Tag: governmentwide

• Some federal employees may have seen a test email land in their government inboxes last week. The Office of Personnel Management is looking to open a direct line of communication to the federal workforce. OPM is currently testing a web capability that should let the agency email all civilian feds at once from a single email address. OPM said it will continue testing the email function over the next week.
• Many Commerce Department employees will no longer be able to telework. Commerce Department leadership is directing employees to work in-person full-time, according to an internal agency memo sent Friday. The agency said all current telework agreements must be cancelled immediately. Commerce’s return-to-office announcement comes after a Friday deadline for all agencies to revise their telework policies and begin ordering federal employees to work onsite full-time. The update is one of what will likely be many return-to-office pushes from agencies, after President Trump mandated feds to work fully in the office.
• In the wake of President Donald Trump’s decision to fire 17 agency inspectors general on Friday night, the head of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency and lawmakers are accusing the President of violating the IG Act. Hannibal Ware, CIGIE’s chairman and one of the IGs dismissed, released a statement Saturday saying Congress created specific safeguards to protect these independent auditors. At the same time, Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), ranking member of the Oversight and Accountability Committee, and Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa.) were among the lawmakers demanding more details about why Trump fired the IGs and why he didn’t give Congress the required 30-day notice.
• Pete Hegseth is the new secretary of defense. He will now oversee the country’s 2.1 million service members and the Pentagon’s nearly $850 billion budget. In his message to the force sent out on Saturday, Hegseth laid out the challenges ahead and said he would “revive the warrior ethos and restore trust in the military.” The Senate narrowly confirmed Hegseth on Friday night Vice President JD Vance had to cast a tiebreaking vote after three Republican senators joined all Democrats in opposition of his nomination. Hegseth’s nomination survived despite allegations of sexual misconduct, abusive behavior, excessive drinking and financial mismanagement of two veteran organizations.
• Representative Marilyn Strickland (D-Wash.) is asking the Defense Health Agency to address mounting problems with the TriWest Healthcare Alliance contract transition. Strickland said Tricare beneficiaries in the West region are experiencing “unending” delays trying to reach customer service, websites not processing payments and an incomplete network of providers. Strickland asked the DHA to provide data regarding the number of beneficiaries who are expected to lose their coverage, a timeline for websites to be fully operational and the agency’s plans to ensure continuity of care for patients.
• The Department of Homeland Security has a new leader in place to begin the week. The Senate voted 59-34 on Saturday morning to confirm Kristi Noem as the secretary of homeland security. Noem joins DHS after serving as the governor of South Dakota. She’ll be in charge of overseeing the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration agenda. During her confirmation hearing, she also called for reforming DHS components like FEMA and the Secret Service and potentially downsizing the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
• The Department of Homeland Security said its facial recognition technologies are working extremely well. In a new report out this month, DHS’ Science and Technology Directorate detailed results from its testing of agency systems. The directorate reports that DHS’ fully operational facial recognition systems work 99% of the time. That includes systems used to perform ID checks at airports and ports of entry. Still, some lawmakers have called on DHS to slow down its roll out of facial recognition and expose the systems to independent tests.
• The Trump administration wasted little time naming a new federal CIO. Greg Barbaccia seems to be the new federal chief information officer. Barbaccia updated his LinkedIn page just recently. He replaces Clare Martorana, who was the federal CIO for the last three-plus years. Emails to the Office of Management and Budget, and the White House seeking confirmation and comment was not immediately returned. Barbaccia is a former Army intelligence sergeant and intelligence community analyst from 2003 to 2009. Since then, he’s worked in the private sector. He comes to OMB from Theorem, where he was a chief information security officer for the last two-and-a-half years. He also spent 10 years with Palantir, including the last three as head of intelligence and investigations.
• A new council will provide President Donald Trump with recommendations later this year on how to improve the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Trump signed an executive order Friday creating the FEMA Review Council led by the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security and will include 18 other public and private sector experts. The council will hold public meetings to gather feedback. The council will focus on FEMA’s existing abilities to capably and impartially address disasters by reviewing its staffing, its ability to provide disaster relief, assistance and preparedness services and how these efforts compare to state and local disaster services

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