Federal Drive with Tom Temin

National security agencies are leading the way in enrolling their employees in new “continuous vetting” programs for security clearance. But the IT system that forms the backbone of this background investigation strategy is still under development after a few shaky years. Federal News Network’s Justin Doubleday has more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Department of Veterans Affairs has a growing number of IT projects on the to-do list. Financial management modernization, supply chain and logistics modernization, and many more. Then there's the IT elephant in the room. VA has a lot of attention and money focused on the electronic health record modernization program. And Congress isn't so sure VA has the bandwidth to juggle them all. More from Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Pentagon is getting ready to wind down the COVID-19 task force officials stood up toward the beginning of the pandemic. But that doesn’t mean DoD considers the pandemic over. Officials say they’ve made huge strides in vaccinating servicemembers, but tighter restrictions could still return at least some bases if there are outbreaks of the Delta variant of the virus. Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu has an update on DoD’s COVID response. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A vendor on the short list to build the Postal Service's next-generation delivery vehicle says it was unfairly disqualified from the $3 billion contract. The electric vehicle company Workhorse says USPS took its prototype out of consideration over a crash into a ditch that was due to a driver's error. The bid protest adds to pressure USPS is facing from Congress over the contract award. For more on these and others postal issues, Federal News Network's Jory Heckman talked with the Federal Drives Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alarmed by ransomware, the White House has been telling the private sector to get serious about cybersecurity. Just this month, a letter to corporate executives and business leaders, urged companies to do what amounts to basic cybersecurity. It told companies they have a key and distinct responsibility. For what it all could mean, Federal Drive's Tom Temin talked to partner and information security group practice leader at the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, Michael Borgia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The ongoing ransomware attacks have everybody spooked. Now Congress and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency are both contemplating ways to get industry to do something they've supposedly been doing for years. Namely, reporting these kinds of attacks to their corresponding federal agencies. But that mechanism has never fully developed. Federal Drive's Tom Temin gleaned some insight from the co-founder of consultancy Critical Insight, Michael Hamilton. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Prisons and detention facilities, in general, had some of the toughest challenges getting through the pandemic. Now the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, or PRAC, has detailed just how tough it's been. PRAC Co-chairman and Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz discussed incarceration during the pandemic with the Federal Drive's Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the Veterans Health Administration had big supply problems early in the pandemic, it wasn't just a matter of high demand all over. VA has longstanding issues with supply chain and inventory management. Federal Drive with Tom Temin got the latest from Shelby Oakley, the director of contracting and national security acquisitions at the Government Accountability Office. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This years best places to work in the Federal Government rankings show a mixed bag: Glowing reviews on handling of the pandemic but leadership issues persist. The Office of Management and Budget scores dropped through the floor. The Department of Homeland Security made improvements but finished last yet again. The rankings, from the Partnership for Public Service and Boston Consulting Group, are out, and Federal News Network's Alazar Moges examined them in detail on Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It took a lot of collaboration between the pharmaceutical industry and the government to get COVID-19 vaccines developed and proven safe. It might have been one of the biggest and fastest medical efforts ever. At the center of it all was the director of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, and a finalist in this year's Service to America Medals. Dr. Peter Marks spoke to Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Deep in the Biden administration's executive order on cybersecurity is the idea of software bills of material (SBOMs). The order gave the Commerce Department the task of issuing guidelines for software supply chain security. One detail asked industry to provide comments to the National Telecom and Information Administration regarding SBOM. What is it and what's it got to do with secure software? For some answers, Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to the open source Linux Foundation. Kate Stewart is the foundation's vice president of dependable embedded systems, and David Wheeler is the foundation's director of open source supply chain security. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Industry groups are urging the Biden administration to take it slow on a major software transparency and security initiative. The Commerce Department is under orders to define a so-called “software bill of materials.” But contractors are wary of the potential implications for new acquisition rules. Federal News Network’s Justin Doubleday joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for more details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The newest rankings of the best places to work in the federal government had few surprises. NASA and the Government Accountability Office topped the list of large and medium sized agencies respectively. But the government on average continues to lag behind the private sector. Scores are published by the Partnership for Public Service, whose Vice President of Federal Workforce Programs, Michelle Amante, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have come up with a cybersecurity software tool that builds on the old notion of honeypots, a way of tricking hackers into thinking they've gotten into your systems. The new technology is called Shadow Figment. Thomas Edgar, the labs senior cybersecurity scientist, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to talk about how it all works. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A last-minute modification to the request for proposals for a signature governmentwide acquisition contract has left industry a little shellshocked. We're talking about the long-awaited CIO SP4 program from the NIH Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center. NITAAC officials seemed to neutralized small business partnerships many would-be prime bidders had developed. Joining the Federal Drive with one reaction, the executive vice president for policy at the Professional Services Council, Stephanie Kostro. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices