• The number of so-called TSP millionaires is continuing to go up. As of Oct. 1, nearly 190,000 participants in the Thrift Savings Plan have accounts totaling over $1 million. That’s about 2.6% of all TSP accounts across the board. It also means roughly 19,000 more feds have crossed the million-dollar threshold in the last three months. Most TSP millionaires have spent decades investing in their accounts.
  (TSP millionaires report, October 2025 - Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board)
• The Judiciary’s top administrative official is defending efforts to modernize the court system’s case management system. The director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, Robert Conrad, Jr., says the Judiciary will begin to implement a new case management system over the next two years. In a Sept. 30 letter to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Conrad said the Judiciary has taken substantial efforts to modernize the complex case management system and improve cybersecurity. Wyden had criticized Judiciary officials over cybersecurity lapses after a sweeping hack of the case management system earlier this year.
  (Response to Senator Ron Wyden - CourtWatch)
• The Treasury Department is going through a leadership shakeup. Derek Theurer is now carrying out the duties of deputy secretary. He joined the department in January and helped Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent implement the Trump administration’s tax law changes. President Donald Trump nominated Theurer in March to serve as the deputy secretary for legislative affairs. The Senate hasn’t voted to confirm him yet.
  (Treasury Department announces new appointment - Treasury Department)
• White House officials are changing their tune on back pay for furloughed employees. Their new opinion is being called into question. The Office of Management and Budget’s reinterpretation of the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act appears to contradict the view the agency has held for six years. President Trump signed the bill into law in 2019 as a way to guarantee back pay for both furloughed and excepted federal employees in any government shutdown. But now, OMB has said it believes only excepted employees are automatically eligible for back pay and furloughed employees can only get paid after a shutdown if it’s explicitly stated in funding legislation. The American Federation of Government Employees called the White House’s new opinion “an obvious misinterpretation of the law.”
  (‘The law is the law:’ White House memo on pay for furloughed employees called into question - Federal News Network)

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• Another inspector general’s office has set up a temporary website after the Trump administration pulled funding for some IG services. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has a new interim website at TIGTA.gov. The site will contain the latest reports from TIGTA as well as a hotline for whistleblowers and reports of fraud, waste and abuse. TIGTA's site was among more than a dozen IG websites that went down when the White House decided not to apportion funding for the Council on Inspectors General for Integrity and Efficiency.
  (New TIGTA website - TIGTA)
• A weeklong government shutdown with no end in sight is forcing some agencies to revisit their contingency plans. A GSA employee said agency leaders are finalizing a plan to send even more staff home if the shutdown lasts another week or longer. According to the employee, agency leaders are finalizing “phased furloughs” that would begin on Oct. 14. GSA would furlough even more of its workforce 10 days later, and a fourth and final wave of furloughs would happen 10 days after that. GSA has already furloughed employees who are typically “exempt” from a government shutdown because much of the agency is funded through non-congressional appropriations.
  (As shutdown lingers, agencies plan to furlough more employees - Federal News Network)
• The Army has deactivated both Army Futures Command and the Training and Doctrine Command, and stood up a new organization called the Army Transformation and Training Command. Gen. David Hodne, who recently received his fourth star, will lead the new command. Hodne said the merging the two commands will allow the Army to unify the functions of force design, force development and force generation. The command’s headquarters will be located in Austin, Texas.
  (Army deactivates Futures Command, TRADOC - AUSA)
• As the 2025 government shutdown drags on, military families nationwide are bracing for its fallout. Last week, Blue Star Families conducted a poll to better understand how the funding lapse is affecting the military community. The results paint a troubling picture of financial strain and mounting stress that families are already under. About 72% of participants said the possibility of delayed paychecks was their most pressing concern, while nearly as many respondents said they were worried about the added stress and anxiety the shutdown was causing in their households. About 55% of families said they are concerned they would need to dip into personal savings to cover costs during the shutdown, 30% said they could be forced to take out a loan.
  (Shutdown exacerbates existing financial burdens for military families - Federal News Network)

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