To listen to the Federal Newscast on your phone or mobile device, subscribe on PodcastOne or Apple Podcasts. The best listening experience on desktop can be found using Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

• Federal agencies are having a tough time recruiting and hiring women to law enforcement positions. A new study from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on women in federal law enforcement positions, says women in those positions fell from 14 percent in 2012, to 13 percent  in 2016. Women made up 5 percent of border patrol agents in 2016, and 8 percent of federal police officers. EEOC said agencies should consider coordinating a governmentwide cadet program, and making a targeted administration-wide push to hire more women to law enforcement positions. (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)

• A federal court is continuing to prevent the Trump administration from banning transgender people from the military. A U.S. district court ruled again that an injunction on the ban would remain in effect and in full force nationwide. Judge Marsha Pechmen is one of four federal judges to stop the ban until all lawsuits are settled.

• The Senate approved a more than $700 billion Defense policy bill, one provision would block the president’s proposed deal with Chinese telecommunications firms. The Defense authorization bill would reinstate an earlier decision by the Commerce Department, banning the Chinese company ZTE from buying components made in the U.S. President Donald Trump has proposed relaxing those sanctions as part of trade negotiations with Beijing. The legislation would also prohibit DoD from entering into any contracts with companies that use systems made by ZTE, or by Huawei, another Chinese equipment maker. (Federal News Radio)

• The Air Force awarded a nearly $22 million contract to Dyncorp international to maintain, fuel and supply aircraft in the very important person special air mission contract. The vehicles used for the mission transport the president, vice president and other dignitaries. (Department of Defense)

• The Veterans Affairs Department has new data on veterans suicide trends in 2015. About 20 veterans a day die by suicide, which is in line with the previous year’s statistics. More veterans committed suicide in 2015 compared to the previous year. But the suicide rate has gone up faster for veterans who don’t use VA services, compared to those who do. 2015 is the most recent data VA has available. But VA said it’s working with the Pentagon and Centers for Disease Control to refine the data analysis and publish 2016 veterans suicide data in the fall. (Department of Veterans Affairs)

• Customs and Border Protection wants industry help in solving the agency’s recruitment, hiring and retention challenges. CBP Chief Acquisition Officer Mark Borkowski said the agency has improved its time to hire. But it still takes anywhere from 180 days to a full year to recruit, hire, train and deploy new border patrol agents and CBP officers to the field. CBP signed a $297 million contract with Accenture Federal Services to help them more quickly train new agents. CBP said it sees this contract as a test case for future industry opportunities. (Federal News Radio)

• The Internal Revenue Service decided not to go its own way with a large IT services contract. The IRS is bucking the trend of recompeting their own large multiple-award contract. Instead, the IRS, which provides the contract for all of Treasury to use, is committing to moving the work to governmentwide contracts that fall under the “best-in-class” designation from the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. These include the General Services Administration’s Schedule 70 and Alliant 2 contracts. The IRS decided it will not renew the TIPSS 4 vehicle, which it awarded to 33 vendors in 2010 with a ceiling of $4 billion. (Federal News Radio)

• The Internal Revenue Service needs to rein in runaway workers compensation payouts to its employees. The Treasury inspector general for tax administration found IRS shells out $40 million a year in workers comp to more than 1,400 employees, with more than half of the recipients receiving it for more than six years. Some for more than 40 years. TIGTA recommended tightening up procedures for initiating workman’s comp to cut fraud, and periodically checking if people are still eligible. (Department of the Treasury)

• A former special agent for the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division was convicted of filing false tax returns, obstruction of justice and stealing government money. A jury found Alena Aleykina guilty of filing six false returns over the course of three years, making fraudulent deduction claims. Aleykina will be sentenced in late September. (Department of Justice)

• A former Central Intelligence Agency employee was charged with the theft of classified information from the agency. Joshua Schulte also faces charges of receiving, possessing and transporting child pornography. Prosecutors said Schulte stole the classified materials in 2016 and gave it to a transparency advocate organization. (Associated Press)

• The Office of Government Ethics wants the Environmental Protection Agency’s watchdog to broaden its investigation into agency Administrator Scott Pruitt. David Apol, acting head of the Office of Government Ethics, asked EPA’s inspector general to look into claims Pruitt ordered agency staff to set up a personal meeting with Chick-fil-A executives, in an effort to obtain a franchise for his wife. The EPA IG was already looking into a favorable condo deal Pruitt may have gotten from the wife of an energy lobbyist. OGE warned it may take “formal corrective action” of its own. (Office of Government Ethics)

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.