After taking the recent buyout offer, some employees were fired, a source said.
President Donald Trump's administration, including Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, is continuing its sweeping effort to cut much of the federal government -- but it's being met with legal challenges.
Trump is also making his second administration's first forays on the diplomatic front with calls to Russia's Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy on ending the 3-year-old war that began in February 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine.
And a day after Hamas released more hostages taken when it attacked Israel in October 2023, Secretary of State Marco Rubio agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the militant organization needs to be "eliminated."
Sen. Mitch McConnell, the lone Republican to cast a vote against Tulsi Gabbard's nomination to serve as director of national intelligence, said in a statement that Gabbard "failed to demonstrate" that she was prepared to take on the job.
He added that Gabbard has had "alarming lapses in judgment" during her career.
– ABC News’ Allison Pecorin
In a lengthy post, President Donald Trump said he talked with Russian President Vladimir Putin and that they agreed for their teams to "start negotiations immediately" to end the Russia-Ukraine War. Trump said his first step will be to call Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which he says he is doing now.
"We both believe very strongly in it. We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations. We have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we will begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now." he wrote in the post.
The president also thanked Putin for the release of Marc Fogel.
-- ABC News' Mary Bruce
The Senate confirmed Tulsi Gabbard to serve as director of national intelligence by a vote of 52-48 on Wednesday.
Former Republican Leader Mitch McConnell was the only Republican to break ranks and vote against Gabbard's nomination. All other Republicans voted for Gabbard and all Democrats voted against her.
Prior to the vote, Majority Leader John Thune laid into Democrats for their unified efforts to block and oppose both her and Robert F. Kennedy Jr's nominations, arguing that their lack of willingness to support Trump's picks demonstrates how "out of step" with America the party has become.
Gabbard cleared a key Senate test vote Monday night and was expected to be confirmed.
– ABC News' Allison Pecorin
A group of non-profits suing the Trump administration over its 90-day foreign aid freeze are accusing government officials of "accelerating their terminations of contracts and suspensions of grants of USAID and State Department partners," according to court documents filed early Wednesday.
The aid groups, who filed their suit Tuesday morning, said many of them "received new purported termination notices, including yesterday and this morning" and suggested that government officials "may be doing so specifically in response to this lawsuit."
The groups asked a federal judge to either issue a temporary restraining order to prevent further terminations or schedule an emergency hearing on Wednesday to discuss the matter.
-- ABC News' Lucien Bruggeman
