The Daily Scoop Podcast

The Daily Scoop Podcast
  • 4.8 (15)
  • NEWS
  • UPDATED DAILY
The Daily Scoop Podcast

A podcast covering the latest news & trends facing top government leaders on topics such as technology, management & workforce. Hosted by Billy Mitchell on FedScoop and released every Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.

  1. Federal judge denies union request to halt purging of agency probationary employees; Transportation Department has a new CIO

    1 DAY AGO

    Federal judge denies union request to halt purging of agency probationary employees; Transportation Department has a new CIO

    A federal judge in Washington on Thursday denied a request by federal worker unions to halt the firing of probationary workers in the U.S. government, saying the court likely lacks the authority to hear the claims. Instead, the claims brought by the National Treasury Employees Union and others must be brought before the Federal Labor Relations Authority, Judge Christopher Cooper of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said in his opinion. The ruling is a blow to efforts by unions to protect their members from the mass probationary employee firings taking place across the government, as well as from further efforts by the Trump administration to reduce the size of the federal workforce. The Department of Transportation has tapped the chief technology officer of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to be its new chief information officer, according to an update to the agency’s site. Pavan Pidugu started as DOT’s new CIO this week, replacing Cordell Schachter, who left the role last month. Pidugu spent nearly five years as CTO at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which focuses on preventing injuries and deaths in the trucking industry. Prior to his work in the federal government, Pidugu held several digital project management roles at Walmart and Target. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

    4 min
  2. Katie Arrington returns to DOD as CISO; IRS is the latest agency to be sued by union groups over DOGE’s access to agency systems

    2 DAYS AGO

    Katie Arrington returns to DOD as CISO; IRS is the latest agency to be sued by union groups over DOGE’s access to agency systems

    Katie Arrington has been named the deputy chief information officer for cybersecurity and chief information security officer at the Department of Defense, a department spokesperson confirmed. She assumed the role effective Feb. 18. A familiar face, Arrington comes back to the Pentagon where she was the chief information security officer for the department’s acquisition and sustainment organization during the first Trump administration. She was best known for starting the Pentagon’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program over six years ago, which aims to improve the cybersecurity posture of the defense industrial base and contractors by requiring minimum cyber standards to bid on contracts. As the Department of Government Efficiency sets its sights on accessing sensitive taxpayer data, a coalition of union groups and advocates is suing the federal government to block the Elon Musk associates from entering Internal Revenue Service systems. In a lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Center for Taxpayer Rights, Main Street Alliance, the National Federation of Federal Employees and the Communications Workers of America allege that DOGE’s access to IRS systems has harmed their constituents’ privacy interests and exposed their private information to heightened risks. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

    4 min
  3. NSF terminates 168 probationary employees amid mass federal firings; Federal judge denies the request to block DOGE and Elon Musk from seven agencies’ data systems

    3 DAYS AGO

    NSF terminates 168 probationary employees amid mass federal firings; Federal judge denies the request to block DOGE and Elon Musk from seven agencies’ data systems

    The National Science Foundation fired 168 probationary employees Tuesday as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the size of the federal workforce, the agency confirmed. In a written statement, NSF spokesman Mike England pointed to President Donald Trump’s executive order last week that included plans to reduce the size of the federal workforce as part of the work of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. “To ensure compliance with this E.O. the National Science Foundation has released 168 employees from Federal service effective today,” England said. “We thank these employees for their service to NSF and their contributions to advance the agency mission.” He confirmed that all of the terminated employees were probationary. A federal judge Tuesday denied a request from Democratic attorneys general to temporarily cut off Department of Government Efficiency access to U.S. government IT systems, delivering a blow to states aiming to sideline the ongoing Elon Musk-led data expedition at agencies. Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the states did not show that they would “suffer imminent, irreparable harm absent a temporary restraining order.” The state AGs had argued that Musk’s actions in deploying DOGE surrogates to root around in federal computer systems violated the Constitution’s appointments clause due to the fact that he has not been nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Though no one has been more closely associated with DOGE than Musk, a Trump administration official said in a court filing Monday that the world’s richest man is merely a senior advisor to the president and not a DOGE employee or the DOGE administrator. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

    5 min
  4. AFGE says it will fight mass federal firings, refuting ‘performance’ claims

    5 DAYS AGO

    AFGE says it will fight mass federal firings, refuting ‘performance’ claims

    American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley said the federal worker union would fight mass firings of government employees, calling the Trump administration’s actions a politically driven abuse of the probationary period. His statement comes after reports that probationary employees were fired from agencies across the federal government. In his statement, Kelley refuted claims that employees were fired for poor performance, saying “there is no evidence these employees were anything but dedicated public servants.” In response to a request for comment, a spokeswoman for OPM said “the probationary period is a continuation of the job application process, not an entitlement for permanent employment. The Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General said it has opened an audit into the agency’s payments system after Department of Government Efficiency liaisons accessed the personal and financial information of Americans stored by the Bureau of Fiscal Service. In letters to Democrats in the Senate and House, Loren Sciurba, Treasury’s deputy inspector general, said the OIG initiated the audit into Bureau of Fiscal Service systems before the lawmakers made the request last week. The audit will examine applicable payment system controls that have been in place since Oct. 1, 2024, in addition to the two most recent fiscal years “as it relates to alleged fraudulent payments.”

    4 min
  5. GSA staff reinterviewed by DOGE prior to terminating probationary employees; Unions lack standing to fight deferred resignation

    FEB 14

    GSA staff reinterviewed by DOGE prior to terminating probationary employees; Unions lack standing to fight deferred resignation

    A source familiar with the inner workings of the U.S. Digital Corps, a two-year fellowship for early-career technologists to show coding work and work through interagency agreements across the federal government that is managed by TTS, said that DOGE representatives asked them and others to show coding work. The source said that the DOGE representatives asked them and others to show coding work that held sensitive information. A GSA spokesperson told FedScoop that Shedd initiated these meetings, and that “getting a sense of the technical work being performed by the organization is an essential part of understanding what the team is doing and what they are capable of.” Unions are challenging the Trump administration’s ‘deferred resignation’ offer to government workers, but lack the standing to do so, according to a federal judge in Massachusetts. This decision eliminated the temporary pause on the previously decided deadline for workers to accept the resignation offer and denied the unions’ attempt to seek a long-term hold on the deadline through a preliminary injunction. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

    4 min
  6. GSA looks to terminate probationary employees; USAID employees blocked from implementing payments

    FEB 13

    GSA looks to terminate probationary employees; USAID employees blocked from implementing payments

    The General Services Administration is following suit with a memo from the Office of Personnel guidance that came out in January, giving agencies the authority to terminate employees who: “have served less than a year in a competitive service appointment, or who have served less than two years in an excepted service appointment.” Employees who fit this description, as well as temporary employees on appointments that are not meant to exceed a certain date, can be terminated without triggering MSPB rights." USAID employees reported being shut out of the Global Acquisition and Assistance System (GLAAS) and the related Phoenix system, which assist in agency procurment, according to two sources familiar with the matter. GLAAS is an adapted version of PRISM, a procurement tool that’s used throughout the federal government. The platform is connected to Phoenix, the agency’s financial management system, and highlights how much an agency’s operations depend on accessing just a handful of information technology systems. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

    4 min
  7. Trump order limits agency hiring, puts DOGE leads in decision-making roles; the State Department loses its top data and AI official

    FEB 12

    Trump order limits agency hiring, puts DOGE leads in decision-making roles; the State Department loses its top data and AI official

    President Donald Trump accelerated his reduction of the federal workforce Tuesday with an executive order that minimizes agency hiring allowances, requiring four workers to depart for every one hire to be made. The order to implement Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency ”workforce optimization initiative” calls on the Office of Management and Budget director to submit a plan to reduce the federal workforce through those hiring limitations once the administration-mandated hiring freeze ends. Matthew Graviss, the Department of State’s first chief data and artificial intelligence officer, has left the agency, a spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. Graviss began as the department’s chief data officer in 2020 as the first person to hold the full-time role at the agency, in addition to serving as the agency’s top AI official. In a LinkedIn post about his move, Graviss called his time at the department an “incredible journey” and said he was proud of the work to modernize the agency. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

    4 min
  8. House bill would ban DeepSeek on agency workers’ devices; CISA election, disinformation officials placed on administrative leave

    FEB 11

    House bill would ban DeepSeek on agency workers’ devices; CISA election, disinformation officials placed on administrative leave

    Federal employees would be banned from using the Chinese artificial intelligence platform DeepSeek on their government-issued devices under new legislation from a bipartisan group of House lawmakers. The No DeepSeek on Government Devices Act, introduced by Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., Darin LaHood, R-Ill., and 16 of their House colleagues Friday, comes after weeks of panic in Silicon Valley following the revelation that the Chinese startup’s AI models were comparable if not more advanced than offerings from U.S. companies. DeepSeek, a low-cost, open-source AI model, has since reported difficulties in registering new users thanks to “large-scale malicious attacks” on its services. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency placed several members of its election security group on administrative leave last week, multiple sources familiar with the situation told CyberScoop. According to one source, the moves happened Thursday and Friday of last week and were targeted at employees focused on CISA’s mis-, dis- and malinformation teams. The moves include four employees currently working on or assigned to the team, two more that left the team in the past four years but still hold positions at the Department of Homeland Security, and another two that work on elections misinformation or disinformation at DHS. A second source confirmed that some, but not all members of CISA’s election security team, were placed on leave last week. The extent of the teams impacted by the decree is unclear. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

    22 min
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4.8
out of 5
15 Ratings

About

A podcast covering the latest news & trends facing top government leaders on topics such as technology, management & workforce. Hosted by Billy Mitchell on FedScoop and released every Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.

Information

  • Creator
    The Daily Scoop Podcast
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2025
  • Episodes
    507
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    The Daily Scoop Podcast

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