Federal Drive with Tom Temin

The Department of Homeland Security’s financial management has been on the Government Accountability Office’s High Risk List, in some form or fashion, since DHS was created in 2003. That’s something Jeff Rezmovic, the nominee to serve as DHS’ chief financial officer, wants to change if he’s confirmed to oversee the finances of the sprawling department with an annual budget of more than $100 billion, including $60 billion in discretionary funding. “We’ve got to get off the GAO High Risk List,” Rezmovic said during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing held today for several high-ranking nominations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The Congress, now equipped with a Speaker of the House, is trying to do something about government funding for when the continuing resolution expires November 17. The House is going about it in a unique way, though. For details, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with WTOP Capitol Hill correspondent Mitchell Miller. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The recently released executive order on AI from the Biden Administration drew a lot of interest from technology professionals and interest groups. Everyone is glad the White House is focused on the issue. Federal News Network's Eric White spoke with one expert observer: Barney Mccabe, the executive director of the University of Arizona's Institute for Computation and Data Enabled Insight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Health and Human Services Department (HHS) has launched a new challenge. It is seeking what it calls community-level solutions for health inequities. Prizes will total a million dollars. For how it works, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with the Interim Director of the HHS office of Environmental Justice, Sharunda Buchanan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: A new HHS challenge prize program seeks to improve local environmental justice. All right, the White House has spoken on AI. Now What? Congress has trouble getting down to business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Going forward, the Pentagon will focus on agile artificial intelligence adoption throughout the department to keep up with the ever-evolving technology. On Thursday, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks unveiled DoD’s new AI strategy at a press event. The strategy follows President Joe Biden’s executive order on AI earlier this week, which ordered the DoD to create a pilot program to explore how it can use AI to protect the nation’s national security systems and networks. “Today, we’re releasing a new data, analytics and AI adoption strategy, which not only builds on DoD’s prior year AI and data strategies, but also includes updates to account for recent industry advances in federated environments, decentralized data management, generative AI and more,” Hicks said. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The State Department is increasing its capacity to train members of the Foreign Service, and expanding the fields of expertise for its diplomatic corps, as the department embarks on its largest hiring of career diplomats in more than a decade. The department on Monday held a dedication ceremony to commemorate the opening of a new wing of its Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the new space is meant to accommodate the hundreds of new Foreign Service officers who will train at the facility in the coming years. That’s because the department is overseeing its largest hiring surge in over a decade. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Navy says it’s seen huge successes in a pilot project that aims to change the decades-old, hardware-centric budgeting model Congress and the Pentagon use to plan and execute DoD’s spending into one that actually makes sense for modern information technology. But proving to lawmakers that it’s a good idea, so far, has been challenging. The basic idea is to set aside the traditional colors of money DoD uses for various phases of the development of a big weapons platform — R&D, procurement and sustainment — and instead, let IT program managers draw from one bucket of money throughout a program’s lifecycle as they continuously improve what they’re offering. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: The Postal Services has changed more than you think in the last 20 years. How federal procurement can keep artificial intelligence in its swim lane. GSA’s Technology Transformation Service wants to lower cost and risk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lots of people are worried about the effects of artificial intelligence. Misused AI can cause harm. Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talk with someone who said federal contracts can provide a line of defense against improper use of AI: University of Pennsylvania law professor and federal regulation expert Cary Coglianese. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As one of the oldest federal services, the Postal Service has changed constantly over the centuries. In fact, a lot has happened just in the 21st century. The USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG) has created an online history, starting with the anthrax mailings shortly after 9/11. For details, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talks with the Research Manager at the OIG-'s Research Insights Solutions Center, John Althen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Skills gaps in the federal workforce remain a significant barrier to reaching better end results in agencies’ work. But across government, chief learning officers are taking on some of the challenging, long-term work to try to close those gaps. Generally, skills gaps arise when agencies either don’t have the right skills on staff — or simply don’t have enough employees in the first place — to effectively implement federal programs. Earlier this year, the Government Accountability Office reported that more than half of the government’s biggest problem areas stem directly from mission-critical skills gaps. Agency chief learning officers (CLOs), often behind the scenes, try to ensure an agency’s workforce has the skills it needs, particularly in mission-critical areas, such as data analytics, IT and cybersecurity. The senior-level CLO position is tasked with helping agencies first identify skills gaps, and then create a talent development strategy to try to improve those skills — including through offering training opportunities for current employees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Department of Homeland Security will use a “cybersecurity readiness” assessment to evaluate whether contractors have appropriate cyber defenses in place prior to making contract awards. DHS published the details of the new “cybersecurity readiness evaluation factor” in a Nov. 1 notice signed by Kenneth Bible, DHS’ chief information security officer, and Sarah Todd, DHS’ executive director of acquisition policy and legislation. The notice confirms DHS’ plan to use its own approach for evaluating contractor cybersecurity rather than adopting the Defense Department’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program. “It is the department’s intention to ensure that effective and appropriate cybersecurity measures are in place by vendors supporting work where such measures are necessary,” the DHS officials write in the new notice. “This new evaluation factor will enable DHS to evaluate vendors’ cybersecurity posture pre-award for applicable contracts to inform a best value tradeoff award decision.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Army has been talking for many, many years about the need to simplify its IT networks. But officials say they’re now poised to make more progress than ever before, largely because of some recent organizational changes in how the Army funds and buys information technology. It also doesn’t hurt that network simplification is a major priority for the Army’s new chief of staff. In his first major speech to the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference in Washington, Gen. Randy George reiterated previous chiefs’ position that the network is the Army’s biggest modernization priority, and made clear exactly what he thinks the biggest problems are. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices