Federal Drive with Tom Temin

They say when Congress is out of session, the traffic in D.C. gets lighter. Maybe, but the season of politics and oversight doesn't stop for the summer, at least not this year. From the death of Jeffrey Epstein while in federal custody, to resumed calls for gun control after back-to-back mass shootings, The Fulcrum's Editor in Chief David Hawkings joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for this week's tale.

The General Services Administration had made a decision about the future of its new contracting writing system, called CALM. And that decision surprised some vendors. GSA's Federal Acquisition Service will use its agencywide IT modernization program known as COMET to develop CALM instead of creating a standalone procurement. In his weekly feature, the Reporter's Notebook, Federal News Network Executive Editor Jason Miller writes about why moving CALM under COMET was unexpected to some contractors. Jason joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss.

A group of college students took a civic innovation class two years ago and wanted a chance to put their data science and coding experience in practice. But there aren't many opportunities for students still early on in their college careers to work for federal agencies. Rachel Dodell and Chris Kuang co-founded the Civic Digital Fellowship, a paid internship program that places college students at one of six agencies for the summer. They told Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko how the fellowship got started and how it's evolved over the past two years. Hear more on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

They can't compare to piano-playing felines, but IRS videos do have their share of online followers. Yes, the IRS has a YouTube channel of short, highly formatted videos. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration looked into the video program and found few problems, actually. Here with details, Acting Assistant Inspector General for Management Services Heather Hill joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

Lasers might not just be for Star Wars anymore. As part of the National Defense Strategy, the Army is realizing it needs to invest in more advanced capabilities to counter near-peer competitors like China and Russia. The Army thinks lasers might work for short-range air defense. The service’s Rapid Capabilities Office awarded a contract to prototype lasers on a platoon of four Stryker vehicles in 2022. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione talked with Craig Robin, senior research scientist for Directed Energy Applications at U.S. Army and Missile Defense Command, about the new award.

When it comes to sheer volume, there are few federal agencies that come anywhere close to the number of Freedom of Information Act requests US Citizenship and Immigration Services receives. To handle that workload, USCIS is turning to automation. The agency has just expanded its new electronic FOIA system, called “FIRST,” letting most of its requesters handle the entire process online. To talk more about the system, Tammy Meckley, associate director for the agency’s Immigration Records and Identity Services (IRIS) directorate, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

The Defense Department tried to set the record straight about its controversial cloud computing initiative called the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI. But DoD Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy may have hit upon what could be another sticking point for the JEDI program. In his weekly feature, the Reporter’s Notebook, Federal News Network Executive Editor Jason Miller writes about why the JEDI procurement in remains murky as Defense Secretary Mark Esper begins his programmatic review. Hear more on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

Agency chief financial officers used to focus on crunching numbers but with the rise in emerging technology and data analytics the majority of government CFOs say their jobs are changing. That’s according to the latest CFO survey from Grant Thornton. Jim Taylor is a former CFO at the Labor Department and is now a managing director of Grant Thornton’s global public sector. He told Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman what trends CFOs are seeing on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

The federal government has been operating without a Senate-confirmed administrator in the Office of Federal Procurement Policy for two and a half years now. But no more — before their departure for the August recess, Senators approved Michael Wooten to lead OFPP. To talk more about what the confirmation means and some of the issues Wooten is likely to face in the new job, Federal Drive with Tom Temin was joined by Alan Chvotkin, the executive vice president of the Professional Services Council.

USDA is the latest agency to announce a new training and reskilling opportunity, this time geared for rising IT employees interested in becoming a CIO or CISO. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko joined Jared Serbu on Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss it further.

When the Federal Communications Commission rolled out its online Universal Licensing System in the 1990s, it was ahead of its time. It gave the public access to the commission’s biggest database of wireless licenses and let license holders handle much of the application process online. But times have changed, and the ULS is past due for an overhaul. Nicholas Degani, a senior counsel to Ajit Pai, the FCC chairman, joined Jared Serbu on Federal Drive with Tom Temin to talk  more about the upcoming upgrade and how it fits into the commission’s broader modernization strategy.

The United States was going through a turbulent financial period in 2008. After being appointed the director of a major NASA launch site, Bob Cabana was told the agency was going to end the program the site was best known for. What did he do? Cabana and his management team transformed the center to become the epicenter of commercial space activities. This is how they ended up a finalist for this year's Service to America Medals in the Management Excellence category. Cabana joined Eric White on Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss the team's challenges and victories.

The White House has been pushing federal agencies to take existing “buy American” laws more seriously, and the Trump Administration’s latest executive order comes with some hard numbers attached. It urges the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council to adopt regulations that would increase the amount of preference agencies give to domestically-sourced products under the Buy American Act. But even the latest executive order might not end up affecting all that many procurements. William Weisberg, a government contracts attorney at Centre Law and Consulting, joined Jared Serbu on Federal Drive with Tom Temin to help understand why, 

If you've never heard of the government scientific advisory panel known as JASON, there's a good reason for that: Most of the work it does is classified. The independent group has been conducting studies for the Defense Department and other agencies for more than 60 years. But now, the department seems determined to do away with it. Defense officials said the reason is there are more cost effective ways to get outside scientific advice, but there are reasons to be skeptical of that explanation. Charles Levinson has been covering the possible downfall of JASON, and efforts to rescue it, for Reuters, where he's a national affairs correspondent. He talked with Federal Drive with Tom Temin about where things stand.

There are still a lot of unanswered questions about the future of the Pentagon’s JEDI Cloud contract. One of the biggest is whether Oracle will continue its legal challenge to the contract after losing its bid protest lawsuit at the Court of Federal Claims. It could take the case to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, but hasn’t made a decision just yet. Joe Petrillo is a procurement attorney at the firm Petrillo and Powell. He talked with Federal Drive with Tom Temin about the likelihood of success of an appeal, based on how the case has gone so far.