Federal Drive with Tom Temin

On today's episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: A progress report from the chairman of a Defense management reform commission. An exclusive two-part interview with PPBE Chairman, Bob Hale. PPBE is the Congressionally-chartered commission examining the DoD's Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution process. The outlook for Capitol Hill as the Senate, anyway, returns to Washington. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Long considered complicated and time-consuming, and with well over 100 different hiring authorities, the federal recruitment process is finally positioned for a much-needed transformation. But without the right investments in time, resources and staffing, agencies will struggle to expand small-scale successes from the last few years. For years, if not decades, presidential administrations and Congress have tried to get creative, finding loopholes and other piecemeal ways to weave through the government’s convoluted, red-taped process for hiring new employees —the reason agencies have so many hiring authorities in the first place. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Postal Service and its law enforcement division are stepping up plans to address a rise in mail theft. USPS and its Postal Inspection Service are adding new security measures to its blue collection boxes to prevent criminals from stealing mail and altering checks. USPS also expects these added security measures will also make letter carriers less of a target for criminals. U.S. Postal Inspector Michael Martel told Federal News Network in a recent interview that USPIS has seen an “alarming” increase in letter carrier robberies in recent years. Criminals are robbing letter carriers for their arrow keys, which are used to steal mail and packages, as well as commit financial crimes — including altering checks and committing check fraud. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The AbilityOne program employs people with disabilities to manufacture many commodities for the government, from military uniforms to those wonderful ball point pens. A big focus for AbilityOne is office supplies and furnishings. For how the program is faring with so much of federal office space vacant, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Kim Zeich, the AbilityOne Executive Director. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If the COVID virus showed anything, it's the potency of the biology threats. The Defense Department recently completed its 2023 biodefense posture review. It deals with many potential threats from the bio domain. For more on the story behind the review, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs, Brandi Vann. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: How and why DoD has updated its readiness plan for bio-defense. How the AbilityOne program is coping when agencies need fewer office supplies. The State Department is next to expand into a classified commercial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Defense Department’s short-lived chief management officer (CMO) position didn’t work because the Pentagon’s senior leadership never wanted it, and the position was foisted on an unwilling DoD by Congress, according to a new report analyzing what went wrong with the position. The report, released Monday by the Defense Management Institute, a DoD-affiliated nonprofit think tank, found the position lacked well-defined boundaries and never got the full support of senior leadership. “There’s nothing to suggest that the department was interested in a chief management officer. In fact, it received objections from the highest levels of the department. And likewise, there was resistance from other echelons across the department,” Jason Dechant, study lead for the report and research staff member at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) told Federal News Network. IDA is the parent organization for DMI. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It sounds cliché to say someone has devoted a career to helping others. But my the guest in this interview has literally done that. Specifically, she has helped victims of terrorism and crime. Among her accomplishments, is drafting Justice Department policy for the International Terrorism Victim Expense Reimbursement Program. Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Carolyn Hightower the Deputy Director of the Office on Trafficking in Persons, part of the Health and Human Services department, who is also a finalist in this year's Service to America Medals program, known as the Sammies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It sounds cliché to say someone has devoted a career to helping others. But my the guest in this interview has literally done that. Specifically, she has helped victims of terrorism and crime. Among her accomplishments, is drafting Justice Department policy for the International Terrorism Victim Expense Reimbursement Program. Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Carolyn Hightower the Deputy Director of the Office on Trafficking in Persons, part of the Health and Human Services department, who is also a finalist in this year's Service to America Medals program, known as the Sammies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Copyright Office -- a Congressional agency -- is taking a bow for the success of its online recordation system. The system lets people submit, online, documents for copyright applications. How successful is it? Federal Drive Host Tom Temin gets the numbers from the Assistant Register and Director of the Office of Copyright Records, Denise Wofford. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: One small agency marks success in modernizing an old process. The Army develops a game to help its contracting workforce get better at buying. Crime and terror victims get compensation thanks to this federal career leader. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency could lose employees involved in chemical security screenings, one of its leaders is warning, if Congress doesn’t act soon to reauthorize and fund the agency’s expired chemical security program. The authorization for the Chemical Facility Anti-terrorism Standards (CFATS) program lapsed on July 28 after the Senate failed to pass a reauthorization bill before going on August recess. It’s the first time the program hasn’t been reauthorized since it was created in 2007. CISA and Department of Homeland Security leaders are now pressing Congress to reauthorize the CFATS program, warning that the absence of facility inspections and other security standards under the program increases the danger of chemical terrorism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alongside staff attrition and lost productivity, the Department of Agriculture’s relocation of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and the Economic Research Service (ERS) in 2019 had yet another consequence — prior to the move, USDA violated the Antideficiency Act (ADA) by failing to meet congressional notification requirements. The Government Accountability Office, in a decision issued earlier this month, found that although USDA met its obligations to notify Congress about a transfer of funds to support NIFA’s relocation, the department did not meet the same requirements for ERS’ relocation. The GAO review, which Reps. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.), Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) and Don Beyer (D-Va.) requested, came after USDA’s planning and subsequent relocation of both NIFA and ERS facilities from the Washington, D.C. area to Kansas City, Missouri, during the Trump administration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The industry is trying to understand the extent of new Davis-Bacon regulations for federal construction coming out of the Labor Department. The final rule hasn't quite taken effect, but already contractors to the government -- or on federally-funded projects -- have a slew of new risk and compliance obligations. For more, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Haynes Boone procurement attorney Dan Ramish. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Housing and Urban Development (HUD) does not build low-income housing, but it helps finance it. Since 2016, HUD's Housing Trust Fund has made grants to 263 projects for people with extremely low incomes. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that HUD officials need to do a better job of monitoring and overseeing the use of Housing Trust Fund dollars. For details, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with GAO's Director of the Financial Markets and Community Investment Team, Jill Naamane. Link to this GAO Report Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices