Federal Drive with Tom Temin

Most people working in offices don't breathe in vapors from gasoline, dry cleaning fluid, degreasers, paints, glues or inks. But people who do are potentially exposed to neurotoxic fumes. The Environmental Protection Agency has spent many years developing rules for such exposure. The rules stem from the work of my next guest. William Boyes is an Environmental Health Scientist in EPA's Office of Research and Development and a finalist in this year's Service to America Medals program. He joined Federal Drive to discuss.

It hasn't been a good week for federal employee unions. A federal appeals judge overturned a lower court ruling that nullified Trump administration executive orders on official time, collective bargaining and other workplace matters. That means for now, the orders are in effect. To explain what this all could mean, Federal Practice Group law firm founding partner Debra D'Agostino joined Federal Drive.

A year ago, the Army founded its Futures Command, partly as a means to shift the way the service buys weapons. The Army is using the command to buy faster, bring in new ideas and generally streamline bureaucratic acquisition. The command will be fully operational at the end of the month, but that doesn’t mean all the kinks are straightened out. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione has the details.

Much of government now sees the light at the end of the tunnel with the security clearance backlog. As of last week, it sits at 386,000. Virginia Senator Mark Warner is the vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee and the author of several provisions in this year's defense and intelligence authorization bills designed to modernize security clearance. He told Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko he's working with the Office of Personnel Management and the Pentagon to keep an eye on the upcoming clearance transfer.

Agencies moving to the cloud have a process to make sure they’re buying cyber-secure products. But the leadership of a House Oversight and Reform subcommittee says that process, known as FedRAMP, has become too lengthy and too expensive for small IT vendors to compete. Now those members say they’re working on a bill to remove some of those FedRAMP hurdles. Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman joined Federal Drive with the latest.

No one becomes an astronaut for the food. But you can't live on the space station or fly to the moon or Mars without food. Now a challenge contest aims to find ways to grow food-bearing plants in austere environments. Director of education at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Amy Padolf, joined Federal Drive with more.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is getting serious about grid and electrical utility cybersecurity. New rules require reporting of certain cyber incidents and no more paper compliance. Senior Policy Advisor at the law firm Holland and Knight, Norma Krayem, joined Federal Drive with details.

The Taxpayer First Act which President Trump signed into law earlier this month included reforms to the IRS whistleblower program. Dean Zerbe is National Managing Director of the Alliantgroup and Senior Policy Analyst at the National Whistleblower Center, thinks they're an improvement — he joined Federal Drive to explain why.

For the Transportation Security Administration, airport screening doesn't just happen. The agency's security operations unit is constantly refining and testing how well procedures prevent guns and other prohibited items from making it through. But the Government Accountability Office finds, TSA could do better in how it manages its covert testing program. GAO's Managing Director for Homeland Security and Justice Issues, Charles Johnson, joined Federal Drive with details.

The Trump administration earns a win in its bid to enforce and implement a series of executive orders on collective bargaining, official time and employee firings. A group of federal employee unions sued the Trump administration over the EOs and won last August. But the U.S. Court of Appeals reversed that decision yesterday. Federal News Network’s Nicole Ogrysko joined the show to explain the court’s decision and what this means going forward.

Both legislative houses have passed their versions of the 2020 defense authorization bills and now and there’s a lot to fight over. The House version, passed last week, has some significant differences with the Senate counterpart. It also had some interesting amendments attached to it. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione joined the show to explain.

Agencies have been tasked by the Trump administration to take their customer service up a notch. But a few things may stand in the way. Like budget uncertainty, and in some agencies, less-than-optimal relations between line employees and management. Bob Tobias is a professor in the Key Executive Leadership Program at American University and he joined Federal Drive to argue that better services starts in-house.

You might call it a field hospital in a backpack. That's the concept behind two recent Army contracts to develop what the Army calls an autonomous trauma care system for initial care of wounded soldiers in remote places. Carnegie Mellon University is one contract recipient. The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is one award recipient. Retired Army Colonel Doctor Ron Poropatich, director of the Center for Military Medicine Research joined Federal Drive to discuss.

With $17 billion in spending and a host of controversial amendments between them, the House and Senate must figure out a way to to reconcile very different versions of a National Defense Authorization Act. That's part of an agenda with two more weeks until a month-long recess. The Fulcrum editor in chief David Hawkings joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for his assessment.

When it comes to tracking down national security threats the latest wave of artificial intelligence tools may help the Department of Homeland Security pick the right face out of the crowd. The agency has a few facial recognition projects in the works, but a recent data breach of one of its subcontractors has Congress taking a closer look at the security of the data and the accuracy of the results. Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for more.