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There’s a new recruitment opportunity at HHS

✇All News – Federal News Network
By: Michele Sandiford
  • There’s a new recruitment opportunity at Health and Human Services. The agency has just launched the Roy Wilkins Fellowship. It’s reserved for students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs, who are interested in public service. Many of HHS’s divisions will host career fairs to promote the new fellowship, including the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The opportunity comes in response to an executive order President Trump signed in April, on promoting innovation at HBCU’s.
    (Department of Health and Human Services - Roy Wilkins Fellowship)

  • The Senate passes the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. The bill authorizes roughly $900 billion in defense spending, about $8 billion more than the White House requested. The legislation includes a 3.8% pay raise for military personnel, bans diversity, equity and inclusion programs and cuts funding for climate-related initiatives. Lawmakers say the bill will deliver “the most significant acquisition reforms in a generation.” The measure now heads to President Trump for his signature.
    (Senate passes NDAA, approves 3.8% military pay raise - Senate Armed Services Committee)

  • A coalition of nonprofits is suing the Trump administration over its attempts to defund the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency. The lawsuit filed in federal court this week argues the Office of Management and Budget is illegally withholding funds from CIGIE. OMB first declined to apportion funding for CIGIE in late September. A spokesman said the group of IGs was corrupt without offering more detail. After bipartisan pushback, OMB apportioned limited funding for CIGIE through the end of January. The council provides support and training for I-G offices across government.

  • Agencies may soon have a new source for recruiting early-career tech talent. The Office of Personnel Management is planning to create a student volunteer program, called “semester of service.” OPM says it will partner with universities and trade schools to recruit students interested in one-semester internships in government. Part of the goal will be to make the program available across the country and outside the D.C. area. OPM is targeting an initial cohort of about 200 student interns interested in technology, with a potential to expand the program over time.

  • With the Senate's passage of the 2026 defense authorization bill, the much-hated Price Reduction Clause required for vendors under the GSA schedule might officially be dead. A provision in the bill changes the statutory standard for the schedule program to "best value" from "lowest overall cost alternative." The Price Reduction Clause required vendors to provide the government with their lowest price at all times. GSA requested this provision in the NDAA as part of its long-standing move away from the PRC and toward transactional data reporting. GSA says this change will increase competition and reduce the administrative burden on contractors.

  • The Trump administration's top IT priorities are starting to bear fruit. Federal CIO Greg Barbaccia detailed his top three priorities for 2026 in a new video posted on X. One is hiring a qualified technology workforce. Two is improving software licensing. "And three, securing the foundation. We will be setting one standard for how government technology works for the American people, from our websites to our use of artificial intelligence." This foundation is starting to be seen in recently launched websites for the Tech Force initiative, the Merry Christmas.gov and Trump Accounts sites through the National Design Studio. Barbaccia says more details and the initial results of his first-year priorities will be released in the coming months.

  • Defense technology companies broadly agree on what secure software looks like but say the Pentagon lacks consistent and standardized methods for attestation processes. In response to the DoD chief information officer’s requests for information, industry overwhelmingly pointed to established cybersecurity frameworks such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Secure Software Development Framework for managing software and supply-chain risk. But vendors said it is unclear what qualifies as a valid attestation, what documentation must be included in a body of evidence, how often attestations are required and whether companies are allowed to self-attest.

  • House lawmakers say there should be an independent review into whether there was whistleblower retaliation at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. House Democratic leaders say the Office of Special Counsel should review whether FEMA staff who were reinstated and then put back on administrative leave were illegally retaliated against. In a letter to OSC, the lawmakers reference a finding by FEMA legal counsel that found the employees’ disclosure was protected by whistleblower laws and the FIrst Amendment. The employees were first suspended in August after signing their names to the Katrina Declaration, a public letter that warned about steep staff cuts and other changes at FEMA under the Trump administration.

  • The Postal Service is looking to open up its last-mile delivery network to more shippers, in a bid to bring in added revenue. USPS already has agreements with shipping giants like Amazon and UPS to get their packages to their final destination. But it’s giving other delivery companies an opportunity to strike similar deals. Last-mile delivery is the most expensive leg of deliveries and USPS goes to more addresses than its private-sector competitors. USPS will accept bids from companies in late January or early February.

  • A federal judge has ordered the reversal of hundreds of layoffs finalized during the recent government shutdown. A federal judge in San Francisco says she’ll reverse the terminations of hundreds of federal employees finalized during the recent government shutdown. Unions asked the court to rescind layoffs at the departments of Education and State, as well as the Small Business Administration and the General Services Administration. These agencies sent reduction in force notices to employees before the recent government shutdown. In most cases, separations were scheduled to take effect in October or November, during the shutdown. The preliminary injunction will cover about 680 federal employees.

The post There’s a new recruitment opportunity at HHS first appeared on Federal News Network.

© AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

FILE - In this July 6, 2021, file photo, an electronic signboard welcomes people to the Howard University campus in Washington. With the surprise twin hiring of two of the country's most prominent writers on race, Howard University is positioning itself as one of the primary centers of Black academic thought just as America struggles through a painful crossroads over historic racial injustice. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
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