The Daily Scoop Podcast

Former State Department employees whose roles were eliminated as part of a reduction-in-force still received information about whether they would be needed during the government shutdown — including some workers who were told their positions were “excepted.” While the full extent of the issue wasn’t immediately clear, three such employees shared those notifications with FedScoop on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Others were also aware of the problem even if they didn’t receive the messages themselves. In response to a FedScoop request for comment, a State spokesperson indicated the department was aware of the issue and had taken steps to address it, confirming there were “minor” discrepancies with data, saying that the department immediately worked to resolve any outstanding issues. Of the three State Department notices reviewed by FedScoop, one informed the RIF’d employee that their position was “excepted” and explained that those roles are defined as those needed for emergencies that threaten life and property or are essential for national security. It then ordered that worker to “report to work on your next regularly scheduled workday.” The other two already RIF’d employees were told that they would be furloughed during the shutdown but that it was “in no way a value judgement on the work you do for the Department.” Those employees were also instructed to review their department emails for updates despite not being able to access that information. Of the three RIF’d employees, only one — a foreign service officer — is still on the department’s payroll. As employees at the Education Department prepared for a looming government shutdown this week, several set an automatic email reply to inform others of their furloughed status. But by Thursday morning, some furloughed workers discovered that their automatic email replies had been altered, without their knowledge, to include a message blaming Democratic senators for the ongoing government shutdown. According to two furloughed Education Department employees, the agency sent workers suggested language to use for their out-of-office messages earlier this week, but the language was “neutral” regarding the shutdown. One of the employees, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told FedScoop they and other furloughed staff mostly cut and paste from the suggested language with little to no changes when setting their automatic replies. But when they checked their automatic email replies Thursday morning, the message changed and included partisan language mentioning Democrats, the employee said. The other furloughed worker said they set the generic text for their OOO email Wednesday morning and the message was changed by Wednesday night. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

It’s day two of the federal shutdown, and with the Senate on leave, there won’t be any sort of appropriations deal until Friday at the earliest — though many have doubts about that possibility. As federal agencies adjust to the new normal with hundreds of thousands of federal employees furloughed and the White House threatening more layoffs targeting those who’ve been sent home, FedScoop took the time to compile a near-complete look at how agency IT organizations are affected. An analysis of the nearly two dozen civilian Chief Financial Officer Act agencies found that some agencies explicitly outlined plans to scale back IT operations amid the shutdown, while others deemed several IT staff members essential for managing technology and cybersecurity infrastructure. For instance, at the Department of Commerce’s Office of the CIO, just one individual is tasked with taking responsibility for shutdown tasks and assurance that the office will continue to work on critical IT functions. If the lapse in funding continues for an extended period, there is also the potential for staff to be recalled on an intermittent or full-time basis for cybersecurity and maintenance work, and limited staff may be called for administrative functions. While at the Labor Department, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management has selected “a minimal IT staff” within the OCIO to oversee tech operations. Those employees are now tasked with managing Labor’s technology services, applications and website, in addition to having other IT security responsibilities that support the agency’s excepted and exempt staff. A nonprofit legal group is suing a handful of federal agencies, calling on the federal bodies to release documents related to the use of artificial intelligence to carry out the Trump administration’s “deregulation agenda.” The lawsuit, filed by Democracy Forward on Wednesday, asks a court to require the General Services Administration, Office of Personnel Management, Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to comply with public records laws amid concerns over how AI is being used to “weaken” existing federal regulations. Democracy Forward said it reviewed both public records and documents obtained through FOIA requests and found GSA plays a “central role” in the White House’s efforts to overhaul regulations. The nonprofit cited an apparent email trail, in which a GSA-affiliated email informs other agencies of “significant progress” in reviewing its internal and external policies to ensure consistency with President Donald Trump’s directives. The suit further pointed to reports of an AI tool called SweetREX developed by an affiliate of the Department of Government Efficiency. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

It’s Oct. 1 and Congress has failed to pass appropriations for fiscal year 2026. And you know what that means: the federal government has shut down. For the first time since 2019, also during a Trump administration, federal appropriations have lapsed, resulting in furloughs for hundreds of thousands of federal employees and contractors and the halting of many agency operations. Only “excepted employees” and federal workers who are “exempt” from furlough may perform work until the current lapse in appropriations is over. Though Washington has experienced a number of shutdowns and shutdown threats in recent memory, the politically combative climate surrounding this one is much more amplified. The Trump administration has already threatened to use the shutdown to permanently cut jobs that aren’t aligned with the president’s agenda. And so far, neither party seems willing to budge, with many pundits speculating the lapse could drag on long-term without an agreement between Republicans — who control both houses in Congress and the White House — and Democrats. But one thing is clear: Until that agreement is reached, many of the federal government’s most important missions will operate at less than full capacity, including in areas like cybersecurity. FedScoop will keep you informed as the battle around the shutdown continues. The Trump administration’s sweeping U.S. military shakeup is expected to gain momentum in the months to come — with more leadership changes, major acquisition updates and possible personnel cuts in the Pentagon’s pipeline, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested during an unusual gathering of military brass Tuesday. At the “key leaders all-call” meeting with hundreds of top generals and admirals summoned from around the world at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Hegseth and President Donald Trump unveiled a broad docket of new and forthcoming directives meant to reflect their overarching vision for “woke”-ending reforms. Trump said: “We will not be politically correct when it comes to defending American freedom. We will be a fighting and winning machine. We want to fight, we want to win, and we want to fight as little as possible.” Theories swirled about the intent behind this mass gathering after Hegseth hastily ordered it last week. In the portion that was publicly livestreamed, Hegseth outlined his plans for policy shifts — via 10 directives — around physical fitness and grooming standards, mandatory training, oversight processes, records retention rules and more. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Zach Whitman, Chief Data Scientist at the GSA, and Nadia Hansen, Global Digital Transformation Executive at Salesforce, unpack the launch of USAi, a platform designed to enhance AI access for federal agencies. They discuss the benefits of a shared marketplace approach, challenges like control loss, and how USAi aims to remain current with rapid model changes. Hansen highlights the workforce challenges posed by agentic AI, advocating for training and governance frameworks to ensure responsible AI implementation while predicting a shift towards strategic roles in government.

The White House Office of Management and Budget is instructing agencies to consider reducing staff for programs that have a lapse in funding in the event of a government shutdown, as tensions rise ahead of the Sept. 30 end to the fiscal year. “With respect to those Federal programs whose funding would lapse and which are otherwise unfunded, such programs are no longer statutorily required to be carried out,” the undated message said. The guidance goes on to say that consistent with applicable law, including a federal reduction in force statute, agencies are directed to use this opportunity to consider RIF notices for employees working in projects, programs or activities that have a funding lapse on Oct.1, don’t have another source of funding, and are not consistent with President Donald Trump’s priorities. The project, program or activity must meet all three criteria, the message said. The message places blame for a possible shutdown squarely on congressional Democrats, calling their demands “insane.” The OMB message explains that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, legislation passed earlier this year that is at the heart of Trump’s second-term agenda, provided “ample resources to ensure that many core Trump Administration priorities will continue uninterrupted.” Federal cyber authorities sounded a rare alarm last week, issuing an emergency directive about an ongoing and widespread attack spree involving actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities affecting Cisco firewalls. Cisco said it began investigating attacks on multiple government agencies linked to the state-sponsored campaign in May. The vendor, which attributes the attacks to the same threat group behind an early 2024 campaign targeting Cisco devices it dubbed “ArcaneDoor,” said the new zero-days were exploited to “implant malware, execute commands, and potentially exfiltrate data from the compromised devices.” Cisco disclosed three vulnerabilities affecting its Adaptive Security Appliances — CVE-2025-20333, CVE-2025-20363 and CVE-2025-20362 — but said “evidence collected strongly indicates CVE-2025-20333 and CVE-2025-20362 were used by the attacker in the current attack campaign.” The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said those two zero-days pose an “unacceptable risk” to federal agencies and require immediate action. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Clearview AI, the facial recognition company that scraped the internet for images of people’s faces for its database, is building a tool to deal with an emerging problem: AI-generated faces. In comments to FedScoop, Hal Lambert, the company’s co-CEO, said Clearview AI is dealing with the problem by building a new tool for detecting these manipulated images for its customers, many of whom are federal law enforcement agencies. Lambert was named co-CEO of the company earlier this year, after the company board voted to replace its original top executive. Clearview AI has collected billions of images from the internet, including from social media accounts that are set to public, according to the company. Clearview AI has created a database of those images and made it available to a wide range of customers, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the government of Ukraine, and law enforcement officials that seek to identify victims of child pornography. Clearview AI has also sold the tool to police departments. The company touts its facial recognition efficacy scores from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. But deepfakes could make building tools like Clearview AI’s more complicated. Right now, deepfakes, or images that are edited or enhanced with artificial intelligence, haven’t been a major problem for the company, Lambert told FedScoop. Still, the company is developing a tool that is supposed to tag images that might be AI-generated, with the goal of having it ready for customers by the end of the year. Lambert did not share further details. The Trump administration is signaling to industry and allies that it is considering a broader set of actions related to quantum computing, both to improve the nation’s capacity to defend against future quantum-enabled hacks and ensure the United States promotes and maintains global dominance around a key national security technology. The discussions include potentially taking significant executive action, such as one or more executive orders, a national plan similar to the AI Action Plan issued earlier this year, and a possible mandate for federal agencies to move up their timelines for migrating to post-quantum protections, multiple sources told CyberScoop. None of the sources CyberScoop spoke with could provide a definitive timeline for an official rollout, but multiple executives in the quantum computing industry and former national security officials said the White House has signaled serious interest in taking bolder action to promote and shape the development of the technology. Some felt official announcements could come as soon as this week, while others cautioned the process could stretch into the coming months. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Office of Personnel Management is rolling out Microsoft Copilot and OpenAI’s ChatGPT to its workforce, following a similar move by the Department of Health and Human Services. According to internal emails obtained by FedScoop, OPM Director Scott Kupor told workers that Microsoft 365’s Copilot Chat became available last Monday and that ChatGPT-5 access would be available “over the next few days” to all workers. Kupor said the move “is part of our broader effort to equip you with AI tools that help you work faster, think bigger, and collaborate better,” calling for OPM to “lead the way in using AI thoughtfully and effectively — starting now.” OPM spokeswoman McLaurine Pinover confirmed one of the emails sent by Kupor about access to the two tools. She said both offerings were the result of deals the General Services Administration has inked with companies to provide services at deeply discounted rates as part of its OneGov initiative. OPM was also able to add Copilot to the agency’s existing subscription at no cost with Microsoft’s new GSA contract in place. Similar to the HHS rollout, Kupor cautioned workers using the tools to still use their best judgment and previewed training from the Office of the Chief Information Officer. Federal workers will soon have the ability to use Meta’s Llama artificial intelligence models at no cost for the agency under a new deal with the General Services Administration. GSA announced Monday it reached a deal with Meta, which will offer its open-source AI models and tools to federal agencies for free. The agency emphasized that the open-source nature of the Llama models allows agencies to “retain full control over data processing and storage.” Meta’s free offer to the government follows deals from a number of other technology companies selling their products, namely AI products, to agencies for a significantly cheaper price. The Trump administration has repeatedly encouraged agencies to adopt emerging tech to streamline workflows. Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Meta, said the company wants to ensure “all Americans see the benefit of AI through better, more efficient public services.”

A key technology leader at the Department of Veterans Affairs told lawmakers Monday that the agency intends to “capitalize” on artificial intelligence to help overcome its persistent difficulties in providing timely care and maintaining cost-effective operations. At the same time, a federal watchdog warned the same lawmakers that the VA could face challenges before the agency can effectively do so. Lawmakers on the House VA subcommittee on technology modernization pressed Charles Worthington, the VA’s chief data officer and chief technology officer, over the agency’s plans to deploy AI across its dozens of facilities as the federal government increasingly turns to automation technology. Worthington told the subcommittee that all VA employees now have access to a secure, generative AI tool to assist them with their work, claiming that it’s saving them over two hours per week. He also outlined how the agency is utilizing machine learning in agency workflows, as well as in clinical care for earlier disease detection and ambient listening tools that are expected to be rolled out at some facilities later this year. The technology can also be used to identify veterans who may be at high risk of overdose and suicide, Worthington added. A slew of cybersecurity experts from industry and other organizations sent a letter to lawmakers Monday urging them to move swiftly to confirm Kirsten Davies as Department of Defense chief information officer. The letter, addressed to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee and viewed by DefenseScoop, includes more than 100 signatories. President Donald Trump nominated Davies for the role back in May, but the SASC waited until this week to hold her confirmation hearing, which is scheduled for Thursday. The cybersecurity experts who penned the new letter expressed their “strongest support” for the nominee. In the letter they wrote: “Ms. Davies is a leader we know personally and professionally. Many of us have collaborated with her, witnessed her steady hand in high-stakes situations, and observed her ability to lead with both conviction and humility. She has built a reputation as a world-class cybersecurity executive who can earn trust, build teams, and navigate complexity.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Department of Homeland Security failed to effectively implement a critical retention incentive program for cyber talent, according to a new report from the agency’s inspector general, which found that federal funds meant for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were used incorrectly. In 2015, the agency implemented the Cyber Incentive program. The goal, the inspector general said, was to provide extra incentives to employees that might otherwise leave the federal government. More than $100 million has been spent on the program in recent years. The program “was designed to help CISA retain mission-critical cybersecurity talent needed to execute its mission,” the report noted, and was meant to consider a series of qualifications to guide who received the retention benefit. The government hoped to keep in-demand technology experts in government. The watchdog wrote that “CISA’s implementation of the program wasted taxpayer funds and invites the risk of attrition of cyber talent, thereby leaving CISA unable to adequately protect the Nation from cyber threats.” Instead of being targeted toward valuable talent likely to transition to the private sector, the payments were disbursed generally, with many ineligible employees receiving tens of thousands of dollars in payment. The Pentagon’s chief information officer is undertaking yet another reform of the Defense Department’s IT enterprise — this time focusing on streamlining its classified networks to enhance data sharing and interoperability. Katie Arrington, who is performing the duties of CIO, plans to introduce a new program dubbed “Mission Network-as-a-Service” that aims to reduce the number of disparate data fabrics used by combatant commands into a single, unified network. Speaking last week during the Billington Cybersecurity Summit, Arrington said the program will be key to realizing the department’s vision for Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control, or CJADC2. Broadly speaking, CJADC2 seeks to connect the U.S. military’s sensors and weapons under a single network, enabling rapid data transfer between warfighting systems and domains. The Pentagon also wants to be able to quickly share relevant information with international partners and allies during conflicts, adding another layer of difficulty to realizing the construct. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., raised serious national security concerns this week about the Pentagon’s plans to integrate the controversial “Grok” chatbot into U.S. military operations via a recent high-dollar deal with tech billionaire Elon Musk’s company, xAI. Warner d wrote in her letter delivered to Hegseth Wednesday that “the department awarded a $200 million contract under questionable circumstances to incorporate an AI company with a product that provides misinformation and offensive, antisemitic responses into DOD’s operations.” In the correspondence, Warren asks the Pentagon chief to answer dozens of questions about the xAI contract, its full scope of work, ethics and accountability issues and more, by Sept. 24. The Defense Department announced in July that its Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO) partnered with xAI, Anthropic, Google and OpenAI — through four, separate $200 million agreements — to accelerate the department’s enterprise-wide adoption of some of the most sophisticated and still-emerging commercial algorithms and machine learning capabilities. Chris Kraft, the Department of Homeland Security’s deputy chief technology officer for artificial intelligence and emerging tech, is now serving as the acting chief information officer of the U.S. Secret Service. Kraft, who’s focused primarily on AI in his DHS role, replaces Kevin Nally, who recently left government for a position in the private sector. Kraft’s new position was not confirmed by spokespeople for the U.S. Secret Service, but he acknowledged the role on LinkedIn. Due to its mission, the Secret Service is quieter than other agencies on its technology portfolio, but the agency uses a variety of platforms and faces serious technology challenges. After the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania in July 2024, FedScoop documented a series of tools at the component’s disposal, including commercial telemetry data and Protective Threat Management System. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.