Federal Drive with Tom Temin

IRS officials expect to issue faster tax refunds once the agency goes paperless by 2025. The agency is planning to digitally process all the tax returns it receives by the 2025 filing season, thanks to billions of multi-year modernization dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act. The IRS struggled to keep up with its paper workload at the height of the pandemic. And that led to long wait times for taxpayers to hear back from the agency. Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman has the latest.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Congress left for recess this month, it left lots of Defense Department questions up in the air. When it returns in September, it will have just a few short weeks before the end of the federal fiscal year. For an update, the Federal Drive turned to Bloomberg Government defense reporter Roxana Tiron. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Protests of agency solicitations or contract awards draw protests about two thousand times every year. It's no fun for either side. But there are things the government can do in crafting an acquisition to lower the chances of a protest. At the recent National Contract Management Association World Congress in Nashville, the Federal Drive got the lowdown from the senior procurement analyst at the Army's Procurement Support Directorate, Michelle Miller. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Poverty often means less access to good health care, and therefore worse outcomes than those of the wealthy. Now the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded $50 million in grants to establish five new organizations devoted to cancer prevention and care. The Federal Drive got details now from the senior advisor for health disparities, Shobha Srinivasan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Defense Department has a new approach to talent management when it comes to its ever-expanding cybersecurity workforce. Officials hope to once and for all get past their recruitment and retention challenges. The department released its cyber workforce strategy late last week. For details, Federal News Network’s Alexandra Lohr joined the Federal Drive to discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency execs like to say security is so important they put it in their name twice. Now that same rationale is the impetus behind CISA’s first-ever cybersecurity strategic plan for 2024 to 2026. Security is so important CISA says it needs its own strategic plan to position itself to better handle the ever-changing cyber challenges. Eric Goldstein, CISA’s executive assistant director for cybersecurity, tells Federal News Network's Jason Miller about how the new cyber strategic plan provides a roadmap for transformative change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In more than a thousand federal employee complaints filed against their unions, only 1% of those employees prevailed. That is according to research by a group called Americans for Fair Treatment. AFT says it is dedicated to ensuring accountability for federal employee unions. Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with the group's special counsel, David Osborne. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The human remains of recently deceased individuals often require transporting over long distances. In the case of cremated remains, they often go via the Postal Service. And the Postal Office of Inspector General has found, USPS needs to improve some of its procedures for handling them. For more, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with audit director Amy Jones. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Countless new technologies have developed under federal funding, much of it under the auspices of federal laboratories. To showcase some of these developments and the technology transfer process, the Federal Laboratory Consortium has updated its online presence known as LabTech In Your Life. For more on that, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Derek Parks, the Deputy Director of the Technology Partnerships Office at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: The Federal Laboratory Consortium revamps its public view of technology transfer. The Postal Service is told to tighten up procedures for shipping urns full of human ashes. This group says it keeps federal unions accountable to their members. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Biden administration’s emphasis on early-career federal hiring starts in large part with interns — and they’re beginning to get a lot more attention in even the senior-most levels of government. “You guys wouldn’t believe how often we talk about you,” Office of Personnel Management Deputy Director Rob Shriver told a group of interns at an event Tuesday. “All the time, we talk about, how can we get more interns into the federal government? How can we make sure they have a good experience? And how can we turn them into the pipeline of the future jobs in the federal government?” The federal internship program has struggled for years, dwindling in numbers by nearly 90% in the last decade. Just a few years ago, agencies were offering far fewer paid internships through the Pathways Program. Agencies offered 60,000 paid internships in 2010, compared to just 4,000 in 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like so many projects, sequencing human genomes has gotten harder the closer the work came to completion. A National Institutes of Health team spent seven years heading up a worldwide consortium assembling the last 8% of the human genetic code. For its work, the team has made the finals of this year's Partnership for Public Service's Service to America Medals program, aka "the Sammies." Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Dr. Adam Phillippy, who is part of the NIH team, which also included scientists Sergey Koren and Arang Rhie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Minority and low-income military veterans tend to move more than other veterans. Often they cross state lines, which makes it hard for state governments to identify them. That's according to research by Transunion, the credit-and-identity services firm. For the implications of veteran migrations, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Transunion's Director of Research and Consulting, Greg Schlichter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The U.S. has experienced a hot summer so far. Yet one group of students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), are spending their time in heavy gear, learning to fight wildfires. It is part of a partnership between the U.S. Forest Service and a group of four HBCUs. For details, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with the National Diversity Student Programs Manager, Stephanie Love. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: The Forest Service introduces minority students to woodland firefighting. Sometimes, veterans' mobility makes it hard for agencies to find them. This federal team put the last few pieces into the human genome puzzle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices