Federal Drive with Tom Temin

For the federal government’s trial attorneys, your flexibility to telework depends an awful lot on what part of the country you’re in. A new survey by the National Association of U-S Attorneys found a wide variety of telework policies across the 94 U.S. Attorney’s offices. But fewer than half have policies that the organization categories as “flexible.” Adam Hanna is an AUSA in the southern district of Illinois, and the vice president of the National Association of U-S Attorneys. He talked with FNN deputy editor Jared Serbu, who was filling in for Federal Drive host Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Despite a lot of uncertainty in the broader economy, contractors have at least a somewhat optimistic view about the federal market. That’s thanks, in part, to a big influx of federal spending initiatives since the start of the pandemic. But vendors still see big challenges on the horizon, including increased competition and new demands to comply with federal regulatory requirements. Those are some of the findings from Deltek’s annual “Clarity” study, which surveys hundreds of government contracting leaders each year. Dan Firrincili is Senior Product Marketing Manager at Deltek. He joined the Federal Drive to talk more about the findings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Congress created the Federal Employee Retirement System in the ‘80s, one of the most notable changes was that future retirees would get smaller cost of living adjustments than participants in the old Civil Service Retirement System. CSRS and Social Security beneficiaries get COLAs that match inflation; FERS retirees get a smaller adjustment. That hasn’t been a big deal over the past decade of low inflation, but obviously circumstances have changed. The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE) is urging Congress to pass the Equal COLA Act, which would get rid of the disparity between CSRS and FERS COLAs. To talk more about it, the Federal Drive was joined by John Hatton, Vice President for Policy and Programs at NARFE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There’s yet another lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The latest class action targets the Air Force’s religious accommodation process, arguing that process is set up in such a way that getting a religious exemption to the vaccine is essentially impossible. The plaintiffs argue that violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment. Mike Berry is senior counsel at First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit legal group that focuses on religious liberty issues. He’s one of the attorneys representing the airmen challenging the mandate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Army is expecting fiscal 2023 to be big year for its digital transformation efforts. The question, as with most agency programs, is whether Congress will deliver on the Army’s budget request. Federal News Network’s Jason Miller joins me with an update on Army’s digital transformation priorities in 2023 and beyond, should the money come through. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An influential panel says a lack of quality data is the number one barrier to making up the cybersecurity workforce shortage. The Cyberspace Solarium Commission 2.0 is recommending Congress direct agencies to generate better estimates of how many cyber and IT personnel they need. It’s also suggesting the National Cyber Director take the lead on a whole-of-government cyber workforce strategy. For more, Federal News Network’s Justin Doubleday, spoke with the director of the solarium commission, Mark Montgomery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, known as BARDA, isn't a household name. But it was at the center of federal efforts to get COVID vaccines developed and into the market. A team of researchers are now finalists in this year's Service to America Medals program. They are Dr. Rodney Wallace, director of diagnostics and devices, Dr. Kimberly Armstrong, therapeutics branch chief, Dr. Robert Johnson, director of medical countermeasures, and the director of BARDA, Dr. Gary Disbrow, who spoke with Tom Temin.. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We now know, with ever-mounting evidence, that pandemic relief spending resulted in hundreds of billions of dollars in wasted spending. The same could happen with infrastructure spending unless agencies tighten up their oversight. That's the view of Project on Government Oversight senior policy analyst Sean Moulton. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Defense Department is still figuring out how to raise the cybersecurity waterline among its vendor community as part of its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program. And some new research, based on privately-collected cyber risk intelligence, shows the problem’s as urgent as ever. According to a new report from Black Kite, almost three quarters of Defense contractors have had network credentials leaked in just the past 90 days. That’s a huge jump from the last time the firm measured that statistic. Jeffrey Wheatman is a senior vice president at Black Kite, and he joined the Federal Drive to talk more about the findings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fighting increasingly dangerous wildfires falls on federal, state and local government agencies -- each with their own fire mitigation projects and data. But the Federal Chief Data Officers Council is piloting ways to use this interagency data to reduce the spread and severity of wildfires. That includes removing some trees, shrubs and grasses before they have a chance to burn. For the latest on this pilot, Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman spoke with the Chief Data Officer for Wildland Fire, Roshelle Pederson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board rolled out a major update for the Thrift Savings Plan on June 1. That includes a new interface for the online “My Account” website, a mobile app and new investment options for mutual funds. But some TSP participants are expressing their frustrations with technical issues, bugs in the system and much more. Joining the Federal Drive with the details, Federal News Network’s Drew Friedman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Work on the 2023 National Defense Authorization bill is underway in the House. A few of the House Armed Services subcommittees released their markups this week. Highlights include new oversight of the Joint Domain Command and Control program and a big pay raise for service members. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin for more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the government establishes a mandated source of supply, that means there's no way around it. That's what the Defense Logistics Agency found when it issued a solicitation for body armor parts. Smith Pachter McWhorter procurement attorney Joseph Petrillo shared more about the case on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) has been doling out money to agencies for special projects since 2018. The first cohort of projects were supposed to show they would be able to produce enough savings to pay back the TMF. But will they? That's doubtful in many cases. The Federal Drive with Tom Temin heard more from the Acting Director for Information Technology and Cybersecurity at the Government Accountability Office, Dave Hinchman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Studying nighttime images of the Earth taken from satellites could go a long way toward building policymakers understanding of disasters around the world, and how to manage risks. That’s according to the UN’s latest Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction. Eleanor Stokes is a contributing author to the report, and helps lead the science team for a project called Black Marble. The joint effort by NASA and the Universities Space Research Association captures nighttime data around the globe every single night. Stokes is a senior scientist at USRA’s Earth from Space Institute in Columbia, Maryland, and she joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices