Federal Drive with Tom Temin

Strained relations and poor communications between military leadership and Congress are harming the Pentagon's standing on Capitol Hill. The result is weaker support for the military and possibly counterproductive legislation. That's according to Rick Berger, a defense research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, He joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for more discussion.

Over half of the employees at the Agriculture Department's two research bureaus that have been asked to relocate say they'd rather quit than move to Kansas City. Employees at the Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture had until July 15 to accept relocation orders or reject them. The numbers aren't pretty. And they're prompting more concern from congressional Democrats about the upcoming move. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to break down how many employees are expected to move or leave.

Agencies submit $4 trillion worth of spending data to USASpending.gov each year. The Treasury Department's Bureau of the Fiscal Service finds trends in the data. The bureau recently launched a new tool to track federal investment specifically in higher education. Justin Marsico, deputy assistant commissioner for data transparency and the founder of the bureau’s Data Lab, told Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman what the bureau looks to accomplish by tracking all this spending data. Hear more on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

Space force, space command, Department of Space — it's not certain what form the military's space assets will take. A former Air Force nuclear and space operations officer argues that some type of separate space force could do good if it has the right culture. Brian Weeden is director of program planning at the Secure World Foundation, and he joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for more discussion.

Silicon Valley is getting a lot of attention as military leaders pursue innovation. Christopher Neiweem argues more support is needed for innovation cells on US college and university campuses — those specifically assigned to the military mission. He is an Iraq Army veteran, now the communications chief for Next Veterans, and he joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for more explanation.

When it comes to overseeing weird variations of retirement accounts, the IRS and Labor Department don't cooperate as closely as they should. That's the finding of the Government Accountability Office when it looked at prohibited transactions for Individual Retirement Accounts. Director of GAO's Education, Workforce and Income Security Team, Charles Jeszeck, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for the details.

The Defense Department has known for years that its supply base is something of a soft underbelly when it comes to cyber vulnerabilities. But so far, no one’s thrilled with the solutions the Pentagon’s put in place to tighten industrial base cybersecurity. But DoD has a new answer on the horizon. It includes a significant overhaul of all of its contracts, so that eventually every company doing business with the department will need a cyber certification. Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu writes about the Cyber Maturity Model Certification program in this week’s edition of the DoD reporter’s notebook. Hear more on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

The Department of Health and Human Services will no longer provide assisted acquisition services to other agencies. While that decision is surprising in some regards, HHS' Program Support Center did more than $1 billion in transactions last year for other agencies. The bigger question is why did HHS decide to terminate its shared services at the beginning of what many believe will be the busiest federal fiscal fourth quarter in recent memory? In his weekly feature, the Reporter's Notebook, Federal News Network Executive Editor Jason Miller has exclusive details about HHS' decision and the impact on dozens of federal agencies and contractors. He joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss.

It's cooler outside now, but the heat is still on Congress to finish work on the debt limit and spending caps. Even though Robert Mueller's Wednesday testimony has members all abuzz. Bloomberg Government Editorial Director Loren Duggan gave more details on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

Like the rest of America, the military has ongoing challenges with obesity and physical readiness of its troops. Now an academic study found that a low-carb diet known as ketogenic might help. For what that is and why it might be useful, Jeff Volek, professor of kinesiology at The Ohio State University, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

Two big projects for the General Services Administration have moved along in recent weeks. The revamping of the venerable multiple award schedules contract and the congressionally-mandated e-commerce marketplace. Larry Allen of Allen Federal Business Partners has been watching closely and joined the show with updates.

Mapping applications are great for most vehicles. But what if they send a 14-foot tall fire truck to a 13-foot bridge? That problem, the size and operational details of first responder vehicles, prompted the Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate to take action. It came up with a special app called Quick Route. For what it is and how it works, Kimberly Jones-Holt, Program Manager for First Responder and Detection Programs at S&T spoke with Federal Drive.

The Defense Department and Office of Personnel Management at last have their ducks in row to move the massive security clearance program from one agency to the other. But the upcoming transfer isn't the only thing the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency is working on. The newly renamed agency is also developing a new end-to-end IT system. And it's preparing to implement a series of new policies that the Trump administration is slowly piloting. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko joined the show with details.

If you’ve got an idea for the next great invention, you’re in good company. The Patent and Trademark Office has approved more than 10 million domestic patents in its more than 200-year history. And with new applications coming in every day, it can be hard for examiners to sort out new concepts from what’s already been patented. Andrei Iancu is the director of USPTO. He told Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman how the agency is testing artificial intelligence and automation tools to sort through all this information.

Few technologies of recent years have had quite the impact of electronic mapping and geospatial intelligence. Robert Cardillo has been at the center of it. He retired earlier this year as director of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. He's still involved, though. He joined Federal Drive to share where he thinks the industry is going.