The reconciliation bill comes after Congress shut down the Department of Homeland Security for a record-breaking 76 days earlier this year.
Michele Sandiford
- The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs passed a reconciliation bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection for fiscal year 2026. The bill includes $9.5 billion for CBP recruitment and nearly $7.5 billion for ICE recruitment for fiscal 2026. It also includes about $3.5 billion for other CBP operations funding through fiscal 2029, including procurement and implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning for mission support. The bill passed with a vote of 8 to 5. The reconciliation bill comes after Congress shut down the Department of Homeland Security for a record-breaking 76 days earlier this year.
- Six national security-focused agencies are using little to no prohibited Chinese-made equipment in their IT networks. The Government Accountability Office looked at the six agencies with intelligence components to see if they’re complying with a 2018 law that prohibits agencies from using telecommunications and video surveillance equipment produced by some Chinese companies. Officials at four of the agencies, the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, State and Treasury, said their networks didn’t contain any prohibited equipment, while the departments of Defense and Energy reported having only some equipment that they’re now working to address. The DoD said it found three instances of prohibited equipment, which it has since blocked from external access while they’re removed. All six of the agencies reviewed conducted IT hardware asset inventory searches and IT network scans, while three conducted procurement record searches and one conducted a physical search.
- The Department of Veterans Affairs will host Memorial Day ceremonies this weekend at more than 120 VA national cemeteries across the country. The VA expects more than 100,000 people will attend Memorial Day ceremonies at its cemeteries over the holiday weekend. That includes wreath-laying ceremonies and speeches from public officials to remember U.S. service members who died in military service.
- A bipartisan group of lawmakers is renewing their efforts to give service members the ability to fix their own equipment. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) urged lawmakers to pass the Warrior Right to Repair Act through the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act. The measure that would require contractors to provide the technical data and materials the military needs to maintain its own equipment. The lawmakers introduced a similar bill last year. And while right-to-repair reforms gained momentum and wide support from the Trump administration, the House and Senate and senior Defense Department leaders, defense lobbyists pushed back against the reform during the conference process, arguing that those efforts would “hamper innovation and DoD’s access to cutting-edge technologies by deterring companies from contracting with the DoD.”
- Some federal employees may now have an easier time qualifying for disability retirement benefits. An appeals court has ruled that agencies cannot deny a disability retirement application due only to a lack of “objective” medical evidence. The appeals court said “subjective” evidence must also be considered. The case involves a federal employee whose disability retirement application was turned down, despite having sufficient psychiatric evidence of a disability.
- Probationary federal employees who were fired more than a year ago are facing lasting impacts. Over 90% of fired probationary workers are reporting ongoing mental health challenges after their terminations last year. About 70% have filed for unemployment and more than two-thirds say they now have a job with a lower salary. That’s according to results of a new survey of over 300 employees fired last year across dozens of agencies. Just 16% of survey respondents say their agency was transparent about the terminations.
- The Marine Corps now requires all active duty and reserve Marines to complete a basic artificial intelligence training course by the end of 2026. The mandatory course is designed to give Marines a foundational understanding of AI, practical applications and how the technology can support mission effectiveness and decision-making. The service said intermediate and advanced AI courses are currently in development and will become available in fiscal 2027. The training is part of a broader effort to build a force that is proficient in AI.
- The IRS is seeing an uptick in overtime hours, after shedding more than a quarter of its workforce last year. Regular work hours at the IRS decreased by 14% between 2024 and 2025. But IRS employees worked 600,000 more overtime hours in 2025 than they did the year before. That’s about a 12% increase. Because of deep staffing cuts, the IRS is requiring employees in certain divisions to work mandatory weekend overtime hours to address backlogs. According to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, about 300 IRS employees reported working more than 12 hours in a day and 14 employees reported working more than 20 hours in a day. TIGTA wrote that its auditors did not confirm whether these extreme cases were submitted intentionally or accidentally.
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