Government Operations

Oversight Options for Congress on Federal Civil Service Categories

The federal civil service is divided into three categories with different rules for hiring, pay and adverse actions. President Trump has used executive...

Government Operations

Reactor Applicants Can Use Prior War Department Design Approvals

Nuclear companies pursuing commercial reactor licenses whose designs reference demonstration reactors previously authorized by the U.S. Department of Energy...

Energy

EPA Proposes Letting Utah Take Over Carbon Storage Well Permits

Carbon storage well operators in Utah would answer to state regulators instead of the Environmental Protection Agency under a proposed rule the agency...

Government Operations

Homeland Security Delays Formal-Entry Rules for International Mail

Importers, brokers, and logistics providers in the international postal network have until January 20, 2027, to comply with formal-entry requirements for...

Agriculture

Agriculture Department Proposes New Card Security Rules

Households that receive federal food assistance would face new SNAP EBT security requirements under a USDA proposal to replace magnetic-stripe benefit cards...

Government Operations

DHS Orders DeepSeek Removed From Federal Agency Systems

Federal civilian agencies must exclude DeepSeek products from information technology procurements and remove covered products already deployed on their...

Politics

Aging Federal Oceanographic Fleet Faces Gaps

The federal oceanographic research vessel fleet has had no government-wide inventory since March 2016, and NOAA's 15 remaining research and survey vessels...

Congress

Senate Confirmed Judges in 16 of 21 Postwar Lame Duck Sessions

Lame duck judicial confirmations have been a recurring feature of postwar Senate practice, with the chamber confirming at least one circuit or district...

Government Operations

EPA Lets Virginia Run Its Own Coal Ash Permits

EPA is letting Virginia's state environmental agency run its own coal ash permit program in place of federal rules, so the state's coal ash disposal sites...

Labor and Employment

OPM Tightens Administrative Leave Rules for Federal Workers

Federal employees in deferred resignation programs and those receiving reduction-in-force notices face new limits on administrative leave starting November...

Government Operations

Nuclear Waste Cleanup Faces Higher Costs, Delays

A complex legal and regulatory framework governing Department of Energy nuclear waste cleanup has led to inconsistent approaches, regulator disputes, and...

Follow the Money

NIH Lacks Fraud Risk Assessment Despite Foreign Concerns

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) lacks a documented, extramural-program-specific fraud risk assessment, so it has no documented basis for determining...

Government Operations

BLM Can't Confirm Mining Claimants Meet U.S. Citizenship Rules

The federal agency responsible for overseeing hardrock mining claims on public lands cannot confirm that those claims are held only by legally qualified...

Space

Gaps in Federal Property Data Limits Accountability

New federal office-space occupancy data is helping agencies shed unneeded real estate, but critical gaps in what gets reported are leaving Congress and the...

Law and Order

Federal Body Camera Programs Lack Updated Plans and Guidance

Neither U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) nor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has updated its body camera program plans to reflect...

Government Operations

Federal Agencies Unprepared for Quantum Cryptography Threat

None of the 24 Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Act agencies has fully addressed the three preparatory practices needed to transition federal systems to...

Housing

HUD Stakeholders Report Service Gaps After 29% Workforce Cut

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) cut its workforce by 29 percent in 2025, terminated about 21 percent of its active contracts...