The House on Thursday passed the final group of spending bills needed before the January 30th funding deadline. In a vote of 341 to 88, lawmakers approved fiscal 2026 funding for the departments of Defense, Labor, Education, Transportation and Health and Human Services. But due to Democratic opposition over ICE funding, the spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security passed with a much narrower margin, in a party line vote of 220 to 207. The appropriations package now heads to the Senate for consideration.

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Lawmakers are still waiting for the Defense Department to provide details on how it plans to spend $23 billion already approved for the Golden Dome effort. Congressional appropriators say the Pentagon has not provided key budget information such as deployment schedule, cost, schedule and performance metrics, as well as a finalized system architecture. The White House has estimated the project could cost as much as $175 billion over the next three years. As a result, House and Senate appropriators were unable to conduct oversight of Golden Dome programs for fiscal 2026. Lawmakers want Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to submit a detailed spending plan within 60 days of the bill’s enactment.

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Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul is facing calls to ramp up oversight of the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats on the committee are calling on him to investigate the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations. They say Paul should issue subpoenas if necessary and have senior officials like Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testify in front of the panel. Their letter comes in the wake of the fatal shooting of Renee Good in Minnesota.

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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. 

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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. 

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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. 

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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.  

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