Federal Drive with Tom Temin

We continue with our occasional series of interviews with the latest cohort of Presidential Rank Award winners. My next guest, when Congress passed the first pandemic relief legislation, led the team to manage a $178 billion fund. It was aimed at helping front-line health care providers, and paying for treatment of the uninsured. The deputy administration of the Health Resources and Services Administration, Diana Espinosa, joined the Federal Drive with more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Office of Personnel Management is launching a Chief Diversity Officer Council, the latest in a series of gambits under President Joe Biden’s executive order on diversity, equity, inclusion in the federal workforce. As for other goals in the EO, chief diversity officers say a hiring spree won’t improve diversity in the long-term. For more on this work, Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman has more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Members of Congress haven’t been shy about passing cybersecurity legislation in recent years. More is on the way this year. They’re promising to pass a cyber incident reporting law. One lawmaker is going to take a hard look at how to boost the influence of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. For more, Federal News Network’s Justin Doubleday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ever been on a long airplane flight and, after all that coffee or tea, you really gotta go? Imagine being on a long flight in a cramped cockpit and there's no aisle to line up in, no restroom. That's a daily reality for the Air Force. Solutions have been so sub-optimal, that the service says airmen routinely dehydrate themselves so they can make it through flights. Now the Air Force has deployed what it calls an improved in-flight bladder relief device. Joining the Federal Drive with more, air crew flight equipment program analyst Scott Cota. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The lingering Covid virus is keeping people out of IRS offices. Yet a buildup of paper from tax returns is compelling tax employees to be there. So even though tax filing deadlines are returning to normal, the IRS is looking at a rough season. That's among the findings in this years annual report from the Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The government’s been running under a continuing resolution for three and a half months now. At the moment, there aren’t any clear signs of a spending agreement that would head off a full-year CR. Pentagon leaders say that would be extremely bad news for the military. Rather than just keeping 2022 spending levels the same as last year, they say a CR would actually reduce DoD’s spending power by more than $20 billion this year. Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu has details on some of the effects they’re predicting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Navy has agreed to empty one of its largest strategic fuel tank farms in the Pacific. That’s after 14,000 gallons of jet fuel seeped into drinking water in Hawaii. But, the Navy's troubles don't end there. Military families are still displaced by the leak. And the Navy didn’t have answers to some big questions as officials testified before Congress this week. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione has the latest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Members of Congress say they have a real chance to reform federal cybersecurity standards this year. Legislation has already passed one Senate committee. Now, a House committee is developing a companion bill to update the Federal Information Security Modernization Act. For more, Federal News Network’s Justin Doubleday shares his reporting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Biden administration has launched a new way to gather data and feedback from the federal workforce. The President’s Management Council is releasing the first data from its Federal Pulse Survey that went out to civilian federal employees last fall. The survey is a pilot program aimed at getting here-and-now from feds more than OMB gets from the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman has more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some 9,000 aging veterans live in nursing homes operated by the Veterans Health Administration. The VA calls them community living centers. Sometimes complaints arise from residents or their advocates. An audit by the Government Accountability Office found some policy and procedural lapses that hinder VA's ability to respond to complaints. For more, the GAO's Director of Health Care Issues, Sharon Silas spoke with the Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke with Debra Roth, a partner at Shaw, Bransford and Roth. She's a long time specialist in taking federal managers' cases to the Merit Systems Protection Board. Her firm also supports the Senior Executives Association. Roth explained why the Senate has failed to vote on the three nominees before it and also a bit of history about the board. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most federal employees get through their careers without disputes with supervisors. But when they do have a dispute they've got recourse. For five years though, a crucial part of that recourse machinery, the Merit Systems Protection Board, has lacked a quorum, or even any of its three members at all. Now, three nominees are awaiting a Senate vote. For the implications of the missing MSPB, The Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to long-time federal employee attorney Heidi Burakiewicz. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal contractors are facing a looming continuing resolution deadline just a month off. They're also facing an ever tighter compliance and small business contracting regime. For what's ahead, the president and CEO of the Professional Services Council, David Berteau. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Biden administration ended the last calendar year with a whisper. It added only 1,400 pages to the Federal Register. That's a slow week for a document that grows by 75,0000 or 85,000 pages a year. And yes, there is someone who tracks this. For what it means, the Federal Drive turned to the deputy chief policy editor at Ballotpedia, Caitlin Styrsky. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Artificial intelligence might be the greatest thing since the half slip. But its software. And that means it can be hacked. That's a concern for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. DARPA has launched a program to develop defenses against that possibility. It's called Guaranteeing AI Robustness against Deception, or GARD. For more, the GARD program manager, Dr. Bruce Draper. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices