The Daily Scoop Podcast

The Supreme Court temporarily stayed two lower court orders Friday that mandated the production of documents and other information from the Department of Government Efficiency. In a brief order from Chief Justice John Roberts, the high court stayed the discovery process in the public records lawsuit against DOGE pending another order by the court. The now-stayed orders from Judge Christopher Cooper of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia had granted an expedited discovery schedule that required DOGE to turn over information about its inner workings and have its administrator, Amy Gleason, give a deposition. The decision, for now, allows the Trump administration to withhold information about the Elon Musk-associated efficiency arm while the justices review the government's appeal. On Wednesday, Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the high court for emergency relief in the case, arguing that Cooper's decision turned the Freedom of Information Act “on its head.” At the heart of the case, which was brought by the government watchdog nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, is the question of whether DOGE constitutes an “agency” for the purposes of FOIA. While the administration says that DOGE is exempt from public records laws as a presidential advisory body, the nonprofit argues that the efficiency team has wielded “substantial independent authority” and as such is subject to FOIA and the Federal Records Act, which requires preservation of records. Staff at the Department of Homeland Security are no longer allowed to use commercial generative artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT and Claude, according to a memo sent to employees this month. The move is a reversal of a previous policy — which had conditionally allowed the use of commercial systems — and a pivot toward technology developed in-house. Earlier this month, DHS's chief information officer, Antoine McCord, sent a memo directing component tech offices to begin “restricting” the use of generative AI systems and pointing employees to internal tools. Older guidance, which the CIO described as “outdated” and “too narrowly” focused on commercial generative AI, was also removed from an online list of IT management directives. The decision comes as federal agencies weigh various pathways toward integrating generative AI into their workflows, a priority of both the Biden and Trump administrations. While some government agencies initially blocked generative AI systems, CIOs have slowly started to develop usage policies. Some agencies, like DHS and the General Services Administration, have now built their own platforms based on commercial technologies, while others have opted to use products like ChatGPT Gov through government cloud systems. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Gerry Connolly, the longtime Virginia Democratic congressman responsible for some of the most influential federal IT reform legislation of the past two decades, died Wednesday after a battle with cancer. He was 75. Connolly's family shared in a public message that the Northern Virginia congressman “passed away peacefully at his home this morning surrounded by family.” “Gerry lived his life to give back to others and make our community better. He looked out for the disadvantaged and voiceless,” they wrote. “He always stood up for what is right and just. He was a skilled statesman on the international stage, an accomplished legislator in Congress, a visionary executive on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, a fierce defender of democracy, an environmental champion, and a mentor to so many. But more important than his accomplishments in elected office, Gerry lived by the ethos of ‘bloom where you are planted.'” While Connolly served on a variety of committees during his 16-year career in the House of Representatives, including an assignment on the Committee on Foreign Relations that spanned the entirety of his service, he was most known in the federal technology community for his leadership on the Oversight and Reform Committee, during which he made agency accountability for modernization and cybersecurity a staple issue. A White House group helmed by national security adviser Stephen Miller and other homeland security-focused leaders has taken up a new focus: evaluating the federal government's powerful biometrics program. The Homeland Security Council is now working with federal agencies and departments to review “all biometrics programs to ensure they perform as efficiently and effectively as possible,” Abigail Jackson, a spokesperson for the White House, told FedScoop on Tuesday. “The Safety and Security of the American People is the President's highest priority,” Jackson said. “Biometric screening and vetting programs are a vital part of the Administration's efforts to protect U.S. Citizens.” The review comes amid recent FedScoop reporting that the Department of Government Efficiency has extended its operations to the Office of Biometric Identity Management, a small but influential office within DHS that helps oversee one of the world's largest biometric databases. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

As the United States, led by the Trump administration, charts its course as a world power in AI, the nation's adversaries, particularly China, are taking major strides as well. And the decisions made today in this race to AI will define the character of competition and conflict for years to come. Ylli Bajraktari, president and CEO of the Special Competitive Studies Project, joins the podcast to characterize this global competition from a defense and national security perspective ahead of his organization's massive AI + Expo June 2-4 at the Washington Convention Center. Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios criticized diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in federally funded research, calling them “close-minded” in a speech Monday. During remarks before the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, Kratsios called for a reduction of “red tape” in scientific research and fostering what the Trump administration is labeling “gold standard science.” Under that standard, there would be a “suspicion of blind consensus,” he said, arguing that there is a “crisis of confidence in scientists” that comes from fears that political biases are impacting research. Kratsios specifically pointed to DEI as antithetical to that mission, echoing a common refrain for the Trump administration, which has sought to rid the federal government of such programs, positions, offices and research. “DEI initiatives, in particular, degrade our scientific enterprise,” Kratsios said. “DEI represents an existential threat to the real diversity of thought that forms the foundation of the scientific community.” The remarks at the National Academy of Sciences — a nongovernmental membership organization aimed at promoting good scientific principles — come as the Trump administration's efforts to reshape the federal government have impacted federally funded research. The General Services Administration has entered a governmentwide buying agreement with Salesforce, the parent company of Slack, to reduce the price of the enterprise version of the workplace productivity and collaboration tool by 90% per user for federal agencies. GSA said in a press release Monday that it renegotiated “lower, fragmented discounts from individual agency deals” for a deal based on “total government purchasing volume” for Slack Enterprise Grid, resulting in a steep discount for agencies that will expire Nov. 30. The two parties also reached an agreement that will lower the price of Slack AI for Enterprise for agencies by “almost 70% off per user.” Salesforce, which acquired Slack in 2021 for $27.7 billion, is the latest commercial software vendor to reach a governmentwide purchasing agreement with GSA this year, resulting in lower costs for agencies. Google and Adobe also entered into agreements with the Trump administration since its inauguration. GSA and Microsoft arranged a similar deal that came just days before the Trump administration entered office. Also in this episode: Salesforce Executive Vice President for Global Public Sector Paul Tatum joins SNG host Wyatt Kash in a sponsored podcast discussion on how AI agents can help government agencies improve service delivery and internal workflows. This segment was sponsored by Salesforce. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Government Accountability Office blocked an attempt by Elon Musk's DOGE to install a team at the congressional watchdog, according to a spokesperson for the independent, nonpartisan agency and an email shared with FedScoop. The spokesperson said that DOGE staffers who attempted to establish a team at the watchdog cited President Donald Trump's executive order creating the efficiency-driven group within the White House. The spokesperson further confirmed that the agency had “declined any requests to have a DOGE team assigned to GAO.” The watchdog also sent an email to its staff Friday about the attempt and its response, a GAO source confirmed. According to the text of that email shared with FedScoop, GAO said it sent a letter to DOGE's acting administrator “stating that GAO is a legislative branch agency that conducts work for Congress. As such, we are not subject to DOGE or Executive Orders.” A top Senate Intelligence Democrat is warning the Office of Personnel Management against cancelling identity protection services that have been provided to current and former federal employees since their data was exposed in the massive 2015 OPM data breach. In a letter sent Friday to OPM acting Director Charles Ezell, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., expressed concerns about Department of Government Efficiency-instituted cuts to the personnel agency and plans that it may have to “curtail identity theft monitoring for millions of public servants and their families whose information was compromised in 2015.” The breach of OPM servers by Chinese-backed hackers rocked Washington and the federal workforce a decade ago, as the Social Security numbers, birthdates, addresses and other personal information of more than 21 million individuals were exposed. At the time, Warner, his Virginia Senate colleague Tim Kaine and then-Sens. Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski of Maryland co-sponsored the RECOVER Act to provide identity protection services to those impacted by the OPM breach. Congress appropriated funds for those services “for a period of not less than 10 years.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The National Labor Relations Board's inspector general is conducting an investigation into the Department of Government Efficiency's work at the agency. In April, an IT staffer named Daniel Berulis filed an official whistleblower disclosure with Congress highlighting concerns over DOGE's practices at the NLRB and data that may have been removed from the agency. In response to the disclosure, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, requested an investigation in a letter to Luiz A. Santos, acting inspector general of the Labor Department, and Ruth Blevins, inspector general at the NLRB. Timothy Bearese, an attorney at the NLRB currently serving as its acting director of congressional and public affairs, told FedScoop that the agency has no comment but “can confirm that the OIG is conducting an investigation, as requested by Ranking Member Connolly.” Back In April, Bearese told NPR that the NLRB had not granted DOGE access to agency systems. At that time, he also said that there had been a past investigation based on Berulis' concerns that “determined that no breach of agency systems occurred.” A spokesperson for House Oversight Committee Democrats told FedScoop on Thursday that “there are multiple investigations into Elon Musk's violations of sensitive investigatory information at the NLRB.” House Oversight Democrats are asking a Treasury Department watchdog to open an investigation into DOGE's data and IT modernization dealings at the IRS following reports of an internal “hackathon” at the tax agency that may have involved Palantir. In a letter sent Thursday to Heather Hill, acting head of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, House Oversight ranking member Gerry Connolly, D-Va., cited “deep concern” over reporting in Wired last month that revealed plans for a 30-day sprint where DOGE engineers and a third-party vendor — potentially the data analytics giant Palantir — would create a new application programming interface connected to taxpayer data. That API, Wired reported, would essentially serve as a storage center for all IRS data and enable agency systems to interact with unknown cloud services. Building a “mega API” is likely connected to plans for a “master database” that also pulls in data from the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration, according to Wired, part of a Trump administration effort to track and surveil immigrants. “The reported data centralization and integration effort could undermine intentional compartmentalization of IRS systems,” which raises “serious privacy questions,” Connolly wrote. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is set to withdraw a Biden-era rule aimed at cracking down on data brokers and their selling of Americans' personal and financial information. In a notice in the Federal Register, the CFPB said legislative rulemaking on the data broker industry “is not necessary or appropriate at this time,” and the agency does not plan to “take any further action” on the proposal. The notice was issued by Russell Vought, acting director of the agency, head of the Office of Management and Budget and a Project 2025 architect. The withdrawal of the rule, which was first reported by Wired, comes after President Donald Trump's initial nominee to lead the CFPB signaled to Congress in February an openness to continuing Biden administration data-broker rules. Jonathan McKernan, a former Treasury Department and Federal Housing Finance Agency staffer, told the Senate Banking Committee that Rohit Chopra — President Joe Biden's CFPB director — “was onto something” with his policies targeting data brokers and data aggregators. The CFPB's withdrawal notice took particular issue with the rule's focus on the Fair Credit Reporting Act, saying that the proposal was “not aligned with the Bureau's current interpretation of the FCRA, which it is in the process of revising.” The Senate on Wednesday voted 54-43 to confirm businessman Emil Michael as undersecretary of defense for research and engineering and the Pentagon's chief technology officer. In that position, Michael will serve as the primary advisor to the secretary of defense and other Defense Department leaders on tech development and transition, prototyping, experimentation, and management of testing ranges and activities. He'll also be in charge of synchronizing science and technology efforts across the DOD. Michael comes to the job from the private sector, where he's been a business executive, advisor and investor. He told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that he's been involved with more than 50 different tech companies during his career. Perhaps most notable, from 2013 to 2017, he was chief business officer at Uber. In government, he previously served as special assistant to the secretary of defense when Robert Gates was Pentagon chief. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Amid a governmentwide effort to bring federal employees back to the office, a small but powerful biometrics office based in the Department of Homeland Security is now so packed that employees were briefly asked to bring their own chairs to work. An email viewed by FedScoop shows that employees of the Office of Biometric Identity Management (OBIM) were at one point guided to bring their own chairs to work. That advice was quickly rescinded, with the email saying that despite the initial guidance, staff should not bring their own chairs to the office while thanking employees for their patience as they worked through logistical challenges. OBIM, which was established more than a decade ago to manage the biometric information used to make border security decisions, is based at the Transportation Security Administration's offices. Another email, also viewed by FedScoop, highlights the severe space constraints at OBIM. Employees were sent lists of conference rooms that could be used for seating options for work. The email said: “With these space limitations, we encourage staff to please be accommodating and share offices and workspaces to the extent it is possible. Please connect directly with your supervisor and division leadership to discuss creative seating solutions. Please remember that we are all in this together and are working to find viable solutions. Thank you again for your patience as we work through these logistical challenges.” Because there isn't enough office or cubicle space, it's possible that staffers could unintentionally expose information to those that don't need to know it, given their proximity to other people, one former OBIM employee said. As DOGE continues its decimation of the federal workforce, grinds various operations to a halt and touts dubious cost-savings claims, the congressional agency with deep experience rooting out fraud, waste and abuse in government released a litany of recommendations Tuesday that it says could save the public tens of billions of dollars. The Government Accountability Office's 15th annual report on federal programs that have “fragmented, overlapping, or duplicative goals or actions” identified 148 cost-cutting measures across 43 topic areas, delivering a playbook to Congress and federal agencies aimed at lowering costs, improving programs and increasing revenues. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro said in a press release that the GAO's updated report details “new and meaningful opportunities to save federal funds across a wide range of programs.” “By addressing this year's updated list, as well as open recommendations to both agencies and Congress from GAO's past work, the federal government could potentially save an additional” $100 billion, he added. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Since regaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Estonia has been intentional about harnessing technology to build a transparent and efficient government. And today, thanks to the country's digital-first approach and the E-Estonia initiative for government services, 100 percent of its government services are provided digitally. At last month's AITalks, Estonian Ambaassador to the U.S. Kristjan Prikk touched on his nation's digital foundation, how that has set Estonia up for successful adoption of AI and what lessons the U.S. can learn from the world leader in digital government. As the internet becomes overrun with AI slop and public trust in artificial intelligence plummets, a bipartisan group of senators want to enlist the Commerce Department in an education operation about the emerging technology. The Artificial Intelligence Public Awareness and Education Campaign Act would require the Commerce secretary to oversee an initiative to provide Americans with information about the benefits of AI in their daily lives, as well as the risks the technology presents. Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., a co-sponsor of the bill, said in a statement that “With the rapid increase of AI in our society, it is important that individuals can both clearly recognize the technology and understand how to maximize the use of it in their daily lives.” The campaign would detail the ubiquity of AI in everyday life and highlight its benefits, including for small business owners and in workforce opportunities with the federal government. It would also note the different ways in which various regions, economies and subpopulations may interact with the technology, while making clear “the rights of an individual under law with respect” to AI. The Office of Personnel Management abruptly canceled a sole-source contract for HR services from Workday on Friday, roughly a week after it was awarded. Despite its initial justification describing the agency's urgent need for services only Workday could provide, OPM clawed back the justification and terminated the $342,200 award “for convenience.” The agency didn't respond to FedScoop's request for comment for further information about why the contract was canceled, including whether it planned to hold a competition for the award or whether not having the services quickly would impact the agency's upcoming modernization deadlines. In its original justification, OPM said that the sole-source award — those made to a single company without a bidding process — was needed “due to an urgent confluence of operational failures and binding federal mandates that require immediate action.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The National Science Foundation is taking steps to slash its workforce, including reducing the number of senior executive service roles as well as temporary and non-federal roles, according to an internal memo to staff obtained by FedScoop. The memo was emailed to staff Friday afternoon by Chief Management Officer Micah Cheatham. It also included plans to require in-person work starting June 16 and the elimination of the Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM in the next two months, which it announced publicly Friday as well. Details of the agency's workforce reduction plans come after its termination of hundreds of grants that don't align with President Donald Trump's policies, such as those that included diversity, equity and inclusion activities. Amid those actions, Sethuraman Panchanathan resigned his position as NSF's director. Panchanathan had been appointed by Trump during the president's first term. Per the memo, NSF began on Thursday a reduction-in-force of its senior executive service workforce, which is a designation for federal senior leadership and management officials. Of the 143 total SES roles — including vacant positions — that NSF had on Jan. 20, just 59 are needed under the agency's “new organizational structure and proposed future year budgets.” A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation last week that would scale back the Transportation Security Administration's facial recognition program, giving travelers the right to not have their faces scanned when passing through airports. The lawmakers say their push for the Traveler Privacy Protection Act comes as the Department of Homeland Security component seeks to expand the use of facial recognition at hundreds of airports. Specifically, the bill would require the TSA to clearly inform passengers of their right to not participate in the DHS facial recognition program and bar the agency from providing worse treatment to passengers that choose not to participate. The legislation would also forbid the TSA from storing traveler facial recognition data indefinitely and from using the technology to target people or conduct mass surveillance. Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., John Kennedy, R-La., Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan., are co-sponsors of the bill. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Department of Government Efficiency has arrived at the Office of Biometric Identity Management, a quiet but powerful component of the Department of Homeland Security that handles a critical database of fingerprint, facial, and iris data used throughout the federal government. Three people, including one person within DHS and two more familiar with the matter, confirmed that DOGE now has a presence at the agency. Two of those sources added that DOGE seems to have restarted conversations about the future of the Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology (HART) program, which DHS has long hoped would replace the agency's current biometrics database — the Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT), one of the world's largest known systems of that kind. OBIM was created more than a decade ago to manage the biometric information used to make border security decisions. As a relatively small office, OBIM provides assistance to DHS and federal agencies, including the State Department. OBIM also sometimes exchanges biometrics with other countries. OBIM's biometric database stores hundreds of millions of biometric data points. A DHS website notes that a single query of the system “can retrieve data for an individual tied to a Department of State visa application, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection log of an entry into the United States, and an immigration status change logged by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.” The Trump administration has launched an effort to overhaul the Federal Acquisition Regulation with a focus on delivering a quicker, more efficient and less burdensome procurement process for federal agencies. To provide details on the progress of the so-called “Revolutionary FAR Overhaul,” the General Services Administration — one of the federal government's lead procurement agencies and a member of the FAR Council — launched a new website Tuesday for the initiative. Federal acquisition stakeholders can expect to find a streamlined version of the FAR, buying guides — the first of which will be focused on software-as-a-service — and opportunities to share their feedback about acquisition policy on the new website, according to a release from GSA. The Trump administration's overhaul of the FAR was spurred by an executive order in April that called on the Office of Federal Procurement Policy in the Office of Management and Budget to lead the effort with FAR Council members GSA, NASA and the Defense Department. Within 180 days of that order, the group is expected to “amend the FAR to ensure that it contains only provisions that are required by statute or that are otherwise necessary to support simplicity and usability, strengthen the efficacy of the procurement system, or protect economic or national security interests.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

As generative AI increasingly takes hold across the federal government, a class of that greater tech discipline called agentic AI is also gaining momentum. Think of it like an AI sidekick. Agentic AI moves beyond rules-based AI assistants of the past to act autonomously to accomplish something without the need for constant human intervention. According to Jonathan Alboum, federal CTO of ServiceNow and a former federal CIO at USDA, agentic AI holds massive potential for the future of the federal government, particularly amid the Trump administration's slashing of the federal workforce and placing a premium on efficiency. Alboum joins the podcast to discuss that, some exciting news from ServiceNow's Knowledge conference this week in Las Vegas and his thoughts on how federal CIOs are managing ongoing consolidation of federal IT programs. President Donald Trump's fiscal 2026 budget proposal would slash $491 million from the budget of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, according to a summary released Friday. That would amount to a nearly 17% reduction to the agency's approximately $3 billion budget. The administration did not release a detailed itemization of the cuts, only an outline. “The Budget refocuses CISA on its core mission — Federal network defense and enhancing the security and resilience of critical infrastructure — while eliminating weaponization and waste,” a summary reads. In broad strokes, if approved by Congress, the budget would target for reduction what it identified as “so-called” disinformation and misinformation programs and offices; “duplicative” programs of other programs at the state and federal level; “external engagement offices such as international affairs”; and consolidate “redundant security advisors and programs.” A startup founder and Department of Government Efficiency associate named Sam Corcos is the new chief information officer of the Treasury Department, according to a person within the agency. Corcos was introduced with that title at a recent meeting for Treasury bureau chief information officers, the person added. Corcos, who most recently helped create a health company called Levels, had been representing DOGE in the Treasury Department, with the official title of special advisor. Corcos, who has appeared on Fox News with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, has said his top priority is looking at the operations and maintenance budget, as well as modernization, at the IRS. He's also sought access to government data and, according to Wired, was involved in an effort to organize an IRS hackathon. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Trump administration issued its first major budget document Friday, slashing non-defense discretionary spending by $163 billion — a 23% reduction from 2025 levels — and boosting defense spending by 13%. A fact sheet released by OMB references the administration's targeting of “woke” programs and “weaponized” government. One area that would see a significant boost under the budget is the Department of Veterans Affairs' electronic health record modernization program. The EHRM, whose perpetually plagued rollout has been chronicled in congressional testimony and in various watchdog reports, would be provided with a $2.17 billion funding increase in President Donald Trump's budget, per a summary document released Friday. The VA announced in March that it will have implemented the EHR in 13 facilities by 2026, with the possibility of deployment at all VA health systems as early as 2031. That followed a decision in 2023 to pause the system's implementation to renegotiate the contract with its developer Oracle Cerner and account for safety concerns. Friday's budget summary claimed the VA's EHRM rollout “had stalled under the Biden administration” but is a “top priority effort” for Secretary Doug Collins. The Technology Modernization Fund is shifting its funding model to prioritize the full repayment of new “high-impact” investments across the federal government, the General Services Administration said Friday. GSA's press release said the “strategic” change would provide a “streamlined path to modernization” for agencies by “combining upfront capital with specialized advisory services.” The agency said this “enhanced payment model” was pursued with strengthened longevity for projects in mind. Acting GSA Administrator Stephen Ehikian said in a release that “By ensuring full repayment of our investments, the TMF sends a clear message to federal agencies: focus on high-impact, high-return modernization efforts. These investments not only replace outdated systems but also streamline critical operations ultimately improving services for government employees and delivering greater value to taxpayers.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Treasury Department is losing two of its top technology officials, according to agency sources. Brian Peretti, Treasury's chief technology officer, is leaving the position and taking the federal government's early retirement option, two people within the agency said. Peretti helped organize the department's planning process for information technology and also served in the role of chief artificial intelligence officer. Rick Therrien, Treasury's chief information security officer, is also retiring, the two agency sources said. Therrien had served in the position since July 2024, and, before then, held a series of roles at the Internal Revenue Service. The moves come amid tensions in the Treasury Department over the influence of the Department of Government Efficiency and the departures of IT officials across the federal government. The Defense Department's chief information officer said this week she's kicking off a new program that aims to overhaul cumbersome bureaucratic mechanisms and streamline its ability to rapidly approve new software capabilities for warfighters. Under the Software Fast Track (SWIFT) program, the Pentagon will use artificial intelligence to replace legacy authority to operate (ATO) and Risk Management Framework (RMF) processes when buying new software. Acting DOD CIO Katie Arrington signed a memo authorizing the new effort said and it would officially launch May 1. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Government Accountability Office auditors are examining the “digital footprint” left by DOGE in Treasury Department, Social Security Administration and Office of Personnel Management IT systems, the watchdog's leader told Congress on Tuesday. Testifying before the Senate Appropriations Legislative Branch Subcommittee, Comptroller General Gene Dodaro said GAO auditors are looking into what data was accessed by the Elon Musk underlings during their forays into agency IT systems, and determining if any changes were made. “We're looking at the digital footprint within each of these major systems across government,” Dodaro said, naming OPM, SSA and Treasury specifically. “So we'll have a better idea about what impact DOGE's access has had on the data systems, and whether there's been any information input into the system or taken out of the system.” The General Services Administration unveiled a new initiative Tuesday that it says is aimed at helping agencies gain easier access to IT tools and shifting how the federal government approaches procurement. The OneGov Strategy is meant to modernize how the government buys goods and services and calls for more direct engagement with Original Equipment Manufacturers. The GSA said in a press release that OEMs “will benefit from a more direct and predictable engagement model.” Taxpayers, meanwhile, will benefit from a “smarter, more secure federal IT enterprise” under the strategy, the GSA said. While agencies have, in the past, bought software through resellers, the GSA believes this approach prioritizes direct relationships for enhanced outcomes. Stephen Ehikian, the agency's acting administrator, called the OneGov Strategy “a bold step forward” in GSA's “mission to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars. It's about acting as one — aligning to our scale, standards and security to meet the needs of today's government while prepping for the future.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

A memo sent to U.S. Agency for International Development employees Thursday announced that the now-hobbled agency will no longer try to salvage government devices for staff based domestically. The move is notable, given that USAID had previously initiated some work to transfer technical assets to the State Department. It is not uncommon for the agency to remotely wipe devices abroad, but doing so domestically — and then trashing the equipment — is unusual. Federal agencies often auction office equipment, including computers, they no longer need. In the letter, which was viewed by FedScoop, employees were told that U.S.-based direct hires, personal service contractors, and institutional support contractors must complete “various exit tasks,” including the return of government equipment. To “simplify the process and reduce burden,” the agency says it isn't requiring employees to return iPhones, iPads, and laptops. The memo stated: “The IT equipment will be remotely wiped and marked as disposed from USAID IT asset inventories on or around the employee Reduction in Force (RIF) date, and the employee can then dispose of the assets. Further details and updates regarding the remote wiping/sanitization process for the devices and what to anticipate will be communicated closer to the RIF dates.” Secretary of the Navy John Phelan on Thursday ordered the termination of hundreds of millions of dollars in IT contracts and unrelated grants as part of a broader push at the Defense Department to slash spending that the Trump administration deems wasteful. The moves — outlined in a pair of memos issued to the chief of naval operations, Marine Corps commandant, Navy assistant secretaries and general counsel — are pursuant to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's “commitment to strategically rebuild our military, restore accountability to the Department of Defense, cut wasteful spending, and implement the President's orders,” Phelan wrote. The IT contracts axed by the SECNAV include those for the Naval Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (NMRO) program. Phelan also directed the Navy's chief information officer to prepare a new acquisition strategy by July 31, along with management review of the program. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The director of the National Science Foundation announced his departure Thursday after five years at the agency. In a brief public statement, Sethuraman Panchanathan said he was stepping down effective Thursday and called it “an honor and privilege to serve as the Director of NSF.” He also informed employees at NSF in an internal memorandum viewed by FedScoop. “I believe I have done all I can to advance the critical mission of the agency and feel that it is time for me to pass the baton to new leadership,” Panchanathan said in the public statement. Panchanathan assumed the role as NSF director during the first administration of President Donald Trump and carried on under Joe Biden. Under his leadership, the department launched its 27 AI institutes, began its Technology, Innovation, and Partnership Directorate, which has funded regional hubs for innovation across the U.S., and started the National AI Research Resource pilot project. His departure comes soon after the agency began terminating grants that didn't comply with the priorities of the current administration, including items related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and misinformation and disinformation. A bipartisan pair of House lawmakers are pushing for the reauthorization of the law that launched the Technology Modernization Fund. Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., on Thursday reintroduced the Modernizing Government Technology Act, which largely mimics legislation introduced during the last Congress, just with an updated sunset date of 2032 instead of 2031. The bill revises and adds some additional requirements to the original Modernizing Government Technology Act, which passed in 2017. Connolly said in a press release that the reauthorization bill is a “welcome show of support for the [TMF] and the critical goal that drove its creation — bringing federal IT into the 21st century.” The bill looks to increase the TMF's effectiveness by creating new reporting requirements for the federal chief information officer and agency CIOs, requiring a list of high-risk legacy IT systems that are used, operated or maintained by the agency, according to the bill's text. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Members of the Department of Government Efficiency have made their way into the National Science Foundation, as grants throughout the agency are being terminated. Three DOGE affiliates are currently listed as working in the Office of the Director at NSF, according to multiple sources within the agency: Luke Farritor, a former SpaceX intern and AI engineer who has shown up at other agencies DOGE has entered; Rachel Riley, a former McKinsey consultant who has also appeared at the Department of Health and Human Services; and Zachary Terrell. As part of the arrangement, Farritor has a “Budget, Finance, and Administration” clearance, which a source said allows him to view and modify the agency's funding opportunity system. Farritor and Terrell are listed in an agency directory as consultants. On April 18, NSF published a statement that it was terminating grants and awards that don't align with the administration's priorities, including those related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and misinformation and disinformation. Alexis Bonnell has stepped down from her positions at the Air Force Research Laboratory and transitioned to a new job at OpenAI, the company responsible for the development of ChatGPT. In 2023, Bonnell was tapped to serve as AFRL's first-ever chief information officer and director of the laboratory's Digital Capabilities Directorate, where she led the lab's information technology strategy and overall modernization efforts. According to a Tuesday post on LinkedIn, Bonnell is now working at OpenAI as a partnership manager, a position she took on in March. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Labor Department employees can now access two OpenAI models through the company's partnership with Microsoft Azure, making the agency the latest to integrate generative AI into its workflow. The two OpenAI models now available to Labor staff are GPT-4o and GPT-4o mini, according to documents viewed by FedScoop. The agency's platform for the OpenAI tech suggests that staff use the technology for specific applications, including a language translator, a “pros and cons analyzer,” and a memo writer. A large document analyzer and document comparison tool are also available in the interface. Along with that, the department has published a guide on the appropriate use of AI systems and cautions agency users that their role in properly using the generative AI tools is “crucial.” Staff are flagged with a warning before using the tool and are instructed to review outputs for accuracy. Previously, these kinds of generative AI tools had not been approved for Labor Department use and employees were warned not to enter federal information into the systems, a source within the agency told FedScoop. Two top officials at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency who worked with the private sector to manufacture secure products and technology are leaving the agency. Bob Lord, senior technical adviser and Lauren Zabierek, senior advisor at CISA, were two of the chief architects behind CISA's Secure by Design initiative, which garnered voluntary commitments from major vendors and manufacturers to build cybersecurity protections into their products at the design stage. On Monday in separate posts on LinkedIn, Lord and Zabierek both said they are departing the agency. Neither offered a rationale or motivation for the decision, with Lord simply calling it a “difficult decision” and Zabierek saying it was “not an easy choice.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Dozens of Democrats wrote a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought on Wednesday demanding information on the Department of Government Efficiency's unauthorized use of artificial intelligence systems. The letter, which was led by Reps. Don Beyer, D-Va., Mike Levin, D-Calif., and Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M. and signed by 45 other lawmakers, expressed concerns about privacy and security risks associated with the group's use of federal data in unapproved AI systems, as well as potential conflicts of interest involving Elon Musk, who leads an AI firm called xAI. Specifically, the lawmakers flagged reports of DOGE affiliates inputting data into unapproved AI systems and the risk that sensitive federal data could be used to train future commercial models. Douglas Matty assumed the role of the Pentagon's Chief Digital and AI Officer on Monday, according to an internal unclassified email viewed by DefenseScoop. The principal deputy who has been temporarily leading the AI hub ahead of the Trump administration's selection for the new chief, Margie Palmieri, sent the announcement to several senior officials Friday morning. In the email, she indicated that more communications on the team's path ahead would soon follow, once Matty takes the reins. Matty previously founded the Army AI Integration Center under Army Futures Command, which he led between 2020 and 2022. Palmieri wrote: “We are excited to get appointed leadership at the helm of CDAO so early in the administration. The prioritization on filling the top Al and data related leadership position in DoD will enable the Department to better accelerate and scale the adoption of data, analytics, and Al in line with the Secretary's priorities.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The General Services Administration is not happy with the top-10 consulting firms it asked back in February to self-identify contracts that could be terminated to save the federal government money, going as far as to call their efforts under the initiative “insulting.” Josh Gruenbaum, commissioner of GSA's Federal Acquisition Service, wrote in a letter to those 10 firms, viewed by FedScoop, that GSA and its contracting partners are “unanimously unimpressed” with the cost savings those contractors identified in the so-called “scorecards” they submitted after the agency called for the termination of government contracts with those top consultants. As a result, the agency is calling on those firms to submit a second “waste review” by 5 p.m. ET on Friday with their proposals demonstrating how they can “lean into developing taxpayer friendly pricing” with “dramatic price reductions.” “In good faith, and with high expectation, we offered firms the opportunity to join us in reducing wasteful spending and do their part in addressing the twin issues of the federal debt and deficit,” Gruenbaum wrote. “The efforts to propose meaningful cost savings were wholly insufficient, to the point of being insulting.” The Labor Department's new chief information officer is looking to reduce staff in the Office of the CIO by about 30%, according to a source within the agency. Hundreds of people currently work in Labor's CIO office, but leadership is hoping many workers will voluntarily leave the team. Thomas Shedd, who was appointed to Labor's CIO role last month, is optimistic that the goal will be achieved through the federal government's deferred resignation programs and reduction-in-force efforts, the source said. Going forward, Labor's Office of the CIO plans to focus on systems used to disburse benefits, as well as programs required by law that need business systems and software to work, according to documents viewed by FedScoop. There will also be an emphasis on efficiency and consolidating systems while providing value, the documents said. The department told employees that they're not “tracking” staff, despite media reports, and that the agency is only interested in measuring results. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Trump administration has decided to terminate the IRS's Direct File program, according to a source familiar with the situation, putting an end to the free electronic filing system that congressional Republicans and the tax preparation industry have had in their crosshairs since its creation. Work on Direct File began during Joe Biden's presidency, bringing together some of the administration's top technical and product minds and tapping into funds from the Inflation Reduction Act. Providing all U.S. taxpayers with a free filing tool would have put the country in line with most developed nations. But despite what the IRS considered to be a successful launch last year, Direct File's future was murky after President Donald Trump's election and the administration's welcoming of Elon Musk's DOGE into the government tech world. The pending elimination of the free filing tool was celebrated Wednesday by the makers of TurboTax. Derrick Plummer, an Intuit spokesman, called Direct File “a solution in search of a problem, a drain on critical IRS resources and a waste of taxpayer dollars.” Consumer advocate groups panned the Trump administration's decision. Susan Harley, managing director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch division, said in a statement that scrapping Direct File “is almost literally taking money out of our pockets.” Dean Ball, a policy scholar with a focus on the intersection of history, political theory, policy and technology, is joining the Trump administration as a senior policy advisor on artificial intelligence and emerging technology, he announced Tuesday on the social media platform X. Ball said in his post of joining the Office of Science and Technology Policy: “It is a thrill and honor to serve my country in this role and work alongside the tremendous team [OSTP Director Michael Kratsios] has built.” He comes to OSTP from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where he has served as a research fellow for the past year. Ball is also the author of an AI-focused blog called Hyperdimensional, in which he has defended the AI Safety Institute and commented on the Trump administration's terminations of probationary employees, saying the move had unintended consequences. Ball also wrote recently that he is interested in AI being built at the same time that the Trump administration and Republicans “seek to advance theories of a ‘unitary executive' — the notion that the president exercises the powers granted to him by the Constitution and Congress absolutely.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Internal Revenue Service's chief information officer is leaving the tax agency this month, the latest in an increasingly long line of veteran IT leaders exiting the government amid President Donald Trump's gutting of the federal workforce. Rajiv Uppal told IT staffers in a Monday email, obtained by FedScoop, that he had “decided to depart” the tax agency, and that his last day will be April 28. Kaschit Pandya, the agency's chief technology officer, will take over as acting CIO “while leadership finalizes long-term plans for the role,” Uppal wrote. President Donald Trump signed a pair of executive orders Tuesday to revamp the federal procurement and contracting processes, part of the administration's sweeping takedown of government regulations. The procurement order takes aim at the Federal Acquisition Regulation, which the White House says has evolved “into an excessive and overcomplicated regulatory framework and resulting in an onerous bureaucracy.” To “create the most agile, effective, and efficient procurement system possible,” Trump's EO calls for the removal of “undue barriers” and “unnecessary regulations” in procurement. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The CODY bot, a tool used to streamline procurement processes at the General Services Administration, is now ready for use across the federal landscape after three years of buildout. CODY aggregates prerequisite data into a checklist, according to GSA officials familiar with the tool, enabling staffers to see if a vendor has met all representation requirements — ensuring there is no active federal debt against a vendor, and no exclusionary or responsibility cautions to trigger notifications. The agency primarily tracks how many hours the bot saves in a year rather than the costs saved, according to one of the officials. GSA Administrator Stephen Ehikian posted on X that the bot's completion resulted in the cancellation of a $423,000 contract. “President Trump's GSA is at the forefront of leveraging technology for government to produce tools that boost productivity and our employee's potential,” Ehikian said in a statement to FedScoop. A pair of House Democrats are sounding the alarm about the U.S. Secret Service's use of counter-drone technology, which recently triggered air traffic control system alerts at the Washington National Airport. Democratic Reps. Rick Larsen of Washington and Bennie Thompson of Mississippi are demanding more information about the use of the technology and raising concerns about whether the Department of Homeland Security component is following proper procedures. In a Monday letter sent to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the lawmakers pointed to alerts produced by the Traffic Collision Avoidance System last month. These alerts made erroneous recommendations to several commercial and Coast Guard aircraft, Larsen and Thompson say. And according to analysis conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration, the alerts were produced by Secret Service anti-drone technology at a nearby Defense Department location. The confusion comes after the deadly crash between a commercial airline and an Army helicopter at DCA airport earlier this year, which resulted in dozens of deaths. While DHS has launched an investigation, the Democratic congressmen say the counter-drone technology deployed by the DOD was operating outside existing notifications — and that the Secret Service did not share required notifications with the FAA. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Customs and Border Protection's Office of Information Technology says it's reviewing the loss of three physical servers, a public records request shows. According to a document produced by CBP's Cybersecurity Directorate, about 200 government devices have been stolen or gone missing in recent years. Of these devices, 140 were cell phones, and just under 40 were laptops. No items were reported to be lost abroad, according to the document. That federal employees would have lost phones and tablets isn't surprising. FedScoop has reported on lost electronics at the U.S. Agency for International Development and NASA, and agencies often review inventories of employee devices. Still, the loss of government-furnished equipment can raise concerns about the security of sensitive data. Some federal employees have even been caught stealing government IT equipment in order to sell it. The loss of three servers is somewhat unusual. The agency did not answer a series of questions about the lost servers, including what data they might have held or whether the losses were ever reported to law enforcement. In response to FedScoop questions, an agency spokesperson said, “CBP is currently reviewing this issue.” The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency must brief Congress on proposed deep cuts to agency personnel, a top Democrat said in a letter to its acting director. California Rep. Eric Swalwell, ranking member of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection, wrote in the letter to acting Director Bridget Bean on Thursday that CISA is obligated to notify Congress of its plans. CISA reportedly plans to cut agency staff by nearly 40%, or 1,300 people. Swallwell wrote in his letter that “upending an agency that plays such an important role in defending the homeland while keeping Congress in the dark is wholly unacceptable,” adding that CISA hasn't provided the subcommittee any justification for the cuts or explained how it will execute its congressionally mandated mission with a fraction of the workforce and resources. CISA had already cut 130 probationary staffers, a move blocked in court before being overturned in an appeal. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth signed a memo Thursday ordering the termination of several IT services contracts and directing the Pentagon's chief information officer to draw up plans for in-sourcing, among other measures. The aim is to “cut wasteful spending” and “support the continued rationalization” of the Defense Department's IT enterprise, Hegseth wrote. The move comes amid a broader push by the Trump administration to implement Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiatives across federal agencies. Hegseth's new memo to senior Pentagon leadership ordered the termination of contracts affecting a variety of DOD components, including a Defense Health Agency contract for consulting services; an Air Force contract to re-sell third party enterprise cloud IT services; a Navy contract for business process consulting services; and a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract for IT helpdesk services. In a video released on social media touting these DOGE-related efforts, Hegseth estimated that those contract terminations would save the Pentagon approximately $1.8 billion, $1.4 billion, $500 million and $500 million, respectively. Another round of General Services Administration workforce cuts is hitting Technology Transformation Services, specifically within its Integrated Award Environment (IAE), Solutions, and Office of Regulatory and Oversight Systems (OROS) programs, sources confirmed to FedScoop. Under TTS, the Solutions platforms and services, front office, public experience and accelerators teams were all affected by the reductions, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. However, programs that are safe from the current — and widespread — reductions in force include FedRAMP, Login.gov and Cloud.gov, sources said. Additionally, TTS consulting, fellowships and front office are untouched as well. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Internal Revenue Service's acting commissioner is set to leave the tax agency, according to a source familiar with the situation, a move that comes after the Treasury Department signed an agreement to share taxpayers' information with the Department of Homeland Security. Melanie Krause, who joined the IRS in October 2021 as the agency's chief data and analytics officer, is taking the federal government's deferred resignation offer and was not pushed to resign, according to the source. A Government Accountability Office and Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General alum, Krause was elevated to acting commissioner from chief operating officer in late February, taking over for Doug O'Donnell, who retired after manning the interim post following Danny Werfel's January departure. Krause decided to resign after Treasury officials struck a deal with Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the accessing of taxpayer information. Krause was largely excluded from those conversations, per the Washington Post. A Treasury spokesperson said in a statement to FedScoop that she will continue to serve as acting commissioner “until at least May 15th.” President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that could lead to the cancellation of major defense acquisition programs, boost the procurement of commercial technologies and shake up the workforce. The directive states that “after years of misplaced priorities and poor management, our defense acquisition system does not provide the speed and flexibility our Armed Forces need to have decisive advantages in the future. In order to strengthen our military edge, America must deliver state‐of‐the‐art capabilities at speed and scale through a comprehensive overhaul of this system.” The EO on “Modernizing Defense Acquisition and Spurring Innovation in the Defense Industrial Base,” directs Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Pentagon leadership to complete a comprehensive review of all major defense acquisition programs (MDAPs) within 90 days. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Just days into his latest run as president, Donald Trump fired 17 inspectors general acoss the federal government. The move not only set off alarms in the government oversight and accountability community, but it also set an early precedent for how the Trump administration would deal with any entities he saw as threatening to his agenda as president. Diana Shaw has spent much of her career in the shoes of federal inspectors general, having served as acting IG of the State Department and a variety of roles in DHS's Office of the IG, before retiring from government in 2024. So she knows as good as anyone, through her continued connections and deep experience, how IGs in the Trump administration are navigating the current dynamic, what's at play as they maneuver around the work of the DOGE and how things wil continue to unfold. Now a partner at DC law firm Wiley Rein LLP, Shaw joins the Daily Scoop to discuss all that as well as her thoughts on one of the biggest IG cases: the Pentagon's probe into the secretary of defense's use of commercial messaging applications like Signal to conduct official business. The Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency team is examining the Navy's software enterprise, the service's chief information officer said Tuesday. The review comes as the administration is undertaking a broad look at the Defense Department's and other federal agencies' contracts and workforce in search of what it considers wasteful spending and opportunities for savings. After accessing data at the Department of Homeland Security, including systems operated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency now appears to be behind a new effort to shrink the agency's staff. On Monday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem sent a message to employees encouraging them to leave the agency, according to an email viewed by FedScoop. The message explained details of deferred resignation, voluntary early retirement, and voluntary separation incentive payment programs. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The U.S. Agency for International Development is taking its final steps toward shuttering, sending a memo last Thursday to bureau heads focused on recruiting workers on administrative leave to assist with final steps required to decommission the agency. The memo states that the “default position” is that all staff are reporting to work — except those who have been requested and approved to go on administrative leave — and that USAID employees may be asked to work beyond their typical subject areas and to help with other projects. Those based in a bureau or independent office are supposed to have a space allotment, though managers are instructed to minimize the need for people to be shifted in and out of work. Teams that do not have an onsite presence will need to return to the office for “closeout procedures,” the email adds. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to White House officials Monday expressing serious concerns about the recent installation of Starlink internet service in the executive branch complex. The letter, which was signed by Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Shontel Brown, D-Ohio and shared exclusively with FedScoop, comes amid reports that Starlink — provided by Elon Musk's SpaceX — is now integrated into the White House property's IT systems. The members of Congress are also flagging the use of the internet service at the General Services Administration. A physical Starlink terminal connects to the low-Earth orbit satellite constellation that provides the internet service. But the White House has gone further than simply purchasing that equipment — the service has now been connected and routed into an administration data center. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The White House Office of Management and Budget released a pair of memos to provide agencies with guardrails for how they use and purchase artificial intelligence in the government, replacing Biden administration guidance but maintaining some of the same structures. Both memos, which are dated April 3, represent some of the first major policy actions President Donald Trump has taken on the government's use of AI. Trump began his administration by rolling back former President Joe Biden's AI executive order and later issuing one of his own that called for an AI action plan and a review of the previous administration's work on the technology. Specifically, the order included directions to revise the Biden OMB's AI governance and acquisition guidance. The first new memo (M-25-21) provides guardrails for use and replaces Biden's directive on the same topic (M-24-10). That document states agencies are to focus on three priorities when accelerating the federal use of AI — innovation, governance and public trust — which align with an executive order on the technology from the first Trump administration. But that directive also maintains things that were established under the Biden administration, like chief AI officers and their council and a special management process for potentially risky AI uses it now calls “high-impact.” Similarly, the second memo on AI acquisition (M-25-22) replaces the Biden OMB's guidance on government purchasing of the tech (M-24-18). A bipartisan pair of senators is taking another shot at their bill to expand the U.S. Secret Service's investigative powers for financial cybercrime probes. The Combatting Money Laundering in Cyber Crime Act from Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, would update federal law to strengthen the Secret Service's authority, enabling the agency to look into criminal activity tied to digital assets. Cortez Masto said in a statement: “Dangerous criminals are constantly changing their tactics and using new technology to avoid detection. Our law enforcement agencies need to adapt to keep communities safe. I will continue to fight to pass this bipartisan legislation that would help the Secret Service more effectively combat cybercrime.” Under current law, the Secret Service is empowered to investigate cybercrimes that threaten national security, but those that are conducted via unlicensed money transmitting businesses fall outside the agency's purview. The legislation from Cortez Masto and Grassley, both members of the Senate Finance Committee, addresses that gap by allowing Secret Service members to probe digital asset transactions tied to transnational cyber criminal activity. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Gen. Timothy Haugh, the commander of U.S. Cyber Command and the director of NSA, was fired Thursday, according to press reports and lawmakers. It was not immediately clear why Haugh was fired. However, his dismissal comes amid a purge of other national security officials at the National Security Council and NSA. It happened following a visit to the Oval Office of political activist Laura Loomer, who has urged President Donald Trump to fire certain officials due to their perceived disloyalty to him and his agenda. She posted a message last night on X saying Haugh and NSA Deputy Director Wendy Noble has been fired for being “disloyal” to Trump. Cybercom's deputy commander, Army Lt. Gen. William Hartman, is in line to lead the command on an acting basis. The Defense Department's top watchdog announced Thursday it will initiate a formal investigation into Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's participation in discussing impending military operations on unclassified networks. On March 24, Atlantic magazine's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg published a story revealing he was accidentally added to a group chat on Signal, an encrypted but unclassified commercial messaging app, where some of the Trump administration's top national security officials discussed upcoming strikes against Houthi militants in Yemen — including Hegseth. “The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DoD personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business,” Steve Stebbins, acting inspector general at the Pentagon, wrote in a memo published Thursday. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Members of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency now have access to technical systems maintained by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, according to a recent memorandum viewed by FedScoop. The memo, which was sent from and digitally signed by USCIS Chief Information Officer William McElhaney, states that Kyle Shutt, Edward Coristine, Aram Mogahaddassi and Payton Rehling were granted access to USCIS systems and data repositories, and that a Department of Homeland Security review was required to determine whether that access should continue. Coristine, 19, is one of the more polarizing members of DOGE. He previously provided assistance to a cybercrime ring through a company he operated while he was in high school, according to other news outlets. Coristine worked for a short period at Neuralink, Musk's brain implant company, and was previously stationed by DOGE at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The memo, dated March 28, asks DHS Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar to have his office review and provide direction for the four DOGE men regarding their access to the agency's “data lake” — called USCIS Data Business Intelligence Services — as well as two associated enabling technologies, Databricks and Github. The document says DHS CIO Antoine McCord and Michael Weissman, the agency's chief data officer, asked USCIS to enable Shutt and Coristine's access to the USCIS data lake in mid-March, and Mogahaddassi requested similar access days later. A bipartisan bill to fully establish a National Science Foundation-based resource aimed at providing essential tools for AI research to academics, nonprofits, small businesses and others was reintroduced in the House last week. Under the Creating Resources for Every American To Experiment with Artificial Intelligence (CREATE AI) Act of 2025 (H.R. 2385), a full-scale National AI Research Resource would be codified at NSF. While that resource currently exists in pilot form, legislation authorizing the NAIRR is needed to continue that work. Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., who sponsors the bill, said in a written statement announcing the reintroduction: “By empowering students, universities, startups, and small businesses to participate in the future of AI, we can drive innovation, strengthen our workforce, and ensure that American leadership in this critical field is broad-based and secure.” The NAIRR pilot, as it stands, is a collection of resources from the public and private sectors — such as computing power, storage, AI models, and data — that are made available to those researching AI to make the process of accessing those types of tools easier. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

More details have emerged on the Department of Defense's Deferred Resignation Program. According to a new memo, the DOD will offer the program to eligible DOD civilian employees for a week between April 7 and 14. Voluntary early retirement authority will also be offered. The initiatives, ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, come as the Pentagon is looking to reduce its reduce civilian workforce and implement the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts. Jules Hurst III, acting undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, wrote in an April 1 memo that the DRP provides a “generous opportunity for employees to enter a paid leave status for several months, prior to resigning or retiring,” adding that employees pending approval or approved for the program will not be subject to return to in-person work requirements. A bipartisan bill that would establish a nonprofit foundation aimed at boosting private-sector partnerships at the National Institute of Standards and Technology was reintroduced in the House and the Senate on Tuesday. The Expanding Partnerships for Innovation and Competitiveness (EPIC) Act would create a Foundation for Standards and Metrology at the Department of Commerce, which would be focused on fostering collaborations with academia, industry, and other organizations. That new foundation would ultimately help supplement NIST's funding and — according to a release shared with FedScoop in advance of the Wednesday announcement — make the path to commercializing technologies developed by the agency easier. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Department of State is continuing to expand its artificial intelligence chatbot known as StateChat, including working toward a mobile version and the ability to query internal messages called cables. That's what John Silson, director of analytics in the State Department's Center for Analytics, recently told FedScoop reporter Madison Alder during an SNG Live event on AI and Automation. During the conversation, they touched on how State is continuing to iterate on StateChat, how the department is working to maxmize adoption, the importance of context in prompting and what comes next. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is reopening the deferred resignation program and also offering early retirement to eligible civilian workers as he seeks to “maximize participation.” Hegseth signed a memo on Friday, “Initiating the Workforce Acceleration and Recapitalization Initiative,” that was directed to senior Pentagon leadership, combatant commands, and defense agency and field activity directors. The move comes as department leaders are looking to shed civilian employees and reinvest the savings elsewhere as part of the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency efforts. Hegseth said DOD is offering the deferred resignation opportunity, as well as Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, to all eligible civilian employees, noting that exemptions wil be rare. He wrote in a March 28 memo: “My intent is to maximize participation so that we can minimize the number of involuntary actions that may be required to achieve the strategic objectives.” Karen Evans, a longtime government IT official who previously held the role that preceded the creation of the federal chief information officer, was nominated last week to serve as undersecretary for management at the Department of Homeland Security. Evans, whose nomination has been referred to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, joined the Trump administration earlier this year as executive assistant director for cybersecurity at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Evans' role at CISA was one of the most prominent cyber jobs in the federal government, leading the agency's “mission to protect and strengthen federal civilian agencies and the nation's critical infrastructure against cyber threats,” per an official description of the position. Before joining CISA, Evans spent the previous three-plus years working as the managing director of the Cyber Readiness Institute, a nonprofit geared toward educating and creating free cyber tools for small- and medium-sized businesses. For much of George W. Bush's administration, Evans served as administrator of the Office of Electronic Government and Information Technology. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Internal Revenue Service on Friday placed around 50 IT executives on administrative leave, according to five sources familiar with the situation, the latest in the Trump administration's gutting of the tax agency during the heart of filing season. The decision to cut the IT executives was made by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, according to one of the sources, and was carried out by acting IRS Commissioner Melanie Krause. Rajiv Uppal, the IRS's chief information officer, and Kaschit Pandya, the agency's chief technology officer, were not among the 50 dismissed staffers, a different source said. The 50 people were at the senior executive service level, two sources said, and most were associate chief information officers. One of the sources, an IT executive who left the IRS earlier this month, said the 50 staffers include experts working on cybersecurity, modernization, applications, development, contracts, networks, mainframe and data center operations, among other IT-related areas. An email sent to one of the affected employees Friday and viewed by FedScoop said they were being put on leave “effective immediately” and they were directed “not to perform any work-related tasks during this period.” They would continue to receive full pay and benefits during their administrative leave, per the email. Jeffrey King is now the acting chief information officer of the Treasury Department, according to an update to the CIO Council webpage. Tony Arcadi, who has served the position since 2021, told FedScoop on Saturday that he took the administration's deferred resignation offer and was placed on administrative leave as of last Monday. Nick Totten is the deputy CIO for the agency. Another source within the agency confirmed King, who was previously deputy CIO, is now acting in the chief IT position. King had been deputy CIO since 2022. He also briefly served as acting CIO of the Internal Revenue Service, where he helped push forward modernization initiatives. The Trump administration has been cycling through CIOs somewhat rapidly. The Energy Department, the Small Business Administration, and the Social Security Administration have all already moved on from their first appointees to the position. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

A bipartisan group of House Oversight and Government Reform Committee members reintroduced a bill Thursday that aims to overhaul federal software purchasing for better efficiency and reduced costs. The Strengthening Agency Management and Oversight of Software Assets (SAMOSA) Act would make agencies conduct “comprehensive” software inventories and undergo independent assessments of management practices and contracts.The legislation, which is backed by several leading software trade groups, would also require agency chief information officers to create a plan to adopt enterprise licensing agreements in order to improve costs and negotiating power against vendors. Additionally, the Office of Management and Budget would have to publish a governmentwide strategy for software modernization based on audits and plans. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who introduced the bill with Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., April McClain Delaney, D-Md., and Pat Fallon, R-Texas, said in a statement that the government spends money on software that “it doesn't need, doesn't use or already has.” The Trump administration's council of federal CIOs has so far been much like a carousel at some agencies, with officials who frequently associated with DOGE coming in and out of the top tech role. The Social Security Administraiton is the latest such agency to trade out one DOGE staffer for another. The Social Security Administration has tapped a DOGE associate named Scott Coulter as its new chief information officer, replacing another member of the Elon Musk-led group who spent a little more than a month in the role. Coulter, a Harvard graduate with a background in investment management, was added to SSA's org chart this week as CIO. Mike Russo, who started as the agency's top IT official Feb. 3, according to an SSA spokesperson, is now listed as senior advisor to the commissioner. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Newly installed Federal CIO Greg Barbaccia has called for agency CIOs to inventory licenses with the five software vendors that earn the most from federal contracts by April 2 as part of a larger software accounting initiative. Barbaccia sent an email, obtained by FedScoop, to all federal CIOs on Monday requesting that agencies “complete a software license inventory to account for the full universe of software licenses at your agency.” To start, Barbaccia called for CIOs to identify licenses with the five software vendors who do the most business with the federal government: Microsoft, Adobe, Salesforce, Oracle and ServiceNow, per a 2024 report from the Government Accountability Office. The information technology staff of the now-hobbled U.S. Agency for International Development is down to a skeleton crew capable of providing only limited support, FedScoop has learned. The group is what remains of a once-large team as the Trump administration massively scales down American foreign aid and questions emerge about the future of USAID assets and the security of government data. Only three information technology operations employees, a project manager and a contracting officer are currently working on the agency's IT staff, according to someone within USAID. That's a tiny fraction of the approximately 100 or so staffers devoted to IT before the Trump administration started in January. Jason Gray, the chief information officer who briefly served as acting administrator of the agency, is now assisting the front office with their plans for USAID, the agency source said. He's also helping to manage account activation, another USAID source said. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The federal government will shift from paper-based payments to electronic methods, part of what the White House said in a Tuesday executive order is an attempt to cut costs and reduce fraud. President Donald Trump's EO on “modernizing payments to and from America's bank account” requires the Treasury Department to phase out paper check disbursements and receipts by Sept. 30. That includes intergovernmental payments, benefits payments, vendor payments and tax refunds. Federal agencies will be expected to transition to electronic funds transfer (EFT) methods, including direct deposit, prepaid card accounts and other digital options. “The continued use of paper-based payments by the Federal Government, including checks and money orders, flowing into and out of the United States General Fund, which might be thought of as America's bank account, imposes unnecessary costs; delays; and risks of fraud, lost payments, theft, and inefficiencies,” the order states. A Republican-backed bill to reorganize the federal government and grant the executive branch more power passed out of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Tuesday, while a Democratic effort to protect sensitive data was blocked. The Reorganizing Government Act of 2025 (H.R. 1295) from Chairman James Comer, R-Ky. seeks to give the president reorganizational authorities that would include the ability to amend rules, regulations and requirements to decrease cost and eliminate operations that do not serve the public. Rep. Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, offered an amendment that would have required the president's reorganization plan to include a list of executive databases that “contain personal and private information of American citizens that DOGE has accessed” and prohibit employees of the Elon Musk-led group and its partners from accessing this information. The amendment was struck down in a vote. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

After serving for nearly 18 months as the Department of Defense's first-ever customer experience officer in the Office of the CIO, Savan Kong earlier this month parted ways with the Pentagon. Previously a member of the Defense Digital Service during his first tour of duty with the DOD, Kong helped build the department's CXO office from scratch, fostering a culture that prioritizes the needs of service members, civilians, and mission partners and striving to streamline governance processes, improve transparency, and ensure that IT solutions meet operational needs. Kong joins the Daily Scoop for a conversation to share the progress his office ushered in to improve customer experience for DOD's personnel, where things are headed under this administration and how AI will impact the CX space. FedRAMP is getting another overhaul, one that will involve far more automation and a greater role for the private sector, the program's chief announced Monday. Through FedRAMP 20x, the General Services Administration-based team focused on the program aims to simplify the authorization process and reduce the amount of time needed to approve a service from months to weeks, Director Pete Waterman said during an Alliance for Digital Innovation event. The private sector will also have increased responsibility over monitoring of their systems, he noted. In a critical change, agency sponsorship will — eventually — no longer be necessary to win authorization. As a first step, FedRAMP has launched four community working groups, which give the public a chance to share feedback, and focus on creating “innovative solutions” to formalize the program's standards. But in the meantime, Waterman said existing baselines will remain in place and there are no immediate changes to the program. The Office of Personnel Management and the departments of Treasury and Education are now barred from sharing individuals' personally identifiable information with DOGE representatives, a federal judge ruled Monday. Judge Deborah L. Boardman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland said in her decision that in granting associates with Elon Musk's so-called government efficiency initiative access to systems containing plaintiffs' PII, the agencies “likely violated” the Privacy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act. The lawsuit was filed by the American Federation of Teachers, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, the National Federation of Federal Employees, and six military veterans. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Federal agencies must now allow any officials designated by the president or agency leadership to have complete access to unclassified records, data, software systems and IT systems, President Donald Trump declared in an executive order late Thursday night. Trump's directive aims to stop waste, fraud and abuse by eliminating information silos, requiring agency heads to “ensure Federal officials designated by the President or Agency Heads (or their designees) have full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, data, software systems, and information technology systems — or their equivalents if providing access to an equivalent dataset does not delay access — for purposes of pursuing Administration priorities related to the identification and elimination of waste, fraud, and abuse.” “This includes authorizing and facilitating both the intra- and inter-agency sharing and consolidation of unclassified agency records,” the executive order states. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order last Thursday blocking Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency from further access to any Social Security Administration systems that contain personally identifiable information. Judge Ellen Hollander of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland also ordered that all DOGE team members associated with the organization's work at SSA, including Elon Musk and U.S. DOGE Service leader Amy Gleason, must disgorge and delete all non-anonymized personal information they obtained from the agency's systems. The decision is an initial victory in the case where Democracy Forward led a group of unions and an advocacy organization in suing the Social Security Administration and its acting Commissioner Leland Dudek for giving DOGE access to “some of the nation's most sensitive data, including the financial data, employment information, medical data, and personal addresses of millions of Americans,” according to the initial complaint. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to consolidate the contracting of common goods and services, including information technology, under the General Services Administration. Within 30 days of the order's issuance, GSA will take over as the executive agent of all governmentwide acquisition contracts (GWACs) for IT, as designated by the Office of Management and Budget. “Consolidating domestic Federal procurement in the General Services Administration — the agency designed to conduct procurement — will eliminate waste and duplication, while enabling agencies to focus on their core mission of delivering the best possible services for the American people,” the order says. As part of GSA's new role, the administrator will be able to “defer or decline” being the executive agent of IT governmentwide contracts “when necessary to ensure continuity of service or as otherwise appropriate.” Other major GWACs for technology across the federal government include the National Institutes of Health Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center's vehicles like its CIO-SP3 and embattled CIO-SP4, as well as NASA's Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) contracts. The General Services Administration on Thursday revealed a new generative AI tool designed to boost efficiency and help automate repetitive tasks. The platform, now available to GSA staff, comes amid anxiety that the Department of Government Efficiency might use artificial intelligence to surveil or replace federal workers, who are being laid off in large swaths across the government. The GSA chatbot can access a series of large language models, including technology from Anthropic and Meta. The system resembles other AI chatbots, and it's designed to respond to user prompts and help staff with basic tasks, like writing. Earlier this month, Wired first reported that the DOGE had deployed a chatbot called GSAi for 1,500 workers. According to Wired, the tool had been in development for several months, but DOGE accelerated the rollout of the platform and eventually wants to use it for data analysis of contracts and procurements. GSA said in a Thursday statement it is encouraging all of its staff to test the tool.

Several federal agencies responsible for terminating nearly 25,000 federal probationary status workers told a federal court Monday evening that they're complying with an order to reinstate those employees, giving thousands of people their jobs back for the time being. According to a status report and corresponding declarations filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, 18 federal agencies and their subcomponents said they were working to reinstate their fired probationary employees following the court order. Most of those agencies said those workers would be placed on administrative leave. While the court order doesn't cover all fired probationary workers, the declarations in the case offer one of the first clear windows into the breadth of firings under President Donald Trump. Per figures in those declarations, the agencies initially terminated 24,813 probationary workers. Of that total, 15,499 were offered reinstatement as a direct result of the court's order. An additional 5,925 employees, at least, were previously offered reinstatement by those respective agencies before the court's order. That includes the 5,714 terminated employees in the U.S. Department of Agriculture who got their jobs back for 45 days as the result of a ruling by a quasi-judicial body within the executive branch known as the Merit Systems Protection Board. As litigation plays out on DOGE access to individuals' sensitive data, a House lawmaker is asking civil society groups, privacy experts, government technologists and others to inform legislation seeking to modernize the Privacy Act of 1974. Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., said in a press release that she is beginning an effort to reform the Privacy Act, which has been cited in various lawsuits against agencies over allegedly allowing unauthorized DOGE staffers to access data that could contain personally identifiable information. “Unaccountable billionaires, inexperienced programmers and unvetted political appointees are perpetrating the biggest government privacy scandal since Watergate,” Trahan said in the release. In order to begin this effort, Trahan is asking the public to respond to a series of questions, including the federal government's need to balance privacy with other priorities like reducing waste, how the government can effectively leverage privacy-enhancing technologies, the privacy risks associated with artificial intelligence and more. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Pentagon is currently placing more than 20,000 employees on administrative leave and a path to full termination, following staff approval for voluntary participation in the Trump administration's Elon Musk-inspired “fork in the road” initiative, according to top officials involved in the major workforce reduction plans. In an off-camera press briefing Tuesday, two senior defense officials provided new information (on the condition of anonymity) regarding the Defense Department's unfolding effort to shrink its massive civilian employee pool using three main mechanisms. An official stressed to DefenseScoop that this is a very active process and things are fluid as the department's leadership engages with services and components. At the start of his second administration, President Donald Trump immediately directed federal agencies to drastically reduce their workforces and review existing contracts as part of a broader move to ultimately cut back on what his team views as wasteful spending and inefficiencies. Inside the DOD, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a “strategic reduction” of 5-8% of civilian personnel — with a sharp focus on “promoting the department's lethality, readiness and warfighting ability” while meeting Trump's mandate, a senior defense official noted. As the Defense Department anticipates the wireless networks of the future for warfighting missions, it has shifted its focus for research and development primarily to 6G wireless technologies, Marlan Macklin, deputy principal director for the Pentagon's FutureG Office, said Wednesday. The DOD is looking to the next-generation wireless tech to further build on the improved speeds, latency and capacity it gained with 5G and support the U.S. military's use of new capabilities at the edge. With that, Macklin said the Pentagon is beginning to experiment with 6G in a variety of ways. As an example, the FutureG Office has been experimenting with a concept called Integrated Sensing and Communication, which uses radio frequencies of all objects — including those not actively transmitting data — connected to a network to create situational awareness of the surrounding environment, according to Macklin. One way in which the U.S. military could apply this emerging concept is to improve awareness and management of drones in a given environment, Macklin said. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

A lawyer who's said to have played a central role in the Department of Government Efficiency's attempted takeover of at least one federal organization is now defending in court the DOGE email system used to send email blasts to the entire U.S. government workforce. During a Feb. 6 hearing, Jacob Altik joined the defense in the ongoing lawsuit where pseudonymous federal workers have accused the Office of Personnel Management of standing up its new governmentwide email system with inadequate privacy and security protections in place. While the defense introduced him at the time as being “from OPM,” counsel for the plaintiffs filed a new notice early Monday essentially connecting the dots that Altik, through other lawsuits and public reports, has played a hands-on role in supporting the DOGE. Altik was first identified as a DOGE lawyer with an official DOGE email address hosted by the Executive Office of the President in a ProPublica article from early February, the Monday legal notice notes. Then, Altik was identified in a separate ongoing lawsuit as working hand-in-hand with DOGE associates in the organization's attempt to dismantle the U.S. African Development Foundation. The DOGE is also in the spotlight in another case where state attorneys general have sued President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent challenging DOGE access to Treasury records. In the latest development in that litigation, DOGE staffer Marko Elez, who resigned in February after racist social media posts surfaced, is said to have shared personally identifiable information in a spreadsheet with two General Services Administration officials, according to the filing from a witness in the case. The testiomony explains that Elez shared names in the spreadsheet that are considered low risk PII because the names are not accompanied by more specific identifiers, such as social security numbers or birth dates. Still, the distribution of this spreadsheet was contrary to BFS policies, in that it was not sent encrypted, and he did not obtain prior approval of the transmission as required. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Department of Homeland Security has selected Antoine McCord as its new chief information officer, a spokesperson with the agency's Management Directorate confirmed Friday. As CIO, McCord will be tasked with overseeing DHS's roughly $11 billion IT budget, the largest of any federal agency in fiscal 2025. A bio for McCord on the DHS website said he “emphasizes mission-driven leadership, focusing on operations to neutralize threats against the Department.” Details about McCord's background are scarce, beyond what's contained in that DHS bio page. According to the agency, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps, specializing in cyber and intelligence operations and “gaining hands-on experience in threat detection and technology integration.” After his time with the Marines, McCord joined the U.S. Intelligence Community, according to DHS, in roles that saw him oversee cyber operations against advanced threats and serve as an adviser on national security issues. McCord will be stepping into a CIO role that was filled during the Biden administration by Eric Hysen, who also led the department's artificial intelligence efforts. Hysen, a Google alum and a founding member of the White House's U.S. Digital Service, oversaw the creation of DHS's AI Corps, the publication of an AI roadmap and the release of commercial generative AI guidance. Firings at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have former workers, lawmakers, and advocates concerned about impact on the agency's efforts to produce climate and weather information critical to public safety. NOAA is one of many federal agencies in the U.S. that has cut probationary workers in recent weeks as part of President Donald Trump's plan to reduce the size of the federal government. While critics of the Trump administration have argued the rapid and widespread staffing reductions could have adverse consequences across the government, the picture they paint with respect to NOAA's terminations is particularly grim. That's because the agency's mission impacts every American, former NOAA workers told FedScoop. The recent cuts to staff put that work at risk, particularly for areas at the agency where staffing levels were already an issue, they said. What's more, there are areas outside of staffing cuts where efficiencies could have been achieved through consolidating work and technology advancements. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

All non-critical and non-statutorily required work will cease at the General Services Administration's Technology Transformation Services as part of a 50% reduction of the office, according to Director Thomas Shedd. In his prepared remarks for a Thursday afternoon town hall, which were obtained by FedScoop, Shedd said that to deliver technology at GSA in a “more focused and streamlined way,” moving forward TTS will support only work that is required by statute and policy, fits into the Trump administration's definition of critical, and is prioritized by the leadership at GSA “in accordance with the priorities of the administration.” Everything else will be eliminated, per Shedd, who said in his remarks that TTS will be smaller in size – at least 50% smaller. Additionally, any contracts that support the work that falls outside of the established bounds “will be terminated” and any job functions that are deemed non-essential will be cut. The prioritized and remaining TTS programs include Login.gov, FedRAMP, Cloud.gov, statutorily required websites, the Integrated Award Environment, the Office of Regulatory Oversight, the Centers of Excellence, the Presidential Innovation Fellowship Program, the U.S. Digital Corps, operations and other “special projects.” Australian-based software company Atlassian has tapped Matthew Graviss to be its first public sector chief technology officer following his recent departure as the State Department's top data and AI official. Although the role starts a new private sector chapter in Graviss's career, being the first person to establish a newly created position is familiar ground. During his time in the federal government, Graviss was the first-ever chief data officer at both the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. In an interview with FedScoop, Graviss said his role at Atlassian is an extension of that experience in that he'll again be codifying the responsibilities of the job, showing value and solving customer problems. Regardless of whether his role is in or out of the government, Graviss said “the delivery of better goods and services to citizens is contingent upon … an ecosystem of government employees, service providers, and solution providers.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Early in the morning on March 1, without notice, the General Services Administration eliminated its 18F program, what was an internal team of tech consultants and engineers that developed open-source tools to improve digital services across the federal government. Just short of its 11th birthday, 18F had grown to be a staple in the federal government's digital services development and acquisition space. Now when you type in "18F.gov" to visit its website, you're met with an error message. The team has been completely wiped from the face of the federal government. GSA hasn't given much reasoning for the termination. Thomas Shedd, head of the agency's Technology Transformation Services organization that housed 18F, said during a town hall last week that the decision was based purely on its reported cashflow struggles and that it hadn't been cost-recoverable. Dan Tangherlini, former GSA administrator when 18F was founded, joins the Daily Scoop to share his thoughts on what 18F meant to good government, the legacy of the organization, and how GSA will continue to serve as the federal government's center of tech excellence without this key team moving forward. Roughly a month after being replaced as acting CIO of the Department of Energy, Principal Deputy CIO Dawn Zimmer is now back serving in the department's top IT role, multiple sources familiar with the change confirmed to FedScoop. Zimmer is filling the CIO position for the second time since Inauguration Day after Ryan Riedel briefly took on the role overseeing the department's $4.3 billion IT portfolio in early February. As FedScoop first reported, Zimmer returned to her primary role as principal deputy CIO at Energy when Riedel, previously a network engineer at Elon Musk-owned SpaceX, was appointed to the CIO role. She took over the acting CIO role after Biden administration Energy CIO Ann Dunkin stepped down at the change of administrations. It's unclear why Riedel departed the role after just over a month. The Energy Department did not return questions about his short tenure. President Donald Trump nominated Sean Plankey to head the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Tuesday, the last major piece to fall into place for cybersecurity leadership in his administration. Plankey served in the first Trump administration, holding a few posts with cyber responsibilities. He was the principal deputy assistant secretary for the Energy Department's Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response in 2019 and 2020. Before that he was director of cyber policy at the National Security Council, starting in 2018. He has most recently been at the global cybersecurity advisory company WTW. Plankey was briefly under consideration in 2020 to lead the agency he's now nominated to be director of after Trump forced Chris Krebs out of the role. He had long been thought to be Trump's pick this time around, too. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

When the Trump administration began sidelining and laying off personnel at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, it started by targeting employees who worked on election security and disinformation. At the same time, the Department Homeland Security announced it would conduct a comprehensive review of CISA's election security mission. Last week, the agency confirmed that it has completed the review, but said that its findings won't be released to the public. A spokesperson for the agency said: “The assessment that CISA has undertaken is internal and will help inform how the agency moves forward to best support critical infrastructure. This is an internal document that is not planned to be released publicly.” A DHS spokesperson told CyberScoop in an email that the department had nothing else to share at this time. Secretary Pete Hegseth is directing all Defense Department components to embrace a rapid software acquisition pathway and use commercial solutions opening and Other Transaction authority to speed up the procurement of digital tools for warfighters. The department's Software Acquisition Pathway was set up during the first Trump administration under then Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord as part of a broader push for a so-called Adaptive Acquisition Framework that enables the department to procure software differently than it buys hardware. Programs on that pathway are not subject to some of the encumbrances associated with the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System and major defense acquisition program designations. Now, Hegseth wants to make sure all DOD components are taking advantage of the pathway.

Ethan Klein, an emerging technology policy adviser during the first Trump administration, has been nominated to be the White House's chief technology officer, the Office of Science and Technology Policy confirmed Tuesday. After serving in the first Trump White House, Klein completed a PhD in nuclear science and engineering at MIT, where he worked to develop nuclear tech for arms control and nonproliferation with funds from a fellowship through the National Nuclear Security Administration. Klein also spent time at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which is operated for the NNSA and focuses on weapons development, stewardship and national security. Klein has been pursuing an MBA at Stanford, while working as a summer associate for the Aerospace and Defense group within Lazard, a financial advisory and asset management firm. If confirmed as CTO, Klein would fill the same role that Michael Kratsios did during the first Trump administration, which went unfilled for the entirety of the Biden administration. The Department of Government Efficiency's increasingly vast power across the government likely makes it subject to U.S. records law, a federal judge said Monday in a ruling that ordered the Elon Musk-led group to begin processing requests on an expedited timeline. In a 37-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper concluded that DOGE — the rebranded U.S. Digital Service — “is likely exercising substantial independent authority much greater than” other components within the Executive Office of the President that are covered by the Freedom of Information Act, subjecting it to the same rules. Cooper noted as examples that the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Council on Environmental Quality are both covered by FOIA due to the substantial independent authority they wield when it comes to the evaluation of federal programs. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The NSA's former top cybersecurity official told Congress on Wednesday that the Trump administration's attempts to mass fire probationary federal employees will be “devastating” for U.S. cybersecurity operations. In testimony to the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, Rob Joyce, the former NSA cybersecurity director who retired from government service last year, warned lawmakers that countering Chinese hacking campaigns against critical infrastructure will require top-level cybersecurity talent at the NSA and other government agencies. Joyce said that part of that is having expertise and capacity in the government, raising “grave concerns that the aggressive threats to cut U.S. government probationary employees will have a devastating impact on the cybersecurity and our national security.” Joyce, who spent 34 years at the NSA, emphasized how important those employees are in sustaining an aggressive stance against China in cyberspace. A federal appeals body within the executive branch issued an order Wednesday to temporarily reinstate thousands of fired probationary workers in the U.S. Department of Agriculture in what advocates hailed as an important win for fired employees. The decision from the Merit Systems Protection Board, a quasi-judicial body within the government, grants a Friday request from the Office of Special Council, an independent government investigator, to stay the termination of an unnamed former employee and over 5,000 others who were similarly situated. The decision from MSPB also comes on the heels of another win for fired probationary workers in federal district court in San Francisco. U.S. District Judge William Alsup granted temporary, limited relief to pause and rescind those firings at several agencies, finding that OPM likely unlawfully directed the firing of those agency workers. That order has similarly prompted reinstatements. Since the court decision, the National Science Foundation moved to reinstate its fired federal probationary workers, citing the federal courts and updated guidance from the Office of Personnel Management. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Since the Trump administration took office Jan. 20, federal technology has become an essential element in the national news cycle. Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency have burrowed within agencies to gain access to key federal IT systems as part of their work to drive efficiency and cut waste and abuse. And as part of that, the Trump administration has fired huge swaths of the federal workforce. For the FedScoop news team, this has meant some major changes to the way they cover and deliver the news to the federal IT community. On this episode, the team gets together for a conversation about how they're approaching this new normal, the stories they're following, what's ahead and how readers can get in touch to share their stories. The Office of Personnel Management said in a Tuesday revision to existing guidance that it's not instructing other federal agencies to take personnel actions with respect to probationary employees. “Please note that, by this memorandum, OPM is not directing agencies to take any specific performance-based actions regarding probationary employees,” the new language in the revised memo reads. “Agencies have ultimate decisionmaking authority over, and responsibility for, such personnel actions.” The update follows a decision last week from a federal judge in San Francisco granting temporary, limited relief to pause and rescind those firings at several agencies. In making that ruling, U.S. District Judge William Alsup found that OPM's original Jan. 20 memo on federal probationary workers and its other related efforts likely unlawfully directed the firing of those agency workers. OPM “does not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe to hire and fire employees within another agency,” Alsup said during a hearing Feb. 27. As Salt Typhoon and other hacking groups continue targeting U.S. telecoms, a bipartisan bill that cleared a key House panel Tuesday aims to formalize a more cyber-focused role for the federal agency focused on those wireless networks. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration Organization Act would establish an Office of Policy Development and Cybersecurity within the Commerce Department's NTIA under legislation from Reps. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., and Jennifer McClellan, D-Va. The bill, which advanced out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, was passed by the chamber last year but stalled out in the Senate. The NTIA advises the president on telecommunications and information policy issues, with a specific focus on the expansion of broadband internet and spectrum. Obernolte, who chairs the House Science, Space and Technology subcommittee on research and technology, said the bill “addresses a critical gap” by formalizing NTIA's cybersecurity role to better “safeguard our communication networks.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Weeks after being named the chief information security officer for the Defense Department, Katie Arrington was announced Monday as the Pentagon's official “Performing the Duties of the Department of Defense Chief Information Officer.” The DOD Office of the CIO announced the move by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to place Arrington as the acting CIO in a post on LinkedIn. The post also confirmed that Leslie Beavers, who had been acting CIO since John Sherman left the role last June, will return to her primary role as principal deputy CIO. A defense official confirmed Arrington started in the role Monday. An organization that's filed multiple legal challenges against the Trump administration is focusing its attention on the potential use of artificial intelligence in personnel decisions. Democracy Forward, a social welfare organization, said Monday it “launched a public records investigation” into the administration's AI use, including filing requests under the Freedom of Information Act. Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a written statement that the American people deserve to know what is going on — including if and how artificial intelligence is being used to reshape the departments and agencies people rely on daily. The organization's requests come after reporting by NBC that Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency planned to use AI to review employee responses to the Office of Personnel Management's “five bullets” email. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.