• Members of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs committees have come to an agreement on legislation to fund VA’s Veterans Choice program. VA Secretary David Shulkin said it calls for giving the program $2.1 billion and authorizes 28 major medical leases. He said the legislation will also make it easier to hire the most sought-after medical specialists. (Department of Veterans Affairs)

• Another group of conservative lawmakers wants federal employees to contribute more toward their retirement. It’s one of several 2018 budget proposals from the Republican Study Committee. The committee also suggested cutting automatic annual pay raises for federal employees, or cutting the automatic pay adjustments by half a percent next year. The committee advocates for using the Holman Rule as a way to eliminate some federal positions and reduce the size of the workforce. (Federal News Radio)

• The plan to reorganize DHS clears the first hurdle on Capitol Hill. The House Homeland Security Committee easily approved the first step to creating a new cyber agency within the Homeland Security Department. Chairman Mike McCaul’s (R-Texas) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act passed unanimously by voice vote and now moves to the full House for consideration. The committee also approved Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee’s (D-Texas) Cyber Vulnerability Disclosure Reporting Act. This bill would require DHS to submit a report to Congress on how it is coordinating cyber vulnerability disclosures with the public and private sectors. (House Homeland Security Committee)

• Maryland and Virginia lawmakers want one person in charge of the government’s response to a federal cyber attack. Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Md.), Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) and Rob Wittman (R-Va.) introduced the Cyber VICTIM Act. It would require the president to choose a specific Interagency Cyber Victim Response Coordinator to organize government’s response to a cyber breach, and interact with impacted federal employees. (Rep. Anthony Brown)

• The Department of Health and Human Services has launched a revised online tool to help people find out about breaches of health information. The HIPAA Breach Reporting Tool helps users find more information on breaches and lets organizations report them. It will also help educate industry on different kinds of breaches to help them improve their security posture. (Department of Health and Human Services)

• President Donald Trump announced over Twitter he is banning transgender people from the military, citing costs and disruption as his reason. The announcement reverses President Obama’s policy that allowed them to serve openly and undergo treatment. The cost to the Defense Department for the treatment is estimated at $8 million a year annually. (Federal News Radio)

• The Pentagon’s inspector general said the Army and Air Force needs to fix substandard military housing in Korea. Three years ago, the DoD IG reported it found nearly 650 health and safety deficiencies in on-base housing in South Korea, ranging from fire protection and electrical problems to environmental health and management issues. In a follow-up report this week, the IG said the Army has only fixed 62 percent of the problems it first identified; the Air Force has only remedied 35 percent.  Inspectors also found dozens of other problems that weren’t identified in the 2014 report. (Department of Defense Office of Inspector General)

• Treasury Department officials urge Senate appropriators to fund technology investments at the IRS. Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told a Senate appropriations subcommittee they both support strengthening IT at the tax agency. Koskinen estimates an update would cost about $500 million. (Federal News Radio)

• Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the government can cover its bills for now, but it’s costly. Mnuchin told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee, his favorite subject is U.S. credit. But the government reached its debt ceiling in March, and Congress hasn’t raised it. That forces Treasury to borrow at high rates to keep its trust funds whole. Mnuchin said that’s a real cost, added to the implied cost of uncertainty. Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.) pegs borrowing costs at $2.5 billion. (Senate Appropriations Committee)

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