Federal Newscast

Democratic committee leaders are disputing the Trump administration’s plans to shuffle components of the Education Department into the Labor Department. A group of four senators say moving career and technical education programs between agencies is not within the President’s authority. The lawmakers reiterated that it’s up to Congress to decide whether federal agencies should be rearranged or dism...

Both House and Senate lawmakers are looking to eliminate the IRS’ free online tax filing platform. The Senate Finance Committee is proposing to axe Direct File as part of its contribution to the budget reconciliation bill. The House passed its version of the so-called Big Beautiful Bill last month which would also eliminate the Direct File program. Direct File had nearly 300,000 users during this...

Congressional Democrats are sounding the alarm over reports that a federal contractor is helping the Trump administration build a “mega-database” of sensitive government records. Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are leading their colleagues in a letter to the company Palantir. The New York Times reports the company is building a single, s...

The Postal Service strikes a deal with another one of its unions. Members of the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association approved a tentative contract that lasts through 2027. About 67% of voting members approved the tentative agreement. Next up, the American Postal Workers Union which votes whether to approve its contract or not next month. Members of another union, the National Associat...

The Interior Department and the Forest Service are facing a deadline to consolidate their wildland fire programs. President Trump signed an executive order last week giving the agencies 90 days to combine their two offices into one. The White House says it will make wildland fire prevention and response efforts more efficient. But some federal wildland firefighters question the need for consolidat...

Participants in the Thrift Savings Plan will soon see a few changes to the TSP’s Lifecycle, or “L,” Funds. Starting June 30th, the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board will add an “L 2075” Fund. That's meant for any current or future federal employees who plan to retire during or after the year 2073. The TSP board will also be rolling over the current “L 2025” Fund into its broader Income Fu...

Civilian agencies have spent nearly 23% less during the first eight months of 2025 as compared to the same time period in 2024. The Department of DOGE Services says that means non-defense spending has been reduced by almost $25 billion. Overall non-defense agencies have obligated over $85 billion in 2025 down from $110 billion at this point last year. Some of the spending reduction comes from...

The Agriculture Department has cancelled hundreds of contracts under the Trump administration … including one that helped households locate food assistance programs. The nonprofit Hunger Free America says it ran an “information clearinghouse” of food assistance programs for USDA for more than a decade. But it claims in a lawsuit that USDA terminated the contract last month.  See Privacy Policy at...

The Postal Service is falling into pattern raising stamp prices each January and July. But its regulator is considering limits to those price increases. A proposed rule from the Postal Regulatory Commission would cap UPSP to only raising prices once per year. The regulator gave USPS the freedom to set mail prices higher than the rate of inflation in 2020 when the agency was at risk of running out...

A separation health assessment administered to more than 50,000 service members found that about 67 percent of troops screened positive for at least one mental health condition. Post-traumatic stress disorder and depression were among the most common issues identified. A government watchdog found that over 50 percent of service members declined referrals to the DoD’s inTransition program that prov...

More federal employees filed retirement papers with OPM in May than in the last three months. OPM says it received more than 15,000 claims last month, driving the backlog up over 21,000. The processing time for these retirement claims remain consistent at 49 days on average in May and 52 days on average for the entire 2025. The increase in applications comes as OPM is requiring agencies to send re...

The Commerce Department dropped health insurance coverage for some recently fired employees sooner than promised, according to the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Acting Ranking Member Stephen Lynch says Commerce fired about 800 probationary employees under the Trump administration, and that some of them lost health coverage on April 8, days before they were officially fi...

President Donald Trump’s permanent pick to run the IRS is one step closer to taking office. The Senate Finance Committee advanced the nomination of former Missouri Congressman Billy Long. Democrats on the committee raised concerns that Long promoted tribal tax credits that don’t exist, according to the Treasury Department and IRS. Long told lawmakers that if confirmed he’d help the IRS modernize i...

Every fund but one in the Thrift Savings Plan saw positive returns last month. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

The White House is not requesting an increase in pay for federal employees in fiscal 2026. President Donald Trump released more details of his budget request for next year late Friday afternoon. The appendix section of the budget proposals also includes provisions to continue the pay freeze for certain career Senior Executive Service members and political appointees. In all, the new budget documen...

The 19 agency inspectors general fired by President Donald Trump had a collective impact of saving the government more than $50 billion in fiscal 2024. New data from Senator Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, shows the IGs played a key role in investigations and audits that uncovered significant fraud and abuse. Peters highlighted two...

Democratic lawmakers are criticizing the Trump administration’s recent push to pay political appointees more money. In a letter to the Office of Personnel Management, Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee called OPM’s recent encouragement on the issue an “egregious abuse” of taxpayer dollars. OPM recently recommended that agencies pay their political appointees the maximum salary possib...

The Defense Department is taking a closer look at how it supports military families who choose to homeschool their children. In a recent memo, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness to conduct a departmentwide review of the current support available to homeschooling military families, including the feasibility of providing resources for t...

Probationary employees who were fired from the Department of Homeland Security have been granted class certification on an appeal case with the Merit Systems Protection Board. The DHS employees allege that the agency violated the law when it terminated them earlier this year. They argue that the mass firings at DHS were really an unlawfully conducted reduction in force (RIF). Gilbert Employment La...

The Defense Manpower Data Center has expanded its online ID card issuance system to include overseas dependents of service members. Since its launch in 2023, the program has eliminated more than 300,000 in-person visits by allowing service members to request their ID cards online. DMDC now wants to improve the system by allowing users to upload updated photos directly into the system. It is explor...

Veterans Affairs is giving organizations more resources to prevent veteran suicide. VA is issuing more than $50 million in grants to community-based organizations that provide suicide prevention or emergency clinical services to veterans at risk of suicide. Groups have until the end of September to apply for these grants. Veterans who are experiencing suicidal thoughts can reach the Veterans Crisi...

Correctional officers at the Federal Bureau of Prisons are using a different approach to urge congressional action. A new billboard campaign led by the American Federation of Government Employees is calling on Congress members to reject President Trump’s effort to strip collective bargaining rights. Many bipartisan lawmakers have supported federal correctional officers for a long time. But the uni...

The collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of federal employees remain in limbo after an appeals judge ruled in favor of the Trump administration. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March ending collective bargaining rights for national security employees. The order expanded who is considered a national security employee to more than three dozen agencies. The appea...

A top House Democrat wants an investigation into the Department of Government Efficiency’s access to IRS systems. Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Gerry Connolly requested the investigation in a May 15th letter to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. He raised concerns about DOGE plans to centralize IRS data. Connolly also highlighted potential issues with...

To reduce leased space costs by 30 percent within the next 18 months, the Defense Department is closely tracking building occupancy to find underutilized spaces. It is also moving more personnel to existing military installations to reduce the number of people working in rented office buildings. Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment Robert Thompson said t...