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• Six Democratic senators ask the Justice Department’s inspector general to run an audit on the General Services Administration’s decision to leave the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. They want the IG to look into why the decision was made, despite questions over cost and security. They also want to know how much influence senior White House advisers had in the decision. (Sen. Ben Cardin)

• President Donald Trump signed the first “minibus” of appropriations bills for 2019. Trump signed spending bills for military construction, veterans affairs, energy and water development, and the legislative branch. The minibus funds the Veterans Affairs Department at its highest level ever, it leaves some questions unanswered about future funding for the new VA MISSION Act programs. Senate Democrats said what’s known as the Veterans Choice Program, will face another funding shortfall by May 2019. (Senate Veterans Affairs Committee)

• A federal district court quickly struck down the American Federation of Government Employee’s contempt motion against the Veterans Affairs Department. An AFGE local in Missouri had filed a motion of contempt against a VA medical center there. The union argued that VA acted in contempt because it failed to comply with the D.C. district court’s recent ruling that invalidated key provisions of the president’s executive orders on official time and collective bargaining. (Federal News Radio)

• Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wants more answers from Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney about a recent appearance with Republican donors to determine whether he violated the Hatch Act. Warren sent Mulvaney a letter with 10 questions focusing on his appearance at a political event in New York City earlier this month. Warren wants to know how Mulvaney’s speaking engagement is consistent with his responsibilities either as OMB director or as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (Sen. Elizabeth Warren)

• The White House has begun vetting candidates for long-vacant agency inspector general positions. National Science Foundation IG Allison Lerner said agency IG offices also needed to hire staffers with in-demand IT skills. The Project On Government Oversight reported 13 agencies currently lack permanent IGs. (Federal News Radio)

• The Army said it will miss its recruiting goals for fiscal year 2018. The service said it will fall short of both its recruiting and end strength targets in all three components — the active Army, the National Guard and Reserve. In the active component, the Army was aiming for 76,500 new soldiers. It will have recruited just 70,000 by the close of the fiscal year that ends this month. Officials said a strong economy and the need to suddenly grow the service after years of drawdowns were partly to blame. (Federal News Radio)

• The Defense Department needs to do a better job at ensuring health-care providers are giving military families the care they need. A Government Accountability Office report found DoD was not implementing metrics to make sure civilian providers gave the best care. Those metrics are applied to military health care providers. (Government Accountability Office)

• The Defense Health Agency extended its provider referral waivers until Sept. 30 for TRICARE patients living in North Carolina and South Carolina. TRICARE patients in locations affected by Hurricane Florence can continue to see providers in any location without a referral from their primary care doctor. (Air Force)

• A governmentwide technology office is jumping on the bug bounty bandwagon. The Technology Transformation Service at GSA is the first civilian agency to get into the bug bounty game. TTS hired HackerOne under a five-year, $2.3 million contract. TTS will receive a software-as-a-service vulnerability disclosure program that provides them with a large network of security researchers and others to help find and address bugs and other technical issues within their web applications. TTS ran a bug bounty pilot with HackerOne in 2017 that found 52 problems and paid out over $21,000 in bounties. (FedBizOpps)

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