Federal Drive with Tom Temin

The Army Research Laboratory, part of the Combat Capabilities Development Command, is close to disseminating a new technology that will stanch bleeding in difficult-to-treat body areas. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione talked about the new invention with one of the ARL’s chemistry division chiefs Robert Mantz on Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The longer it takes the Biden administration to get its final fiscal year 2022 appropriation request out, the worse it'll be for federal contracting. By one account, the final numbers might not gel until February. My next guest says that would have a serious and negative impact on federal procurement, you know, buying stuff from contractors. For more, federal sales and marketing consultant Larry Allen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General is in the midst of a region-by-region look at how well its facilities perform their mission. It's something the IG does every three years. This time around, no surprise, the Covid pandemic is a big part of the look-see. In fact, inspectors themselves had to switch to online visits. For what they found so far, the Federal Drive turns to deputy assistant inspector general Mary Toy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the pandemic hit the United States, the Veterans Affairs Department famously switched to mostly virtual visits for primary health care. No surprise there, VA was already deep into a plan to be ready for such a disaster. But telehealth did have some issues, mainly having to do with VA Video Connect, the VA's system for doing video visits. Here with details, the VA's deputy assistant inspector general for healthcare inspections, Dr. Julie Kroviak. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With more business travel returning for people in the defense department, the cumbersome Defense Travel System is cranking up more. Now, though, it looks as if the Pentagon is going to replace the whole system, and officials have already begun contract talks. With this and other late DOD matters, Federal News Network's Scott Maucione and Jared Serbu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The General Services Administration is celebrating the success of a five-year-old pilot, to use data to get better prices for federal buyers. While initial data demonstrates the value of Transactional Data Reporting, industry experts say there are a host of issues that GSA still must resolve. In his weekly feature, the Reporter's Notebook, executive editor Jason Miller writes about what comes next for GSA's Transactional Data Reporting effort. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More money to expand the IRS, and raises for TSA officers. Both are on the agenda as Congress returns to Washington this week. They're both part of the so-called infrastructure bill the Biden administration has put forth. For how this might play out, the Federal Drive turned to WTOP Capitol Hill Correspondent Mitchell Miller. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ransomware, hackers hijacking systems and demanding big money to release them, has become more than a threat for state and local governments and school districts. So far the federal government has been lucky. Now a coalition of companies and non profits called the Institute for Security and Technology has come up with a long list of recommendations for dealing with ransomware. For more the president and CEO of the Cyber Threat Alliance and for White House cybersecurity special assistant, Michael Daniel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Airline safety has increased nearly 100 percent in the last couple of decades. But the challenge isn't over. There's still a big gap in average safety among nations. Bacterial and viral disease increasingly fly first class around the world. And new modes of navigation make the whole system more vulnerable to cyber attacks. That's the gist of new research by the Mitre Corporation. Joining the Federal Drive with more, former Transportation Secretary Rodney Slate, and MITRE aviation chief Gregg Leone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To help solve the threats climate change poses to the oceans and cybersecurity threats to communications systems, the National Science Foundation is taking a unique approach. Through its convergence accelerator, NSF both funding research and bringing together a broad group of experts, all with a goal of commercializing the innovations. For more, Federal News Network's Jason Miller spoke with the head of the NSF’s convergence accelerator, Doug Maughan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Software Engineering Institute, operated by Carnegie Mellon University as a federally funded research and development center, has a new name at its CERT Division. The Division's new director is Greg Touhill, a retired Air Force Brigadier General former federal chief information security officer joined the Federal Drive to discuss his new role. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One Defense cybersecurity initiative from the Trump era is gaining steam in the Biden. That would be CMMC, the Cybersecurity Model Maturity Certification Program. It a program with many moving parts, all aimed at making sure Defense contractors can be trusted with controlled, unclassified information. Two cybersecurity companies the CMMC ecosystem, found in a survey earlier this year that the program will be costly and difficult for contractors. Joining the Federal Drive with more, Apptega's vice president of Marketing, Scot McLeod and the director of consulting at SecureStrux, Thad Wellin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Even for the government, the Defense Department's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program is a complicated apparatus. It's goal is ultimately to ensure that DOD agencies can be reasonably sure their data held by contractors and subcontractors is secure. Central to CMMC is a group known as the Accreditation Body. Joining the Federal Drive with an update, the chairman of the Accreditation Body Board of Directors, retired Air Force Col. Karlton Johnson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Postal Service is opting for a non-voluntary reduction in force, of its non-bargaining unit employees. It’s part of an agency restructuring that started once Postmaster General Louis DeJoy took office. USPS is also lifting a hiring freeze on management jobs, and sending out a second round of voluntary early retirement offers ahead of the RIF. For more on the state of the USPS and its workforce, we’re joined by Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Leaders of the Space Force have already said they want to build the new organization as the U.S. military’s first “digital service.” Now, they’re rolling out some details on what exactly that means. A new document explains four separate lines of effort that’ll try to pull of a digital transformation from top to bottom. Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu has details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices