Pentagon wants states to bid on the ‘next great American base’

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<ul><li style="margin-top:20px;">The Pentagon wants to build a new military base inside the United States and is asking states to compete for it. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the base could host up to 25,000 troops and serve as a hub for homeland defense, command and control and cyber operations. He also promises the base will feature cutting-edge technology, first-class barracks and timeless classical architecture. The base would become the first newly built domestic military installation since the 1980s. A plan for that process is due by the end of October.<div style="display:block; font-style: italic;">(<a href="https://media.defense.gov/2026/Sep/30/2004009306/-1/-1/1/NEXT-GREAT-AMERICAN-BASE.PDF">Pentagon wants states to bid on the 'next great American base'</a> - Defense Department)</div></li><p></p><li style="margin-top:20px;">A new House bill would require the Federal Emergency Management Agency to develop detailed workforce plans. The Federal Emergency Mobilization Accountability Workforce Planning Act would require FEMA to update a human capital operating plan every three years. The bill would also require the plan be submitted to congressional committees. The legislation, proposed by Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee, comes after FEMA has lost roughly 5,000 employees since January 2025. The Government Accountability Office recently reported that FEMA allowed those cuts to happen without any planning, potentially reducing the agency’s readiness to respond to major disasters.<div style="display:block; font-style: italic;">(<a href="https://democrats-homeland.house.gov/news/legislation/reps-carter-ezell-thompson-introduce-the-fema-workforce-planning-act-to-ensure-the-federal-government-has-capacity-for-disaster-response">Federal Emergency Mobilization Accountability Workforce Planning Act </a> - House Homeland Security Committee Democrats)</div></li><p></p><li style="margin-top:20px;">Immigration and Customs Enforcement wants to build an artificial intelligence-powered software factory. In a request for information posted Tuesday, ICE said it’s seeking responses from companies capable of providing AI, data and technology strategy services. Part of that work will include maintaining ICE’s existing capabilities, including generative AI chatbots and other AI applications. But the agency also wants to build out what it’s calling an enterprise agentic software factory. <div style="display:block; font-style: italic;">(<a href="https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/da46dfbeeb3945bd87a5a0b2d84847bc/view">ICE enterprise AI, data and technology strategy</a> - SAM.gov)</div></li><p></p><li style="margin-top:20px;">A federal judge is ordering the Bureau of Prisons to restore its collective bargaining agreement. The decision comes about a year after the BOP terminated its contract with the American Federation of Government Employees. AFGE sued the agency, arguing that the decision violated the Administrative Procedure Act and the First Amendment. The judge's ruling this week comes in one of several lawsuits against agencies that have canceled collective bargaining agreements.<div style="display:block; font-style: italic;">(<a href="https://www.afge.org/globalassets/documents/bop/afge-pi-order_bop.pdf">BOP ordered to restore collective bargaining contract</a> - Federal News Network)</div></li><p></p>

<li style="margin-top:20px;">Federal employees and retirees will once again see health insurance costs rise next year. Starting in January, enrollees in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program will see premiums increase by an average of nearly 11%. The rising premium rate for 2027 marks the third year in a row of double-digit premium increases in FEHB. Postal program participants, on the other hand, are set for a 8.2% premium hike next year. After releasing more information about the upcoming plan year, the Office of Personnel Management also encouraged participants to take advantage of this fall’s Open Season, which begins Nov. 9.<div style="display:block; font-style: italic;">(<a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/open-season/2026/09/federal-health-insurance-enrollees-will-pay-10-9-more-on-average-toward-premiums-in-2027/">Federal health insurance enrollees will pay 10.9% more, on average, toward premiums in 2027</a> - Federal News Network)</div></li><p></p><li style="margin-top:20px;">The Pentagon will create an Autonomous Warfare Command to oversee the use of drones in combat. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said a four-star general will lead the command, which lawmakers have already proposed in the annual defense policy bill. The new command was one of several changes Hegseth detailed in a speech to troops at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. The defense secretary also previewed a study on the future of war, led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey and Newt Gingrich, the former Republican Speaker of the House.  <div style="display:block; font-style: italic;">(<a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2026/09/hegseth-looks-to-remake-the-military-from-generals-to-drones/">Hegseth looks to remake the military, from generals to drones</a> - Federal News Network)</div></li><p></p><li style="margin-top:20px;">A new federal CIO is expected to be named soon. Carter Farmer will be named the new federal chief information officer. Multiple sources confirmed that President Donald Trump is planning to appoint Farmer, who spent the last 16 months as the CIO at the Environmental Protection Agency, to the top technology role. Multiple requests for comment to the Office of Management and Budget were not returned. Farmer would replace Greg Barbaccia, who left in August after 19 months in the role. Before joining the EPA, Farmer spent seven years at the U.S. Institute for Peace, where he was the director of IT systems and solutions. He also worked in technology roles at Amtrak, Telarix, a voice and messaging company, and Digital Intelligence Systems (DISYS), a technology consulting firm. EPA posted a vacancy for its CIO position on Sept. 28. <div style="display:block; font-style: italic;">(<a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/cio-news/2026/09/epas-farmer-to-be-new-federal-cio/">EPA's Carter to become new federal CIO</a> - Federal News Network)</div></li><p></p><li style="margin-top:20px;">Michael Lynch, the deputy administrator of the General Services Administration, is leaving federal service. Lynch has been with GSA for about 20 months and became deputy administrator in March 2025. Ed Forst, the GSA administrator, said in an email to staff that Lynch will return to the private sector. Lynch played a key role in improving GSA's internal operations and promoting the adoption of technologies like artificial intelligence. He led the “million hours challenge” for GSA staff to use its internal AI tool USAi to automate a portion of their work. Before coming to GSA, Lynch worked in the biotech, aerospace and consumer electronics industries. Before joining GSA, he served as the CEO of Zedsen, a U.K.-based medical diagnostic business that uses AI for early cancer detection.    <div style="display:block; font-style: italic;">(<a href="https://www.gsa.gov/about-gsa/newsroom/news-releases">GSA deputy administrator Lynch to leave federal service</a> - General Services Administration)</div></li><p></p></ul>
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BOP ordered to restore collective bargaining contract

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<p>A federal judge has ordered the Bureau of Prisons to reinstate the collective bargaining agreement it previously held with the union representing its employees. The decision, which was filed in Connecticut’s federal district court on Tuesday, reinstitutes the agreement along with all amendments and memoranda of understanding that were previously in place under it.</p>
<p>The decision comes almost exactly a year after BOP Director William K. Marshall III announced the <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/unions/2025/09/federal-bureau-of-prisons-terminates-collective-bargaining-agreement-with-afge/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">termination of the CBA</a>. The American Federation of Government Employees’ Council of Prison Locals 33, which represents roughly 30,000 BOP employees, <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/unions/2025/11/bop-union-seeks-restoration-of-collective-bargaining-through-new-lawsuit/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">sued the bureau</a> in response in November 2025.</p>
<p>In a release, AFGE Council 33 National President Brandy Moore White said the union looks forward to BOP complying with the order.</p>
<p>“Our members believe in the mission of this agency and in the protections the contract provides to advance that mission,” she said. “We are hopeful that management will work with us in a productive, good-faith partnership going forward to make our institutions safer for staff and the public alike.”</p>

<p>The agreement was terminated in the wake of <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/unions/2025/03/trumps-order-to-end-collective-bargaining-for-national-security-reasons-impacts-most-agencies/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">a series of executive orders</a> in the first year of the second Trump presidency that suspended collective bargaining across large swaths of the federal workforce on the basis that it hindered national security.</p>
<p>When Marshall announced the suspension of BOP’s contract, however, <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/unions/2025/09/federal-bureau-of-prisons-terminates-collective-bargaining-agreement-with-afge/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">he said collective bargaining had become a “roadblock”</a> and the contract was “an obstacle to progress instead of a partner in it.”</p>
<p>Attorneys for the union argued that the decision violated the Administrative Procedure Act as well as the First Amendment.</p>
<p>“Supreme Court precedent makes clear that, even if the executive order were lawful (a question not raised in this case), and even if BOP was not legally required to maintain a CBA with the union, the agency had to comply with the APA’s reasoned decisionmaking requirements in terminating the existing agreement,” attorneys for the union wrote in their initial complaint.</p>
<p>The case is one of several related to the termination of CBAs across the federal workforce. On Tuesday, the union representing Environmental Protection Agency employees <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/unions/2026/09/union-sues-epa-over-termination-of-collective-bargaining-agreement/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">filed a lawsuit</a> on similar grounds. And in August, a judge ordered the Department of Veterans Affairs to <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/unions/2026/08/judge-orders-va-again-to-maintain-collective-bargaining-with-afge/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">reinstate its CBA</a>.</p>
<p>“I think beyond the impact of the relief for this particular AFGE unit, which is incredible for them and they are rightly celebrating this win, the decision may offer help for similarly situated unions in other cases,” said Suzanne Summerlin, a labor attorney and general counsel at <a href="https://workerslegaldefense.org/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Rise Up</a>, a legal defense network for federal employees.</p>
<p>“I thought the decision was largely refreshing to see,” she continued. “It showed a district court that is not going to be pushed into channeling important cases that involve major constitutional and separation of power arguments to the [Federal Labor Relations Authority].”</p>

<p>“I am proud of our brothers and sisters in the Council of Prison Locals for fighting for their members’ rights and safety,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a release. “The court’s decision rightly restores a contract that protects our correctional officers and the public. The government’s termination of this contract was nothing more than an arbitrary attack on hardworking Americans, and the court saw it for exactly what it was.”</p>
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ICE’s $45 billion detention expansion is littered with costly missteps, watchdog reports

LGBTQ+ feds sue to restore FEHB coverage of gender affirming care

AFGE sues over EEOC’s apparent shutdown of class action cases against agencies

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<p>The nation’s largest federal employee union on Tuesday sued the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to force the quasi-judicial agency undo an unpublished edict that has blocked all class-action cases involving federal agencies for more than six months.</p><p>The American Federation of Government Employees accused EEOC Chairwoman Andrea Lucas of surreptitiously issuing a directive halting proceedings in all class-action discrimination and harassment complaints involving federal agencies last December. Though the document has never been published, administrative judges have since issued indefinite stays or otherwise paused class action case proceedings, including certifications, hearings and other appearances, and evidentiary and discovery processes.</p><p>“Effective immediately, all case processing in the above-captioned matter must be paused until further notice,” wrote EEOC Administrative Judge Erania Ebron on Dec. 10, 2025. “All scheduled deadlines and appearances are also cancelled. This notification applies to all class cases in the federal sector, including those alleging disparate impact.”</p><p>AFGE filed the suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alongside union members and U.S. Bureau of Prisons correctional officers Deanna Chelette and Alexzandria Boyd, both of whom are within a certified class alleging their employer does not do enough to prevent rampant sexual harassment of female employees by inmates at the Federal Correctional Complex in Pollock, La. Their EEO case, filed in 2024 and receiving class-action certification for around 200 employees in March 2025, reports that inmates routinely verbally harass female correctional officers and subject them to “exhibitionist nudity,” public masturbation, rape threats and unwanted touching.</p><p>The EEOC’s own regulations encourage the use of class-action cases as a cheaper and faster manner of resolving allegations of discrimination or harassment than requiring each employee to file complaints individually—or filing individual or class-action lawsuits in federal court—and requires that class complaints “shall be processed promptly.” The union’s lawsuit accuses the commission of violating its own regulations, engaging in arbitrary and capricious decision-making in halting the processing of cases without any public announcement or rationale, among other violations of the Administrative Procedure Act.</p><p>“Defendants have not published the suspension directive or provided any explanation or authority for the decision,” the union wrote. “They have provided no procedure for an affected party to seek an exception or case-specific review. The directive has no stated termination date, leaving thousands of federal employees with no indication of when the EEOC will permit the adjudication of class claims to resume, and under what circumstances.”</p><p>AFGE argued that Lucas’ directive does far more than simply block class action EEO cases from moving forward. Because of how classes are determined by the commission, individuals who are not involved in a case but could be covered by its class cannot pursue their own claims on their own.</p><p>“The directive is also harmful to absent class members. In class cases, they cannot opt out, as their overlapping individual complaints are subsumed as soon as a formal class complaint is filed,” the union wrote. “They therefore cannot pursue their own claims in any form, administrative or judicial, while the proceeding that governs their rights remains frozen.”</p><p></p></div></div>
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<p><span style="font-size:16px;"><b>If you have a tip that can contribute to our reporting, Erich Wagner can be securely contacted at ewagner.47 on Signal.</b></span></p>
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Union sues EEOC for halting work on federal class action complaints

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<p>The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is facing new legal action from a federal union that claims the commission has not been processing any federal employee class action cases since at least late last year.</p>
<p>The American Federation of Government Employees filed a <a href="https://www.democracydefendersfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/072826-AFGE-v.-EEOC-Complaint-Final.pdf">lawsuit</a> against EEOC on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The union alleges that the commission violated the Administrative Procedure Act when it reportedly issued a blanket suspension last year on work involving class action complaints in the federal sector.</p>
<p>Federal employees involved in class complaints continue to be harmed by the ongoing pause in their cases, now with no avenue for obtaining relief, AFGE argued. When EEOC cases are on hold, administrative law judges are unable to hold hearings, engage in discovery, decide motions or issue decisions in class action complaints.</p>
<p>The lawsuit comes in response to EEOC’s suspension of a class complaint involving Federal Bureau of Prisons employees who allege they are facing persistent and severe sexual harassment at work. The plaintiffs in the case, two female corrections officers stationed at a men’s prison in Louisiana, have joined AFGE in the lawsuit against EEOC and Chairwoman Andrea Lucas, a Trump appointee.</p>

<p>The case, Pippen v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, was transmitted to EEOC in 2024 — and in March 2025, it was certified as a class complaint. But in December 2025, an EEOC administrative judge reportedly issued a notice informing plaintiffs that their case was paused “until further notice,” and any scheduled deadlines had been canceled.</p>
<p>According to AFGE’s lawsuit, the notice further stated that the indefinite suspension “applies to all class cases in the federal sector, including those alleging disparate impact.”</p>
<p>In the months since EEOC halted processing their case, plaintiffs “have been subjected to, or are at risk of, ongoing and escalating sexual harassment that continues to go unremedied,” AFGE said. “They have no information about when, if ever, their case will continue and whether they will be able to receive injunctive relief from the EEOC for their ongoing harm.”</p>
<p>An EEOC spokesperson declined to comment on the new lawsuit or explain why the commission appears to have indefinitely paused work on all federal sector class complaints — instead referring Federal News Network’s questions on the lawsuit to the Department of Justice. DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.</p>
<p>The lawsuit argues that EEOC’s suspension of processing federal sector class complaints violates the commission’s own regulatory requirements. <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/federal-sector/management-directive/chapter-8-complaints-class-discrimination-federal-government">EEOC regulations</a> define a structured process for “promptly” handling complaints involving discrimination against groups of federal employees.</p>
<p>“Federal workers who rely on the process the commission created by regulations — which are binding on the EEOC — have been left in limbo,” plaintiffs wrote in the lawsuit, adding that EEOC’s “unlawful suspension of that process has deprived [federal employees] of the adjudicatory mechanism the commission itself created and is legally obligated to provide.”</p>
<p>More broadly, the lawsuit claims that discriminatory practices against federal employees have continued while their cases remain unprocessed — and that the ongoing delays in these cases will make it more difficult to provide effective relief to plaintiffs and class members. AFGE is calling on EEOC to immediately resume processing all federal employees’ cases.</p>

<p>“Justice delayed is justice denied, and the EEOC’s refusal to act on these class-action complaints is causing direct harm and personal injury to our members,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said Tuesday. “The EEOC has a legal responsibility and obligation to keep our federal workplaces free from discrimination and retaliation, and the agency’s refusal to process these cases is a clear abandonment of its mission.”</p>
<p>Under the Trump administration, EEOC has taken <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/management/2026/07/us-civil-rights-agency-moves-to-end-demographic-data-collection-after-60-years/">other significant steps</a> to change its internal operations, some of which directly affect the federal sector. In June, for instance, the commission <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2026/06/eeoc-drops-requirements-for-agencies-to-report-race-sex-ethnicity-workforce-data/">lifted decades-old requirements</a> for agencies to report federal employee demographic data.</p>
<p>AFGE has filed well over a dozen <a href="https://www.afge.org/article/summary-of-afge-lawsuits-against-trump--how-litigation-works-2/">other lawsuits</a> against the Trump administration, in response to actions the administration has taken related to the federal workforce. The union’s legal challenges include cases against <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2026/07/federal-employees-face-reality-of-schedule-policy-career/">Schedule Policy/Career</a>, <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/unions/2026/07/unions-sue-dod-over-termination-of-collective-bargaining-agreements/">collective bargaining exclusions</a> and <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2025/09/court-finds-opm-unlawfully-directed-mass-firings-tells-agencies-to-update-personnel-files/">probationary employee terminations</a>.</p>
<div style="clear:both"></div><p><strong>If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email </strong><a href="mailto:drew.friedman@federalnewsnetwork.com"><strong>drew.friedman@federalnewsnetwork.com</strong></a><strong> or reach out on Signal at drewfriedman.11</strong></p>
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Decides which products and services federal agencies must buy from nonprofit agencies that employ people who are blind or have significant disabilities: it maintains the Procurement List published in the Federal Register and sets the fair market price for everything on it. Orders are distributed through two designated central nonprofit agencies.

AbilityOne Commission

Chairperson of the AbilityOne Commission

The Administration for Children and Families is an operating division of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. It administers federal programs that promote the economic and social well-being of children, youth, families, and communities, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Head Start, child care, child support enforcement, foster care and adoption assistance, refugee resettlement, and services for Native Americans. It was established in 1991 through a reorganization of the Department.

Administration for Children and Families

Alex J. Adams

The Administration for Community Living is an operating division of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. It administers programs that help older adults and people with disabilities live independently and participate in their communities, coordinating aging and disability services authorized largely by the Older Americans Act. It was created in 2012 by consolidating the Administration on Aging with offices serving people with disabilities.

Administration for Community Living

Administrator of the Administration for Community Living

Runs the aging services network created by the Older Americans Act: it funds state and area agencies on aging, which pay for congregate and home-delivered meals, in-home services and caregiver support. It also houses the long-term care ombudsman program and elder-rights protection work.

Administration on Aging

Mary Lazare

Sets policy and oversight for the federal child welfare and youth programs run by its two bureaus: the Children's Bureau, which administers foster care, adoption and child abuse prevention funding to states and tribes, and the Family and Youth Services Bureau, which funds runaway and homeless youth services and adolescent pregnancy prevention.

Administration on Children, Youth and Families

Cody Inman

The Administrative Conference of the United States is an independent federal agency that studies the administrative procedures of federal agencies and develops recommendations to improve the fairness, efficiency, and transparency of regulatory, benefit, and other government programs. Its members are drawn from federal agencies, academia, and private practice. It was established by the Administrative Conference Act of 1964 and operates under 5 U.S.C. 591 and following.

Administrative Conference of the United States

Presides over the Administrative Conference of the United States and is its chief executive, hiring and supervising the staff, preparing the Conference's budget estimates and serving as its official spokesman to the other branches. Appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate for a five-year term (5 U.S.C. 593(b), 595(c)).

Chairman of Administrative Conference of the United States

The Administrative Office of the United States Courts is the central administrative and support agency for the federal judiciary. It provides budget, human resources, technology, statistical, program, and management support to the United States courts and serves as the staff for the Judicial Conference of the United States. It was established by the Act of August 7, 1939, and operates under Chapter 41 of Title 28 of the United States Code, headed by a Director appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States.

Administrative Office of the United States Courts

Robert J. Conrad Jr.

Issues the government-wide procurement policies that bind executive agencies and oversees how agencies buy and the federal acquisition workforce. Appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.

Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy

Kevin Rhodes

Has authority over and responsibility for all NNSA programs, including the weapons laboratories, production plants and nonproliferation work. The office is held by the Under Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Security, appointed by the President with Senate confirmation.

Administrator for Nuclear Security

Brandon Williams

Administrator of General Services, the institutional head of General Services Administration. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (40 U.S.C. 301); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of General Services

Edward C. Forst

Administrator of the Administration for Community Living, the institutional head of Administration for Community Living. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Department of Health and Human Services reorganization (2012); programs under the Older Americans Act of 1965; directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Directs the agency's national research programs and its network of laboratories and research centers, and decides which lines of in-house science USDA pursues. Selected within the Department rather than appointed by the President, reporting through the Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics.

Administrator of the Agricultural Research Service

Joon Park

Administrator of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, the institutional head of Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Appointed under Homeland Security Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-296), 116 Stat. 2135; directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau

Mary G. Ryan

Directs BPA's power marketing, transmission operations and rate-setting, and makes the arrangements for the sale and disposition of the federal power the agency sells to Northwest utilities. Appointed by, and responsible to, the Secretary of Energy.

Administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration

John L. Hairston

Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the institutional head of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Social Security Act, Titles XVIII and XIX (42 U.S.C. 1395, 1396); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Mehmet Oz

Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the institutional head of Drug Enforcement Administration. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1973; directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration

Terrance C. Cole

Directs the government's central energy data and forecasting program and, by statute, publishes its statistical and forecasting reports without any other official's approval. Appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, from people specially qualified to manage an energy information system.

Administrator of the Energy Information Administration

Tristan Abbey

Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the institutional head of Environmental Protection Agency. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1970; directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency

Lee M. Zeldin

Runs the agency's commodity, farm loan, disaster and conservation programs and its state and county office network. Appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture; the post is not Senate-confirmed.

Administrator of the Farm Service Agency

William Beam

Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, the institutional head of Federal Aviation Administration. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Federal Aviation Act of 1958 (72 Stat. 731); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration

Bryan Bedford

Runs FEMA and is the principal advisor to the President, the Homeland Security Council and the Secretary of Homeland Security on emergency management. Appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, from candidates with demonstrated emergency management ability and at least five years of executive leadership experience.

Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency

Cameron Hamilton

Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, the institutional head of Federal Highway Administration. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Department of Transportation Act (49 U.S.C. 104); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration

Sean McMaster

Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the institutional head of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999 (113 Stat. 1748; 49 U.S.C. 113); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

Derek D. Barrs

Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, the institutional head of Federal Railroad Administration. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Department of Transportation Act of 1966 (49 U.S.C. 103); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration

David Fink

Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, the institutional head of Federal Transit Administration. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1968 (5 U.S.C. app.; 49 U.S.C. ch. 53); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration

Exercises the Secretary's authority under the Federal Meat Inspection Act, Poultry Products Inspection Act, Egg Products Inspection Act and Humane Slaughter Act, and directs the inspection workforce. Appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture and reporting through the Under Secretary for Food Safety.

Administrator of the Food Safety and Inspection Service

Justin Ransom

Runs the Foreign Agricultural Service and, by statute, also oversees the General Sales Manager and the Agricultural Attache Service, making the Administrator USDA's senior official on agricultural trade. The post is filled by the Secretary of Agriculture and is not Senate-confirmed.

Administrator of the Foreign Agricultural Service

Daniel Whitley

Administrator of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, the institutional head of Great Lakes Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation. Appointed by the President under Saint Lawrence Seaway Act of May 13, 1954 (33 U.S.C. 981-990); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation

J. M. (Mike) McCoshen

Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, the institutional head of Health Resources and Services Administration. Appointed under Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 201 et seq.); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration

Thomas J. Engels

Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the institutional head of National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 (Public Law 85-568); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Jared Isaacman

Awards and administers the office's grants and judges whether states comply with the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act's core protections. The Administrator is appointed by the President from among people with experience in juvenile justice programs.

Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Eileen M. Garry

Administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the institutional head of Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Norman Y. Mineta Research and Special Programs Improvement Act of 2004 (49 U.S.C. 108); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration

Paul J. Roberti

Directs the federal crop insurance program and also serves as Manager of the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation. Appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture; no Senate confirmation required.

Administrator of the Risk Management Agency

Patricia Swanson

Directs the agency's rural business loan, loan guarantee and grant programs under the Under Secretary for Rural Development. Appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture; no Senate confirmation required.

Administrator of the Rural Business-Cooperative Service

J.R. Claeys

Directs the agency's rural housing and community facilities loan, guarantee and grant programs under the Under Secretary for Rural Development. Appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture; no Senate confirmation required.

Administrator of the Rural Housing Service

George Kelly

Directs the agency's electric, telecommunications and water and waste lending programs. Appointed by the President; no Senate confirmation required.

Administrator of the Rural Utilities Service

Karl Elmshaeuser

Administrator of the Small Business Administration, the institutional head of Small Business Administration. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Small Business Act of 1953 (15 U.S.C. 631 et seq.); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Small Business Administration

Kelly Loeffler

Runs the power marketing administration: negotiates its wholesale sales contracts, sets rates that repay the federal investment in the dams, and directs generation scheduling with the Corps. Appointed by the Secretary of Energy.

Administrator of the Southeastern Power Administration

Virgil G. Hobbs III

Runs the power marketing administration: negotiates its wholesale contracts, sets rates that repay the federal investment in the dams, and oversees its transmission system. Appointed by the Secretary of Energy.

Administrator of the Southwestern Power Administration

Mike Wech

Directs federal security screening at airports and security regulation across all transportation modes, and receives and distributes transportation security intelligence. Appointed by the President with Senate confirmation for a five-year term; the statute requires experience in transportation or security.

Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration

David P. Cummins

Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division, the institutional head of Wage and Hour Division. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 204); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division

Andrew Rogers

Runs WAPA's power marketing, rate setting and transmission operations, exercising on the Secretary's behalf the power marketing functions transferred from the Bureau of Reclamation. Appointed by the Secretary of Energy.

Administrator of the Western Area Power Administration

Tracey A. LeBeau

Funds high-risk energy research that industry will not finance on its own, awarding cost-shared projects to companies, universities and national laboratories and cutting them off when technical milestones are missed. Its targets are set by statute: energy imports, emissions, efficiency, nuclear waste, and the resilience of energy infrastructure.

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy

Conner Prochaska

Runs the Section 106 process, under which a federal agency must consider how a project it funds, permits or carries out would affect historic properties and consult states and tribes before proceeding. It writes the regulations for that review, joins the hardest cases itself, and advises the President and Congress.

Advisory Council on Historic Preservation

Chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is an operating division of the United States Department of Health and Human Services within the Public Health Service. It produces evidence and funds research to make health care safer, higher in quality, more accessible, and more affordable, and works to ensure that the evidence is understood and used. It was established in 1999 under the Healthcare Research and Quality Act, succeeding the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, and is codified at 42 U.S.C. 299.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Roger D. Klein

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry is a public health agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, administered through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It evaluates and works to reduce human exposure to hazardous substances from waste sites, spills, and other releases, conducts public health assessments, and studies the health effects of toxic exposures. It was authorized by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980.

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

Aaron Bernstein

Runs the Department of Agriculture's own laboratories: its scientists work on crop and livestock production, plant and animal disease, food safety, human nutrition and natural resource management. Results are published for public use rather than sold, and much of the work is done with land-grant universities.

Agricultural Research Service

Flies the aircraft and crews the vessels that Customs and Border Protection uses to detect, track and interdict smuggling and other unlawful cross-border activity. It is CBP's air and sea arm: the Border Patrol covers the land between ports of entry and the Office of Field Operations staffs the ports.

Air and Marine Operations

Jonathan P. Miller

Reviews court-martial convictions from the Air Force and Space Force, sitting in panels of at least three appellate military judges. It can affirm, modify or set aside findings and sentences, may hold a sentence inappropriately severe, and its decisions can be taken on to the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.

Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals

Provides graduate and professional education to Air Force and Space Force members and Department of the Air Force civilians: its graduate school awards master's and doctoral degrees in engineering, science and management, and its continuing-education schools train civil engineers, logisticians and strategic-force specialists.

Air Force Institute of Technology

James C. Bowers

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau is a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury. It collects federal excise taxes on alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and ammunition and regulates the production, labeling, advertising, and importation of alcohol and tobacco products. It was established on January 24, 2003, under the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which split the former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and retained the tax and trade functions in the Treasury.

Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau

Serves as the principal cyberspace policy official within State Department senior management and as the Secretary's adviser on cyber and digital issues, leading the Department's cyber diplomacy. Appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, with the rank and status of ambassador.

Ambassador at Large for Cyberspace and Digital Policy

Adam Cassady

Designs, builds and maintains the permanent American military cemeteries and memorials outside the United States - the graves, chapels, monuments and grounds where American war dead are buried or commemorated. It also controls the erection of other United States war memorials and monuments on foreign soil.

American Battle Monuments Commission

Chairman of the American Battle Monuments Commission

The American Printing House for the Blind is a private nonprofit corporation that holds a federal charter and serves as the official national source of educational materials for students who are legally blind and enrolled in programs below the college level. It produces and distributes braille and large-print textbooks, educational aids, and assistive technology, funded through an annual federal appropriation administered by the Department of Education. It was chartered by Congress in 1879.

American Printing House for the Blind

Craig Meador

The President of the American Printing House for the Blind leads the Louisville nonprofit that manufactures and furnishes braille, large-print and tactile materials for the instruction of blind students, distributed to schools each year under a federal per-pupil quota (20 U.S.C. 101, 102). Its Board of Trustees selects the president.

President

Funds economic development in the Appalachian counties of thirteen states, approving grants for broadband and water infrastructure, workforce training and business development, mostly delivered through local development districts. It is run jointly by the governors of the member states and a federal co-chair.

Appalachian Regional Commission

Gayle Conelly Manchin

The Architect of the Capitol is a legislative branch agency responsible for the maintenance, operation, development, and preservation of the United States Capitol, the congressional office buildings, the Library of Congress buildings, the Supreme Court building, the United States Botanic Garden, and the grounds of the Capitol campus. The title refers to both the agency and the official who heads it. Permanent statutory authority for the office dates to the Act of August 15, 1876.

Architect of the Capitol

Thomas E. Austin

The Architect of the Capitol has the care and superintendence of the Capitol and maintains the buildings and grounds of the Capitol campus (2 U.S.C. 1812). A commission of congressional leaders and appropriations and administration committee members appoints the Architect to a renewable 10-year term and can remove the holder at any time (2 U.S.C. 1801a).

Archivist of the United States, the institutional head of National Archives and Records Administration. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under National Archives and Records Administration Act of 1984 (Public Law 98-497); directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Archivist of the United States

Bradford Pentony Wilson

Arctic Research Commission

Chairman of the Arctic Research Commission

Operates the two homes for retired and former enlisted members of the armed forces, Armed Forces Retirement Home-Washington and Armed Forces Retirement Home-Gulfport, providing residences, meals and graduated levels of health and long-term care. Eligibility is statutory, turning on length of service or wartime service.

Armed Forces Retirement Home

Stephen T. Rippe

Hears and decides contractors' appeals from the final decisions of Department of Defense and NASA contracting officers - disputes over payment, delay, termination and contract interpretation. Its full-time judges must have at least five years of experience in public contract law and are selected the way administrative law judges are.

Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals

Reviews court-martial convictions from the Army, sitting in panels of at least three appellate military judges. It can affirm, modify or set aside findings and sentences, may hold a sentence inappropriately severe, and its decisions can be taken on to the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.

Army Court of Criminal Appeals

Heads the National Security Division and is the Justice Department's primary liaison to the Director of National Intelligence. One of the Senate-confirmed Assistant Attorneys General, designated for the role by the President (28 U.S.C. 507A).

Assistant Attorney General for National Security

John A. Eisenberg

Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs, the institutional head of Office of Justice Programs. Appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, under Justice Assistance Act of 1984; directs the agency's staff, budget, and statutory functions.

Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs

Maureen A. Henneberg

Heads CBP's intelligence office and reports directly to the Commissioner, with responsibility for the agency's intelligence enterprise, its counterintelligence operations and its intelligence-sharing agreements. A career official, not a presidential appointee.

Assistant Commissioner, CBP Office of Intelligence

Ronald J. Ocker

Directs CBP's foreign initiatives, its personnel stationed abroad and its partnerships with foreign customs and border agencies, and reports directly to the Commissioner. A career official, not a presidential appointee.

Assistant Commissioner, CBP Office of International Affairs

James L. Collins

Runs CBP's internal investigations into misconduct by the agency's officers, agents and employees and its integrity programs, reporting directly to the Commissioner. A career official, not a presidential appointee.