SDA director wants to keep some authorities as Congress considers eliminating agency

• As Congress pushes to eliminate the Space Development Agency as an independent organization, the organization’s director said he “has some concerns, but not too many.” SDA Director Gurpartap "GP" Sandhoo told reporters that as long as the agency is able to keep some of its unique authorities, such as special hiring and original classification authorities, the move would be “just a name change.” While it is still unclear what the final language in the annual defense bill will look like, Sandhoo said it is possible Congress will dissolve the organization.
  (SDA director wants to keep some authorities as Congress considers eliminating agency - Air, Space and Cyber conference )
• The House Veterans Affairs Committee is compelling the two leaders of the software giant Oracle to testify on Dec. 10. Lawmakers sent subpoenas to Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison and co-CEO Mike Sicilia after they refused to show up at a Sept. 2hearing on the implementation of the electronic health record system at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Committee members from both sides of the aisle were frustrated that Oracle didn’t explain the status of the program and why it needed potentially an extra three years and almost $17 billion more from VA to complete the roll out. An email to Oracle seeking comment wasn’t immediately returned.
  (House lawmakers subpoena Oracle leaders about VA's EHR effort - House Veterans Affairs Committee)
• The Trump administration’s overhauls of the Education Department are coming under more scrutiny. Lawmakers, union officials and former employees assembled outside the Capitol Building yesterday to urge the administration to halt the department’s dismantling. Speakers at the conference emphasized that Education grants and workforce expertise are "critical" to public schools nationwide. The department has recently lost nearly half of its career workforce and transferred many of its employees and functions to other agencies across government.
  (Conference opposes Education Department overhaul - American Federation of Government Employees)
• Agencies’ spending on paid administrative leave surged sixfold last year. That 435% increase in paid leave costs was largely due to the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program. In total, the Government Accountability Office estimates that agencies spent $6.7 billion on salaries for employees who took the DRP. But due to data limitations, GAO said it’s impossible to tell how much was actually spent, or how much was potentially saved, by the separation program.
  (Trump administration’s DRP cost $6.7B last year, watchdog estimates - Federal News Network)

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• Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin isn’t happy with a judge's recent decision on workforce cuts at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Speaking in Omaha, Neb., on Monday, Mullin criticized U.S. District Judge Susan Illston’s ruling that DHS officials unlawfully directed a 50% workforce cut at FEMA. “When some federal judge tries to come in and tells us how many people we have to have on staff, yet they're not in the building, they're not running the agency, is laughable. Stay in your lane, deal with law,” Mullin said. Illston found officials violated a post-Hurricane Katrina law designed to insulate FEMA from political decisions made at DHS headquarters. While FEMA didn’t move forward with the 50% cut, Mullin argued the agency can be more effective with a leaner staff and better technology.
  (Mullin defends FEMA staffing cuts after court ruling - Federal News Network)
• Air Force and Space Force leaders say starting another year without a fresh defense budget in place is making it harder to achieve a generational overhaul of military technology. Though officials are glad to avoid another government shutdown, a stopgap spending bill only allows the armed forces to spend money they were given for the previous year. That's affecting everything from the speed of modernization to improvements for military dorms. Congress may shift money from the reconciliation bill into the military's base budget for 2027 to help cover costs.
  (Military officials criticize lawmakers' failure to fund defense on time - Federal News Network)
• The Air Force Academy in Colorado will continue to be a key source of new Space Force officers, even as NASA launches a new Space Academy, according to a top Space Force official. But the Space Academy could also send a steady stream of civilian workers to the Space Force, which heavily relies on their deep technical expertise for its complex missions. That's top of mind as the service looks to rebuild its civilian workforce. The presidential commission created to plan the new school has 120 days to present its recommendations.
  (NASA's Space Academy won't replace USAFA, but can grow civilian staff - Federal News Network)
• The Pentagon is simplifying accounting and compliance requirements to make it easier for commercial firms to do business with the department. The department will move away from government-unique Cost Accounting Standards to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, more commonly known as GAAP, to make the accounting more similar to the commercial sector. In a memo released on Tuesday, Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg said the department will “ask suppliers for the cost and pricing information they already keep when necessary to foster transparency and fairness.” The new memo appears to walk back the language from the recent directive that suggested the Pentagon would install its own software in company data systems “to pull cost information directly.”
  (DoD moves to simplify accounting, compliance rules for industry - Defense Department)
• The National Institute of Standards and Technology has updated guidelines for protecting online identity and access tokens from being misused. Tokens are a key digital tool for securing access to online platforms and services, but hackers can steal, forge and otherwise misuse them to pull off cyber attacks. NIST’s publication, finalized this week, includes updates for protecting cryptographic keys. It also features new considerations for handling artificial intelligence and the migration to post-quantum cryptography.
  (NIST finalizes guidelines on protecting online identity and access tokens from misuse - NIST)

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