Incoming Senate Judiciary Chair backs Trump plan to remove FBI Director Wray

Federal Newscast

Senator Chuck Grassley is calling on FBI Director Chris Wray and his second in command to step down from their posts.

Michele Sandiford

December 10, 2024 4:39 pm

< a min read

The next leader of the Senate Judiciary Committee is backing President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to clear out top officials at the FBI. Senator Chuck Grassley is calling on FBI Director Chris Wray and his second in command to step down from their posts. Grassley said the FBI hasn’t done enough to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct within its workforce or to protect whistleblowers from retaliation. Wray’s term doesn’t end until 2027. But President-elect Donald Trump said he plans to nominate Kash Patel to lead the FBI.
(Grassley expresses ‘vote of no confidence’ in Director Wray, Deputy Director Abbate’s continued leadership at FBI - Sen. Chuck Grassley)

The compromise version of the defense policy bill released late Saturday night drops most social issue provisions that were included in the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act. The legislation doesn’t include provisions to reverse the Pentagon's abortion travel and to get rid of the diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at the Defense Department. The bill also drops the efforts bar Tricare from covering gender-affirming care for transgender service members. The compromise legislation, however, doesn't include the provision that would allow the DoD to expand access to in vitro fertilization for active-duty military members and their families.
(Most culture war issues dropped from compromise defense bill - Federal News Network )

The federal government is on track to meet some of the Biden administration’s upcoming sustainability goals and cutting costs in the process. The bill approves $883.7 billion for fiscal 2025, which includes a little under $850 billion allocated for the Defense Department programs. Despite a push in the Senate for higher spending, the topline number is in line with the budget caps set by the Fiscal Responsibility Act. The defense policy bill, however, only sets policy and authorizes spending levels. Congress still needs to pass a separate full-year appropriations bill to fund the Defense Department in 2025. And while the defense policy bill sticks to the budget caps, lawmakers could still push for higher spending during the appropriations process.
(Compromise defense bill adheres to budget caps set by Congress - Federal News Network)

A bill to require more rigorous oversight of how agency's manage their software cleared a major hurdle last week. The House passed the Strengthening Agency Management and Oversight of Software Assets Act or SAMOSA. The Senate placed the bill on its calendar clearing the way for consideration. Among the provisions in SAMOSA is one to require agency CIOs to create a comprehensive inventory of agency software purchases and develop a plan to consolidate duplicative purchases. The legislation builds upon and expands on the MEGABYTE Act of 2016. Lawmakers believe agencies could save as much as 5 billion dollars a year.
(House passes bill to improve software mangement - Congress.gov)

The federal government is on track to meet some of the Biden administration’s upcoming sustainability goals and cutting costs in the process. A White House official said the federal government saved about $20 billion through energy- saving performance and efficiency initiatives over the past two decades. In more recent years that’s translated into about $2 billion in annual cost savings. Agencies ordered nearly 82-thousand zero-emission vehicles under the Biden administration. That’s roughly 13% of the total federal fleet. The Postal Service’s plans for a majority-electric next-generation delivery vehicle fleet are driving much this progress.
(Federal agencies saving $2B annually under green-government goals, Biden administration says - Federal News Network)

In the wake of devastating network intrusions the FCC is considering stronger cybersecurity requirements for telecom companies. Under a new proposed rule, the FCC would institute an annual certification requirement for communications providers. They would be required to continually update their cyber risk management plans or face steep fines. That proposed rule comes after federal officials said suspected China-connected hackers breached major U.S. telecom providers. The Salt Typhoon group was able to harvest sensitive data and in some cases listen in on live phone calls.
(Implications of Salt Typhoon attack and FCC response - Federal Communications Commission)

The intelligence community can now take advantage of new standards for open source and publicly available information. A new intelligence community wide standard signed out Dec. 2, establishes a framework for how spy agencies can use open source data, publicly available information and commercially available information. The availability of open-source data and reporting has exploded over the last decade. The new standards document lays out how intelligence agencies should describe those sources in their reporting and analysis. It also covers the citation of newer technologies, including artificial intelligence-assisted services and generative AI.
(Citation and reference for publicly available information, commercially available information and open source intelligence - ODNI)

The General Services Administration handed a spot to 28 vendors across six domains under the professional services contract called OASIS+. This is the first set of awards under the unrestricted pool for services including technical and engineering, management and advisory and environmental, logistics and intelligence services. GSA already has made initial awards under the socio-economic pools earlier this summer. GSA said it will continue to make awards under the unrestricted pool with the next tranche coming before Dec. 31. The agency also said customers will not be able to place any orders under OASIS+ unrestricted until it chooses the second set of companies.
(GSA awards 28 vendors a spot under OASIS+ unrestricted - SAM.gov)