• The head of the Transportation Security Administration said TSA’s recent salary increases are paying off, with staff attrition falling to nearly 9% since the historic pay raises last year. TSA Administrator David Pekoske, who testified before House lawmakers yesterday, said the agency's Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey scores are also improving. Last year’s pay raises brought TSA salaries in line with much of the rest of the federal workforce. And TSA’s budget request for 2025, includes $377 million to continue funding periodic pay raises and career ladder promotions.
  (Testimony of TSA Administrator David Pekoske - House Appropriations Committee)
• The Office of Personnel Management's top-most leadership position will soon be vacant. Kiran Ahuja is stepping down from her role as OPM director in early May. With nearly three years on the job, Ahuja is the longest-serving permanent OPM director in nearly a decade. Ahuja cited ongoing health concerns and a recent death in the family as the reasons behind her departure. OPM Deputy Director Rob Shriver will step in as the agency's acting director in the meantime.
  (Kiran Ahuja stepping down as OPM director - Federak News Network)
• The Postal Service is seeing problems with on-time delivery in areas where it is implementing its network modernization plans. Agency watchdogs said Richmond, Virginia and Atlanta are seeing the worst of these delays, after USPS opened large regional facilities there meant to consolidate operations. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said service should stabilize in these areas by this summer. DeJoy told lawmakers he is still optimistic about the network changes and that they are critical to cutting costs. “We apologize to the constituents that have received that service. But in the long term, if we don’t make these changes, that will be every day, everywhere around the nation,“ DeJoy said.
  (DeJoy says USPS will fix ‘deteriorating’ service in regions facing network shakeup - Federal News Network )
• The Air Force will soon start two new projects, using the quick-start initiative. The service will be able to initiate a project on resilient GPS capabilities and on battle management for moving target indication through the quick-start authority. The quick-start provision, placed in the 2024 defense policy bill, allows the service to start working on new programs before Congress officially funds them.
  (Air Force uses quick start authority to start new projects - Senate Armed Services Committee)

        Learn how federal agencies are preparing to help agencies gear up for AI in our latest Executive Briefing, sponsored by ThunderCat Technology.

• There has been broad support for a bill aiming to lift current limits on some federal retirees' Social Security benefits. If enacted, the Social Security Fairness Act would repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). But some opponents of the legislation are still raising concerns. They told House lawmakers during a hearing yesterday that the original WEP and GPO policies were meant to ensure fair treatment, and maintain equity. They worry that removing WEP and GPO would also cause solvency issues in Social Security. Still, proponents of the legislation say the WEP and GPO are unfair to public sector workers. They are calling for the legislation's passage.
  (Hearing on WEP and GPO - House Ways and Means Committee Social Security Subcommittee)
• Air Force officials are pursuing a provision in the 2025 defense policy bill to move all National Guard space units to the Space Force. The service wants to bring those units under the Space Force Personnel Management Act. Under this legislation, the Space Force is already moving 1,000 full-time Air Force reservists to the Space Force. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said there will be minimal changes to the way Air National Guardsmen will serve under the potential new structure.
  (Air Force pushing for transfer of Guard units to Space Force - Federal News Network)
• Veterans are giving higher trust scores to the health care they receive from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Veteran trust in VA outpatient care is up to nearly 92%. The data is based on surveys of more than 480,000 veterans, who received VA care in the past 90 days. Veterans rated the VA on criteria such as ease of scheduling an appointment, the quality of care received, and pharmacy service. Veterans gave the VA an 85% trust score when the department started tracking these metrics in 2018.
  (Trust in VA among veteran patients rises to 91.8%, up 6% since 2018 - Department of Veterans Affairs )
• The National Security Agency is urging organizations to deploy AI systems with security in mind. The NSA’s new guidance on deploying artificial intelligence systems, released this week, includes security recommendations for the in-demand technology. The agency said the rapid adoption of AI systems makes them a big target for hackers. Recommendations include protecting sensitive data and guarding against the potential misuse of AI systems. The NSA said organizations will also need to update their systems to address evolving AI risks, while still adhering to traditional IT security best practices.
  (NSA guidance on “Deploying AI Systems Securely” - NSA)

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