Daily U.S. Policy and Governance Roundup – December 31, 2025

Federal Workforce and Administration

OPM outlines large 2025 federal workforce reduction
The Office of Personnel Management reported major changes to the federal workforce under the Trump administration.¹

• Roughly 317,000 federal employees are expected to leave government service in 2025, with over 90% departing through voluntary programs and natural attrition, described as the largest workforce reduction in modern federal history.
• A hiring freeze limited new recruitment to mission‑critical roles, resulting in about 68,000 new federal hires for the year, far below typical levels.
• A Deferred Resignation Program produced about 154,000 voluntary resignations, which OPM says helped agencies shed "non‑essential" positions while maintaining core operations.
• OPM states that, working with the Office of Management and Budget, it is directing agencies to create annual headcount plans tied to statutory requirements and administration priorities, and that it plans to use special salary rate authority to provide roughly 2.8% additional pay to certain frontline law‑enforcement employees.

Global Health and Foreign Policy

U.S.–Côte d’Ivoire health cooperation MOU
The State Department announced a five‑year, $937 million bilateral global health Memorandum of Understanding with Côte d’Ivoire.²

• The agreement commits up to $487 million in U.S. assistance and requires $450 million in Ivorian investment, including about $125 million earmarked for frontline health workers and essential commodities.
• The MOU is framed as part of the administration’s “America First Global Health Strategy,” linking U.S. health aid to greater partner‑country investment and responsibility for infectious‑disease preparedness.
• The State Department indicated that additional multi‑year bilateral MOUs on global health cooperation with dozens of other U.S. health‑assistance recipient countries are expected in the coming weeks.

Cambodia–Thailand ceasefire support
The State Department welcomed steps by Cambodia and Thailand to maintain their December 27 ceasefire agreement following recent cross‑border clashes.³

• The U.S. noted Thailand’s release of 18 Cambodian soldiers as a positive confidence‑building measure.
• Washington reiterated support for the two governments as they resume implementation of their October 26 Joint Declaration and the provisions of the Kuala Lumpur Peace Accords aimed at a durable peace.

U.S. sanctions on Venezuela‑linked oil traders
Two coordinated U.S. actions targeted companies moving Venezuelan oil in violation of sanctions.

• The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned four companies operating in Venezuela’s oil sector and identified four associated oil tankers as blocked property, citing their role in sanctions evasion that generates revenue for Nicolás Maduro’s government.⁴⁵
• A parallel State Department statement said the U.S. is sanctioning four entities for illegally operating in Venezuela’s oil sector and is also blocking four associated oil tankers as part of efforts to disrupt a “shadow fleet” supporting Maduro’s “illegitimate, corrupt regime.”⁶
• As a result, all property and interests in property of these entities and vessels that are in the U.S. or under the control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC.

Defense and National Security

Marine Corps launches new small‑drone training framework
The Marine Corps detailed a new program to rapidly expand its cadre of small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) operators, focused on commercial off‑the‑shelf first‑person‑view (FPV) attack drones.⁷

• Announced via MARADMIN 624/25, the effort establishes six pilot courses and eight certifications to create standardized training for Marines operating systems such as the Neros Archer FPV attack drone.
• Training and Education Command described the courses as pilot programs to validate prerequisites, teaching methods, resourcing, and certification standards before integrating them into permanent training pipelines.
• The Marine Corps linked the initiative to broader Department of War plans to field tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousands, of attack drones across U.S. service components beginning in March 2026.

Pentagon press operations schedule
A Defense Department advisory set out the Pentagon Press Operations (PPO) schedule for December 31, 2025 through January 4, 2026, covering holiday staffing and media engagement plans. The underlying advisory page on Defense.gov was not accessible, so specific briefing times and participants were not available.

Defense contract announcements unavailable
A Defense Department web entry titled “Contracts for Dec. 31, 2025” was inaccessible, returning an access‑denied error.

• Standard Pentagon practice is to publish daily contract awards of $7.5 million or more; however, no contract details could be retrieved for this date from the Defense.gov page.

Army medical innovation recognized
According to Defense Department‑linked distribution channels, an Army surgery resident at Tripler Army Medical Center developed a novel life‑support system and was named to the Forbes “30 Under 30 – Healthcare 2026” list for this work.⁸

• Public summaries describe the system as a new life‑support technology aimed at improving survival for critically injured patients, though technical specifications were not detailed in accessible materials.

U.S. Economy and Labor

Unemployment insurance weekly claims release
The Department of Labor issued its regular Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims report for the week ending in late December 2025, via an ETA news release dated December 31, 2025.⁹

• The publicly linked document is a PDF and was not machine‑readable in this review, so specific figures for initial and continuing claims could not be extracted.
• The release continues the standard weekly reporting series on seasonally adjusted initial claims, insured unemployment, and four‑week moving averages.

Regulation, Technology, and Consumer Protection

Disney ordered to pay $10 million in children’s privacy case
A federal court approved an order requiring The Walt Disney Company to pay $10 million to resolve Federal Trade Commission allegations that the firm enabled the unlawful collection of children’s personal data.¹⁰

• The settlement addresses claims that Disney failed to prevent third parties from collecting personal information from children viewing child‑directed videos, in violation of federal children’s privacy rules.
• In addition to the civil penalty, the order requires Disney to implement measures such as notifying parents before collecting children’s data and ensuring that content designated for children is properly labeled and handled under applicable privacy laws.

Domestic Policy and Social Services

Federal childcare funding frozen amid fraud probes
National outlets reported that the Trump administration moved to freeze federal child‑care payments pending fraud reviews.¹¹¹²

• The Department of Health and Human Services initially told Minnesota officials that it was halting all federal childcare funding to the state amid allegations of large‑scale fraud in subsidy programs, and signaled parallel action affecting other states while records and eligibility data are reviewed.
• Minnesota’s situation centers on allegations of extensive misuse of federal childcare funds, including criminal charges against dozens of defendants in prior related cases.
• The freezes raised concerns among state officials and childcare providers about the continuity of subsidies for low‑income families at the start of 2026.

Community and Law Enforcement Partnerships

State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service holiday outreach
The Diplomatic Security Service highlighted its participation in the 27th annual “Kringle Detail” in Northern Virginia, a long‑running December initiative with local law‑enforcement partners.¹³

• The event combines community service and public‑safety outreach, with DSS personnel joining local police to distribute holiday gifts and interact with residents.
• The Kringle Detail is presented as part of DSS’s broader strategy to strengthen relationships with local law‑enforcement agencies and communities in the National Capital Region.

Selected International and Political Developments Affecting the U.S.

National Guard deployment push scaled back
U.S. media reported that President Donald Trump said he was dropping—for now—his effort to deploy National Guard troops to cities including Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, after facing legal and political resistance.¹⁴

• In Chicago, local and state officials had opposed the deployment plan, and federal court rulings limited the administration’s authority to send troops over state objections.
• The shift marked at least a temporary pullback from an earlier White House push to use National Guard forces in certain Democratic‑led cities in the name of crime control.

Agriculture support program details expected (access limited)
The Department of Agriculture listed a press release, dated December 31, 2025, on commodity payment rates under the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program, an initiative described earlier in December by President Trump and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins as providing $12 billion in 2026 payments to U.S. farmers.

• Due to technical access issues, the full text of the December 31 announcement could not be reviewed; available snippets indicate the release set per‑acre payment rates by commodity for the upcoming program year.¹⁵