Federal Drive with Tom Temin

Chemistry courses can get messy. Dangerous chemicals, Bunsen burners, reactions that go wrong. And anyhow, chemistry labs are hard to replicate in remote learning. That’s why the Air Force Academy is working to create a mixed-reality lab where students can experiment safely from anywhere. For more, Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione spoke with Wale Lawal, an assistant professor at the academy, and with GIGXR CEO David King Lassman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People who understand the importance of the federal budgeting process recently marked the 100th anniversary of the Budget and Accounting Act. That law set-up the system by which presidents propose budgets to Congress, which then deals with them. For one view of how the contemporary reality fits how the law envisioned things, the Federal Drive's Tom Temin talked with former Congressional Budget Office director, and now president of the conservative American Action Forum, Douglas Holtz-Eakin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal News Network concludes its series on the Federal Lab Consortium and the business of federal tech transfer, with a look at the operational arm that keeps it all going. It's called the TechLink Center, and its housed at Montana State University. The Federal Drive's Tom Temin talk about it with the Center's new executive director Brett Cusker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nearly everyone has been wondering what federal teleworking policies will look like after the pandemic. One agency has put a stake in the ground on that very question. And it's a Congressional agency: the Government Publishing Office. The Federal Drives Tom Temin got all the details from GPO director Hugh Halpern and GPO's Chief Human Capital Officer Dan Mielke. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the difficulties of controlling illegal opioids is that they come mixed with other substances. Sometimes detecting that can take hours of chemical analysis and pose dangers to law enforcement lab people. Dr. Edward Sisco is a chemist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, who developed a way to cut the analysis time from hours to seconds. He's a finalist in this year's Service to America Medals Program and spoke with the Federal Drive's Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Budget and Accounting Act is 100 years old, and so is the Government Accountability Office, formerly called the General Accounting Office. The agency, which is part of Congress, has come a long way from its origins in bean counting. The Federal Drive's Tom Temin got a brief overview from GAO's chief operating officer, Kate Siggerud. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's one thing to work on your own as an engineer. Leading a team of engineers, that's something else again. But what about running a consortium of executives from dozens of agencies, all with ideas about how to do a single function. That's what the Federal Drive's Tom Temin's guest has done for about the last year and a half: Federal Labs Consortium executive director Paul Zielinski. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the difficulties of controlling illegal opioids is that it comes mixed in with other substances. Sometimes detecting it can take hours of chemical analysis and pose dangers to law enforcement lab people. Edward Sisco is a chemist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology who developed a way to cut the analysis time from hours to seconds. For his work, he's a finalist in this year's Service to America Medals Program. Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke to Sisco about his work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Budget and Accounting Act is 100 years old, and so is the Government Accountability Office — formerly called the General Accounting Office. The agency, part of Congress, has come a long way from its origins in bean counting. Federal Drive with Tom Temin got a brief overview from the GAO's Chief Operating Officer Kate Siggerud. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's one thing to work on your own as an engineer, but leading a team of engineers is something else entirely. But what about running a consortium of executives from dozens of agencies, all with ideas about how to do a single function? That's what Paul Zielinski has done for about the last year and a half. For the third installment in our tech transfer series, the Federal Laboratory Consortium executive director joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Department of Veterans Affairs is no longer on track to meet its goal of resolving all legacy appeals by the end of 2022. No surprise — the pandemic pushed those timelines back. Attorneys at the Board of Veterans Appeals have been teleworking and holding some hearings virtually. But delays for records and exams are slowing down progress. Now Congress wants to know what the board will do about the appeals backlog. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko had more information on Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chief data officers help agencies use data to improve services. Several CDOs have launched training programs to improve the data literacy of people in their agencies. For two examples, Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman spoke with the Deputy Chief Data Officer at the Federal Aviation Administration Marseta Dill, and Air Force CDO Eileen Vidrine, on Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, which the Pentagon canceled last week, is all over except for packing away the pieces. Details on this and other matters are in this week's DOD Reporters notebook. Federal News Network's Scott Maucione and Jared Serbu joined Federal Drive's Tom Temin to discuss those topics and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Agency procurement and IT officials often remark about how closely they work with industry. But agencies vary a lot in how effectively they forecast their needs to industry, so contractors can best position themselves to meet those needs. The Professional Services Council, which represents hundreds of IT contractors, is out with its annual business forecast scorecard. The Federal Drive's Tom Temin talked about it with the PSC's executive vice president for policy, Stephanie Kostro. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Professional Managers Association, which started with managers at the IRS, are solidly behind the big budget increase the agency would get under the Biden administration's 2022 plan. The Federal Drive's Tom Temin spoke with association executive director Chad Hooper to see what else they might be hoping for. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices