The Defense Department has a long way to go before it's ready to say what the successor to its joint war fighting cloud capability contract will be. But that doesn't mean officials don't at least have a wish list. One thing we're likely to see is more opportunities for more vendors, not just the four big hyper scale companies that have spots on today's JWCC contract. Rob Vietmeyer is DoD, chief software officer, and he talked with Federal News Network's Jared Serbu on our recent 2025 cloud exchange.

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A government watchdog faces a nearly 50% cut to next year's budget under a proposal from House lawmakers. The legislative branch portion of the fiscal 2026 spending bill would both cut funding for the Government Accountability Office and limit GAO from investigating whether the Trump administration unlawfully withheld funding already approved by lawmakers Federal News Network's Jory Heckman joins me with more.

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By one estimate, there are now over 100,000 federal employees currently on paid administrative leave. Some took the deferred resignation option offered early in the Trump Administration, but about 50% were put on administrative leave involuntarily. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility has filed with the Office of Special Counsel claiming that administrative leave status was imposed illegally. Here with more on their argument and its status is PEER's senior counsel, Peter Jenkins.

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To prevent fraud, the IRS needs to make sure that tax filers are who they say they are. a new ID-proofing approach now means that over 70% of filers can be verified digitally. But the GAO says IRS still needs to work on its privacy and program evaluation practices. Here with more details on the findings that can help many other federal agencies is Director of Strategic issues at GAO, Jay Mc Tigue

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The National Contract Management Association is launching a new effort to improve federal acquisition efficiency. That has also been a central focus of many of the Trump Administration's early actions in procurement. Here today to discuss how this new group will work, and what makes it different from its many predecessors are Kraig Conrad, CEO of the National Contract Management Association, and the two leaders of the effort. Wes Bennett is Vice President of Contracts at Booze Allen Hamilton and will chair the working group. Soraya Correa is the President and CEO of National Industries for the Blind and will join Wes as the Vice Chair.

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Coming up today on The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

• A new working group wants to make federal procurement more efficient
• Digital identification verification is the wave of the future at IRS
• The outlook for federal workers involuntarily placed on administrative leave

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The US Patent and Trademark Office has already invested heavily in artificial intelligence capabilities. Its employees have access to several tools to review documents and reduce the burden of administrative and clerical tasks on examiners through a new request for information, the USPTO wants to accelerate its use of AI tools with more on USPTO plans to bring these capabilities to its workforce. Federal News Networks' Executive Editor Jason Miller joins me now.

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As the US heads into an intense wildfire season, the White House is attempting to make some big changes to the government's response efforts. The Trump administration has outlined plans to consolidate wildfire management programs into a single agency. But a federal union says the consequences of moving too fast on these changes could be disastrous here. With more on the story, Federal News Network's Drew Friedman.

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Several agencies have put their contractors on notice that all new contracts over a certain dollar threshhold, which in once case is only $100,000, will be subject to the review of the agency secretary. Here with her observations on what that means for contractors and agency performance is the President of the Professional Services Council, Stephanie Kostro.

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Identifying places where government programs fall short is not hard, but finding practical solutions to those problems can be much more difficult. The IBM Center for the Business of Government is now seeking problem solvers. Here to talk about their new call for proposals is the Centers Executive Director, Dan Chenok.

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