Federal Drive with Tom Temin

Rule-making is one of the most widespread activities in the federal government. And while there are extensive rules for rule-making itself, the extent of annual rule-making is impressive when you add it all up. Federal Drive host Tom Temin, talked wit a man who has been keeping a tally for years and has a few ideas for reform. Wayne Crews is the vice president for policy and senior fellow at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rule-making is one of the most widespread activities in the federal government. And while there are extensive rules for rule-making itself, the extent of annual rule-making is impressive when you add it all up. Federal Drive host Tom Temin, talked wit a man who has been keeping a tally for years and has a few ideas for reform. Wayne Crews is the vice president for policy and senior fellow at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal spending on contracts for goods and services continues to grow in many categories. But, according to research by Deltek, there is increasing consolidation of contracting vehicles by the government. That means companies, more than ever, need to understand what Deltek calls "best-fit opportunities." To talk about this, Federal Drive host Tom Temin talked with Kevin Plexico, Deltek's Senior VP. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal spending on contracts for goods and services continues to grow in many categories. But, according to research by Deltek, there is increasing consolidation of contracting vehicles by the government. That means companies, more than ever, need to understand what Deltek calls "best-fit opportunities." To talk about this, Federal Drive host Tom Temin talked with Kevin Plexico, Deltek's Senior VP. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, through the National Weather Service, is trying to upgrade its ability to analyze water resources. It wants its forecasters to have better insight into flooding potential or water quality. Now it's asking for help from the information technology industry. For details, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Fred Ogden, the chief scientist for water prediction at NOAA and with scientist Fernando Salas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, through the National Weather Service, is trying to upgrade its ability to analyze water resources. It wants its forecasters to have better insight into flooding potential or water quality. Now it's asking for help from the information technology industry. For details, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Fred Ogden, the chief scientist for water prediction at NOAA and with scientist Fernando Salas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The IRS has been making progress toward eliminating a longstanding problem. Namely, companies who are delinquent in their federal taxes, but that nevertheless receive federal contracts. For the most recent figures, Federal Drive host Tom Temin talked with LaToya George, the director of the Office of Audits at the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 2022 Combined Federal Campaign hosted its virtual kickoff earlier this week, which means federal employees can now start donating their time and money to causes of their choice. To learn what's in store for this season, Federal Drive host Tom Temin talked with Vince Micone, the chairperson of the Combined Federal Campaign in the National Capital Region. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Agencies are starting out Cybersecurity Awareness Month with a new directive to routinely scan their networks for new devices and potential cyber vulnerabilities after recent high-profile cyber incidents exposed a lack of real-time visibility into federal networks.The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a binding operational directive on Monday for “improving asset visibility and vulnerability detection on federal networks.” The goal of the mandate, it states, is to “make measurable progress toward enhancing visibility into agency assets and associated vulnerabilities.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donning a sea of orange T-shirts, federal employees walked down the National Mall last week, but it wasn’t just for a morning stroll through the city.The group of roughly 150 feds, from agencies including the departments of Energy, and Housing and Urban Development, along with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), showed up to the culmination of an interagency effort to collect food donations across the federal workforce. The Feds Feed Families (FFF) initiative, a governmentwide program aiming to help end hunger, boost engagement and promote healthier lifestyles, finished with a 30-minute walk downtown on Sept. 29. Called Feds Walk in Support of Health and Hunger Relief (FedsWISH), the event celebrated a total of 7.2 million pounds of food donations, and counting, to the FFF initiative this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cars, planes and boats will be stronger and longer lasting thanks to a new metal alloy. It was developed by scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. To hear more about how they did it, Federal Drive host Tom Temin talked with program manager Allen Haynes and research and development staff member Alex Plotkowski. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Industry groups seem to support the Biden administration's September 14 memo on secure software development. It lays out a detailed way for agencies to acquire software so they're, in theory, assured of the security of the software supply chain. To discuss this, Federal Drive host Tom Temin talked with Gordon Bitko, the senior vice president of policy at the Information Technology Industry Council. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The State Department, once a relative stranger to telework for most functions prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, is taking steps to allow Foreign Service candidates to participate in some assessments virtually. Don Bauer, the chief technology officer of the department’s Global Talent Management Bureau, said the bureau is “virtualizing everything” it does to assess Foreign Service candidates, in an effort to diversify its pool of applicants. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tom Temin almost never interviews Public Affairs Officers on the Federal Drive. In fact, Temin said, "I never have. They're never the story." Federal Drive host Tom Temin did make an exception recently. One of the most enduring Public Affairs Specialists -- and someone Federal News Network has worked with steadily for many years -- retired. So Temin wanted him to tell his story. He's Fuller O. Griffith, better known as Ned, from the Government Accountability Office. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where once risk management was just a matter for the chief financial officer, now the bureau's entire senior leadership cadre is involved. Nicole Puri is the bureau's chief risk office and the past president of the Association for Federal Enterprise Risk Management. She tells executive editor Jason Miller about how enterprise risk management has spread into a range of agency functions, even budgeting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices