• Federal employees are one step closer to receiving the 2% pay raise the Biden administration proposed for fiscal 2025. The Senate Appropriations Committee remained silent about the proposed increase when it passed the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill last Thursday. With the House also remaining silent when it passed its version of the spending bill earlier this summer, the pay raise is all but a done deal. Federal unions and other employee organizations have pushed for a larger pay raise for feds in 2025, calling for a 7.4% boost rather than the 2% proposal. Nothing is set in stone, however, until President Joe Biden signs an executive order to enact the pay increase, which usually happens in December.
  (Full committee markup of 2025 spending bills - Senate Appropriations Committee)
• A top House lawmaker is planning to file legislation aimed at boosting the government's cyber workforce. Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) is developing legislation that would create an ROTC-like cyber talent pipeline. Sources say Green’s bill will put the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in a key role overseeing the program. The legislation would focus on skills-based training at community colleges and vocational schools. Green has said the cyber workforce bill is his top priority through the end of this year.
  (House homeland leader pushing for CISA to help oversee ‘ROTC-like’ talent pipeline - Federal News Network)
• The Environmental Protection Agency is developing a cybersecurity strategy for the water sector. The EPA told the Government Accountability Office that the new water sector risk management plan will be done by January. GAO says cyber criminals are increasingly targeting vulnerable water systems across the country. The U.S. has nearly 170,000 U.S. water and wastewater systems, and those systems are increasingly automated. Earlier this year, the EPA said it would step up enforcement of cyber standards in the water sector.
  (EPA urgently needs a strategy to address cybersecurity risks to water and wastewater systems - Government Accountability Office)
• The Defense Department says it has a four-step plan to restore staffing in its medical facilities – and to bring more patients back. But it could be a couple of years before the changes have a meaningful impact. Out of a population of about nine million eligible TRICARE beneficiaries, only about 2.8 million are enrolled in DoD’s military treatment facilities. That’s down from 3.2 million in 2014, and 6.1 million in 2004. The rest get their care from private providers. Defense officials say that decline is a readiness issue, and clearer plans to reverse the trend are expected next year.
  (DoD plans to ‘right size’ its medical staff after years of cutbacks - Federal News Network)

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• The Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve program might be on the chopping block in 2025. Launched in 2021, the program promises to quickly bring emerging technologies into the military services. In their version of the 2025 defense spending bill, Senate appropriators say that less than one-third of the RDER projects have been successfully integrated into military services. The Senate Appropriations Committee recommends slowing the rate of growth requested for the program and possibly moving some of the program’s funding to the Replicator initiative.
  (Senate Approps want to recess RDER program - Federal News Network)
• In its version of the 2025 defense spending legislation, the Senate Appropriations Committee allocates an extra 200 million dollars for the Defense Department’s acquisition management initiatives. The committee also wants the Pentagon’s acquisition executives to lay out their workforce needs to Congress for the 2026 Future Years Defense Program. If passed, the bill would require the Navy, Army and Air Force comptrollers to certify that these acquisition workforce requirements are fully funded in the fiscal 2026 President’s budget request.
  (Senate Appropriators to invest in acquisition workforce - Senate Appropriations Committee)
• With the federal fourth quarter buying season in full swing, almost two dozen agencies are beating the drum for more small business participation. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), the ranking member of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, is hosting 75 agency speakers in Iowa on Tuesday at her GovCon and Innovation Expo to promote federal contracting to a wider number of small firms. Enrst says this event and others are a way to get agencies outside of the DC bubble and help reverse the decline in the number of small businesses working for the government.
  (GovCon and Innovation Expo - Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa))
• More taxpayers will be able to use the IRS’ free, tax-filing online platform, starting next year. The IRS is partnering with New Mexico to roll out its Direct File platform to more than 200,000 million taxpayers in the state. The IRS piloted Direct File with a dozen states during this year’s filing season. Now’s it’s making the program permanent, and inviting all states to participate. The IRS is also partnering with Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Oregon.
  (U.S. Department of the Treasury Announces New Mexico Will Join IRS Direct File for Filing Season 2025 - U.S. Department of the Treasury)

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