Federal Newscast

President Trump appoints new members to the FEMA Advisory Council

President Donald Trump has appointed new members to a group that will recommend reforms to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Trump on Monday formally appointed 20 members to the FEMA Advisory Council. They include Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Robert Fenton, Junior, the regional administrator for FEMA Region 9. The council is co-led by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. It has yet to meet more than three months af...

Defense secretary dismisses DoD’s advisory boards

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has dismissed all members of the Defense Department’s advisory boards. Joe Kasper, Hegseth's former chief of staff, launched a review of all advisory committees in March, required them to justify their existence. Kasper instructed the committees to explain how their advice “benefited the DoD, the Federal Government, and the United States,” and how it aligns with President Donald Trump’s goals and Hegseth’s priority of “restoring the warrior ethos.” This is not the ...

Army surpasses its reenlistment goals for 2025

Coast Guard digitizes 40% of paper medical records

The Coast Guard has digitized 40% of its paper health records as of February. In a new update on the initiative, the Coast Guard said the goal is to completely digitize all paper health records by the third quarter of fiscal 2027. The service began the effort to digitize 45,000 paper health records in November 2022. Digitized records can be viewed on the MHS Genesis portal and are also accessible to the Department of Veterans Affairs for benefits delivery. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com...

USPS and NRLCA strike deal on new contract

The Postal Service strikes a labor deal with another one of its unions. USPS reached a tentative agreement with the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association, which represents more than 130,000 rural letter carriers. NRLCA members must vote to ratify the contract before it’s approved. Letter carriers represented by the National Association of Letter Carriers voted against a tentative contract earlier this year. It took a third-party arbitrator to reach a final labor agreement between USPS and ...

Bipartisan group of Senators ask White House to reconsider cancelation of collective bargaining agreements

A group of bipartisan senators is asking President Donald Trump to reconsider his broad cancelation of federal collective bargaining agreements. In a letter sent to the President on Thursday, four senators say they are concerned that his recent executive order will impede efforts to make the government more efficient. Trump eliminated most agencies’ union contracts last month, citing national security concerns. But the lawmakers say collective bargaining has a largely positive effect on the fede...

Infrastructure permitting agencies have 45 days to develop modernization plans

Agencies who handle the federal permitting process for roads, bridges and other infrastructure programs are on the hook to modernize the technology that runs these systems and share data more easily. President Donald Trump's latest executive order says the Council on Environmental Quality has 45 days to develop a Permitting Technology Action Plan that will include initial technology and data standards. The action plan also will provide a roadmap for creating a unified interagency permitting and ...

PACT Act makes determining veterans' benefits payments more difficult

The PACT Act has reportedly made determining when veterans' benefits payments should be issued more difficult. The Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general says about a quarter of all PACT Act related claims it reviewed over a year were issued incorrect effective dates, resulting in nearly $7 million in improper payments. The IG says a lack of training is mainly to blame and recommended creating a job aid for claims processors. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Californ...

VA starts search for new health and benefits leaders

The Department of Veterans Affairs is starting its search to fill two leadership roles. The VA is looking for candidates that President Donald Trump can nominate as the next under secretary for health and undersecretary for benefits. VA’s Deputy Secretary Paul Lawrence will oversee the search. Both roles face major projects, from rolling out a new Electronic Health Record, to processing a record volume of disability claims. The under secretary for health will oversee accelerated plans to roll ou...

Lawmakers call on National Archives to investigate use of Signal and Gmail by top government officials

Lawmakers are calling on the National Archives to investigate the use of unauthorized communications platforms by top government officials. Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security Committee say the reported use of Signal and Gmail by national security officials creates major cybersecurity risks. They also point out that it could violate federal record laws. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz reportedly has used both Signal and Gmail for sensitive discussions. See Privacy Policy at https://ar...

Trump administration wants to ease foreign arms sales process

President Donald Trump seeks to ease the foreign arms sales process for U.S. defense companies. Trump signed an executive order aimed at reducing rules and regulations governing military equipment sales to other countries. Both industry and foreign nations have long complained about the process that has been plagued by bureaucratic delays and lengthy approval procedures. Trump instructed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to identify top-priority ally nations and t...

Federal retirements slow in March

Just over 7,800 federal employees retired in March, almost 2,000 less than who left in February. The Office of Personnel Management says the claims backlog also dropped to about 16,500, which is the lowest its been in 2025. The time to process retirement claims also ticked back up to average about 50 days in March. But OPM says the average time to process a claim for all of 2025 dropped one day to 54 days. More than 33,500 federal employees have retired so far in 2025, that is about 3,800 more t...

Acting head of the IRS steps down

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 against tax records. Krause has served as acting commissioner since February. See Privacy Policy at https...

Is DOGE overstating its savings claims?

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 much they actually spent came out to be much smaller than what DOGE claimed the total value of the ...

GSA ready to hire new contract specialists

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 are available in several locations, including Washington, DC, San Francisco and 10 other locations aro...

Pentagon IG investigating Hegseth's use of Signal

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 official business.” The evaluation will also investigate the compliance with classification and records r...

Federal union's lawsuit against 'deferred resignation program' resurfaces

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, and that the administration needs to issue regulations for the program before proceeding. A federa...

Thrift Savings Plan stumbles in March

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 date, however, every fund in the TSP but the S fund is seeing positive returns. The I Fund and F Fund...

Targeted pay bump for junior enlisted troops goes into effect this month

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 should see an additional 10% pay increase in their mid-month paychecks. This historic pay increase ...

Federal employee unions are taking the administration to court after it cancelled several collective bargaining agreements

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 .

The contracting freeze the Trump administration instituted is causing some vendors to go out of business

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 .

Democrats in the House want to know just how prevalent the use of Signal is by Cabinet officials

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 .

Republicans in the House want to give the White House more leeway to make changes at agencies

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 .

GAO to conduct study on effect mass firings had on American people

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 .

Lawmakers urge Defense Secretary not to erase troops' historic accomplishments

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 flight hours by female aviators, medal recipients within segregated combat units during the World War...

DoD continues removal of historic content from websites citing DEI

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 removed as part of the department-wide purge of DEI content ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth...

Labor rallies in support of the federal workforce pop up across the country

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 of the agency’s recently terminated union contract. And in Akron, Ohio, employees from the Departme...

White House rescinds federal contractor minimum wage

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 those for services on federal lands to $17.75 an hour starting on January 1st. Trump's rescission mea...

Social Security sets the record straight on it's Death Master File

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 its Master Death file is highly accurate. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Calif...

Defense Department orders review of military standards

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 said the review will “illuminate how the department has maintained the level of standards required o...