Federal Drive with Tom Temin

The Defense Health Agency has spent the past few years clustering military treatment facilities under its purview into marketplaces. Markets share resources and try to standardize care. Now, DHA is creating a catch-all conglomeration of clinics and hospitals to encompass remote facilities. Federal News Network's Scott Maucione spoke with the director of the new Small Market and Stand Alone Military Treatment Facility Organization, Maj. Gen. Shanna Woyack, on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

For a federal contractor, the best motivation for a new year's resolution is a better shot at more work. My next guest won't help you lose weight or write more letters, but he does have a few things that can help your business prospects. Federal sales and marketing consultant Larry Allen joined the Federal Drive to discuss.

In some ways, the IRS is defined by its some forms. Many of the 800 forms represent a process or transaction. People in the agency's Enterprise Digitalization Project have been exploring quite a few projects that go far beyond simply digitizing forms, to modernizing business processes and case management. For an update, the Federal Drive spoke with project director Harrison Smith.

Since 2019, Congress and the Defense Department have heard about mice, mold, lead paint and other issues in privatized military housing. Yet military families are still battling for tenant rights and better housing conditions. Congress created a tenant bill of rights, but some advocates say the implementation has fallen flat. Federal News Network's Scott Maucione discussed ongoing issues in military homes with the Armed Forces Housing Advocates co-founder Sarah Kline.

The Defense Department is slowly chipping away at 117 separate tasks to implement its Electromagnetic Spectrum Superiority Strategy, established in October of 2020. The goal of the strategy and its corresponding implementation plan is to help DoD take advantage of 5G and other spectrum frequencies to address an environment that DoD says is increasingly congested, contested and constrained. Vernita Harris is the director of the electromagnetic spectrum enterprise policy and program office, in the DoD's office of the chief information officer. She tells executive editor Jason Miller about how this new spectrum strategy builds on and advances the 2013 and 2017 strategies.

After having spent several years tinkering with the Defense Department's acquisition rules, Congress is turning its attention to one of the other main factors that bogs down the DoD procurement system: The byzantine apparatus the Pentagon and lawmakers use to actually fund each military program. In the crosshairs is what's known as the Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution (PPBE) process, an early Cold War-era construct that, translated to the modern era, means Defense officials usually wait at least two years after they realize they need a new technology before money arrives to start solving the problem.

From its embassy buildings to how it conducts diplomacy, the State Department has been on a modernization drive. That also includes its information technology. The Bureau of Consular Affairs has been working to consolidate 90 systems into one common system. The effort is known as Consular-One. It's not going all that great. For the latest, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with two people from the State Department office of inspector general, who looked into Consular-One: Vandana Patel, a senior information management inspector and Lisa Piascik, consular inspector.

Congress is contemplating a bill that would require companies to report successful cyber attacks to the federal government. It would enshrine in law many of the requirements in a Biden administration executive order that applies to federal agencies. For analysis, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Faegre Drinker law firm attorneys Jane Blaney and Jason Weiss.

Nearly 80% of the trillion dollar infrastructure bill is slated for grants. Only a sliver is destined for federal contracts. That's all according to a detailed analysis by Bloomberg Government. For details, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoked with B-GOV senior data analyst Paul Murphy.

Strange workforce issues were important topics in the news this past year. The ongoing hybrid situation continued, lots of people at home, but not those whose work is location specific. It all got leavened by the arrival of vaccines and vaccine mandates. For what you cared about and what it means for the year ahead, Federal News Network's top digital editor, David Thornton.

Who owns your face? Or your fingerprints? And how should they be treated if you use them to gain access to an online system? These very real questions on privacy. And rights to biometric data are amplified by the growing use of artificial intelligence. In fact, the Office of Science and Technology Policy is asking the public to weigh-in on the development of biometric principals. For what's at stake, Federal Drive host Tom Temin talked with attorney Duane Pozza, a partner at Wiley Rein and a specialist in AI and related technologies.

OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is in the business of ensuring safe practices in the nation's employment sites. The pandemic has made things busy and a little difficult for the agency. Federal Drive host Tom Temin got an update from Nadira Janack, the director of the Baltimore-Washington OSHA area in Linthicum, Maryland.

President Joe Biden, in signing an executive order to raise the bar on federal customer experience, said last week that much of the work outlined in the EO “sounds like a simple thing,” but would nonetheless be consequential. As it turns out, several presidents have found this matter to be consequential, but far from simple.

A look at four selected agencies, some large some small, shows the government has work to do in order to fulfill the aims of the Data Act. One reason is the White House has failed to issue detailed agency guidance as the 2018 law requires. Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked about all of this with the director of strategic issues at the Government Accountability Office, Michelle Sager.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently concluded audits of cybersecurity practices of electrical grid operators. It found they mostly comply with legally required cyber measures. But that doesn't mean the grid is free of cyber-related danger. Federal Drive host Tom Temin got an analysis of this exercise from energy regulatory lawyer and senior counsel at Akin Gump, Scott Johnson.

For federal contractors, 2021 comes to an end with no appropriations for 2022 until halfway through the fiscal year. This as they deal with a flurry of head-spinning executive orders from the Biden administration. Federal Drive host Tom Temin got a summary of the issues during his interview with the executive vice president for policy at the Professional Services Council, Stephanie Kostro.

The Science and Technology Directorate at the Homeland Security Department has two names for a reason. It funds science, but the goal is to transfer science into deployable technology. Now the directorate has awarded grants to two universities -- one on each side of the country -- to improve how research and development activities transition to products. The project is called S-and-T Analysis and Management of Innovation Activity, or STAMINA. Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Directorate's acting director for technology scouting and transition, Michel Kareis.

The Postal Service, during its busiest season, is seeing an uptick in COVID-19 quarantines among its workforce. Despite this challenge, USPS data shows the agency provided a significantly higher level of service this year, compared to widespread mail and package delays it saw in December 2020. USPS data shows it delivered more than 90% of first-class mail on-time so far in the first quarter of fiscal 2022. That's a significant improvement, compared to the 78.44% of first-class mail delivered on-time for the same period in FY 2021.

Like it or not, there was one topic we couldn't stop talking about in 2021. Yes, that vaccine mandate consumed conversations at your agency this year. So did questions about when federal employees would return to their offices. In the meantime, agencies have been setting new telework and remote policies. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko joined us to explain why agencies are further along in answering some of those questions over others. And why all three topics might remain part of the conversation for federal employees going into 2022.

Some 500 colleges and universities host Reserve Office Training Corps programs. The Navy Federal Credit Union has expanded its scholarship program to include all of them. For an update, the credit union's vice president for branch operations, Matt Lawson.

In 2021, federal chief data officers settled into their jobs. This as the Biden administration's management agenda called for better agency stewardship, program evaluation and service to the citizen. All of it requires both data and federal employee data literacy. For a review and what to expect in 2022, Federal News Network's Jory Heckman.

The Defense budget request from the Biden administration is a bit of an outlier, as these things go. It was submitted later than ever, and is an amalgam of Biden and Trump administration priorities. It's also the first in 20 years to come with no overseas contingency fund request. Or not exactly. For the important messages the budget is sending, we turned to the Director of Defense Budget Analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Todd Harrison.

A hacker and even a reporter, thankfully not one of ours, are among those on a new federal advisory panel. The Cybersecurity Advisory Committee held its first meeting this month. It has the task of helping the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency boost U.S. cyber defenses. Federal News Network's Justin Doubleday reports.

The Chief Human Capital Officers Council recently got a revival from the Biden administration. The cheekos are pondering the future of federal work. They've rewritten the council's charter. They hope of help modernize the federal workforce. My next guest says the Council needs to model the behaviors it hopes to foster. Joining the Federal Drive, long-time federal workforce guru Bob Tobias.

The Senior Executives Association has launched a first-ever awards program for its members, federal senior executives. The thinking is, the Presidential Rank Awards program is fine as far as it goes. But it leaves many worthy people unrecognized. Joining the Federal Drive with more on the program, SEA President Bob Corsi.

Sexual assault and harassment at sea has been a problem for cadets at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. Twice in recent years it's had to interrupt its Sea Year program, under which students spend time on U.S. flag merchant vessels to gain experience. Recently one mariner I interviewed said the Coast Guard is lax in dealing with reported incidents. For the Coast Guard's response, I spoke with Rear Admiral John Mauger, the assistant commandant of the Coast Guard for prevention policy. And with Michael Berkow is director of the Coast Guard Investigative Service. You hear Mauger first.

The armed services have been dealing with a number of important issues in the past year. Issues they'll need to keep grappling with in the year ahead, 2022. Among them, how to assess and mitigate the occurrences of sexual assault within the ranks. And how to lower the persistent rate of suicides among solders, sailors, airmen and marines. Federal News Network's Scott Maucione has been covering these topics, and he joined the Federal Drive with an assessment and look ahead.

Homeland Security is moving ahead with a new concept for managing risks to parts of the U.S. economy. Instead of focusing on individual sectors, DHS is now assessing the most critical functions, and the technologies that support them. For more, Federal News Network's Justin Doubleday.

Learning agendas are becoming a popular buzzword in government these days. Individual agencies are working on their own learning agendas to publish next spring. Now the Biden administration is launching a new learning agenda as part of his emerging President's Management Agenda. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin to explain what this means, and how federal employees, the private sector and others can weigh in.

A National Security Agency cloud computing acquisition is in limbo after losing bidder Microsoft successfully challenged one of the source selection criteria. The case shows how carefully agencies need to tread, especially when price is not the main criterion. Smith Pachter McWhorter procurement attorney Joe Petrillo review the case on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

Federal real estate officials and Congress both know the government has plenty of property to dispose of. Yet 20 years of effort has produced very little in the way of excess property sales. Five years after Congress refreshed the effort with a new law, the General Services Administration has only sold one building. For more, we turn to the acting director of physical infrastructure issues at the Government Accountability Office, Jill Naamane.

From SolarWinds to President Joe Biden's executive order on cybersecurity to the collapse of the Pentagon's JEDI program to Log4j, it's been quite a year for cybersecurity in the federal government. And for its first cousin, cloud computing. Federal News Network Executive Editor Jason Miller has been following all of it. He joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin with a summary and what you can expect for 2022.

Welcome back to the Federal Drive with Tom Temin on Federal News Network. In the race to find technology talent, sometimes you have to grow your own. Accenture Federal Services is doing just that with an apprenticeship program for veterans in the St. Louis, Missouri, area. For details, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to the managing director and lede of its Advanced Technology Center Accenture, Ali Bokhari, and one of the apprentices now working as a full time engineer, Tyler Eccleton.

Few acquisition methods have proven as popular with agency buyers than indefinite delivery-indefinite quantity contracts. Known affectionately as IDIQs. Protests, though, have killed off at least one planned IDIQ, and threaten delay or stop a couple of others. Joining the Federal Drive with more on this unfortunate trend, federal sales and marketing consultant Larry Allen.

As part of the Homeland Security Department, the Coast Guard is about to adopt an employee performance management program DHS is pushing to its components. For how this will affect employees, Coast Guard human resources specialist Brooke Lawson.

AIDS, the deadly virus-caused disease that dominated medical news in the 1980s, is still a scourge. Especially in certain nations outside of the U.S. And helping mitigating it remains a priority for the State Department. For an update, the Federal Drive turned to the senior advisor in the Office of the U.S. Global Aids Coordinator and Health Diplomacy, Jirair Ratevosian.

The Small Business Administration is elevating its Office of Women's Business Ownership. It's part of the Biden administration's focus on what it calls equitable recovery from the pandemic. Now the office reports directly to the SBA Administrator, currently Isabella Guzman. It's also trying to encourage more women business owners to compete for federal contracts. For a closer look at this work, Federal News Network's Jory Heckman spoke with the assistant administrator of SBA's Office of Women's Business Ownership, Natalie Madeira Cofield.

Military service members get a housing stipend every month depending on their rank, where they live, and their family situation. This coming year, the Defense Department is increasing its average basic allowance for housing by an unusually high percentage. Federal News Network's Scott Maucione with the details.

Even Democrats on Capitol Hill are saying the gigantic so-called build back better legislation won't happen in 2021. They'll be back with it next year. Meantime members are concerned with how the vaccine mandate is playing out for federal employees and service members. More now from WTOP Capitol Hill Correspondent Mitchell Miller.

When you oversee an enterprise as big as the Defense Department, you need a plan. And that's what the Office of Inspector General does every year … develop a plan for the year ahead. The OIG's 2022 plan is out. For highlights, the management challenges lead in the OIG, Courtney Fones.

Financial criminals need mules to move the cash. The Justice Department builds fences to keep the mules from getting very far. In fact, the Money Mule initiative has been running for four years, and it's gaining ground. For what it is and how it works, the consumer protection branch deputy assistant attorney general Arun Rao.

The Air Force is drafting a new automation strategy. And it's not all about killer robots or bots replacing humans. Instead, Air Force officials say automation software is making Airmen's jobs a lot easier, and a little less boring in some cases. Federal News Network's Justin Doubleday reports.

Extreme weather and climate change are ongoing threats to federal buildings. The Smithsonian is no exception. It houses 155 million artifacts spanning, oh, all of human history and beyond. But the system's museums and storage facilities risk flooding and other damage. In fact, that's already happened in the National Capital Region. Smithsonian officials appeared before the House Administration committee last week. Federal News Network's Amelia Brust has more.

Federal employees may not all be in the office for the second holiday season in a row. But your generosity is undeterred by the pandemic. In fact, in the recent giving Tuesday you really shelled out. Both dollars and volunteer hours. We get the latest from the chairman of the National Capital Region Federal Coordinating Committee, Vince Micone.

Some 650 pieces of federal land have the word squaw in their names. Nowadays that's considered derogatory to women, and to indigenous women in particular. Now the Interior Department has called on a group called the Board on Geographic Names to change them. With how that all works, Federal News Network's Eric White spoke to the senior counselor to the Interior secretary, Liz Klein.

For the Veterans Benefits Administration, fraud and identity theft is costly. For both the veterans it serves and for the agency itself. December being National Identity Theft Prevention and Awareness Month, VBA has programs in place to protect its own assets and to help veterans protect theirs. For more, the VBA's chief financial officer, Charles Tapp.

The vaccine deadlines have come and gone. Now agencies are starting to think more about bringing federal employees back to their offices. Some agencies are bargaining with their unions. Others are scratching out telework and remote work policies. And a few even dare to set tentative dates. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko joined the Federal Drive with why returning to the office is still sort of a hairball.

The National Science Foundation mainly awards grants. It has 50,000 of them out there right now. To analyze them, its financial staff developed an artificial intelligence application called the Financial Obligation Root Cause Explorer, or FORCE. It won the innovation award from the Association of Government Accountants. For what it is and what it does, the NSF's payments and analytics branch chief, Jesse Simons.

The sexual assault and sexual harassment problems, known as SASH, we just heard about came up in a detailed review of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. It was done at congressional request by the National Academy of Public Administration. Leading the study was Judith Youngman, a NAPA fellow and former faculty member of both the Coast Guard and U.S. Military academies.

The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, part of the Transportation Department, has suspended a program that puts students at sea for a year. That followed reports of sexual assault of students aboard commercial vessels. Members of Congress have called on the academy to establish a plan for dealing with assault. According to my next guest, the stories keep coming in. He's the founder and chief legal officer of Maritime Legal Aid and Advocacy, J. Ryan Melogy.

The Defense Department's chief data officer is transforming the way the agency thinks about and uses data. Now the department is taking steps to bring the CDO closer together with two of its partners, the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center and the Defense Digital Service. Early next year, all three will report to a new Chief Digital and A-I Officer. For a closer look, Federal News Network's Jory Heckman spoke with the senior adviser to the DOD chief data officer, Jenny Sue Ross.