Federal Drive with Tom Temin

She's only in her mid-thirties, but she's already reduced paperwork and drudgery at the Labor Department. Now she's a finalist in the emerging leaders category of this year's Service to America Medals program. Labor's chief of emerging technology, Krista Kinnard, spoke earlier with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Pentagon is quickly bringing its top digital specialists together under one new organization. The Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office reached full operational capability on June 1. It’s one of the bigger organizational mergers in recent Defense Department history. For more, Federal News Network’s Justin Doubleday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Pentagon is quickly bringing its top digital specialists together under one new organization. The Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office reached full operational capability on June 1. It’s one of the bigger organizational mergers in recent Defense Department history. For more, Federal News Network’s Justin Doubleday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Army is preparing for the next budget cycle and that means thinking about how it’s going to buy weapons in the current economic environment. Workforce issues and inflation are dragging down some of the service’s buying power. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione is at the Government Contract Pricing Summit in San Diego. He spoke with Army Deputy Assistant Secretary for Procurement Megan Dake. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A longtime federal technology executive has a new private sector role. Dawn Meyerriecks retired last year as the deputy director of the CIA for science and technology. She served at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Defense Information Systems Agency before that. She’s now been appointed as a member of the board of directors at ColdQuanta. She talked with the Federal Drive with Tom Temin about the new role, and how it dovetails with her long experience in the federal government. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Air Force’s decision to pick Huntsville, Alabama, as the new headquarters of U.S. Space Command has been controversial from the start. And a new review by the Government Accountability Office said the selection process had a lot of problems. GAO doesn’t opine on whether Huntsville was the right or wrong decision. But the office said the Air Force made some fundamental missteps when it deviated from its own base selection framework. Instead, the ad-hoc version it used for the Space Command selection had serious credibility and transparency problems. Elizabeth Field is director of Defense capability and management issues at GAO, and she joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin to talk more about the findings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a four-year hiatus, the Commerce Department has decided to reestablish an outside advisory board focused on innovation. The National Advisory Council on Innovation & Entrepreneurship is back up and running, with 32 new board members picked from industry and academia across the country. Alejandra Castillo is assistant secretary of Commerce for economic development. She talked with Jared Serbu about what the department wants the board to achieve, on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Biden administration, following a windfall of IT modernization dollars Congress approved through COVID-19 spending, is outlining its vision of how it will make the most of this money. The Office of Management and Budget released a plan last week detailing projects made possible through three governmentwide IT modernization funds, as well as upcoming spending plans. Meanwhile, congressional spending on IT modernization for fiscal 2023 is coming into focus. Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman had more on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you’ve recently logged in to access the Thrift Savings Plan, you’ve seen a new look for the TSP “My Account” website. But the launch of the TSP board’s modernization project so far has been a bumpy road. In an exclusive Federal News Network survey, close to 2,000 respondents shared their experience with the rollout of the new system. Federal News Network's Drew Friedman shared what they had to say on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics are adding to concern that inflation is going to continue be with us for some time. The impacts to individual pocketbooks are pretty obvious. The impacts to federal agencies and their contractors are a bit more complex. To talk more about how inflation’s impacted the contracting marketplace and how the government’s responded so far, the Federal Drive was joined by Stephanie Kostro, executive vice president for policy at the Professional Services Council. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When a veteran passes away, it currently takes more than two months, on average for VA to process their survivors’ claims for dependency and indemnity compensation. But automation is helping to drastically shorten that timeline. Assuming the application’s complete, the department can now approve those claims within about four hours – without a claims processor ever having to see it. Kevin Friel is deputy director of VA’s Pension and Fiduciary Service. He joined the Federal Drive to talk more about how they’ve been using automation in his section of the department. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Department of Veterans Affairs says it’s had some major successes in using automation to speed up its disability claims process. But if VA’s moving to a world of automation, Congress wants to help guide it. Legislation the House passed last month would require the department to adhere to a list of principles in future automation projects – and to lay out a five year plan for each major IT modernization project in the Veterans Benefits Administration. Congressman Mark Takano (D-Cali.) is chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. He talked with the Federal Drive about some of the issues Congress wants to keep tabs on. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

1,400 employees at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are working in the office more often, starting this week. But the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents those workers, is concerned about how EEOC is going about its reentry plans. Joining the Federal Drive with more, Federal News Network’s Drew Friedman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Air Force's AFWerx is looking for new space in Washington DC metro area. The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security is taking a big leap to the cloud. These are two story lines that emerged at the recent ACT-IAC Emerging Technology and Innovation Conference in Cambridge Maryland. Federal News Network executive editor Jason Miller writes about this news that may have flown under your radar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A lot of the national spotlight is on Capitol Hill’s public January 6th hearings – but a fair amount of legislative and budget work is getting done, too. The House has made some initial progress on 2023 federal spending levels. And various pieces of legislation are expected to make their way through votes on the House and Senate floors in the week ahead. For a preview, FNN deputy editor Jared Serbu, filling in for Tom Temin, talked with Loren Duggan, deputy news director at Bloomberg Government. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices