Federal union calls for Congress to pay all DHS employees during shutdown

• Tens of thousands of employees have been working unpaid through the Department of Homeland Security shutdown. But thousands of others across DHS will be getting a paycheck on time. The American Federation of Government Employees is urging Congress to immediately compensate all employees affected by the DHS shutdown. The union is calling for the passage of the Shutdown Fairness Act, which would pay federal employees on time during any current or future funding lapse.
  (AFGE calls on Congress to pay DHS employees during government shutdown - American Federation of Government Employees)
• Senior military officers will no longer be allowed to attend graduate programs at Ivy League colleges. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered “the complete and immediate cancellation” of all Defense Department attendance at institutions including Princeton, Columbia, MIT and Brown starting next academic year. “We're done paying for the privilege of our enemy's wicked ideologies to be taught to our future leaders. We've had enough ... No longer will we sit back and treat these woke breeding grounds of toxic indoctrination as valid centers of so-called intellectual curiosity.” Hegseth also directed a review of DoD’s own colleges.
  (Hegseth bans senior officers from attending Ivy League graduate programs - Social media platform X)
• A bill aimed at improving the security of healthcare data and systems is on the move in the Senate. The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee last week passed the bipartisan Health Care Cybersecurity and Resiliency Act. The bill would require the Department of Health and Human Services to improve how it coordinates on cybersecurity issues. And it would direct regulatory updates to require healthcare organizations to follow cybersecurity best practices, like using multifactor authentication and encryption.
  (Warner applauds committee passage of bipartisan healthcare cybersecurity legislation - Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.))
• Hundreds of former USAID employees gathered Friday afternoon to call out the impacts of the agency’s dismantling. A rally was held just outside the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C., the same place where, almost exactly a year ago, the Trump administration escorted many USAID employees out of the agency’s headquarters for the final time. Despite the upheavals last year across the agency, speakers at the rally emphasized that public service and USAID’s mission are continuing on. “We are serving in local communities ... in classrooms, in state and local governments, in global institutions, still answering the call to serve,” said Maria Price Detherage, a former USAID senior civil servant.
  (Former USAID employees mark one year since major agency cuts - Federal News Network)

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• The Department of the Navy has launched a sweeping, departmentwide organizational review that could lead to significant restructuring of its civilian workforce, including possible 5% to 20% reductions in total civilian personnel. The organizational review builds on earlier efforts by Navy Secretary John Phelan to consolidate and streamline the department. The service is currently in the analysis phase and “no final decisions have been made.” A Navy official said that the leadership “will keep the workforce informed” as they proceed.
  (Navy launches departmentwide organizational review that could reshape civilian workforce - Federal News Network)
• The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is getting a new acting director. Madhu Gottumukkala is no longer CISA’s acting director after he was transferred to a new position at Department of Homeland Security headquarters last week. Gottumukkala had joined the agency as deputy director last May and took on the top leadership role in the absence of a Senate-confirmed CISA director. With the Trump administration’s nominee, Sean Plankey, still waiting for a vote in the Senate, CISA’s executive assistant director for cybersecurity Nick Andersen will now serve as the cyber agency’s acting director.
  (CISA leadership shakeup comes amid ‘pressure’ moment for cyber agency - Federal News Network)
• The Office of Personnel Management's HR IT modernization program has been sucked back into the protest void. This time, IBM filed a complaint with the Government Accountability Office on Feb. 25. IBM is challenging OPM's decision to eliminate them from the competitive range because the agency improperly evaluated their bid. OPM released the solicitation in November to buy a commercial core human resources management system that would consolidate more than 100 current systems across government. GAO has until June 5 to decide the case.
  (IBM protests OPM HR IT system modernization effort - Government Accountability Office)
• FedRAMP initiated a change to make it easier for cloud service providers to add new capabilities. Under the new requirements issued last week by the cloud security program known as FedRAMP, cloud service providers don't have to get pre-approval when making significant changes to their software platforms. Vendors may now adopt the new Significant Change Notification (SCN) process instead of using the long-standing Significant Change Request requirements. FedRAMP said this would address a major challenge to the cloud market: the creation of government-specific versions of cloud services. Cloud providers would be able to add new services as agency customers request them instead of having to go through a long approval process. Over the next two months, with the FedRAMP program management office will share materials and playbooks with agencies while the Office of Management and Budget and the FedRAMP Board connect with the CIO and CISO Councils to explain the changes.
  (FedRAMP makes it easier for cloud providers to add new capabilities - FedRAMP)

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