Federal Drive with Tom Temin show

Federal Drive with Tom Temin

Summary: When he's not tooling around the National Capital region on his motorcycle, Tom Temin interviews federal executives and government contractors who provide analysis and insight on the many critical issues facing the Executive branch. The Federal Drive is found at FederalNewsNetwork.com and 1500 AM in the Washington D.C. region.

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  • Artist: Federal News Network | Hubbard Radio
  • Copyright: © Hubbard Radio Washington DC, LLC

Podcasts:

 Another agency takes the plunge into artificial intelligence | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 673

The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO), once a bastion of ink, paper, heavy printing presses, and light-emitting diode or led type, is now fully in the 21st century. It is looking at ways it can improve operations with artificial intelligence. GPO Director Hugh Halpern recently testified before the Senate Rules and Administration Committee about AI. Federal Drive Host talked to Director Halpern about AI and much more about the goings-on at GPO. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 The Federal Drive with Tom Temin -- February 5, 2024 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 2812

On today's episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: Another agency takes the plunge into artificial intelligence. How exactly is a stretched-thin Navy doing anyhow? Congress has a lot to cram in this week before the House goes on recess. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 Federal Housing Finance Agency to kickstart negotiations for first-ever union contract | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 488

With labor and management leaders preparing to sit down at the bargaining table, hundreds of employees at the Federal Housing Finance Agency may soon see changes in their workplace. Pay equity, employee engagement and the creation of a clear grievance procedure are top of mind for Nathan Watkins, president of the nearly brand-new bargaining unit under the National Treasury Employees Union. “It was almost exactly two years ago that a small group of employees, including myself, reached out to a couple of national unions trying to form a chapter at FHFA,” Watkins said in an interview. “We wanted, first and foremost, to give employees a voice.” The organization campaign for FHFA, a small financial regulatory agency with a staff of a little over 700 employees, culminated in an overwhelmingly majority vote to unionize in August 2023. FHFA employees voted 254-24, or 91%, in favor of the union’s establishment. Currently, the bargaining unit represents about 500 employees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 CISA directs agencies to shut down vulnerable software products | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 489

Agencies have just over 24 hours to shut down any instances of widely used software products that were found to contain major cybersecurity vulnerabilities in January. In a supplemental directive released Wednesday, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency tells agencies to disconnect all instances of Ivanti Connect Secure and Ivanti Policy Secure VPN products on their networks by the close of Friday. The latest missive in part supersedes a Jan. 19 emergency directive from CISA telling agencies to remediate the vulnerabilities in those Ivanti products. In addition to disconnecting the products, CISA is telling agencies to continue threat hunting on any systems that have been recently connected to the affected Ivanti devices. Agencies should also continue monitoring any authentication or identity management services that could have been exposed; isolate those connected systems from enterprise resources “to the greatest degree possible;” and continue to audit privilege-level access accounts, according to CISA’s directive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 Some new recommendations for securing artificial intelligence | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 653

By all accounts, artificial intelligence is changing how organizations must approach cybersecurity. Not everyone is quite certain how. Now, a really big working group assembled by the Aspen Institute has come up with specific recommendations on dealing with AI in the cybersecurity context. For some highlights, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with the Institute's Senior Director for Cybersecurity Programs, Jeff Greene. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 Uh oh. Finances at these HUD programs are like a house of cards | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 573

Financial accounting is so iffy at two Housing and Urban Development programs, the inspector general issued an alert. HUD can't figure out improper payments in these programs. Hasn't been able to for years. Won't be able for years more. For details, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with Deputy IG Stephen Begg. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 The Federal Drive with Tom Temin -- February 2, 2024 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 2871

On this episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: Uh oh. Finances at these HUD programs are like a house of cards. Some new recommendations for securing artificial intelligence. How the Education Department earned an A grade on its FITARA scorecard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 DoD aims to get more companies through FedRAMP pipeline | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 520

The ultimate goal of a recent equivalency memo from the Defense Department is to support companies using cloud services that are not yet FedRAMP certified by allowing them to go through a third-party assessment instead. “We don’t have the capacity to accept or track [plans of action and milestones] like the Federal Risk Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) does. But I do want to give credit to the companies that are trying to leverage a cloud that’s not yet FedRAMP certified by having a [third party assessment organization] to come in and say, ‘Okay, are they good with [National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication] 800-171 or not?’ And if they’re not, what’s the delta that the customer has to handle? That’s all we were trying to do there,” David McKeown, DoD’s chief information security officer, told Federal News Network after he spoke at the Meritalk’s Accelerate AI forum. “I understand there’s some confusion. I think we’re going to have a call with industry where we have a large number of them come onto the call, and talk through this a little bit more, and tell us where we can maybe clarify the memo.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 VA seeks to manage size of its health care workforce, keeps growing benefits staffing | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 582

The Department of Veterans Affairs saw record hiring last year. Now it’s looking to manage the size of its largest-ever health care workforce, while continuing to hire more staff to process benefits claims. VA officials say the department this year is focused on increasing veteran access to VA care using mostly the health care workforce it already has, “rather than on nationwide growth in total employees.” The Veteran Health Administration exceeded many of its hiring goals in fiscal 2023, and now has its largest-ever headcount. VA’s major hiring last year allowed it to set an all-time record for providing health care and benefits to veterans. The VA has been staffing up to handle increased demand under the PACT Act. The 2022 law expands VA health care and benefits eligibility for veterans exposed to toxic substances during their military service. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 CIA doesn't just collect data, it also collects art | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 595

You might not think of the CIA is concerned with art or what it calls "the beauty in intelligence." But the agency, in fact, has an extensive art collection dating back to the late 1960s to go along with some artist who work there. Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with one of those artists, Deborah Dismuke. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 New Interior Department rule expands an old one by thousands of miles | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 614

For many years, the Interior Department has used a simple procedure to do assessments of environmental damage. It concerns hazardous materials released to the Great Lakes and a few other coastal locations. Now Interior proposes to greatly expand the size of the cases covered by the simple procedure, and to apply it everywhere. For more, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Attorney Brian Ferrasci- O'Malley of the Nossaman law firm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 What individual federal employees can do, to improve customer experience | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 648

It's the oldest challenge in government and business: How to make things easier for customers. In the digital age, customer service has evolved into something more ambitious: customer experience (CX). CX asks, among other things, how you get the idea of better service or experience down to the individual employee. To get some ideas, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Office of Personnel Management digital services expert Beth Martin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 The Federal Drive with Tom Temin -- February 1, 2024 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 2932

On this episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: What individual federal employees can do, to improve customer experience. A new Interior Department rule expands an old one by thousands of miles. The CIA doesn't just collect data, it also collects art. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 Nakasone wants to see ‘bold move forward’ with CYBERCOM 2.0 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 537

Shortly after Army Gen. Paul Nakasone took over as head of U.S. Cyber Command in May 2018, the command’s Cyber Mission Force reached what’s called “full operational capability,” meaning all 133 teams had achieved training and qualification standards after an arduous five-year build up. Now, as he prepares to retire as head of CYBERCOM and director of the National Security Agency on Feb. 1, Nakasone has had his sights set on what changes are necessary to build “CYBERCOM 2.0.” In a briefing with a small group of reporters at Ft. Meade, Md., on Tuesday, Nakasone described how much things have changed since CYBERCOM first began building out its force structure in 2013. “It was very counter-terrorism, violent extremist organizations-focused,” Nakasone said. “It was very focused on this concept of the Iranians being able to hit our financial network and defending the nation and the financial network. Completely different world in which we live in today.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 Contractor's email attachment binds the government in a work order | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 574

Sometimes paperwork is just paper. A contractor submitted three bids for a contract to remove medical waste at facilities operated by the Health and Human Services. Only the middle of the three bids included an attachment. When it won the contract on the third bid, the company figured, the terms in the attachment applied. The government disagreed. For more on what happened, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Haynes Boone procurement attorney Dan Ramish. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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