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Southern border operations cost DoD at least $2.6 billion
14/07/2026 | 5 mins.
The Defense Department has spent at least $2.6 billion on southern border operations since the beginning of fiscal 2025. It used multiple funding mechanisms to support the mission, including using money set aside for military construction projects and service members’ permanent change of station moves. In fiscal 2025, the Pentagon provided support to the Department of Homeland Security on a non-reimbursable basis. DoD said that approximately $305 million in support provided to DHS in fiscal 2026 is eligible for reimbursement.
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Agencies get help for their own Federal Employee Viewpoint Surveys
13/07/2026 | 7 mins.
Agencies have new resources to help them run their own versions of the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey this year. A playbook from the Office of Personnel Management explains how agencies can best plan and design their internal employee surveys. The extra guidance comes after OPM proposed to decentralize FEVS and revise the required survey questions. Agencies will have to administer their own employee surveys by the end of the year, and then report their results back to OPM.
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Federal retirement processing times are slowing down
10/07/2026 | 7 mins.
Federal retirement processing times are slowing down. During June, it took OPM an average of 108 days to process a retirement claim, according to the agency’s latest data release. Processing times for digital-only applications averaged 96 days. That’s a full 30 days longer than the previous month’s average. But at the same time, OPM’s retirement claim inventory in June was the lowest it’s been all year, coming in at just under 34,000 pending applications. OPM received close to 9,000 new claims last month and processed nearly 13,000.
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Skills-based federal hiring gets another push from Congress
09/07/2026 | 7 mins.
A move toward skills-based federal hiring is getting another push from Congress. A new bipartisan bill would push agencies to ease college degree requirements for many federal jobs. Agencies would have to consider alternative job qualifications like military service, apprenticeships and community college. If enacted, the bill would also create a separate USAJobs portal for positions not requiring a four-year college degree.
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Army replaces height and weight tables for body composition
08/07/2026 | 8 mins.
The Army is replacing its long-criticized height-and-weight tables and tape test with a waist-to-height ratio to measure body composition. The change follows Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's push for a simpler, more consistent fitness standard across the military. The new policy is drawing mixed reactions from soldiers, with critics questioning whether a single waist measurement is enough. Soldiers with a confirmed waist-to-height ratio of 0.55 or higher will be placed in the Army's body composition improvement program, but no one will be involuntarily separated during a 180-day implementation period.
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About Federal Newscast

THE FEDERAL NEWSCAST, (length about seven minutes), is a daily Monday through Friday, high-information compilation of nine 40-second news stories and news packages, generated by the non-partisan, non-political, private-sector team of reporters at Federal News Network. Federal News Radio Producer/Newscasters Eric White and Michele Sandiford assemble and read the stories on the THE FEDERAL DRIVE with TERRY GERTON, the weekday morning-drive program, heard from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. (ET) on the Federal News Network app (and website), on any smart speaker, and on WFED 1500 AM, a 50,000-watt 'Class A' powerhouse radio station in the nation's capital. The podcast is most popular with FNN's audience of highly educated listeners, who conveniently access THE FEDERAL NEWSCAST, 24/7, on any podcast platform . Listen to it (as just mentioned) or read the stories each weekday morning at FederalNewsNetwork.com, where the news items contain hyperlinks for those who want more information on a given story.

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