The OIG said USPS can look to other countries, like Australia and France, that have successfully developed similar initiatives.
- The Postal Service could offer more government services by partnering with state, local and tribal governments, but the service hasn’t established a formal strategy to take advantage of this. The USPS inspector general said in a new white paper that USPS hasn’t explored these opportunities even though the Postal Reform Act of 2022 gave it the authority to partner with non-federal governments to expand service offerings. The OIG suggests expanding service offerings using USPS’s already substantial infrastructure, including implementing identity verification for aid programs, DMV and IRS kiosks for assistance and fingerprinting for professional licenses. Post offices could even use their roofs to install internet equipment in disconnected communities and use data sensors on delivery trucks to collect data on road and air quality. The OIG said USPS can look to other countries, like Australia and France, that have successfully developed similar initiatives.
- Lawmakers are pushing the White House’s cyber office to take a bigger leadership role in light of artificial intelligence-discovered software vulnerabilities. Almost three dozen members of Congress want the Office of the National Cyber Director to take quick action to develop a plan to coordinate high volumes of vulnerability disclosures generated by advanced AI systems. In a letter to National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross, the bipartisan group of legislators said Anthropic’s Claude Mythos discovery of previously unknown zero day vulnerabilities requires immediate attention. The lawmakers outlined seven areas ONCD, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Office of Management and Budget, the National Institute for Standards and Technology and other agencies should work on. These include, among other things, expanding controlled defensive access to these tools for trusted defenders and recommending whether and how the government can support the American software ecosystem to validate, triage and patch vulnerabilities in both commercial and government systems.
- Aubrey Bettencourt stepped down Monday as chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service in the Agriculture Department. An internal email to staff from Bettencourt obtained by Federal News Network said NRCS Associate Chief Colton Buckley is taking over the position. Bettencourt said she’ll stay with the agency as a strategic advisor during the transition. The email didn’t include what role she’ll be stepping into, but did say she isn’t going far.
- The Department of Health and Human Services is sending reduction-in-force notices to dozens of staff it missed during office-wide layoffs last year. HHS said it will send RIF notices to 78 employees who avoided widespread layoffs that began in April 2025. More than half of the RIF notices will go to employees at the National Institutes of Health. A year ago, HHS laid off 10,000 employees. Another 10,000 employees accepted the deferred resignation offer or early retirement offers. But HHS is in the middle of a hiring surge, and is looking to exceed its previous headcount later this year.
- The House passed a bill to fund the Department of Veterans Affairs for fiscal 2027 on Friday. The Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies appropriations bill passed 400 to 15. The bill includes a total overall budget of $469 billion. That includes over $2 billion in major improvements to VA medical facilities and cemeteries. It also funds the Community Care Account, which allows veterans get specialized care outside of VA facilities.
- The Department of the Air Force is exploring how artificial intelligence can support daily operation and improve decision-making across the force. At Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, a small group of airmen launched an AI task force to study how emerging tools can be integrated into mission planning, administrative work and maintenance. The task force then built tools, analyzed survey data and explored how emerging technology could support their daily operations. Officials say the potential applications span across the force. A base-wide survey found that many airmen recognize AI’s growing importance, but they don’t know how to use it effectively and within approved guidelines.
- As the Department of Homeland Security works to modernize financial management systems for many of its component agencies, it is struggling to deliver reliable cost and schedule assessments. That’s according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. GAO also found that the plan lacks consistency. GAO’s review of the efforts to modernize systems at FEMA, the Coast Guard and Immigration and Customs Enforcement experienced issues with cost and schedule estimates that it says could lead to management making decisions without key information. The report also finds that the modernization plans had different standards for data migration, organization change management and lessons learned, meaning data could be incorrect and operations could be hindered. DHS IT and financial management systems remain on GAO’s High Risk List.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s sweeping review of the military legal system could produce real improvements, but the question remains how the review panel will be structured. In a recent memo, Hegseth instructed the Pentagon’s general counsel to convene a special review panel that will conduct a long-term review of the military legal system. The panel is also expected to issue interim reports and recommendations over time rather than produce a single final study. Military lawyers say that while reviews of the legal system are a good thing, it is important that the panel includes independent voices such as retired military judges, defense practitioners and academic experts. It is concerning, however, that the Pentagon’s general counsel, who is a political appointee, will oversee the panel’s establishment.
- One protest down, four more to go for the SEWP VI program from NASA. The Government Accountability Office yesterday denied E-Logic’s protest after being eliminated from competition for the governmentwide acquisition contract. GAO said NASA’s review of E-Logic’s proposal was proper as the company failed to meet the requirement to propose at least 100 contract line item numbers (CLINs) from a designated provider. GAO still is considering four other protests with decisions due anywhere from early June to early July. NASA is expected to make awards under SEWP VI later this year.
- A federal appeals court is upholding a lower court’s decision to restore collective bargaining rights for most employees at Veterans Affairs. A three-judge panel with the First Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously denied the VA’s emergency motion to stay a preliminary injunction that requires the department to restore a union contract for more than 300,000 VA employees. The lawsuit is focused on a pair of executive orders barring collective bargaining rights at more than 20 agencies on the grounds that they primarily serve a national security mission. The orders are also under review by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
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