Federal Newscast

The acting head of the IRS is stepping down in the aftermath of a new data sharing agreement between the agency and Customs and Border Protection. Multiple sources tell the Associated Press that Melanie Krause resigned because of the new development on Tuesday. The agreement will allow ICE to submit names and addresses of immigrants inside the U.S. illegally to the IRS for cross-verification again...

The US DOGE Service's claims that it is saving more than 140 billion dollars by cancelling contracts is overstated. New analysis from the American Enterprise Institute finds the savings are much closer to about 10 billion dollars. Nat Malkus, the deputy director of Education Policy Studies at AEI, reviewed the contract data DOGE posted to highlight the amount of money agencies obligated versus how...

Despite reducing its workforce by thousands of employees, the General Services Administration is ready to hire new employees once again. The Federal Acquisition Service put out job postings for contract specialists and supervisory contract specialists. The contract specialists would be at the GS-12 and 13 pay scales, while the supervisory positions would be at the GS 14-15 levels. All positions ar...

DoD's acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins will review Defense Secretary’s Pete Hegseth’s use of the commercial messaging app Signal to discuss operational details of airstrikes in Yemen. Stebbins said the review will “determine the extent to which the defense secretary and other DoD personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for offic...

A federal union’s lawsuit against the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program is resurfacing. That’s after at least seven agencies have renewed their “fork in the road” offers to federal employees, ahead of reductions in force. In response, the American Federation of Government Employees has amended its initial complaint. The union argues that the deferred resignation offer is unlawful...

The Thrift Savings Plan stumbles in March. The only funds to post positive returns were the G, F and I funds. The government securities G fund posted the highest returns for the month, at zero-point-three-seven percent. The small cap stock index investment S fund posted the lowest return, at negative seven-point-nine-three percent. The Lifecycle funds all posted negative returns as well. Year to d...

Junior enlisted troops will see a pay bump this month as the Defense Department introduces a targeted pay hike this month aimed at improving service members’ quality of life. Congress approved a significant pay raise for active-duty service members ranks E-1 through E-4 which is set to go into effect. Service members already received a 4.5% pay raise in January, but junior enlisted service members...

In today's Federal Newscast, federal unions have been quick to push back against President Trump’s move canceling many collective bargaining agreements. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

In today's Federal Newscast, the Trump administration's contracting freeze has caused several contractors to go out of business. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

In today's Federal Newscast, House Democrats are looking into whether Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem uses the Signal app for official business. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

In today's Federal Newscast, GOP lawmakers are looking to expand the president’s authority for fast-tracking agency reorganizations. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

On today's episode of the Federal Newscast, the Government Accountability Office will open an investigation into the impact of the Trump administration’s firing of probationary employees on the health and safety of the American people. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

In a letter to President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a group of lawmakers is urging the Defense Department to 'immediately reverse policies' that they say attempt to erase records of troops' historic accomplishments. The four lawmakers signed onto the letter are veterans who serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee. The lawmakers said content about record-breaking combat f...

The Defense Department says “in rare cases” it has “deliberately or mistakenly” removed certain content as part of its efforts to erase diversity, equity and inclusion pages from its website after a webpage dedicated to Jackie Robinson's service was suddenly gone. Robinson’s webpage, along with content about the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee airmen, and the Marines at Iwo Jima, was initially r...

Labor rallies are popping up across the country this week to call attention to the Trump administration’s recent upheavals of the federal workforce. In Atlanta, Georgia, employees from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are pushing back against the Trump administration’s recent actions. Transportation Security Administration workers in San Diego, California, are calling for the revival...

Federal contractors no longer have to pay a minimum wage of almost $18 per hour for employees under certain types of contracts. President Donald Trump rescinded the executive order from April 2021 establishing higher hourly pay for hundreds of thousands of blue collar workers. The Biden administration raised the minimum wage for specific covered government contracts like those for concessions or t...

The Social Security Administration continues to try to set the record straight about the accuracy of its Death Master File. After repeated false claims by the White House and DOGE that SSA is paying tens of thousands of people who are more than 100 years old, the agency says less than one-third of one percent of all deaths are erroneously reported and need to be corrected. SSA says it's confidence...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a departmentwide review of military standards, including physical fitness, body composition and grooming. A memo released on Wednesday directs the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness to review how the standards have changed since January 2015. Hegseth pledged to conduct this review during his confirmation hearing. The defense secretary...

The Trump administration tells agencies to ignore collective bargaining agreements that interfere with the ability to conduct reductions in force, or RIFs. A new memo from the Office of Personnel Management argues that contracts with federal unions cannot supersede an agency’s ability to lay off its employees. The OPM memo says agency management has the right to determine its number of employees,...

President Donald Trump nominated Eric Ueland to be the top federal management official. Ueland, who is currently the acting chief of staff for OMB, would be the deputy director for management at OMB if confirmed by the Senate.  He would replace Jason Miller, who was DDM for all four years of the Biden administration. Ueland is a former Senate staff member, having worked for majority leader Senator...

The Department of Homeland Security is bringing back at least one of its federal advisory committees. In a public notice this week, DHS announced it is renewing the Homeland Security Advisory Committee. The reconstituted panel will have 35 members. They will serve three-year terms and provide strategic advice to the secretary of homeland security. DHS terminated several advisory panels in the earl...

With a government shutdown less than a week away, a leading Republican Senator is calling for Congress to pass a spending bill. Maine Senator Susan Collins, the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, says government shutdowns are inherently a failure to govern effectively and have negative consequences all across government. House Republican lawmakers unveiled their year-long continuing resol...

Federal employee unions and other organizations filing lawsuits against the Trump administration may have to put money in escrow to cover the potential costs and damages of the lawsuit. President Trump's new memo tells agencies to use the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(c) to ask the federal courts to hold litigants accountable for their lawsuits. The scope of the directive covers all lawsuits...

The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning major cuts to its workforce later this year. VA Secretary Doug Collins says the department is looking at a 15% cut to return the agency to 2019 staffing levels. That would meaning eliminating about 72,000 positions. Collins says VA will shrink the workforce without any cuts to veterans’ health care or benefits. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/...

The Defense Department says Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has so far identified about 80 million dollars in what it considers wasteful spending.  Press Secretary Sean Parnell said DOGE has found one point nine million dollars for diversity, equity and inclusion training in the Air Force; six million dollars to the University of Montana to “strengthen American democracy by bridgin...