• The Space Force has opened its own recruiting squadron nearly seven years after the newest service was created. The 320th Recruiting Squadron at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas, is the service's first unit dedicated to bringing in new generations of guardians. Air Force units had handled Space Force recruiting to save money as the youngest service matured. Now the military space workforce has expanded enough that the Space Force wants to grow its recruiting apparatus to keep up. The service has already reached its goal of enlisting 730 new guardians in 2026.
• Attorney General Todd Blanche is facing new accusations that he violated the Hatch Act within the first week he officially was on the job. Public Citizen filed a request with the Office of Special Counsel to investigate the political activity of Blanche at a campaign rally in New York on August 14. Public Citizen says Blanche spoke during a rally for Bruce Blakeman, the Republican candidate running for governor of New York. The organization says though Blanche did not specifically say “vote for,” his participation in the campaign rally along with President Donald Trump constitutes an active endorsement of the Republican candidate.
• A pair of top Senate Democrats are trying to dig into whether Interior Department officials are violating federal records retention laws. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) sent a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum this week “demanding answers” and calling for transparency. The inquiry comes almost two weeks after Politico reported department officials were using communication apps with disappearing messages even for mundane tasks to avoid having the records retained.
• The SBA wants to make it easier to be a small business contractor. The Small Business Administration is proposing to change the designation of more than 114,000 companies to small businesses. SBA today is releasing a proposed rule to change the size standards for 338 industry groups and industries. Among the significant changes SBA is proposing would be to move general construction companies to an employee based standard of 600 and away from one based on revenue of $45 million. The major IT size standards would increase to $531 million in annual revenue from $34 million. The SBA last updated the small business size standards in November 2022. Comments on the proposed changes are due by September 21.
• The Veterans Affairs Department is raising the ceiling of its electronic health record contract by almost $17 billion. VA extended its deal with Oracle by as much as three years last week but redacted the total value of the extension. The agency released that figure, $16.9 billion, yesterday. VA awarded Cerner Government Services, which Oracle bought in 2022, a 10-year, $10 billion contract in 2018 so with this extension the electronic health records program's total price is now expected to reach almost $27 billion.
• The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is working on new tools to help deal with a surge of artificial intelligence-driven software vulnerabilities. CISA says the new tools will help augment its existing Vulnerability Information and Coordinated Environment. That program is a key component of the Trump administration’s new AI cybersecurity clearinghouse called “Gold Eagle.” CISA says its working with the Treasury Department to improve the Gold Eagle capability and expand it to additional stakeholders.
• President Donald Trump has nominated Dr. Heidi Overton to lead the Food and Drug Administration. Overton would replace Dr. Marty Makary, who left the agency in May. Overton currently serves as deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council and previously was chief policy officer at the conservative America First Policy Institute. She faces a potentially tough confirmation process as Republican Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, has expressed doubt due to Overton’s support of some Trump administration health positions, like vaccine skepticism.
• The Pentagon is getting some outside feedback on its big review of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program. Multiple industry organizations say the Defense Department’s inconsistent marking of controlled unclassified information, or CUI, is a crucial cost driver of the CMMC program. The Pentagon is reviewing CMMC to account for small business cost and compliance concerns. CMMC is intended to verify whether defense contractors are following cyber requirements for protecting CUI. But industry groups say defense contracting officials often overmark CUI or use ambiguous CUI requirements leading industry to pay for more cyber compliance in cases where they don’t need it.
• The Trump administration's new National Security Science and Technology Strategy is looking to private investors to help the U.S. lead in tech development. The strategy, published this week, says the country will prioritize projects that ensure the U.S. military's advantage, particularly in areas like homeland defense, space and artificial intelligence. The administration also plans to boost efforts to address Chinese threats to critical U.S. systems and supply chains.

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