Federal Drive with Tom Temin

The Postal Service is moving ahead with plans to both increase mailing prices and slow down delivery for nearly 40% of first-class mail. It’s a one-two punch that some of its biggest customers warn will accelerate the decline in mail volume. USPS says they'll boost efficiency and save money. You can guess what Congress thinks. We get the latest from Federal News Network's Jory Heckman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can the wings help the Army? No, not the Air Force. Actual birds. Scientists working with the Army have isolated a protein in birds that could help with navigation of future autonomous vehicles. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione talked about it with Army Research Office Biochemistry Program Manager Stephanie McElhinny. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Senate Armed Services Committee has issued its version of a Defense policy bill for 2022. To nearly everyone's surprise, it would add $35 billion to what the Biden administration has proposed. For more about this and what else is in there, Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to a senior adviser in the national security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Mark Cancian. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The National Security Agency is not known for opening its arms to outsiders. But the NSA’s Cybersecurity Collaboration Center is trying to change that perception just as the nation seems to be under constant cyber attack. The center staff wants to work with the defense, telecommunications, and other industries to develop a more widely shared understanding of cyber threats facing the country. For more, Federal News Network’s Justin Doubleday spoke with the chief of the center Morgan Adamski. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mail delivery is like weird weather — everyone has their own theory about it. Now the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General has taken a step to make the public aware of what's really going on with mail delivery, where it's flagging and where it's right on time. For more about the project, Inspector General Tammy Whitcomb joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Military training is supposed to train service members, not kill them. But the Army and Marine Corps have sustained thousands of non-combat vehicle accidents. In a 10-year period, 123 service members were killed. A review by the Government Accountability Office finds that the services don't always employ their own preventive practices. GAO's Director of Defense Capabilities and Management Issues, Cary Russell, had more on Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Everyone wants to save the whales, but Jay Barlow has actually saved them. He's developed new ways of tracking marine mammals, worked with the Navy and others to reduce noise damage, and even discovered a whole new whale species. He's a senior scientist at the National Marine Fisheries Service, part of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and a finalist in this year's Service to America Medals program. Barlow joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to talk more about his work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Agencies are setting tentative dates for their employees to return to the office. The dates are part of agencies' wider reentry plans. They were to due to the White House for review last week but many agencies are still fine-tuning the details. And they're still working out how telework and remote work programs will fit into the equation. The Office of Personnel Management recently gave agencies some advice on how to handle those lingering telework questions. To help sort it all out, Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko spoke to Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Senate Armed Services Committee reported out its version of the 2022 Defense authorization bill last week. The legislation has some historic changes and a bit of a plus-up for the Defense Department. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for more insight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Treasury Department's Bureau of the Fiscal Service laid out its most complete vision of what the future of financial management shared services will mean to agencies and vendors. The second request for information outlined the role of the Quality Service Management Office (QSMO) and how it hopes to reach the right mixture of standardization and flexibility. For when and how this will all become available to agencies, Federal News Network's Jason Miller spoke with the Bureau's acting commissioner, Matt Miller, on Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The recent executive orders on cybersecurity and on diversity and inclusion struck many readers are overly wordy and complex — hard to understand. Fergal McGovern ran these texts through an algorithm-based program that analyzes written text for complexity and understandability. The CEO of Visible Thread joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin with what it showed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Among the blizzard of executive orders coming from the Biden White House was a June missive telling agencies to buy American. But procurement law and regulation have required buy American for decades. Is there anything left to do? For one interpretation, Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to Venable attorney Dismas Locaria. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Biden administration has proposed no less than 72 initiatives in a single executive order on competition. The order, earlier this month, is ostensibly to benefit consumers. But if you read far down in the order, there's a lot there about federal contractors. For analysis, Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to the President and CEO of the Professional Services Council David Berteau. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Given what's happened over the last year and a half, the Department of Health and Human Services would have something which the departments of Defense and Energy, as well as the intelligence community have — namely, an advanced research projects agency. Now the Biden administration has proposed just that: a $6.5 billion ARPA Health as part of the National Institutes of Health. With how an ARPA Health might work, Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke with NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins, starting with the question, isn't the NIH itself a sort of ARPA already? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Deep in the Defense Department, a group is partnering with industry to create a window into the cyber vulnerabilities of the defense industrial base. The Defense Industrial Base Collaborative Information Sharing Environment (DCISE) is part of the Defense Cyber Crime Center, and division chief Mike Weiskopff talked about it in more detail on Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices