IRS Direct File adds more states for 2025

• Taxpayers in Maryland can use the IRS’ free online tax-filing platform starting next year. The IRS is partnering with the state to roll out its Direct File platform to more than 700-thousand taxpayers. The IRS piloted Direct File with a dozen states during this year’s filing season. Now’s it’s making the program permanent and inviting all states to participate. The IRS expects half of all states will opt in by next year’s filing season.
  (Governor Moore joins state and federal leaders to announce Maryland adding IRS Direct File system for 2025 filing season - Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD))
• A new initiative at the National Institute of Standards and Technology aims to make cybersecurity more user-friendly. NIST this week announced the establishment of a Human-Centered Cybersecurity Community of Interest. The group will convene cyber researchers and practitioners to raise awareness and share ideas. NIST said the goal is to both improve people’s cybersecurity experiences and achieve better cyber outcomes.
  (Learning, sharing, and exploring with NIST’s new 'Human-Centered Cybersecurity Community of Interest' - NIST)
• For the last couple of years, the White House has asked agencies to focus on candidates’ skills over their education in federal hiring. Now, one lawmaker wants to apply the same idea to government contractors. Virginia Democrat Abigail Spanberger is asking the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) how many positions for contract employees require degrees — and whether that’s really necessary in all cases. In a letter sent to the agency this week, Spanberger asked OFPP to review the skills-based expectations for agencies and see how they can translate to contract positions. Many qualified candidates, Spanberger said, may have taken alternative educational routes, like completing an apprenticeship or attending community college
  (Letter to OFPP on skills-based hiring - Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA))
• The Defense Department is bringing its acquisition rules into the modern era for other transaction agreements or OTAs. DoD's proposed rule would address several legislative changes that Congress made over the last 20 years. The draft regulation would further clarify what prototype and production OTAs can address. It details special circumstances for award of OTAs to small businesses, nontraditional defense contractors, nonprofit research institutions and consortia. Finally, the draft rule outlines approval requirements for OTAs valued at between 100 million dollars and 500 million dollars. Comments on the proposed rule are due by Nov. 4.
  (DoD proposed rule for OTAs - Federal Register)

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• The Space Development Agency has demonstrated successful optical communication between satellites. The demonstration involved two tracking satellites built by SpaceX using the SDA compliant laser light terminals built by TSAT. SDA Director Derek Tournear said the satellites were able to establish the communication link in less than 100 seconds. Demonstrating intersatellite laser links was the last key technical challenge for the agency.
  (SDA demonstrates optical intersatellite link - Defense News)
• The Defense Department is seeking solutions that can distribute data across multiple networks located in different geographic areas. DoD currently operates several separate network transport layers, each supporting different enclaves that use various message brokers to manage data streams. The DoD wants a solution that enables effective communication across these networks using established routing protocols and networking devices. The solution should also support data sharing between different classification levels. Submissions are due by Sep 17.
  (DoD seeking solution for data distribution across different geographic areas - DIU)
• The White House wants to fill hundreds of open federal cyber jobs in the coming months. The Office of the National Cyber Director is launching a federal tech hiring sprint this fall. Dubbed Service for America, the initiative aims to fill open cyber, technology and artificial intelligence jobs. The White House estimates there are about 3,000 open IT jobs across agencies. Hiring offices have scheduled a series of recruiting fairs throughout September and October.
  (WH launches cyber hiring sprint to fill open tech roles - Federal News Network)
• Applications are now open for the Presidential Management Fellows class of 2025. For 45 years, the PMF program has brought candidates with advanced degrees into agencies for a two-year stint, focused on federal leadership development. For the upcoming PMF class, agencies will have a little more flexibility in the way they run the program, thanks to new regulations from the Office of Personnel Management. With OPM’s new final rule, for instance, agencies can now convert participants who finish the program to a full-time position at a different agency — rather than being limited only to where they worked as a PMF. OPM has said it hopes the new flexibilities will improve the program for both agencies and candidates.
  (Presidential Management Fellows program applications open for PMF class of 2025 - Federal News Network)
• The Department of Veterans Affairs is falling short of its hiring goals to help veterans dealing with substance abuse. Over the past two years the VA made more than 800 new hires in a push to expand veterans’ access to substance use disorder treatment. That’s about 65% of its total hiring goal. Congress gave the VA a quarter-billion dollars to support this hiring. But it spent less than half that money on making new hires and gave more than 100 million dollars back to its finance office. More than one in ten veterans have been diagnosed with a substance use disorder. That’s slightly higher than the general population.
  (VA hiring fell ‘significantly short’ of goals to expand substance abuse treatment for vets - Federal News Network)
• The Social Security Administration takes another step to improve customer and employee experiences. SSA has implemented electronic signatures for more than 30 forms. It eliminated the need for signatures altogether for 13 forms. Betsy Beaumon, SSA's chief transformation officer, said this only the beginning. SSA said 90% of the most commonly used forms by its customers now will offer the new e-signature capability. And those 13 forms that no longer require signatures means a reduction by over a million forms a year submitted by mail by citizens.
  (SSA leaning into e-signatures as a way to cut mountain of mail - Federal News Network)

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