OPM hiring for positions to build out AI across the government

The candidates have already been vetted as part of the cross-government hiring efforts and can be hired more quickly than the traditional path.

• OPM is taking steps to fill positions related to tackling critical agency needs and building out AI systems across the government. In a recent memo, Director Scott Kupor says the agency has created a candidate pool of more than 3,500 qualified candidates through hiring actions including the Tech Force and CyberCorp. Those include positions in IT, project management, contracting, finance and human resources. The candidates have already been vetted as part of the cross-government hiring efforts and can be hired more quickly than the traditional path.
• The government’s federal retirement claim inventory is going down, but processing times are going up. The Office of Personnel Management reports that during May, it took an average of 87 days to finalize a federal retirement application. That’s up from 78 days, on average, during April. But at the same time, OPM’s backlog of retirement claims has gone down by more than 11,000. In May, OPM processed close to 20,000 retirement applications in total.
• The IRS collected over $5.3 trillion dollars from the 2025 tax filing season. The agency issued its 2025 data book on Friday, showing that it processed over 270 million federal tax returns and over 160 million individual income tax returns. IRS customer service representatives helped 2 million customers and answered over 18 million phone calls. This comes after the IRS lost about 40% of its IT workforce and 80% of its technology leaders last year. It had to temporarily reassigned some IT and human resources staff to taxpayer services roles during filing season. The IRS also highlighted its technology modernization efforts, including its online accounts for individuals and businesses and its “Where’s My Refund?” online tool.
• House lawmakers are aiming to prevent another big budget cut at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The House Appropriations homeland security subcommittee’s 2027 spending bill would allocate $2.4 billion for CISA. That’s $400 million more than the Trump administration’s request for the cyber agency. The proposed funding would include money to hire mission-critical positions. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has acknowledged that CISA needs to hire hundreds of new employees. That’s after roughly 1,000 CISA employees resigned amid uncertainty over the future of the agency last year.
• Federal employees working in an IRS facility in Georgia are reporting multiple sightings of rats and cockroaches in the office. The National Treasury Employees Union is calling on the IRS to allow telework for employees until the agency can fix the pest issues. Across the executive branch, most federal employees have been required to work fully on-site since early 2025 under strict return-to-office orders from President Trump.
• The House Armed Services Committee adopted a bipartisan right to repair amendment over the objections of the committee’s chairman and several Republicans, setting up a major fight with industry over the Pentagon’s access to technical data and software. The amendment would establish government-purpose rights as the default for any technical data, software and software documentation delivered under future Defense Department contracts unless a contractor can demonstrate the need for more restrictive intellectual property rights. While the chairman’s mark already has some right to repair language, supporters of the amendment argued the department needs a more comprehensive solution. Industry groups said that they support the chairman’s mark but strongly oppose “any attempt to impose a more expansive right-to-repair framework.”
• The Defense Department is reducing the number of religious affiliation categories from more than 200 to just 31. Anthony Tata, under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said the change will improve delivery of religious support from the Chaplaincy. The Defense Human Resources Activity and Defense Manpower Data Center have 60 days to update personnel systems with the new codes. Meanwhile, the military services have 15 days to update the records of all current service members. The Pentagon’s chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, said the decrease in religious affiliation codes is “not designed to make any claims on the legitimacy of any faith or religious belief.”
• Two nominees for senior positions at the Veterans Affairs Department made it through the first hoop to get confirmed. Gary Shatswell, the nominee to be VA’s assistant secretary for information and technology and CIO, promised to create a program management office to drive a more agile IT oversight and management approach. Michael Tierney, the nominee to be assistant secretary for the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection, reaffirmed the importance of whistleblower protections and the office for VA employees. Both Shatswell and Tierney found little resistance during their appearance before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee last week. The committee hasn’t set a date to vote on these two nominations. VA has been without a permanent CIO for more than a year and Shatswell is the third nominee for the position.
• The Small Business Administration is centralizing back-office functions as part of a major reorganization. SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler says all data analysts, economists, grants management professionals and acquisition professionals will now operate under the CFO’s office. Additionally, all technology experts and all human resources employees will be moved under their respective CIO and CHCO offices. Loeffler says these changes will drive operational consistencies, break down internal silos, eliminate costly redundancies, standardize operational processes and maximize resource efficiency. Additionally, SBA is formally establishing the Faith Office and the Office of Rural Affairs to improve service delivery to faith-based communities, rural small businesses and domestic manufacturers.
• Customs and Border Protection is bringing back a top human resources official. Andrea Bright is returning to CBP to serve as assistant commissioner for human resources management. Bright had been in that role from 2019 until last October, when she was reportedly part of a wave of senior CBP firings under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Prior to her role at CBP, Bright served for 22 years at the Office of Personnel Management.

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