Federal Drive with Tom Temin

They say an army travels on its stomach. It also travels on spare parts. And in that regard, the Defense Department has a problem. The inspector general has found that one spare parts supplier, a company called TransDigm, received payments that resulted in nearly $21 million in excess profits. For more, the Federal Drive turned to the general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, Scott Amey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As one of its strategies for getting the most possible participation, the Census Bureau spends big on outreach. For the 2020 decennial count, the Integrated Communications Campaign cost the bureau $675 million, twice what it spent in 2010. I asked about it during an in-studio interview with Census program manager Maria Malagon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the great open secrets of the cybersecurity domain is how much mischief is done by Russia and its government-sponsored hackers. Countering Russian cyber activity takes a lot of effort on the part of the U.S. government and U.S. companies. My next guest has studied Russia's cyberwar activities in detail and says the more you know about Russia's motivations, the better you can counteract it. Nate Beach-Westmoreland is head of strategic cyber threat intelligence at Booz Allen Hamilton. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the great open secrets of the cybersecurity domain is how much mischief is done by Russia and its government-sponsored hackers. Countering Russian cyber activity takes a lot of effort on the part of the U.S. government and U.S. companies. My next guest has studied Russia's cyberwar activities in detail and says the more you know about Russia's motivations, the better you can counteract it. Nate Beach-Westmoreland is head of strategic cyber threat intelligence at Booz Allen Hamilton. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The General Services Administration has been trying nearly everything it could over the last five years to prevent costly delays in the transition to the new telecommunications vehicle known as Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions, EIS. But what many thought was inevitable finally happened. GSA is extending the deadline for agencies to move off of the old Networx contract and on to EIS. In his weekly Reporter's Notebook, executive editor Jason Miller has exclusive details about the latest chapter in this saga. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's up to the Senate now to vote on a way to avoid a lapse in appropriations Friday, when the current continuing resolution ends. It's not exactly a route to full 2022 appropriations, but its not disaster. The Federal Drive got the latest from WTOP Capitol Hill Correspondent Mitchell Miller. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Library of Congress has been busy building an online collection of what are known as open access e-books. The effort accelerated when the pandemic hit, and people had more access to online books than to physical libraries. For more on this effort, the digital collections development coordinator, Rashi Joshi, and digital collections specialist Kristy Darby. https://blogs.loc.gov/thesignal/2021/12/open-access-books-collection/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Library of Congress has been busy building an online collection of what are known as open access e-books. The effort accelerated when the pandemic hit, and people had more access to online books than to physical libraries. For more on this effort, the digital collections development coordinator, Rashi Joshi, and digital collections specialist Kristy Darby. https://blogs.loc.gov/thesignal/2021/12/open-access-books-collection/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For more than a year, the National Security Agency has been sharing cybersecurity threat information with defense industrial base companies. The idea is to correlate NSA signal intelligence with malicious activity the companies see on their networks. Joining the Federal Drive with an update, the director of the NSA's Cybersecurity Collaboration Center, Morgan Adamski. https://www.nsa.gov/About/Cybersecurity-Collaboration-Center/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The government's information technology security approval process is critical, but slow. As one way to speed it up, several Defense Department organizations have dabbled with the concept of continuous authorities to operate, or ATOs. That would base a system’s approval on continuous monitoring, rather than a one-time intensive checklist. Now, the Defense Department wants to raise the bar for continuous ATOs, and make them the standard for cybersecurity across DoD. As Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu reports, part of that is bringing more commonality to how the military services use them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Pentagon’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program continues to take shape, new shape, that is. The latest curve: Thousands of more companies will be required to get a third-party assessment under CMMC 2.0 than industry initially realized. Federal News Network’s Justin Doubleday has the latest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's become nearly cliché in Defense circles, that the near military peers of the United States are more than near. We're all neck-in-neck. Discussions of getting back to U.S. superiority all include the need for a more digital approach, a digital transformation. At the center of that discussion you find the Defense Department's vision for a new network known as Joint All-Domain Command and Control, known as JADC2. My next guest has some ideas for JADC2. He's the former deputy Air Force chief information officer, now a managing director at Accenture Federal Services, Bill Marion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Unemployment insurance has been a crucial safety net for the past couple of years. Some state agencies have been trying to devise programs that lead to more resilient local workforces, with a focus on re-employment. Ten states, under the auspices of the National Governors Association, have been working on ways to modernize and integrate the delivery of services to the unemployed. Here with more on the Workforce Innovation Network, the association's program director Rachael Stephens. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two federal science agencies have together launched a plan to bolster U.S. strength in a field known as quantum information science and technology. The Office of Science and Technology Policy, part of the White House crew, and the National Science Foundation parted with a group called the National K-12 Education Partnership to, as they put it, explore training and education opportunities in quantum. Here with what's going on and why it's important, the National Science Foundation director, Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A long-awaited reform bill to save the Postal Service about $50 billion over the next decade has notched a step forward. The House passed the Postal Service Reform Act, which would eliminate a requirement for USPS to pre-fund retiree health benefits 75 years into the future. The bill now heads to the Senate, where it has bipartisan support. The bill, if enacted, would be the first major piece of postal reform legislation to make it through Congress in more than 15 years. Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman has the latest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices