Federal retirement processing times are slowing down - EUROPE SAYS
OPM’s retirement claim inventory in June was the lowest it’s been all year, coming in at just under 34,000 pending applications. Michele SandifordJuly 10, 2026 2:00 pm< a min readFederal retirement. . .
OPM’s retirement claim inventory in June was the lowest it’s been all year, coming in at just under 34,000 pending applications. Michele SandifordJuly 10, 2026 2:00 pmAs the Trump administration offloads excess federal office space, what takes its place is coming into focus. The General Services Administration is accelerating plans to offload underutilized buildings and those falling into disrepair as part of a $50 billion maintenance backlog. Buyers in some recent cases are looking to convert former federal office buildings into apartment buildings. Others are marked for demolition. The site of a recently sold federal building in San Antonio, Texas, will eventually become a new arena for the city’s basketball team. These sales are happening across the country, but are clustered in the Washington, D. C. metro area. In Southwest Federal Center, a business district nearly entirely occupied by federal office buildings, the Trump administration is planning to sell the headquarters for three agencies. The top civilian overseeing the Space Force’s acquisition branch said the command aims to hire 100 employees each month as it rebuilds following last year’s civilian purge. Most pressing are vacancies in Space Systems Command’s contracting corps, where around 40% of jobs sit empty. Natalie Riedel, executive director of SSC, hopes to get that number down to about 20%. Backfilling civilian cybersecurity roles is another top priority. The Space Force Civilians make up about one-third of the Pentagon’s smallest service, more than in any other branch of the military. The Army’s effort to modernize its direct commissioning program is finally showing results. The most recent selection board reviewed around 60 candidates for high-demand fields such as cyber, artificial intelligence and information warfare. That is more candidates than the service historically commissioned in an entire year. The process for appointing officers through direct commissions has previously been described as a “disaster” due to lengthy processing timelines and layers of bureaucracy. The Army recently centralized the effort under U. S. Army Recruiting Command, which allowed the service to reduce the time from application to commission to fewer than six months. Service officials previously said that direct commissioning program applicants would “completely upskill” Army organizations over time. The Technology Modernization Fund is looking to invest new money into two priority areas: artificial intelligence and permitting systems. With about $200 million in the fund, the board wants initial proposals from agencies by July 24 and plans to make awards before the program expires on Sept. 30. Proposals for permitting technologies should expand the implementation scope, improve the ability to share data and coordinate with other agencies, or accelerate high-impact work already underway for permitting technologies. AI proposals should focus on helping agencies build the foundation needed to adopt AI tools securely and broadly. The Defense Department now has a guide to prepare the acquisition workforce for broader use of a contracting authority known as “TINA Lite. ” The authority gives greater flexibility to contracting officers when determining the level of detail for required certified cost or pricing data, allowing them to rely more on actual cost data from prior acquisitions when determining whether a price is fair and reasonable. TINA Lite can be used for contract actions exceeding $50 million when a contractor has a meaningful history of delivering the same or similar products to the department. Pentagon officials say the authority will help accelerate the contracting and pricing process. Originally launched as a pilot program, Congress made TINA Lite permanent in the fiscal 2026 defense policy bill. The Defense Department will formally implement the authority with a change to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement in the coming weeks. ]]>Copyright© 2026 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area. Tags:businessfederal retirementfederal retirement applicationsfederal retirement claimsfederal retirement processoffice of personnel managementopm retirement claim inventoryPersonal Finance