• President-elect Donald Trump and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser agree the federal government has more office space than its employees currently need. Bowser said her recent meeting with Trump centered on the federal workforce and underutilized federal buildings. The leaders of a new Department of Government Efficiency say they plan to bring federal employees back to the office five days a week. Trump said he also plans to challenge a new agreement the Social Security Administration made with one of its unions locking in current levels of telework for years to come.
  (Statement from Mayor Bowser on Meeting with President Trump - DC Mayor Muriel Bowser )
• Federal agencies will be closed on Thursday, January 9th, in honor of the passing of President Jimmy Carter, who died on December 29th at the age of 100. President Biden signed an executive order this week announcing the National Day of Mourning. Biden’s order tells agency heads to prepare for the upcoming one-day closure. Some federal departments and offices, however, will remain open for national security, defense and other essential services. Carter’s funeral will be held on the same day.
  (Biden to close federal agencies on Jan. 9 to honor Carter’s legacy - Federal News Network)
• The Navy said it's creating a new cadre of space specialists in its Reserve force. The service announced the new Maritime Reserve Space Officer designator earlier this week. Officials said the reservists will bring space expertise to the Navy from their civilian jobs, including in the intelligence community and other federal agencies. The Navy is taking applications for the first round of reserve officers to convert to the new designation now. To qualify, they'll need documented space education or civilian space expertise.
  (Navy creating new cadre of space specialists in Reserve force - U.S. Navy)
• When civilian federal employees open their first paychecks this year, most will see a bigger number. The General Schedule is set to receive a 2% federal pay raise beginning this month. President Biden signed an executive order in December, finalizing the 2025 raise. The 2% raise accounts for a 1.7% across-the-board increase, as well as an average of a 0.3% locality pay adjustment. In contrast, military members are receiving a 4.5% raise for the year. For civilian employees, Biden’s executive order was the final step of the process to make the 2% federal pay raise official for 2025.
  (Biden signs off on a 2% federal pay raise for most civilian employees - Federal News Network)

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• The IRS is deploying AI tools to combat fraud and stay a step ahead of criminals. Criminals are using artificial intelligence tools to launch more sophisticated fraud schemes, and in greater volumes. But IRS’ Criminal Investigations is using the same technology to go after criminals. Jarod Koopman, IRS Criminal Investigations’ executive director of cyber and forensics, said AI is helping the agency make better use of its data to flag suspicious activity. “All of that data is pretty vast, and it's large volumes of data. AI has certainly made us much more effective and efficient in sifting through that to find patterns, to identify fraud methodologies or typologies, to identify current threats or vectors that might be red flags of issues that we were not aware of prior,” Koopman said.
  (IRS deploys AI tools to combat emerging tech’s role in new fraud schemes - Federal News Network)
• President-elect Donald Trump has announced plans to nominate a new leader for the Office of Personnel Management. Scott Kupor is Trump’s expected pick for OPM director in the coming administration. Kupor is currently a managing partner at a venture capital firm and has held various other executive roles in the private sector. If the Senate confirms him, Kupor will take up the top political leadership position at OPM. It’s unclear what Kupor’s priorities would be while leading the agency. But it’s likely Kupor would be central to Trump’s campaign promise to revive Schedule F. Kupor may also take up the mantle on longstanding initiatives, such as modernizing retirement services and reforming the federal recruitment process.
  (Trump names his planned nominee for OPM director - Federal News Network)
• The first set of awards under GSA's next great governmentwide acquisition contract are out. The General Services Administration tapped 102 small firms for spots on the POLARIS small business IT services GWAC. GSA said it will make additional awards under the other socioeconomic categories in the coming months. POLARIS, which in many ways was a replacement for the failed Alliant 2 small business multiple award contract, has been in the works for the better part of three years with the final solicitation coming out in March 2022. It survived an internal pause to fix some of the requirements and a host of pre-awards protests to reach this final award point. POLARIS includes the ability for GSA to refresh the awardees through on-ramps and bring in new technology through updates.
  (GSA makes first set of awards under POLARIS small business GWAC - General Services Administration)
• The Department of Health and Human Services is unveiling major cybersecurity updates to its healthcare data security rules. HHS on December 27th released a proposed rule to modify the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Security Rule. The proposal would require organizations to encrypt sensitive healthcare data among numerous other updates to HIPAA. The rule comes as the health sector continues to be a top target for ransomware groups. Comments on the proposed HIPAA updates will be due by March 7.
  (HIPAA security rule notice of proposed rulemaking to strengthen cybersecurity for electronic protected health information - Department of Health and Human Services)
• Agencies will be required to share custom software under a new law. Under the SHARE IT Act, signed by President Joe Biden last week, agencies have until mid-July to inventory their custom software code. The goal of the law is to ensure agencies share that code with other agencies to reduce duplication and improve security. The SHARE IT Act also requires agencies to ensure they own the rights to the custom software they develop with contractors.
  (Agencies required to share custom software under new law - Federal News Network)

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