The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

Federal agencies are releasing their new use case inventories for artificial intelligence. Across the government, there now are more than 2,500 AI use cases, an increase of more than 800 since last year. And with the rise of agentic AI, agencies are positioning themselves to drive toward more automation and efficiencies. Kelly Fletcher is the chief information officer for the State Department. And Kris Saling is the chief technology advisor for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs. They talked about the state of their AI rollouts with Federal News Network’s Jason Miller. Fletcher leads off this excerpt from the discussion.
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Hundreds of former USAID employees and their supporters gathered in downtown Washington, D.C., last week. Their rally marked exactly one year since the agency shuttered, and thousands of staff members were escorted out of their offices. At the rally, former employees called out impacts of the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID, while also considering their path forward. Federal News Network’s Drew Friedman was there.
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Election offices are heading into 2026 with real pressure on staffing, administration, and public confidence. New proposals at the federal level could add to the workload as local officials prepare for a complex election cycle. We break down the biggest challenges with Donald Palmer, Chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
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A remnant of DOGE is about to get a new life under the Trump administration. OPM plans to issue its first TechForce job offers this week, as the agency wraps up reviews for software engineers and data scientists who would serve two‑ to four‑year tours on modernization projects. To find out how this effort will work — and how it differs from past attempts to bring more technologists into government —Federal News Network’s Eric White spoke with Lauren Chambers, a Ph.D candidate at the UC Berkeley School of Information.
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Coming up on the Federal Drive with Terry Gerton
From poll‑worker shortages to new federal proposals, 2026 could test election systems
A once‑gutted government tech program is coming back to life as OPM prepares to hire its first TechForce cohort
DoD’s move against Anthropic and its plan to deploy all FY 2026 funding at once could reset the market for federal contractors

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