The VA awarded bonuses to career directors amid a multibillion-dollar budget shortfall

The Department of Veterans Affairs is facing a multibillion-dollar budget shortfall and awarded bonuses to career directors who were ineligible for them last year. Now, top Republicans on the House and Senate VA committees are calling for the department to hold its directors accountable for these issues during their annual reviews. House committee chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.) and Senate committee ranking member Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) say department leaders should consider the role of VA directors in these management issues before make any performance-based compensation decisions.
House Republicans are seeking information from agencies about their dealings with federal unions. In a series of 24 letters to agency officials, the GOP-led Oversight Committee asked for details on how labor policies affect federal operations. Lawmakers are particularly focused on telecommuting agreements between agencies and unions. The issue has gained attention since reports of the Social Security Administration reaching a new telecommuting agreement with the American Federation of Government Employees. Lawmakers on the committee are asking agencies for details about their ongoing union negotiations and the in-person work rates of federal employees.
After mounting pressure, efforts to repeal the Exemption and Compensation Provision for Government Pensions are gaining ground in the Senate. During a labor rally Wednesday morning, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pledged to easily pass the Social Security Fairness Act. The bill would eliminate WEP and GPO, provisions that reduce or eliminate Social Security benefits for some federal retirees and other public employees, such as teachers and firefighters. Schumer’s promise for Senate action comes after the House approved the bill by a vote of 327-75 last month. There is no indication of how quickly the bill could pass in the Senate, but there are only a few weeks left to vote on the Social Security Equity Act before the end of the 118th Congress.
House Republicans are calling on President-elect Donald Trump to scrap IRS Direct File. The IRS tested its free online tax-filing platform with taxpayers in a dozen states as part of a pilot project this year. The agency planned to expand to 24 states next year as a permanent program. But nearly 30 GOP lawmakers are calling on Trump and the heads of his Department of Government Efficiency to eliminate the program through an executive order on his first day in office. Lawmakers say they don’t support the IRS using its funding to support Direct File when there are other ways for taxpayers to file online.
The General Services Administration is trying for the third time to bridge the so-called “vale of death” for providers in the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs. In GSA’s latest request for information, the agency is asking current SBIR and STTR participants for details about themselves and the products or services they offer. GSA hopes to use this RFI to develop its latest contract vehicle: Innovation in Phase 3. IP3 will be a multi-award contract to any vendor that has won an SBIR or STTR award with the goal of making it easier for agencies to find and to buy. products or services. Responses to the RFI are due by December 17.
An industry group makes recommendations to promote the White House cyber office. The new Trump administration should boost authorities and increase staff detail at the White House Office of the National Cyber Director. That’s according to the Cybersecurity Coalition, an industry group led by former cyber officials. In a new white paper, the group says the national cyber director should be codified as the US government’s top, outward-facing cyber official. And the group recommends staffing ONCD with more agents and subject matter experts from across the government.
Lawmakers passed two bills that would require agencies to focus more on threats from China. The first bill, the “Strengthening Cyber Resilience Against State-Sponsored Threats Act,” would create an interagency task force led by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI. The task force will specifically focus on China-backed cyber threats to US critical infrastructure. And the House also passed a separate bill that would require the Department of Homeland Security to establish a task force to combat non-traditional espionage threats from China.
The 2025 defense policy bill was approved by the House on Wednesday night and now heads to the Senate for approval. A controversial provision banning gender-affirming care for children of service members, which drew opposition from Democrats, was included in the bill. One hundred and twenty-four Democrats and 16 Republicans voted against the bill. If passed, the legislation would give a 4.5 percent pay raise to all service members and an additional 10 percent raise to junior enlisted soldiers. The bill must be signed by President Joe Biden to become law.
Pentagon sunsets Task Force Lima and establishes Rapid Artificial Intelligence Capabilities Cell. The new rapid AI capabilities cell is tasked with accelerating the adoption and deployment of AI tools within the department. The Pentagon is allocating $100 million in 2024 and 2025 to support some of the cell’s initial projects. About $35 million will go to four AI frontier pilot programs. Radha Plumb, chief artificial intelligence and digital intelligence officer, said the projects will be launched immediately. Another $40 million will go to small and non-traditional businesses in small business innovation research contracts. Plumb said the awards will be held in mid-January.
The Army is giving vendors more information about how it wants to build its next-generation command and control program. It is releasing an updated document with the necessary features on Monday. The Army released the first version of the requirement characteristics in May. This new document includes several new details that are important to the Army’s development of NGC2 programmatic requirements. The new sections include a more specific breakdown of the technology stack that will underpin NGC2. It also addresses the interoperability requirements of mission partners and how to incorporate artificial intelligence and machine learning services into the program.