Federal Drive with Tom Temin

The Department of Veterans Affairs said the changes it's made in recent years have allowed it to respond to the coronavirus pandemic with agility. Secretary Robert Wilkie said hiring and onboarding changes made in recent weeks will stay in place. He said the department has stabilized its supply chain of personal protective equipment. The department will lift its austerity measures on masks. But members of Congress said they're still hearing from employees who are asked to reuse them. More now from Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko on Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Committed though the government might be too small and minority-owned contractors, from the contractor standpoint making a living is never easy. Now they've got the COVID-19 situation. For what the landscape looks like for minority-owned businesses, Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to Creative Investment Research economist and principal William Michael Cunningham. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rapid-fire changes in the ranks of big-agency inspectors general by the Trump White House have good-government and oversight groups rattled. And there's still no Senate-confirmed IG for the pandemic relief oversight. Could all of this have a chilling effect on the willingness of other IG's to issue unflattering reports? For some perspective the Federal Drive with Tom Temin turn to the founding partner of the Federal Practice Group, Debra D'Agostino. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal agency managers often talk about risk management, such as when allocating resources to cybersecurity. An enterprise approach to risk management is required under the venerable Office of Management and Budget circular A-123. That's helped push ERM down into agency practices. The Partnership for Public Service and Deloitte studied the degree to which ERM has sunk in and how far agencies have laid the groundwork. For more, Deloitte's Managing Director for Enterprise Risk Management, Cynthia Vitters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the pandemic hit, waves of fraudulent and counterfeit goods rolled in about four milliseconds later. You might not think of Homeland Security Investigations as a center for intellectual property protection. But that's exactly what its National IP Rights Coordination Center does. The Center has gotten together with several large drug suppliers and distributors to deal with counterfeit pharmaceuticals. Joining the Federal Drive with Tom Temin with details, the Center's director, Steve Francis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most of the Pentagon’s military and civilian workforce has been subject to a worldwide travel ban for the last two months. But DoD is starting to slowly unwind those restrictions. Officials rolled out a new plan this week that will take a more geographic approach to who can and can’t travel. As Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu reports, the decisions will be based mostly on local conditions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Inspectors general on the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee face a massive workload, overseeing a pot of emergency spending more than twice what Congress approved for the 2008 recession recovery. One of its members, the IG office for the Department of Health and Human Services, has 14 pandemic-related reviews in the works so far. Those include oversight of the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in rolling out coronavirus testing. For more, we hear from Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Though one in seven federal employees have said they've experienced sexual harassment at work in recent years, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights believes cases are vastly under-reported, due to an outdated and confusing reporting process that does little to protect or incentivize employees to come forward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can something be virtual and real at the same time? The answer is yes if you're talking about the end-of-fiscal-year federal buying season. It's almost here, and the government people - and contractors, for that matter - are just starting to trickle back into their offices. How will that all work? For one prediction, longtime federal sales and marketing consultant Larry Allen spoke to Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Her peers and bosses credit her with a powerful role in establishing the highly-regarded Cybersecurity Framework developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. They call her a world leader in cybersecurity. Now she's a finalist in this year's Service to America Medals program. Donna Dodson joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's the day NASA and the United States gain back the ability to launch astronauts into low earth orbit. Two of them will ride a private sector rocket to the International Space Station. For what it took to get to this point, NASA deputy administrator Jim Morhard spoke to Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One in seven federal employees say they've experienced some form of sexual harassment at their offices. That's just one of many findings in a recent 264-page report from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The commission wanted to see how the nation's largest employer handled sexual harassment in the federal workplace, and the findings are grim. Few federal employees know their rights for reporting. For how tough the reporting process can be, Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko spoke with a member of the commission, Debo Adegbile, on Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congress, most of it anyway, returns to Washington with a long agenda. At the top of the list is what will be in a fourth stimulus bill, if there is one. With everything from marijuana banking to pension plans stuffed into the House's Heros Act, that's not the way things will look. For a more on the agenda, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke to Bloomberg Government editorial director Loren Duggan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Commercial pilots have long used simulators, a form of augmented reality, to make their mistakes where no one gets hurt. Now, under the auspices of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a coalition of organizations is posing a grant challenge to develop augmented reality for first responders. For details the Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to Scott Ledgerwood, UI-UX lead in the public safety communications research division, and Alison Kahn, an electronics engineer in the advanced communications research group. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Labor Department's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs is little known outside the world of federal contracting. But it looms large there. Now, to help companies and employees with the myriad of issues that come up, it has established an Ombuds Service. A sort of one-stop-shop for labor law issues. Joining the Federal Drive with Tom Temin with details, the ombudsman himself, Marcus Stergio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices