Federal Drive with Tom Temin

From a sheer numbers perspective, the cybersecurity workforce appears to be in a perpetual crisis. For years, the number of qualified cybersecurity personnel has lagged far behind what’s needed to fill positions across all sectors, and the gap is only growing. And for federal agencies struggling to compete with private sector pay, the shortfall is especially acute. But over the past six months, the White House, agencies and other organizations have said they’ll take concrete steps to address the persistent shortages. That makes 2024 a key year for realizing those commitments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Office of Personnel Management had a busy year, managing to push out plenty of proposed regulations during 2023 that aim to reform federal hiring and improve workforce challenges. Even more plans and changes appear to lie ahead, though many may come in smaller bites, and require leadership from chief human capital officers (CHCOs) and other workforce experts in government. “We are fundamentally rethinking hiring in government,” OPM Director Kiran Ahuja said during a Dec. 12 CHCO Council meeting. “Our big focus has been on utilizing pooled hiring, where multiple agencies with the same need can take advantage of one hiring action … It is so incredible of a tool that we have at our disposal right now.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy turns 50 years old in 2024. While the federal acquisition community has come a long way since 1974, the next few years, let alone the next 50 years, will be all about the acquisition workforce. Christine Harada, the senior advisor in OFPP, said the Biden administration’s acquisition workforce priorities for 2024 and beyond start with ensuring agencies have the appropriate people who are trained and supported, and who have the necessary skillsets for today, tomorrow and the long-term. “We’re working to build our best inspired, engaged acquisition workforce. That, of course, requires an environment that attracts new talent and offers modern training and development opportunities, where the acquisition workforce members actually build communities both inside and across federal agencies through networking and other learning opportunities,” Harada said in an interview with Federal News Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: This senior executive is all about effective acquisition with finesse. Telework changes, hiring reforms of 2023 charting a course into the new year. The IRS workforce development plan lacks one crucial element. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The IRS has taken several big steps recently on the personnel front. It has brought in people to help improve taxpayer service. And just the other day commissioner, Danny Werfel said he would reorganize management to emphasize service, compliance, technology and operations. But to discuss one missing element, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with long-time leadership professor Bob Tobias. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like every agency, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) relies on its acquisition workforce to keep it supplied. In the ongoing crisis at the U.S. southern border, CBP appears to have a secret weapon in the person of its assistant commissioner for the office of acquisition. This long-serving official has received a Presidential Rank Award. Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with Diane Sahakian. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the federal workforce, 2023 was yet another pivotal year — defined by changes not only to the federal workplace, but also to the government’s recruitment and retention strategies. What this year perhaps most notably marked was a pivot in agencies’ telework policies and return-to-office plans. After the Office of Management and Budget’s call to ramp up “meaningful” in-office work, agencies led a slow, one-by-one release of their individual plans to heed the White House memo. Depending on their agency, many federal employees’ partial return to the office began in the late summer of 2023 and lasted through the fall — some changes will take place even further ahead, beginning in early 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal agencies coalesced around a new national vision for cybersecurity over the past year, but continued to grapple with emerging cyber threats. I asked experts in the cyber field, many of them former feds, the following question: What was the biggest development for federal cybersecurity in 2023? The most popular answer far and away was the Biden administration’s release of a new national cyber strategy. But regulatory activities, the emergence of artificial intelligence, and some game-changing cyber attacks were also among the most significant developments of the past year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Special victims units are now solely responsible for investigating sexual assault and some other serious crimes, marking a turning point for the military justice system and the way sexual misconduct is handled in the military. Within each military service, Offices of Special Trial Counsel will allow trained lawyers to evaluate and prosecute allegations of sexual assault and other “covered” offenses independently, taking those cases out of the hands of victims’ commanders. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced today that the Offices of Special Trial Counsel are now fully operational, officially shifting away prosecutorial discretion for serious offenses from unit commanders to specially trained military attorneys. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adopting a zero trust approach to cybersecurity inside a single federal agency is hard enough. For U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, it’s many times more complex. That’s because INDOPACOM needs to adopt zero trust in a way that works not just for the U-S military, but for numerous other allies and partner nations – some of which are further behind the curve than others. Long before it started the work of bringing “mission partners” into a zero trust environment, INDOPACOM’s first task was to figure out how to apply the principles to the U.S. military’s own requirements for IT networks. Paul Nicholson, the command’s deputy CIO, said the previous approach to network defense wasn’t working well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Defense contractors are parsing out a nearly 250-page proposed rule. It landed sort like a lump of coal on Christmas Eve. It is all about a program known as Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). At the very least, if you are even tangentially involved in the topic, you should read the proposal and prepare comments. For more, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with procurement attorney Eric Crusius, a partner at Holland and Knight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey scores came out just before Christmas. And the results, in general, seem to be pointed in the right direction. For early analysis, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with a partner and the Director of Government and Public Affairs at Shaw, Bransford and Roth, Jason Briefel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A special retention pay authority the Justice department used to retain certain Bureau of Prisons employees expires in a few days. This affects employees of the Federal Correctional Institution Thomson in Illinois. The result: A Christmastime pay cut of 25% for correctional officers and other employees. For more of what is going on, we turn to the president of the American Federation of Government Employees local 4070, Jon Zumkehr. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: Happy New Year! Now take this 25% pay cut. What the just-out Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey results tell us. What contractors should do now about DoD's new cyber security rule. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An update to the long-running cloud-computing security program known as FedRAMP, has entered a new phase. Comments closed Friday, and now the authorities at the General Services Administration and Office of Management and Budget are percolating. For what the industry is hoping for, we turn to Stephanie Kostro, the Executive Vice President for Policy at the Professional Services Council. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices