The federal courts system needs $72.9 million in supplemental funding this year to prevent layoffs and other repercussions from sequester-related budget cuts, says the Judicial Conference of the United States. "The judiciary is confronting an unprecedented fiscal crisis that could seriously compromise the constitutional mission of the United States courts," the letter says.

The Senate confirmed Ernest Moniz as energy secretary on May 16 by a 97-0 vote. Moniz, previously a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was nominated in March to replace Steven Chu, also a former physics professor.

The General Services Administration owes more than one thousand contractors more than $3 million because the agency failed to reimburse vendors after kicking them out of the schedules program.

Under House Appropriations Committee spending bill for the coming fiscal year marked up in subcommittee May 15, the Veterans Affairs Department would be funded at a topline of $147.6 billion, with $63.1 billion of that being discretionary spending.

Facilities at some closed Army installations were not maintained at a high enough level for reuse within communities surrounding the closed bases because the Army doesn't have specific guidelines for maintenance, a May 14 Government Accountability Office report (.pdf) says.