• The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) wants to make sure agencies retain important video calls and other digital records. That next important Zoom meeting of yours could be one for the history books. The National Archives is out with new guidance to ensure agencies properly manage federal records created on so-called collaboration platforms. That includes video conferencing, chat messaging and other technologies. NARA said agencies do not have to hang onto every video call or chat log, but should follow policies for documenting decisions or other substantive conversations.
  (NARA Bulletin 2023-04: Managing records created on collaboration platforms - National Archives and Records Administration)
• With a pending pay raise, most feds expect to see bigger paychecks starting in January. But that is not the case for everyone at the National Science Foundation. NSF announced upcoming salary cuts for more than 300 senior staff members. Agency officials recently learned that NSF has been in violation of legal pay limits for the past six years. Some of the agency's top-level scientists and engineers, who make upwards of about $200,000 in salary, will take on cuts of most likely a few thousands dollars. Starting on or after Jan. 14, the cuts will bring NSF staff back below the government's legal pay caps.
  (National Science Foundation to make salary cuts after law shows some feds have been ‘overpaid’ since 2017 - Federal News Network)
• The Food and Drug Administration is ready to transition to the next phase of its IT modernization journey. The FDA is defining and shaping the future course of its data and technology capabilities. It is also asking stakeholders and others for help. As required by Congress, the agency released its new data and technology strategic plan that will eventually serve as the basis for developing an internal operational plan with objectives, tactics and performance measures. In a new request for information, the FDA outlined six strategic goals to include everything from modernizing the infrastructure to creating a shared OneFDA ecosystem. Comments on FDA's strategic plan are due by Oct. 30 and the agency will hold a vendor-focused symposium in early December.
  (FDA's data and technology strategic plan - Federal Register)
• Lawmakers are asking the Postal Service for an update on a recent payroll error. Congress avoiding a government shutdown means federal employees won’t miss a paycheck. But lawmakers are still looking for answers, after more than 50,000 rural letter carriers saw missing or partial paychecks last month. Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), joined Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) in asking the Postal Service whether affected carriers will finally receive their back pay a month after they were supposed to receive it. The lawmakers are also asking how USPS can prevent this issue from happening again.
  (Senators Tina Smith, Amy Klobuchar and Representative Angie Craig press Postal Service for answers on mail carriers’ missing paychecks - Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.))

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• The Interior Department will no longer buy or sell single-use plastic products as part of its new sustainable procurement plans. Interior's strategy includes stepdown targets that start with a series of studies and pilots to reduce the use of plastic based on specific timelines. The agency will also install water-bottle filling stations, increase recycling and work with concessionaires to reduce sales of single-use plastic bottles, utensils, bags, straws and other plastic products. Interior said the plans will be updated in 2024, to include additional details on where and how single-use plastics will be eliminated.
  (Interior to begin phasing out single use plastics across public lands - Interior Department)
• The Department of Veterans Affairs is expanding burial benefits to veterans and their families. VA said it will now reimburse families for the cost of transporting a veteran’s remains to a state or Tribal veteran cemetery. VA already covers transportation costs to national VA cemeteries like Arlington National Cemetery. The department said it will also set a higher payment rate for non-service-connected veteran burials. VA currently offers families up to about $800 in those cases. Last year, the VA paid more than $84,000 in burial benefits to the families of veterans.
  (VA expands burial benefits for veterans and their families - Department of Veterans Affairs)
• Agencies will get a little more time to use a direct-hire authority for scientific, technical, engineering and math (STEM) roles. The Office of Personnel Management extended the hiring authority for about one year. The goal is to help agencies more easily bring in employees for typically hard-to-fill positions, like engineers and cybersecurity specialists. Agencies can hire candidates in STEM-related jobs either temporarily, or into a career position.
  (Extension and amendment of the governmentwide direct hire appointing authorities - Office of Personnel Management)
• The Federal Housing Financing Agency (FHFA) is getting high marks for one aspect of its cybersecurity program. The FHFA inspector general’s office tried sending malicious phishing emails to agency users as part of an audit. But the agency’s security controls blocked the emails from reaching their destination. At the same time, the inspector general is dinging FHFA for failing to find cyber vulnerabilities in its public facing website. Agency officials said they will update their vulnerability scanning tools to address that problem.
  (FHFA effectively blocked phishing emails, but requires improvement in managing vulnerabilities on its public websites - FHFA OIG )

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