Federal Drive with Tom Temin

An old hand at the inner workings of government is about to apply his experience to one of the most fraught processes. Presidential transition. Dan Blair is former deputy director of the Office of Personnel Management among other federal jobs. He's former president of the National Academy of Public Administration, and senior counselor at the bipartisan policy Center. Now he's headed to the Center for Presidential Transition at the Partnership for Public Service. Mr. Blair joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss his new role. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For 23 years, he's been a steady, even-handed overseer of cybersecurity as exercised by federal agencies. Now he's decided to call it a career. For his perspective on a persistent topic, the director of information security issues at the Government Accountability Office, Greg Wilshusen spoke with the Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Military leadership concerned with troop recruitment and retention should pay attention to one of the nation’s most comprehensive surveys of service members and their families. It lists finances, relocation and isolation as the biggest bugaboos for members and their spouses. The Blue Star Families Lifestyle survey for 2019 was released earlier this week. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione talked with Jessica Strong, senior research manager for Blue Star Families, about this year’s findings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the first time ever, the National Defense Industrial Association, along with help from the data analytics firm Govini, took a look at the health of the Defense Industrial Base. It showed many strengths but also some glaring flaws, earning the DIB a C grade. To explain some of the findings, Federal News Network's Eric White spoke with Hawk Carlisle, President and CEO of NDIA, along with Wes Hallman, NDIA's Senior VP for Strategy and Policy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs is going up, and up. VA is asking for a 14% funding boost next year. It would be another record-high budget for the department. VA and House Republicans say the request meets an ever-growing list of health priorities and several massive IT projects. But House Democrats say the money isn't going to the right places. More now from Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An old lesson had a new airing when a contractor challenged the set-up of a blanket purchasing agreement. The General Services Administration wanted to use a system of highest-technically ranked, and reasonable pricing for awarding equipment deals under the federal supply schedules. That's a no-no, as procurement attorney Joseph Petrillo of Petrillo and Powell told the Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The United States is unique in that you can safely drink water out of any tap. But many small towns have trouble maintaining or replacing aging water systems. They get technical assistance and some funding from the federal government. But the Government Accountability Office has found a relative dearth of information to really tiny towns, those with less than 500 people. For more, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to the GAO's director of natural resources and environment issues, Alfredo Gomez. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Pentagon’s top leadership made their first trip to Capitol Hill to defend their 2021 budget yesterday. But much of the hearing wound up focusing on what DoD is doing in this year’s spending plan. Officials heard bipartisan frustration about the Trump Administration’s decision to reprogram billions of dollars in Defense spending toward the border wall, and at least a hint that lawmakers might crack down on DoD’s authority to reprogram money. Federal News Network's Jared Serbu gave more details on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whether generated by coal, gas, hydro or wind, electricity has to travel over wires. Years after the danger was identified, the bulk power transmission grid in the United States is still highly vulnerable to cyber attacks. With the latest on the Energy Department's efforts here, the principal deputy assistant secretary from the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response, Sean Plankey spoke to the Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the push to automate repetitive tasks, procurement shops and statistical offices have led the charge in adopting machine learning. Agencies as varied as the Census Bureau and the Homeland Security Department have streamlined their workflows. But to build momentum on this effort, agencies are still waiting on a new data-centric job series from the Office of Personnel Management. Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman explained further on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

That next-year's budget proposal from the White House had a lot of federal employee measures. Higher contributions to fed pensions, pared back pension benefits, and a tiny pay raise. To Bob Tobias, it's enough to make some feds say, "Stop the world, I want to get off." Tobias is a professor in the Key Executive Leadership Program at American University, and he joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for more discussion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like a DC-3, the General Services Administration's Multiple Awards Schedules program has churned along decade after decade. It's one of the government's premier programs for buying common goods and services, and it generates billions of dollars in sales. Now GSA is in the midst of consolidating 24 schedules into one sort of master schedule. For a progress report, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to the director of the MAS management office, Stephanie Shutt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Defense Department is trying to make sure that robotic or autonomous systems never go rogue, but always remain under human control. In fact, The Pentagon released its ethics principles for artificial intelligence earlier this week. The principles are meant to apply to both weapons and non-kinetic A-I programs. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin to explain more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By all accounts, slashing the security clearance backlog by nearly 500,000 in almost two years is one of those coveted, good news government stories. Tackling the backlog while transferring the whole security clearance enterprise to the Pentagon, is another. Federal contractors say there's a lot to like about the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency and how its handling its business. But cutting the backlog only tackles one piece of their security clearance challenges. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin to explain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Years after highly visible, peace-time collisions of ships in the Navy's Seventh Fleet, the ships are repaired and back in service. But sailors who may be experiencing post traumatic stress disorder, they aren't fixed so easily. ProPublica's reporter Megan Rose has investigated this episode extensively and spoke with the Federal Drive with Tom Temin about what she found. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices