Federal Drive with Tom Temin

An important part of the Postal Service’s 10-year reform plan notched forward in Congress, when the House Oversight and Reform Committee approved the Postal Service Reform Act. The bipartisan legislation is the Postal Service’s only legislative request in its reform plan. USPS executives say the bill, if enacted, would save the agency $58 billion over the 10 years. It would end the requirement that USPS "prefund" retiree health benefits. And it would require future retirees enroll in Medicare. But lawmakers are also tinkering with other USPS reform ideas. Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman has more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Twenty billion dollars is nothing to sneeze at, even for a department as big as Veterans Affairs. But that's how much extra VA got in the CARES Act aimed at pandemic relief and passed in March of last year. This year, though, VA has only obligated about half the money. The Director of Health Care issues at the Government Accountability Office Sharon Silas spoke to Federal Drive with Tom Temin about what else the watchdog agency found. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The federal government spends more on grants each year than it does on procurement. Yet procurement seems to get the constant reform attention. Now a detailed study from the IBM Center for the Business of Government offers a detailed plan for how the government might get better outcomes from the grants it gives. The study's author Shelley Metzenbaum joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for more details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Progress on the pandemic might appear to be embodied in the face of one elderly gentleman you see on TV all the time. But in fact many people were on to a then-nascent virus in late 2019. Among them is one of the nation's leading infectious disease experts, a veteran of H1N1, West Nile, Ebola and Zika. Now she's a finalist in this year's Service to America Medals Program. Principle Deputy Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Anne Schuchat, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Agencies are lifting mask requirements for fully vaccinated federal employees and contractors. The new guidance comes from the Office of Management and Budget. And it follows last week's announcement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss what this could mean for getting you back to the office. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Defense Health Agency is out with its first study of who is getting the coronavirus vaccine and who is not. The report sheds light on some hesitancy within the military about getting the shot and also disparities connected to race, gender, service and occupation. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Homeland Security Department's EINSTEIN cybersecurity program has been an easy punching bag for so-called experts and lawmakers over the last five months. At hearings and at conferences, the value of EINSTEIN continually came into question after the SolarWinds and other cyber attacks. In his weekly feature, the Reporter's Notebook, executive editor Jason Miller writes about why these so-called experts and lawmakers are misinformed and why the EINSTEIN program is much more successful than most people know. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Defense Department no longer has a chief management officer. But it still needs a solid dose of management. That came to light in a recent hearing for the Biden administration's nominee for DOD Comptroller, Michael McCord. For more on this and other recent 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

A big holiday is coming up in July. It celebrates free people who don't stay silent in the face of wrongdoing. No, not Independence Day July 4th. It's National Whistleblower Day on July 30. Now the National Whistleblower Center has urged federal agency heads to offer educational programming about July 30. The Federal Drive got more now from the chairman of the National Whistle Blower Center and partner at Korn, Kohn and Colapinto, Stephen Kohn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lots of agencies are hearing chirp, chirp these days. Not cicadas but alerts from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. It has a system called the CISA Hunt and Incident Response Program, CHIRP. It's designed, in the agency's words, to help network defenders find indicators of compromise from two recent and broadscale attacks. For more, the Federal Drive turned to CISA deputy associate director Jermaine Roebuck. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

That executive order on cybersecurity from the White House last week. Where do you even begin with an 8,000-word tome with dozens of deadlines and action items. Contractors have been parsing it out. For one view, the Federal Drive turned to the executive vice president for policy at the Professional Services Council, Stephanie Kostro. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Even as it debates a trillion here and a trillion there, Congress hasn't overlooked some of the close-to-home issues like federal pay. They're full back in town and fully engaged. For what to look for in the week ahead, the Federal Drive turned to Bloomberg Government congress reporter Jack Fitzpatrick. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Each year, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission hosts a training conference for HR and EEO practitioners in both government and industry. The topic: conflicts in employment laws. With what's on the top of the agenda in the ongoing efforts to stop unlawful discrimination, the Federal Drive turned to the EEOC's director of federal sector programs, Dexter Brooks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The United States will likely be involved in Iraq at some level, for a long time. It still has contracting going on via the state department. Recently State's Office of Inspector General looked at whether contracting activity was properly staffed to ensure oversight. For more, the Federal Drive turn to the director of the OIG's office of audits, Mike Vennemann. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The State Department celebrates Foreign Affairs Day each May as part of Public Service Recognition Week. Former diplomats treat it as a kind of homecoming. But it’s also a solemn occasion to honor employees who have died in service of American Diplomacy. The American Foreign Service Association added 71 names of the fallen this year to a memorial plaque in the lobby of the department’s headquarters. The names span generations of federal service. For more on this ongoing project, Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman spoke with association President Eric Rubin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices