Lawmakers urge Defense Secretary not to erase troops’ historic accomplishments

urge, Lawmakers, Defense, Secretary, historic, Troops, accomplishments, erase
  • In a letter to President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a group of lawmakers is urging the Defense Department to ‘immediately reverse policies’ that they say attempt to erase records of troops’ historic accomplishments. The four lawmakers that signed onto the letter are veterans who serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee. The lawmakers said content about record-breaking combat flight hours by female aviators, medal recipients within segregated combat units during the World Wars, and historical contributions of Native American servicemembers is being removed indiscriminately. Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said Thursday that “history is not DEI,” and that when content is “mistakenly or maliciously” removed, the department continues to work quickly to restore it.
  • Venice Goodwine, the Department of the Air Force’s chief information officer, is retiring after 31 years of federal service. Goodwine will leave in mid-May, allowing time for a transition to a new department CIO. In a note sent to staff, Goodwine said she’s looking forward to a period of rest and reflection, but this will just be a break as she plans on returning to the federal community. Jennifer Orozsco, the deputy CIO of the Air Force, will take over on an acting basis after Goodwine retires if a new lead technology executive isn’t in place. Goodwine became the Department of the Air Force CIO in August 2023 after she returned to the service in 2021 as its director of enterprise IT. Goodwine spent 10 years on active duty for the Air Force and served 26 years in the Reserves.
  • Employees at the Institute of Museum and Library Services are expected to be placed on administrative leave. That anticipated change for employees comes after President Trump ordered the dismantling of several micro-agencies earlier this week. The Institute of Museum and Library Services was one of seven on Trump’s list. Trump called for the shuttering of IMLS during his first term, but the agency’s funding at the time was maintained by Congress. Trump’s new executive order calls for the micro-agencies to be stripped to the maximum extent under the law. The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents about 1,200 agency workers, warned that stripping the agency will have immediate negative effects.
    (Statement on gutting of Institute of Museum and Library Services – American Federation of Government Employees)
  • The White House wants to return federal acquisition to the days before the reforms of the 1990s. The General Services Administration is on the cusp of being put in charge of buying all products and services that make up the 10 areas of category management. In a draft executive order obtained by Federal News Network, the White House would have GSA be the centralized buyer for everything from IT to medical drugs and devices to professional services. Additionally, GSA would take over management of governmentwide acquisition contracts (GWACs) for IT services and products with an eye toward reducing duplicative vehicles. This is one of two acquisition focused executive orders President Trump is expected to sign in the coming weeks. The other one would focus on rewriting the FAR.
  • President Trump’s efforts to strip the Education Department are already facing legal battles. Non-profit organization Democracy Forward said it plans to file litigation against Trump’s executive order, which called for the dismantling of the agency. Democracy Forward called Trump’s move unlawful, and a threat to students’ learning, especially in low-income and rural areas. After Trump’s executive order yesterday, the White House noted that the Education Department will retain certain critical functions. Entirely taking apart the agency would likely be impossible without an act of Congress, since it was created by law in 1979. Republicans are expected to introduce a bill to achieve a complete dismantling.
  • Agencies across the federal government have essentially frozen 200,000 purchase and travel cards. That’s according to the General Services Administration, which is overseeing this work. GSA and 15 other agencies have set $ 1 spending limits on these government-issued credit cards used by employees and contractors. GSA can’t legally set spending limits on other agencies but it has sent memos to agency heads asking them to comply with its request. GSA is also looking at possibly taking over the contracting functions of several other agencies.
  • The Defense Department cuts $ 580 million in contracts and grants that don’t align with the Trump administration’s priorities. Among those cancelled programs is an “HR software effort” that was supposed to be completed in one year with a projected cost of $ 36 million. The project is now in its eighth year and has gone $ 280 million over budget. Hegseth also canceled a series of DoD grants worth about $ 350 million, including a $ 9 million grant for research on equitable AI and machine learning models. “I need lethal machine learning models, not equitable machine learning models,” Hegseth said, adding more cuts are to come.

The post Lawmakers urge Defense Secretary not to erase troops’ historic accomplishments first appeared on Federal News Network.

Congress – Federal News Network

Visit here to learn how to register to vote, update voter registration, find your polling place, see voting identification requirements and get early voting and absentee ballot information.