Featured Stories
Amtrak Board Advances Preliminary Framework to Modernize and Transform Corporate Structure
WASHINGTON, July 31 -- Amtrak (National Railroad Passenger Corp.) issued the following news:
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Amtrak Board Advances Preliminary Framework to Modernize and Transform Corporate Structure
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Amtrak seeks public feedback on a preliminary, management-developed framework designed to build on record momentum and position America's Railroad for the next 50 years of growth.
Amtrak has never been stronger. Building on record ridership, record revenue, record capital investment, and more than $10 billion in new fleet investments, the Amtrak Board of Directors is advancing a preliminary framework,
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, July 31 -- Amtrak (National Railroad Passenger Corp.) issued the following news:
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Amtrak Board Advances Preliminary Framework to Modernize and Transform Corporate Structure
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Amtrak seeks public feedback on a preliminary, management-developed framework designed to build on record momentum and position America's Railroad for the next 50 years of growth.
Amtrak has never been stronger. Building on record ridership, record revenue, record capital investment, and more than $10 billion in new fleet investments, the Amtrak Board of Directors is advancing a preliminary framework,developed by Amtrak management, to modernize and transform the company's corporate structure. The Board is seeking public feedback as it continues to refine the proposed structure and implementation approach.
"Our management team developed this preliminary framework after extensive study and continues to seek input to be sure we get it right," said Interim President Byl Herrmann. "Our goal is a more accountable, effective, and resilient Amtrak, one that delivers more riders, more revenue, and the best customer service in the transportation industry."
Under the framework, Amtrak would remain the parent company, providing governance, strategic direction, and coordination, while establishing three focused businesses:
* Passenger Services: Delivering safe, reliable service and an improved customer experience.
* Infrastructure Management: Maintaining and improving tracks, bridges, tunnels, and stations, overseeing more than $5 billion annually in infrastructure investments.
* Fleet Management: Managing more than $10 billion in new rolling stock and fleet modernization.
The proposed structure is designed to bring greater visibility into performance and costs, enable faster and better-informed decisions, and align authority with responsibility and results, creating a more accountable, focused, and agile company built to carry more passengers, support more service, and deliver stronger financial performance.
"Our management team proposed this preliminary framework after extensive study, and continues to seek input to be sure we get it right," said Interim President Byl Herrmann. "Our goal is a more accountable, effective, and resilient Amtrak, one that delivers more riders, more revenue, and the best customer service in the transportation industry."
Beginning in September, Amtrak will develop the detailed design and implementation plan, with a formal proposal to the Board in December and operations under the new structure proposed to begin in 2027.
To learn more and to share feedback, visit The Future of Amtrak | Amtrak.
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Original text here: https://media.amtrak.com/2026/07/amtrak-board-advances-preliminary-framework-to-modernize-and-transform-corporate-structure/
Postal Service IG: Operational and Financial Performance Across Postal Service Regions
WASHINGTON, July 30 (TNSLrpt) -- The U.S. Postal Service Inspector General issued the following audit rpeort (No. 25-091-R26) on July 27, 2026, entitled "Operational and Financial Performance Across Postal Service Regions."
Here are excerpts:
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Background
The U.S. Postal Service is undergoing a significant transformation to modernize its network and operations as part of the Delivering for America plan. We have noted variations in impacts to communities across the country, even when the changes themselves have been similar. Differences in workplace culture may help explain regional variations
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WASHINGTON, July 30 (TNSLrpt) -- The U.S. Postal Service Inspector General issued the following audit rpeort (No. 25-091-R26) on July 27, 2026, entitled "Operational and Financial Performance Across Postal Service Regions."
Here are excerpts:
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Background
The U.S. Postal Service is undergoing a significant transformation to modernize its network and operations as part of the Delivering for America plan. We have noted variations in impacts to communities across the country, even when the changes themselves have been similar. Differences in workplace culture may help explain regional variationsin operational efficiency and service experienced throughout this transformation. As labor makes up 76 percent of the Postal Service's $89.5 billion annual expenses, the workforce is critical to its modernization success.
What We Did
Our objective was to evaluate operational culture and key performance indicators in places where the performance was varied. We judgmentally selected five low-performing and five high-performing districts for review and conducted site visits and interviews with personnel at facilities in each of these districts.
What We Found
A resilient and engaged workforce is essential for the Postal Service to carry out its Delivering for America plan and achieve long term goals. However, the Postal Service has faced workforce and culture challenges for years at low-performing sites that have consistently struggled with employee satisfaction, engagement, attendance, and retention; and costly union grievances. We also identified several ineffective management practices that negatively affected workplace culture and performance, such as non-value-added tasks and inadequate operational oversight.
Although these issues occurred across all facilities, they were more severe at low performing sites, widening regional operational and financial gaps and slowing the Postal Service's progress. We estimate the Postal Service incurred nearly $437 million in annual questioned costs due to facilities operating below the national efficiency average. However, we identified best practices used at high-performing sites, that, if adopted, could improve leadership effectiveness, employee morale and engagement, and operational performance.
Recommendations and Management's Comments
We made two recommendations to address the issues identified in the report, and Postal Service management disagreed with both. We will pursue the two disagreed recommendations through the audit resolution process. Management's comments and our evaluation are at the end of our recommendations.
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View the original text at: https://www.uspsoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2026-07/25-091-r26.pdf
NASA Awards 2026 Innovative Technology Concepts
PASADENA, California, July 30 (TNSres) -- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory issued the following news:
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NASA Awards 2026 Innovative Technology Concepts
JPL is leading three of the 18 visionary concepts awarded funding by an innovation incubator program at NASA.
The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program has created 18 new awards to support visionary ideas to improve aerospace technologies in areas ranging from the exploration of the solar system to understanding the universe.
The 18 NIAC Phase I awards total $3.2 million. Each award provides up to $175,000 for a nine-month initial
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PASADENA, California, July 30 (TNSres) -- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory issued the following news:
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NASA Awards 2026 Innovative Technology Concepts
JPL is leading three of the 18 visionary concepts awarded funding by an innovation incubator program at NASA.
The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program has created 18 new awards to support visionary ideas to improve aerospace technologies in areas ranging from the exploration of the solar system to understanding the universe.
The 18 NIAC Phase I awards total $3.2 million. Each award provides up to $175,000 for a nine-month initialinvestigation. The NIAC projects are about early-stage concept development and are not considered official NASA missions.
"NASA has outlined an ambitious vision for the future of space exploration, we're returning the Moon to stay, advancing to Mars, and pushing to deepen our understanding of space," said Greg Stover, director of the Advanced Research and Technology division within the Research and Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Achieving that will require more than incremental technological advancement. It means we need great leaps. These awards are the kinds of innovation the world needs NASA to help foster."
As an innovation incubator, NIAC funds early development of potential breakthrough technologies. Concepts for award consideration must have both transformative potential and possible feasibility for eventual implementation.
"Every innovation, every leap in technology, starts with a seed of an idea," said Phillip Williams, NIAC's acting program executive. "The NIAC program allows NASA to germinate those seeds and determine if there's something that could be grown to benefit future space missions and our nation's aerospace economy."
As NASA and its partners push for sustained lunar presence, some of the 2026 awardees focused on ways to help explore the Moon and build infrastructure there. These include a system to support hovering robots to explore lava tubes under the Moon's surface, a method to manage temperatures for small mobile exploration robots, and a way to incorporate radioisotopic heat sources into suits to help keep astronauts warm when operating in the Moon's nearly two-week-long lunar nights.
Other concepts focus on exploring some of the solar system's most remarkable features. Venus, with its hot atmosphere, presents an imposing challenge for research vehicles, so one NIAC awardee explores methods for hardening instruments for longer missions.
Two other concepts could help study planetary rings. One would use a swarm of 10,000 tiny satellites to map and analyze the rings of Saturn, while another would create a system for collecting samples from rings such as those circling Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
Some NIAC awardees will look far beyond the solar system, exploring ways to power interstellar spacecraft, map out continents on exoplanets, observe the photon rings around black holes, and detect subtle gravitational waves to explain how galaxies formed. Others will work to answer questions directly related to life on Earth, like the potential use of spaceborne dust to reduce solar radiation, and awareness about the debris orbiting Earth.
Researchers, known as NIAC Fellows, will investigate their concepts and identify potential challenges and opportunities for further development.
The 18 selections for 2026 NIAC Phase 1 grants are:
* Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California: Dimming the Sun Using Controllable Dust Cloud to Reduce Solar Insolation (DimSun)
* David Bugby, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Combinatory Architecture offering Neomobility, on-Venus Adaptability, and Survivability (CANVAS)
* A.C. Charania, Zeno Power Systems, Inc., Washington: Extended Astronaut Radioisotope-EVA in Nighttime and Deep-space Icy Landscapes (EARENDIL)
* Anish Damodaran, University of Central Florida, Orlando: PS21: Transforming Submillimeter Space Interferometry with Photonic Technologies
* Artur Davoyan, University of California, Los Angeles: Coilable Stacked Solar Sails for Very High delta-V Missions
* Daniel Drew, University of Hawaii, Honolulu: Solid-state Propulsion for Autonomous Reconnaissance of Karst (SPARK)
* Gilly Elor, Stone Aerospace, Inc., Del Valle, Texas: Power-over-Fiber to Enable a Lunar Underground eXplorer (LUX)
* Zhaoyan Liu, NASA Ames Research Center, California's Silicon Valley: Quantum Wind Lidar Applications for Planetary and Earth Science Missions
* Jeff Nosanov, Orbital Velocity, LLC, Decatur, Georgia: OBLIVIAN: Observing Black hole LIght Via Intensity cOrrelatioN (OBLIVIAN)
* Keunhan Park, University of Utah, Salt Lake City: Plasmon-Enhanced Radioisotope Thermophotovoltaic (PRTPV) Power Generation for Interstellar Missions
* Austin Phoenix, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia: Efficient variable Conductivity Lunar Insulator for Passive Surveyor Environmental Control (ECLIPSE)
* Marco Quadrelli, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: PRAXIS: Planetary Rings Autonomous EXploration with In-situ Sampling (PRAXIS)
* Michael Rubenstein, Northwestern University, Chicago: Actively Steerable Femtosat Constellations for In-situ Exploration of Saturn's Rings, Atmosphere, and Magnetosphere
* Benjamin Schafer, Rarefied Technologies Inc., Albuquerque, New Mexico: Photophoretic Tracers for Near-Space Remote Sensing at 30-100 km Altitudes
* David Smith, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina: Robotically Assembled Electromagnetic Metamaterials for Long-Range Space Situational Awareness
* Pablo Sobron, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute, Mountain View, California: Interworld Slingshot Resource Surveys
* Paul Stankus, Brookhaven Science Associates, Upton, New York: Mapping Alien Continents: Achieving Optical VLBI for Exoplanet Imaging
* Paul Stankus, Brookhaven Science Associates, Upton, New York: Precision Astrometry Using Optically Independent Spacecraft for Gravitational Wave Detection
To learn more about NASA's NIAC program, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/about-niac/
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Original text here: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-awards-2026-innovative-technology-concepts/
Fed IG: The Board Needs a More Robust Insider Risk Management Program.
WASHINGTON, July 30 (TNSLrpt) -- The Federal Reserve Inspector General issued the following report on July 15, 2026, entitled "The Board Needs a More Robust Insider Risk Management Program."
Here are excerpts:
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The Board's proprietary economic information is of great interest to foreign adversaries who seek to undermine U.S. competitiveness and weaken national security. Risks can also occur from within--for example, an employee who, knowingly or unknowingly, shares sensitive information with foreign operatives.
We found that the Board's insider risk management activities do not proactively
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, July 30 (TNSLrpt) -- The Federal Reserve Inspector General issued the following report on July 15, 2026, entitled "The Board Needs a More Robust Insider Risk Management Program."
Here are excerpts:
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The Board's proprietary economic information is of great interest to foreign adversaries who seek to undermine U.S. competitiveness and weaken national security. Risks can also occur from within--for example, an employee who, knowingly or unknowingly, shares sensitive information with foreign operatives.
We found that the Board's insider risk management activities do not proactivelyor effectively identify and manage insider risks to its information and assets. The Board lacks (1) a process to identify its critical assets, (2) a centralized program to proactively identify and manage insider risks at an enterprise level, (3) procedures for the timely sharing of pertinent information internally and with the Federal Reserve System, (4) enterprise-level policies and procedures establishing consistent incident response and reporting practices, and (5) insider risk training requirements for all Board staff.
We have nine recommendations that will contribute to developing a more robust insider risk management program.
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The report is posted at: https://oig.federalreserve.gov/reports/board-insider-risk-management-redacted-jul2026.pdf
EPA IG: Audit of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board's Compliance With the Federal Information Security Modernization Act for Fiscal Year 2025
WASHINGTON, July 30 (TNSLrpt) -- The Environmental Protection Agency Inspector General issued the following report (No. 26-P-0042) entitled "Audit of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board's Compliance with the Federal Information Security Modernization Act for Fiscal Year 2025."
Here are excerpts:
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Why We Did This Report
We contracted this audit to assess the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board's compliance with the Fiscal Year 2025 Inspector General Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 Reporting Metrics. We contracted with SB & Company
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, July 30 (TNSLrpt) -- The Environmental Protection Agency Inspector General issued the following report (No. 26-P-0042) entitled "Audit of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board's Compliance with the Federal Information Security Modernization Act for Fiscal Year 2025."
Here are excerpts:
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Why We Did This Report
We contracted this audit to assess the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board's compliance with the Fiscal Year 2025 Inspector General Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 Reporting Metrics. We contracted with SB & CompanyLLC to perform this audit under our direction and oversight. The Federal Information Security Modernization Act requires the inspector general of each agency to conduct an independent evaluation each year to determine the effectiveness of the agency's information security program and practices.
Summary of Findings
SB & Company LLC concluded that the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, also known as the CSB, achieved an overall maturity level of Level 2, Defined in fiscal year 2025. This means that the CSB's information security policies, procedures, and strategies are formalized and documented but not consistently implemented. While the CSB maintained the same overall Level 2, Defined maturity level that it achieved in fiscal year 2024, SB & Company identified areas that need improvements associated with three IG FISMA Reporting Metrics domains: Risk and Asset Management, Identity and Access Management, and Contingency Planning.
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The report is posted at: https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2026-07/_epaoig_20260714-26-p-0042_cert.pdf
EPA IG: Audit of the EPA's Compliance With the Federal Information Security Modernization Act for Fiscal Year 2025
WASHINGTON, July 30 (TNSLrpt) -- The Environmental Protection Agency Inspector General issued the following report (No. 26-P-0041) entitled "Audit of the EPA's Compliance with the Federal Information Security Modernization Act for Fiscal Year 2025."
Here are excerpts:
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Why We Did This Report
We conducted this audit to assess the EPA's compliance with the FY 2025 Inspector General Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA) Reporting Metrics. The Federal Information Security Modernization Act requires the inspector general of each agency to conduct an independent evaluation
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, July 30 (TNSLrpt) -- The Environmental Protection Agency Inspector General issued the following report (No. 26-P-0041) entitled "Audit of the EPA's Compliance with the Federal Information Security Modernization Act for Fiscal Year 2025."
Here are excerpts:
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Why We Did This Report
We conducted this audit to assess the EPA's compliance with the FY 2025 Inspector General Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA) Reporting Metrics. The Federal Information Security Modernization Act requires the inspector general of each agency to conduct an independent evaluationeach year to determine the effectiveness of the agency's information security program and practices.
Summary of Findings
The Agency achieved Level 4 ratings for 19, or more than three-quarters, of the 25 fiscal year 2025 metrics, and we concluded that the EPA's information security program achieved an overall maturity rating of Level 4. This maturity rating indicates that the program is "managed and measurable." However, we did identify program deficiencies in the areas of data loss prevention, supply chain risk management controls, and role-based training compliance.
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The report is posted at: https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2026-07/_epaoig_20260714-26-p-0041_cert.pdf
EPA IG: Audit of EPA Water Earmark Grants for Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023
WASHINGTON, July 30 (TNSLrpt) -- The Environmental Protection Agency Inspector General issued the following report (No. 26-P-0043) entitled "Audit of EPA Water Earmark Grants for Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023."
Here are excerpts:
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Why We Did This Report
We conducted this audit to determine whether the EPA is awarding fiscal years 2022 and 2023 water infrastructure earmark grants expeditiously and in accordance with federal and EPA requirements.
Summary of Findings
As of September 2025, approximately 44 percent of the fiscal years 2022 and 2023 water earmark funds had not been awarded. According
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, July 30 (TNSLrpt) -- The Environmental Protection Agency Inspector General issued the following report (No. 26-P-0043) entitled "Audit of EPA Water Earmark Grants for Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023."
Here are excerpts:
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Why We Did This Report
We conducted this audit to determine whether the EPA is awarding fiscal years 2022 and 2023 water infrastructure earmark grants expeditiously and in accordance with federal and EPA requirements.
Summary of Findings
As of September 2025, approximately 44 percent of the fiscal years 2022 and 2023 water earmark funds had not been awarded. Accordingto the EPA, progress is slow due to challenges the Agency faces, such as initially not having an earmark program, significant personnel shortages, and many recipients without federal grant experience. We found that the Agency's lack of goals for timely awards, central tracking of pre-award documents, and clear guidance for tribal consultations also hindered the timely award of earmarks. As a result, over $1 billion of the $2.3 billion, or 510 of the 1,198 projects, had not been awarded and used to achieve the intended purpose of improving public health and environmental protections.
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The report is posted at: https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2026-07/_epaoig_20260721-26-p-0043_cert.pdf
