• A bipartisan group of lawmakers is seeking to expand both financial and non-monetary incentives to help the Air Force retain pilots and other in-demand Airmen. A new bill, dubbed the Retention Enhancements for Tactical Aircrew Initiative, or RETAIN Act, would require the Air Force to pay maximum aviation incentive pay, increase retention bonuses up to $100,000, and allow Airmen to transition indefinitely to non-combat aviation career paths. Meanwhile, the Fighter Aircrew Career Flexibility Act would allow service members to take a one-time break from active duty lasting four months to one year. The measure would also allow aviators to spend time in the civilian workforce and return to active duty afterward.
• The Pentagon has launched the Joint Task Force–Audit, bringing together service members, civilians and industry experts to help the comptroller target problem areas identified in audits across the department. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth tasked Jay Hurst, who is performing the duties of the Pentagon comptroller, to lead the initiative and manage the priorities of the task force. Hegseth said the office of the inspector general will bring in a major accounting firm to serve as the department’s group auditor. “We're ending the wasteful process of agency-by-agency opinions and slashing the number of disjointed separate audits by two-thirds,” Hegseth said. The initiative will rely in part on artificial intelligence and automation to identify and resolve persistent financial vulnerabilities.
• House lawmakers want to expand the PACT Act to cover civilian federal workers, on top of veterans. In 2022, the PACT Act secured health benefits for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits during their service. But civilian employees who faced the same exposure are not covered to the same extent. A new bill would ensure benefits for civilians, like law enforcement officers and national security personnel, who are also facing toxin-related illnesses.

  (Renewing Our PACT Act - Reps. Nellie Pou (D-N.J.), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Celeste Maloy (R-Utah))

• A new watchdog report provides new details on how Department of Government Efficiency staffers gained access to Treasury Department payment systems. Treasury didn’t follow key IT security protocols when DOGE staffers gained access to Bureau of Fiscal Service payment systems last year. That’s according to a new Government Accountability Office report. GAO found Treasury didn’t configure its security tools to identify and block unencrypted payment information, resulting in a DGOE employee improperly sending that data outside the bureau. Treasury also didn’t hold a DOGE staffer accountable for following IT security rules before issuing them a laptop. Treasury agreed with GAO’s recommendations to shore up its data protection controls.
• Agency Freedom of Information Act offices have a new toolkit to help them with FOIA hiring. The recruiting guides were released by the Chief FOIA Officers Council’s Committee on Cross-Agency Collaboration and Innovation. The toolkit helps offices with qualifications, interview questions, scoring methods, position descriptions and more. It comes as agencies consistently report FOIA staffing issues. Many agency FOIA offices lost staff last year, even as request backlogs soared to new heights.
• Employees at the Environmental Protection Agency are filing allegations of agency retaliation. The allegations come from dozens of EPA employees who were suspended last year, after signing of a “declaration of dissent” against EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. Their complaints, filed at the Office of Special Counsel, argue that the two-week suspensions violate their First Amendment rights and federal whistleblower protections. Attorneys representing the employees have already submitted 15 complaints and say “many more” are on the way.

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