Federal Newscast

The Social Security Administration is looking to fully transition to electronic payments this year. President Donald Trump signed an executive order last year directing the Treasury Department to stop issuing paper checks for all federal payments. SSA says paper checks are 20 times more expensive than electronic checks and are more susceptible to fraud. SSA beneficiaries seeking an exemption to th...

May was a good month for every fund in the Thrift Savings Plan. New data from the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board shows all 16 accounts returned positive month over month results. The C Fund saw the most with 5.26% while five of the L funds also enjoyed 5% returns. For the year, the "I” fund remains the big winner, growing by more than 16%. Overall, 11 funds are producing returns of mor...

Agencies will soon be able to pay as much as $400,000 a year to certain employees with skillsets in the national security sector. President Donald Trump told the Office of Personnel Management on Friday to establish new regulations to pay experts in specific fields related to supply chain resilience, secure access to critical minerals and advanced technologies and advance priority investment progr...

Some Thrift Savings Plan participants are taking advantage of a new option for Roth in-plan conversions. The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board reports that roughly 30,000 TSP participants have converted some of their contributions since the feature launched earlier this year. In a survey, about 93% of TSP participants who used the new conversion option say the process was “easy.”  Se...

Democrats are demanding that the Department of Agriculture secure new childcare options for federal employees. In April, USDA’s current childcare service provider announced it would not renew its contract, closing two childcare centers in the D.C. region in July. But Democrats say USDA has not communicated any plans to offer an alternative to the employees who rely on those centers. See Privacy Po...

Amid soaring gas prices, a union is urging the Trump administration to allow telework flexibilities for federal employees. The National Treasury Employees Union says a full in-office mandate, coupled with high gas prices, is creating financial burdens for many employees. In a letter to the Office of Personnel Management, NTEU argues that feds should be approved to telework at least until gas price...

A bipartisan group of senators is trying to make shutdowns more painful for the members of Congress whose votes cause them. Senators James Lankford (R-OK) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) introduced the Prevent Government Shutdowns Act, requiring lawmakers to remain in Washington D.C. until spending bills are passed. It would also institute automatic 14-day continuing resolutions if spending bills aren’t...

The House Appropriations Committee wants to reduce EPA's budget for fiscal 2027 by $1.8 billion or 20%. At the same time as part of the Interior, Environment and related agencies spending bill, lawmakers are increasing funding for the Interior Department by almost $700 million. The funding bill also supports President Trump’s effort to unify Interior firefighting entities and cuts funding for clim...

The Office of Special Counsel may be getting a new leader. President Donald Trump has nominated Charles Baldis as special counsel for the OSC. If the Senate confirms him, Baldis will be the first permanent leader at the agency in more than a year. Trump fired Hampton Dellinger, the OSC’s previous special counsel and a Biden appointee, in 2025. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Ca...

The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs passed a reconciliation bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection for fiscal year 2026. The bill includes $9.5 billion for CBP recruitment and nearly $7.5 billion for ICE recruitment for fiscal 2026. It also includes about $3.5 billion for other CBP operations funding through fiscal 2029, in...

The Postal Service could offer more government services by partnering with state, local and tribal governments, but the service hasn’t established a formal strategy to take advantage of this. The USPS inspector general says in a new white paper that USPS hasn’t explored these opportunities even though the Postal Reform Act of 2022 gave it the authority to partner with non-federal governments...

Tax delinquency rates among federal employees and retirees have been increasing since 2021. That’s according to a new report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration that finds about 50,000 federal employees failed to file a tax return for multiple years, including 122 employees who have not submitted one for eight or more years. TIGTA says the suspension of some collection progr...

Senators have unanimously agreed to a resolution that would withhold their paychecks during future government shutdowns. The bipartisan resolution comes amid increasingly longer and more frequent shutdowns. Historically, lawmakers continue getting paid during a funding lapse, while many federal employees have to endure the financial strain of missed paychecks. The Senate resolution will take effec...

House lawmakers are pushing to bolster the Transportation Security Administration’s budget by ending the diversion of airline ticket fees. Lawmakers on the Homeland Security Committee this week introduced a bill that would require the 9/11 Passenger Security Fee to be solely dedicated toward aviation and airport security. Since 2014, roughly $15 billion in fees have been diverted to the Treasury f...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has launched a department-wide review of “all aspects of the military legal system.” Hegseth directed the Pentagon’s general counsel to evaluate legal programs across the services, compare them with one another and benchmark them against the Justice Department and criminal justice systems. Hegseth said the review “will result in recommendations to cut bureaucracy and...

The Department of Veterans Affairs approved nearly $600 million in infrastructure improvements during the second quarter of this fiscal year. That’s just part of the nearly $5 billion the VA is spending on non-recurring maintenance this year. The spending is going toward updating infrastructure systems in medical facilities and building upgrades for elevators, electrical systems and boiler plants....

Despite some hiring occurring across agencies, overall employment in the federal government is continuing to decline. That's according to the latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. BLS reports that in April, federal employment numbers decreased by another 9,000 jobs. Since peaking in October 2024, the federal sector's numbers are now down by 11.5% or 348,000 jobs.  ...

Nearly 12,000 new retirement claims entered the Office of Personnel Management’s systems last month. Coupled with OPM’s processing of about 17,000 retirement applications, the agency managed to reduce its inventory by several thousand claims. April was the first time OPM’s retirement backlog has dipped below 50,000 claims in more than five months. Currently, digital retirement claims are also...

Federal workers’ compensation is getting an overhaul from the Trump administration. The Labor Department says it’s expanding the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act to cover more types of beneficiaries and compensation programs. That includes claimants under the Black Lung Benefits Act and the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act. Labor Department leadership says the goal is to improve d...

The Trump administration’s Tech Force program has made its first official hire. Yasmin Maksutova will be joining the Office of Personnel Management as an IT specialist in data management. Agencies are expected to onboard more Tech Force recruits in the coming weeks. The hiring initiative is designed to recruit temporary tech talent, with a focus on early-career employees.   See Privacy P...

The Defense Department’s personal property activity has launched a new website to streamline the military moving process for service members, their families and industry partners. The website provides step-by-step moving guidance and checklists for every stage of the relocation process, information on permanent change of station moves and resources for filing claims and shipping privately own...

Every fund in the Thrift Savings Plan rebounded in April to not only move into the black, but most posted significant month over month increases. Half of all funds increased by at least 9%, with the C Fund seeing the biggest 30-day increase, 10.49%. So far in 2026, the I Fund continues to be the big winner, increasing 11.12%, including rising 9.1% in April. The F fund is seeing the smallest growth...

The Pentagon is seeking to expand protections for military families living in privatized housing who report unsafe or inadequate living conditions. In a legislative proposal sent to Congress earlier this month, the Defense Department called for allowing tenants to report housing issues not just to landlords or their chain of command, but also to Defense Department housing officials, inspectors gen...

The Trump administration's overhaul of federal employees' performance management won’t apply to political appointees. A memo from the Office of Personnel Management excludes all Schedule C and Schedule G appointees from the stricter performance metrics. OPM says political appointees are already at-will workers, so decisions on whether they should be kept or removed from their jobs d...

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is seeking to expand both financial and non-monetary incentives to help the Air Force retain pilots and other in-demand Airmen. A new bill, dubbed the Retention Enhancements for Tactical Aircrew Initiative, or RETAIN Act, would require the Air Force to pay maximum aviation incentive pay, increase retention bonuses up to $100,000 and allow Airmen to transition indefi...