• The Trump administration said it’s finished updating federal employee records to remove some of the negative consequences of this year’s mass firing of probationary employees. Federal agencies say the personnel records have all been updated to reflect the fact that those workers were not fired for performance reasons. That step was ordered by a federal judge, who found agencies wrongly asserted that employees’ terminations were connected to their performance.
  (Trump administration says it's finished updated probationary employee files - Department of Justice)
• The Postal Service is starting fiscal 2026 with more red ink. USPS said it ended October with a $545 million net loss. That’s more than double the net loss it projected for the month. USPS ended fiscal 2025 with a $9 billion net loss. The agency is heading into its busy peak season, which is also when it brings in the most revenue.
  (USPS preliminary financial information - USPS)
• Recent reporting stating that the Department of Government Efficiency is dead has sparked some pushback from the Trump administration. Rather than DOGE being fully non-existent, Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor said DOGE has simply taken on a new form. President Donald Trump’s initiative to cut the government’s size and spending may no longer have centralized leadership, but Kupor said the emphasis on efficiency remains “alive and well.”
  (Update on DOGE - Office of Personnel Management)
• Democratic lawmakers say agencies aren’t reinstating as many federal employees as they should be. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) is leading the push for more RIF rescissions, along with several of his Democratic colleagues. They say employees who received reduction in force (RIF) notices before the government shutdown, but were on track to be officially separated from their agencies during the shutdown, should get their jobs back. This would all happen under layoff protection language in the spending bill Congress passed to end the funding lapse. Kaine was one of eight Democratic senators who broke ranks to pass the stopgap spending bill, only after Republicans agreed to include language that would protect federal employees from layoffs at least through Jan. 30, 2026.
  (Lawmakers say agencies aren’t reinstating enough laid-off employees under shutdown-ending deal - Federal News Network)
• A major update to one of the government’s largest data assets is on the horizon. The exact launch date for a new version of the Office of Personnel Management’s FedScope is unclear. But the agency said testing and development of the new website is underway, and a launch is “imminent.” Generally, the agency estimated that a new website for federal workforce data to replace FedScope would be published sometime “shortly after the new year.”
  (FedScope update “imminent” - Office of Personnel Management)
• A new audit found that the Defense Department failed to properly manage its financial reporting system after retiring 10 finance and accounting systems. The Pentagon’s office of inspector general said the reporting system continued using data from 57 obsolete files which contained $4.2 trillion in balances that were not required for Treasury reporting and served no financial purpose. This happened because the Defense Finance and Accounting Service did not archive balances from retired financial management systems and did not fully migrate required information into active systems. Auditors warn that this unnecessary and unsupported data is complicating an already difficult reporting process and could hinder the Pentagon’s ability to achieve a clean audit by 2028. The inspector general issued six recommendations, including archiving unused balances and ensuring required data is properly transferred and documented.
  (DoD failed to manage data after retiring ten financial management systems - Defense Department IG)
• President Trump is pushing a new initiative to use AI to solve engineering, energy and national security problems. An executive order the president signed yesterday launches what the White House is calling the “Genesis Mission.” The EO outlines a framework for collaboration between federal agencies, research institutions and private sector companies. The order tells the Energy Department and national labs to build a digital platform to concentrate the nation’s scientific data in one place.
  (New EO launches "Genesis Mission" AI initiative - Associated Press)
• Navy Secretary John Phelan is inviting venture capital firms and private investors to participate in an industry event introducing the Department of the Navy’s newly established Rapid Capabilities Office. The two-day event will cover the service’s most urgent operational challenges and how the new office plans to work with industry to solve those pressing issues. The first industry day, which will take place on Dec. 9, will be open to venture capital firms and technology companies. The second, classified session on Dec. 10 will welcome the investment community. The service is encouraging both existing and new industry partners to participate.
  (Navy opens door to venture capital firms, investors - SAM.gov)

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