Federal Drive with Tom Temin

Telehealth -- on the rise at Veterans Affairs and in the private sector -- has one thing in common with every other digital service: It's a cybersecurity risk. Now the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, is planning a healthcare project to establish best practices for security and privacy in telehealth situations. To find out more about the project, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Ron Pulivarti, senior cyber engineer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recently, the White House released a document called the Comprehensive Framework for Responsible Development of Digital Assets. It summarizes Treasury Department studies of potential crypto policies and regulations. For what it could mean for federal regulators and the digital asset industry, Federal News Network's Eric White spoke to Dennis Kelleher, Co-founder and President of Better Markets. Kelleher is also a former member of the Federal Reserve's Banking and Securities Agency Review Team. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The White House and agencies are moving forward with new cyber rules for critical infrastructure, as the Biden administration looks to take advantage of existing laws to address digital threats on a sector-by-sector basis in the absence of Congressional action on cybersecurity regulations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service acts like a hub for the government's payments and collections. Now the bureau is looking to make more payments digitally and to prevent improper payments. It's is also creating a Chief Customer Office to oversee all of this modernizing. For more on all of this, Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman spoke Tim Gribben, the bureau’s commissioner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

EIS, CIO-SP4, Oasis-Plus and Ascend, the alphabet soup of contracts on the horizon will keep vendors busy over the next six months. The General Services Administration and others are pushing forward to set up and otherwise nurture these multi-billion dollar vehicles. Federal News Network executive editor Jason Miller has some new detail about where many of these contracts are heading. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every military service, and just about every Defense organization of any significant size, has its own chief information officer. Until now, the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) was a bit of an outlier, with no single official responsible for overseeing the technology its 18,000 people use. That’s now changing. In a Sept. 30 memo, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks granted new CIO authorities — covering all of OSD — to the department’s directorate of administration and management (DA&M). Danielle Metz, formerly the DoD CIO for information enterprise, will now serve within that office as the OSD CIO. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Documents obtained by the Project on Government Oversight or POGO, show the Small Business Administration forgave millions of loans it knew might be fraudulent. SBA issued the loans under the Payroll Protection Plan, a big element of federal pandemic relief. To get into some details, Federal Drive host Tom Temin talked with POGO senior investigator Nick Schwellenbach. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Army Corps of Engineers is all about infrastructure, in particular the nation's waterways. When the infrastructure bill was signed into law, the Corps got a good chunk to get after some overdue work. At this week's Association of the U. S. Army conference, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with the Corps's deputy commander, Maj. Gen. Richard Heitkamp. They began their discussion addressing the Corps' work in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whether forces at peace or actively engaged, the business of keeping the Army equipped, fed and fueled never really ends. At the Association of the U.S. Army conference earlier this week, Federal Drive host Tom Temin caught up with the commander of the Army Sustainment Command, Maj. Gen. David Wilson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Army may operate primarily on the ground. But it relies on space communications to maintain freedom of movement and situational awareness, as well as to guard against known and emerging missile threats. At the Association of the U.S. Army Conference, AUSA, Federal Drive host Tom Temin got an update from the commander of the Army's Space and Missile Defense Command, Lt. Gen. Daniel Karbler. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal employees and their office buildings are facing an increase in threats at a time when the agency sworn to protect them is running into challenges to fill law enforcement vacancies. The Federal Protective Service secures 9,500 federal buildings across the country. But FPS Principal Deputy Director Kris Cline said last month that about 21% of its authorized positions remain vacant, and that filling them is a “continued challenge.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal employees and their office buildings are facing an increase in threats at a time when the agency sworn to protect them is running into challenges to fill law enforcement vacancies. The Federal Protective Service secures 9,500 federal buildings across the country. But FPS Principal Deputy Director Kris Cline said last month that about 21% of its authorized positions remain vacant, and that filling them is a “continued challenge.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can the simple misspelling of your own company's name turn a simple contract award protest into a full-blown court case. We're talking federal contracting. So of course it can. Federal Drive host Tom Temin talked about this strange case, of the added two letters with Joe Petrillo, Smith Pachter McWhorter procurement attorney. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thousands of current and former NASA employees saw a major step forward in a racial discrimination case that’s nearly a decade old. The case can now proceed as a class action lawsuit after Supervisory Administrative Judge Stephanie Herrera at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission certified two classes of employees on Sept. 30. The employees who originally filed the case will represent more than 2,000 agency workers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Increasing collaboration among federal employees and expanding benefits are a couple top priorities for the advocacy group, Federally Employed Women, or "Few." But the newly elected president of the organization said along with those initiatives, closing the generational gap in the federal workforce is another goal high on her to-do list. Federal News Network's Drew Friedman sat down with "Few" President Pamela Richards to discuss the details of her plans for the organization in her new leadership position. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices