Federal Drive with Tom Temin

Reliance on the U.S. military's special forces has increased steadily over the past 20 years. More operations using more people in more trouble spots. Auditors have found that the Special Operations Command has trouble with oversight of its command and control, or C2, structures. Partly this is a data problem. For details, the Federal Drive turns to the director of defense capabilities and management issues at the Government Accountability Office, Cary Russell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Education Department's Public Service Loan Forgiveness program has had some ongoing issues with public servants meeting relatively strict eligibility requirements. The department has tried to fix the problem with a limited-time waiver, but it leaves a few questions unanswered about the future of the program. With less than a week before the temporary waiver expires, the Office of Personnel Management is also sharing how agencies can help federal employees with their PSLF applications. Joining the Federal Drive with more, Federal News Network’s Drew Friedman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A union seeks emergency funding for the Social Security Administration to rebuild its depleted workforce. The American Federation of Government Employees Council 220 is asking Congress for $16.5 billion to support SSA for the rest of fiscal 2023. More than half the funding would go toward hiring more employees. The SSA workforce is at its lowest headcount in decades. For an update, Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman joined the Federal Drive with more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alliant 3. To those in the know, this is the name of a promising new governmentwide acquisition contract for technology services. The request for proposals is now out, and open for comments. One move by the General Services Administration threatens the whole deal, in the view of our next guest. The Federal Drive's Tom Temin spoke with Federal sales and marketing consultant Larry Allen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last month the European Commission drafted a law called the Cyber Resilience Act. Its an extensive framework aimed at improving cybersecurity in the E-. For the implications on this side of the Atlantic, the Federal Drive turned to the senior policy analyst at the ITIF Center for Data Innovation, Kir Nuthi. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Defense Department is now offering two online courses that provide support and guidance for those affected by suicide.? The courses cover things such as communication techniques, ways to connect or stay connected to a support system, and reminders for how to maintain physical and mental health during a very difficult time. To learn more about them, the Federal Drive spoke with Dr. Andrew Moon, Acting Director for Research, Evaluation, and Data/Surveillance for the Defense Suicide Prevention Office, along with Lisa Valentine, who you'll hear from first. She's the Program Manager, Casualty, Mortuary Affairs & Military Funeral Honors for the Defense Department. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The General Services Administration is offering agencies a glimpse of what the future of work could look like. Starting in early November, GSA will open up its shared work spaces in three cities as well as its future of work headquarters laboratory. Robin Carnahan is the administrator of GSA. She tells executive editor Jason Miller at the 2022 ELC conference in Hershey, Pennsylvania about how GSA is helping agencies envision how their employees will work differently in the coming years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It might be the great deliberative body, but much of what the Senate Deliberates on is pretty mundane. Such as, the nomination for undersecretary of Agriculture for marketing and regulatory programs. What do Senators think about this? The Federal Drive got some insight from WTOP Capitol Hill Correspondent Mitchell Miller. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Defense Department has been working under a leadership diversity plan since the Obama administration. A special commission issued a long list of recommendations back in 2011. And that stemmed from a mandate in the Defense authorization law from 2009. For how the department has done, the Federal Drive turned to the program director for diversity and inclusion evaluations in the DOD office of inspector general, Dana Johnson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The State Department has several annual fellowship programs designed to bring in new talent. We've been bringing you their stories here on the Federal Drive. Today we're talking about the William D. Clarke, Senior Diplomatic Security Fellowships. Joining the Federal Drive with the details, the assistant secretary of State for Diplomatic Security, Gentry Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Agencies are carrying out a lot of business these days using cloud computing technology, and now they have some new guidance for securing those applications. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released minimum security configurations for eight Microsoft 365 services last week. For more on how this could help agencies improve their cybersecurity, Federal News Network’s Justin Doubleday, spoke with the security chief technology officer at Microsoft Federal, Steve Faehl. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Results are out for the 2022 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey – or FEVS. The annual survey from the Office of Personnel Management produced a couple of ups and downs in the two years following the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, federal employee attitudes seem to have calmed down a bit. Joining the Federal Drive with the details, Federal News Network’s Drew Friedman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today's Federal Newscast, you can add the treasury department to the list of agencies whose workload may significantly increase due to climate change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Among this year's fellows added to the National Academy of Public Administration are several still-working, senior federal employees. One of them is prominent on Capitol Hill and Federal Drive host had a chance to conduct this extended 17-minute interview with her. She's Wendy Ginsberg, staff director for the Subcommittee on Government Operations of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Department of Veterans Affairs hired more employees in fiscal 2022 than at any point in recent history. But top VA officials say more action is needed to build up the agency’s workforce, given a high rate of attrition and increasing healthcare demand from veterans. VA Undersecretary for Health Shereef Elnahal told reporters Wednesday that the agency needs to hire about 52,000 employees per year just to keep up with the rate of health care workers leaving the agency, as well as an increase in veterans entering the VA health care system. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices