Federal Drive with Tom Temin

It may sound macabre, but natural disasters can be excellent federal contracting opportunities. Simply put, the government needs many services and goods when areas are flooded or flattened. Federal contracting expert Larry Allen joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for more insight on how to go about it.

The Senate Appropriations Committee gave the 2020 defense spending bill the green light last week. But that doesn’t mean the bill has an easy path to final passage. In fact, it faces some major roadblocks before the Defense Department gets funded for 2020. And time is running out. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for the latest.

The Postal Service is on track to run out of cash by 2024, and has alerted Congress special delivery to the need for a legislative fix. But lawmakers appear no closer this year to advancing a postal reform bill than they have in the past few years. Some wiggle room still exists for USPS and its oversight bodies to maintain solvency. That's according to Paul Steidler, senior fellow at the Lexington Institute. He told Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman why Congress has been slow to act, and outlined what more can be done to put the Postal Service in better financial condition. Hear the details on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

Leave it to the federal government to create a nice benefit that no one can understand how to obtain. Case in point: The Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness. It's been around for more than a decade, yet too many people find the rules overly complicated. For more explanation, the Director of education, workforce and income security issues at the Government Accountability Office, Melissa Emrey-Arras, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

The Thrift Savings Plan is an important part of retirement security for federal employees and has launched several new options for how to manage or take withdrawals from one's account. Federal retirement expert Tammy Flanagan joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for some advice to dealing with the changes.

While the House talks continuing resolution, the Senate is making halting progress on a budget and appropriations for 2020. For what to expect this week, Bloomberg Government Editorial Director Loren Duggan joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

Elections in the United States are the responsibility of states, counties, cities and towns. But the federal government has an increasing role on the security end of things. Especially cybersecurity. Elaine Kamarck is a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution. She says the various federal agencies with the wherewithal to help non-federal entities protect elections need to better organize those efforts You might remember her for her work on the National Performance Review during the Clinton administration. She joined the show to explain.

Millions of Americans are on Medicare, and as the baby boomer retirement wave continues, millions more will be. Now, the digital services offered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have expanded. For example, recipients can easily check their own medical records going back four years. All the required coding didn't just happen. Shannon Sartin is one of the people driving online services at CMS. She's executive director of U.S. Digital Service for Health and Human Services and a finalist in this year's Service to America Medals program. She spoke with Federal Drive about her work.

For federal automobile fleets, the gasoline engine still reigns supreme. Of some 650,00 vehicles, two-thirds are conventionally powered. A lot use flex fuel — but hybrid and electric cars are still rare. For why, we checked in with Andrew Von Ah, Director of Physical Infrastructure Issues at the Government Accountability Office.

The albatross hanging on agency's necks for the past decade that made it much harder to move the cloud is finally gone. The Office of Management and Budget yesterday released the final Trusted Internet Connections or TIC policy. It opens the door much wider to use cloud services. Federal News Network executive editor Jason Miller joined Federal Drive to discuss why the new TIC policy will make IT modernization easier.

Last year, Kilauea, one of several active volcanoes on Hawaii, erupted for more than 100 days. It wiped out more than 700 homes, displacing thousands of people. Right on the ground was a U.S. Geological Survey team, led by Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Scientist Christina Neal. She told Federal Drive about the experience that earned her and her team a nomination in this year's Service to America Medals in the Science and Environment category.

The saga continues for the Agriculture Department and its efforts to relocate the headquarters for two of its research bureaus to Kansas City. USDA is asking some employees at the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the Economic Research Service to work longer in Washington. Like through December, or even next March. The American Federation of Government Employees is suspicious the extensions could reduce the benefits owed to departing employees. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko joined Federal Drive with the latest.

Artificial intelligence in the service of human resources management may sound ironic. But HR experts all over are predicting AI will improve their function, even replace some HR people by automating lots of routine tasks. One person isn't so sure. Bob Tobias is a professor in the Key Executive Leadership Program at American University, and he joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for more discussion.

It's still uncertain why hundreds of thousands of Defense Department civilian employees suddenly lost access to the government’s Employee Assistance Program a week and a half ago. But the picture is becoming at least a little clearer. The root of the problem appears to be a determination by the Department of Health and Human Services that it can’t adhere to DoD procurement regulations. And HHS’s Program Support Center has apparently decided that means it can no longer provide services to the Defense Department. Federal News Network’s Jason Miller and Jared Serbu have been following the ongoing turmoil between PSC and its customer agencies, and they joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to bring things up to speed.

Hiring freezes are at best a mixed blessing for large organizations. That appears true for the State Department, which underwent a really long hiring freeze in the first year of the Trump administration. Now the Office of Inspector General has documented the outcomes of the hiring freeze. For the highlights, Arne Baker, director of the Policy Implementation Division in the Office of Inspections, and Sandra Lewis, assistant inspector general for Inspections, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin in the studio.