Federal Drive with Tom Temin

The only thing more numerous than the number of commercial cloud services providers, is the number of ways to buy from them. Now the General Services Administration has dubbed a blanket purchasing agreement for clouds services with the name Ascend. Is GSA rising to the occasion? The Federal Drive got one view from federal sales and marketing consultant Larry Allen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nearly every agency would get more money in 2023 under the Biden administration's topline request. But it also shows the increasing pressure on so-called discretionary spending as mandatory spending expands. As part of our on-going analysis of the skinny budget, the Federal Drive turned to former federal budget official, now the managing director of Grant Thornton Public Sector, Doug Criscitello. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jason Weiss, DoD’s first-ever chief software officer, is stepping down at the end of this week. The CSO position is the department’s first attempt to put a single official in charge of everything from mainframe COBOL, to DevSecOps pipelines, to classified weapons systems. Weiss talked with Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu about some of his takeaways from his tour of duty at DoD. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The White House’s climate goal to reach a net-zero carbon emissions economy by 2050 hinges in part on federal government’s ability use *its* buying power has a lever. Acquisition regulation language is already changing to reflect this policy priority, including the buying of information technology. Federal News Network digital editor Amelia Brust has more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congress is on recess this week, which may be a good thing with Covid making its ugly appearance in both chambers. That's why a $10 billion Covid package will be high on the agenda when members return. The Federal Drive got the latest from WTOP Capitol Hill Correspondent Mitchell Miller. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal contractors, like companies throughout the economy, must live under the regulatory regimes established by federal agencies. But what about the use of contractors in the act of rulemaking itself. An activity you might have thought was inherently governmental. Not so fast. A study done for the Administrative Conference of the United States shows how much agencies do use contractors for this purpose. The Federal Drive got more now from study co-author and University of Virginia professor Rachel Augustine Potter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Seeking comments from those affected, it's a foundation stone of U.S. federal rulemaking. And regulated parties, companies, industries, associations, they're never shy about commenting. But what about those whom rules are supposed to benefit? Our next guest says the evidence shows, that group is often silent. And has a prescription for widening participation in rulemaking. She's a professor at New York University and former administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Sally Katzen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The White House is reviewing how agencies work with critical infrastructure companies on cybersecurity. The new national cyber director’s office is leading the study. Federal News Network’s Justin Doubleday has the story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Navy is looking for ways to save money on high-energy consuming buildings. That includes data centers, with their air conditioning demands. Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Southwest just implemented energy saving measures in a datacenter on Naval Base Coronado. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione gets the details from NAVFAC mechanical engineer Doug Macurda. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a city filled with museums large and small, this one is a standout. After a two year hiatus for renovation, the Drug Enforcement Administration museum has reopened its doors to the public. Joining the Federal Drive with some of the highlights, museum director Jan McKay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you want to help change the world, the State Department isn't a bad place to start. And if you want to get a foot in the door at the State Department, a paid internship isn't a bad way to go. This fall, the State Department launches a new paid student internship program. Here with the details, the director of recruitment in State's Bureau of Global Talent Management, Mica Schweitzer-Bluhm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A lot of the data the government produces needs to be rated, safe to distribute, controlled but unclassified, or maybe secret or classified. That's simplifying this huge but never-ending task. Now Defense Department has launched a challenge prize program to develop an artificial intelligence approach to automating this tedious task. Joining the Federal Drive with details, the acquisition division manager in the Philadelphia Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Doris Tung. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Biden administration is fine-tuning its management vision for the government. The Office of Management and Budget is setting targets for agencies to deliver a higher standard of customer service to the public. That’s all under the President’s Management Agenda, which is being implemented through several interagency teams. For what OMB is saying, here's Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Employees at the Social Security Administration will see customers face to face for the first time in two years. Reopening doors to the public comes as the agency faces staffing shortages and a troublesome phone system, which combine to cause service delays. Joining the Federal Drive with more is Federal News Network’s Drew Friedman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The federal government produces nothing so much as data. Mountains of data every minute. Much of this information is in the form of controlled but unclassified information, known as CUI. Now the National Institute of Standards and Technology has published a special guide to protecting CUI. Joining the Federal Drive with every data owner needs to know, the Acting Manager of NIST's Security Engineering and Risk Management Group, Vicky Pillitteri. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices