GSA’s central role in the Trump administration

The General Services Administration has leaned into its role as a central, shared services provider for the rest of the federal government during the second Trump administration. In particular, it has taken a leadership position centralizing most federal procurement under one roof and serving as a sort of clearinghouse for federal AI efforts. With so much transformation underway, the GSA during Trump 2.0 has taken on an even brighter spotlight, fueling federal operations. Miranda Nazzaro is the FedScoop reporter covering GSA during this pivotal time, and she joins the podcast to discuss some of the agency’s top priorities, from OneGov and the TMF to eliminating woke AI, among others. The Treasury Department said Monday that it would cancel all of its contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton, linking the decision to a former employee now serving prison time for leaking tax returns. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a three-paragraph press release that the agency’s 31 contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton — worth $21 million in total obligations and $4.8 million in annual spending — would be scrapped as part of President Donald Trump’s push to “root out waste, fraud and abuse.” “Canceling these contracts is an essential step to increasing Americans’ trust in government,” Bessent said. “Booz Allen failed to implement adequate safeguards to protect sensitive data, including the confidential taxpayer information it had access to through its contracts with the Internal Revenue Service.” A Booz spokesperson said in an email to FedScoop that the firm was “surprised by this announcement” — especially given Treasury’s reasoning regarding Charles Edward Littlejohn, who between 2018 and 2020 leaked the confidential tax returns and information of hundreds of thousands of taxpayers. “Booz Allen fully supported the U.S. government in its investigation, and the government expressed gratitude for our assistance, which led to Littlejohn’s prosecution,” the Booz spokesperson said. “We were surprised by this announcement and look forward to discussing this matter with Treasury.” Per the Treasury release, the IRS determined that the data breach affected roughly 406,000 taxpayers. Littlejohn, who was sentenced to five years in prison last January after pleading guilty to one count of disclosing tax return information without authorization, leaked the returns of Trump, Elon Musk and other wealthy individuals to a pair of news organizations. NASA has a new top official for artificial intelligence and data. Kevin Murphy began serving in an acting capacity in both roles Nov. 30, 2025, NASA spokesperson Jennifer Dooren confirmed to FedScoop in an email. He replaces David Salvagnini, who was the agency’s CDO for roughly two-and-a-half years, and CAIO for just over a year-and-a-half. Salvagnini was the agency’s first-ever CAIO. According to Murphy’s LinkedIn, he has been at NASA for over 17 years. He first served as a system architect at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and has held a series of data-related roles, including chief science data officer. As the agency’s lead for data science, Murphy has already worked to advance technologies — such as cloud computing, machine learning, and data platforms — for use with NASA’s scientific data, per an agency bio. He also oversees the agency’s high-end computing capability (HECC) portfolio, which deploys computing technologies to support large-scale modeling, simulation and analysis at the agency. Murphy’s designation as acting CAIO and CDO comes after Salvagnini announced his plans to leave the agency in a LinkedIn post roughly two months ago. In that post, Salvagnini said he opted into the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program. He said he began his transition Oct. 31 and would retire from federal service in the spring of 2026.