Federal Drive with Tom Temin

The Freedom of Information Act community is developing new technology standards to help improve FOIA processes and standardize common services like case management tools across government. The Justice Department’s Office of Information Policy and the Office of Government Information Services at the National Archives are working with the General Services Administration’s Office of Shared Services and Performance Improvement to advance shared FOIA business standards, according to Lindsay Steel, chief of FOIA compliance staff at OIP. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Action Plan from the Biden Administration seeks to ensure projects across the nation get done on time and on budget. They've already hired 25,000 people to help state and local governments. But the plan has a 10-year horizon. That could spell trouble. For analysis, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with American University Professor Bob Tobias. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Veterans Affairs Department is in the midst of a five-year pilot program. It's called VET-TEC or Veteran Employment Through Technology Education Courses. The Government Accountability Office found that the program has some problems, including that a third of the veterans enrolled drop out. For more on this, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Dawn Locke, GAO's Acting Director for Education, Workforce and Income Security. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Biden recently appointed four new members to the 10-member Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States. The Council is not an agency widely known to the public. For an update, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Chairman Andrew Fois. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Agencies have made progress on closing skills gaps for a couple of federal jobs, but there’s still work ahead for other critical roles, according to the Office of Personnel Management. Based on agencies’ progress so far, OPM identified which of five different governmentwide positions should be kept on its high risk list, and which can be removed based on federal agencies’ progress. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Figures from the Government Accountability Office show a 12% drop in the number of contracting protests in fiscal 22. Protests are down 40% since 2018. What does it all mean? Federal Drive host Tom Temin's guest thinks the protests that do happen, have a lot of impact. This conversation is with Federal sales and marketing consultant Larry Allen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Digital services and modernization are pillars of the Biden administration's management agenda. These efforts don't just matter to federal agencies though. Business is thoroughly behind efforts to streamline government services. The Chamber of Commerce has put some numbers on what paperwork costs the economy each year, and how many hours it eats up. Federal Drive host Tom Temin gets the details from Chamber VP Jordan Crenshaw. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Veterans Health Administration has been working on a deal with the ride service Uber to help rural veterans get to their appointments. A test has been running since July at the VA medical center in Memphis, Tennessee. Federal Drive host Tom Temin talked about this with in-studio guest Dr. Indra Sandal, from the VHA innovation fellowships program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Long wait times for certain types of treatment continue to occur at the Veterans Health Administration. Pain management is among the conditions for which veterans have to wait. Federal Drive host Tom Temin's guest said that in California, the wait for pain care can last 78 days. Temin talked about the reasons this is so, and how it can be fixed, with Former Mississippi Senator Trent Lott. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The continuous diagnostics and mitigation program turned 10 years old last month. And what a long strange trip it's been for C-D-M. As agencies move toward zero trust and face an ever changing cyber threat landscape, CDM has hit stride. In his weekly Reporter’s Notebook, executive editor Jason Miller writes about where the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is taking the program next. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband is recovering. But the attack at the Pelosi home in San Francisco has Congress rattled once again about security. More anxiety comes from the possibility of a party switch in the House or Senate or both. To take a look at all of this, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Mitchell Miller, Capitol Hill Correspondent for WTOP. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are all familiar with that ubiquitous fast-food-chain sign: "Billions and Billions Served." The same could be said of federal disaster spending. Millions and millions of awards, billions and billions of dollars. The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, made up of inspectors general, recently launched a group of dashboards to help people see which agencies got how much money and where all that money went. To explore the details, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Michael Horowitz, Justice Department IG and PRAC chairman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No one knows what the F-35 aircraft can do in a war, say, over Taiwan. One thing we do know is the fifth-generation fighter, now something like 20 years in development, has economic significance. Something like $72 billion F-35 dollars is spread throughout the U.S. economy every year. For more details, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Kevin Michaels, the managing director of AeroDymanic Advisory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Registered nurses working for the Veterans Health Administration in Las Vegas recently got a 12% raise. This after promising to hold a big rally. That got management to sit down with the Title 38 employees. For the details, Federal Drive host Tom Temin talked with Linda Ward-Smith, president of Local 1224 of the American Federation of Government Employees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

They're operating under a continuing resolution, but agency information technology staffs are working hard on modernizing. Recently the office of the Federal Chief Information Officer came out with what it called a governmentwide operating plan. CIO Clare Martorana said the plan should not be confused with a strategy. At the recent ACT-IAC executive leadership conference in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin caught up with Martorana and asked what the difference is between a plan and a strategy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices