Bentivegna also told lawmakers that the service needs to increase its infrastructure and double its size to “effectively fulfill our national mandate.”
The Space Force has surpassed its fiscal 2026 recruiting goal just five months into the year. The service has already exceeded its recruiting goal by 25% for recruits who have shipped to basic military training or entered the delayed entry program. Despite that progress, service officials warn the current force is too small to meet growing national security demands. Chief Master Sgt. of the Space Force John Bentivegna said while “achieving a force of just over 10,000 uniformed guardians in 2025 was a landmark milestone, it is insufficient for the missions we have been assigned.” Bentivegna also told lawmakers that the service needs to increase its infrastructure and double its size to “effectively fulfill our national mandate.”Some Democrats want a closer look at the impacts of the Trump administration’s reductions to the federal workforce. A new bill calls for the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study of how federal layoffs are impacting state and local governments. The GAO study would include a look at how federal-level overhauls are affecting unemployment insurance, health programs, housing assistance and more. Democrats introduced the Fiscal Harms of Federal Firings Act in both the House and Senate this week. It comes after the loss of more than 317,000 federal employees throughout 2025.The Office of Management and Budget is hiring a new federal deputy chief information officer. Federal CIO Greg Barbaccia says he’s looking for someone who knows how to run large systems, who can cut through the noise and who can turn strategy into execution across the government. He says the federal deputy CIO has real authority and the person should have zero patience for theater. This job is open to people in the senior executive service as well as private sector executives. This person will replace Drew Myklegard, who left in September to join the private sector. Since Myklegard left, Jay Teitelbaum has been acting federal deputy CIO. Applications for the position are due by Feb. 24. ]]>
Congress gave federal employees a three-month break from layoffs. But those protections are running out. A continuing resolution funding the Department of Homeland Security runs out at the end of Friday. That stopgap funding bill has protected federal employees from reductions in force since mid-November. A federal judge in San Francisco blocked agencies from carrying out layoffs during last year’s government shutdown. That same judge will determine whether layoffs can proceed in a hearing Friday afternoon. Many federal employees who left their jobs last year are staying in public service, new data shows. The findings from the non-profit “Work for America” show that about 40% of former feds who moved to state and local government jobs are in operational fields like human resources and finance. The new data also finds that one in three former feds who used the organization’s “Civic Match” program relocated to a different state for their new public sector jobs. A new bill seeks to impose penalties if the Pentagon fails to achieve a clean full audit within the next three years, and grant greater budget flexibility if it succeeds. The new legislation would require the Defense Department to transfer the Defense Finance and Accounting Service’s non-defense payroll and finance functions to another financial provider if the Pentagon fails to achieve a clean audit by December 2028. It would also require DoD financial leaders to meet additional qualifications. Future Pentagon and service-level comptroller nominees would all have to be certified public accountants (CPAs) with prior experience serving as chief financial officers of federal or state agencies that already passed a clean audit. Meanwhile, passing a clean audit by 2028 would give the department greater flexibility to shift funds between programs.The General Services Administration canceled its charge card pilot project nearly a year after launching the effort to bring in innovative charge card and commercial payments platforms. GSA says in a posting on SAM.gov that it has decided to make a strategic shift to prioritize accelerating the governmentwide transition to the next generation of the SmartPay program. GSA didn’t say what its next steps would be but that it is working on an acquisition strategy. GSA did two rounds of market research last spring with a goal of issuing a commercial solutions opening. Over the last year, GSA accepted proposals and reviewed vendor demos, but never made any final awards.The federal government is stepping up efforts to stop sending payments to dead people. A law signed by President Donald Trump permanently allows the Social Security Administration to share its records on deceased individuals with the Treasury Department’s Do Not Pay system. The law is intended to flag improper payments before they’re sent. The law also authorizes Treasury to compare SSA death data with information held by other federal agencies.
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