• The Secret Service is facing questions about funding that was reportedly taken from the agency’s budget to fund White House renovations. In a letter to Secret Service Director Sean Curran last week, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) asked how the agency would have spent the roughly $415 million dollars that was redirected from its budget. Hassan wants to know whether that has affected the Secret Service’s modernization efforts, including its ongoing hiring campaign. Her letter points to a June 2026 inspector general report that found the Secret Service’s effectiveness was at risk due to staffing and resource constraints.
• The Space Force has extended its interservice transfer application window to Oct. 16. The service is looking for active-duty Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines to join its ranks. A Space Force spokesperson said the newest branch needs at least several hundred officers and enlisted personnel. The service is looking for service members with backgrounds in space operations, cyber, intelligence, acquisition and engineering. Reserve and National Guard personnel, as well as members of the Coast Guard, are not eligible for this year’s interservice transfer program.
• Applications for the Defense Department Cyber Service Academy scholarship program are now open. The program covers the full cost of tuition and academic fees, as well as room and board. Those accepted into the program will also receive a stipend and paid summer internships. In exchange, scholarship recipients will be required to work for the Defense Department for at least one year for each year of funding they receive. The program was created to help the Defense Department better recruit and retain cyber and IT talent. The scholarship is open to students enrolled in validated cyber programs who are not current DoD or government employees.
• The Trump administration has reached a settlement with federal unions in a lawsuit over shutdown-related layoffs. Under the settlement, the Trump administration has agreed to inform agencies that all remaining shutdown-related reduction in force plans have been abandoned. Agencies have 30 days to remove any remaining references to shutdown RIF guidance from their websites and from their shutdown contingency plans. The American Federation of Government Employees, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, called the settlement a “win” for federal workers.
• The Office of Special Counsel won’t fully investigate whether agencies violated the Hatch Act with online messaging during the 2025 government shutdown. OSC concluded that some of the more inflammatory language posted on agency websites blaming last fall’s shutdown on Congressional Democrats “might” have violated the Hatch Act’s prohibition on partisan political activity. But in an assessment released Friday, the office concluded no further investigation or disciplinary action is warranted, because agencies relied on an ambiguous 2024 OSC advisory to explain those actions. OSC’s assessment shows some agencies didn’t even respond to the office regarding the Hatch Act complaints. But OSC said it wouldn’t be worth putting its limited resources toward further investigation.
• The Office of Personnel Management is offering up a replacement to the “loyalty question” on federal job applications. In a memo last week, OPM directed agencies to start adding a new essay question, asking applicants to give an example of a time they implemented leadership direction that differed from their own recommendation. The replacement essay question comes after a federal judge blocked agencies from asking applicants to describe an executive order that’s “significant” to them, finding that the question most likely violates the First Amendment.

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