Federal Drive with Tom Temin

While it counts the population of the country, the Census Bureau has also launched a new survey. It's designed to track the effects of the pandemic. In Census language, pulse surveys to gauge the temporal trends in small businesses and households. With the details, the bureau's Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer, Ron Jarmin joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some 30,000 reassigned military families will get to make moves to their new duty station even, with coronavirus still ravishing the nation. A big change from the situation just a week ago. And now the Defense Department is taking precautions on who can join the military after being infected with the disease. For the latest developments, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin got an update from Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Postal Service, looking to withstand a decline in revenue from the coronavirus pandemic, has found a new postmaster general to lead the agency. The board last week selected supply-chain and distribution center executive Louis DeJoy to lead the agency after vetting more than 200 candidates. But the agency's financial challenges started long before the pandemic. For more on the short and long-term challenges the new postmaster general will face, Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman spoke with a senior fellow at the Lexington Institute, Paul Steidler. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Your local grocery store is probably hiring during the pandemic. But so is the federal government. Some agencies have especially daunting workloads now as they're scrambling to send out stimulus checks issue grants to small businesses and care for veterans. And they're looking for new and current feds to help them handle all the work. Hiring quickly though has been never been the federal government's strong suit. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko joined us to discuss some of the avenues agencies have been exploring to help meet the new demand for talent. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Parts of the sprawling Defense acquisition system are just plain difficult to operate in the midst of a global pandemic. But for the white-collar workforce that plans the Pentagon’s acquisition programs and signs the paperwork to get dollars on contract, the emergency has sped up the procurement system in ways that years of policy reform never could. And as Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu reports, there’s reason to hope that at least some of those changes will stick around for the long haul. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

State and local health agencies are offering free training for anyone who wants to become what's known as a COVID-19 contact tracer. The training program is organized through two organizations -- the National Coalition of STD Directors and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. The association's chief population health and innovation officer, J.T. Lane, joined the show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Few technologies have had as much impact on military, civilian governmental and commercial activities as geographic information and intelligence. GEOINT, as practitioners call it, continues to develop and morph. In its latest status report, the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation details these trends. For highlights, we turn to foundation chairman Jeff Harris and its vice president of programs, Ronda Shrenk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just as there's no shortage of cybersecurity threats there's no shortage of companies and products to try and help you counteract them. The non-profit Mitre Corporation tested products from 21 vendors using an attack emulation, For what researchers discovered, Mitre's principal cyber operations engineer, Frank Duff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To watch the endless TV broadcasts, you'd think everyone with a sewing machine is churning out face masks. That's beside the giant supply in the possession of FEMA. So how come it was so hard to get them distributed, like to those 10,000 IRS employees called back to work. That's what American University federal management professor Bob Tobias wants to know. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Presidential administrations generally like to try and reform some part of the executive branch or another. In looking at reform efforts of the Trump administration, the Government Accountability Office finds it should have employed what auditors consider key practices for effective reform. The GAO's director of Homeland Security and Justice Issues, Triana McNeil joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin for a review. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The fast and vast federal response to coronavirus has exposed weaknesses in some agencies' information technology. In fact, some members of Congress are calling for new investments to modernize. What about the private sector, to which the government often looks for models. Has coronavirus sparked investment there? For some answers the Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to the vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, Andrew Bartels. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Air Force is making a concentrated effort to move its personnel systems away from the 1980s and into the 21st century. The advent of coronavirus is making that process even more important as the service thinks about future recruitment and retainment. For more on readiness, data and other personnel issues, Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione spoke with the Air Force Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower, Personnel and Services, Gwen DeFilippi. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the Agriculture Department launched its One Neighborhood initiative just over a year ago, the broad goal focused on two “Cs”— collaboration and cost savings. Now a year later, the initial success of One Neighborhood convinced Congress to increase USDA’s discretionary funding to renovate and fix its buildings. At $128 million, it's twice as much as the department received in 2019. Don Bice recently left after 32 years in government, including the last two-plus years as USDA’s acting deputy assistant secretary for administration. He told Federal News Network Executive Editor Jason Miller about the impact of the One Neighborhood initiative that convinced Congress to open up its wallet a little wider. Hear more on Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal employees got up to 80 extra hours of emergency sick leave through one of the big coronavirus legislative relief packages back in March. The new benefits were supposed to be available April 1. But employees at the Social Security Administration say they're still waiting to use emergency paid sick leave. SSA said it's still working with its payroll provider to implement the new leave. But employee unions said the delays are far too long, and other agencies have already made the new sick leave benefits available to their employees. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to explain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Census Bureau is phasing back in its 2020 field operations that were put on hold because of the pandemic. Starting this week, Census workers in 13 states will resume dropping off decennial census packets in areas where households don’t receive mail at their home. This comes about a month before the bureau says it’ll be safe to resume 2020 fieldwork nationwide. For more on these Census developments, Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices