Federal Drive with Tom Temin

The Air Force is ringing the alarm bells over a yearlong continuing resolution, estimating that the service would lose as much as $13 billion in buying power before adjusting for inflation, the Air Force’s top official said Wednesday. “[Some of the details] of that are really pretty catastrophic. And I don’t think there’s been enough discussion about some of those impacts,” Kristyn Jones, who is currently performing the duties of the Air Force under secretary, said during the Center for Strategic and International Studies event Wednesday. Under a full-year continuing resolution, the Space Force would face the largest funding gap, losing nearly $2.6 billion in research dollars. The Air Force would lose up to $1.4 billion in research, test, development and evaluation dollars. It would have to cancel 34 construction projects, and the measure would impact seven national security space launches. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's one thing to be controlled at work. Everyone has dealt with controlling bosses and co-workers. It's another thing to be in control of your work and your life. One thing can make the difference. For what it is, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with longtime federal management professor Bob Tobias. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal employees, who make rules on behalf of their agencies, are wondering if the Supreme Court will change the ground rules. In Loper Bright Enterprises versus Raimondo, herring fishermen suing the Commerce Department basically said that Congress lets agencies go way too far. For some perspective, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with the Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States, Andrew Fois. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: How an upcoming Supreme Court decision will affect agency rulemaking. Expert's proof, proves telework works. The Army updates its strategy to find fresh civilian employees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Leaders on the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board saw 2023 as a relatively successful year of progressing toward long-term strategic goals for the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). Perhaps most notably, more TSP participants than ever are now contributing enough to their retirement accounts to receive a full match from the government. Currently, 86.8% of feds in the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), as well as 84.9% of active-duty military members in the Blended Retirement System (BRS) are putting at least 5% of their biweekly paychecks into the TSP. Contributing at least 5% to the TSP is the amount required to receive the maximum 5% matching contribution from an employee’s agency or a military member’s branch of service. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If the 2023 stock market showed anything, it is that you cannot predict the stock market. Instead, you need a strategy you can stick with. To find out what the rear-view mirror is telling investors, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Arthur Stein of Arthur Stein Financial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) received 18,000 tips from would-be whistleblowers in 2023. Since starting its whistleblower program in 2011, the SEC has paid tipsters some $6.3 billion. Federal Drive Host Tom Temin's guest has some insight on all of this. He's whistleblower attorney and partner at Youman and Caputo, John Crutchlow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You may not wake up thinking about Cislunar-space situational awareness, but people at the Air Force Research Laboratories. In fact, AFRL has had two programs for such awareness. Two programs they have brought together. The resulting program is called the Oracle family of systems. To find out more, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with two of the project leaders: Mission Lead Jaime Stearns and Investigator James Frith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: The Air Force Research Lab creates a new approach to situational awareness in space. This agency's whistleblower program has paid out billions of dollars. When it comes to your TSP stocks, no use looking backward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As agency leaders approach another opportunity to share their biggest pain points in workforce planning, the Office of Personnel Management has pointed out some common challenges agencies are currently facing. Limited resources are the greatest impediment to agencies’ ability to bring human resources innovations to scale, OPM said in a recent report summarizing findings from human capital reviews during fiscal 2023. Last year, OPM spent several months interviewing agency chief human capital officers (CHCOs) and other workforce leaders about their challenges in everything from recruitment and retention to long-term workforce planning. Many CHCOs, as summarized by OPM, said during the 2023 human capital reviews that without the right staffing, skills and structure in federal HR shops, advancements in workforce planning will likely fall short. Limitations in both budget and HR restrict agencies’ capacity to explore opportunities and take innovations to scale, OPM said. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A contractor got into a pricing squeeze when the customer, in this case the Marine Corps, way underestimated the quantities for the services under the contract. It learned what can happen when the legal proceedings get complicated. For details on the lessons learned, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Haynes Boone procurement attorney Zach Prince. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal improper payments roll on and on, year after year. Among the most frustrating are fraudulent unemployment benefits, federal dollars that get spent by the states. Last fall, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimated that as much as 15% of pandemic-era unemployment spending went to fraudsters, or as much as $135 billion. For a review of GAO recommendations, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Seto Bagdoyan, GAO's Director of Forensic Audits. GAO Report Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new initiative from Health and Human Services seeks to prevent preventable health problems in under-served communities. The HEROES Program will run through the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). HEROES stands for Health Care Rewards to Achieve Improved Outcomes. To see how it works, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with program manager Dr. Darshak Sanghavi. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: HHS launches a program to boost prevention of bad health. This line of federal improper spending is among the most galling. Why pricing and quantities go hand-in-hand for fixed-price contracts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new memo from the Defense Department clarifies who is accountable for ensuring the security of cloud services at the FedRAMP moderate level. The latest document provides guidance on a clause within the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement regarding the application of FedRAMP moderate to cloud services being used by contractors for storing and processing covered defense information. “One of the things that we learned in the early days of cloud was there was a lot of finger-pointing going on when something bad would happen. Let’s say a vulnerability would be found, or a zero-day event happened, there was this confusion around, ‘Is that the cloud service provider’s responsibility? Is that a contractor’s responsibility? Is that the government’s responsibility or somebody else? Who really is responsible?’” Raj Iyer, ServiceNow’s global head of public sector and a former chief information officer of the Army, told Federal News Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices