Federal Drive with Tom Temin

The Air Force is drafting a new automation strategy. And it’s not all about killer robots or bots replacing humans. Instead, Air Force officials say automation software is making Airmen’s jobs a lot easier, and a little less boring in some cases. Federal News Network’s Justin Doubleday reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Extreme weather and climate change are ongoing threats to federal buildings. The Smithsonian is no exception. It houses 155 million artifacts spanning, oh, all of human history and beyond. But the system’s museums and storage facilities risk flooding and other damage. In fact, that's already happened in the National Capital Region. Smithsonian officials appeared before the House Administration committee last week. Federal News Network’s Amelia Brust has more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal employees may not all be in the office for the second holiday season in a row. But your generosity is undeterred by the pandemic. In fact, in the recent giving Tuesday you really shelled out. Both dollars and volunteer hours. We get the latest from the chairman of the National Capital Region Federal Coordinating Committee, Vince Micone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some 650 pieces of federal land have the word squaw in their names. Nowadays that's considered derogatory to women, and to indigenous women in particular. Now the Interior Department has called on a group called the Board on Geographic Names to change them. With how that all works, Federal News Network's Eric White spoke to the senior counselor to the Interior secretary, Liz Klein. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the Veterans Benefits Administration, fraud and identity theft is costly. For both the veterans it serves and for the agency itself. December being National Identity Theft Prevention and Awareness Month, VBA has programs in place to protect its own assets and to help veterans protect theirs. For more, the VBA's chief financial officer, Charles Tapp. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The vaccine deadlines have come and gone. Now agencies are starting to think more about bringing federal employees back to their offices. Some agencies are bargaining with their unions. Others are scratching out telework and remote work policies. And a few even dare to set tentative dates. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko joined the Federal Drive with why returning to the office is still sort of a hairball. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The National Science Foundation mainly awards grants. It has 50,000 of them out there right now. To analyze them, its financial staff developed an artificial intelligence application called the Financial Obligation Root Cause Explorer, or FORCE. It won the innovation award from the Association of Government Accountants. For what it is and what it does, the NSF's payments and analytics branch chief, Jesse Simons. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The sexual assault and sexual harassment problems, known as SASH, we just heard about came up in a detailed review of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. It was done at congressional request by the National Academy of Public Administration. Leading the study was Judith Youngman, a NAPA fellow and former faculty member of both the Coast Guard and U.S. Military academies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, part of the Transportation Department, has suspended a program that puts students at sea for a year. That followed reports of sexual assault of students aboard commercial vessels. Members of Congress have called on the academy to establish a plan for dealing with assault. According to my next guest, the stories keep coming in. He's the founder and chief legal officer of Maritime Legal Aid and Advocacy, J. Ryan Melogy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Defense Department’s chief data officer is transforming the way the agency thinks about and uses data. Now the department is taking steps to bring the CDO closer together with two of its partners, the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center and the Defense Digital Service. Early next year, all three will report to a new Chief Digital and A-I Officer. For a closer look, Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman spoke with the senior adviser to the DOD chief data officer, Jenny Sue Ross. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Defense Information Systems Agency is letting its milCloud 2.0 offering expire in May 2022. Federal News Network has learned that DISA told the House and Senate Armed Services Committees on Dec. 14 that it will not pick up the third option period with GDIT, which was supposed to happen in early June. The Federal Drive welcomed Federal News Network's Jason Miller with more on this breaking news. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Service members just hit their deadline for being fully vaccinated, but now the Omicron variant is bearing down. The Defense Department is thinking about a new mandate. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione joined with the latest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you're in cybersecurity for the federal government, you might have to kiss Christmas goodbye. Agencies have until Christmas Eve to patch a critical exploit in widely used logging software. But the response to the “Log4j” vulnerability will likely last well into the new year. For more, Federal News Network’s Justin Doubleday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like the Office of Personnel Management the Chief Human Capital Officers Council has been going through its own transformation over the last year. The council moved back under OPM's umbrella. Chief human capital officers have spent the last couple of months discussing the future of work and the administration's diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility initiatives. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko joins me now with more of what the council's been up to and why it matters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andrew Williams produced a string of technological innovations while working for the Air Force. Now he's been promoted to deputy technology executive officer for Space Science and Technology. That means he'll work directly on the Space Force mission. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices