Federal Newscast

The Coast Guard has surpassed its recruiting goals for the third consecutive year, bringing in the largest number of enlisted recruits in nearly four decades. The service enlisted 5,445 active-duty members in fiscal 2026, up from the 5,204 enlisted members recruited in fiscal 2025. It also commissioned 346 active-duty officers. To expand its recruiting presence, the service opened four recruiting...

There’s a new way to look at data about the federal workforce. The Office of Personnel Management has launched an AI chatbot to answer the public’s questions about workforce trends. The new feature has been added to OPM’s “federal workforce data” website, which details employment numbers and other information about the civil service. Users can enter questions and get AI-generated answers about gov...

Processing times for federal retirement applications are speeding up. In September, it took the Office of Personnel Management an average of 56 days to finalize a federal retirement claim. That’s about two weeks faster than the average processing speed for August. The retirement claims backlog has also fallen to about 8,800 total pending applications. That makes September the first time in at leas...

The Defense Department wasted millions of dollars helping the Department of Homeland Security increase immigration detention capacity at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay. A government watchdog found that DoD spent $2.85 million assembling tents for an initial capacity of 5,000 beds. Those tents, however, were never used, because DHS later determined that they did not meet detention standards. The Army...

Democrats want to make the retirement process easier on federal employees. A new bill in the House would require the Office of Personnel Management to provide missing records, correct errors and offer benefits information to federal retirees seeking help. Feds who recently separated or retired would be able to submit requests for support for up to four years, if the bill is enacted. The legislatio...

September was not a good month for the Thrift Savings Plan. All but one of the funds saw month-over-month drops. Only the G fund increased in September by .4% from where it was in August. The silver lining for September for the other 15 funds is they all experienced drops of less than 4% total. The S Fund saw the biggest month-over-month drop of 3.66%. For the year, every account but the F fund is...

The Pentagon wants to build a new military base inside the U.S. and is asking states to compete for it. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the base could host up to 25,000 troops and serve as a hub for homeland defense, command and control and cyber operations. He also promises the base will feature cutting-edge technology, first-class barracks and timeless classical architecture. The base would...

The Government Accountability Office found OMB’s rescission of nearly $1 billion of approved spending on September 26, violated the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. The decision not only was the Trump administration’s 12th violation of the ICA since taking office in January 2025, but it also was the first ICA decision in a year from GAO. The latest ruling relies on previou...

A top House Democrat is putting defense contractors on notice about potential investigations into unusual dealings with the Trump administration. House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Jim Himes says he’s concerned that the administration has inappropriately fused contracting processes with the extraction of political or private favors. In a letter to the National Defense Industrial Associati...

The Secret Service is facing questions about funding that was reportedly taken from the agency’s budget to fund White House renovations. In a letter to Secret Service Director Sean Curran last week, Senator Maggie Hassan asked how the agency would have spent roughly the $415 million dollars that was redirected from its budget. Hassan wants to know whether that has affected the Secret Service’s mod...

The Department of the Navy is rolling out new features to make it easier for sailors to navigate MyNavy Portal and access personnel services. The eLeave feature, for instance, allows sailors to check their estimated leave balance, request regular leave and extensions and review past leave periods “through a more intuitive experience.” Meanwhile, MyData will provide Sailors with greater visibi...

Federal immigration judges at the Justice Department are facing doxxing threats. In a new report, the DOJ inspector general found several judges in the department's Executive Office for Immigration Review had been doxxed using publicly accessible data over the past year. EOIR told auditors that it uses a privacy and data removal service to try to remove as much of the judges' personal information...

The Marine Corps said it will pay troops $450 a month while they are engaged in or exposed to enemy fire. That's the legal cap and double what Marines currently receive for hostile fire pay. The service is also increasing imminent danger pay by $50 to $275 per month. Imminent danger pay applies to troops serving in areas where they could be physically harmed. It's the first major combat pay bump i...

Agencies will now be able to more easily offer bonuses of up to $25,000 to federal employees for exceptional work. The Office of Personnel Management is delegating authority to agency leaders to approve larger bonuses for feds. Previously, bonuses of that size required OPM approval. But OPM says it’s removing the hurdle as a way to help agencies distinguish high levels of performance.  See Pr...

Two House lawmakers want to give the AbilityOne program a makeover. Congressmen Steny Hoyer (D-Md) and Pete Sessions's (R-Texas) American Procurement Improvement Act would modernize the statutory framework governing AbilityOne. The legislation would expand eligibility and help more Americans with disabilities get hired, promoted and grow in their careers. It also would speed up the timeline t...

The Postal Service has largely failed to meet service standards, even after reducing those standards. A new report from the Government Accountability Office finds that the declining services are in part due to cost-cutting initiatives. In response, USPS officials say they have made some progress to modernize and improve services, but emphasized that a full solution would require significant struct...

In today's Federal Newscast, the public’s trust in government is declining, new research from the Partnership for Public Service shows. 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, as Congress pushes to eliminate the Space Development Agency as an independent organization, the organization’s director said he “has some concerns, but not too many.”  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

For the second time in a matter of weeks, the Justice Department won a big settlement from a federal contractor to settle claims it violated the False Claims Act. Plus, a federal court holds up one of the White House's reduction efforts for one agency, and a large swath of soldiers get the ok to rejoin the military after refusing the COVID-19 vaccine. These stories and more in today's Federal News...

House Republicans are calling for fair compensation and benefits for more federal law enforcement personnel. A letter addressed to the Office of Personnel Management points out discrepancies in how some law enforcement officers are classified for retirement purposes. The GOP lawmakers are calling on OPM to review the benefits specifically for police officers at the departments of Defense and Veter...

The National Park Service has designated the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial as an affiliated area. The National Park Service, the Department of Defense and the Pentagon Memorial Fund signed a memorandum of agreement earlier this week to create a formal affiliation with the National Park Service. The agreement leaves ownership and day-to-day management of the memorial by DoD unchanged. Through the partners...

All 11 Democrats on the House Veterans Affairs Committee are pressing Doug Collins, the VA secretary, for answers about why the agency is rejecting requests from employees for reasonable accommodations. In a letter sent to VA yesterday, Committee Ranking Member Mark Takano and 10 other lawmakers want Collins to provide answers to nine questions about the department's policies and actions in granti...

Federal wildland firefighters will continue to earn overtime pay, even after they hit a legal cap on overtime hours. The continuing resolution that Congress passed last week included a provision to extend a waiver on the cap for federal overtime pay, at least until the end of 2027. Many wildland firefighters work extensive overtime during peak wildfire season. But due to a legal loophole, they oft...

Two Democrat lawmakers are demanding Elon Musk, the former head of the U.S. DOGE Service, explain why 99% of the claimed savings from at the Homeland Security Department never materialized. Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, and James Walkinshaw (D-Va.) called on Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), chairman of the committee, to hold Musk accountable for D...

Adam Telle, the Army's assistant secretary for civil works, will serve as acting Army secretary. President Donald Trump announced the pick on social media Thursday, calling Telle a "great patriot who is respected by all." Telle took the job overseeing the Army Corps of Engineers in August 2025 after serving as a longtime Senate staffer. He also worked in the White House's legislative office during...