The Daily Scoop Podcast

The Department of Homeland Security’s watchdog office has launched an audit of the agency’s privacy practices amid allegations that DHS and its components have used facial recognition tools and other technologies to collect data broadly and violate civil liberties.

The Office of Personnel Management finalized a new classification Thursday for career federal workers in policy-related roles that will effectively make them easier to terminate. The new “Schedule Policy/Career” creates an administrative category for nonpolitical “career” federal employees who work in roles that are defined as influencing policy. Workers added to that classification will be converted to “at-will” employees and will no longer be eligible for adverse action procedures or the ability to appeal terminations. Roughly 50,000 employees will be subject to the change, per an estimate in the final rule. Despite the administration’s assertion that the new schedule is for “accountability” and will not be subject to political loyalty tests, federal employee advocates have long argued the policy is a thinly veiled attempt to strip career employees of safeguards in an effort to replace them with workers who are politically aligned with the president. The announcement from OPM on Thursday stated that the final rule explicitly does not allow discrimination based on politics, prohibits use of the new schedule to reshape the workforce or conduct mass layoffs, and would protect whistleblowers. OPM also stated that it would take on a role to review agency actions to ensure they are compliant. A Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency order published Thursday directs federal agencies to stop using “edge devices” like firewalls and routers that their manufacturers no longer support. It’s a stab at tackling one of the most persistent and difficult-to-manage avenues of attack for hackers, a vector that has factored into some of the most consequential and most common types of exploits in recent years. New edge-device vulnerabilities surface frequently. Under the binding operational directive CISA released Thursday, federal civilian executive branch (FCEB) agencies must inventory edge devices in their systems that vendors no longer support within three months, and replace those on a dedicated list with supported devices within one year. To aid agencies in following the directive, CISA is producing a list of end-of-service edge devices. CISA developed the directive in conjunction with the Office of Management and Budget, and puts a bit more muscle behind a decade-old OMB circular on agencies phasing out unsupported technologies. Despite being called “binding operational directives,” CISA has no authority to mandate that agencies carry out the orders — although agencies have demonstrated they usually seek to follow them, and there are ways that CISA can work to ensure compliance. The private sector pays attention to CISA’s directives even though they don’t apply to companies. 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 House Oversight and Government Reform Committee advanced several tech-related bills Wednesday, including legislation to strengthen the Technology Modernization Fund, reform federal IT procurement and pare down educational requirements for agency cybersecurity roles. The TMF, which was created by law in 2017 to fund tech modernization projects across agencies, has been the subject of much hand-wringing in govtech circles after Congress let the funding vehicle expire late last year. The Modernizing Government Technology Reform Act (H.R. 2985), however, would get the TMF back on track, reauthorizing the TMF and its governing board through 2032. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who chairs House Oversight’s Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation Subcommittee, said it was her “privilege” to work with former Rep. Gerry Connolly on the bill before he died of cancer last May, calling the late Virginia Democrat one of TMF’s “strongest supporters” and a “good-faith partner” on the bill. Rep. Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, ranking member of the cybersecurity subcommittee and co-sponsor of the TMF bill, said extending the TMF “is critical to ensuring federal agencies, many of which still rely on outdated IT systems, can modernize their infrastructure and defend against growing cyber threats.” In addition to reauthorizing the TMF, the bill would require agencies to “fully reimburse the fund” at levels that ensure it remains operational through 2032, per the bill text. The legislation also requires agencies to pay back administrative fees and create inventories of their legacy IT. The bill also included an amendment from Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., Connolly’s longtime chief of staff, that would require the Government Accountability Office to issue biannual reports on how TMF funds have been used to address legacy IT projects the watchdog deems high-priority. Improving government IT systems is also top of mind in the Federal Improvement in Technology (FIT) Procurement Act (H.R. 4123), which advanced out the committee by a 42-0 margin. The legislation would streamline the federal procurement process for small businesses and push federal contracting officers to examine larger acquisitions “where the potential for waste, fraud and abuse is high,” said House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer. The Kentucky Republican noted that the bill would increase the micro-purchase threshold from $10,000 to $25,000 and raise the simplified-acquisition threshold from $250,000 to $500,000. 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 Education Department’s workers union is pushing back after more than 100 technology-related employees lost their collective bargaining protections last month under an executive order citing national security and cybersecurity risks tied to their roles. About 120 employees in the agency’s Office of the Chief Information Officer and Federal Student Aid’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer were told late last month they no longer had union protections due to the nature of their positions, according to AFGE Local 252, which represents Education Department employees. The notification came nearly nine months after President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending collective bargaining rights for labor unions at various federal agencies. The order included some agencies in their entirety, along with some positions across the government that have a determined “primary function” involving intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work. While the CTO and OCIO employees work with technology that could have cybersecurity ties, AFGE Local 252 argues this does not involve intelligence work that would warrant such a ban. “The Department of Education does not engage in any intelligence, counter-intelligence, investigative, or national security work,” AFGE 252 President Rachel Gittleman told FedScoop in an interview, suggesting the move is “just a way to strip labor rights of our federal workforce.” The FSA CTO office specifically does “work on technology” and products, but not information resources management, as the order states, Gittleman explained. FSA employees primarily focus on the office’s website, income-driven repayment applications, FAFSA, and public service loan forgiveness applications. An American stealth fighter jet shot down an Iranian one-way attack drone in the Arabian Sea Tuesday after it “aggressively approached” a U.S. aircraft carrier “with unclear intent,” according to a statement from U.S. Central Command. Just hours after the shootdown, two Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ships accompanied by another unmanned aerial system — this one an Iranian Mohajer drone — approached a U.S.-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to board and seize the vessel, the statement from Centcom spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins said. The dual incidents could spell increased tensions between Washington and Tehran after President Donald Trump threatened military action against Iran over its deadly suppression of protests last month and amid broader nuclear negotiations that could begin this week. The jet, an F-35C Lightning II, launched from the USS Abraham Lincoln, which was transiting the Arabian Sea roughly 500 miles from Iran’s southern coast, Centcom said. The Centcom statement did not identify the unit the jet belongs to, but Marine Fighter Attack Squadron-314, the Black Knights, were photographed by the military operating off the Lincoln several days ago. The long-range Iranian drone — a Shahed-139 UAS known for its use in the Russia-Ukraine war and being reverse-engineered into a U.S. military one-way attack drone — “continued to fly toward the ship despite de-escalatory measures taken by U.S. forces operating in international waters,” the command said. The F-35C shot it down “in self-defense” and to protect the Lincoln and her crew, according to the statement, which said that no service members were harmed and no American equipment was damaged. 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 part of its effort to root out the waste and abuse of government resources, the Trump administration has recently placed fraud squarely in its crosshairs. With that, senior government officials and other policymakers have pointed to the need for stronger and more prevalent identity verification to combat fraud. An expert in digital identity verification, Jordan Burris, former chief of staff to the federal CIO during the first Trump administration and part of President Biden’s term and now head of public sector at Socure, joins the Daily Scoop to discuss the ongoing issues around identity fraud, the U.S.’s journey to a national digital identity verification system and why Washington has struggled so much to get identity right. The Department of Energy is piloting Grok, the generative AI tool from Elon Musk’s xAI, within its Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, according to the agency’s AI use case inventory. The pilot began at the end of June 2025 and has been used to find general answers to questions, summarize information and create documents. The Grok pilot comes at a time when the Energy Department is pursuing ambitious AI goals as part of its role in leading the Trump administration’s Genesis Mission. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has repeatedly characterized the AI effort as “the Manhattan Project of our time.” Grok has been a controversial addition to the federal government’s workflows since the start, following its posting of racist and antisemitic comments last July. A group of more than 30 advocacy organizations called on the Office of Management and Budget to prohibit the use of Grok across the federal government just a month after xAI launched “Grok for Government” last summer. Grok has continued to dominate headlines in the months since. The chatbot has generated biased or misleading claims, garnering the attention of foreign governments and domestic watchdogs. The Department of Veterans Affairs has tapped former government technology leader Zack Schwartz to serve as the next principal deputy assistant secretary for the agency’s Office of Information and Technology. In this role, Schwartz will “oversee technology strategy, daily IT operations, cybersecurity, systems modernization, and service delivery across the department,” VA Deputy Secretary Paul Lawrence wrote in a LinkedIn post Monday. Schwartz will work under Lawrence, who also serves as the agency’s acting chief information officer and assistant secretary for OIT. Schwartz joins the VA with more than a decade of government IT experience, having previously served at the Department of Commerce and the Census Bureau. These roles involved work on modernization and agency-wide transformation initiatives, Lawrence said. Schwartz announced the move on LinkedIn Sunday evening, writing that he appreciates “the many colleagues across VA who supported my transition and welcomed me into the role.” Schwartz most recently served as the chief information and technology officer at Events DC, an events hosting company, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Discussion centers on U.S. diplomacy to export American AI cybersecurity standards and norms worldwide. The conversation highlights competing international influence and newly released guides. AI’s role in a forthcoming national cybersecurity strategy and federal defense planning is explored. Rapid rollout of AI-enabled defensive tools and federal network modernization for a post-quantum future are covered.

The U.S. government has backed out of an organization it helped found that’s aimed at improving how governments can better serve their citizens. The Open Government Partnership announced Wednesday that the U.S. had formally withdrawn its membership, adding to a growing list of organizations the administration has departed. Despite the U.S. being one of the founding nations of the organization in 2011, the General Services Administration’s head, Edward Forst, wrote to the group’s leadership this month to notify them of the decision. Per a copy of that letter published by OGP, Forst said the country’s participation in the organization “has become at best ineffective and at worst detrimental to advancing” principles outlined in the nation’s founding documents, though he didn’t cite specific documents. Forst implied that the body “seeks to erode U.S. national sovereignty” and went on to blame its “embrace of divisive ideological agendas” as a reason the nation dropped its membership. Forst wrote: “Racial identity politics, anti-police bias, LGBTQ+ advocacy, feminism, and climate alarmism have increasingly dominated OGP’s policy agenda. These divisive agendas, driven by extreme ideological cliques, have destroyed the ability of OGP to credibly operate as a voice for transparency.” That rhetoric echoes the Trump administration’s controversial efforts to remove diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, from the federal government — whether through the termination of grants, positions, organizations, or data points. Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia are asking the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general to look into the agency’s broad data collection and analysis processes, according to a letter sent to the DHS IG on Thursday. The duo tasked Inspector General Joseph Cuffari with investigating the methods of data storage and use for personally identifying information, whether DHS immigration enforcement activities are based on data coming from other agencies or third parties, and where DHS collects data from, among other topics. The senators wrote in the letter: “We write to you to express our concern that the Department of Homeland Security is collecting sensitive personal data that can be used to circumvent civil liberty protections, including those guaranteed under the Fourth Amendment. This matter deserves your office’s immediate attention, and we request that your office audit DHS’ immigration procurement activities to determine whether they have led to violations of federal law and other regulations that maintain privacy and defend against unlawful searches.” Lawmakers have kept their eyes on the use of technology within the department, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement in particular. In recent months, DHS has aimed to broaden its authorities by amending rules around data use and collections. Lawmakers have warned of eroding privacy protections and public trust if safeguards aren’t established. 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 is actively working on 200-plus artificial intelligence use cases, a nearly 37% increase compared to July 2025, according to its latest AI inventory posted Wednesday. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a driving force behind the growth. ICE added 25 AI use cases since its disclosure last summer, including to process tips, review mobile device data relevant to investigations, confirm identities of individuals via biometric data and detect intentional misidentification. Of the newly added uses at ICE, three are products from Palantir, which has been a notable — and at times controversial — technology partner for the U.S. government under the Trump administration. Quinn Anex-Ries, a senior policy analyst focused on equity and civic tech at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit technology policy organization, told FedScoop: “This inventory is coming out at a moment where there are significant, widespread questions about the legality of actions being taken by DHS and their potential infringement on the civil liberties and privacy of millions of people across the country.” Anex-Ries added: “There are some initial indications that the inventory leaves us wanting for more.” The annual inventory process stems from a 2020 executive order during the first Trump administration that was later enshrined into federal statute. The Department of Transportation is reopening a request for information that centered around the Federal Aviation Administration’s handling of unmanned aircraft systems. In this extended, two-week comment period, the FAA is seeking additional insights on aircraft location-tracking devices, detection technologies and safety standards as it looks to finalize the drone-related rules. The FAA has already received around 3,100 comments and hosted two listening sessions with relevant stakeholders, according to the extension announcement scheduled to be published Wednesday on the Federal Register. Still, the FAA wants to “ensure that it fully understands” comments surrounding its proposed policies for location-tracking, data-sharing and detection technologies. The initial inquiry was set in motion by President Donald Trump’s June executive order, called “Unleashing American Drone Dominance.” The president directed the FAA to publish a final rule that would enable drone-based Beyond Visual Line of Sight operations for commercial and public safety purposes within 240 days, which would be Feb. 1. The original RFI had a broader scope and concluded in October despite receiving two requests for an extension. 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 said it consolidated policies around protecting American military facilities from drone threats after unclear guidance that left base commanders scrambling on how to respond and years of increased unmanned aerial system sightings over key Defense Department assets. Drone incursions over American military bases jumped considerably over the last several years, alarming officials, and a Pentagon watchdog report released last week said the DOD’s confused policies meant some facilities in the U.S. couldn’t adequately protect themselves. Following the release of the Defense Department Inspector General report last Tuesday, which noted dire gaps in military counter-UAS policy that limited base responses to drone threats, the Pentagon said it had already adjusted its guidelines last month in an effort to give commanders “expanded authority and flexibility needed to dominate the airspace above their installations.” Countering drones in the U.S. is complex and has been a yearslong, thorny problem for the military, especially as the tech becomes ubiquitous for both hobbyists and adversaries. Stateside drone defense means navigating a delicate balance between protecting military installations while avoiding civilian harm or infrastructure damage. But the issue is only growing, top military officials have said, and the new guidance is the latest attempt by the Pentagon to manage it. The policies, which the release said was signed on Dec. 8 by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, expanded base commanders’ defensive area around facilities, explicitly identified any unauthorized drone surveillance over installations as a threat, allowed UAS sensor data sharing between other federal agencies and authorized top service leaders to designate facilities as “covered,” a special classification that allows for drone defense. With tax filing season officially gearing up, the Treasury Department’s watchdog is warning the IRS that its workforce reductions and delays to modernization projects have left the tax agency in a precarious position. In a memo sent Monday to the IRS commissioner, Diana M. Tengesdal, deputy inspector general for audit, wrote that the agency’s cuts have brought staffing back to October 2021 levels, prior to the Inflation Reduction Act funding infusion aimed at strengthening enforcement on wealthy individuals and corporations and modernizing antiquated IT systems. The loss of personnel has led to a backsliding on previous agency priorities, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration official noted, pointing specifically to a pandemic-created backlog of tax returns awaiting processing. The tax agency had made serious strides in addressing that backlog, TIGTA found in a September 2023 report, but Trump administration staff cuts combined with the recent government shutdown have led to inventory levels that are 129% higher than pre-pandemic figures. “Inventory that is not worked during the current processing year will be carried into the 2026 Filing Season and may affect the IRS’s ability to timely process tax returns during the filing season, especially with reduced staff,” Tengesdal wrote. “This could result in delays in taxpayers receiving refunds and could result in the IRS paying interest,” she continued. 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 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.