President Trump formally transmitted Markwayne Mullin’s nomination to be Homeland Security Secretary to the Senate yesterday. Last week, Trump announced he would have Mullin, the junior Senator from Oklahoma replace Kristi Noem, who’s expected to step down as Secretary at the end of this month. But Mullin still requires confirmation and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul has yet to announce a nomination hearing. 

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Federal employees’ retirement applications are continuing to flood the Office of Personnel Management. In February, another 31,000 retirement claims entered the agency’s systems. That puts OPM’s Retirement Services center at yet another record high of pending applications — now reaching above 65,000 cases with pensions that are yet-to-be finalized. That’s an 88% increase since OPM’s inventory last October, when retirements from the deferred resignation program first began trickling in. 

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A plan to limit when federal employees can cancel their union du  es if officially off the table. The Federal Labor Relations Authority is rescinding a previous proposal from 2022, which would have given federal employees only a once-per-year opportunity to cancel dues payments. Since 2020, dues-paying federal employees have had the option to cancel automatic deductions for union dues at any time.

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OpenAI and the Defense Department have adjusted the deal they made just days ago for use of the company’s artificial intelligence tools in classified environments. The changes center around prohibiting use of the Open AI’s technology for domestic surveillance, autonomous weapons systems and autonomous decision-making. These are similar to the safeguards Anthropic had insisted on that tanked its deal with the Pentagon and got it labeled as a national security risk. OpenAI also said the deal was adjusted to clarify that the Pentagon won’t use its technology at any of its intelligence agencies; that would require a separate agreement.

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A new bill would prevent federal retirees who survived domestic violence from needing to share personal details with their abusers during the retirement process. Currently, retired feds must get written consent from their current or former spouse if they update their retirement benefits; which can mean exposing personal contact information to abusers. But the “Federal Retirement Safety Act” sponsored by Congressman Joe Neguse would direct the Office of Personnel Management to waive the requirement for survivors of domestic and intimate partner violence. OPM already waives the requirement for people whose spouses have died or aren’t able to be located.

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Federal employees saw only small growth in most of their retirement accounts in February. All but one of the funds in the Thrift Savings Plan came in with positive returns for the month, but the increase was notably lower across the board. The I Fund, for example, saw the biggest increase of more than 6% in February, but that was much lower than the 12% increase it saw in January. The C Fund was the only account that came in negative, losing 0.76% as compared to January. For the year, all funds are in the black. 

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Tens of thousands of employees have been working unpaid through the Department of Homeland Security shutdown. But thousands of others across DHS will be getting a paycheck on time. The American Federation of Government Employees is urging Congress to immediately compensate all employees affected by the DHS shutdown. The union is calling for the passage of the Shutdown Fairness Act, which would pay federal employees on time during any current or future funding lapse. 

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Democratic Senator Ron Wyden is blocking the Trump administration’s nominee to lead both U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency. Wyden says that Lieutenant General Joshua Rudd, who currently serves as the deputy commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, lacks the experience needed to immediately step into the dual leadership role. The lawmaker added that when it comes to U.S. cybersecurity, “there is simply no time for on-the-job learning, the threat is just too urgent for that.”

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While nearly all major federal agencies saw staffing declines in the first half of 2025, the size of those separations varied. NASA’s workforce, along with civilian staff at the Defense Department, declined by less than 5%. But the Education Department lost more than 20% of its workforce in the same timeframe. That’s all according to new data analysis from the Government Accountability Office. GAO says it will continue issuing updates on federal workforce staffing changes over time.

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A new director with both military command and education experience will take over Defense Department schools beginning next month. Paul Craft, an Ohio Army National Guard officer with more than three decades of service, will replace Beth Schiavino-Narvaez, who brought extensive public education leadership experience to the role. The abrupt leadership change signals a shift in educational priorities for schools serving military families around the world. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Craft will “swiftly reorient DoDEA towards patriotic values and classical learning.” The Defense Department Education Activity serves more than 67,000 military-connected students. 

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