FAA hires 2000 gamers as new air traffic controllers

The hiring surge comes as FAA has struggled with workforce shortages in recent years.

• The Federal Aviation Administration has hired over 2,000 new air traffic controllers, all with a shared passion: videogames. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says in a recent online post that the FAA hiring initiative focused on gamers, launched in April, has met 94% of its hiring goal. Duffy says this is the highest-ever number of hires at FAA in a year. The hiring surge comes as FAA has struggled with workforce shortages in recent years.
• The AbilityOne program is facing new scrutiny over where it buys its products from. The General Services Administration is directing the AbilityOne Commission to do a “comprehensive review” of all of its products for sale through GSA contract vehicles to ensure they are compliant with the Buy American Act. GSA is also asking the commission to identify all Countries of Origin (COO) of its products in the Federal Acquisition Service Verified Product Portal. The review, in part, stems from GSA finding multiple examples of AbilityOne-associated technology products labeled on GSA procurement platforms as “Country of Origin: USA” that are, in fact, from China and other foreign countries. GSA wants the commission to submit its review by November 12.
• Approximately 17,000 IRS employees who took deferred resignation offers retained access to the agency’s systems. That’s according to a new report out from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration that determined the massive lapse presented a “potential security risk for unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information.” On top of that, TIGTA found that some former employees still had access to IRS facilities and systems because their personal identity verification cards weren’t initially disabled. The report was focused on assessing how well the agency was controlling access to its IT systems and looked at data available up until June 2025.
  
• Two Senate lawmakers are once again pressing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about cuts to the Pentagon’s independent weapons testing office. The Government Accountability Office recently found that deep staffing cuts at the office last year have left the organization with fewer specialists who are now overseeing programs outside their areas of expertise, which increases the risk that problems with new weapon systems could go undetected before they reach troops. DoD also removed its unclassified annual reports on weapons testing from its website. The lawmakers said the decision to purge the office has “created significant and unnecessary risk that jeopardizes readiness, service member safety, acquisition reform and taxpayer dollars.” They urged the defense secretary to reverse the cuts as well as immediately restore public reports that have been removed from the website.
• The Defense Department is changing how it determines eligibility for transitional health care benefits for reserve component service members who are separating from active duty. Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata said reservists no longer need to demonstrate that their period of active duty service was “substantively connected in some way to a war, a contingency operation or a national emergency” to qualify for the Transitional Assistance Management Program. The change follows a class action lawsuit brought by National Guard and Reserve service members who allege that the Pentagon unlawfully conditioned eligibility for TAMP based on criteria not authorized by law. TAMP provides eligible service members and their families with 180 days of premium-free medical and dental coverage after their active-duty orders end.
• The Environmental Protection Agency would have more oversight of water sector cybersecurity under a new bill in the Senate. The Water Shield Cyber Act would authorize the EPA to conduct cybersecurity assessment of water utilities. It would also authorize an additional $300 million each year for the Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Funds dedicated to cybersecurity improvements. The bill, introduced last week by Senate Democrats, comes after water utilities across multiple states experienced cyber incidents in recent weeks.
• The Trump administration’s move to unleash private sector hackers raises plenty of questions about government oversight and more. President Donald Trump has directed the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to oversee a program that allows private companies to conduct offensive cyber operations. Private sector participants would only be able to go after foreign criminal hackers with the government’s approval. But Trump’s order doesn’t say anything about liability protections for participating companies. And experts say foreign governments could consider those companies legitimate hacking targets for being involved as well.
• The Defense Department is expanding its review process of sole source or non-competitive contracts for contractor facilitization costs. These are both direct and indirect expenses for long-term, non-recurring investments in physical assets to improve, expand or maintain operational capacity or increase production quantity. In a new memo, DoD now says contracts worth between $50 million and $500 million will follow a streamlined peer review process focusing on key pricing elements to include prime and major supplier historical costs incurred, and realized profits on prior efforts. For contracts worth more than $500 million but less than $1 billion, DoD will follow the current process outlined in its acquisition regulations.

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