Federal Newscast

The House Appropriations Committee wants to reduce EPA's budget for fiscal 2027 by $1.8 billion or 20%. At the same time as part of the Interior, Environment and related agencies spending bill, lawmakers are increasing funding for the Interior Department by almost $700 million. The funding bill also supports President Trump’s effort to unify Interior firefighting entities and cuts funding for climate programs. Additionally, the bill would reduce funding for the Smithsonian Institution, the National Gallery of Art and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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The Office of Special Counsel may be getting a new leader. President Donald Trump has nominated Charles Baldis as special counsel for the OSC. If the Senate confirms him, Baldis will be the first permanent leader at the agency in more than a year. Trump fired Hampton Dellinger, the OSC’s previous special counsel and a Biden appointee, in 2025.
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The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs passed a reconciliation bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection for fiscal year 2026. The bill includes $9.5 billion for CBP recruitment and nearly $7.5 billion for ICE recruitment for fiscal 2026. It also includes about $3.5 billion for other CBP operations funding through fiscal 2029, including procurement and implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning for mission support. The bill passed with a vote of 8 to 5. The reconciliation bill comes after Congress shut down the Department of Homeland Security for a record-breaking 76 days earlier this year.
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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 says 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 the 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 says USPS can look to other countries, like Australia and France, that have successfully developed similar initiatives.
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Tax delinquency rates among federal employees and retirees have been increasing since 2021. That’s according to a new report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration that finds about 50,000 federal employees failed to file a tax return for multiple years, including 122 employees who have not submitted one for eight or more years. TIGTA says the suspension of some collection programs during the COVID-19 pandemic is partly to blame for this increased delinquency. The program that collects this information, the Federal Employment/Retirement Delinquency Initiative, saw a staff reduction of 50% last year. TIGTA didn’t include recommendations in its report, but says it has referred cases to IRS Criminal Investigations.
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