Federal Newscast

The Justice Department recovered more money through the False Claims Act in fiscal 2025 than ever before. New data says DoJ won $6.8 billion in settlements for healthcare, procurement and tariff fraud. A significant amount of those cases were driven by whistleblowers. DoJ says there were 1,297 qui tam lawsuits filed last year, the highest number in a single year, and the government opened 401 investigations. Of the $6.8 billion in False Claims Act recoveries last year, $5.7 billion related to matters that involved the health care industry. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Coast Guard has a new leader. Admiral Kevin Lunday officially assumed command of the service on Thursday during a ceremony at Coast Guard headquarters. The Senate confirmed Lunday last month after his nomination was temporarily delayed due to a controversy over the service’s policy regarding hate symbols. He had been serving as acting commandant since January, following the dismissal of Admiral Linda Fagan by President Donald Trump. Lunday previously led Coast Guard Cyber Command. He also held a senior leadership role at U.S. Cyber Command.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is at the center of new calls to replace Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. In a letter to President Donald Trump on Wednesday, 14 House Democrats say Trump should fire Noem over what they say are damaging cuts to FEMA’s workforce. They also say Noem’s policy of signing off on all spending over $100,000 is slowing down FEMA’s disaster response efforts. The letter comes a day after more than 50 House Dems filed articles of impeachment against Noem citing her handling of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Close to 5,000 more Thrift Savings Plan participants have joined the club of so-called TSP millionaires. As of January 1st, nearly 195,000 TSP participants now have accounts totaling over $1 million. That represents about 2.7% of all TSP accounts. The pace of growth appears to be slowing down though. In the previous fiscal quarter, the number of TSP millionaires rose by about 19,000.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The secretive National Reconnaissance Office has announced a new top official. William Adkins was appointed principal deputy director of the NRO on Monday. Adkins previously served as professional staff on the House Appropriations Committee. He’s also a veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency and had been detailed to the NRO to manage technology development projects in the late 1990’s. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Presidential Rank Awards are back for 2026, and the Office of Personnel Management is now looking for nominations. The prestigious honors program is reserved for career members of the Senior Executive Service and other senior career employees. OPM’s new call for nominations marks a restart of the awards program, which the Trump administration canceled for 2025. Agencies have until February 5th to submit nominations to OPM for any executives they want to be considered for a 2026 award. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A government watchdog found that the Defense Department has never formally evaluated telework and remote work programs against agency goals. DoD officials, however, reported “perceived” benefits and challenges. The Government Accountability Office says without formal evaluation of these programs, DoD cannot determine whether these programs help meet agency goals. While defense officials told the Government Accountability Office that their use of these flexibilities improved productivity, efficiency, and recruitment and retention; some officials said that telework reduced opportunities for collaboration and information sharing and decreased morale. The watchdog also found that the data on the number of teleworkers and remote workers DoD previously reported is likely inaccurate.  

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Federal wildland firefighters would keep their higher pay rates under the latest congressional appropriations package. The spending “minibus” maintains funding for wildland firefighters’ permanent pay raise, as well as job updates that were initially included in the 2021 infrastructure law. The new appropriations package also would ‘not’ adopt President Trump’s plan to combine wildland firefighting forces into a single agency. According to the legislation, wildland firefighters from the Forest Service and the Interior Department would remain separate. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The federal retirement inventory has reached yet another new high. The Office of Personnel Management now has over 50,000 applications still awaiting a finalized annuity. The increase comes after more than 13,000 retirement applications entered OPM’s systems in December. It's taking OPM about 67 days to process a retirement case from start to finish. But OPM's numbers don’t include any retirement cases still pending with agencies. Some retirees report major delays in receiving their payments, months after separating from government.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Kirsten Davies has officially taken over the role of the Defense Department's chief information officer. She was sworn in right before the Christmas break. Congress confirmed Davies on December 18th as part of the final tranche of nominees from President Trump. Davies succeeds Katie Arrington, who has performed the duties of DoD CIO since March. Arrington spearheaded a number of major initiatives during her tenure, including an overhaul of the department’s legacy processes for buying software.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.