Federal Drive with Tom Temin

A really busy and contentious time for Congress kicks off this week when the Biden Administration releases its 2024 budget request. But that's not all. To get the lastest on what is happening on Capitol Hill, Federal Drive host Tom Temin talked with Bloomberg Government Deputy News Director Loren Duggan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's been one year since the three-member Merit Systems Protection Board had a quorum, after several years without one. A big challenge for the board was clearing a five-year backlog of appeals cases. Now it looks like the pace of that clearance is accelerating. For an update, Federal Drive host Tom Temin was joined in-studio by Acting Chairman Cathy Harris. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a major update for the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), officials from Accenture Federal Services (AFS) cited significant progress and pledged more improvements coming soon for participants. Officials from AFS, the federal contractor that runs TSP’s new recordkeeping system, said many of the initially tumultuous problems during the transition last summer have subsided. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today's episode of The Federal Drive with Tom Temin: And old idea gets a fresh look, a nuclear-powered space ship. From 9/11 to Hurricane Sandy, she's been at the forefront of FEMA responses. Now that the Office of Personnel Management has a performance director, what should she do? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The idea of a nuclear-powered spacecraft goes back decades. Now it may become reality. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and NASA are teaming up on a demonstration project. They want to see if a nuclear rocket engine could power flight to Mars. To talk about the project, Federal Drive host Tom Temin was joined by Dr. Anthony Calomino, NASA' Materials and Structures Engineer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Federal Drive with Tom Temin continues its week-long series of interviews with recent Presidential Rank Award winners. Temin's guest for this interview probably knows as much about disasters -- and federal responses to them -- as anyone. Her experience with the Federal Emergency Management Agency dates back to debris management after 9/11. Now she's the FEMA region 3 administrator. Enjoy Federal Drive host Tom Temin's interview with MaryAnn Tierney. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The White House recently appointed Loren DeJong Schulman as Associate Director for Performance and Personnel Management at the Office of Management and Budget. Federal Drive host Tom Temin talked with Bob Tobias, who had a couple of ideas for what Ms. Schulman should set as her personal goals. Tobias is a professor in the Key Executive Leadership Program at American University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The White House has announced a new national cyber strategy, laying out a vision for shoring up the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure sectors through baseline security requirements and re-aligning more responsibility for cyber risks to big tech companies. the strategy also envisions using federal procurement as a major tool for improving accountability for cybersecurity in products and services. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today's episode of The Federal Drive with Tom Temin: The Census Bureau fine tunes almost everything it does...as it transforms into a self-described digital agency. Meet the civilian career employee who's operated at the highest levels of the national security apparatus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal Drive host Tom Temin continues his series of interviews with the most recent class of Presidential Rank Award winners, chatting with someone who's been on his show before. Cara Abercrombie is the former Acting Deputy Director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. She's now on detail at the National Security Council. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Census Bureau is still assessing what it learned from a national count conducted during a pandemic. It's also looking ahead to how it can best operate as a statistical agency, perhaps the premier statistical agency, 25 years into the 21st century. For an update, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Census Director Robert Santos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A more “challenging landscape” on Capitol Hill, now with a partisan divide between the White House and Congress, has propelled the National Treasury Employees Union, for one, to become even more vocal on its latest set of legislative priorities. At the top of the federal union’s list of concerns is securing a sizeable pay raise for federal employees next year. Although the 4.6% raise in 2023 was the largest in about 20 years, NTEU National President Tony Reardon said the boost didn’t align with the original expectation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Defense Department says it’s just a few months away from starting to transition itself from firefighting substances that have contaminated groundwater with harmful chemicals at and around hundreds of current and former bases, and plans to switch completely to alternative foams that don’t pose health and environmental risks by the end of this fiscal year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today's episode of The Federal Drive with Tom Temin: Fraud tallies from pandemic spending just keep piling up. A long time procurement executive gets White House recognition. The Air Force presses its advantage in a controversial intellectual property dispute. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Employee retention is a hot topic for many agencies. Agencies have made positive steps toward keeping people, but there are a few things they could still do. Federal Drive host Tom Temin talks about all of this (and more) with Financial coach and retired federal manager Abe Grungold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices