Coast Guard surpasses its recruiting goal for third consecutive year

The Coast Guard awarded a $400 million contract to modernize its training center in Cape May, New Jersey.

October 9, 2026 3:31 pm

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The Coast Guard has surpassed its recruiting goals for the third consecutive year, bringing in the largest number of enlisted recruits in nearly four decades. The service enlisted 5,445 active-duty members in fiscal 2026, up from the 5,204 enlisted members recruited in fiscal 2025. It also commissioned 346 active-duty officers. To expand its recruiting presence, the service opened four recruiting offices in Miami, Florida, Long Island, New York, Austin, Texas and in the Netherlands. In addition, the Coast Guard awarded a $400 million contract to modernize its training center in Cape May, New Jersey.
— Anastasia ObisThe remains of hundreds of service members are coming home after decades in limbo. The Pentagon said it has identified the remains of another 250 American service members who went missing in past conflicts. That includes nearly 200 troops from World War II, 51 from the Korean War and one from the Vietnam War. Most served in the Army, plus about three dozen across the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force. Two federal civilians were also identified. It’s a new record for the agency tasked with finding missing and imprisoned troops. The fiscal 2026 total surpassed its previous record of 231. — Rachel S. CohenA bill to lift education requirements for the federal contracting workforce is heading to the president’s desk. That’s after the Senate unanimously agreed to pass the Skills-Based Federal Contracting Act last week. The legislation cleared the House earlier this year. The bipartisan bill would bar agencies from including minimum education requirements in most contract solicitations, allowing recruitment from a bigger pool of candidates. — Drew FriedmanAgency IT investments are not getting the oversight they need. Agency chief information officers are falling short on managing the risk of their IT investments. A new report from the Government Accountability Office found agency CIO ratings of IT projects didn’t always match with the agency’s risk rating on the Federal IT Dashboard. Out of the 53 investments across 26 agencies auditors looked at, 24 showed more risk than the CIO acknowledged in their rating. Additionally, 21 out of 53 CIO ratings were not updated in a timely manner. GAO made 17 recommendations to nine agencies on how to improve the information on the IT dashboard. The report comes as OMB is planning on updating the Federal IT Dashboard. — Jason Miller ]]>

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed the military services to align their inspector general procedures with a Pentagon directive he coined as the “no more walking on eggshells” policy. He said, “commanders are now back in charge,” and that there will be “no more investigations launched based on speculation, personal gripes or hearsay.” Anonymous complaints won’t be considered unless they provide “specific, credible evidence of substantial wrongdoing.” Last year, Hegseth directed the secretaries of the Navy, Army and Air Force to work with the Defense Department’s office of inspector general to overhaul the complaint intake process, shorten investigation timelines, establish procedures to manage what he calls “repeat complainants” and create a tracking complaints system. — Anastasia Obis The Federal Bureau of Prisons has, for a second time, terminated its collective bargaining agreement. The BOP’s re-termination decision comes one week after a federal judge ordered the agency to restore its contract. The American Federation of Government Employees is suing the bureau, alleging that its decision to terminate its union agreement last fall was unlawful. The BOP director this week opted to rescind the previous termination notice, and instead issue a new one with a different justification. The decision comes one day after AFGE filed claims that the bureau has been refusing to abide by the court’s order.The Defense Department is investing $350 million in quantum computing capabilities. The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (R&E) is kicking off new initiatives and programmatic updates to identify mission-relevant applications of quantum computing. R&E said that quantum-enabled applications in disciplines such as chemistry, materials science and physics will enable the development of next-generation weapons, platforms and other critical capabilities. As part of this effort, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will host a series of application workshops beginning before January 2027 to bring together end users and quantum-algorithm experts to identify high-value use cases. — Jason MillerThe Small Business Administration made it a goal for agencies to award more federal contracts to veteran-owned small businesses. Now the SBA is putting its money where its mouth is. The agency awarded a $3.75 million grant to the Montgomery County Maryland Chamber of Commerce Community Foundation Veterans Institute for Procurement to run a training program for potential contractors. The organization will operate the Veteran Federal Procurement Entrepreneurship Training Program (VFPETP), which is a nationwide initiative to help about 250 veteran-owned small businesses a year build the knowledge, capabilities and procurement readiness to compete for federal contracts. — Jason Miller

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