OPM partners with White House fraud task force on hiring initiative

• The Office of Personnel Management and the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud are partnering to hire the next cohort of the U.S. Tech Force. The two-year program will place applicants across agencies, including the General Services Administration, the Social Security Administration, OPM, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the State and Treasury departments. Vice President JD Vance said the partnership will help the government identify fraud, waste and abuse and reduce reliance on foreign technological advancements. Tech Force positions are open to the public and federal employees through career transition and reinstatement programs. The job announcement closes Oct. 23. -- Sylvia Oakland
• Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) are urging the White House to respond to recent artificial intelligence-related cybersecurity incidents. In a letter to Jay Clayton, national intelligence cirector and chairman of the Task Force for Super Intelligence, and Michael Kratsios, Office of Science and Technology Policy director, the senators are calling for a holistic, federal approach to strengthen AI standards and testing. The letter said the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) should accelerate AI standards through its Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Super Intelligence (CAISSI). NIST also should make additional resources available to CAISSI to keep pace with AI models. The letter also encourages agencies to increase collaboration with private industry to address some of the remaining challenges of the development and security of AI models. -- Sylvia Oakland
• The Army wants drones to do more of the dangerous work on the battlefield. The service is setting up new units across four Army corps to test how autonomous systems can help with everything from scouting enemy positions to breaching fortified buildings. The effort will help the Army figure out where the technology works, how many people the service needs to sustain it and how to get it into soldiers’ hands faster. They'll report their findings to the service's new Futures and Autonomous Systems Command. -- Rachel Cohen
• The Agriculture Department is being ordered to halt forced relocations of thousands of USDA employees. A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit led by the American Federation of Government Employees. The union is suing USDA over a major reorganization effort, which involves telling Washington, D.C.-area feds to choose between relocating across the country or quitting their jobs. USDA now has seven days to comply with the court’s order and stop all pending reassignments and relocations. -- Drew Friedman
• The Army is ready to launch its platform that will allow vendors to get their software reviewed, accredited and deployed into Army environments more quickly. Dubbed Project Gatekeeper, the effort will allow companies to “log in, submit their code and get the green check mark from our pipeline that says you are good to go,” Gabe Chiulli, acting Army chief information officer, said Tuesday. The platform will go live on Oct. 23. -- Anastasia Obis
• The Defense Department organization dedicated to helping service members, civilian employees and their families navigate permanent change of station moves could become a permanent agency as soon as this year. Last year, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stood up a PCS task force with Maj. Gen. Lance Curtis at the helm. The Pentagon later turned the task force into a permanent joint activity. Now, the department wants to elevate it to a standalone agency. “The joint organization is now in the process of transitioning towards an agency. I can’t make promises, but I think probably sometime this year we will officially be an agency. Think the [Defense Logistics Agency], think the [Defense Information Systems Agency],” Curtis said. -- Anastasia Obis
• Some labor-management disputes may soon move to a new voluntary mediation program. The Federal Labor Relations Authority has approved a plan to shift that program over to the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. That’s after the FLRA dismantled its internal office that previously oversaw those cases. The agency said the new initiative will make the process more efficient. But critics question the capacity to do the work at FMCS, and whether unions trust the agency to manage the program neutrally. -- Drew Friedman
• The Army's red teams could be getting new equipment so their fellow soldiers can better train to fight a modern enemy. The service doesn't collect enough information on how that training is going, one official said at the Association of the U.S. Army's annual conference in Washington, D.C. He said a new data lake and agentic AI can help gather and analyze that data. Units could also rotate through the Army's Combat Training Centers more often to get more exposure to those challenges. -- Rachel Cohen

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