Federal Drive with Tom Temin

One sign that the world is sort of back to normal in the COVID epoch: More people than ever are signing up for the various Trusted Traveler Programs. For an overall update, as well as how they're dealing with an applications backlog, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Carlo Cortina, Customs and Border Protection field operations branch chief. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For many years the Veterans Affairs Department has worked to make it easier for veterans to access VA services. Now the department is two months into an effort to make it easier for vendors -- and what the department calls "innovators" -- to put their services and capabilities before VA program and contract people. It's a website called Pathfinder. For how it works, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Michael Parrish, the VA's chief acquisition officer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A federal advisory committee is recommending Congress give a small office at the National Archives and Records Administration the ability to issue binding decisions over Freedom of Information Act request disputes. Proponents of the recommendation say it will help improve FOIA at a time when public records requests backlogs and denials are on the rise. But the idea also faces pushback, including from the office’s director. With just 10 employees and an annual budget of less than $2 million, the Office of Government Information Services, or OGIS, is charged with mediating disputes between the public and agencies over FOIA requests. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The military has a recruiting problem. That fact has been on display in the past couple months as all of the military services bolster enlistment bonuses and reevaluate their end strength goals for 2022 and 2023.The Navy is by no means exempt from the issue, and as of May was 1.5% below its authorized end strength. Now, in response, the service is taking the formal step of creating a new command to address at least some of its recruiting issues. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Salaries for federal employees fall significantly behind the private sector, the Federal Salary Council reported on August 5, 2022. The council reported the pay disparity between public and private sector employees, on average, was 22.47%. In late 2020, the council calculated the pay gap at 23.11%. The pay disparity is calculated based on wages only, and doesn’t include the value of benefits for the public and private sectors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Biden administration is setting a higher bar for customer experience across government. And it’s tapping the Veteran Affairs Department to help oversee those improvements under the President’s Management Agenda. The VA recently made it easier for veterans to track down benefits on its website. It’s now looking to integrate Login.gov as a single sign-on for all its online services. For an update on the state of VA’s customer experience, Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman spoke Barbara Morton, the VA’s deputy chief experience officer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the U.S. Army and one of its software contractors, the conflict in Afghanistan is still going on. An unresolved dispute over licensing of language translation software has entered a new phase, eight years after the company first claimed breach of contract. Federal Drive host Tom Temin talks about the case with Smith Pachter McWhorter procurement attorney Joe Petrillo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Polyfluoroalkyl chemicals, known as PFAS, are suspected of affecting people's health. The chemicals last nearly forever. And, one environmental group says two out of three Defense Department sites have excessive levels of PFAS in their ground water. Federal Drive host Tom Temin discussed with Jared Hayes, policy analyst with the Environmental Working Group. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emotions have been running high over some recent Supreme Court decisions. When the court curtailed the Environmental Protection Agency's claimed authority over electricity generation, from the reaction you might have thought Antarctica would melt next week. Federal Drive host Tom Temin talked about all of this with Devin Hartman, the energy policy director at the R-Street Institute. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s that time of year when activity on Capitol Hill usually falls into a lull. But this year’s the rare occurrence when big legislative activity is happening in August. The Senate passed a huge reconciliation bill over the weekend; the House is expected to do the same later this week. Meanwhile both houses have a lot of work waiting for them to reconcile their versions of the annual appropriations and authorization bills. To talk about at least some of those moving pieces, Federal News Network Deputy Editor Jared Serbu was joined by David Berteau, president of the Professional Services Council. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The select committee on the modernization of Congress has been at work for several years. It's found that nearly every function in the legislative branch is due for updating. Recently the committee held a hearing on whether artificial intelligence technology could help. And if so, where. Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke about this with Joe Mariani,the research manager for Deloitte's Center for Government Insights. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has launched what it calls a green trade strategy. Among other things, it seeks to strengthen enforcement against what it calls environmental bad actors. And foster a greener worldwide supply chain. To find out what's happening in this area, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with AnnMarie Highsmith, CBP's executive assistant commissioner for Trade. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After four years of stability in the chief information officer’s role, the Small Business Administration is back to the CIO shuffle. Since Maria Roat left in 2020 to become the federal deputy CIO, SBA is on its third technology leader as Stephen Kucharski assumed the acting title in late June or early July. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By modern standards anyway, it’s been a frenzy of legislative activity on Capitol Hill. Besides the annual appropriation and authorization process, first we had the far-reaching CHIPS Act. Then, just yesterday afternoon, the Senate gave final passage to the Inflation Reduction Act, after a full weekend of votes on amendments. Federal News Netork's Deputy Editor Jared Serbu talked about all of this and more with Loren Duggan, deputy news director at Bloomberg Government. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A 2017 mass shooting incident in Texas is at least partly the fault of the Air Force. That's what a court ruled because the Air Force had not put the shooter's criminal history into the FBI's background-check system, allowing the shooter to purchase the rifle with which he murdered 25 people. Now the Justice Department has filed an appeal of the Air Force ruling. To discuss the victims' side of the tragedy, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke to plaintiff's attorney Jamal Alsaffar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices