Happy Friday! It’s sunflower season here in Kansas—our state flower—and the sunflowers were at peak bloom over Labor Day weekend. The hot weather didn’t seem to bother them, and it certainly didn’t keep people from coming out to enjoy the beautiful fields this year. It’s a great place to remember how beautiful the world can be. If you have a sunflower field near you, I encourage you to take some time to go see them.

As you head into the weekend, here is our roundup of the latest in federal contracting news.

This week in federal government contracting included stories about the savings from contract cancellations and a continued push for AI use by the federal government.

• DHS Won’t Achieve Claimed Savings from Contract Cancellations, Says GAO
• Federal unions sue again to block USDA reorganization
• Lawmakers call on Elon Musk to explain lack of DOGE claimed DHS savings
• Washington is making decisions now that could reshape competition and investment across government
• Anthropic adds Fable 5.1 to Claude for Government
• ‘We have to throw technology at the cyber problem,’ Pentagon CIO says
• Trump signs veterans benefits order calling for improved data sharing
• OpenAI, GSA strike OneGov deal for ChatGPT through 2028