NEW: The Trump administration has frequently said that wait times for healthcare appointments at the VA are improving.

But internal data on wait times for new patients shows that the story is a lot more complicated. 👇

VA has seen fairly mixed results across the board, though it maintains it has seen the biggest improvements in the areas that have the most volume.

Both Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Jerry Moran of Veterans Affairs Committee said that the agency has more work to do.

50% of places offering oncology appointments also saw worsening wait times, with only 31% improving.

For substance use, PTSD and neurology, about 48% of facilities saw deterioration in wait times, with only 35%, 45% and 44% seeing improvements, respectively.

At 50% of the VHA’s locations taking urology appointments in the dataset we obtained, average wait times for new patients seeking an appointment got worse.

In 36% of locations, wait times got better. The remainder were stable.

VA has touted appointment wait time reductions, but new data shows a more mixed reality A comparative analysis of select wait-time data for new patients at more than 100 medical centers indicates the department has made progress in some areas, but not all.

Despite the Trump admin's claim, for some specialties and locations, wait times for new patients are up. In other places, they're down, my colleague Eric Katz and I found.

The VA has made some strides, but has not consistently cut wait times across all facilities.

www.govexec.com/management/2...

NEW: The Trump administration has frequently said that wait times for healthcare appointments at the VA are improving.

But internal data on wait times for new patients shows that the story is a lot more complicated. 👇

That said, skills-based is a bipartisan area of agreement that Trump 1.0, Biden and Trump 2.0 have pursued. Tech skills can be learned lots of places other than higher education.

Thank you for flagging this! Kupor got it wrong in his blog, I'll have to fix my story.

This was not, in fact, the chief complaint against Big Balls

Before working for the government, Coristine was previously fired from a company, Path Networks, after leaking internal firm secrets to a competitor, Krebs and Bloomberg News have previously reported.

In the media, an existing federal employee objected to Coristine’s place in the government, wrote Kupor, with the “chief complaint” being that “Ed was 19 years old and was a Northwestern University dropout.”

OPM cuts degree requirements for government tech jobs in new standards The changes have been years in the making and represent a federal hiring apparatus more focused on applicable skills than specific backgrounds.

The govt's HR office removed college degree requirements for technology employees this week--a bipartisan initiative years in the making.

This will help the govt hire people like DOGE's Big Balls, OPM director Scott Kupor wrote, one of DOGE's more infamous members.
www.nextgov.com/people/2026/...

Exposing a global ‘online rape academy’ that is teaching men how to abuse women and evade detection CNN exposes an online network of men encouraging each other to drug and assault their partners, and swap tips on how to get away with it.

CNN exposes a global “online rape academy” that teaches men how to drug and rape women without detection. Over 62 million men attended in February alone.

A screenshot of the following text: The IRS reductions from funding and layoffs have likely resulted in about $861 billion in decreased revenue. The layoffs from actions like DOGE alone have likely resulted in $597.8 billion in decreased revenue over the 2026-2035, and the clawback in IRS funding of $20 billion has likely resulted in $262.8 billion in decreased revenue over the same period.

Yale budget lab: budgetlab.yale.edu/research/wea...

“The government’s recent acknowledgments are alarming and raise serious questions about its earlier conduct before the district court,” a federal appeals court said today in a decision vacating limits on DOGE’s access to sensitive data at the SSA.

More 👇

The judge is talking about a January court filing in which the government conceded that DOGE associates may have improperly accessed sensitive data at the agency.

www.nextgov.com/digital-gove...

“The government’s recent acknowledgments are alarming and raise serious questions about its earlier conduct before the district court,” a federal appeals court said today in a decision vacating limits on DOGE’s access to sensitive data at the SSA.

More 👇

DOJ Moves Fraud Attorneys to New Division, Reversing Plans (1) The Trump Justice Department is attempting to surge anti-fraud cases by transferring white-collar prosecutors to a new division, backtracking on assurances to career attorneys that they’d remain insul...

DOJ’s elite fraud section was largely shielded from Trump’s partisan intrusion over past year & was assured separation from JD Vance’s fraud initiative. In one fell swoop yesterday, that ended, sparking deep concerns of weaponized white collar enforcement. news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Treasury is creating a database with pandemic aid recipients’ sensitive information Critics say the scope established in the agency’s systems of record notice “is an astonishing and dramatic departure from prior Treasury practice.”

The latest front in the Trump administration’s efforts to centralize government data --- the Treasury Department, which is pooling sensitive financial data, Social Security numbers and other info on the recipients of eight programs.

www.nextgov.com/digital-gove...

"We suspect the unstated purpose of the system of records is not to audit at all, but to get access to the information held by states that Treasury cannot otherwise directly compel them to submit to the federal government,” continues that comment from the Association of Public Data Users.

“We suspect the unstated purpose of the system of records is not to audit at all, but to get access to the information held by states that Treasury cannot otherwise directly compel them to submit to the federal government,” continues APDU’s comment, which it submitted with nine other organizations.

The National Consumer Law Center estimates that the database could pull info on millions of people, but specifics are hard to come by.

Another nonprofit wrote in its comment that the notice “seems designed particularly to obfuscate the purpose of the collection and potential uses of the data.”

Treasury is creating a database with pandemic aid recipients’ sensitive information Critics say the scope established in the agency’s systems of record notice “is an astonishing and dramatic departure from prior Treasury practice.”

The latest front in the Trump administration’s efforts to centralize government data --- the Treasury Department, which is pooling sensitive financial data, Social Security numbers and other info on the recipients of eight programs.

www.nextgov.com/digital-gove...

The IRS wants to shrink its workforce by nearly 4,000 — and use technology to make up the difference “Without modernization, the IRS would be unable to sustain performance with a reduced headcount,” the budget document says.

NEW: The IRS has pushed out more than 28,000 employees since Trump’s inauguration.

Now, it wants to lose another net 4,000 staff. It's banking on technology improvements to make up the difference.

www.nextgov.com/modernizatio...

Social Security delays launch of new nationwide caseload system The agency is postponing the rollout of new, national systems the same month they were set to be deployed. It was still working out specifics for how it would move claims processing to a national setu...

SSA is delaying its rollout of new systems to centralize claims processing & appointment scheduling.

The optics of such a change factored into the decision to delay the rollout — “particularly where customers may expect access to their local office."

www.nextgov.com/digital-gove...

Still, the effort runs the risk of disenfranchising voters, as the federal government doesn't have the right data to create accurate lists.

“What we are doing is… bringing a missile launcher to kill a fly," one source told me of the efforts to make lists of adult U.S. citizens for the purposes of cracking down on purported fraud.

Trump’s goal to create state-by-state citizenship lists isn’t feasible, experts say A Tuesday executive order mandating that DHS create state-by-state citizenship lists is Trump’s latest effort to exert some control over state-run elections.

NEW: Trump wants DHS to create state-by-state citizenship lists.

Experts say that’s not feasible, and runs the risk of disenfranchising eligible voters.

www.nextgov.com/policy/2026/...

IRS’ move away from paper checks has delayed tax refunds for nearly 1.5 million Americans Other government agencies are also moving away from paper checks. The Social Security Administration has warned claimants still receiving their benefits via paper checks that their benefits could be d...

More than one million taxpayers are facing weeks-long delays in receiving their tax refunds due to IRS efforts to wean the government off paper checks.

www.nextgov.com/modernizatio...

Justice Dept. Watchdog Has Gone Silent, Lawyers for Whistle-Blower Say

The Justice Department’s internal watchdog has seemingly ignored 20 instances of possible wrongdoing by the Trump administration, lawyers for a whistle-blower said in a letter on Monday.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/30/u...