Federal Drive with Tom Temin

When agency managers do not know what to do with someone, too often they put the employee on paid administrative leave. Despite a 2017 law designed to curb this practice, it still happens a lot, according to a group called, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). For more on the findings, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with PEER Senior Counsel Peter Jenkins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: Paid administrative leave still plagues the federal workforce. How to quantify risk to your information so you can manage it better. What the continuing resolution still leaves unresolved. The man who is helping protect Americans from missile attacks from anywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The bizarre stalemate in Congress is probably bad politically. But it might be even worse for the government itself. It increases the possibility that the continuing resolution, set to expire November 17, only postponed a government shutdown. For what this all looks like from inside and under the dome, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Mitchell Miller, WTOP Capitol Hill Correspondent. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every agency generates it, and it is best used when it is shared, combined for new insights and applications. But data sharing is not as simple as it sounds. New research from the industry-supported Center for Data Innovation outlines six possible strategies for sharing your data. For more, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Daniel, the Director of the Center for Data Innovation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Almost everything the government buys in the future could look like cybersecurity with some other product attached, if new proposed rules from the Federal Acquisition Regulation council take effect early next year. That's more a matter of when than if. Attorney Townsend Bourne, a partner at Sheppard Mullin, has read the proposed rules and joins Federal Drive host Tom Temin for this discussion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: The FAR council goes big into proposing new cybersecurity rules. Everyone talks about data sharing. But do you really know how to do it? The situation in Congress is probably worse than you think. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A directive to U.S. embassies in India and Pakistan requesting an urgent evaluation of economic and financial vulnerabilities in those countries. A report from the embassy in Sofia detailing discord in the Bulgarian Socialist Party. And an internal summary, prepared by the U.S. embassy in Pretoria, of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s meeting with President Nelson Mandela in South Africa. Those messages are among dozens of newly released diplomatic cables from late 1997. The State Department declassified the cables using a machine learning tool developed by the agency over the past year. The cables were not subject to any Freedom of Information Act requests, but State officials determined copies of the documents could be publicly released through the “proactive disclosure” provision of FOIA. Eric Stein, the deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Global Information Services, called it “the first ever proactive disclosure of previously classified records . . . using machine learning and AI.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fiscal 2024 started off like most fiscal years, with a Continuing Resolution. The government is still spending, and contractors have lots of opportunities. For the top opportunities in the year ahead, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Bloomberg Government Senior Data Analyst Paul Murphy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last spring, when a Air National Guard member was found to leak secrets on the Discord app, it raised questions about how he got and kept his security clearance. Raw Story reporter Alexandria Jacobson spent three months looking at the security-clearance and found quite a few flaws. Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked to her about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The work of our next guest has spanned 40 years and helped save lives. For that work at the NIH, he's a finalist for the Paul Volcker Career Achievement Award from the Partnership for Public Service. Federal News Network's Eric White spoke with Dr. Rocky Feuer, the Chief of the Statistical Research and Applications Branch at the National Cancer Institute. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: This Rocky has been knocking-out cancer for decades, using statistics. An outside look at security-clearance process, reveals some flaws. Fiscal 2024 starts with a CR, but contractors still have lots of opportunities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Department of Homeland Security is looking to become one of the “early and aggressive adopters” of AI tools within the federal government, and is taking steps to protect critical infrastructure from AI-powered cyber attacks. Defense and national security community officials, speaking Wednesday at the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT)’s AI DC conference in Arlington, Virginia, said their agencies see AI as an essential way to maintain an information advantage against malicious actors. Robert Silvers, DHS undersecretary for policy, said that DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is setting the department’s own priority areas for AI. Those priorities are meant to align with what the Biden administration has planned for an upcoming executive order on AI. “One is we should be early and aggressive adopters of the technology,” Silvers said. “We should also be at the vanguard of establishing rules for responsible and ethical and safe use for our own programs.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A top White House cybersecurity official says the “conversation is being started” around sweeping new cyber requirements for federal IT contractors. One rule published in the Federal Register this week includes a provision that would mandate some key contractors report cyber incidents to the government within eight hours. Another aims to standardize cybersecurity requirements for unclassified information systems across government. The proposals stem from President Joe Biden’s May 2021 cybersecurity executive order. The EO included a major goal to ensure information technology and operational technology contractors share more cybersecurity information with agencies. “These service providers, including cloud service providers, have unique access to and insight into cyber threat and incident information on federal information systems,” the order states. Chris DeRusha, the federal chief information security officer, said recent cyber incidents helped inform the proposed rules. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices