Federal Drive with Tom Temin

The Agriculture Department is making a big push for diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. It just established a six-step strategic plan for DEIA. This as the agency also tries to rebuild its workforce after attrition during the Trump administration. Federal News Network’s Drew Friedman got the details from USDA Deputy Secretary Jewel Bronaugh. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The effort to overhaul federal cyber defenses has “momentum” behind it, most notably in helping agencies distill broad cybersecurity objectives into specific technology investments as part of the annual budgeting process, according to White House leaders. Federal Chief Information Security Officer Chris DeRusha said the White House’s zero trust strategy gives cybersecurity leaders the ability to “disaggregate and do strategy-based budgeting all the way down to a technology investment.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congress recently agreed to throw tens of billions of dollars at the semiconductor industry. The idea was to expand production of vital circuits in the United States. Federal Drive host Tom Temin talked with someone who has done extensive analysis of the chip industry and says there should be more to policy than national security. He's assistant professor of management at Radford University, Zach Collier. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Call centers, those invisible nests of operators that purport to help citizens with questions about government services, are a bane to agency after agency. Calls don't get picked up. Or people make a pot of coffee while on hold. Questions aren't answered. Callers get bounced from operator to operator. Worst of all, those badly-designed automatic call routers. There's gotta be a better way. Federal Drive host Tom Temin looked into how to make call centers more empathetic, with Deloitte Consulting's Marc Mancher. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Department of Defense Education Activity, or DODEA, employs 500 teacher for the children of service members stationed in Italy, Spain, Turkey, and Bahrain. The teachers, part of a bargaining unit called the Overseas Federation of Teachers, haven't had a new contract in 28 years. Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with someone who knows what the teacher want: President of the Overseas Federation of Teachers, Linda Hogan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal employees have family and professional lives. They also have financial lives. Today we're inaugurating a monthly talk with a man who has long experience in federal financial management and investment strategies. He was a regular on our Federal News Network show, "Your Turn," hosted by the late Mike Causey. Now he'll be a monthly guest here on the Federal Drive. For his inaugural interview in this space, Federal Drive host Tom Temin talks with financial planner Arthur Stein. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The General Services Administration has completed two rounds of a three-round plan to sell off unneeded federal buildings. It hasn't gone well, according to Congressional auditors. Sales took too long, and a special recommendation board said it therefore didn't have the money to discover other buildings to sell. Can this program get on track? For details, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with the acting director of physical infrastructure issues at the Government Accountability Office, Jill Naamane. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Office of Special Counsel, which handles whistleblower and Hatch Act Cases, is something of an enigma to many federal managers. The law firm Shaw Bransford and Roth, which produces the weekly FEDTalk Show here on Federal News Network, has organized what federal managers need to know to better handle OSC investigations. For the highlights, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Shaw Bransford senior counsel James Heelan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Victims of one of the largest data breaches to ever hit the federal government are one step closer to a payout, more than seven years later. A federal judge on Friday finalized the Office of Personnel Management’s settlement agreement with current and former federal employees, as well as federal job applicants, impacted by a major data breach in 2015.District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, in a fairness hearing at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said the $63 million settlement for breach victims was “fair, reasonable and adequate.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal retirees and Social Security recipients are about to get the largest increase in their cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in over four decades.The COLA will increase 8.7% for 2023, the Social Security Administration announced on Oct. 13. But not all federal retirees will see that amount added to their checks. Those in the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) will receive a 7.7% COLA starting in January. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 24-year-old law requiring agencies to ensure technology is accessible by people with disabilities isn't not exactly being ignored. But there is a lack of data about just how well agencies are complying. In his weekly reporter's notebook, executive editor Jason Miller covers what the Biden administration can do to make sure its diversity, equity inclusion and accessibility efforts don't ring hallow. Jason joins me now to discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Contractors face the prospect of higher mandatory wages and treating independent subcontractors like employees. And that's not all. The vaccine mandate might be coming back. How are companies reacting? To find out, Federal Drive host Tom Temin talked with Stephanie Kostro, Executive VP for policy at the Professional Services Council. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Directed energy -- lasers -- somehow always seem to be the weapon of the future. Military grade lasers are too heavy or require too much power to be practical. Booz Allen Hamilton thinks its engineers have answers for high-energy lasers. The company has a new unit called HELworks to bring it all together. Federal Drive host Tom Temin talked about all that (and more) with Booz Allen VP Joe Shepherd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Among this year's class of new fellows of the National Academy of Public Administration, are a few people from the legislative branch. Among them, Zina Merritt, the chief diversity management officer at the Government Accountability Office. She talked with Federal Drive host Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the final paroxysm of the January 6 hearings over, Congress is on an extended recess. Federal Drive hosts Tom Temin knows he won't have to deal with budgetary matters until after the November elections. So to examine what to expect then, he spoke with Loren Duggan, Bloomberg Government deputy news director. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices