Federal Drive with Tom Temin

Defense issues have been largely out of the mainstream discussions during this year's presidential election cycle. With the exception of a few overseas concerns, military issues have been largely absent from the presidential lexicon this year. However, the main candidates do have defense-related platforms planks. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to un-nail them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You might have noticed that federal agencies are mostly stuck between phases one and two of a hoped-for return to regular work locations. The return seems stuck in neutral. And that's got agencies, and their contractors, starting to ask: What exactly is the future of federal work. Professional services contractor SAIC surveyed people across government to get a feel for what they're thinking. For some of the results, the Federal Drive spoke to SAIC's digital strategy vice president, Mark Forman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency is trying to see circles. That is, it wants satellites to have the ability to identify circles. If you think that sounds easy, you're missing a major challenge for artificial intelligence in the geospatial world. Joining the Federal Drive with details of a challenge competition and why it matters, the NGA's GEOINT capabilities integration officer, Jack Brandy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Go ahead, take that commercial airplane flight. No less than DARPA and U.S. Transportation Command have concluded, the inside of a plane is one of the least likely places you'll catch coronavirus. That's one finding reported in this week's DOD Reporter's Notebook. Reporters Scott Maucione and Jared Serbu joined the Federal Drive with this and other news. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Customer experience from government agencies has a long way to go. That's the principal finding in the latest survey by Forrester Research. It found CX has improved slightly, but it still lags behind the best of the private sector. For more, the Federal Drive spoke with Forrester vice president and principal analyst, Rick Parrish. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal supply chain security has become a front-and-center issue for both defense and civilian agencies. But how to get around such a big requirement? One group is helping. The Federal Acquisition Security Council's has a strategy encompassing more than a dozen strategic activities. The Council hopes to bring all the disparate supply chain risk management efforts together. For his weekly feature, the Reporter's Notebook, executive editor Jason Miller got a hold of the Council strategy. Jason joins me now with what he found out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congress is not finished debating what to do about another stimulus bill for pandemic response. The Senate appears to be on track to confirm Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, and a few other lower-court judges. So what else? The Federal Drive spoke with Bloomberg Government editorial director Loren Duggan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By now the stories are legend, how government agencies managed to pivot their workforces to accommodate the pandemic. Underneath that is a big technological shift that's still unfolding. For one view of where it's all headed, the Federal Drive turned to the president of U.S. regulated industries at Microsoft, Toni Townes-Whitley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just when you think things can't get worse, consider that the Bureau of Prisons is facing. A growing threat of surveillance of its facilities, and the delivery of contraband to prisoners, all from drones. The Justice Department Office of Inspector General took a detailed look at this alarming situation. With what it found and what it recommends, the Federal Drive spoke to IG Michael Horowitz. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Army wants to know exactly what role advanced manufacturing might play in its future logistics chain. To help find out, experts are disassembling an entire Blackhawk helicopter and taking 3D images of every single nut and bolt. Officials think the exercise will tell them exactly which parts can be 3D printed, but building a digital model of an existing helicopter will have a wide array of other implications too. Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu has more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since way before the pandemic, the Postal Service has been dealing with another public health crisis, illegal shipments of opioids to the United States. The 2018 Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention, or STOP Act, requires international shippers to include advanced electronic data on all U.S.-bound packages coming starting next year. But not all of them will have tracking data before the deadline. For one expert view, Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman spoke with Lexington Institute senior fellow, Paul Steidler. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One thing you can say for sure about the next president. He'll be old. Donald Trump is 74, Joe Biden 77. Trump was hospitalized with coronavirus. He eats Big Macs. Biden had brain surgery years ago. So it's reasonable to think about continuity of governance when the top dog is incapacitated. For some perspective, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke to the deputy director of the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings, John Hudak. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the Cat in the Hat, Little Cat Z was too small to see. But the real-life generation Z certainly is big enough to see, and to have influence on industry and society. Generation Z refers to people from eight to 23 years old. The Postal Service took a deep look at how this generation regards mail, and whether it is even aware of USPS and the services it offers. Joining the Federal Drive with what they found, a research analyst for the USPS office of the inspector general, Dr. Joanna Gerhardt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A few days ago we brought you an interview with a Naval Research Lab scientist who used nano-structures to help discover how the coronavirus binds to and infect human cells. Now, for the other half of the story, the scientist at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. NCATS took the Navy-developed structures and did the tests on cells. Joining the Federal Drive with those details, Dr. Kirill Gorshkov. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Electronic health record modernization is alive and well across government. But it has been delayed by the pandemic. Now the Defense Department and Coast Guard say they're back on track now, deploying the new electronic record to more sites. The Coast Guard hit a big milestone earlier this summer when it deployed the EHR to four pilot sites. It's part of an ongoing effort to move the Coast Guard off paper health records. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko has more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices