Federal Newscast

The Defense Department is blowing through initial estimates of what its Golden Dome initiative would cost. General Michael ​Guetlein, Golden Dome's manager, said Tuesday the Pentagon is “at $185 billion for the objective architecture, which delivers way out into the 2035 timeframe.” This estimate is already $10 billion more and will take five years longer than what President Donald Trump said it would cost and when it would be ready.  Guetlein also says that outside projections are “estimating a very large, complex capability.” The Defense Department instead is “changing that equation, simplifying, disaggregating it, to bring down that cost equation” that won’t exceed that $185 billion. 

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A government watchdog says the IRS doesn’t yet have a plan to reduce its backlog of taxpayer correspondence. The Government Accountability Office says the agency’s backlog at the end of last year’s filing season remained higher than pre-pandemic levels. GAO says that without a plan the IRS risks not doing all it can to bring down the backlog; and may provide less timely service to taxpayers. The IRS says it will take GAO’s recommendations into consideration. 

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A new bill seeks to exempt National Guard and Reserve drill pay from federal income taxes. The No Tax on Drill Pay Act would eliminate taxes on income earned during Inactive Duty Training, which typically includes monthly drill weekends and other readiness training throughout the year. Congressman Andy Barr, who introduced the bill, said eliminating federal taxes on drill pay would reward the more than 800,000 Americans who serve in the Guard and Reserve. The bill follows several recent proposals aimed at making certain military pay tax-free. Last year, a group of lawmakers introduced legislation to exempt all military bonuses from federal income tax, while another proposal is seeking to fully exempt military compensation from federal income tax. 

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A top committee Democrat wants more information on DOGE’s activities at the Social Security Administration. Ranking Member Gary Peters on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is calling for a full and independent investigation of DOGE’s use of sensitive agency information. The senator’s push comes after reports that DOGE’s access to Social Security systems put Americans’ personal information at risk and potentially violated the law.

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President Donald Trump’s new pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security will get his day in the Senate next week. The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has scheduled Markwayne Mullin’s confirmation hearing for the morning of Wednesday, March 18th. Mullin, currently the junior senator from Oklahoma, is expected to field tough questions about his plans for overseeing the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda and other key DHS issues. Mullin has little prior experience in homeland security roles. He has championed Trump’s immigration crackdown as a member of the Senate. 

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As the Trump administration presses forward with efforts to reduce government, a watchdog has found that there is not a comprehensive list of all federal programs to start with. Despite being legally required to do so, the Office of Management and Budget has yet to publish an inventory of all current agency programs. A new report from the Government Accountability Office recommends that OMB fill in those data gaps, and disclose any areas that are missing information. 

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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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