A top lawmaker is pressing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to immediately reverse his decision to gut the Pentagon’s independent weapons testing office. In a letter to Hegseth, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren is demanding documentation justifying the cuts, the office’s current oversight list, and how DoD is adhering to the statutory requirement for the office to be independent and whether the office will continue its cyber assessment program, In May, Hegseth instructed the director of operational test and evaluation office to “immediately eliminate any non-statutory” functions of the office, slashing the office’s staff by 74% and its budget by nearly 80%. Warren said cutting this deep into the office can violate the law. 

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Democratic committee leaders are disputing the Trump administration’s plans to shuffle components of the Education Department into the Labor Department. A group of four senators say moving career and technical education programs between agencies is not within the President’s authority. The lawmakers reiterated that it’s up to Congress to decide whether federal agencies should be rearranged or dismantled. They’re demanding that the administration leave Education’s programs as-is, since Congress has not approved the transition.

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Both House and Senate lawmakers are looking to eliminate the IRS’ free online tax filing platform. The Senate Finance Committee is proposing to axe Direct File as part of its contribution to the budget reconciliation bill. The House passed its version of the so-called Big Beautiful Bill last month which would also eliminate the Direct File program. Direct File had nearly 300,000 users during this year’s tax filing season and saw higher favorability scores compared to last year’s pilot. 

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Congressional Democrats are sounding the alarm over reports that a federal contractor is helping the Trump administration build a “mega-database” of sensitive government records. Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are leading their colleagues in a letter to the company Palantir. The New York Times reports the company is building a single, searchable database of taxpayer records across multiple agencies. The lawmakers are asking for a full list of Palantir’s federal contracts. 

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The Postal Service strikes a deal with another one of its unions. Members of the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association approved a tentative contract that lasts through 2027. About 67% of voting members approved the tentative agreement. Next up, the American Postal Workers Union which votes whether to approve its contract or not next month. Members of another union, the National Association of Letter Carriers voted against a tentative agreement with USPS in January. A third-party arbitrator eventually struck a deal with both parties.

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The Interior Department and the Forest Service are facing a deadline to consolidate their wildland fire programs. President Trump signed an executive order last week giving the agencies 90 days to combine their two offices into one. The White House says it will make wildland fire prevention and response efforts more efficient. But some federal wildland firefighters question the need for consolidating the programs when a larger response is already needed. The Forest Service lost about 1,400 qualified wildland firefighters over the last several months amid the Trump administration’s workforce cuts.

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Participants in the Thrift Savings Plan will soon see a few changes to the TSP’s Lifecycle, or “L,” Funds. Starting June 30th, the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board will add an “L 2075” Fund. That's meant for any current or future federal employees who plan to retire during or after the year 2073. The TSP board will also be rolling over the current “L 2025” Fund into its broader Income Fund. 

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Civilian agencies have spent nearly 23% less during the first eight months of 2025 as compared to the same time period in 2024. The Department of DOGE Services says that means non-defense spending has been reduced by almost $25 billion. Overall non-defense agencies have obligated over $85 billion in 2025 down from $110 billion at this point last year. Some of the spending reduction comes from the cancellation of contracts, which DOGE says agencies have terminated more than 11,000.  

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The Agriculture Department has cancelled hundreds of contracts under the Trump administration … including one that helped households locate food assistance programs. The nonprofit Hunger Free America says it ran an “information clearinghouse” of food assistance programs for USDA for more than a decade. But it claims in a lawsuit that USDA terminated the contract last month. 

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The Postal Service is falling into pattern raising stamp prices each January and July. But its regulator is considering limits to those price increases. A proposed rule from the Postal Regulatory Commission would cap UPSP to only raising prices once per year. The regulator gave USPS the freedom to set mail prices higher than the rate of inflation in 2020 when the agency was at risk of running out of cash. USPS is planning to set the price of a first-class Forever stamp to 78 cents next month.

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