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- Junior enlisted troops will see a pay bump this month as the Defense Department introduces a targeted pay hike aimed at improving service members’ quality of life. Congress approved a significant pay raise for active duty service members ranks E-1 through E-4 which is set to go into effect. Service members already received a 4.5% pay raise in January, but junior enlisted service members should see an additional 10% pay increase in their mid-month paychecks. This historic pay increase for junior enlisted troops is part of Congress’ efforts to improve military recruitment and retention.
(Junior enlisted troops will get a pay raise this month – Defense Finance and Accounting Service)
- Two senators are pushing to get rid of the Transportation Security Administration. Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) have filed legislation to abolish TSA and privatize airport security. The bill would create an Office of Aviation Security Oversight within the Federal Aviation Administration to oversee private security contractors. Other TSA functions would shift to the Transportation Department. The bill comes after the Trump administration ended collective bargaining for TSA airport screeners.
(Lee and Tuberville introduce bill to abolish the TSA – Office of Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah))
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed the military services to develop plans that distinguish combat arms jobs from non-combat occupations and develop physical fitness requirements that are “sex-neutral.” In a memo signed last Sunday, Hegseth said this effort will ensure the standards are “clear, mission-focused, and reflective of the unique physical demands placed on service members in various roles.” Hegseth later said, “For far too long we allowed standards to slip and different standards for men and women in combat arms military occupational specialties and jobs. That is not acceptable. We need to have the same standard, male or female, in our combat roles.” The secretaries of the military services have sixty days to submit their plans. Full implementation of these plans will occur within six months of submission.
(Hegseth directs department-wide review of combat arms jobs, ‘sex-neutral’ physical fitness standards – Department of Defense)
- The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning to launch its new Electronic Health Records at medical centers in Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Alaska next year. That’s all happening under an accelerated deployment schedule backed by VA Secretary Doug Collins. The VA will also bring its new system to four sites in Michigan in mid 2026. The EHR rollout has been on hold since April 2023 to address persistent outages and problems at sites already using the system.
(VA names nine additional facilities that will deploy Federal EHR in 2026 – Department of Veterans Affairs)
- A small federal agency that funds libraries and museums is putting its employees on administrative leave. The Institute of Museum and Library Services told employees to hand in their government-issued equipment before leaving the building yesterday. The agency is the largest federal source of funding for libraries and museums. But President Donald Trump signed an executive order to eliminate the agency to the maximum extent allowed under law. Staff expect they’ll lose more than half their 75-employee workforce under the executive order.
(Agency funding libraries and museums puts all employees on leave ahead of major cuts – Federal News Network )
- The Department of the Navy is teeing up a pilot to use agentic artificial intelligence to improve its detection of cyber threats. David Voelker, the zero trust lead in the Navy’s Office of the Department of Navy Chief Information Officer, said at the GITEC 2025 conference yesterday that the test will focus on four types of agentic AI: determination of the user, access based controls, adversarial threats and advanced persistent threats. Agentic AI can autonomously make decisions, take actions and learn to achieve specific goals. Voekler said his team has a vendor and a command picked out to test these concepts and is just waiting on funding from the Navy.
- The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency has a new strategic plan. DCSA’s five-year plan calls for reducing backlogs and improving timeliness for personnel security. The agency conducts 95% of background investigations across government. DCSA also plans to develop a strategic workforce plan and upgrade the DCSA Security Academy. The strategic plan also focuses on modernizing systems and creating an integrated data environment. The latest strategy comes as DCSA works to get its marquee IT modernization project, the National Background Investigation Services (NBIS) back on track this year.
(DCSA publishes 2025-2030 Strategic Plan – Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency)
- With the passage of the fiscal 2025 full-year continuing resolution last month, agencies likely aren’t to face any cuts due to sequestration. The Congressional Budget Office determined agency discretionary budgets do not break the caps set by the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. CBO said defense discretionary spending for 2025 is $904 billion, almost $2 billion below the cap. CBO said for non-defense discretionary spending, Congress appropriated almost $854 billion, which also is almost $2 billion below the cap. The Office of Management and Budget, however, does have the final call on whether sequestration will be necessary.
(CBO predicts budget cuts due to sequestration not necessary in 2025 – Congressional Budget Office)
The post Targeted pay bump for junior enlisted troops goes into effect this month first appeared on Federal News Network.