Federal Drive with Tom Temin

Members of Congress include fewer veterans than in past decades, but the ones now in office have been vocal about the situation in Afghanistan. There's not much they can do, but it does add to the general feverishness, as we hear from WTOP capitol hill correspondent Mitchell Miller. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Army is working with industry to develop a new generation of helicopters and drones that operate vertically. One recent milestone was the locking in of requirements for four lines of effort. For an update, we turn to the director of the Army's Future Vertical Lift Cross Functional Team, Major General Walter Rugen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While maintaining some of America's most beautiful sites, the National Park Service is also responsible for the watching over one of it's black eyes. Recently, NPS announced a grant of just over $3 million for the to preservation of World War II Japanese American Confinement Sites. To learn more about how the sites operate and what goes into running them, Federal News Network's Eric White spoke to the Superintendent of the Manzanar National Historic Site in California, Bernadette Johnson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chief data officers all face the task of taking inventory of their agencies’ data, and figuring out how to get the most use of it. Smaller agencies like the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission getting there faster. FERC established a data governance council to oversee it all. For a progress report, Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman spoke with FERC's chief data officer, Kirsten Dalboe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every year, the Coast Guard recognizes a half dozen members of its civilian workforce who’ve gone above and beyond what’s asked of them, and inspired others. This year’s winners have just been announced, and our next guest is one of them. TJ Tangert is a Painter/Blaster at the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore, where he’s worked for just under two years. He talked with Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu about the award, and his work at the yard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When does a foreign cyber attack merit shooting back? It's a tough question but one defense and civilian planners think about. For some perspective, the Federal Drive spoke with Chris Painter, the former State Department cyber diplomat, now president of the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise foundation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the National Security Agency recently awarded Amazon a multi-billion-dollar cloud computing contract, you can guess what happened. Once again, as in the Defense Department's JEDI program, the deal is tied up in protest, only this time Microsoft is the protester. DOD eventually scrapped the whole program. With how the NSA award is likely to play out, we turn to a partner at the law form Boies Schiller Flexner, Hamish Hume. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some of the big U.S. technology firms are pledging to work with the Biden administration on a new supply chain security framework. That is among several cybersecurity commitments announced after industry officials met with the president at the White House yesterday. Companies also promised to invest billions in new security measures and cybersecurity training programs. Federal News Network's Justin Doubleday joined the Federal Drive to discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bid protests are relatively rare when you consider how many government procurements take place each year. But according to the Government Accountability Office’s most recent data, they’re a pretty effective tool for losing bidders who think an agency got it wrong. According to GAO, 51% of the protests filed last year were either resolved in the protestors favor, or by the agency taking action on its own. For some insight into how the process works – and advice for companies considering a protest – the Federal Drive spoke with Stephanie Magnell. She served until recently as the Deputy Assistant General Counsel for Procurement Law at GAO, where she served as the hearing officer for hundreds of cases. She recently took a new position in the government contracts law group at the Seyfarth law firm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It may only be a matter of time before artificial intelligence technologies become relatively common in workplaces. But that prospect raises concerns ranging from privacy, to possible bias, and much more. Our next guest thinks public sector employers can help solve some of those concerns by becoming responsible early adopters of AI for workforce decisions. Hodan Omaar is a policy analyst at the Information Technology Innovation Foundation’s Center for Data Innovation. She’s the author of a new paper on AI in the workplace, and she joined the Federal Drive to talk about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2017, Congress created a new system for veterans to appeal their disability claims – replacing a process that sometimes dragged on for years. But even after the new system took effect, there were still hundreds of thousands of claims stuck in the “legacy” appeals system. Our next guest was put in charge of speeding those claims along, and by all accounts, she was wildly successful. Mary Frances Matthews is an operations senior management and program analyst at the Veterans Benefits Administration. And for her work on streamlining that legacy appeals process and cutting the backlog, she’s been named a finalist in the Management Excellence category for this year’s Service to America Medals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's been almost a month since the Biden administration first announced its new vaccine and testing policy for federal employees and contractors. And federal managers say there are still key pieces of the new policy that are unresolved. That's creating some anxiety among managers. They're worried they're not equipped to answer some potentially tricky questions from employees, especially those are who vaccine hesitant. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko joined the Federal Drive to explain their concerns. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the Defense Department digs out of its mound of technical debt, the chief information officer’s office is ensuring military services and defense agencies receive value for these new investments. DoD is implementing a revamped approach to IT portfolio management to better connect investments to mission requirements. Federal News Network Executive Editor Jason Miller joind Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss how this new investment process will work and where DoD is going next on its IT modernization journey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Postal Service is gearing up to fill hundreds of vacant front-line supervisor positions ahead of its peak holiday operations at the end of this year. This hiring surge gives management-level employees impacted by a reduction in force the option to stick with the agency. USPS is ramping up its holiday preparations earlier than usual to prevent the sort of widespread mail and package delays it saw last year. For an update on the state of the USPS workforce, Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nearly 20 years after Sept. 11, 2001, there are still questions about how victims of the attacks and their families will be compensated and how much they’re eligible for. Congress set up two special funds that have paid out tens of billions of dollars to victims so far. But lawmakers are still considering changes to the eligibility criteria. And last year, lawmakers told the Government Accountability Office to estimate how much those changes would cost. Those calculations are now in. To help explain the complicated landscape of 9/11 victims compensation, Federal Drive with Tom Temin talked with Triana McNeil, director of Homeland Security and Justice Issues at GAO. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices