Federal Drive with Tom Temin

Earlier this year, the Defense Department issued a new policy to streamline appeals by people trying to become eligible to access classified information. All of the appeals are now heard by an office known as the Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals. The process cuts out four other agencies with an interest in access to classified. For why this all crucial, the Federal Drive turned to Tully Rinckey attorney Ryan Nerney. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This month, an academic program that benefits professional skills of students, and helps the U.S. military solve crucial problems, celebrates five years in operation. Hacking for Defense has had more than 2,000 participants. Joining the Federal Drive with highlights, a program backer and managing partner of BMNT Partners, Pete Newell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Winning coaches have a game plan, then work like the devil to make sure players can execute the plan. The federal government has a plan for disaster response, but sort of falls short when it comes to execution. That's the essence of a detailed report heard by a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee. It was created by a group called Business Executives for National Security, or BENS. The Federal Drive got more now from its president and CEO, retired Army General Joseph Votel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When it comes to cloud computing, the Navy has come a long way in the past five years. Back then, about the biggest achievement it could claim was moving some of its public websites to the cloud. Now, it’s completed the biggest cloud migration of an enterprise resource planning system in world history. It's also re-architected all of its networks to become what it calls cloud-tolerant, and started developing cloud-native applications in a DevSecOps pipeline. Andrew Tash is technical director at the Navy’s Program Executive Office for Digital and Enterprise Services. He talked with Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu as part of Federal News Network’s DoD Cloud Exchange. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Budget season is fast-approaching. And that usually means federal employees are thinking about what next year's paycheck might look like. Federal News Network has learned the Biden administration is eyeing a 2.7% pay raise for civilian federal employees. Nicole Ogrysko joined the Federal Drive to explain what we might see from the new administration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When it comes to weather forecasting, everything depends on the model. Weather scientists are constantly tinkering with models, trying to get more data in them from more sources. Now the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has upgraded its Global Forecast System model in a few ways. With the speeds and feeds, the Chief of the Modeling and Data Simulation branch at NOAA's environmental modeling center, Vijay Tallapragada, spoke to Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You probably know that strategic human capital management is on the High Risk List maintained by the Government Accountability Office. The government isn't very good at anticipating the types of people it will need, then having a plan to recruit and hire them. That's especially true in science and technology. GAO's acting Director for Science, Technology Assessment and Analytics, Candice Wright, had the details on Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It doesn't matter how good your company, your bid, or your past performance might be. If you skip a detail of the agency's instructions, you can't win. Or you take 'em to court. That's the gist of what should have been a routine procurement by the Department of Homeland Security. Smith Pachter McWhorter procurement attorney Joseph Petrillo brought the details to Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Air Force is pushing toward greater diversity and inclusion. The effort is focusing on its most visible employees: Its pilots. The service found it’s been recruiting the same type of flyers for decades, and now the brass say it'll be better off bringing in a wider range of backgrounds. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione spoke with a strategist at the Air Education and Training Command, Lt. Col. Edemumo Oboho, on Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new round of government-wide acquisition contracts, or GWACs is coming from a couple of agencies, including the General Services administration and the National Institutes of Health. For both contractors and federal agency customers, what might be the oldest GWAC, continues to outshine them all, even if it is taken for granted. For a review of the numbers, federal sales and marketing consultant Larry Allen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The beginning of the end of the pandemic might be in sight. But there's no clear signs of where federal employees will be working, in the future, or when they'll be working there. In some ways, the long telecommute has been difficult for women. For a temperature check and look ahead, the legislative representative for Federally Employed Women, or FEW, Tonya Saunders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Customs and Border Protection deals with the world when its on the move. Now it has a mobile app to help travelers to the United States deal with their documents and figuring out what services or information they need for arrival and departure. Joining the Federal Drive with a more detailed description, Tricia Kennedy is a CBP assigned to its innovation center Sunil Madhugiri, the acting chief technology officer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough pitched himself as a problem-solver during his confirmation hearing earlier this year. He's had no shortage of challenges within his first 45 days. One of them is the electronic health record modernization program. The department launched a 12-week strategic review of the program after it learned of concerns from employees on the ground at VA's first go-live site. More now from Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The policy against use of certain Chinese-make telecommunications hardware is starting to have what you might call unintended consequences. Consequences that some observers warned about when rules came out last August. That's one of the stories in this week's DOD Reporter's notebook by Federal News Network reporters Jared Serbu and Scott Maucione. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Senate is out of session for a couple of weeks, so nobody can filibuster, or not filibuster, anyone. But that doesn't mean Congress isn't busy, on the Hill and certainly not in the White House. The Federal Drive with Tom Temin got the latest from WTOP Capitol Hill correspondent Mitchell Miller. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices