Federal Drive with Tom Temin

If the pandemic has been hard on families with kids in school, it's been especially hard on military families. Service members might be deployed. Spouses are more likely to be unemployed than average. And now they've got kids having to deal with the nightmare that is online schooling. The Military Child Education Coalition aims to help, and it just got a big donation. For details, the coalition's president and CEO, Dr. Rebecca Porter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal contractors have sensed a certain sluggishness in the government's pace of awarding contracts during the pandemic. Now a review of this phenomenon finds it's more pronounced in the intelligence community. With more on the slowdown, Accenture managing director and the chair of the acquisition management council at the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, Howard Weitzner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Promote Act now pending in Congress would expand the Defense Department's support of science, technology and math education for students in the Junior Reserve Officer Corps program. Some big tech companies are strongly backing this bipartisan bill. Among them, Intel Corporation. Joining the Federal Drive with why this bill matters, Intel's senior director for global partnerships and initiatives, Brian Gonzalez. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the revolving door of people to lead the Office of Personnel Management over the last few years, there's another new name. John Gibbs is the president's third pick in as many years to lead OPM. The agency has its fair share of challenges. Some longstanding. Others that popped up when the Trump administration proposed merging it with the General Services Administration. Those challenges didn't come up at Gibbs' Senate nomination hearing. It was all about his background and past social media posts. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko has the details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Navy has big ambitions for a future fleet that makes heavy use of unmanned systems in the air, on the sea, and underwater. Building all those systems is one thing. Controlling them after they’re underway is another. To bring some sense to that management problem the Navy’s rolling out a new campaign plan for unmanned systems. Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu has details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the revolving door of people to lead the Office of Personnel Management over the last few year, there's another new name. John Gibbs is the president's third pick in as many years to lead OPM. The agency has its fair share of challenges. Some longstanding. Others that popped up when the Trump administration proposed merging it with the General Services Administration. Those challenges didn't come up at Gibbs' Senate nomination hearing. It was all about his background and past social media posts. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko has the details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If the pandemic has been hard on families with kids in school, it's been especially hard on military families. Service members might be deployed. Spouses are more likely to be unemployed than average. And now they've got kids having to deal with the nightmare that is online schooling. The Military Child Education Coalition aims to help and it just got a big donation. For details, the coalition's president and CEO, Dr. Rebecca Porter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Promote Act now pending in Congress would expand the Defense Department's support of science, technology and math education for students in the Junior Reserve Officer Corps program. Some big tech companies are strongly backing this bipartisan bill. Among them, Intel Corporation. Joining me with why this bill matters, Intel's senior director for global partnerships and initiatives, Brian Gonzalez. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal contractors have sensed a certain sluggishness in the government's pace of awarding contracts during the pandemic. Now a review of this phenomenon finds it's more pronounced in the intelligence community. With more on the slowdown, Accenture managing director and the chair of the acquisition management council at the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, Howard Weitzner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The high satisfaction rates among participants in the Federal Retirement Thrift Savings Plan got reaffirmed recently. Nearly 90% of survey respondents reported they like the TSP. Director of wealth management at the Government Employees Benefits Association, Greg Klingler, says it's important not to overlook a few issues that might need attention. He joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss why. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Army Corps of Engineers calls it their roofing mission. When storms damage buildings, a chief rescue activity by the Corps is preventing further damage with blue tarps as temporary roofs. The blue roofers are on the job in Louisiana with a new and improved way of doing the roofing mission. With details, the commander of the Corps' Mississippi Valley Division, Maj. Gen. Diana Holland, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Trump administration executive order last month ordered agencies to assess whether contractors use foreign workers, and whether they displace Americans or cause national security concerns. The reporting burden is on agency heads, but the order has big implications for contractors. With analysis, Stinson LLP law firm partner Eric Whytsell joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nearly six months in, federal agencies are making the most of the mass telework work arrangement. And with taking in new employees who may seldom set foot in the office even after the pandemic. Agency cybersecurity managers tell Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman it's all leading to a broad reimaging of how the federal workforce operates. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families provides 60 billion dollars in grants annually. Its processes were stuck in the paper world and ripe for innovation. Ben Goldhaber is the Deputy assistant secretary for administration in the Office of administration and Emily Mella is the chief experience officer in office of administration in HHS’s Administration for Children and Families. They tell executive editor Jason Miller about how ACF doubled down to reengineer the business processes and take advantage of emerging technologies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The pace of end-of-fiscal-year spending is off for a variety of reasons. Among them some unresolved policy questions related to national security and the federal supply chain. For the industry view, Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to the president and CEO of the Professional Services Council David Berteau. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices