Federal Drive with Tom Temin

If you believe the futurists, pretty much every waking moment of people's lives will be coordinated and controlled through a mobile device. Maybe not just their waking moments. Vinn White, a specialist leader at Deloitte, tells Federal Drive with Tom Temin the federal government will and should have an important part in setting the mobile agenda and the ecosystem to support it.

Health care enrollment policies that are all over the map, billing errors by the millions and isky opioid prescription practices are among the issues Veterans Affairs Department auditors have been looking at lately. VA Inspector General Michael Missal shares some of the disturbing findings on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

The Homeland Security Department is one of a few civilian agencies that's actively hiring. DHS has 900 jobs open now and wants veterans to fill many of them. The department held a two-day recruitment and hiring fair for veterans only. DHS modeled that event off of two other successful hiring fairs. But it's learned a few things since then. Federal News Radio's Nicole Ogrysko shares the details on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

The Homeland Security Department has more than 240,000 employees and the agency wants to migrate them all to a single IT system to track on-the-job training and workforce performance metrics. DHS made promises to the House Homeland Security Committee last year about getting the system onboard, but there's been some hiccups. Federal News Radio's Jory Heckman shares the details on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

Federal taxes take a good bite out of everyone's paycheck. But it's the same no matter where you live. State taxes are another matter. They're all over the place and that should be part of every federal employee's retirement planning. Tammy Flanagan, senior benefits director at the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, joins Federal Drive with Tom Temin in studio with more.

Federal taxes take a good bite out of everyone's paycheck. But it's the same no matter where you live. State taxes are another matter. They're all over the place and that should be part of every federal employee's retirement planning. Tammy Flanagan, senior benefits director at the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, joins Federal Drive with Tom Temin in studio with more.

The Naval War College recently conducted a Navy-Private Sector Critical Infrastructure Wargame to find out just what might happen if some nation launched a major cyber attack on the U.S. Federal News Radio's Eric White spoke to Jackie Schneider, an assistant professor in the Center for Cyber Conflict Studies at the Naval War College and one of the game's creators, on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

One grounding might be an isolated incident. Four ship collisions and 17 sailors dead in the span of eight months, that's a trend. And not a good one. With some insight into what might be going on inside a troubled Navy, Federal Drive with Tom Temin turns to Bryan Clark, former special assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations and now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

When it comes to cybersecurity, the government has plenty of defensive capabilities, but they're so scattered throughout various agencies that no one quite knows how to use them all in concert. That's the unsurprising conclusion from a federal cybersecurity advisory panel. But these authors say their recommendations are different, because they tell agencies specifically how to fix the problem. Federal News Radio DoD Report Jared Serbu shares the details on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

Comptroller General Gene Dodaro likes to say the Government Accountability Offices High Risk List isn't meant to shame agencies but rather to help them operate more efficiently and effectively. Sound familiar? Dodaro says the government reorganization ordered by President Donald Trump is a perfect opportunity for agencies to address the GAO's recommendations. Federal News Radios Meredith Somers has more on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

The Defense Department has 15 different regulations for the Freedom of Information Act. It has 21 assorted rules for privacy. That's just a small sample of why the White House ordered agencies to reduce and reform regulations with a goal of getting rid of two for every new one they write. Federal News Radio's Executive Editor Jason Miller tells Federal Drive with Tom Temin how DoD is taking on this huge task of getting rid of regulations, some of which go back to its War Department days.

The Pentagon has just wrapped up its third bug bounty. This one on behalf of the Air Force. The competition turned out to be DoD's largest yet: 272 white hat hackers found 207 verified vulnerabilities in Air Force systems, including some very serious ones. Marten Mickos is the CEO of HackerOne, the firm that coordinated Hack the Air Force. He talked with Federal News Radio's Jared Serbu about the results on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

Like a bad stretch of roadway, the defense procurement system vexes generation after generation of federal and contractor practitioners. Undaunted, the Section 809 Panel, named for the defense authorization act paragraph that chartered it, has been working hard at recommendations for comprehensive reform. Section 809 Panel Commissioner David Drabkin gives Federal Drive with Tom Temin a progress report.

U.S. nuclear forces have become top of mind lately in the standoff with North Korea. Coordination of those forces relies on some very old information technology. Rumor has it strategic command still uses 8-inch floppy disks. Stories of systems at Veterans Affairs and the IRS are legend. Now the Partnership for Public Service and Accenture have put together some advice for getting this situation off the dime. Mallory Barg Bulman, the vice president for research and evaluation at the partnership, provides details on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

When you're the chief information security officer of an agency of 166,000 people, you've got to worry about 166,000 people. But you don't do it alone. You've got a cybersecurity workforce to deal with everything from foreign hackers to disgruntled insiders. For a view of cyber workforce trends, Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke with Chris Wlaschin, chief information security officer at the Health and Human Services Department.