Federal Drive with Tom Temin

For the past 70 years, the General Services Administration and its Public Buildings Service has kept the roof over federal heads. While the mission hasn’t changed, advances in technology and data analytics have given the agency better insight into its real property portfolio. The agency makes sure thousands of federal buildings stay in good working order, and that tenant agencies have the physical plant necessary to support their missions. As part of Federal News Network's ongoing special report "GSA@70: Mission Evolved," Allison Azevedo, acting PBS deputy commissioner and former assistant commissioner for the office of leasing; and Giancarlo Brizzi, the regional commissioner for PBS for the greater Southwest U.S., spoke to reporter Jory Heckman about what's changed during their time with the agency. Hear the full interview on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

Veterans with service-related injuries too often find themselves in debt, incarcerated, even homeless. Sometimes they need a lawyer to get access to help they've earned. Sunita Patel does just that. She's assistant professor of law and the faculty director of the UCLA Veterans Legal Clinic. She joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss her work.

Christine Altendorf thinks big, as in big construction projects like dams, levees, bridges. She's the chief of Engineering and Construction for the Army Corps of Engineers, and a winner of a Presidential Rank Award this year. Altendorf joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to talk about her award-winning work.

For a variety of reasons, many U.S. military installations are in danger of insufficient water. But the Government Accountability Office found that the Defense Department can't be sure of which ones. That has to do with the sources of information it relies on. For more, Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to the GAO's director of defense capabilities and management issues, Elizabeth Field.

As the landlord for the federal government, the General Services Administration and its Public Buildings Service oversee one of the world’s largest real estate portfolios. Several administrations though have sought to rationalize that portfolio. With half of GSA’s private leases set to expire in the next five years the agency has a chance to get rid of excess space. The agency will soon move a thousand of its employees from its National Capital Region building near L’Enfant Plaza and squeeze them into its headquarters near the White House. That means GSA can find another tenant for the resulting space. As part of Federal News Network's ongoing special report, GSA@70: Mission Evolved, reporter Jory Heckman spoke with PBS Commissioner, Dan Mathews.

We’re getting our first look at the legal arguments behind Amazon’s challenge to the Pentagon’s JEDI contract. The cloud computing giant says it’s clear it had a technical approach that was better than Microsoft’s, and that it should have won the contract. And lawyers say AWS would have won if it weren’t for a series of errors that can only be explained by improper political influence. Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu has been following the JEDI saga, and he joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for the latest details.

Two major procurements from the General Services Administration face protests. The Air Force and possibly the Department of Homeland Security will be spending a lot of time with the Government Accountability Office this fall, also over protests. In his weekly feature, the Reporter’s Notebook, Federal News Network Executive Editor Jason Miller writes about why federal procurement lawyers call this time of year, the protest silly season. He joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to share more.

A large defense contractor said it wants to help the armed services better use data to improve operations and readiness. The Boeing Readiness Operations Center will contain data analytics software and other applications to help operators of its military aircraft. The Senior Manager for Government Analytics, Readiness and Integration, Vann Sample, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for the the details.

If a chain is only as strong as the weakest link, then small business in the federal or industrial supply chain needs to be forged a little tougher. To help small businesses and small government agencies for that matter with cybersecurity, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at the Department of Homeland Security has published what it calls cyber essentials. Bradford Willke, the acting assistant director of CISA for stakeholder engagement, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for more discussion.

The government can sure be ironic. Agencies want a broader supplier base and to attract so-called nontraditional companies to join the ranks of contractors. Yet the government seems to never stop adding requirements for being a contractor, making becoming one more difficult and more expensive. With some of the latest ironies, federal marketing and procurement consultant Larry Allen joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

Now Congress has two pre-Christmas deadlines. Funding for the federal government runs out December 20th, less than two weeks from now. House Democrats also want to have their vote on impeachments by then. So what can we expect? For an update on what all is going on, on Capitol Hill, we turned to Bloomberg Government Editorial Director Loren Duggan.

More than 1,000 federal employees and more than 200 teams have competed over the last three months in the President’s Cup cybersecurity challenge. This week, starting tomorrow at the Homeland Security Department offices in Virginia, the best of the best will test their mettle to solve some of the most challenging cybersecurity puzzles. Harry Mourtos is an information security IT specialist at the DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. He told executive editor Jason Miller more about this final round of the President’s Cup Challenge.

The House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee called five military housing corporations to the Hill last week to give updates on how they're improving service member homes. Reports of mold, mice, lead paint and other problems continue to pop up nationwide. It’s now been 10 months since the first reports and Congress is expecting some changes. The companies laid out their solutions, but lawmakers on the subcommittee said they are still hearing about persistent and worsening issues. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione spoke with Subcommittee Chairman John Garamendi (D-Calif.) about his takeaways from the hearing.

The National Archives and Records Administration has caused a stir in the records management community when it set deadlines for agencies to digitize their historic permanent records before the end of 2022. That’s a big lift for agency records officials who have raised their concerns to NARA. The result? NARA says it will revise its guidance so records managers will have a better idea of what to expect from the transition from paper to digital records. Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman has the latest.

Not many people go there, outside of the Alaskans that live there — but the Arctic region is of vital interest to the United States. Since 1984, the U.S. Arctic Research Commission has been studying the Arctic coming up with research priorities for the region. Now the Commission's Executive Director has received a 2019 Presidential Rank Award. Dr. John Farrell joined us in studio to discuss.