Policy
VA’s National Cemetery Administration earns top customer satisfaction scores
For the eighth year in a row, the small agency earned the highest rankings in the American Customer Satisfaction Index.
Partial shutdown ends less than 4 days after it began
Nearly every federal agency is now funded through September and employees will be paid for the days they were furloughed.
Tech Bills of the Week: Measures seek to boost cyber posture of utilities
The proposed legislation would expand the Energy Department’s role in hardening U.S. energy infrastructure to boost cybersecurity and physical protections for pipelines, electric utilities and local distribution systems.
As Trump administration cries ‘fraud,’ experts worry it does more harm than good
“It’s dismaying,” one longtime anti-fraud expert told Nextgov/FCW of how the administration is using fraud as rationale but firing the watchdogs that are tasked with finding it.
Shutdown deal struck after failed Senate vote
Senate Democrats and the White House reached an agreement late Thursday to fund most departments and agencies through Sept. 30 after a previous funding bill was blocked.
Tech Bills of the Week: Expanding AI education via NSF; Commerce public awareness campaign; and more
With the Senate out, House lawmakers were busy introducing — and advancing — AI legislation.
Tech Bills of the Week: Civil rights offices for AI; Expanding veterans' education; and Curtailing ICE’s biometric use
A trio of new bills focus on the positives and negatives of emerging capabilities.
Trump administration gets less tech funding than requested in new bicameral bills
The fund that supports the U.S. DOGE Service would receive less than half of what was requested, and the bills do not include explicit reauthorization for the Technology Modernization Fund.
Lawmaker looks to shake up VA’s software management
Legislation from Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., prioritizes waste reduction when it comes to the roughly $1 billion that VA spends annually on software assets.
New bill seeks ‘phase-out’ of LiDAR tech tied to foreign adversaries
The ranking member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., said his new bill “takes a proactive, commonsense step to secure our supply chains, protect advanced technologies from compromise, enhance Americans’ security, and ensure these systems are built by trusted partners.”
Lawmakers seek details behind SSA plan to slash office visits
Nextgov/FCW first reported the agency’s intention to reduce field office visits last week.
Trump’s national security strategy risks blinding US to other threats, former officials warn
The White House’s push to prioritize Venezuela, coupled with hardline policies on migration and drug trafficking, threatens to pull intelligence resources away from enduring security challenges in Europe, Asia and beyond, they argue.
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Push to 'reform the government root and branch' detailed in Trump’s new management agenda
The President's Management Agenda for Trump's second term offers fewer specific policy plans than other recent agendas.
House Homeland leaders seek briefings from Apple, Google on ICE-tracking apps
Republican lawmakers say crowdsourced tools that flag immigration enforcement activity may endanger federal personnel and disrupt operations.
Bill prioritizing American customers for AI chips not expected to make it into final NDAA, sources say
With the defense authorization bill being finalized this week, the chips-centric GAIN AI Act lost steam, according to sources familiar with the proceedings, but an amendment prohibiting U.S. investment in Chinese technology is expected to be included.
Civilian agency spending cratered during shutdown
October spending during the shutdown dropped by as much as 80% for some agencies compared to October 2024.
House Science Dems call for investigation into NASA Goddard cuts
The administration’s ongoing push to close labs and facilities at the Goddard Space Flight Center “risks permanently degrading Goddard’s scientific and technical capabilities with these moves,” Democratic members of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee wrote.
Congress weighed measure to curtail scope of DHS intelligence office
A provision, ultimately left out of the Intelligence Authorization Act, would have removed commonplace collection and analysis authorities granted to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, rendering much of the office’s functions inert.
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SSA abandons planned disability program overhaul expected to cut benefits for thousands
Trump administration officials informed the co-founder of a nonprofit disability advocacy group that a proposed rule — which would have updated decades-old occupational data, in addition to changing eligibility considerations — will no longer be moving forward.
Trump administration resumes funding for inspectors general hub after previously blocking it
OMB’s move to restore CIGIE funding until Jan. 30 comes as the president has already fired or replaced more than 20 agency inspectors general.
