transcript
Speaker 1:
[00:00] This is a Federal News Network podcast. Coming up today on the Federal Newscast, House Republicans propose a billion-dollar cut to IRS funding. The Trump administration is facing a lawsuit over its effort to quash DEI work. And the House Appropriations Committee passes the 2027 MillCon bill with no objections. These stories and more on today's Federal Newscast. Welcome to the Federal Newscast. I'm Michele Sandiford. House Republicans are proposing a billion dollar cut to IRS funding next year. A fiscal 2027 spending bill introduced by members of the House Appropriations Committee would give the IRS a $10.2 billion budget next year. The Trump administration proposed more severe IRS cuts in its budget proposal, closer to $1.5 billion. Funding for public facing taxpayer services would remain untouched. But IRS enforcement would see the biggest cuts under the plan from House Republicans. The Trump administration is facing a lawsuit over its effort to quash diversity, equity and inclusion work. Federal News Network's Drew Friedman has more.
Speaker 2:
[01:27] New legal action is coming after President Trump doubled down on his orders for federal contractors to end all work related to DE&I. A coalition of contractors, nonprofits and universities is now alleging that the president's executive order from March was unconstitutional. Their lawsuit argues that the anti-DEI orders illegally force contractors to pick between their First Amendment rights or keeping a contract. Drew Friedman, Federal News Network.
Speaker 1:
[01:57] House Appropriations Committee lawmakers did something rarely seen these days. They passed a spending bill without any objections. The committee approved the fiscal 2027 Military Construction Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act 58-0 yesterday. Lawmakers authorized $480 billion in funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Included in that is $3.4 billion for the Electronic Health Records Modernization System and $660 million for construction projects. The committee also allocated $19.2 billion for military construction accounts to improve infrastructure to support service members where they work and live. The Department of Homeland Security is quickly running out of emergency funding. Federal News Network's Justin Doubleday has the details.
Speaker 3:
[02:50] Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen says DHS will run out of emergency funds being used to pay staff during the shutdown by early May. Mullen told Fox and Friends on Tuesday that DHS's payroll costs $1.6 billion every two weeks. The Trump administration has been using money from last year's reconciliation bill to pay DHS staff. Mullen also called furloughed employees back to the office earlier this month. But lawmakers have yet to make much progress on a funding agreement to end a shutdown that stretches back to February 14th. Justin Doubleday, Federal News Network.
Speaker 1:
[03:26] US. Southern Command is launching a new autonomous warfare command. Once fully established, the new command will employ autonomous, semi-autonomous, and unmanned platforms and systems to counter threats and challenges across domains. SouthCom says it will work with the military services and DOD's Defense Autonomous Warfare Group to identify available expertise and capabilities required for the new command to begin operations and fully integrate into SouthCom's mission. The command will also collaborate with allies and partners in the region to disrupt and degrade drug terrorists and cartel networks and respond to life-threatening crises caused by large-scale natural disasters. The Department of Health and Human Services is looking to temporarily reassign mid-career and senior staff to chip away at a months-long backlog of reasonable accommodation requests. Federal News Network's Drury Heckman has more.
Speaker 4:
[04:24] HHS faces a department-wide backlog of more than 9,000 reasonable accommodation requests. Typically, staff at its component agencies would review these requests, but HHS centralized this work as part of a new policy it implemented last year. Under this policy, all reasonable accommodation requests require the approval of an HHS official at the Assistant Secretary level or above. HHS is now requesting nominations for GS-12 and GS-13 employees to serve on a 90-day or 120-day detail to process the backlog of reasonable accommodation requests. Jorie Hekman, Federal News Network.
Speaker 1:
[05:01] The Department of Homeland Security is moving forward with a massive cloud computing deal. In an April 21st notice, DHS said it would make awards to four major cloud providers, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. DHS expects to award the contracts in August. The procurement is being overseen by DHS's Office of the Chief Information Officer. It's the first time the department is buying cloud services at an enterprise level, as individual DHS components had previously handled their own cloud contracts. Democrats are urging the Trump administration to halt plans to collect detailed medical data from eight million federal insurance enrollees. That comes after a proposal from the Office of Personnel Management in December, seeking claims level data from all 65 federal insurance carriers. In letters sent to OPM and the White House, House and Senate lawmakers warn of potential legal violations, exposure of personal health information, and data security risks. You can find these stories and more on our website, federalnewsnetwork.com, and you can subscribe to the Federal Newscast, along with The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Michele Sandiford.