Overview

• Pentagon acting personnel chief Jules Hurst announced civilian employees no longer must send weekly five‐item accomplishment emails and must instead submit at least one waste‐curbing idea by Wednesday.
• The original requirement was introduced in February by the Office of Personnel Management under Elon Musk’s DOGE initiative but drew pushback over national security concerns and unclear purpose.
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth mandated compliance with the weekly reports in late February despite OPM later clarifying the exercise was voluntary.
• The National Institutes of Health and several other agencies have also discontinued the weekly productivity reports, reflecting a broader policy reversal.
• The new idea‐submission mandate includes no financial incentives, unlike the Navy’s longstanding Beneficial Suggestions program that pays employees for cost‐saving proposals.