House committee’s top Democrat presses for details on HHS layoffs

The top Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee is renewing his call for details about the reductions in force that have taken place at the Department of Health and Human Services. In a letter sent to HHS on Monday, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the committee’s ranking member, pressed HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to explain how the layoffs of thousands of federal employees this year are impacting the agency’s mission. “As a result of these actions, operations of vital programs are in jeopardy — threatening to deprive…

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Hicks presses Congress to increase support for Replicator, RDER

Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks on Wednesday sent a pointed message to Congress at the NDIA emerging technologies conference, saying that congressional trust will “need to substantially expand” when it comes to the department’s innovation programs. “Take Replicator,” Hicks said. “We’ve done nearly 40 Hill briefings since last October, averaging almost one a week.” “On an initiative that represents 0.059 percent of DoD’s budget — that depth of engagement isn’t scalable for Congress across the breadth of what we’re all trying to accomplish.” Replicator, unveiled last August, is Hicks’…

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Turkey, Hungary unmoved as U.S. presses Sweden’s NATO bid ‘without delay’

The White House stepped up its lobbying for Sweden’s pending membership in NATO on Wednesday as objections from Turkey and Hungary cast doubt on whether the Scandinavian country can join the military alliance before Mr. Biden and other NATO leaders meet in Lithuania in mid-July. The Washington Times stories: White House

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