Federal Drive with Tom Temin

More than two decades after the 9/11 attacks, some victims have not been compensated. My next guest took over the Victim Compensation Fund when it was foundering a few years back. Now tens of thousands of people have received payments from the fund. Rupa Bhattacharyya is special master for the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund at the Justice Department … and a finalist in this year's Service to America Medals program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Defense Information Systems Agency beat its own deadline to turn off its milCloud platform, a service that had a lot of DOD customers. DISA accomplished this goal a week ahead of schedule. Sharon Woods, the director of the Hosting and Compute Center at DISA, tells executive editor Jason Miller about what the end of milCloud means for the military services as they continue to move to cloud computing even without milCloud. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More than 25% of federal contracting dollars end up in one of six markets. That's according to analysis by Bloomberg Government. For details, and the opportunities they represent, the Federal Drive turned to the team lead for government contracting news and analysis, Amanda Allen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if cybersecurity didn’t have to look like lines of code to service members and, instead, looked like an interesting tableau of visualizations? The Navy is working on that now. It’s trying to gamify cybersecurity to make intrusions more noticeable through real-life visualizations of ships and other assets. The National Security Innovation Network held a hackathon last week looking for ideas on how to make cybersecurity most accessible. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione spoke with the technical director of cybersecurity at Navy Information War Systems, Rachel Bondi, on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bringing employees with disabilities into the federal workforce is one thing, but getting them to stay is another. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found agencies are hiring more employees with disabilities but still fall short on governmentwide goals. The EEOC also found agencies need to do more to improve retention. For more on these findings, Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman spoke to EEOC research analyst Karen Drummond on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal employees who get into legal trouble can, under certain circumstances, accept financial help from legal expense funds. Now the Office of Government Ethics has proposed a revision to the rules for legal expense funds. The Federal Drive with Tom Temin got the jist of the new rule from the associate counsel in the Office of Government Ethics, Elizabeth Horton. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Exactly who is responsible for labor law enforcement when it comes to federal contractors? The short answer the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, part of the Labor Department. But that's not the full answer. An Federal Acquisition rule that was banned by Congress is rearing its ugly head agency-by-agency. The Federal Drive with Tom Temin got the latest from the president and CEO of the Professional Services Council, David Berteau. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As part of its still-evolving Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program, the Pentagon wants proof that its vendors are safeguarding sensitive information. A lot of vendors think the CMMC requirements are pretty onerous. As part of the 2021 Defense authorization bill, Congress asked DoD to show some evidence that the Pentagon is meeting the same cybersecurity standards it’s demanding from contractors. The short answer is no. For the longer answer, Joseph Kirshbaum, director for Defense Capability and Management Issues at the Government Accountability Office, spoke to Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Memorial Day sent Congress home for a week's recess. So the gun debates and other matters will have to wait a few more days. For what to expect next, Bloomberg Government congressional reporter Zach Cohen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For hackers, internet-connected medical devices have become an attractive target. Compared to computers, they tend to have more vulnerabilities that stay unpatched. But Congress is now considering legislation that would give the FDA more authority to require medical device manufacturers to make them more secure. John Pescatore is director of emerging security trends at the SANS Institute. He talked with Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu about the vulnerabilities, and how to mitigate their risks in the meantime. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The State Department's new Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy started up just about eight weeks ago. For what it doing and what it's all about, the principal deputy assistant secretary, Jennifer Bachus. https://www.state.gov/bureaus-offices/deputy-secretary-of-state/bureau-of-cyberspace-and-digital-policy/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The General Services Administration is trying, once again, to remove the complexities that agencies face when buying commercial cloud services. This has been a goal across multiple administrations. The draft statement of work for the latest effort, called Ascend, which GSA released last week, is the culmination of months of research and discussion with agencies and industry experts. Sonny Hashmi is the commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service in the GSA. At the recent ACT-IAC Emerging Technology and Innovation conference, Hashmi told Federal News Network's Jason Miller about why he believes Ascend will be different than previous attempts to create big cloud procurement vehicles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The General Services Administration received some of the most positive feedback from employees in the latest White House pulse survey data. When it comes to equity, 75% of GSA respondents agree that employees with different backgrounds are given support they need to succeed. But, Deputy Administrator Katy Kale tells Federal News Network's Drew Friedman, advancing equity is a never-ending process. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cybersecurity abides as a top concern for federal agencies. And at a growing number of agencies, you find political appointees in charge of cybersecurity. That's not a great idea according to my next guest. Bob Tobias is a professor in the key executive leadership program at American University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stop me if you've heard this, but the government has a continuing need for new talent. In that regard, it's like every other industry. For some new ideas on how the federal government can stay in the competition, the Federal Drive turned to the executive director of Deloitte's Center for Government Insights, Bill Eggers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices