• Civilian federal employees are now almost certain to see a 2 percent federal pay raise in 2025. President Joe Biden formally announced his plans for next year’s salary hike on Friday. Nothing will be truly official until Biden signs an executive order enacting the 2025 raise. If finalized, it would be the smallest annual raise enacted during the Biden administration. The 2 percent raise for the General Schedule would break down into a 1.7 percent across-the-board increase, plus a 0.3 percent locality pay adjustment.
  (Biden issues pay plan with 2% federal pay raise recommendation - Federal News Network)
• The Defense Department’s demand for “trilingual leaders” — those who can navigate both the acquisition and contracting systems and technical and operational domains — is now “off the charts.”  Trilingual leaders are still rare, and not every command has access to such talent, but the Defense Innovation Unit helps bridge that gap. DIU Director Doug Beck said his organization has been able to shift to this trilingual capability, but it needs to partner with the rest of the department to scale it. 
  (DoD’s need for trilingual leaders is soaring - Federal News Network)
• The General Services Administration, the federal government’s landlord, faces a “significant backlog” of 36 thousand open fire, health and safety risk conditions in nearly two thousand of the properties it manages. A new report by its inspector general highlights a series of examples including GSA not addressing stone falling from the façade of the One White Flint North building in Bethesda, Maryland more than four years after a surveyor discovered the issue and reported it as an “immediate and potentially imminent danger to employees and the public.”  Elliot Doomes, commissioner of GSA’s Public Buildings Service, agrees with the IG’s findings. GSA has asked Congress for full access to the Federal Buildings Fund, where it keeps rent payments from tenant agencies to help address the backlog of maintenance.
  (GSA’s Public Buildings Service faces a significant backlog of health and safety risks - GSA IG)
• Federal wildland firefighters will soon see updated job descriptions. The Department of Agriculture and the Forest Service are readying plans to implement a new occupational series for wildland firefighters. But the National Federation of Federal Employees said the job descriptions they’re planning to use don’t entirely reflect the work that wildland firefighters actually do. Differences between a position description, and what firefighters do on the job, can mean they make less money than what they should earn, NFFE said. The job series update stems from a 2021 requirement in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The Forest Service plans to implement the new job series in January, but NFFE is calling for another review of position descriptions before that happens.
  (NFFE letter to USDA, Forest Service leaders - Federal News Network)

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• The first cohort of digital service fellows will take their places this fall at USDA. The department said once onboarded, the USDA digital service fellows will accelerate the design, development and delivery of customer-centric services. USDA expects to hire as many as 20 fellows to work on an assortment of projects ranging from those with the five high impact service providers to IT workforce training. The fellows will work at USDA for a two-year minimum term on a full-time basis, with the potential option to serve a total of four years. USDA began the hiring process for digital service fellows in February.
  (Digital transformation takes root at USDA - USDA)
• RTX Corporation will pay as much as 200 million dollars in fines to resolve 750 violations of the Arms Export Control Act. The State Department said the administrative settlement addresses a host of alleged violations that RTX disclosed voluntarily. These include unauthorized exports of defense items, software or technical data due to RTX's inability to establish proper jurisdiction and classification of the articles. RTX allegedly also failed to protect classified defense items. State said it will suspend 100 million dollars of the fine as long as RTX meets the requirements of the department-approved consent agreement to remediate its compliance measures.
  (Department of State concludes $200 million settlement resolving export violations by RTX Corp - State Department)
• The Department of the Air Force is reorganizing its office of the deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and cyber effects operations. The service merged the A2 and A6 positions at the headquarters level to streamline oversight of intelligence and cyber functions within the service. Now, the service is looking to elevate cyber by separating the A2 and A6 and appointing a three-star to focus solely on cyber issues. Lt. Gen. Leah Lauderback said she hopes the Senate will be able to confirm a three-star to lead the newly established A6 in spring. Meanwhile, the A2 will go back to focusing on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance functions.
  (Air Force reorganizing its intel and cyber directorate - Federal News Network)

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