Federal Drive with Tom Temin

If you follow military affairs, you can be forgiven if you're confused about proposals for space. The White House has one version for a Space Force, the Senate a second and the House a third. Kaitlyn Johnson, the associate director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to sort it out.

The Defense Department is 2-for-2 when it comes to defending its controversial JEDI Cloud solicitation from bid protests. The latest victory came on Friday after months of back-and-forth legal pleadings at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. A federal judge ruled against Oracle’s latest JEDI challenge. But there’s still a lot of unknowns about the court’s reasoning, and that reasoning may play a role in whether Oracle decides to appeal the ruling. Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to talk more about the ruling and those unanswered questions.

The Air Force is changing the way it approaches medicine to improve the readiness of the service. It’s creating dedicated provider care teams to focus on proactively treating active-duty airmen to get them back into the fight faster. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione spoke with the Air Force Surgeon General Lieutenant General Dorothy Hogg about the changes.

Three members of the Federal Salary Council quietly made a case for some serious changes to the federal pay system. They suggest a variety of options to change the way government compares federal pay to the private sector and uses the comparisons to compensate federal employees. Not all members of the council though agree with the recommendations. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko joined Federal Drive to explain what the members are recommending and the next steps forward.

Cybersecurity for federal agencies increasingly is driven by data. A case in point is the Executive Office of the U.S. Attorneys at the Justice Department. It combines data from multiple sources and fuses them to get a total cybersecurity picture. The data sources relate to seven program verticals within the Office. Greg Hall, the chief information security officer of the U.S. Attorneys, joined Federal Drive to explain.

The Defense Department has been pursuing several ways of getting its contractors up to snuff on cybersecurity. The latest initiative is something called the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification. Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel of the Professional Services Council, joined Federal Drive with details.

Damage from opioids, legal and illegal, has become a central focus of several federal agencies. One academic argues the government could be better organized and do even more and that more Congressional oversight is needed. Juliette Kayyem is a professor at the John F. Kennedy school of government and a former assistant secretary of Homeland Security. She joined Federal Drive with her points.

The FBI has been on a modernization binge: Information Technology, if not its physical headquarters. One reason for its high levels of spending is its diversity of missions. Bloomberg Government analyst Cameron Leuthy looked further into the issue. Leuthy joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin with a closer look into FBI IT spending.

Dozens of Navy officers from the 7th Fleet have been indicted or convicted in the Fat Leonard case, with many serving time. Our next guest is part of the team prosecuting the case. Mark Pletchter, assistant U.S. attorney for the southern district of California and a finalist in this year's Service to America Medals Program, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin on Federal News Network to talk more about the case.

Improper payments cost the government upwards of $150 billion a year. There's a law for that called the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act (IPERA). The Department of Veterans Affairs' office of inspector general checked into how closely the agency met its IPERA obligations last year. VA Inspector General Michael Missal joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin on Federal News Network to share his findings.

A congressionally mandated panel was tasked with coming up with recommendations for improving how the Defense Department buys. After three years of work, the Section 809 Panel delivered nearly 100 ideas detailed in three volumes. Now, with its work finished, the panel is about to pack up. Panel chairman David Drabkin joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin in the studio for a wrap up.

You might not have noticed, but a deadline came and went this week. Agencies were supposed to submit plans for incorporating digital signatures into their online transactions. It's one mandate of the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act, or IDEA. For insight on what that all means, Warren Miller, managing director of Deloitte, joined Federal Drive.

In one of its more arcane recent rulings, the Supreme Court altered the rules for what sort of information submitted to the government by businesses can be subsequently revealed. Joseph Petrillo of Petrillo and Powel joined Federal Drive to discuss the implications for contractors.

The Air Force is changing the amount of time its training leaders spend as teachers and away from their occupational and operational specialties. Trainers are now required to spend only three years on duty. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione spoke with 2nd Air Force commander Major General Timothy Leahy and Chief Master Sergeant Joanne Bass about the change.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) uses a variety of techniques to protect its networks from cyber hacks. Jay Lerner, the agency's inspector general, examined these tools to see how effectively FDIC employs them. Lerner and Mark Mulholland, assistant IG for audits and cyber, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin on Federal News Network with the highlights of their findings.