Federal Drive with Tom Temin

The Justice Department recently refreshed policy for using a potent stick to prod federal contractors. Or maybe whack them upside the head. The Civil Cyber Fraud initiative's club is the False Claims Act. The deputy attorney general promises very heft fines, her words, for companies that, for instance, fail to quickly report cyber incidents. For some advice on how to avoid these fines, hefty or heftier, the Federal Drive turned to Jenner and Block partner David Robbins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the military, any advantage in weapons has a lot to do with energetics, the materials that explode and power projectiles. Recently the Navy awarded other transaction authority money to the National Armaments Consortium for the Naval Energetic Systems and Technology program. For more, ironically at last week's big Army symposium, the Federal Drive caught up with consortium executive director Charlie Zisette. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Supply chain security is top of mind for government and industry these days. You've probably heard. But there's little agreement on how to get there. In August, the White House the National Institute of Standards and Technology. NIST has to come up with a new framework for technology supply chain security. The Commerce agency is now starting to ask for ideas. Federal News Network’s Justin Doubleday joined the Federal Drive with the latest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nearly two years after holding its first meeting, the Chief Data Officers Council seeks fresh input on how to meet its mission. It's asking the public how to make more federal employees data literate. It’s asking how to do data inventories, and share federal data between agencies. For an update on this work, Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman listened in on the most recent meeting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Contractor CGI recently won a contract from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The task is to build and application programming interface, or API, gateway. It'll be part of the agency's efforts to reduce waste, fraud and abuse in payouts for Medicare and Medicaid. With how it's expected to work, we turn to CGI's vice president for health and social services, Brad Schoffstal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Army famously left behind physical assets when the Biden administration ordered the sudden pullout from Afghanistan. But it also airlifted tons and tons of vehicles, weapons, ordnance and other gear. The Army also has complete the establishment of a worldwide chain of what it calls MDR-Ses, Modernization, displacement, and repair sites. For an update, at this week's Association of the U.S. Army conference in Washington, I caught up with the commander of the Army Sustainment Command, Major General Chris Mohan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A recent executive order from the Biden administration on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, it's put more wind in the sails of those who manage federal disability and 508 programs. The order calls on agencies to remove barriers people might face. And that includes federal employees with disabilities. Accessibility managers in government say the extra attention is a welcome change. More from Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Army’s largest corps is thinking ahead to what its workforce will need in the years to come. With the Pentagon investing heavily in artificial intelligence, the thinking goes, soldiers need more than rifle training. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione joined the Federal Drive to explain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The National Reconnaissance Office just released a big contracting opportunity specifically geared toward commercial satellite services. It's an opening up, of sorts, for the normally secretive NRO. But it and other spy agencies are turning more often toward the private sector as commercial space services explode. For more on the NRO deal, Federal News Network’s Justin Doubleday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Army has been talking for years about the need to modernize its IT networks. But in a forthcoming digital transformation strategy, officials are thinking bigger. Besides making technical upgrades, the multiyear strategy will try to reform the Army’s IT policies, upskill its workforce, and build new partnerships with industry and academia. Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu has a preview on what Army IT leaders are thinking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the Association of the U.S. Army Conference just concluded, topics ranged from international strategy to the health and well being of individual soldiers and their families. One issue has been housing. Another is spouse employment. For an update, I caught up with the deputy commander of the Army's Installations Management Command, Major General Omar Jones. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new law enacted last month requires the Office of Management and Budget, in cooperation with federal agencies, to post their annual budget justification documents online. And to maintain a downloadable data set. OMB and Treasury have a year to develop the standards and procedures. For how this might actually happen, we turn to a former federal chief financial officer, now the managing director for the public sector at Grant Thornton, Doug Criscitello. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Through its Public Health Center, the Army keeps tabs on all of the factors that can affect the health of its forces as a whole. Its Health Promotion and Wellness Directorate focuses on the condition of individual soldiers. And its been building out capacity to ensure that each occupant of a uniform is at his or her best. At the Association of the U.S. Army conference, which concluded yesterday, I spoke with the Health Promotion and Wellness Director, Laura Mitvalsky. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Combined Federal Campaign celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. The national capital region boosters hope they can build off last year's first all-virtual campaign and beat the $37 million local federal employees donated during the pandemic. Vince Micone is executive director for enterprise services at the Commerce Department and the co-chairman of the National Capital Region's local CFC coordinating committee. He told Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko what the region learned from last year's campaign, on Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The National Nuclear Security Administration wants to make it easier for people in the nuclear industry to understand the complexities of non-proliferation. It's brought all of the information together in an online portal called US Nuclear Nexus. For what's going on, Argonne National Laboratory principal systems engineer Allison Bennett Irion and NNSA Associate Assistant Deputy Administrator Jeff Chamberlin spoke to Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices