Federal Newscast

The Defense Department is bringing in industry experts to help overhaul its acquisition process. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the new Business Operators for National Defense program, or BOND, has already engaged over 100 industry experts, including dozens of former CEOs, COOs and CIOs already advising senior Pentagon officials. “BOND embeds elite private sector patriots, leaders with decades of experience at world class companies such as Apple, Ford, Microsoft and Tesla, directly into our acquisition process," Hegseth said. "Think of the best of the best leaders of our best private sector companies coming and joining the War Department.”

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The IRS pulled the plug on its free, online tax filing platform. Members of the Senate say the agency's partnership with tax filing companies hasn’t stepped up. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Angus King (I-Maine) are asking the IRS what it’s doing to promote its Free File program with tax-preparation companies. The program saw a peak of about five million taxpayers in 2004, but has seen a decline in users since then. The number of companies participating in the program has also declined. 

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The Space Force has surpassed its fiscal 2026 recruiting goal just five months into the year. The service has already exceeded its recruiting goal by 25% for recruits who have shipped to basic military training or entered the delayed entry program. Despite that progress, service officials warn the current force is too small to meet growing national security demands. Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force John Bentivegna said while “achieving a force of just over 10,000 uniformed guardians in 2025 was a landmark milestone, it is insufficient for the missions we have been assigned.” Bentivegna also told lawmakers that the service needs to increase its infrastructure and double its size to “effectively fulfill our national mandate.”

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A federal employee union head is stepping down after leading it for more than 14 years. Lee Saunders is retiring as president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Despite the name, it also represents federal employees in the departments of Justice, Transportation, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs as well as the Library of Congress. Saunders will step down in August after the union elects a new president.  

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Veterans Affairs is exploring hundreds of potential uses for artificial intelligence. More than half of them would impact its health-care mission. The VA says AI-assisted colonoscopies are leading to better detection of tumors. It also says AI helps mitigate the risk of opioid overdose and suicide among patients. The department says more than 130 use cases are currently being deployed across its operations and that many more are still in development. 

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Senator Ron Wyden is pledging to keep his hold on the nominee to lead the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Wyden says he will continue to object to Sean Plankey’s nomination until CISA releases a 2022 report on security flaws in the U.S. telecommunications system. Wyden previously held up Plankey’s nomination for much of last year over the same issue. 

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The Defense Department says it’s cutting ties with Harvard University. The Pentagon says this will be the final school year for its graduate level professional military education programs affiliated with the university. DoD’s Harvard fellowships and certificate programs will end too. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says he made the decision because of what he calls “globalist and radical ideologies” at the university. Hegseth says the department will be reviewing its relationships with other schools in the coming weeks.

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About 17 veterans died by suicide each day in 2023. That’s nearly 6,400 for the entire year. An annual report from the Department of Veterans Affairs shows overall veteran suicides are decreasing. More than half of veterans who died by suicide did not receive VA health care in the last year of their life. Suicide rates are elevated for veterans ages 18 to 34 and those experiencing homelessness, health problems or chronic pain. Veterans with thoughts of suicide can reach the Veterans Crisis Line by dialing 9-8-8 and then pressing 1. 

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Taxpayers for Common Sense, a fiscal watchdog group, says the Trump administration’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative could cost as much as $3.6 trillion over the next 20 years, far exceeding the White House’s projected $175 billion. The group also argues the effort faces “insurmountable” technical hurdles that could prevent it from reliably defending the United States against nuclear threats. “Even under generous technical assumptions, the viability challenges facing Golden Dome are severe,” the report warns. Plus, the initiative could accelerate the nuclear arms race and complicate efforts to secure arms control agreements that reduce the nuclear threat.

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Law enforcement staffing at federal agencies varied between fiscal years 2020 and 2024. But a new Government Accountability Office report shows the Veterans Health Administration saw a major uptick in law enforcement staffing during that period, going from 4,699 officers in 2020 to 6,281 by the end of 2024. VHA was an outlier as most other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies either had flat workforce totals or saw varying levels of attrition. GAO’s report doesn’t cover the last year when the Department of Homeland Security recruited a record number of immigration enforcement and Border Patrol agents.

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