Federal Newscast

Some employees at the Social Security Administration have locked in their current telework levels through 2029. The agency reached an agreement last week with one of its unions, the American Federation of Government Employees. The updated contract, which was first reported by Bloomberg, secures current hybrid work schedules for thousands of telework-eligible feds. The SSA agreement comes as leaders of the Department of Government Efficiency are alluding to plans of returning federal employees to the office full-time in the coming Trump administration.

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Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth is asking President-elect Donald Trump to support her legislation to expand insurance coverage for in vitro fertilization for military personnel. In a letter to Trump, Duckworth is urging the President-elect to mandate the federal government and insurance companies to pay for all IVF-associated costs. Both House and Senate versions of the defense policy bill have provisions that would provide service members with the same level of IVF services coverage that federal employees and members of Congress are able to receive. Meanwhile, two House Republicans are urging Congress not to include any provisions in the 2025 defense policy bill that can expand access to in vitro fertilization. 

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A watchdog report finds Veterans Affairs incorrectly processed disability claims from veterans and underpaid benefits that some veterans were eligible for.

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The IRS is raising the alarm on identify theft scams this holiday season. The agency says it's seeing an uptick in phishing email and texts and other scams to get taxpayers to hand over their personal information.

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President-elect Trump tapped businessman John Phelan to serve as the next secretary of the Navy, saying Phelan will 'put the business of the U.S. Navy above all else."

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The Treasury Department says an IRS hiring freeze is possible if Congress doesn't address a $20 billion budget anomaly. The IRS already saw a $20 billion cut to its modernization fund.

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The Pentagon is out with its first draft of what could become the biggest government AI contract in history. Potential bidders have a little under a month to offer feedback on the draft RFP for what DoD is calling the Advancing AI Multiple Award Contract.

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SSA confirmed that President Joe Biden is expected to name Colvin, a 30-year SSA veteran and former acting commissioner for six years, to lead SSA during the transition.

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President Joe Biden is recognizing 236 federal employees across 30 agencies for their exceptional leadership and accomplishments. The Office of Personnel Management announced the winners of the 2024 Presidential Rank Awards on Thursday.

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Two government contractors agree to pay a total of $4.3 million to settle allegations that they violated the False Claims Act and forced the Army to overpay for IT hardware. The Justice Department says Dell Technologies and Iron Bow will each pay more than $2 million to resolve a Qui Tam lawsuit. DoJ says Dell and Iron Bow allegedly conspired to collude on solicitations under the Army's AMDC-3 contract. Justice says from 2020 to 2024 Dell operated a deal registration program, whereby it gave advantageous pricing to Iron Bow to sell certain Dell computer hardware products and then also submitted their own direct bids on the same solicitations that were more costly.

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