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• The Office of Personnel Management has offered new guidance to help employees convert their volunteer hours to credit for the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC). The CFC will monetize volunteer hours and count them toward campaign results. But it will report them separately from financial contributions. Federal employees should use the CFC online pledging system to track volunteer hours. (Chief Human Capital Officers Council)

• The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) has become the second major labor union to sue the Trump administration over the president’s recent series of executive orders. NTEU argues the president’s orders on employee accountability and official time violate the Civil Service Reform Act, a different set of arguments from the American Federation of Government Employees’ lawsuit. The union filed the lawsuit in the district court in Virginia. (Federal News Radio)

• The Veterans Affairs Department (VA) said it wants to consolidate how it secures the iPhones, Android and other mobile devices its employees use. And VA wants to do that consolidation in the cloud. VA released a request for information seeking vendor input on how they would provide software-as-a-service for 45,000 to 100,000 devices. The cloud service would include security at the moderate level as well as an application store and user training. The request for proposals will go through VA’s T4 multiple award contract and the winning contractor will have to transition to the new system by September. (FedBizOpps)

• When it comes to customer service,  Forrester Research has determined the private sector beats the federal government almost every time.  The latest scorecard from customer research organization said the public ranked TV service providers, rental car companies and even airlines higher than the government. The National Park Service and the Postal Service were the top two ranked government agencies. The Department of Veterans Affairs and Healthcare dot gov posted significantly higher scores this year. (Federal News Radio)

• The IRS has released a five-year tax administration strategy to overhaul its taxpayer services. The six-point plan called for a better-trained workforce, agile development, and a higher rate of taxpayer compliance. The IRS developed it with the help of private sector partners, and will remain in effect until 2022.

• Pentagon officials said that over the next three years, the Defense Department (DoD) will take responsibility for all background investigations involving its military and civilian employees and contractors. But according to a U.S. official, the White House is expected to soon give the department authority to conduct security reviews for nearly all other government agencies as well. Gary Reid, director of defense intelligence, says DOD’s process will start to reduce the backlog of clearances, now at about 700,000. Most of those are DOD employees. It’ll take three years before investigations are totally removed from the Office of Personnel Management, officials tell Associated Press. (Federal News Radio)

• The Defense Department said it may be appropriate for other agencies to cut back their civilian payroll, but that the military services and agencies need to see at least some “targeted growth.” The assertion came as part of a sweeping plan to adjust the Pentagon’s business practices. Officials said they need to manage military members, contractors and civilians as a “total force,” and that they need to do away with arbitrary caps on civilian employees. (Federal News Radio)

• A new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers suggested if defense companies don’t start investing more in research and development they are likely to lose out to new nontraditional companies like SpaceX. The report said the Pentagon will need companies willing to take more risk as it invests in futuristic technologies. (Federal News Radio)

• A new federal IT task force said it will examine the emerging public policy concerns regarding government procurement of next-generation IT services. The Hudson Institute said former Defense Department IT executives will be summoned to solve federal acquisition challenges. The task force is sponsored by Oracle and Microsoft. William Schneider the former chairman of the Defense Science Board and former undersecretary of State for Security Assistance, Science and Technology will lead the board. (Hudson Institute)

• National Security Adviser John Bolton has begun filling some key national security positions. Bolton has appointed Rear Admiral Douglas Fears to be the new Deputy Assistant to the President and Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor on the National Security Council staff. Fears would replace Tom Bossert, who left the position in April. Prior to his appointment, Fears served as the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Resilience Policy at the National Security Council. (White House)

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