Federal Drive with Tom Temin

If Defense Department civilians thought some sort of return to the office was imminent, think again. In fact, with the apparent surge in COVID cases sweeping the nation, the Pentagon is notching up telework under a new condition called Bravo Plus. Joining the Federal Drive with details and other new happening in DOD, Federal News Network's reporters Jared Serbu and Scott Maucione. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The National Archives and Records Administration is rethinking how social media can highlight its vast array of records. The agency has released a five-year strategy for increasing public engagement with its social media. For more on the roadmap, Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman spoke with NARA's Hilary Parkinson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Capitol Hill, the lame duck session has both the current and the future to deal with. The pandemic is returning to a boil, and so are the calls for some sort of relief bill. And some members are starting to get annoyed at GSA administrator Emily Murphy over the presidential transition process. For more on the week ahead, WTOP capitol hill correspondent Mitchell Miller Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By the reckoning of the Government Accountability Office, over the last two decades it has saved the government more than $1 trillion and recommended 25,000 improvements. My next guest has analyzed 21 years of GAO annual reports and finds the congressional agency may be a little too modest. Joining the Federal Drive with more, the director of cyber and national security at the Lincoln Network, Dan Lips. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal agencies do a lot of leasing, of buildings, vehicles, and equipment. How they account for it can have a big effect on their finances. Now the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board has proposed several changes to how agencies account for leasing. Joining the Federal Drive with what they are, and the impact they might have, advisory board senior analyst Alan Perry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The pandemic seems to be coming back to a boil. And the Defense Department is seeing a fast rise in the number of covid 19 cases among uniformed service members. That's got the brass concerned. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione joined the Federal Drive with the latest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Agencies have started to scratched the surface with what they can do with artificial intelligence. As they delve in, questions arise not only about how to use AI, but also the ethics of AI. For instance, making sure it doesn't hurt employees more than it helps them. That theme emerged at an online federal panel last week sponsored by the General Services Administration. Speakers from the Labor and Veterans Affairs Departments, and DoD talked about this at GSA's Impact Summit Series on Thursday, sponsored by the Office of Technology Transformation Services. Federal News Network's Amelia Brust has more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Moving ships and submarines from point A to point B requires a careful ballet of many interconnected systems. Behind those systems are engineers. They don't work in obscurity. In fact the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Atlantic has named its 2021 engineer of the year. Charles Bolt joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the county, city and town levels, governments often employ professional administrators hired by elected boards. Black public administrators sometimes face special challenges. For what those might be, and how the federal government can help, the Federal Drive turned to the executive director of the National Forum for Black Public Administrators, and the fifth in our series of recent inductees into the National Academy of Public Administration, Marcia Conner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last week a stunning new museum devoted to Army history opened its doors in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Meanwhile, the Army's own museum enterprise, part of the Army Center of Military History, wants to divest itself of surplus items of the more than half million artifacts is now cares for. Joining the Federal Drive with what's going on, the museum enterprise's historic material division chief, Stefan Rohal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some agencies have outgrown their old telework policies during the pandemic, prompting them to consider making some telework arrangements permanent. Congress is interested in the idea too. Some senators see the recruitment and retention benefits to telework as just too promising to ignore. And they say it's worth updating 10-year-old federal telework policies to conform with the times. More from Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There’s been a lot of talk in Defense IT circles about Joint All-Domain Command and Control – the Pentagon’s vision to connect all of the military’s sensors and weapons systems. But so far, there hasn’t been much of a clear plan for how to achieve that. DoD says that’s about to change. Officials are putting the finishing touches on a JAD-C2 strategy. Among other things, it’ll tell vendors what standards they’ll need to use in building Defense systems of the future. Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu has details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Foreign mischief makers and hackers have long targeted U.S. veterans for online scams and false information. Now one veterans group has teamed up with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The goal is to help a particularly vulnerable group of veterans identify disinformation and stop its spread. For details, we turn to the president of Highground Veterans Advocacy, Kristopher Goldsmith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As chief information officer of the National Institutes of Health, Andrea Norris oversees a far flung operation. Its many components have their own ways of doing things. But her leadership has helped the agency get through the extraordinary challenge imposed by the pandemic. Now she's been inducted as a fellow into the National Academy of Public Administration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The United States has long been in the business of helping developing nations. That goes on no matter who is in the White House. One instrument of that work is the Millennium Challenge Corporation. This relatively new agency is active in several countries. For an update on one of them, the Federal Drive turned to the MCC's country director for Benin, Chris Broughton. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices