On Monday, President Trump signed the latest National Defense Authorization Act into law, a $717 billion defense legislation package that will provide $639 billion in base funding for the Department of Defense, set aside another $69 billion for a fund called “Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO), and provide $21.9 billion for the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons programs.

House Oversight and Government Reform (OGR) Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) have signaled that they will hold a hearing on recent allegations that emerged following an internal investigation at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Late last week, Congressman Mike McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, equated the pursuit of a breakthrough on quantum computing to the nuclear arms race, arguing that the technology would be a game-changing tool, according to FedScoop’s Carten Cordell.

This Thursday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is scheduled “to hear from the president’s nominees to fill all three open board seats at” the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), writes Nicole Ogrysko at Federal News Radio, noting that “MSPB’s authorization expired back in 2007.” Perhaps more notably, “It’s also lacked a quorum for more than a year-and-a-half.”     

Senator Heidi Heitkamp, the Democratic North Dakota Senator who won the Senate seat in a state that voted 63 percent in favor of Republican President Donald Trump, is facing a tough reelection battle.

The Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act of 2018 would “ensure that federal employees have access to up to 12 weeks of paid leave for the birth or adoption of a child,” writes Jessie Bur of Federal Times. The bill was introduced last week by Congresswoman Barbara Comstock (R-VA).

The U.S. Senate last week voted unanimously – 96-0 – to tell the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that it does not have a right to block the VA Inspector General’s efforts to investigate “records related to VA’s new Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection, which the department has refused to provide,” according to Government Executive.

Senators Jon Tester (D-MT), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) have sent a letter to the Inspector General at the Department of Veterans Affairs, asking that the IG look into how the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act has been implemented, according to an exclusive written by Nicole Ogrysko of Federal News Radio.

With five states holding elections today, the U.S. House of Representatives could look a bit different by the day’s end.

Roll Call’s Simone Pathe highlighted an “unusual move” by the right-leaning organization Americans for Prosperity (AFP), which late last week launched a series of digital ads in support of Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, who faces a re-election challenge from Republican state representative Kevin Cramer.

In recent weeks, Congress has increasingly begun asking questions about the use of official time within federal agencies, as noted by Federal News Radio’s Nicole Ogrysko.

Late last week, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee  (OGR) held a hearing on federal workforce issues entitled, Workforce for the 21st Century: Analyzing the President’s Management Agenda.

Republicans and Democrats in Congress sent a letter late last week to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan regarding the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) proposal to cut federal employee retirement benefits.

The Trump Administration reportedly has plans to send to Congress a $15 billion “rescissions” request, which the administration outlined on Monday, according to Jennifer Shutt and Lindsey McPherson at Roll Call.

This week, Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) sent a letter to GSA Administrator Emily Murphy and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin regarding a recent change to the tax code made pursuant to the recently tax reform overhaul passed by Congress.

The U.S. Senate announced this week that it had placed on indefinite hold a previously scheduled confirmation hearing for President Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson.

Congressman Charlie Dent, a Republican from Pennsylvania well-known in D.C. for being a reliably moderate voice within Congressional Republican ranks, announced today that he would be resigning in “coming weeks,” following an earlier announcement that he would retire at the end of his term.

The recent passage by Congress of a sweeping tax reform effort is having “potentially ruinous” unintended consequences for some federal employees who have had to relocate for work.