Lawmakers need solutions about IRS Free File program

This system noticed a peak of about 5 million taxpayers in 2004, however has seen a decline in customers since then.

• The IRS pulled the plug on its free on-line tax submitting platform. Members of the Senate say the company’s partnership with tax submitting firms hasn’t stepped up. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Angus King (I-Maine) are asking the IRS what it’s doing to advertise its Free File program with tax preparation firms. This system noticed a peak of about 5 million taxpayers in 2004, however has seen a decline in customers since then. The variety of firms taking part in this system has additionally declined.
• The Division of Well being and Human Providers is shutting down one in all its analysis places of work. HHS is successfully dismantling the Workplace of Planning, Analysis, and Analysis on the Administration for Youngsters and Households. That’s in response to a joint assertion from the Knowledge Basis and Outcomes for America. Beneath a significant restructuring, solely mandated analysis is predicted to proceed. Work that is still will now require direct approval from political appointees. The workplace beforehand evaluated what works in applications like Head Begin and youngster welfare applications.
• The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company will host a collection of city halls this spring to assist refine cyber incident reporting laws. Final week, CISA introduced that it might host public conferences via early April. The city halls will enable CISA to get extra suggestions on a proposed rule for the Cyber Incident Reporting for Vital Infrastructure Act (CIRCIA). That regulation would require essential infrastructure teams to report cyber assaults to CISA inside 72 hours. However first, CISA has to finalize the laws.
• The Treasury Division is on a quick observe to convey AI instruments to its workforce. The Treasury Division has greater than 120 synthetic intelligence use instances in its most up-to-date stock, up to date final month. Of these, the company has deployed solely about 20 into manufacturing. Now, it needs to offer its places of work and bureaus direct entry to giant language fashions to assist transfer these different use instances out of the pilot part. In a brand new RFI, Treasury is looking for suggestions from AI firms for the way it can set up direct contractual relationships with them. The company stated that somewhat than shopping for a set set of instruments or fashions via a one-time acquisition, it needs to discover a construction that gives sustained, direct entry to frontier AI firms via a token-based procurement method. Responses to the RFI are due by Feb. 23.
• A bipartisan group of lawmakers is renewing a push to penalize the Protection Division for failing to cross a clear audit. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) launched the Audit the Pentagon Act of 2026. The invoice would require the Pentagon to return 0.5% of its price range to the Treasury after its first failed audit and forfeit 1% in subsequent years. The proposal exempts navy personnel and well being care funding from the automated cuts. Related laws has been launched repeatedly within the Senate, however none of these proposals has develop into regulation.
• The Division of Homeland Safety kicked off the week in shutdown mode. About 90% of the greater than 260,000 staff at DHS are working via the partial authorities shutdown. Congressional Democrats and the White Home confirmed no indicators of reaching a compromise on a funding deal for DHS via the weekend. Meaning airport screening officers on the Transportation Safety Administration, cyber specialists on the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company and Secret Service brokers will probably be amongst these working with out pay till the shutdown ends.
• The Workplace of Federal Procurement Coverage is lowering the variety of coaching hours some contracting officers should get hold of. In a brand new memo, OFPP tells acquisition employees beneath the Federal Acquisition Certification in Contracting, or FAC-C, class that they solely want 80 hours of steady studying credit each two years beginning in 2026. That is down from 100 hours, which OFPP mandated in 2023 when it revamped acquisition workforce coaching. OFPP stated it made this variation based mostly on suggestions it acquired from the acquisition workforce. On the similar time, OFPP stated the continual studying necessities for feds within the FAC-COR or FAC P/PM classes have not modified.
  
• The Protection Division is asking business to advocate revisions to the Federal Acquisition Regulation and Protection FAR Complement. The trouble follows latest government orders directing DoD to eradicate or revise pointless procurement laws or every other inner steering. DoD officers say preliminary rule modifications have already decreased regulatory burdens on each the division and protection contractors. Extra suggestions from the protection industrial base and acquisition stakeholders will assist form the subsequent part of what officers describe as a revolutionary overhaul of protection acquisition.

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