• The Postal Service has largely failed to meet service standards, even after reducing those standards. A new report from the Government Accountability Office found the declining services are in part due to cost-cutting initiatives. In response, USPS officials said they have made some progress to modernize and improve services, but emphasized that a full solution would require significant structural reforms made by Congress and the White House.
• The Trump administration’s new employment classifications have taken a step forward. The Office of Personnel Management has proposed regulations to retroactively align with the creation of Schedule Policy/Career and Schedule G. The proposal would also allow Pathways Program participants to be converted to Schedule Policy/Career once they graduate. OPM’s regulations come after the Trump administration reclassified thousands of career federal employees earlier this year, stripping their job protections and making them easier to fire.
• The Space Force is accepting service members from across the military. For the next two weeks, active-duty Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen and Marines can apply to transfer into the newest service branch and become Guardians. The interservice transfer application window is open through Oct. 2. Service members do not need prior experience in space operations to apply. Those selected will have to commit to four years of service in the Space Force.
• The Space Force wants to more than double its size in the next five years. Service leaders this week laid out a vision to grow from less than 11,000 guardians to around 25,000 as space operations become more important to the Pentagon. To get there, recruiters need to bring in about 3,000 new troops, instead of 1,000, each year. The officer in charge of the service's combat units said that spike is needed to handle exponential growth in missions like satellite control.
• The departments of Commerce and Education violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act for leaving executives in the role of acting inspector general for too long. The Government Accountability Office determined that Duane Townsend's use of the acting IG title in the transmittal memorandum for the Commerce's Office of Inspector General's (OIG) Top Management Challenges Report issued on December 1, 2025, was in violation of the Vacancies Act. GAO said Townsend began serving as acting IG on July 7, 2025. Over at Education, Mark Priebe was acting IG from December 7, 2025, to April 7, 2026, longer than the 210 days allowed by law.
• The second set of proposed changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation is out for public comment. Agencies and industry have 30 days to comment on changes to another 17 sections of the FAR as part of the Trump administration's procurement overhaul. The FAR Council released 1,657 pages in four separate notices in today's Federal Register. Among the major sections out for comment are FAR Part 8 for government supply sources, Part 52 for contract terms and conditions, Part 16 for expanding the contract type options and FAR Part 12 for buying commercial items. The FAR Council issued the first tranche of updates in June and currently is reviewing comments.
• The Air Force and Space Force are asking Congress for thousands of civilian jobs after acknowledging they cut staffing below established requirements in 2026. The department wants to add more than 4,300 full-time positions, including jobs in base support, nuclear forces, intelligence and communications. That comes as more than 34,000 Air Force and Space Force civilians have left since January 2025. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said AI can lead to efficiencies across some civilian roles, but they'll look at adding workers in more physical areas like flightline maintenance.
• The organization responsible for delivering the Department of the Air Force Battle Network is facing a talent shortage. The Air Force portfolio acquisition executive for command, control, communications and battle management said the organization currently has more than 250 civilian vacancies. “We need engineers, program managers, contracting professionals, logisticians, software and cyber professionals, financial managers and other acquisition experts who want to solve hard problems for the warfighter and join the C3BM mission,” Brig. Gen. Joshua Williams said. Since transitioning to the PAE model, C3BM now has the authority to make hiring decisions, including setting pay and offering incentives. Previously, those decisions required higher-level approvals, significantly slowing down the hiring process.

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