• A federal union is urging the Forest Service to reverse course on its upcoming reorganization plans. The National Federation of Federal Employees warns that shuttering facilities and relocating Forest Service staff will worsen federal response during wildfire season. After staffing reductions at the Forest Service during 2025, union officials say the agency now is likely to lose additional workers due to the reorganization, including those with “red cards,” who are qualified to respond as wildland firefighters.
• The Department of Homeland Security will see some key leaders arrive after the Senate confirmed dozens of Trump administration nominees on Friday. Among the DHS confirmations is Cameron Hamilton, who is set to take over as administrator at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Senate also approved David Cummins’ nomination to be administrator at the Transportation Security Administration. And Brian Cavanaugh was voted through to become the first Senate-confirmed under secretary for management at DHS since 2018.
• The Senate has confirmed Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Schiess to serve as the next chief of space operations, making him the third person to hold the role since the Space Force was created in 2019. Schiess succeeds Gen. Chance Saltzman, who is set to retire later this month. Schiess previously served as deputy chief of space operations, Saltzman’s deputy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the commander of Space Forces–Space. He takes the helm as the service seeks to expand its infrastructure and double its size to meet growing national security demands.
• Social Security Administration employees are facing increasingly difficult workloads and burnout, according to a federal union. But at the same time, SSA has reportedly suspended agency employees from taking advance annual and sick leave. The American Federation of Government Employees is now calling on SSA to restore the leave benefits for workers. The union is also pushing for a reversal of budget cuts and reassignments, which it said have led to longer wait times and service delays.
• The National Treasury Employees Union has joined a lawsuit to challenge a Justice Department immunity order protecting President Donald Trump, his family and their business interests from tax audits. NTEU said it’s defending IRS employees whose duty is to administer tax laws fairly and without political interference to protect the tax system. The union said the order is unconstitutional and goes against the Internal Revenue Code. IRS employees would be breaking the law and violating their oath of office by following the order, and shouldn’t risk losing their job by defying it, NTEU said. NTEU has joined the lawsuit Floyd v. Justice Department as one of several plaintiffs challenging the immunity order.
• House Democrats are seeking a review after the Department of Homeland Security dissolved a key office. DHS disestablished its Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction office and split its functions across at least seven other components earlier this year. That came after House Republicans granted the Trump administration’s request to defund the office. Now House Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) wants the Government Accountability Office to review that decision. Thompson and his colleagues said GAO should also look at whether the former CWMD office’s functions are still being carried out effectively.
• The Defense Department has revoked former Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall’s eligibility to access classified information and his ability to hold “any sensitive position.” Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Sean Parnell said the decision followed what the department described as Kendall's “unauthorized disclosure of classified information about Air Force One's capabilities to a media outlet.” Kendall was quoted in a recent New York Times article about security concerns involving President Donald Trump's Qatari-donated Air Force One. Kendall told the Associated Press he is “completely mystified” by this revocation and that he has “always been extremely careful to not say anything classified.”
• A bipartisan group of lawmakers wants to bolster the Space Force’s ability to achieve space superiority by expanding its training, wargaming and simulation efforts. The Space Superiority Readiness Act of 2026 would require the Defense Department to develop new training programs for space operators that are focused on tactics, techniques, and procedures necessary for space control operations. It also seeks to expand the capacity of the Space Force to “conduct wargaming, modeling, and simulation of peer conflict scenarios in the space domain.” The lawmakers said the measure was filed as an amendment to the fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act and that they will “continue to pursue every avenue to get it passed into law, and introducing the legislation as a standalone bill is part of that process.”

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