The White House has released the President’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 budget request complete with sweeping agency cuts and some new reorganization proposals. While the budget request rarely translates into law due to compromises in Congress, it does signal the president’s priorities for the year.

As states such as New York attempt to pass laws which allow individuals living in the country illegally to obtain drivers licenses and limit department of motor vehicle (DMV) cooperation with federal immigration services, Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Chad Wolfe, is responding by limiting the state’s access to certain DHS programs.

The Pentagon issued the final contractor standards under the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) last week and explained long-term plans for implementation. The new framework is built from five levels of security standards known as Version 1.0 of the plan. The initial phase will be rolled out through requests for information this summer.

During the State of the Union, President Trump placed focus on the importance of border security and supporting federal law enforcement. The president noted the work of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and voiced support for legislation that combats immigration “sanctuary cities.” Law enforcement groups echoed these sentiments in response.

Looming concerns over the federal government’s use of foreign unmanned aircraft systems has caused the Secretary of the Interior to call for the temporary cessation of all non-emergency unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) effective immediately. The Department of the Interior (DOI) has been using drones to carry out a variety of wildfire responses and surveillance missions.

During a White House event Monday, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requested ideas from across the federal community on ways to improve acquisition and supply chain management. The summit focused on various initiatives to reduce costs and improve the efficiency of contract management. The “call for ideas” is meant to continue these conversations and pose additional questions on ways to improve the system.

In his first public appearance as Assistant Director for Cybersecurity at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Bryan Ware set out the agency’s plan for 2020. 

Following a closed-door hearing on security clearance reforms, Senators on the Senate Intelligence Committee announced that the security clearance backlog has reached the long –awaited “steady state.”

GAO struggled to isolate the impacts of the Kingpin Act with other government initiatives to combat illicit drug trafficking and recommended more uniform methods for agencies to report on their efforts in relation to this law.

A bipartisan pair of Senators have introduced legislation to strengthen the Office of Inspector General (OIG) within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

We are pleased to announce that, thanks to the generous support of the Bill Bransford Fund and the law firm Shaw Bransford & Roth, FEEA will begin awarding a new scholarship to first-generation college students who are the children of eligible federal employees or are federal employees themselves.

New data released last month from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) found that federal employee suicides have reached their highest level in at least 15 years. Law enforcement and national security agencies continue to lead with the largest percentage of suicides within the federal workforce.

The President’s Pay Agent has approved of a series of recommendations from the Federal Salary Council in a report released by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) last month. Among these recommendations is the creation of a new locality pay area. The report also called upon Congress to reform the federal compensation process to be more reflective of how the total compensation federal employees receive compares to the private sector.

The initiative is aimed at combatting violent crime in the seven most violent cities in the country through an influx of federal resources.

The Senior Executives Association’s (SEA) Leadership Summit this week honored members of the civil service who received the Presidential Rank Award in 2019, the highest civilian honor, and hosted panels and seminars on improving federal service.

Congressional leaders announced an agreement with the White House last week to fund all federal agencies through September 2020.

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released this month indicated that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) needs to grant additional focus on updating detection technology already sent to airports for use. The report, called for through the TSA Modernization Act, addressed how TSA operationalizes detection standards, the extent to which TSA considers risk when making technology deployment decisions, and the extent to which TSA ensures technologies continue to meet detection requirements after deployed to airports.

Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Mike Lee (R-UT) have introduced legislation requiring federal law enforcement to obtain a court order before using facial recognition technology for public surveillance. Lawmakers have described the legislation as an attempt to balance privacy concerns with law enforcement efforts.

The Department of Energy Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a report detailing the department’s improvements and opportunity areas for FY2019.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General (IG) has issued a report analyzing how Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and the Secret Service have dealt with opioid use in the midst of a national opioid epidemic. The report issued in November assesses how the components have addressed both legal and illegal opioid use.