Federal Drive with Tom Temin

Sometimes it seems like unmanned aircraft are about to take over the world. But if it flies, it's got to keep clear of planes with people aboard. That's been a major concern of the Federal Aviation Administration for years. Now the agency has issued a request for information about whether testing ought to be required of amateur drone operators. With what they have in mind, Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to an aviation safety inspector in the FAA's Unmanned Aircraft Integration Office, Danielle Corbett.

House Democrats are moving on to the next proposed agency relocation. This time it’s a relocation of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management that they want to block. The plan is to move the remaining employees at BLM headquarters in Washington, D.C., to Grand Junction, Colorado, and several other locations out west. The House Natural Resources Committee is split over the plan. Federal News Network’s Nicole Ogrysko had more on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

Federal hiring managers never tire of how hard it is to find and recruit new people. More and more, though, the idea of re-educating the people you have is showing good results. The latest words are re-skilling and up-skilling. Tim McManus, chief operating officer of the Partnership for Public Service, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to talk about some of the latest thinking.

Who's tired of talking about the need to hire more cyber workers? Anyone who didn't attend at least one conference where a panel talked about how hard it is to bring on enough cyber experts on staff, or read another article on the same problem, raise their hand. In his weekly feature the Reporter's Notebook, Federal News Network Executive Editor Jason Miller did just that as nearly every panel at a recent cybersecurity conference regurgitated the same problem. He joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss how three agencies aren't just complaining but finding solutions to fill key cyber roles.

One of the most troublesome forms of cyber attack, ransomware famously hit Baltimore earlier this year. City services came almost to a halt. Ransomware attacks against governments at all levels are on the rise. For some statistics and what to do about these attacks, Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to the Vice President of Intelligence at Crowdstrike, Adam Meyers.

With cybersecurity among the top national security concerns, the Pentagon has been pushing for greater cybersecurity in its supply chain — all 300,000 companies in it. Now it's unveiled what it calls a cybersecurity maturity model certification standard. Executive vice president and counsel at the Professional Services Council Alan Chvotkin joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for more on how one corner of the contractor world views this development.

Employee assistance programs across the Defense Department are starting to come back online. They’d been unavailable for a full week, leaving DoD’s entire civilian workforce without access to services like substance abuse and mental health counseling. The reasons for the outage are far from clear, though. Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu has been covering the EAP problems, and he joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for more details.

The Air National Guard employs hundreds of thousands of people. In order to keep that workforce it needs to continually recruit and think about what its employees need. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione talked with Air National Guard Director Lt. Gen. Scott Rice about personnel issues and the potential for flattening budgets in the future.

Guns, election security, impeachment will all be among the dominant issues in Congress when members return next week. And don't forget about appropriations for 2020 — if they get around to it. For more now details, The Fulcrum editor in chief David Hawkings joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

Authorities responsible for the federal system of security background checks have become attached to a new idea: Continuous evaluation. The idea is to constantly check on cleared people by automated means, rather than do periodic re-investigations. David Luckey said the government needs to proceed with caution. He is senior international and defense researcher at the RAND Corporation, and he joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for more information.

Whether it’s helping small businesses recover from natural disasters or just getting the word about its services, the Small Business Administration deploys its personnel all across the country. SBA has led the charge on cloud migration to give its employees in the field access to the data they need. Now it’s wrapped up a continuous diagnostics and mitigation, or CDM, pilot with the Department of Homeland Security to better secure that data. SBA Chief Information Officer Maria Roat gave Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman an update on the pilot and what the agency is doing to modernize its cybersecurity.

The defense and intelligence community say the future of continuous evaluation is just about here. Both the Defense Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence are enhancing their continuous evaluation programs. Contractors are stepping up their game to vet their employees, too. It's all part of the Trump administration's ongoing efforts to overhaul the security clearance, credentialing and vetting process for a new era. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko had more details on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

The Defense Department is unveiling a new cybersecurity certification model for nearly all of its contractors. The draft version is out now. It describes the steps defense contractors and their subcontractors will have to take to make sure their systems are secure before doing business with the Pentagon. DoD said the model is an attempt to level set the playing field for the entire defense industrial base. But it's also a chance to set the stage for broader discussions about the defense supply chain. Federal Drive with Tom Temin had more information from Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko.

Veteran suicide presents one of the most troubling and persistent challenges to the Department of Veterans Affairs and to anyone concerned with veteran welfare. September is national suicide prevention month, and one program is showing promise. BraveHearts is an organization dedicated to horsemanship as a way to help those at risk of suicide. Meggan Hill-McQueeney, BraveHeart CEO, and Kyle Farbman, an Army veteran who served as a musician, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for more.

As sophisticated as air transportation has become, the most basic mistakes can still occur. Take for example the time an Alaska Airlines flight landed using a taxiway, not the runway. That prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to turn to Emily Banuelos. She led a team that developed a whole new system as a team manager for the runway safety group at the FAA. She's also a finalist in this year's Service to America Medals program. Hear more about her work on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.