• The Department of Homeland Security is looking to cut down on the number of paper Freedom of Information Act requests it receives. Under a final rule set to go into effect next month, DHS will require most people to submit FOIA and Privacy Act requests electronically. DHS will allow for alternative submission methods in limited circumstances where an electronic request isn’t feasible, such as for incarcerated people. The department said the new rule will allow FOIA officers to spend less time on data entry and more time searching for and reviewing records.
  (DHS FOIA rule - Federal Register)
• As the winter season gets underway, the Office of Personnel Management is tweaking its policy for what happens to federal telework in inclement weather. OPM said federal employees are generally allowed to telework in cases where they can’t make it to the office on a snow day. But those unscheduled telework days do not mean that there are any changes to President Donald Trump’s broader directive that rescinded telework and remote work agreements.
  (Governmentwide dismissal and closure procedures - Office of Personnel Management)
• Cyber hackers are increasingly taking advantage of forged or stolen digital identity tokens to break into sensitive cloud-based networks. That’s why the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has teamed up with the National Institute of Standards and Technology on new guidance to defend those tokens. The draft guidelines published last week are meant to help agencies and cloud service providers protect identity tokens from forgery, theft and misuse. President Trump had directed CISA and NIST to develop the guidelines in a cybersecurity executive order earlier this year.
  (Protecting tokens and assertions from forgery, theft and misuse - Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency)
• Customs and Border Protection is increasing its hiring and retention incentive package. CBP is advertising that new Border Patrol agents and customs officers can earn up to $60,000 in incentives on top of a normal salary. The packages include training bonuses, remote location pay and annual retention incentives. The additional pay incentives come amid a major recruiting push at CBP. The agency is trying to hire 5,000 customs officers and 3,000 border patrol agents over the next four years.
  (CBP increases hiring incentives, amid record DHS recruiting year - Federal News Network)
• Senior political appointees, including the vice president, will continue to see a pay freeze on their salaries. The Office of Personnel Management has announced that the freeze will continue, as it has for more than 10 years, for certain categories of politically appointed feds. The freeze covers employees on the Executive Schedule, such as ambassadors-at-large, non-career members of the Senior Executive Service and other highly paid political appointees.
  (Updated guidance on pay freeze for certain senior political officials - Office of Personnel Management)
• The National Institute of Standards and Technology is investing $20 million dollars in two new artificial intelligence centers. NIST will work with the nonprofit MITRE Corporation to launch the AI Economic Security Center for U.S. Manufacturing Productivity and the AI Economic Security Center to Secure U.S. Critical Infrastructure from Cyberthreats. NIST said the two centers will drive the development and adoption of AI agents. In the months ahead, NIST will also announce awards to establish an AI for Resilient Manufacturing Institute.
  (NIST launches centers for AI in manufacturing and critical infrastructure - National Institute of Standards and Technology)
• Agencies have an opportunity to request special salary rates for positions that might need them in 2026. The Office of Personnel Management has put out its annual call, asking agencies if there are certain roles where it's been especially hard to recruit or retain workers. OPM said agencies should also consider removing any special salary rates for jobs that no longer need them. Most recently, OPM established a special salary rate for law enforcement officers, who are expected to receive a larger pay raise for 2026.
  (Annual review of special salary rates - Office of Personnel Management)
• The Trump administration is working out plans to implement a larger raise for federal law enforcement officers. The Office of Personnel Management said it will meet with the departments of Homeland Security, Justice and the Interior to decide which positions will receive a bigger pay bump in January. OPM plans to establish a special salary rate to implement a 3.8% raise for federal law enforcement, at the direction of President Trump. Most other civilian employees will see a 1% raise for 2026. The updated pay tables for law enforcement officers will be available by the end of the calendar year.
  (2026 special rates for certain law enforcement personnel - Office of Personnel Management)
• Agencies will have to move any non-national security system using the seven gigahertz bandwidth to a new part of the spectrum in the next year. A new memo from President Trump calls on agencies to free up the bandwidth for the development of 6G for commercial use. The White House and the Commerce Department will lead a study to determine where to relocate existing systems to other frequencies. The State Department also will lead an effort to develop and negotiate international standards for 6G systems.
  (White House gives agencies a year to clear space for commercial 6G - White House)
• Agencies can now place orders against two vendor pools under the Polaris small business governmentwide acquisition contract. The General Services Administration said it issued notices to proceed for the HUBZone and service-disabled veteran owned small business pools under the IT services contract. Through Polaris, agencies can buy an assortment of IT services, including cloud and edge computing, AI and automation and distributed ledger. GSA said it will make additional awards under Polaris in 2026 under the small business and women-owned small business pools.
  (GSA opens two vendor pools under Polaris GWAC - General Services Administration)
• The Military Family Advisory Network is conducting its biennial survey to better understand the needs of military and veteran families worldwide. The survey is the largest independent research effort focused on the military family population. The stories shared by those taking the survey lead to real change. The research has helped shape major policy and quality-of-life reforms, including the Military Housing Privatization Initiative’s Tenant Bill of Rights and a congressional quality-of-life panel for service members and their families. MFAN is monitoring response rates and will decide when to close the survey based on participation. The organization will be reporting on their findings in May.
  (Military Family Advisory Network survey looks to shape policy - Federal News Network)
• The Pentagon inspector general found “unsanitary conditions in bathroom facilities” at soldiers’ barracks at Fort Bliss, Texas, and the Doña Ana Range Complex housing facilities in New Mexico, including “leaking raw sewage, non-functional toilets, and general disrepair of facilities.” Soldiers also informed the IG of electrical capability concerns and constantly nonfunctioning air conditioning. The watchdog visited housing facilities of soldiers who had been deployed to assist with the border mission earlier this year. The medical team found that air conditioners in the housing facilities caused soldiers respiratory symptoms and that standing water from air conditioner condensation and rain caused "a large increase in both the insect and mosquito population."
  (Soldiers supporting the border mission living in ‘unsanitary conditions’ - Defense Dept IG)

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