The FedScoop team shares insights on federal IT news coverage under Trump 2.0

Since the Trump administration took office Jan. 20, federal technology has become an essential element in the national news cycle. Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency have burrowed within agencies to gain access to key federal IT systems as part of their work to drive efficiency and cut waste and abuse. And as part of that, the Trump administration has fired huge swaths of the federal workforce. For the FedScoop news team, this has meant some major changes to the way they cover and deliver the news to the federal IT community. On this episode, the team gets together for a conversation about how they’re approaching this new normal, the stories they’re following, what’s ahead and how readers can get in touch to share their stories.

The Office of Personnel Management said in a Tuesday revision to existing guidance that it’s not instructing other federal agencies to take personnel actions with respect to probationary employees. “Please note that, by this memorandum, OPM is not directing agencies to take any specific performance-based actions regarding probationary employees,” the new language in the revised memo reads. “Agencies have ultimate decisionmaking authority over, and responsibility for, such personnel actions.” The update follows a decision last week from a federal judge in San Francisco granting temporary, limited relief to pause and rescind those firings at several agencies. In making that ruling, U.S. District Judge William Alsup found that OPM’s original Jan. 20 memo on federal probationary workers and its other related efforts likely unlawfully directed the firing of those agency workers. OPM “does not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe to hire and fire employees within another agency,” Alsup said during a hearing Feb. 27.

As Salt Typhoon and other hacking groups continue targeting U.S. telecoms, a bipartisan bill that cleared a key House panel Tuesday aims to formalize a more cyber-focused role for the federal agency focused on those wireless networks. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration Organization Act would establish an Office of Policy Development and Cybersecurity within the Commerce Department’s NTIA under legislation from Reps. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., and Jennifer McClellan, D-Va. The bill, which advanced out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, was passed by the chamber last year but stalled out in the Senate. The NTIA advises the president on telecommunications and information policy issues, with a specific focus on the expansion of broadband internet and spectrum. Obernolte, who chairs the House Science, Space and Technology subcommittee on research and technology, said the bill “addresses a critical gap” by formalizing NTIA’s cybersecurity role to better “safeguard our communication networks.”

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