Military commissaries may soon open to DoD civilian employees

• The Defense Department's civilian employees could get another option for their grocery runs; their local commissary. Senators are suggesting that the defense secretary should launch a pilot program that lets civilian staffers shop at commissaries as part of the 2027 defense policy bill. If the idea isn't too expensive and doesn't interfere with feeding troops and their families, that access could become more permanent. Commissaries offer groceries at lower prices than public stores, but the quality and availability of those goods can vary widely between bases.
  (DoD civilians could be allowed to shop at commissaries - Senate NDAA report)
• All but one of the Education Department’s 17 offices have been affected by workforce reductions. A new report from Education’s inspector general office found that recent staffing losses and contract terminations are impacting at least some statutory functions. The IG found that the department has experienced an overall staffing reduction of about 40%. Close to 80% of those staffing losses were due to reduction-in-force actions.
  (Review of Education changes in staffing and operations - Education Department Office of Inspector General)
• The Marine Corps said Monday it is creating an online portal to make it easier to submit nominations for civilian awards. The portal will replace the old process of emailing in submissions for consideration, which the service calls outdated and inefficient. The new system can be used for civilian honorary awards, retirement awards and career service awards. The memo comes amid broader efforts to retain civilian workers after steep cuts to the federal workforce last year. More details on changes to the awards process are forthcoming.
  (Marine Corps to launch online portal for civilian award nominations - U.S. Marine Corps)
• Top Democratic lawmakers are pushing back against firings at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Senate Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Mark Warner (D-Va.) and his counterpart in the House, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), are warning acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte to hold off on making major changes at ODNI. In a letter to Pulte this week, the Democratic duo said he shouldn’t make any major workforce cuts or organizational changes while in an acting role at ODNI. They also reminded Pulte of his legal obligation to preserve any records of official actions he takes as acting DNI. Their letter comes as CNN and other news outlets have reported Pulte started firing staff at ODNI on his first day on the job.
  (Letter to acting DNI Pulte - House Intelligence Committee Democrats)

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• Thrift Savings Plan participants are showing continuing high satisfaction, as the TSP board reports a 95% overall satisfaction rate with the plan. The vast majority of participants, close to 90%, are also contributing enough to their TSP accounts to receive a full government match of 5%. TSP officials also say general purpose loans and hardship withdrawals have each declined by about 2% since this spring.
  (FRTIB June 2026 monthly board update - Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board)
• The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is reorganizing its long-standing value engineering program. The Corps of Engineers is shifting the program from a separate activity and folding it into existing project delivery processes. Critics say the move would increase the risk of waste, cost growth and schedule overruns. The transition is already underway and the new structure is expected to achieve full operational capability by Sept. 30. The Corps said the program is being “reorganized and modernized, not eliminated.” But program employees are being “actively retained and integrated into critical project delivery, engineering, and centers of expertise roles.”
  (Army Corps restructuring of value engineering program prompts backlash - Federal News Network)
• The wait is over for more than 1,400 vendors. NASA’s SEWP program office awarded spots on the sixth iteration of its governmentwide acquisition contract for technology products and services. In all, NASA chose 1,490 vendors and made 2,115 awards across three categories for its SEWP VI program. In two of the categories for IT products and related services and for enterprisewide IT and audio visual services, small businesses received 88% and 80% of the awards, respectively. NASA expects the SEWP VI to be available for agencies to start using by Nov. 1. It also plans on extending the current SEWP V contract through the end of January 2027.
  (NASA chooses 1,490 vendors for SEWP VI - Federal News Network)
• Senate lawmakers want to give the Defense Department new tools in fiscal 2027 to recruit and retain cyber talent, limit the department’s ability to carry out workforce reductions and establish a program to retain high-performing supervisors and managers across the department. The Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the fiscal 2027 defense policy bill includes several Pentagon-backed civilian workforce initiatives while also adding protections for civilian employees at some DoD organizations and increasing congressional oversight of workforce reductions. One proposal would make it easier for employees to move between the cyber excepted service and the competitive service and shorten the probationary period for employees in the CES from three years to two years. The bill also includes several provisions aimed at blocking future layoffs of some DoD civilians.
  (Senate defense bill seeks to attract cyber talent, limit civilian layoffs - Federal News Network)
• Agencies are again proposing rules for how contractors must protect controlled unclassified information, or CUI. Under a long-awaited proposed Federal Acquisition Regulation published this week, contractors would have to follow CUI protection standards and report any data incidents. Agencies could also choose to establish third-party assessment requirements, similar to the Defense Department’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program. The CUI rule was re-published this week as part of the latest Revolutionary FAR Overhaul release.
  (FAR overhaul - Federal Register)

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