• Two former Office of Personnel Management directors are urging the reversal of a decision that could broadly impact federal job protections. Their brief to a federal appeals court comes ahead of a full bench hearing slated for this fall. The hearing will reconsider a Merit Systems Protection Board ruling that allowed the president to fire some civil servants, claiming constitutional authority. The two former OPM directors warn that upholding MSPB’s decision will threaten the integrity and expertise of the career federal workforce.
• A defense contractor has agreed to pay almost $8 million to settle claims that it violated the False Claims Act. The Justice Department says the Sierra Nevada Company allegedly hired an official who also was working for the Joint Staff/J6. Justice says from 2019 to 2020, the employee, Michael Henry, allegedly worked as a consultant for SNC where he evaluated and obtained approvals for the company's products. Justice says SNC’s employment of Henry and Henry’s participation in the contracts on SNC’s behalf constitute an organizational conflict of interest under the Federal Acquisition Regulation. Additionally, Justice alleges SNC knowingly made, or knowingly caused to be made, material false statements, material false certifications and material omissions concerning the nonexistence of an organizational conflict of interest that induced the award of the contracts.
• The Energy Department has appointed Andrew McClure as director of the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response, or CESER. McClure previously spent more than a decade as a venture capital investor at ForgePoint Capital. He also served as an intelligence officer in the Marine Corps. CESER is responsible for overseeing the security of the energy sector, including efforts to harden power grids and other systems from both cyber and physical threats.
• OPM has room to improve in several key areas. One is by preventing improper payments in federal insurance programs, a change that could save up to $1 billion per year. Another is strengthening IT management by reducing costs and removing unnecessary software licenses. And a third is better managing the federal workforce by improving the hiring process and addressing OPM’s internal skills gaps. The Government Accountability Office’s recommendations come as GAO also says OPM is facing increasing risk, after losing one-third of its staff last year.
• The Pentagon's Silicon Valley hub will shrink its focus to three commercial technology portfolios it views as most urgent and transformational. In a memo earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Defense Innovation Unit boss Owen West told DIU employees the organization will dig in on autonomous warfare, capabilities that are 10 times cheaper, better or faster than current tools and projects that "harness the commercial space boom to build an unbreakable kill web in the sky." AI will become a common thread through each portfolio and in DIU's contracting process.
• Monster Government Solutions is changing its name. The federal talent acquisition technology solutions provider will now be known as Apply Government Solutions. The company also introduced FedHire as the new name for its talent acquisition system, previously known as Monster Hiring Management Enterprise. ApplyGov says the timing of the name change is to align with the government’s focus on HR modernization including the expansion of the Human Resources Quality Services Management Office. ApplyGov is also preparing to integrate FedHire with the planned governmentwide Human Capital Management System, starting with Wave 1 agencies.

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