*** Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), the ranking member on the Government Operations subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, is leaving Congress to become chief of staff to President Donald Trump. Meadows replaces Mick Mulvaney, who left the top job at the Office of Management and Budget to serve as White House chief of staff on an acting basis. Mulvaney has accepted a diplomatic role in Northern Ireland.
Meadows was active in oversight of key government IT efforts, including FITARA and data center consolidation.
*** Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said at a hearing last week that just under half of Bureau of Land Management employees accepted assignments to relocate when the bureau moved its headquarters to Grand Junction, Colo., earlier this year.
"Roughly 173 [workers received relocation orders] and 80 accepted," Bernhardt told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee. He said that others found new jobs or opted to retire.