Federal Drive with Tom Temin

Among his first hundred days actions, President Joe Biden issued an executive order establishing a $15 an hour minimum wage for federal contractor employees. A detailed analysis shows the order won't affect federal spending much, but it will cause a lot of work for contracting officers. We get details from the managing director of Censeo Consulting, Curt Cote. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Post traumatic stress disorder is one of those maladies that affects everyone differently, and remains beyond any single cure. That's why the Veterans Affairs Department continually develops and tests new treatments. To get a sense of the range of work going on with PTSD, the director for clinical science, research and development in VA's office of R&D, Dr. Terri Gleason. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The theory behind governmentwide acquisition contracts (GWACs) hasn't changed since the mid-1990s. But with many of the 10 GWACs run by the General Services Administration, NASA and the National Institutes of Health going through recompetes and refresh efforts in the coming years, it may be time to rethink how GWACs work. For one set of possible changes, Federal News Network's Jason Miller spoke with the executive director of the Alliance for Digital Innovation Matthew Cornelius. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the pandemic shut down worldwide travel, some 100,000 Americans were stranded in nations across the globe. It fell to my next guest to pull together a multi-agency team to get them home. He and the team succeeded, and now he's a finalist in this year's Service to America Medals Program for his work. Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Ian Brownlee spoke more to Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Department of Homeland Security set out in 2016 to replace its facial and fingerprint recognition system. But little has gone right for the Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology (HART) program. It's three years late, no components are yet up and running. The Government Accountability Office said DHS officials need to get on with a lot of procurement best practices. Federal Drive With Tom Temin got more details from the GAO's director of information technology and cybersecurity issues, Kevin Walsh. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A change in parent organizations is coming to the National Intelligence University. It's about to move from under the Defense Intelligence Agency and become a part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. With what this means, plus a bit of history, the NIU president, J. Scott Cameron spoke to Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nearly half of the most popular federal websites are difficult to navigate for disabled people. That's according to research by the Information Technology and Innovation Fund. For details, Federal News Network's Jonathan Tercasio spoke with report authors Ashley Johnson and Daniel Castro on Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last year was a good one to be a federal contractor. Because of the pandemic and a few other things, federal contract spending went up by double digits. And there were a few changes to the list of the largest federal contractors. The Federal Drive got highlights from Bloomberg federal market analyst Laura Criste. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal criminal investigators are required to attend periodic training sessions. They go to any of several locations of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, FLET-C. Investigators allege that during training periods, they are asked to work overtime, but not getting the overtime they're entitled to. So they've filed a class action lawsuit. Joining the Federal Drive with details, the managing partner of the law firm McGillivary Steele Elkin, Greg McGillivary. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

They do the day to day legal work of the United States. And they didn't take the jobs to become rich lawyers. But the assistant U.S. Attorneys, career civil servants, are asking Congress to end what the attorneys feel is unfair pay disparity compared to other lawyers, in the Department of Justice. For more, the president of the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys, Larry Leiser. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As an organization that operates around the globe, the Defense Department needs a global approach to information technology. Even though DOD planners like centralized control, they've started look at how units outside of the continental United States can access the latest in commercial cloud technology. For this and other developments, the Federal Drive turned to Federal News Network's Jared Serbu and Scott Maucione. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two vendors recently made it through a tough gantlet. That is, they underwent a certification exam given by the Defense Contract Management Agency. These two companies are the first to be certified to provide third-party assessments of other defense contractors under the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification or CMMC program. The assessment was done by the DCMA's Defense Industrial Base Cybersecurity Assessment Center. Got all that? The question now is whether vendors will decide if CMMC is worth their time or cost. Chris Mitchell is the vice president for global government relations at IPC, an industry association representing 3,000 electronic manufacturers. He tells Federal News Network's executive editor Jason Miller why a recent survey of his membership casts real doubt about whether companies will bother with CMMC requirements. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A crucial week's ahead for Congress. Democrats say they'll go to reconciliation to pass a six trillion dollar package, this as regular government operations are likely to head to a continuing resolution. The Federal Drive got the latest from WTOP Capitol Hill correspondent Mitchell Miller. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One way or another, bio-fuel will be part of the country's energy future, especially to power ships and airplanes. That's why the Energy Department's ARPA-E is spending some $35 million in grant dollars to improve the efficiency of making this class of fuel. For details, the EcoSynBio program director David Babson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A federal buying approach known as category management for several years has sought to boost efficiency by pooling requirements for various commodities. That way the government can negotiate better prices. The General Services Administration states that category management is also supposed to help the government meet its small business goals. But in fact, according to my next guest, it's reducing the population of small business contractor. For details, we turn to the CEO and co-founder of the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce, Margot Dorfman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices