Federal Drive with Tom Temin

The Army National Guard has been at historically high deployment levels since the beginning of the pandemic. Now with cases waning, the Guard might get a reprieve. That doesn’t mean its challenges are over. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione joined the Federal Drive to explain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification machinery is still months away from showing up as a requirement in defense contracts. But the CMMC Accreditation Body is gearing up for a voluntary program. It's also looking to recruit more cybersecurity assessors. For the latest, Federal News Network’s Justin Doubleday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Exciting as it might seem to join the staff of Congress as a young person, disillusion sometimes sets in fast. One reason, according to my next guest, is low pay. Joining the Federal Drive with details of Congressional pay research, the research director at a think tank called Issue One, Michael Beckel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Army’s newly-confirmed top acquisition official named improving how his service buys and builds software among his top priorities. That will mean both procedural changes to the Army’s traditional acquisition processes, and new ways of funding software development. But Douglas Bush, the new assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, said those changes will have to happen as part of a “conversation” with Congress. Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu had details on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The State Department is using a hiring process that’s gaining users across government. It's called the Subject-Matter Expert Qualification Assessment (SME-QA). State is testing it to hire grant management specialists and foreign affairs officers, and the department said it's brought on 70 foreign service officers, exceeding its goal. For details, Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman spoke with the Director of the Office of Civil Service Talent Management Kim Bruner, and HR specialist Kristen Fulcher, whom you hear first. Listen now on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 20 years, the number of annual reports the Defense Department must make to Congress has nearly tripled to more than 1,400. DoD officials have tried to get a handle on this task, which required untold thousands of man-hours. For what it could do to help streamline the process, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to the director of defense capabilities and management issues at the Government Accountability Office, Elizabeth Field. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last week's report from the Pentagon on Defense Industrial Base competitiveness didn't sit well with services contractors. It recommended more merger oversight, modernizing intellectual property practices, and getting more companies into the DIB, among other things. Here with what the report might also have said is the Professional Services Council's Executive Vice President for Policy, Stephanie Kostro. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Next month, nearly a year and a half into the Biden administration, Department of Veterans Affairs officials will re-open talks with their union workforce. The talks will be new. The articles in contention have been sticking points for years. Attorney Ibidun Roberts represents the American Federation of Government Employees National VA Council, and she joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin to sort it all out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The armed services have been discharging members who refused covid vaccine. The policy has affected only a small percentage of troops. But my next guest says the policy has legal and military flaws. Rob Capovilla is a partner in the law firm Capovilla & Williams. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pentagon planners know the U.S. military needs new technologies, new innovations if it hopes to stay on top. But many of the innovation initiatives don't gain scale. My next guest says, that's because of the 1960s era planning, programming, budgeting and execution process the Defense Department uses -- the PPB&E. Jerry McGinn is executive director of the Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congress bought more time to fill in what members called a framework for 2022 appropriations. That put the government into another three weeks of continuing resolution. Just what are the prospects for an actual budget. Here's Bloomberg Government congress reporter Jack Fitzpatrick. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Biden administration pulled U.S. troops and pretty much everything else out of Afghanistan months ago. But the work of the Special Inspector for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, goes on. There's humanitarian aid flowing into Afghanistan. And still things to account for. The Federal Drive got an update from the special IG, John Sopko. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It may not be the biggest military challenge the Pentagon faces. But the Navy is taking on an issue that affects the productivity of its sailors and civilians. Namely, how to keep security programs on PCs and other end points from dragging down performance to where it becomes a frustration. That's among the developments in this week's DOD reporters notebook with Jared Serbu and Scott Maucione. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2019, the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Council strategy acknowledged the need to have a centralized body to unify federal supply chain risk management activities. Two years later, the FASC still isn't there yet. In his weekly feature, the Reporter's Notebook, executive editor Jason Miller writes about why there still is an ad hoc approach by agencies to protect their supply chains. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like iron chef contestants, researchers at NASA push ahead on a program to develop food systems for astronauts who will be in space for months. Years even. Late last year we reported on a round of 18 first-round grants made by the Deep Space Food Challenge program. For what's going on with Round Two, the program manager for NASA's Centennial Challenges, Monsi Roman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices