting controlled unclassified inform...

Federal employees, on average, are waiting longer to see their retirement applications processed. New data from the Office of Personnel Management for August shows it takes an average of 70 days to process a claim from a retiring fed. But if retirement claims are coming to OPM in less than 60 days, those cases take, on average, 45 days to complete. At the same time, OPM received more tha...

The Energy Department is being sued over its plan to purge old Freedom of Information Act requests. The nonprofit group American Oversight filed the suit in U.S. District Court last week. It challenges DOE’s effort to require individuals to re-confirm their interest in FOIA requests. In an August notice in the Federal Register, DOE announced that those with a FOIA request submitted prior to Octobe...

Federal employees at the Department of Health and Human Services are calling for the resignation of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. A letter signed by more than 1,000 HHS workers warns that Kennedy’s actions this year have endangered the nation’s health. Most recently, Kennedy fired the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The employees say the secretary has also been s...

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...