Federal Newscast

Federal employees saw their retirements account grow across 14 of 16 funds in the Thrift Savings Plan in July. But the rate of growth for most of the funds was under 1% as compared to June. New data from TSP shows only the S and C funds increased month over month by more than 1%. Only two of the funds, F and I, ended up lower in July than in June, but again only by less than 1%. For the year, every fund is showing positive returns with the I fund leading the way with a return of almost 17%. 

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Veterans Affairs is getting a new permanent watchdog. The Senate confirmed senior VA advisor Cheryl Mason to serve as the next VA inspector general. President Trump fired the last VA inspector general, Michael Missal, in January along with 16 other agency IGs. Mason previously served as the first woman to chair the Board of Veterans Appeals.

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In honor of National Whistleblower Day, the Office of Special Counsel is recognizing two federal employees with outstanding public servant awards. The two whistleblowers who earned this year’s award come from the Mine Safety and Health Administration. The employees had reported over 50 active mines in the Pacific that hadn’t been inspected since 2016 due to a clerical error. From the whistleblowers’ actions, it became clear the agency had incorrectly classified the mines as abandoned and inaccurately reported complete inspections. OSC’s whistleblower awards are issued each year in celebration of the first whistleblower protection law, dating back to 1778. 

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is getting new permanent leadership. The Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s pick Susan Monarez to serve as CDC director. She’ll be the CDC’s first director without a medical degree in more than 70 years. CDC laid off about 2,400 employees in April. But the agency reinstated about a third of them.

 Nearly 600 employees took voluntary incentives to leave the agency and will be off its rolls by the end of the year.

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The Transportation Security Administration wants to use artificial intelligence and other private sector technologies to streamline airport screening. Under a recent request for information, TSA asked for feedback on turnkey solutions that could be used at airport checkpoints. The deadline to respond is August 1. The RFI was issued through TSA’s Screening Partnership Program, which allows airports to contract for private security screening services. TSA says it’s particularly interested in tech that can reduce manual labor and improve the passenger experience.

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The Thrift Savings Plan closed out the month of June with just over $1 trillion dollars in assets, across 7.2 million TSP participants. Officials on the TSP board say that high number shows a strong level of trust among participants in the TSP. Board officials are also reporting high levels of satisfaction among TSP participants. For the last 12 months, more than 93% of TSP users have consistently said they’re satisfied with the TSP's offerings. Satisfaction among callers to the TSP’s customer service phone line also remain high.

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A bill expanding veterans’ access to non-VA health care is making its way through Congress. The House VA Committee advanced the Veterans' ACCESS Act. The bill would make it easier for veterans covered by the VA to seek heath care in the private sector and would create an online patient self-service scheduling system. Committee Chairman Mike Bost says the bill would help veterans avoid waiting for medical appointments.

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Employees at the National Science Foundation are pushing back against the Trump administration’s actions at the agency. Nearly 150 NSF employees signed a letter of dissent this week. They’re criticizing the administration’s terminations of agency workers, while also cutting appropriated funding. Altogether, the NSF employees warn that the administration’s actions amount to a “systemic dismantling” of the scientific agency. NSF’s letter mirrors similar efforts from employees at NASA, the Environmental Protection Agency and several others.

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The Office of Management and Budget has until Wednesday to turn the lights back on for one of its key public spending transparency websites. In March, OMB shut down its Congressionally-mandated database that tracks the apportionment of funds to individual agencies, saying it didn’t believe it should have to provide “predecisional” information. On Monday, a federal judge found that decision violated the law, and gave the Trump administration until 10 a.m. on Wednesday to restore the Public Apportionments Database.

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The Government Accountability Office processed more than 5,700 allegations through its fraud hotline last year. That’s according to the latest annual report on GAO’s FraudNet program. FraudNet referred more than 2,100 allegations to federal agencies or other entities for further investigation, roughly the same number of referrals as in 2023. FraudNet analysts also supported more than 50 requests from GAO teams conducting audits and investigations. That includes helping GAO identify healthcare providers who were ineligible to work for the Defense Department’s TRICARE Network. 

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