In today's Federal Newscast, the Senate has cleared the path to a final vote on the Social Security Fairness Act.

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In today's Federal Newscast, the Department of Homeland Security's new AI chatbot, DHSChat, is now available to roughly 19,000 employees.

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In today's Federal Newscast, President-elect Donald Trump promised yesterday to dismiss any feds who don’t come to work onsite full time. 

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Federal agencies are facing a partial shutdown on December 21st at midnight if Congress doesn't pass another continuing resolution or the funding bills for fiscal 2025. Agencies began preparing for a partial government shutdown on Friday as required under Circular A-11, which initiates the process when the expiration of current funding is a week away. House Speaker Mike Johnson, however, said last week that negotiations to extend the current CR are moving forward. The White House asked Congress in November to add more than $98 billion to the next CR in additional funding to help respond to disasters.

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A bipartisan bill in the House envisions a new way for the Department of Veterans Affairs to recruit doctors. The Supporting Medical Students and VA Workforce Act would create a new scholarship program in which the VA pays students to study medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Students who accept the scholarships would agree to serve as VA physicians after completing their residencies. House VA Committee Ranking Member Mark Takano and Congressman Neal Dunn are leading the bill. They say it would help the VA address a shortage of physicians in rural and underserved areas.

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Department of Veterans Affairs is dealing with a multi-billion-dollar budget shortfall and awarded bonuses to career executives not eligible to receive them last year. Now the top Republicans on the House and Senate VA committees are calling on the department to hold its executives accountable for these issues during their annual reviews. House committee Chairman Mike Bost and Senate committee chairman Jerry Moran say department leaders should consider the role VA executives had in these management issues before making any performance-based compensation decisions. 

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The top Republican on the House Veterans Affairs Committee will keep his post in the next session of Congress. Congressman Mike Bost will continue to serve as the committee’s chairman for the next two years. Bost says he’ll focus on expanding veterans’ options to seek health care outside the VA’s medical system … and holding the VA workforce accountable to the veterans they serve. 

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The next leader of the Senate Judiciary Committee is backing President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to clear out top officials at the FBI. Senator Chuck Grassley is calling on FBI Director Chris Wray and his second in command … to step down from their posts. Grassley says the FBI hasn’t done enough to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct within its workforce or to protect whistleblowers from retaliation. Wray’s term doesn’t end until 2027. But President-elect Donald Trump says he plans to nominate Kash Patel to lead the FBI.

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Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn plans to introduce a new package of bills this week, called the DOGE Acts. One bill would require agencies to report to Congress on the impacts of expanded telework and remote work for federal employees. Another bill in the package would freeze federal hiring and salaries for one year. The legislation aligns with the goals of the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency,” an external team led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy that promises to drastically cut government spending. Blackburn says her bills are aimed at holding the federal government more accountable. 

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Some employees at the Social Security Administration have locked in their current telework levels through 2029. The agency reached an agreement last week with one of its unions, the American Federation of Government Employees. The updated contract, which was first reported by Bloomberg, secures current hybrid work schedules for thousands of telework-eligible feds. The SSA agreement comes as leaders of the Department of Government Efficiency are alluding to plans of returning federal employees to the office full-time in the coming Trump administration.

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Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth is asking President-elect Donald Trump to support her legislation to expand insurance coverage for in vitro fertilization for military personnel. In a letter to Trump, Duckworth is urging the President-elect to mandate the federal government and insurance companies to pay for all IVF-associated costs. Both House and Senate versions of the defense policy bill have provisions that would provide service members with the same level of IVF services coverage that federal employees and members of Congress are able to receive. Meanwhile, two House Republicans are urging Congress not to include any provisions in the 2025 defense policy bill that can expand access to in vitro fertilization. 

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