Federal Drive with Tom Temin

Two veterans service organizations have sued the Navy over discharge upgrades. At issue are other-than-honorable discharges, how they limit lifetime VA benefits and whether service members can appeal them. The particular case involves a Marine whom attorneys say faced racial discrimination. Joining the Federal Drive with more on the case, an attorney with the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center, Alden Pinkham. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a lot of cogitation, the Defense Department last month finalized revised rules for contract award debriefings, informational sessions where losing contractors can, in theory, find out why they lost. Joining the Federal Drive with the significant changes, Jenner and Block attorney Carla Weiss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Defense Acquisition University and the Defense Innovation Unit have teamed up to offer what you might call an acquisition baptism. It's what they call an immersive course to get procurement people trained in commercial practices for buying goods and services faster. As DIU officials like to put it, at the speed of relevance. Joining the Federal Drive with more about the course to be offered this fall, the Defense Innovation Unit's director of acquisition, Cherissa Tamayori. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recent cyber attacks have shown how shoddy software can grind an organization’s operations to a halt. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is trying to raise awareness of software threats, and ways to address them, during April’s Supply Chain Integrity Month. For more, Federal News Network’s Justin Doubleday, spoke with the acting assistant director for CISA’s National Risk Management Center, Mona Harrington. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A rainy day fund at the State Department dried up during COVID-19. The Bureau of Consular Affairs is drawing down carryover funds from previous years, and may take years to replenish, even if passports and visa fees fully bounce back from the pandemic. For an update on all of this, Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman has more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Naval Supply Systems Command keeps machinery and people equipped and ready to go. It has some award winning programs for ensuring small business participation in its procurements. At the recent Sea Air Space Conference, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin caught up with NAVSUP's Director of Small Business Chris Espenshade. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Navy plans to spend billions to acquire a variety of umanned ships of all sizes, 21 in all over the next five years. The Government Accountability Office advised Navy officials to take a portfolio approach to bring more efficiency and balance to the program. The Federal Drive with Tom Temin heard more from the GAO's director of contracting and national security acquisitions Shelby Oakley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The U.S. Agency for International Development has started up a new office called diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. And it's hired someone to run that new office. Neneh Diallo joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin to share more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A call for comments from the National Institute for Standards and Technology gives industry a deadline of next week. NIST is looking for reactions to ideas for critical infrastructure cybersecurity, and it could have a big impact on companies doing business with the government. The Federal Drive got more now from the executive vice president for policy at the Professional Services Council, Stephanie Kostro. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A green card is a terrible thing to waste. But that's exactly what U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services might be doing. The agency, by most accounts, still hasn't returned to full operating capacity after two years of pandemic. So it is having trouble processing all of the visa numbers available. The Federal Drive got more now from attorney Steven Plastrik of Berry Appleman and Leiden. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Secure Cloud Business Applications project, known as SCuBA, taking place at the Homeland Security Department, grew out of the Solarwinds breach from 2020. The idea is for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to develop basic cyber standards for cloud services like email and collaboration tools. Vincent Sritapan is the Cyber Quality Service Management Office Section Chief at CISA. He tells executive editor Jason Miller, in an exclusive interview, about the launch of SCuBA and how it could keep civilian agencies breathing during a cyber attack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Deliberately bad advice can help a veteran get pension benefits out of the Veterans Affairs Department. Sometimes the advisors take the money for themselves. Eventually, the veteran will be forced to pay it back. It's called pension poaching, and it's a growing problem. For how the department is trying to stop it, the Federal Drive turned to VA's chief financial officer, Charles Tapp. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

State and local laws often aren’t on the military’s radar. But, recently the Air Force has gotten vocal about a handful of laws and directives sweeping through the south. Those laws limit some activities transgender children can partake in and limit how sexuality is talked about in schools. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione joined the Federal Drive with what he's found. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Members of Congress are off this week, for Passover, Easter or Ramadan. With any luck they're also thinking about getting after the 2022 budget before they return, and before they turn all their attention to the mid-term elections. We get the outlook from Bloomberg Government deputy news director Loren Duggan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress has been looking at the effectiveness of that branch of government from nearly every angle. Now it's looking at whether Congress could function if a natural or man-made disaster took out large numbers of members. We get more now from the committee chairman, Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices