Federal Drive with Tom Temin

The Defense Department can improve the acquisition process for space technology with more “market intelligence.” Its acquisition leaders need to make clearer distinctions between investing in programs that will have limited commercial support and in programs that have broader commercial applications. A new report from RAND Corporation, initiated at the request of the Air Force, looked at the way the department developed and acquired new technologies, and how it could get access to a broader spectrum of innovation. Jonathan Wong, a senior researcher for the report and an analyst for RAND, said contracting officers need a more sophisticated view of how the commercial marketplace for technology works. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In many ways, retirement after a federal career is all about the numbers. Do you have enough saved that, together with your annuity, you won't run out of money. In some ways, retirement is not about numbers at all. There's also the danger of being bored to death. To delve into the issue of non-monetary advice, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with federal retiree and AG Financial Services owner Abe Grungold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A seasoned overseer of federal grant-making has returned to government. After a stint at a large services contractor, Tom Yatsco recently became the inspector general at the Legal Services Corporation, one of the more unusual federal structures. He and Federal Drive Host Tom Temin has this conversation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Veterans Health Administration recently participated, for the first time ever, in an annual survey of hospital quality conducted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. VA did well. The survey is known as the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS). Starting off with the fact that this was not a VA survey, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Dr. Shereef Elnahal, the VA's top medical official. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: VA hospitals do pretty darn well in a national survey. The nation's funder of legal aid services gets a new inspector general. Retirement is easy to think about, but more difficult to pull off. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say the Defense Information Systems Agency is in a heavy research mode. Whether it’s around cybersecurity tools and capabilities or cloud services, DISA has no fewer than 14 ongoing or recently completed pilot initiatives. Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner, DISA’s director and commander of the Joint Force Headquarters-Department of Defense Information Network (JTF-DODIN), said each of these efforts include the military services as part of the effort to field capabilities that are less complex and more effective. Take as an example, the three pilots to better protect internet boundaries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tens of thousands of the Postal Service’s rural carriers saw a rocky start to this month, after a USPS payroll error resulted in missing and incomplete paychecks. The National Rural Letter Carriers Association estimates USPS payroll issues impacted approximately 53,000 rural carrier employees. The vast majority of those impacted — about 45,000 employees — were non-career rural carriers that cover routes for full-time career mail carriers as needed. Rural carriers shared images with Federal News Network showing that their Sept. 1 pay stubs totaled $0 in take-home pay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Air Force has big ambitions for incorporating artificial intelligence into warfighting. But there’s one big problem: As of now, the service doesn’t have the processes or infrastructure to test and evaluate AI with nearly the same rigor it’s long used and demanded for its less intelligent weapons systems. That assessment is one of the key findings of a more than year-long study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NAS), whose authors emphasized the challenges in assessing whether an AI-enabled system will work as it’s intended are not unique to the Air Force, but rather, are common across federal agencies. One of the biggest challenges the Air Force faces is that its test and evaluation infrastructure is designed to put physical weapons systems through their paces at defined points in time, before they’ve been fielded. In that process, once a bomber or fighter has been deemed suitable and effective for its missions, it’s turned over to the operational community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now that the House has returned, Congress will start making a final push for something, we presume, as the fiscal year is set to expire in two weeks. For the play-by-play, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with WTOP Capitol Hill Correspondent Mitchell Miller. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The cybersecurity team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is about to finalize a new version of a signature document: The Cybersecurity Framework. Next week it holds a workshop to get one last round of input on the new framework draft. For more, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Kevin Stine, the Chief of NIST's Applied Cybersecurity Division. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One thing the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) never stops tinkering with is passenger screening, both techniques and supporting technology. Screening is light years from what it was in the days right after an earlier 9/11. Now it has published what it calls an open architecture roadmap, aimed at improving screening performance. For details on the roadmap and its goals, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Erick Rekstad, SA Systems Engineer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: TSA launches updated approach to a never-ending program. The NIST cybersecurity team puts final touches on a foundational document. Armageddon, known as the getting a budget for 2024, starts today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cybersecurity requirements for defense contractors and cyber incident reporting requirements for critical infrastructure organizations are both nearing critical junctures after years of discussion and development. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is “finishing” the notice of proposed rulemaking for the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of 2022, CISA Director Jen Easterly said during the Billington Cybersecurity Summit in Washington on Wednesday. “That should be out later this year or early next year,” Easterly said. Once in effect, the rules will require critical infrastructure entities to report cyber incidents to CISA within 72 hours. It will also require them to report ransomware payments within 24 hours. But first CISA has to go through a complex rulemaking process to define key processes, such as what organizations are required to report cyber incidents and what kind of incidents are covered by the law. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program has been in gestation at the Defense Department longer than a baby elephant. CMMC is still not operational, but, boy, has it produced documents. Just out, new scoping documents. Do contractors need to read them? To discuss that topic, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin was joined in studio by Holland and Knight contracting attorney Eric Crucius. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The opioid scourge is as much a rural as an urban problem. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), part of Health and Human Services, has spent five years and hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to rural health services providers to help battle a nearly overwhelming problem. For its work, the HRSA team leading the effort has been named a finalist in the Service to America Medals program. Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with two members in-studio: HRSA's Rural Strategic Initiatives Director, Megan Meacham and Team Lead Sarah O'Donnell. (Deputy director Allison Hutchings is the third member). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices