• A bipartisan group of lawmakers are trying to give more time off to service members. A new bill would more than double military leave for federal employees who also serve in the National Guard or reserve forces. Currently, those feds get 15 extra days of paid time off to use for military training and service activities. The 2025 National Defense Authorization Act has a provision that would bump it up to 20 days of leave. But some lawmakers are now looking to take things a step further and offer 36 paid days off annually for active-duty training.
  (Supporting Federal Employees in the National Guard & Reserves Act - Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and Rob Wittman (R-Va.))
• After nearly four years as the Defense Information Systems Agency’s (DISA) director and the commander of the Joint Force Headquarters- Department of Defense Information Network, Air Force Lieutenant General Robert Skinner is retiring from the federal service. Skinner’s contributions to the agency and the broader Defense Department (DoD) include a push toward a zero-trust architecture and strengthening cloud infrastructure across the DoD. Army Lieutenant General Paul Stanton officially took the helm of DISA. Prior to his current role, Stanton served as the commanding general of the Army Cyber Center of Excellence.
  (DISA director retires from the federal service - LinkedIn)
• The Homeland Security Department (DHS) is trying to ensure there is consistency in social media posts and websites related to the federal government's response to Hurricane Helene. In new guidance from DHS and the Digital Experience Council, any web page agencies set up should include hurricane Helene or Helene in the URL and link back to both what DHS and the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) are doing as well as other agency response efforts. DHS also says agencies should only post information relative to them and not copy and paste from other agency websites. DHS is trying to combat disinformation or false rumors by asking agencies to share accurate information in a timely manner on their web page and to alert FEMA about any "high impact" rumors.
  (Hurricane Helene guidance for U.S. government websites and social media - Digital.gov)
• For the upcoming launch of the new Postal health insurance program, communication will be key. The Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) inspector general is urging the agency to help Postal workers as much as possible during Open Season this fall. The latest IG report says it’s imperative that all US Postal Service (USPS) enrollees, especially retirees, get enough information to understand the requirements of the new insurance program for Postal workers. But the IG is anticipating OPM may face challenges during the program’s inaugural Open Season. The new IG report says the tight timeline for launching the program could strain OPM’s resources and staff.
  (OPM’s top management challenges for fiscal 2025 - Office of Personnel Management OIG)

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• A long-time federal human capital leader is leaving the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Bob Leavitt, HHS’s chief human capital officer for the last seven years, is departing the agency and moving to the private sector. Prior to his tenure at HHS, Leavitt worked for nearly a decade as CHCO at USAID. HHS has not yet announced its plans for Leavitt’s replacement.
  (HHS's chief human capital officer is departing - Bob Leavitt)
• The Defense Department will provide nearly $1 billion in loans to U.S.-based companies to boost production of critical technologies. The Office of Strategic Capital issued its first notice of funding availability, laying out eligibility criteria and opening up the application process to companies seeking loans to scale production of critical technologies. The funding will help companies increase their production capacity in 31 key technology areas, including microelectronics, advanced manufacturing, synthetic biology, edge computing, space launch, and quantum computing. The investments range from $10 million to $150 million. Funding for the program will be available through 2026.
  (Pentagon launches $1 billion loan program to support industrial base - Federal News Network)
• The General Services Administration (GSA) has finally made awards under the next great small business contract vehicle. More than two-and-a-half years since GSA issued the solicitation, the Polaris small business governmentwide acquisition contract is close to the finish line. GSA last week awarded spots to 100 companies under the small business pool. GSA still faces possible post-award protests by unsuccessful bidders. GSA says it will make other awards under the women-owned, service-disabled-owned and HUBZone small business pools later in fiscal 2025. GSA delayed awards under Polaris after several protests required it to take corrective action. Polaris is the small business focused (Governmentwide Acquisition Contract) for IT services without a top-line dollar ceiling.
  (GSA makes Polaris GWAC awards to 100 companies - SAM.gov)
• The Army has met its recruiting goals for this year, but barely. The service recruited more than 55 thousand new soldiers in fiscal 2024, exceeding its goal by 300 recruits. To compare, in 2023, the service aimed to bring in 65 thousand recruits but missed the target by 11 thousand soldiers. In 2022, the service set a recruiting goal of 60 thousand new soldiers but enlisted only 45 thousand recruits. The future soldier prep course seems to be yielding the best results — in fiscal 2024 alone, about 16,000 soldiers have joined the Army after graduating from the program.
  (Army rebounds from recruiting slump, slightly exceeds target goals - Federal News Network)
• The Defense Department (DoD) has updated its value engineering (VE) program instruction to reinforce the use of value engineering across the department. Value engineering is a methodology used to reduce acquisition and ownership costs, as well as delivery timeline. DoD components will implement VE practices across acquisition, operation and support functions and ensure all contracts include provisions related to VE. DoD should also encourage contractors VE change proposals.
  (DoD updates value engineering program instruction - Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for research and engineering)

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