The 2026 program aims to convince at least one in four eligible soldiers to stay, with a particular focus on instructor pilots and maintenance test pilots.
Michele Sandiford
- The Army is offering certain helicopter pilots six-figure bonuses to stay in uniform, hoping to retain active-duty warrant officers who are mid-career or approaching retirement eligibility. Bonuses range from around $75,000 over three years for aviators with 12 to 14 years of service, to nearly $210,000 over six years for those with at least 18 years of service. The 2026 program aims to convince at least one in four eligible soldiers to stay, with a particular focus on instructor pilots and maintenance test pilots.
- A federal union is attempting to stop the Department of Veterans Affairs from, once again, trying to cancel its collective bargaining agreement. The VA is now making its third attempt to end its contract with the American Federation of Government Employees, while negotiations are ongoing. In response, AFGE is asking a federal judge to enforce a previous preliminary injunction and order the VA to restore its contract with AFGE, which covers 320,000 workers.
- The Defense Department has a permanent budget chief. After more than a year without a Senate-confirmed Pentagon comptroller, the Senate voted to confirm Jay Hurst, who has been in the role in an acting capacity since last August. The Senate advanced Hurst’s nomination with little public debate, even as some lawmakers continued to raise concerns about his transparency on key issues such as the cost of the war in Iran. Lawmakers also confirmed Erich Hernandez-Baquero, who was tapped to serve as the Department of the Air Force’s space acquisition boss, and Roger Mason, who was nominated to lead the National Reconnaissance Office.
- Agencies no longer have to follow equal employment guidelines that are meant to root out discrimination in hiring. An interim final rule from the Office of Personnel Management scraps the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures. The framework has been used for decades to identify unintentional discrimination in hiring practices. OPM said it’s removing the guidelines in response to a Justice Department opinion last month that called the framework unconstitutional. OPM emphasized that while the scope of its new rule is limited, it still expects agencies to continue using “merit-based” and “professionally sound” recruitment processes.
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is pushing Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg to recuse himself from contracting decisions involving Cerberus, the investment firm he founded in 1992. The request comes following reports that at least three Cerberus-linked companies have won contracts for work on the Golden Dome missile defense project. In a July 27 letter, Warren pressed Feinberg for more information on his role in overseeing Golden Dome, his involvement in choosing contractors and how the Defense Department evaluates bids for the programs that make up Golden Dome. Responses are due August 10.
- The Defense Information Systems Agency wants industry input on its plan to migrate all combatant commands’ common-use IT services to DoDNet. General Dynamics Information Technology challenged the agency’s decision to expand Leidos’ $11 billion Defense Enclave Services contract to perform the work. The company filed a bid protest with the Government Accountability Office, arguing that the agency should have competed the new work. The bid protest was dismissed after the agency said it would conduct new market research, make a new acquisition approach decision and develop a new acquisition plan. DISA is now conducting the market research portion of the corrective action.
- Four federal technology associations are urging the Senate Appropriations Committee to include in their fiscal 2027 continuing resolution an anomaly to extend the authorization of the Technology Modernization Fund. The TMF is set to expire on Sept. 30. The organizations say a continuing resolution written on standard terms would not carry the program’s authorization forward. The Alliance for Digital Innovation, the Business Software Alliance, the Center for Procurement Advocacy and ATARC wrote to Senate Appropriations Committee leaders seeking the anomaly because they say a continuing resolution written on standard terms would not carry the program’s authorization forward. The White House submitted a request to Congress for the anomaly as part of its comments on the Financial Services and General Government bill. The Senate is expected to begin debating the House-passed CR on Monday. The House CR would keep the government open through Dec. 4.
- The chief information officer shuffle at the Department of Health and Human services continues: The National Institutes of Health has a new CIO. The Department of Health and Human Services put out the help wanted sign for its CIO. NIH named Maureen Falvella as its new CIO after almost a year-long search. Falvella has been acting NIH CIO since last September and has worked at the agency for 12 years. Meanwhile, HHS CIO Clark Minor left his position after about 18 months. David Hong, who has been the deputy CIO since March, takes over on an interim basis. Minor joined HHS after having worked at Palantir previously.
- Seventy-one early-career federal technologists have officially graduated, making them the largest-ever class of U.S. Digital Corps fellows. They celebrated the end of their service across 15 different agencies at a graduation ceremony this week, held at the General Services Administration’s headquarters. The two-and-a-half-year Digital Corps program centers on hiring younger employees to work temporarily on government tech projects. For the past couple years, the graduating fellows were working in areas like software engineering, data science and cybersecurity.
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