Federal Drive with Tom Temin

Contractors had their doubts when the General Services Administration sun-setted FedBizOpps, the dated web site where agencies listed federal opportunities. The General Services Administration replaced it with a system called Beta.Sam.gov. According to Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel at the Professional Services Council, contractors are finding the new system isn't much better than the old, and in some ways worse. Here more on Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Trump administration's Defense Department's 2021 budget request might be flat relative to this year. But that doesn’t mean the content is the same. DoD made some serious cuts to legacy systems in a try at reworking its priorities. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione explained on Federal Drive with Tom Temin where the Pentagon is hoping to take military with this new budget proposal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whether it's the use of Tik Tok or the need to protect multiple pathways to commercial clouds, federal cybersecurity challenges keep multiplying. For more about some of the emerging threats, Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke with the vice president for federal at Tanium, Ralph Kahn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Trump administration, in a budget request that comes in below the spending caps for civilian agencies, is asking for a record level of information technology spending. But it's what's underneath the $92 billion request that is real story in the fiscal 2020 budget request the White House sent to Congress yesterday. Federal News Network's executive editor Jason Miller dug through the pages of the annual exercise to find some of those important policy tidbits. Hear more on Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a long argument, Congress and the Department of Veterans Affairs opted to grant benefits to Navy veterans whose ship duties during the Vietnam War might have exposed them to agent orange. The job of administering benefits fell to the Veterans Benefits Administration. Paul Lawrence, VA undersecretary for veterans benefits, visited the studios of Federal Drive with Tom Temin earlier in person to explain a program that got underway last month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The national security and intelligence communities had a particularly tough year in 2019 with a growing number of indictments, arrests and convictions of security-clearance holders. They also experienced a rise in the theft of intellectual property and trade secrets. In response to these trends, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence will release a new counterintelligence strategy this week that it says takes a long-term approach to insider threats and nation-state threats. Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman had more on what’s in that strategy, on Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the priorities of the shiny new Space Force is making sure its employees get paid. Right now there is just one singular member of the new service, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Jay Raymond. That will change soon. Some 16,000 service members and civilians will eventually transfer to the Space Force, which wants to make sure it gets its basic HR right. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for the latest on plans at the Space Force. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the priorities of the shiny new Space Force is making sure its employees get paid. Right now there is just one singular member of the new service, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Jay Raymond. That will change soon. Some 16,000 service members and civilians will eventually transfer to the Space Force which wants to make sure it gets its basic HR right. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for the latest on plans at the Space Force. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a long argument, Congress and the Department of Veterans Affairs opted to grant benefits to Navy veterans whose ship duties during the Vietnam War might have exposed them to agent orange. The job of administering benefits fell to the Veterans Benefits Administration. Paul Lawrence, VA undersecretary for veterans benefits, visited the Federal Drive with Tom Temin studios earlier in person to explain a program that got underway last month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stuck contract negotiations and now a proposed rule change for disability appeal processing have widened the wedge between the Social Security Administration and its administrative law judges. The president of the Association of Administrative Law Judges, Melissa McIntosh, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for the latest developments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The fight might be over, but not the bleeding. The House showed signs of settling down. It passed a minor bill having to do with cloud computing. With more of what to expect between now and the next recess, Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to long-time Congress watcher and The Fulcrum editor in chief David Hawkings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 2021 budget the Pentagon rolls out next week will include about $5.7 billion in savings, the result of a recent review of DoD’s so-called “fourth estate.” Details on exactly what’s being cut are still to come. But the department said it’s just the beginning. Top brass said they'll continue to scour Defense organizations for funds that can be reallocated to the National Defense Strategy. Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to talk about what is known so far, and what’s still to come in the review process.

As reported earlier, another top executive is out from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Secretary Robert Wilkie earlier this week fired James Byrne, the deputy secretary. Wilkie said he had lost confidence in Byrne, and he just didn't "gel" with the team. Or as Henry Ford II said of Lee Iaccocca, sometimes you just don't like someone. But Wilkie said it's business as usual at VA, and Byrne's departure has no impact on all the big projects that are ongoing at the department. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko had more details on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

A bill from Washington, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) would affirm due process rights for federal employees in noncritical but sensitive positions. A recent court decision known as Kaplan v. Conyers held that such employees are not entitled to an independent review of decisions removing them from their jobs on grounds of ineligibility. To explain the bill and what's going on, Norton joined spoke to Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The U.S. and Mexico are so closely intertwined economically that it makes sense for their intellectual property systems to harmonize more closely. That's the thinking behind a new work-sharing agreement between the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property, or Instituto Mexicano de la Propiedad Industrial. The director of the USPTO, Andrei Iancu, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for the details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices