Judge blocks DHS from acting against a man over a harsh email to an ICE official

Federal retirement claims down, as backlog hit lows for 2026

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<ul><li style="margin-top:20px;">The fewest number of federal employees submitted their retirement papers in August as compared to the rest of 2026. The Office of Personnel Managements says it received only 7,618 retirement claims last month. This is down from more than 10,000 claims OPM received in July. Additionally, OPM's backlog of retirement claims is at the lowest of the year at just over 15,400. The average number of days to process a claim for August also dropped considerably: to 70 days for a digital claim, down from 98 days the month before, and to 79 days for all claims, down from 109 days in July. 
<div style="display:block; font-style: italic;">(<a href="https://www.opm.gov/retirement-center/retirement-statistics/retirement-processing-status.pdf">Federal retirement claims down, as the backlog hit lows for 2026</a> - OPM)</div></li><p></p><li style="margin-top:20px;">For the second time in a matter of weeks, the Justice Department won a major settlement from a federal contractor over allegations of violating the False Claims Act for failing to comply with anti-discrimination rules. Accenture will pay $25 million to resolve allegations that it discriminated against an employee or applicant for employment because of race or sex. Accenture's settlement follows a similar one from Deloitte in late August. Deloitte agreed to pay $21.5 million to resolve comparable allegations.
<div style="display:block; font-style: italic;">(<a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/accenture-agrees-pay-25m-resolve-alleged-employment-discrimination-violations">Accenture to pay $25M to settle False Claims Act hiring allegations</a> - Justice Department)</div></li><p></p><li style="margin-top:20px;">A federal court has ruled that a plan for major staff reductions at the Federal Emergency Management Agency was unlawful. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston found that a plan to cut FEMA’s workforce by up to 50% violated the law. In a late Friday ruling, Illston sided with arguments advanced by labor groups that had sued FEMA over the planned cuts. While FEMA did lay off some staff, the agency ultimately backed away from the steep cuts envisioned in the plan. The court ruling found Department of Homeland Security officials pushed for the FEMA cuts even though the agency’s own supervisors objected. Illston found that violated post-Hurricane Katrina reforms that prohibit DHS from making substantial changes at FEMA.<div style="display:block; font-style: italic;">(<a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2026/09/federal-judge-rules-trump-dhs-plan-for-50-fema-staffing-cuts-was-unlawful/">Federal judge rules Trump DHS plan for 50% FEMA staffing cuts was unlawful</a> - Associated Press)</div></li><p></p><li style="margin-top:20px;">The number of veterans using Department of Veterans Affairs services has skyrocketed in 2026. The agency says more than 250,000 new veterans have enrolled in VA healthcare so far in 2026. It credits several reasons for this increase, including opening 41 new health care clinics since January 2025 and reducing by 70% the backlog of veterans waiting for benefits. Additionally, VA says another reason for this influx of veterans is the reduced average time for processing disability claims, which decreased by 46% since January 2025. Along with opening new facilities, VA also has spent nearly $5 billion this year to modernize, repair and improve health care facilities, which it says is the largest nonrecurring maintenance investment in the department's history. <div style="display:block; font-style: italic;">(<a href="https://news.va.gov/press-room/more-than-250000-new-veterans-enrolled-in-va-healthcare-so-far-in-2026/">VA sees surge in new veterans enrolling in health care services</a> - Federal News Network)</div></li><p></p>

<li style="margin-top:20px;">The Defense Department reinstated more than 500 service members discharged for refusing the COVID vaccine and issued more than $21 million in backpay, according to officials. Anthony Tata, the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said the department will “continue to reach back out to every veteran whose career was cut short.” Last year, DoD launched a media campaign, sent letters of apology and issued a series of policies to reinstate service members who were booted from the military for refusing the COVID vaccine. Approximately 8,700 service members were forced out of the military for refusing the vaccine in 2021.<div style="display:block; font-style: italic;">(<a href="https://x.com/USW_PR_HONTata/status/2099535391120396478">DoD reinstates over 500 unvaccinated service members, pays over $21 million in backpay</a> - X (formerly Twitter))</div></li><p></p><li style="margin-top:20px;">Republican Sen. Deb Fischer said there is “a lot of work that has to be done” to build broad support in Congress for the Trump administration’s ambitious Golden Dome missile defense system. Fischer said lawmakers still do not have any meaningful information about the system more than a year after President Donald Trump announced the initiative. “There's not a clear understanding of this layered defense that we're looking at when it comes to defending our homeland,” Fischer said. Her comments come after a group of lawmakers sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in June calling on DoD to share its plans for the system before the department “spends one more taxpayer dollar” on the Golden Dome initiative.<div style="display:block; font-style: italic;">(<a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-news/2026/09/golden-dome-needs-congressional-buy-in-but-lawmakers-are-still-in-the-dark-about-what-it-would-entail/">Golden Dome needs congressional buy-in, but lawmakers are still in the dark about what it would entail </a> - Federal News Network)</div></li><p></p><li style="margin-top:20px;">The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency says AI can be used to pull off insider threat attacks. In updated insider threat guidance, CISA says organizations should consider how both trusted insiders and external actors could misuse an internal AI system to compromise security. Risks include data poisoning, AI model tampering and social engineering. CISA is urging organizations to train employees on AI usage, secure their existing AI tools and classify sensitive data. <div style="display:block; font-style: italic;">(<a href="https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2026-09/cisa-insider-threat-mitigation-guide-2026.pdf">CISA insider threat mitigation guide</a> - CISA)</div></li><p></p></ul>
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Mullin defends FEMA staffing cuts after court ruling

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<p>Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin defended plans for a leaner workforce at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and criticized a federal judge’s ruling that a now-abandoned plan to cut FEMA’s workforce in half was advanced unlawfully.</p>
<p>In remarks to reporters at a FEMA roundtable in Omaha, Neb., on Monday, Mullin argued that “it’s not always personnel that you need.” He said the Trump administration’s goal is “more efficiency,” including using technology at the emergency management agency.</p>
<p>“Throwing people at a problem that aren’t passionate about or not being an added value to it doesn’t help,” Mullin said. “For some reason, we’re constantly getting — not just with FEMA, but all across the federal agencies — they’re saying, you can’t let people go. You got to keep them there. When we know, being in the private industry like myself, usually in a large corporation, 20% of the people do the majority of the work, 80% of the people do their job.”</p>
<p>Mullin’s remarks come on the heels of U.S. District Judge Susan Illston’s ruling that DHS officials under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem unlawfully moved forward with plans to cut FEMA’s workforce by 50% late last year.</p>

<p>“When you’re in a disaster, you need 100% of people doing the majority of the work every single day,” Mullin said. “So when some federal judge tries to come in and tells us how many people we have to have on staff, yet they’re not in the building, they’re not running the agency, it’s laughable. Stay in your lane, deal with law, prosecute criminals, send them to prison, and rule from the bench.”</p>
<p>Illston found that DHS officials violated rules under the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006. The law protects FEMA from political decisions made at DHS headquarters. Illston found the evidence showed DHS officials overrode objections by FEMA supervisors to advance the plan for a 50% cut.</p>
<p>The lawsuit, <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/litigation/2026/01/unions-nonprofits-challenge-fema-staffing-cuts-in-court/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">brought forward by union groups,</a> sought to block FEMA from issuing blanket non-renewals to Cadre of On-Call Response and Recovery, or CORE, employees. CORE staff make up about 40% of FEMA’s staff and typically work for terms lasting between two and four years.</p>
<p>The lawsuit argued the wave of CORE non-renewals late last year and early this year were the start of DHS and FEMA’s plan to implement the steep workforce cuts.</p>
<p>But FEMA quickly began renewing most CORE staff again following a major winter storm and did not ultimately move forward with the 50% cut. However, court declarations show that FEMA officials <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce-rightsgovernance/2026/06/dhs-continues-to-make-workforce-decisions-for-fema-lawsuit-contends/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">still require approval from DHS headquarters</a> to renew CORE terms for up to six months.</p>
<p>“The undisputed evidence shows that defendants violated the Post-Katrina Act when DHS revoked FEMA’s authority to renew COREs (and then granted it back, but only for a limited time and for term lengths that DHS prescribed) and ordered that FEMA submit a staffing plan to DHS with a 50% FEMA staffing cut,” Illston wrote.</p>
<p>The ruling doesn’t restore broader staffing levels at FEMA, which saw thousands of employees depart under the Trump administration’s voluntary resignation programs.</p>

<p>In an August report, the Government Accountability Office found FEMA <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/agency-oversight/2026/08/gao-fema-staffing-cuts-lacked-strategy-hit-regional-staff-hardest/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">was down roughly 4,500 employees from the start of the Trump administration.</a></p>
<p>GAO found FEMA and DHS allowed the workforce reductions to take place without assessing its current and future workforce needs. The staff reductions and lack of planning “may impact mission readiness,” the report states.</p>
<h2>Hamilton highlights tech investments</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, Cameron Hamilton, the recently confirmed administrator of FEMA, highlighted how the agency is making technology investments that “will rapidly reduce the timeframes that we have to process claims that we have to some of the levers and tools.”</p>
<p>Speaking alongside Mullin in Omaha, Hamilton said FEMA is looking to “overhaul” its “entire IT footprint” to improve customer service and deal with requests “significantly faster.”</p>
<p>“You’re going to find that we can process things faster, and we’re ultimately able to push out at a faster pace with far less bureaucracy,” Hamilton said.</p>
<p>IT investments and customer service improvements are among the recommendations in the Trump-appointed FEMA Review Council’s final report.</p>
<p>The council had been planning to recommend FEMA also make steep staffing cuts when Noem was in charge of DHS, but the final report, issued in May after Mullin had been confirmed, <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/agency-oversight/2026/05/fema-review-council-backs-off-on-staffing-cuts-in-final-report/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">only recommended that DHS and FEMA review its workforce requirements.</a></p>
<p>The council also recommended the Trump administration and Congress shift more responsibility to state and local governments to handle disaster response activities.</p>
<p>Mullin echoed that sentiment during his remarks in Omaha.</p>

<p>“You have other states that just sit there and wait until the federal government comes in,” Mullin said. “FEMA was never designed to be the first responder. It was there in your worst day to help the state, to help the local government recover, not take over and take charge of the situation. It’s always going to be better from that point. So when we’re doing this, we want to make sure we get it right.”</p>
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Supreme Court keeps USPS from carrying out mail-in voting changes in midterm elections

As the Pentagon rethinks CMMC, cybersecurity isn’t pausing

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<p><em>Interview transcript</em></p>
<blockquote><p><strong>Terry Gerton </strong>Last week, the window for the comments on the CMMC rules from DoD closed, and also DoD issued a class deviation regarding CMMC compliance. Help us sort out the signals there. What should people be reading?</p>
<p><strong>Stephanie Kostro </strong>So a lot has been happening, Terry, on the CMMC front this year. And it started really in earnest a few months ago with, I’ll cite the chief information officer from the Department of War’s memo in July, regarding pausing and suspending CMMC’s requirements. That said, there’s been a lot of chatter about what that meant. So we welcomed the class deviation that came out just a few days ago regarding instructions to contracting officers about what they should be including in contracts. And so it offered us a really good insight into how the building — the Department of War — is approaching CMMC. I’ve been fielding lots of questions from contractors about what should they be doing, what should be looking for. So let me just level set, if I may, what this class deviation is and what it is not. The first question that we get is, “is this the death knell of CMMC,” the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Program that has been around for a few years and gone through many permutations, right? This is not the death knell of CMMC. In no way, shape, or form does this class deviation say, CMMC is dead. I can insert all sorts of pop culture references to “bring out your dead” or, you know, “I’m not dead yet,” that kind of thing. I would say that this is not an obituary for CMMC. What it does do is reference that July memo from the chief information officer suspending the program, but not suspending cybersecurity requirements. And let me just unpack that for you, Terry, just really quickly. The core cybersecurity requirements remain, and that is — I’m going to dork out with you here — DFARS 252.204-7012, that is the safeguarding requirements. It remains pertinent that contractors have to live up to NIST Special Publication 800-171, Revision 2; that is still the control. It does look at the Supplier Performance Risk System, which is what we call SPRS, and those scoring requirements, those are still the same. And there is still an annual affirmation of compliance with all of these requirements. Those things are still in existence. So I just want to dispel any rumors, myths, etc., out there among contractors that this class deviation guts cybersecurity. It does not.</p>

<p><strong>Terry Gerton </strong>Stephanie, with those provisions though, what’s the difference between this and the CMMC rules then?</p>
<p><strong>Stephanie Kostro </strong>CMMC really laid out different levels. So, level 1 was the basic level. If you were a CMMC level 1, you did a self-assessment and you could affirm that you are cybersecure to a certain level. Level 2 is still retained that you can do this self-assessment. What it does right now is it gets rid of the outside assessment piece — we call them C3PAOs, so it’s a cybersecurity entity outside of your company that would come in and certify your system or your approach to cybersecurity. And so it does suspend that. It suspends the Phase 2 transition, where you would start going towards this level 2 by an outside assessor. Level 3 also exists; it’s the toughest CMMC level. That is also still suspended. So it retains the self-assessments, it retains baseline compliance with NIST 800-171-Rev. 2, which I mentioned earlier. And it does require contracting officers to update active solicitations to reflect all these changes. So this is — I think it was more than 80 pages of a class deviation, they showed the line-in, line-out. It should be very, very clear what is still required and what is no longer required right now. Meanwhile, Terry, we are still waiting for the department to share the results of its review that the CIO asked for two months ago. Right about now is when the review should be ending, and hopefully the department and the officials will come and tell industry what the results of that review are and what industry will be required to do going forward.</p>
<p><strong>Terry Gerton </strong>Stephanie Kostro is president of the Professional Services Council. Stephanie, on that last point, during this 60-day window, I’ve had the opportunity to talk to lots of contractors and I would say they fall into two buckets. One is, “I’m so proud I was an early adopter of CMMC Level 2 and got my certification. That’s my competitive advantage.” And the other group of contractors says, “I’m not ever doing that unless I absolutely, positively have to.” So when you think about all of the uncertainty around this, what should contractors be thinking about which bucket is best?</p>
<p><strong>Stephanie Kostro </strong>I have had the same experience, Terry, where we’ve got these two schools of thought. And I would say that if you have undertaken an outside review, an outside assessment of your approach to cybersecurity, that was money well spent because there are still going to be cybersecurity requirements going forward. And let’s be honest, sunk costs are sunk. You’ve already paid the outside assessment. You’ve got the piece of paper, virtual or not, that you can wave in front of people. And I think that was a good investment. That said, if requirements do change going forward, I don’t blame companies for going, hey, you know, I haven’t started my assessment, I’m way back in the queue waiting for my assessment, I’m going to hit pause until I find out what the actual requirements are. So I think that’s a good way forward as well. What we’re watching for, Terry, are a few things. I mentioned earlier that I would love to talk to department officials, have them talk to industry about this review that’s been going on for the last two months and where they’re going. I would love a little bit of insight into that Magic 8 Ball there. I would also say we’re looking for another memo from the Department of War CIO, right? Everything in this class deviation that just came out was predicated, or cited as its authority, the July memo from the CIO. I would hope that the CIO would come out with a new memo once all of this officially says, you know, here’s where we’re going with this. So that’s what we’re watching for as well. I would love to have conversations with department officials on where they’re heading once they figure it out themselves.</p>
<p><strong>Terry Gerton </strong>Well, Stephanie, let’s shift from cybersecurity to border security. That’s been a topic for PSC over the last year, and coming back onto the top of your agenda, what’s happening now that’s bringing it back to the forefront for you?</p>
<p><strong>Stephanie Kostro </strong>Border security has been a hot topic, not just for Professional Services Council member companies, which represent, as you know, Terry, some 400 companies that do government services and technology solutions for every single agency within the federal government. A huge federal customer over the last few years, to be honest, has been the Department of Homeland Security and specifically Customs and Border Protection. Our vice president for civilian agencies, Krista Sweet, has worked tirelessly with DHS and CBP in particular to organize a border tour out to the southwest border. We are bringing a dozen or so companies with PSC staff to San Diego and Los Angeles, Long Beach. Now, you may be wondering, what kind of boondoggle is this? You’re going in September? The answer is simple. We had scheduled this border tour to go to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, to also go to some land border crossings near San Diego — so the Office of Field Operations in San Ysidro and Otay Mesa, the ports of entry and the border patrol along the U.S.-Mexico land border near San Diego. We organized this trip a year ago, but then there was a shutdown, the longest ever in U.S. federal government history. And then DHS remained shut down earlier this year. So even though CBP had money because of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and Reconciliation 2.0, we were still facing a shutdown. So we are finally having this trip. It’s going to be Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. They’re going to hit all of these great ports of entry to see what’s going on. They’re going to get operational briefings, facility tours, tech demonstrations, and they’re going to have direct conversations with frontline officers and agents. I’m so excited for this trip, and I’m thrilled that it’s finally happening.</p>
<p><strong>Terry Gerton </strong>What does an on-the-ground experience change for these contractors beyond the normal business-to-government conversations?</p>

<p><strong>Stephanie Kostro </strong>You know, I think we live so often in our D.C. bubble, Terry … we’re here talking to headquarters staff who operate in these big, beautiful buildings here in Arlington or at St. Elizabeth’s or in downtown D.C. And we don’t actually talk to folks who, from a domestic border perspective, have boots on the ground. You know, I come from a Department of Defense-slash-War background, so I’m used to talking about boots on the ground in overseas environments, right? But literally at these ports of entry, they are the first line of defense when it comes to making sure that the borders are protected. And this is a nonpartisan issue, or a bipartisan issue. Democrats and Republicans alike all have often talked about the border. Contractors talking to folks who have skin in the game, who are actually walking the border, who are checking in all of the cargo that comes on ships from overseas, or even just that come into our territorial waters — it’s important for contractors to understand that these are the customers they’re serving. It’s not the folks sitting here in the National Capital Region. It’s those folks out on the operational field. So I think as we get companies out there talking to folks, it’s going to bring home why it is that they do what they do and how can they do it better.</p>
<p><strong>Terry Gerton </strong>And do you see a change in understanding from the government frontline folks when they actually talk to the contractors as well?</p>
<p><strong>Stephanie Kostro </strong>One hundred percent. Because, you know, they look at it and go, oh, you guys are in D.C. and you always talk to the head shed or you talk to headquarters folks; you never come and talk to us about what we need. And this changes their perspective as well. What’s fortunate is when you get an industry association like PSC organizing this trip, the lawyers are also happy because we’re not just bringing one company to talk to a field office. We’re bringing a dozen companies. So you don’t get that conflict of interest either. I think at the end of the day, we would love to do this more often. You know, PSC has long had a series on the Hill, called PSC on the Hill, where we do demonstrations for congressional staff and members. This is a PSC in the Field, and I love this series of events, and I hope to have more of them going forward.</p></blockquote>
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FBI chief Kash Patel defends hiring policy changes on prostitution, bestiality at fiery hearing

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<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/kash-patel">FBI Director Kash Patel</a> defended Tuesday a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fbi-prostitution-recruitment-95e69779e41bd8f1bbc59d402a40222b">recent policy change</a> to allow some applicants who have engaged in prostitution and bestiality to be considered for employment, insisting that the move was made to enable victims of those acts to apply for a job without fear of automatic disqualification.</p>
<p>The subject arose during a fiery Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in which Patel clashed with Democrats over his <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fbi-patel-trump-justice-department-74958effbe23df23eccb33a960da4cc3">firing of agents who participated in investigations</a> of President Donald Trump and suggested that agents might be dispatched to the polls on Election Day amid Justice Department and White House concerns about voter fraud.</p>
<p>The hours-long hearing featured the name-calling and bitingly personal exchanges that have come to define Patel’s appearances on Capitol Hill, with Democrats characterizing the Trump appointee as unqualified, criticizing him for politically charged investigations into Trump’s enemies and highlighting travel that has included a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/olympics-hockey-fbi-director-kash-patel-8eb9ff9fcdf6ecd605643860fd1c18bf">trip to the Winter Olympics in Italy</a> in which he partied with U.S. hockey players and a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fbi-kash-patel-snorkel-hawaii-pearl-harbor-192a81cde7a5879aab747bc0ba4b78b9">snorkeling excursion at the Pearl Harbor memorial in Hawaii. </a></p>
<p>“He’s an incompetent lackey. He’s like an 18-year old-kid who wants to join a fraternity that he could never be a member of, doing keg stands and chugging with friends. He’s an embarrassment to the agency and wouldn’t qualify even to be an FBI agent,” said an exasperated Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, his voice rising in anger.</p>

<p>“What a mockery you are,” he added.</p>
<p>Patel shot back, “You are the biggest mockery in the United States Senate, and you’re sitting next to Schiff.” That was a reference to Sen. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and outspoken Patel critic.</p>
<h2>Patel was pressed on the FBI’s hiring standards</h2>
<p>The FBI quietly issued guidance this past spring lifting a categorical hiring restriction on applicants who had previously participated in prostitution. The bureau made a similar change with regard to childhood experience in bestiality.</p>
<p>Under questioning, Patel denied that the changes reflected a lowering of employment standards and insisted they were designed to prevent victims who’d been forced to engage in that conduct from being automatically disqualified.</p>
<p>“We did not want to punish victims of bestiality, victims who were trafficked. We did not want to make it an automatic disqualification for the FBI to consider you if you were a victim of these awful, heinous acts,” Patel said. “We are not going to target victims and prevent them from serving in their capacity to serve this country.”</p>
<p>The questioning spanned partisan lines, with Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana grilling Patel about the rationale for a change that the FBI director said was proposed to him by subordinates.</p>
<p>“When you saw bestiality, I say this with respect: The person who recommended it, why didn’t you just say what planet did you parachute in from?” Kennedy asked.</p>

<p>Patel conceded that was his initial response, but “they then explained to me and showed me cases in which people were forced into it and applied to the FBI and so I thought they should be considered. It’s not an automatic disqualification.”</p>
<p>The Associated Press reported last month that the FBI still intends to bar some applicants who are revealed to have previously engaged in prostitution, including if they’ve done so within the last 10 years.</p>
<h2>Patel did not rule out sending agents to polling places on Election Day</h2>
<p>The hearing took place two months before the midterm elections in November and at a time when the FBI has opened investigations related to the 2020 contest, including by <a href="https://apnews.com/article/why-fbi-seize-georgia-ballots-fulton-county-87300edb3ea86961c69132e6a2dfd6e8">seizing voter data in Fulton County, Georgia.</a></p>
<p>Trump regularly makes false claims that elections are rigged and riddled with fraud, especially in the months before an election. But there is no widespread fraud in American elections. Local election officials have detailed processes for auditing the accuracy of the vote after ballots are tallied. Even as he disputed his loss in 2020, audits, reviews and recounts in the battleground states where he challenged the outcome all affirmed Democrat Joe Biden’s win.</p>
<p>Those voter fraud claims, and the FBI’s efforts to investigate the 2020 race, have spurred Democratic concerns that Patel could plunge the bureau into the upcoming election.</p>
<p>Asked whether the FBI has the general authority to monitor elections, Patel replied that responsibility rests with the Department of Homeland Security. He said the FBI’s presence on Election Day will be “housed” with election crimes coordinators at each of the bureau’s 56 field offices, but under questioning, he declined to rule out that agents would be dispatched to the polls in the event of problems or reports of interference.</p>
<p>“Do you pledge that you will not in any way interfere in the will of the American people when they go to the polls in November?” asked Democratic Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont in one of the hearing’s more combative exchanges.</p>
<p>“I pledge unequivocally that I will not participate in your charade of lies,” Patel said, later calling Welch a “total fraud.”</p>
<h2>FBI firings were also a featured topic of the hearing</h2>
<p>Patel repeatedly touted what he asserted was his record-breaking success at the FBI, proclaiming the “most prolific reduction in crime in U.S. history” <a href="https://apnews.com/article/homicide-decrease-trump-crime-rates-fbi-9d9e79bb71174a604c4ab068a6887c82">even though violent crime rates in American cities</a> had begun dropping well before Trump took office last year for reasons that are difficult to pinpoint.</p>

<p>Even as the Republican-led panel tried through its questioning to keep the focus on Patel’s crime-fighting efforts from his perch at the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency, Democrats seized on the tumult inside the FBI over the last year — including <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-patel-fbi-firings-classified-documents-investigation-932c7c68e22cc36e01990659a8cc2807">sweeping firings</a> of agents who participated in investigations of Trump, the bureau’s aggressive efforts to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-nyt-air-force-one-qatari-jet-e2c798a95a1e41077d2cae969774df91">investigate media leaks by serving subpoenas</a> at reporters’ homes and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fbi-kash-patel-snorkel-hawaii-pearl-harbor-192a81cde7a5879aab747bc0ba4b78b9">Patel’s travel schedule</a> that has blended private leisure with professional responsibilities.</p>
<p>Democrat Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut pressed Patel on the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-patel-fbi-firings-classified-documents-investigation-932c7c68e22cc36e01990659a8cc2807">firing of national security agents</a> with expertise in Iran shortly before the U.S. launched attacks on the country last February. He noted that the agents had participated in an FBI investigation into Trump over his <a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-government-and-politics-9e8d683afe87389407950af7ccfdbdd6">retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.</a></p>
<p>“Do you think firing the president’s political opponents is more important than retaining the decades of experience and expertise monitoring intelligence threats from Iran?” Blumenthal asked.</p>
<p>“I think what’s most important is to not have a weaponized FBI, and I will endeavor every single day to make sure we have no one there that is doing that,” Patel responded. He did not say why their participation in the Mar-a-Lago investigation represented “weaponized” law enforcement.</p>
<p>Patel later suggested that the scope of firings had been overblown, saying many agents had retired on their own. And he defended his personal travels by pointing to numbers that he said showed that two recent predecessors, Chris Wray and James Comey, had traveled more.</p>
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The Coast Guard is building new ways to turn operational data into usable information

Federal judge rules Trump DHS plan for 50% FEMA staffing cuts was unlawful

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<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that a plan by the Trump administration <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fema-lawsuit-staff-cuts-core-af93f62bdac566d6748f3141034942c5">to slash staffing</a> at the federal agency tasked with responding to disasters by 50% was unlawful.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.448664/gov.uscourts.cand.448664.491.0.pdf">The opinion issued</a> late Friday marked a victory for labor groups who had sued the agency. The labor organization had argued that plans by the Department of Homeland Security, which was then led by Secretary Kristi Noem, violated congressional protections that were designed to safeguard the independence of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.</p>
<p>The issue of the FEMA staffing was part of a much larger lawsuit filed by the American Federation of Government Employees and other labor groups, pushing back on efforts by the Trump administration to slash the federal workforce.</p>
<p>U.S. District Judge Susan Illston wrote in her opinion that top Homeland Security officials late last year directed FEMA’s leadership to submit a staffing plan that included a 50% staffing cut even though the agency’s own supervisors objected.</p>

<p>“Frankly, the FEMA staffing plan number appears as if pulled from thin air,” wrote Illston.</p>
<p>FEMA responded in a statement late Saturday that while it does not comment on personnel matters and ongoing litigation, “DHS and FEMA are ready for the 2026 hurricane season.”</p>
<p>“We’re ensuring workforce stability and a strong, deployable force for upcoming national events and potential disasters; making the agency leaner, faster and laser-focused on supporting state, local, tribal and territorial partners before, during and after disasters,” it said. “FEMA continues to maintain a roster of experienced leadership and support staff across headquarters and regional offices.”</p>
<p>The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.</p>
<p>In the opinion, Illston wrote that it was clear that the government violated rules established after 2005’s Hurricane Katrina that put decisions on staffing levels squarely in the hands of FEMA, not the Department of Homeland Security and that prevented DHS from “substantially” reducing the “functions” of FEMA.</p>
<p>Illston didn’t order a specific remedy to carry out her opinion but directed the two sides to meet and decide on a course of relief.</p>
<p>Although FEMA has experienced terminations, the 50% staffing cuts ultimately were not carried out. In recent months, after top leadership changes at FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security, the agency has rehired some staffers who were let go.</p>

<p>FEMA was one of the agencies targeted in the federal government for staff reductions as part of a broad Trump administration plan to reduce the size of government. The embattled agency has been buffeted by mass staff departures, disruptions of grant programs, and delays of disaster aid.</p>
<p>In May, a Trump-appointed FEMA Review Council <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fema-review-council-markwayne-mullin-disasters-22540cc138b3e55762c44306a3e97d8e">submitted a final report</a> recommending sweeping changes to how the agency supports states, tribes and territories in disaster.</p>
<p>The final version backed away from the recommendation to cut the FEMA workforce by 50%, which was included in a December 2025 draft reviewed by The Associated Press.</p>
<p>The council instead recommended the agency conduct a “strategic review” to determine “appropriate staffing levels.”</p>
<p>In an August report, the <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-26-108427">Government Accountability Office</a> said it found the departures of thousands of staff in 2025 resulted in a “loss of institutional knowledge and experienced personnel” and “exacerbated longstanding workforce challenges.”</p>
<p>More than 4,300 employees, or about 17% of FEMA’s workforce, separated from the agency in the 2025 budget year, with over 1,500 through voluntary reductions. The agency also made about 2,900 new hires.</p>
<p>The GAO recently recommended to Congress that it “consider requiring” FEMA to base “significant workforce decisions” on a more strategic planning process.</p>
<p>Without it, the GAO found, “FEMA cannot be assured that the agency is positioned to effectively meet its mission needs.”</p>


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DHS secretary defends smaller FEMA workforce after judge challenges 50% staffing cut plans

Federal agents may have broken state laws in voter fraud hunt, whistleblower claims

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.