Federal Drive with Tom Temin

It's axiomatic. Once a procurement bid deadline has passed, hopeful vendors cannot submit any more information or alter their bids. Or is it? A recent protest case before the Government Accountability Office shows that in some circumstances, contractors can get changes before source selection eyes. D.C. procurement attorney Joe Petrillo of Petrillo and Powell joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to explain.

The House Appropriations Committee released its defense spending bill for 2020. Its not what the White House wanted. The Democratically-controlled panel engineered a significantly lower number than the Trump administration is calling for. Thus the bill sets the stage for a sequestration showdown in October. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin with the details.

Innovation is one of the terms that gets thrown around a lot in federal procurement circles. But exactly when is an agency or organization actually innovative? What stops agencies from trying something new or different when it comes to buying goods or services? The Office of Federal Procurement Policy is trying to answer those questions and debunk some myths about acquisition innovation in the fourth version of its mythbusters series. Leslie Field, the OFPP deputy administrator, and Soraya Correa, chief procurement officer at the Department of Homeland Security, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin. They told Federal News Network Executive Editor Jason Miller how the new memo is an effort to break down the barriers to innovation that have built up over the past 20 years.

For the first time, some participants in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, are able to buy their groceries online. That's a leap forward for a program which only a few years ago was still issuing coupons. The Agriculture Department is running a two year test of online buying with the hope of expanding nationwide. For more, Federal News Network's Eric White spoke with the Associate Administrator for SNAP at USDA's Food and Nutrition Service Jessica Shahin.

The Trump administration this week is making the case for the reorganization of the Office of Personnel Management. As Federal News Network has reported, the upcoming transfer of the security clearance business from the National Background Investigations Bureau to the Defense Department pulls the revenue rug from under OPM. Acting Director Margaret Weichert made the case for the rest of OPM's reorganization yesterday to a group of reporters. She said merging what's left of OPM with the General Services Administration would generate savings up to $37 million a year. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to wade through the details.

Government agencies were not spared their share of cybersecurity-induced data breaches last year. The latest comprehensive report from Verizon shows that 16% of breaches hit the public sector. Tim Erlin, vice president of strategy at Tripwire, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for some of the most important takeaways.

When veterans transition out of the military and seek their benefits, they hit up the Veterans Benefits Administration. Critics say VBA's efforts spent processing disability compensation and pension claims has resulted in under-attention to benefits like home loans and vocational rehab. A new bill in the House would add a new agency at VBA to deal with those benefits. Federal News Network's Eric White spoke with one of the bill's sponsors, Ohio Republican Brad Wenstrup. Hear more on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

It’s one thing to launch programs but how much better would it be if agencies could prove their programs work? President Donald Trump signed the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act into law earlier this year. It requires agencies to appoint chief data officers and use their data to better understand program effectiveness. Now the Office of Management and Budget is finishing its guidance to agencies for the law. Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman had more details on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

The budget debates now heating up in Congress are like a relationship. It's complicated, you might say. None of it indicates broad consensus or offers hope of a resolution any time soon. But they are talking. Bloomberg Government's Editorial Director Loren Duggan joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin with the latest updates.

Chapter 99 in a long running drama. Oracle fired another salvo at the Defense Department’s $10 billion dollar cloud procurement initiative. The software giant alleges in a new court filing that the Joint Enterprise Defense Initiative, or JEDI, cloud program is fraught with lies, ethics violations and misconduct. In his weekly feature, the Reporter's Notebook, Federal News Network executive editor Jason Miller wrote about this latest dramatic turn in the ever growing saga that is JEDI. He joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss.

As technology, demographics and attitudes towards work evolve, federal hiring managers know they'll need to adapt in order to maintain a stream of fresh talent. To help, the Government Accountability Office offers a new set of talent management strategies. Federal News Network's Eric White spoke with Robert Goldenkoff, Director of Strategic Issues at GAO about the strategies.

It’s been nearly four years since Congress gave DoD the go-ahead to set up a separate pay and personnel system for its cyber workforce. Now there are finally some signs that the Cyber Excepted Service, as it’s called, is about to take off. The Marine Corps plans to convert a big chunk of its workforce to the new system next month. The Navy has similar plans. Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin with the latest developments.

The National Background Investigations Bureau is juggling two seemingly difficult tasks. It’s working with the Defense Department to transfer the security clearance portfolio from OPM. And it’s still making progress on the investigative backlog. Federal News Network’s Nicole Ogrysko joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin with more details on both of these projects.

The tax filing season has come and gone, as they also do every year the IRS and its overseers say there's a big difference between what taxpayers owe, and what the IRS actually collects. Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee point to IRS staffing cuts as one reason for the so-called tax gap. But Republican lawmakers suggest other ways to collect more revenue. Federal News Network's Jory Heckman joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin with details.

When it comes to protecting intellectual property, most people think of the Patent and Trademark Office first. But there's a third leg to the IP stool, namely the Copyright Office. It's part of the Library of Congress and it has a new strategic plan. Register of Copyrights Karyn Temple joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin with highlights.