Transgender personnel will still be able to serve in the military … for now

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• Transgender troops can continue to serve in the military for the time being. Defense Secretary James Mattis announced he was establishing a panel to help create a study and implementation plan to carry out President Donald Trump’s directive disallowing transgenders in the military. Mattis said he’ll provided advice once the panel’s work is complete. In the meantime, the Pentagon’s current policy will remain in place. (Department of Defense)

• The military thinks the needs of Houston after Hurricane Harvey will reach the same levels as Hurricane Katrina. Currently, the National Guard has 12,000 troops on the ground with another 4,000 on the way. The federal government is providing 1,000 active duty troops. The National Guard said those numbers will rise in the coming days. (Federal News Radio)

• Over 510,000 veterans and 5,500 Veterans Affairs employees have been impacted by Hurricane Harvey. The Houston VA Medical Center is open. The Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System is taking calls from veterans in states affected to help veterans reschedule missed appointments. VA also deployed a mobile vet center to provide counseling services to veterans in Corpus Christi. (Department of Veterans Affairs)

• One member of Congress wants answers from the Navy about how one of its shipyards ran an off-the-books police force for 12 years. Responding to a story that was first reported by Federal News Radio, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) wrote to the secretary of the Navy, asking what the service is doing or has done to discipline Norfolk shipyard employees who allegedly wasted $21 million on weapons, vehicles and salaries for the unauthorized law enforcement agency. Speier, the ranking member on the House military personnel subcommittee, says there’s no plausible explanation for what she called “egregious waste” that escaped the attention of seven separate commanders. (Federal News Radio)

• Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) wants to know who at the Homeland Security Department is responsible for $25 million in wasteful spending. The ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee wrote to DHS Undersecretary for Management Claire Grady asking about oversight of the contract for a Performance and Learning Management System. The DHS inspector general recently found serious problems with the system, including how it does not fit necessary requirements for various parts of DHS. McCaskill is worried the agency isn’t doing enough to make sure the waste does not continue. (Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee)

• The Congressional Budget Office weighed in on five possible options for future changes to the federal retirement system. CBO found pros and cons with all of them. Three of the options suggested changes to existing federal employees’ pensions or the formula used to calculate them. Two other options would replace the pension entirely with bigger employer contributions to the Thrift Savings Plan. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee majority members asked CBO to conduct the study. (Congressional Budget Office)

• Many federal employees said the president’s recent comments about the possibility of a government shutdown have them feeling more concerned than usual about the end of the fiscal year. Of the 900 people who responded to a Federal News Radio survey, 54% said they were more concerned and 31 percent said they’re just as concerned as usual. Many respondents said the mere suggestion or preparations for a shutdown was “business as usual” for their agencies now in September. (Federal News Radio)

• The General Services Administration’s inspector general is reviewing the lease between the agency and the Trump Hotel. GSA confirmed the evaluation of the ground lease for the Old Post Office Building. GSA said President Donald Trump was not in violation. Critics said he must sell his financial stake because elected officials can’t lease federally-owned buildings. (Federal News Radio)

• The Homeland Security Department is trying to alleviate some of the growing concerns about where commercial cybersecurity products are developed across the globe. DHS is adding more rigor to a governmentwide cybersecurity initiative around vendor supply chains. Under an updated supply chain risk management plan, new vendors who want to sell cyber products and services through the continuous diagnostics and mitigation (CDM) program will have to provide more visibility into the code of their hardware and software products. (Federal News Radio)

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