Here's my take: the title is unclear. The federal government has required https for a while.
Learn more here: https://https.cio.gov/
OMB wrote a memo requiring https in 2015: https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/me...
If you see the "announcement" linked in the article, you'll notice that it's referencing this page: https://home.dotgov.gov/, which is about the HSTS preload list.