Federal Newscast

Senate Democrats are charging the Department of Government Efficiency is putting federal data at risk at the Social Security Administration, the General Services Administration and the Office of Personnel Management. In a new report, Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, says staff investigations and whistleblower accounts show how DOGE personnel are working without any accountability to agency leadership, Congressional oversight or the public. For example, Peters says despite an SSA risk assessment warning of an up to a 65% chance of catastrophic breach, the data remains in systems without any verified security controls. Peters called on SSA, GSA and OPM to immediately halt DOGE operations and access to information systems given the risk of a serious data breach.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 warning of the potential for spillover effects into the broader economy because of the government shutdown, now entering its second week. The White House's Council of Economic Advisers says calculations based on the number of federal employees and federal contractors not being paid imply that a month-long shutdown would reduce consumer spending by $30 billion. The CEA says approximately half of which would directly be due to federal employees and contractors not working and half would be due to spillover effects on other sectors. More broadly, CEA says delays in agency processes ranging from small business loans to export licenses approvals to awarding federal contracts also would negatively impact the U.S. economy.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, federal employee unions are moving against an unprecedented actions during a government shutdownSee 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 Thrift Savings Plan continues its run of month-over-month gains. 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 is facing another lawsuit — this time, for telling agencies to conduct more reductions in force. 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, with the government on the brink of a partial shutdown, one senator is pushing the Trump administration to be more transparent about what agency services will remain open should funding lapse.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 White House is officially making AI one of its science and technology priorities. 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 says the public will have to look at each individual agency to find out their plans for what would happen in a government shutdown. The Office of Management and Budget’s webpage which normally publishes shutdown contingency plans remained empty for months. But now, OMB says that agencies’ plans will only be available one by one, on each agency’s own website. Those contingency plans cover how many federal employees would continue working — with or without pay — during a possible shutdown. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The National Guard has surpassed its recruiting goals for fiscal 2025. The Army and Air National Guard have enlisted nearly 50,000 new members this year, bringing total Guard end strength to more than 433,000. Senior leaders attributed this year’s success to initiatives such as the Future Soldier Preparatory Course and the new “Uncommon is Calling” marketing campaign for helping attract new members. Army Col. Timothy Smith also praised recruiters across every state, three territories, and the District of Columbia for helping the Guard meet its recruitment goals.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Agencies are bracing for a potential government shutdown, with less than a week left for Congress to reach a spending agreement. But so far, agencies have not released any public plans for what would happen in a shutdown. Agencies are supposed to release contingency plans, detailing which employees would keep working, and who would be furloughed. Currently, though, the White House’s website for listing those plans is blank. The Trump administration removed previous contingency plans that agencies had compiled during a shutdown threat last year.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Army is rolling out a new incentive to keep some of its most experienced technical experts in uniform. A warrant officer retention bonus will offer a “substantial financial incentive” to officers in critical specialties who commit to additional years of service. High-demand fields like cyber operations, aviation maintenance, signal and communications and special operations are identified as priorities for the program. Lt. Col. Angie Chipman, chief of the Army retention division at the Pentagon, said, The Army is addressing its most pressing retention challenges and ensuring its ability to meet future operational demands by focusing on these fields.”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There is a push in Congress to expand the use of hazard pay for federal wildland firefighters. Utah Congresswoman Celeste Maloy has introduced a bill attempting to correct what she says is a gap in the benefit. Currently, wildland firefighters receive higher pay rates, called hazard pay, when fighting active fires. But hazard pay doesn’t apply to situations where firefighters are conducting prescribed burns or doing training jumps. Maloy says firefighters face similar hazards in those additional situations — but their pay rates don’t currently match the risk.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Yesterday’s Senate vote confirming nearly 50 of the president’s nominees included some big gains for the Army — filling most of that service’s senior political leadership posts all at once. Among those confirmed was Michael Obadal as the new under secretary of the Army, the service’s number-two civilian leadership position. The en-bloc vote also included confirmations for three Army assistant secretaries: William Gillis as the assistant secretary for energy, installations and environment, Jules Hurst as the assistant secretary for manpower and reserve affairs, and Brent Ingraham as the assistant secretary for acquisition, logistics and technology.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The departments of Interior and Agriculture say they are on track to combine their wildland firefighting forces into a single agency by January 2026. The announcement this week comes after President Trump ordered the two departments to consolidate their wildfire response efforts into a single agency: the U.S. Wildland Fire Service. An employee organization called the Grassroots Wildland Firefighters says the effort is a step in the right direction, but is urging congressional action to make lasting changes for federal firefighters.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 proposed exemption for DoD civilian employees, however, is not contained in the Senate’s version of the NDAA. The American Federation of Government Employees is calling on senators this week to include the same exemption in their companion bill. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 handle the volume of moves. The watchdog also said the Defense Department did not gather or track comprehensive feedback from service members going through military moves, which limited contractor performance assessment. In addition, TRANSCOM did not have full information regarding costs associated with the contract transition.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 should answer questions about whether it’s using the app to surveil protestors and whether the agency is integrating commercial data into the technology. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 blue-collar federal employees have deviated from pay rates in the larger labor market, making it even harder for DoD to compete with the private sector.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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, who voted against the bill, said the GOP included “countless partisan amendments” and “silenced debate of critical issues.” The annual legislation also includes sweeping acquisition reforms aimed at changing how the Pentagon does business. The Senate is expected to pass its version of the defense bill later this week. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 information. The Pentagon estimates 80,000 defense contractors may be required to obtain a CMMC assessment. Officials plan to phase in the requirements over a three-year period.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.