• Federal retirement processing times are slowing down. During June, it took the Office of Personnel Management an average of 108 days to process a retirement claim, according to the agency’s latest data release. Processing times for digital-only applications averaged 96 days. That’s a full 30 days longer than the previous month’s average. But at the same time, OPM’s retirement claim inventory in June was the lowest it’s been all year, coming in at just under 34,000 pending applications. OPM received close to 9,000 new claims last month and processed nearly 13,000.
• There’s room for improvement in the Office of Personnel Management’s efforts to prevent improper retirement payments. OPM’s use of manual processes and delays in payment suspensions are hampering the ability to mitigate improper retirement payments. A recent report from OPM’s inspector general office recommends that the agency tighten its timeline and transition to digital tools to help identify and prevent overpayments or underpayments to federal retirees. Officials in OPM’s retirement services division say discussions are ongoing to automate various surveys and projects associated with improper payment prevention.
• More veterans are signing up for healthcare at the Department of Veterans Affairs. The VA said it’s seen more than 200,000 new enrollees so far in 2026. VA is stepping up its outreach to veterans who aren’t enrolled in VA care and benefits. This year’s enrollment push has generated more than 500,000 scheduled VA healthcare encounters. That includes more than 60,000 mental health appointments and more than 2,100 newly enrolled veterans have received emergency care services at VA.
• Another top agency technology executive is on the move. Pavan Pidugu, the Transportation Department chief digital and information officer, is leaving his role. Pidugu confirmed his last day is Sept. 4. He offered no further details on where he was heading or who would be acting CIO in his place. Pidugu joined DoT in 2020 as chief technology officer for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and became CIO of the agency in February 2025. He previously worked in the private sector for Walmart, NCR and Target. During his tenure as CIO, Pidugu drove a major transformation across the agency by centralizing common technology services and moving toward a product management approach instead of one that focuses on projects.
• As the Trump administration offloads excess federal office space, what takes its place is coming into focus. The General Services Administration is accelerating plans to offload underutilized buildings and those falling into disrepair as part of a $50 billion maintenance backlog. Buyers in some recent cases are looking to convert former federal office buildings into apartment buildings. Others are marked for demolition. The site of a recently sold federal building in San Antonio, Texas, will eventually become a new arena for the city’s basketball team. These sales are happening across the country, but are clustered in the Washington, D.C. metro area. In Southwest Federal Center, a business district nearly entirely occupied by federal office buildings, the Trump administration is planning to sell the headquarters for three agencies.
• The top civilian overseeing the Space Force’s acquisition branch said the command aims to hire 100 employees each month as it rebuilds following last year’s civilian purge. Most pressing are vacancies in Space Systems Command’s contracting corps, where around 40% of jobs sit empty. Natalie Riedel, executive director of SSC, hopes to get that number down to about 20%. Backfilling civilian cybersecurity roles is another top priority. The Space Force Civilians make up about one-third of the Pentagon’s smallest service, more than in any other branch of the military.
• The Army’s effort to modernize its direct commissioning program is finally showing results. The most recent selection board reviewed around 60 candidates for high-demand fields such as cyber, artificial intelligence and information warfare. That is more candidates than the service historically commissioned in an entire year. The process for appointing officers through direct commissions has previously been described as a “disaster” due to lengthy processing timelines and layers of bureaucracy. The Army recently centralized the effort under U.S. Army Recruiting Command, which allowed the service to reduce the time from application to commission to fewer than six months. Service officials previously said that direct commissioning program applicants would “completely upskill” Army organizations over time.
• The Technology Modernization Fund is looking to invest new money into two priority areas: artificial intelligence and permitting systems. With about $200 million in the fund, the board wants initial proposals from agencies by July 24 and plans to make awards before the program expires on Sept. 30. Proposals for permitting technologies should expand the implementation scope, improve the ability to share data and coordinate with other agencies, or accelerate high-impact work already underway for permitting technologies. AI proposals should focus on helping agencies build the foundation needed to adopt AI tools securely and broadly.
• The Defense Department now has a guide to prepare the acquisition workforce for broader use of a contracting authority known as "TINA Lite." The authority gives greater flexibility to contracting officers when determining the level of detail for required certified cost or pricing data, allowing them to rely more on actual cost data from prior acquisitions when determining whether a price is fair and reasonable. TINA Lite can be used for contract actions exceeding $50 million when a contractor has a meaningful history of delivering the same or similar products to the department. Pentagon officials say the authority will help accelerate the contracting and pricing process. Originally launched as a pilot program, Congress made TINA Lite permanent in the fiscal 2026 defense policy bill. The Defense Department will formally implement the authority with a change to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement in the coming weeks.

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