Federal agencies are fielding agentic AI systems that initiate real-world actions inside government workflows — and almost none of them can consistently reconstruct how an output was formed, what data it touched, or what permissions enabled it. For small FFP-preferring AI shops, the governance gap isn't a policy problem to wait out: it's an unpriced liability surface that lands on the contractor when the audit trail disappears. Today's episode maps that risk and explains the PWS language that can scope it out.

• Agentic AI is coming to government faster than its guardrails — FedScoop

• OpenAI's ChatGPT to debut on GenAI.mil in 'early July' — Nextgov/FCW
• AI is taking background checks from 'months to hours,' clearance agency says — Government Executive
• 3 priorities for federal CISOs in the agentic era — Nextgov/FCW
• DIU leans into risk to field commercial tech faster — Federal News Network
• Data from 'half a million hours of Ukraine conflict drone footage' now available to train AI — DefenseScoop
• GOP's VA overhaul bill narrows some employees' rights, spurs privatization, union says — Government Executive
• DISA Seeks Sources for $850M Army Endpoint Security Management Requirement — GovConWire
• Trump administration builds on Tech Force model to recruit IT workers for short-term jobs — Federal News Network
• Proposed Rule: General Services Acquisition Regulation; Acquisition of Information and Communication Technology; Notice of Listening Sessions and Request for Comments — Federal Register
• DARPA exploring tech for tactically responsive space operations — DefenseScoop
• Federal contracting is heading into a different kind of environment — Federal News Network

Commerce export controls on Anthropic's Fable 5 model are now the sharpest concrete collision between U.S. AI competitiveness policy and DoD's declared AI-first acquisition strategy — and they extend the governance-lag arc this show has tracked from the Mythos freeze through today. The administration is issuing aggressive mandates on AI access, cyber timelines, and small-business eligibility without the implementation infrastructure to execute them, and the firms that pre-position now — on the right vehicles, with model-agnostic architectures — will capture the resulting emergency spend.

• Industry and academia call on administration to free Anthropic's AI model — Nextgov/FCW

• How the Commerce crackdown on Anthropic could impact the Pentagon: Experts — Breaking Defense
• 5 Army AI Initiatives Transforming Soldier Safety, Training, Cyber Defense & Acquisition — GovConWire
• 5 initiatives driving the Marines to be an AI-first force — Federal News Network
• Trump memo sets 'aggressive' timelines to secure sensitive systems — Federal News Network
• NSPM-12: The NSS cyber memo agencies cannot ignore — Nextgov/FCW
• Warner presses CISA on whether staff cuts weakened regional cyber support — Nextgov/FCW
• SBA proposes opening 8(a) program to white-owned businesses — Washington Technology
• Alaska speaks with one voice about the 8(a) program — Federal News Network
• Policy hurdles, disconnect with Pentagon office lead to 'mixed success' for major SOCOM programs, watchdog says — DefenseScoop
• Agencies are doubling down on AI upskilling, but they may be solving the wrong problem — Federal News Network
• Europe rearms: Battle management, counter-UAS, and real AI at the edge — Breaking Defense

Trump's fixed-price and AI executive orders are nominally favorable for FFP-capable small AI contractors — but the Professional Services Council is publicly flagging implementation ambiguity that could let agencies route developmental AI work back to cost-type vehicles through a complexity carve-out. Today's episode traces that risk through the PSC's WT 360 analysis, connects it to the VA's ungoverned AI adoption failure, and argues that the Washington Technology Top 100 'resilience' narrative is masking a defense-civilian bifurcation that small AI shops straddling DoD and VA need to reckon with now.

• WT 360: Key points (and questions too) from Trump's fixed-price contracting and AI orders — Washington Technology

• VA clinical staff rushed to use generative AI without oversight, watchdog finds — FedScoop [61dedbc5cb]
• VA's AI chatbots not designated high-impact, despite clinical use, watchdog says — Nextgov/FCW [f0f065412a]
• AWS Lands Potential $2.6B DHS Cumulus Cloud Acquisition Contract — GovConWire [bcb1c60b7b]
• Navy awards 59 seats on $249M logistics IT contract — Washington Technology [8aad6508ca]
• DLA Seeks Offers for Potential $903M ERP Cloud Hosting Support IDIQ — GovConWire [e25e5e40bd]
• Pentagon may 'sacrifice' traditional weapons to buy more drones if reconciliation fails: CTO — Breaking Defense [7c17d4ca45]
• Senator questions Pentagon's plan to revise autonomous weapons policy — DefenseScoop [a5b5cca2ca]
• National Security Presidential Memorandum/NSPM-12 — White House Presidential Actions [d2887b6254]
• The 2026 Top 100 shows a market that bent, but did not break — Washington Technology [ef50f02b1a]
• How DHA plans to end Leidos' run as the military's health record integrator — Washington Technology [43bf2f78d0]
• White House cyber office hire triggers leadership changes inside infrastructure security agency — Government Executive [39d80c95ec]
• CISA sees leadership shakeup after infrastructure security chief moves to ONCD — Nextgov/FCW [7cb6c3a377]
• CISA revives push toward long-awaited cyber incident reporting rules — Federal News Network [1d5ae24763]
• SBA kicks off new audit of economically disadvantaged contractors — Federal News Network [5445dc46b4]
• What GovCons Need to Know About the Army's New 'Amazon-Like' UAS Marketplace — GovConWire [ef054e4f9b]
• Anthropic suspends top AI models after U.S. export control order — Nextgov/FCW [0f015f890b]
• SASC proposes reorganization of Pentagon's IT, cyber leadership — DefenseScoop [14d03c3c3f]

NITAAC has confirmed the sunset of its entire GWAC portfolio — CIO-SP3, CIO-SP3 Small Business, and CIO-CS — with October 29, 2026 as the hard stop for new order awards. For small AI contractors, this is a structural, irreversible narrowing of the task order market, not a political headwind that can be unwound. The firms that clear the next decade of federal AI work are the ones already on Polaris or holding Alliant 2 teaming arrangements — vehicle position is now the primary competitive differentiator, ahead of technical capability.

• NIH contracting arm announces sunset of all governmentwide vehicles — FedScoop

• White House discussions are weighing giving CISA Mythos access — Washington Technology
• AI can save veterans' time, but TMF head says reauthorization needed for more investments — FedScoop
• Senate pushes DOD to create new combatant command for unmanned systems — DefenseScoop
• SASC's $1.14T defense policy bill creates combatant command for drones — Breaking Defense
• White House polices hitting small business contractors hard, Senator says — Federal News Network
• Air Force Releases Draft RFP for TETRAS III R&D Support IDIQ — GovConWire
• Navy Taps 59 Companies for Potential $250M Logistics IT Modernization Contract — GovConWire
• Army commissions 3 more tech executives into Detachment 201 — DefenseScoop

The White House hasn't told agencies how to access or deploy Anthropic's Mythos model — and that silence is now colliding with CISA's hard-deadline vulnerability-patching mandates, creating a mandate-without-tool condition that is a direct pricing and scheduling risk for any AI shop bidding on federal cyber work. Meanwhile, GWAC consolidation is accelerating and SBA on-ramps are disappearing: the channel problem is real, but total federal IT spend isn't shrinking — it's being redistributed toward large platforms and surviving vehicles.

• Lack of White House guidance has complicated agency Mythos adoption, people familiar say — Washington Technology

• CISA directive revamps how agencies prioritize vulnerable systems — Nextgov/FCW `[1a605b6c2b]`
• CISA directive orders agencies to prioritize vulnerability patching in a new way — FedScoop `[922d754cf0]`
• AI directive focuses patching efforts on 'highest risk' vulnerabilities — Federal News Network `[52ed252618]`
• The AI arms race everyone's ignoring — Federal News Network `[a7e20d7fdf]`
• Pentagon announces 'Cyber Mastery Incentive Pay' — DefenseScoop `[e73abd655a]`
• Ensuring seamless access in contested environments with zero trust — Federal News Network `[33c634edbc]`
• NIH pulls the plug on its government-wide contracts — Washington Technology `[9703b81406]`
• GSA Names 17 Additional Apparently Successful Offerors for Polaris SDVOSB Pool — GovConWire `[cdfaa958f3]`
• GSA gets moving on second batch of Polaris SDVOSB awards — Washington Technology `[42b6f430cb]`
• Innovation on ice: How DOGE derailed an SBA tech program — FedScoop `[413765e377]`
• OPM's long-planned HR overhaul moves ahead with $396M award to Oracle — Government Executive `[591bcd4898]`
• House appropriators release $1 trillion defense bill for FY27 — Breaking Defense `[fe3546b315]`
• US seizes alleged China-linked sites targeting security clearance holders — Nextgov/FCW `[9165de7039]`