• Federal employees impacted by Hurricane Milton are eligible to use paid leave donated by their colleagues. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has established an “emergency leave transfer program” for those under threat from the hurricane. The OPM program lets feds donate their unused time off to a leave bank. Feds impacted by the hurricane can then use the extra paid time off during the emergency, without having to dip into their own leave hours. The emergency leave program for Milton comes about a week after feds affected by Hurricane Helene received the same options from OPM. Employees should contact their agency’s HR office for more information.
  (Emergency leave transfer for federal employees adversely affected by Hurricane Milton - Office of Personnel Management)
• Many federal retirees will get a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment for their retirement annuities next year, but not everyone gets that full COLA. Retirees in the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), just like every year, will receive a smaller cost-of-living adjustment. In 2025, that means they’ll get a 2% COLA. The initial rationale for giving FERS annuitants a reduced COLA was to try to balance the scales with those in the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). But federal advocates and some lawmakers have called the difference “unfair” and have pushed to give FERS annuitants a full COLA rather than the reduced amount. This year in particular, concerns are growing as the smaller COLA is coupled with a significant health premium increase of 13.5% for feds in 2025.
  (2025 COLA will be 2.5%, but some federal retirees get a smaller percentage - Federal News Network)
• A Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) database left some personally identifiable information on VA employees and veterans viewable to all users. Now three VA whistleblowers are getting recognition for reporting the problem. The Office of Special Counsel found VA officials violated federal law and department policy by not restricting access to these records. The VA whistleblowers received this year’s Public Servant Award from OSC. The VA has since updated its database so that records are only accessible by VA employees with a valid business reason.
  (Three VA whistleblowers receive OSC’s 2024 Public Servant Award for disclosing improper handling of veterans’ personal information - Office of Special Counsel)
• Military installations in Florida avoided severe damage after Hurricane Milton made landfall Wednesday night. U.S. Special Operations Command and U.S. Central Command remain evacuated from McDill Air Force Base. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon's top spokesperson, says both commands “continue to operate out of multiple locations, ensuring no degradation to operations.” As of Thursday morning, the Florida National Guard has deployed over 6,500 Guard personnel. The response includes over 500 high water vehicles, 26 helicopters and over a dozen watercraft to assist with recovery efforts. Another 3,000 National Guard members from 19 states are also ready to provide further support if needed. Two-hundred fifty personnel from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are assisting with tasks, including temporary roof repairs, managing debris, controlling flooding and clearing waterways.
  (Military installations avoid severe damage after Milton landfall - Department of Defense)
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientists faced retaliation over chemical safety disagreements. The EPA’s inspector general’s office says scientists were passed over for promotions, received lower performance evaluations and got reassigned to other parts of the agency — all over disagreements about chemical safety. EPA scientists generally face a 90-day deadline to assess new chemicals for commercial use. Kyla Bennett, the director of science policy for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility says scientists were pressured to avoid backlogs. “They would do these risk assessments on new chemicals, and they'd say, ‘OK, we found that this one causes cancer,’ for example. And the managers would say, ‘No, no, we don't want to say that,’ and they’d delete the cancer designation. And it was happening over and over and over.”
  (EPA scientists retaliated against over chemical safety disagreements, watchdog finds - Federal News Network)
• The annual governmentwide customer satisfaction survey puts the General Services Administration (GSA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) at the top for IT services. Employees at the NSF and the GSA gave their Offices of the CIO high marks in a new survey. As part of the President's Management Agenda's business of government priority area, OMB and GSA surveyed more than 246,000 employees about their satisfaction levels across back-office functions. In the IT category, NSF employees' ratings lifted the agency to the top across four of seven areas, including IT equipment, IT functions and IT support. GSA employees' ratings lifted their agency to first or second in six of seven areas, including receiving the top rating for IT communication and collaboration.
  (2024 customer satisfaction survey for back-office functions - PMA.gov)
• Federal employees are telling the General Services Administration they like the co-working space pilot launched just over a year ago. GSA says the program, which started in July 2023, has hosted more than 1,100 employees from 78 departments and 85% of them say they plan to return to the co-working space. Employees can take advantage of these government-managed office spaces in six cities, including Chicago, Denver, Kansas City, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Tacoma, Washington. Later this year, GSA says the federal co-working program will launch a digital booking system pilot, letting users make and manage their own reservations.
  (Innovating federal workspaces: GSA's co-working pilot - PMA.gov)
• The Defense Department is exploring the idea of creating a separate path or a sub-path within the software acquisition pathway specifically for artificial intelligence. An alternate path would allow the department to iterate more rapidly and accommodate the faster cycles of development that AI requires. Deborah Rosenblum, the acting deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, says it will most likely be done through the software pathway given its inherent flexibility and agility.
  (DoD considers faster acquisition pathway for artificial intelligence - Federal News Network)

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