Civil Service on CrossGov.com

CRS Report on Defense Primer, US Special Operations Forces

Wed, 04 Nov 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Government Accountability Office issued a report on U.S. Special Operations Forces. The report detailed how these forces are selected, trained, and equipped for special operations in sensitive environments. Congress enacted legislation in 1986 to strengthen SOF’s position in defense planning and budgeting.

Special Operations Forces Structure

U.S. Special Operations Forces are active duty and reserve military components designated as SOF by the Secretary of Defense. These forces are selected, organized, trained, and equipped to conduct and support special operations. Special operations often occur in sensitive environments requiring unique tactics and equipment. These operations can involve time sensitivity, low visibility, or high risk. Operators undergo screening and mission-specific training to gain proficiency. Selected personnel possess regional, cultural, and linguistic expertise.

GAO Finds HUD Cut 29 Percent of Its Workforce and Ended 21 Percent of Its Contracts, Then Did Not Answer the Auditors

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

GAO found that the Department of Housing and Urban Development cut its workforce by about 29 percent between December 2024 and December 2025, from about 8,800 employees to about 6,300. The report, GAO-26-108442, was released on October 14, 2026.

HUD also ended 144 of its 675 active contracts in 2025, about 21 percent, worth $367 million. And through most of the audit, the department didn’t answer GAO’s questions. GAO says HUD did not respond to most of its requests for information and didn’t provide documents to back up the initiatives it had announced in public. GAO had to rebuild the picture from federal personnel, contract and grant databases, and from interviews with 20 organizations that deal with HUD.

OMB and OPM Withdraw Shutdown Layoff Guidance Under a Union Settlement Ahead of the December 11 Deadline

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

OMB and OPM have formally withdrawn the 2025 guidance that let federal agencies start layoffs during a government shutdown. Memo M-27-01, dated October 23, 2026, is the notice a union settlement required, with funding set to lapse after December 11.

The memo is short. OMB Director Russell Vought and OPM Director Scott Kupor tell agency heads and chief human capital officers that three documents are rescinded in full and no longer operative: OMB’s September 24, 2025 email on the possible lapse in appropriations starting October 1, 2025, and OPM’s two shutdown documents from the same week, its “Guidance for Shutdown Furloughs” and its “Special Instructions for Agencies Affected by a Possible Lapse in Appropriations Starting on October 1, 2025.” Those documents had told agencies to consider reduction-in-force notices for employees in programs without funding, and treated the work of running layoffs as an excepted activity that could go on while most staff were furloughed.

OPM Final Rule Bars Administrative Leave for Federal Employees Serving as Poll Workers

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Office of Personnel Management has written a ban on paid administrative leave for federal employees who serve as poll workers or poll observers into federal regulation. The final rule was published on October 19, 2026, and takes effect November 18.

That is two weeks after the November 3 midterms. For this election, federal employees who want to staff a polling place work under OPM’s current policy, which already says no. Since July 2025 OPM’s template for agency leave policies has barred administrative leave for poll work, “whether that service is partisan or nonpartisan, paid or unpaid.” Employees can still use annual leave, compensatory time, credit hours, a schedule change or leave without pay. The rule moves that position from guidance into regulation, which takes another rulemaking to undo.

US Government News Digest for October 26 2026

Mon, 26 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Eight days before the midterms, Washington spent Monday arguing about who gets the last word. The Justice Department is in federal court in Alaska and California trying to shape how ballots are handled and results certified. A judge in Manhattan told the same department it had no right to fire a career prosecutor the way it did. Two senators say the administration is sitting on a surveillance court ruling the law says it should have published six weeks ago.

GAO Finds NNSA Cut Its Federal Staff 11.9% as the Nuclear Weapons Workload Hits a Cold War High

Tue, 20 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The National Nuclear Security Administration, the DOE agency that runs the US nuclear weapons stockpile, has lost 236 federal employees since early fiscal 2025, GAO reported on October 16. That’s 11.9% of its staff, gone in the same months its workload reached what GAO calls the highest level since the Cold War.

The agency is small and its budget isn’t. NNSA’s federal staff oversee a $25 billion annual budget and about 70,000 contractor employees who maintain the stockpile. They also run a modernization of the weapons and their infrastructure that GAO puts at $200 billion over two decades.

Judge Blocks USDA From Relocating About 2,600 Staff, Citing Limits Congress Wrote Into Spending Law That Run to December 11

Wed, 14 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Judge Vince Chhabria of the federal district court in San Francisco on October 13 blocked the Agriculture Department from moving about 2,600 employees out of Washington and other offices under its reorganization plan.

The judge relied on limits Congress wrote into appropriations law, which bar USDA from using funds to relocate staff or close offices without notifying and consulting the appropriations committees. Those provisions are in the continuing resolution that funds the government until December 11. The order lasts at least as long as the limits remain in force.

27 Inspector General Posts Vacant 20 Months After the Watchdog Firings, With Nominees for Only Six

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Oversight.gov, the shared website of the federal inspectors general, lists 27 vacant IG posts as of October 2026. About 20 of them are posts the President fills with Senate confirmation. Only six have a nominee pending.

Several have been empty since the night of January 24, 2025, when at least 17 inspectors general were fired by email. They include Interior, State, Housing and Urban Development, the Environmental Protection Agency, Transportation, Energy, Education and the Office of Personnel Management. Treasury’s IG post has been vacant since 2019.

FDA Under an Acting Commissioner: Six CDER Chiefs in Two Years, 46 Novel Approvals in 2026 and PDUFA VIII Out for Comment

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On October 9, 2026, the FDA approved Hovilpri, an antiviral, as its 46th novel drug of the year. That already matches all of 2025, when the agency’s drug center approved 46 new drugs, down from 50 in 2024. By that measure, the FDA’s core work is holding up.

The agency around it has been in constant motion. The FDA has no confirmed commissioner. Marty Makary, confirmed in March 2025, resigned on May 12, 2026. Kyle Diamantas has been acting commissioner since. The President’s nominee, Heidi Overton, had her Senate HELP committee hearing on September 24 and is waiting for a vote.

Federal Hiring After the Cuts: Strategic Hiring Committees, a One-for-Four Rule and 8,000 Jobs Moved to Schedule Policy-Career

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In August 2026 the federal government employed 2.674 million people on Bureau of Labor Statistics payroll figures, down 336,000 from 3.010 million in January 2025. GAO counted about 378,000 departures from 22 large agencies in 2025 against about 127,000 hires.

The government is hiring again, slowly, and under rules that look nothing like the old system. OPM’s own data, as of October 10, show job announcements up 7.6% in fiscal 2026 on the year before, with 12,511 positions open.

CISA's Cyber Incident Reporting Rule Sits at OIRA as the Agency Shrinks to 2,200 Staff Without a Confirmed Director

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The final rule under the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act, known as CIRCIA, went to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for review on October 1, 2026. It hasn’t been published. When it is, it will require critical infrastructure companies to report significant cyber incidents to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency within 72 hours, and ransom payments within 24 hours.

Congress passed CIRCIA in March 2022. The law gave CISA until 2025 to write the final rule. It’s more than a year late.

Education Department's Own Watchdog Opens a Review as the Agency Hands Off Its Work in 14 Interagency Deals

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Education Department’s inspector general has opened a review of how the department is carrying out its agreement to have the Labor Department run most of its K-12 and higher education grant programs. Senator Elizabeth Warren made the review public on October 6.

The Labor agreement is one of 14 interagency agreements Secretary Linda McMahon has signed to move the department’s work elsewhere. About 2,300 staff remain, down from 3,902 in January 2025, according to OPM data.

US Government Funded to December 11 After a Year of Record Shutdowns

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Fiscal year 2027 started on October 1 with the US government open. That’s worth saying, because over the past twelve months it often wasn’t.

It’s running on a continuing resolution. H.R. 6500, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, became Public Law 119-103 on September 2, 2026. It keeps agencies funded at existing levels until December 11, 72 days into the fiscal year. If Congress does nothing more, funding lapses on December 12. None of the twelve regular appropriations bills for the year has been enacted.

DOGE Ends as GAO Calls Its $110 Billion Savings Claim Unreliable and the Federal Workforce Shrinks 11%

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Department of Government Efficiency formally ended on July 4, 2026, the date written into the executive order that created it. There was no closing report. OMB Director Russell Vought said there wouldn’t be one. In practice DOGE had stopped existing months earlier. In November 2025, Reuters quoted OPM Director Scott Kupor saying of it, “That doesn’t exist.” Its functions had been folded into OPM.

What DOGE leaves behind is two sets of numbers: the savings it claimed and the people who left government. GAO has now checked both.

New OPM Layoff Rules Put Performance Ahead of Seniority as Schedule Policy-Career Lawsuits Wait for a Ruling

Thu, 24 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On September 2 a new Office of Personnel Management rule on reductions in force took effect. When agencies lay off staff, performance ratings now count ahead of tenure and length of service in deciding who stays. Under the old rules, which dated back decades, seniority and veterans’ preference weighed most. Companion rules move layoff appeals from the Merit Systems Protection Board to OPM itself.

The next round of federal layoffs, if there is one, will run under these rules. Four unions have sued over the companion rules in federal court in California.

US Federal Workforce Shrinks by 11% While Britain's Civil Service Stays Near a 20-Year High

Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The US federal workforce fell by nearly 256,000 people, more than 11%, between December 2024 and January 2026, according to GAO. Eighteen of the 22 large agencies it examined shrank by more than 10%.

Britain set out to shrink its state too. In March 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves promised to cut departments’ running costs by 15% by 2029-30 and said civil service numbers could fall by 10,000. In January 2026 the target rose to a 16% cut in administrative costs over five years. Yet the Office for National Statistics counted 557,000 civil servants in June 2026, 1,000 fewer than in March and 6,000 more than a year earlier. In full-time equivalents the civil service reached about 524,000 in March 2026, the highest since 2005.

Immigration Court Backlog Falls Below 3.5 Million as 40% of Judges Turn Over and Asylum Grants Hit a Record Low

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In June 2026, US immigration judges granted asylum in 5.5% of the cases they decided, 771 people. They denied 94.1%. At the end of the Biden administration the grant rate was about 32%. The figures come from TRAC, the Syracuse University project that tracks immigration court data.

The immigration courts, run by the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, have changed more in eighteen months than in the previous decade. The backlog is shrinking, the bench has been largely replaced, and the outcomes have shifted sharply.

GAO Finds 11 Federal Legacy IT Systems Costing $754 Million a Year, the Oldest 60 Years Old

Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

GAO’s latest review of federal legacy IT looked at 11 critical systems across ten agencies. Together they cost about $754 million a year to run. They range from 23 to 60 years old. The Defense Department’s oldest system is 60. A Treasury system, written in COBOL and assembly language, is 59.

Eight of the eleven still run on legacy languages. Several depend on hardware the vendor no longer supports, and on a shrinking pool of staff who know how they work.

IRS Heads Into the 2027 Filing Season With No Commissioner, 28% Fewer Staff and the First Tip and Overtime Forms

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The 2027 filing season, for tax year 2026, will be the first in which employers report qualified overtime pay on W-2 forms, under a new box 12 code. The IRS confirmed the reporting rules in August. Workers can deduct up to $12,500 of overtime pay, or $25,000 on a joint return, with the deduction phasing out above $150,000 of income for single filers. Similar reporting for tips is on draft 1099 forms.