Federal Drive with Tom Temin

As Congress was debating the latest multi-trillion-dollar package for COVID relief, no one knew the extent of waste and fraud from the last couple of trillion dollar packages. The Project on Government Oversight's senior analyst Sean Moulton joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to share what he's been able to find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No fewer than eight federal programs in four departments have to do with chemical safety and security. They're supposed to coordinate with one another and with the facilities they regulate. But as one might imagine, there's duplication, overlap and fragmentation when it comes to dealing with dangerous chemical depots. The director of the Homeland Security and Justice team at the Government Accountability Office, Nathan Anderson, had more insight on Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People tend to take the built environment for granted, until a flood or tornado wrecks homes, businesses or schools. How communities respond is a measure of their resilience. To help local areas boost their resilience, the National Institute of Standards and Technology recently completed a new guide, what it calls a "playbook." For how they developed it, NIST research environmental engineer Christopher Clavin spoke to Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The military is juggling many personnel issues: High suicide rates, sexual assaults, even housing problems. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), who chairs the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee, said the Pentagon needs to humanize the people it employs and treat them less like robots. She plans to help the Defense Department do just that. In speaking with Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione, Speier laid it all out. Hear more on Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Postal Service delivered more than a billion packages during its peak holiday season. That's the good news. But it also fell far short of its service targets, so some customers waited weeks for stuff to arrive. Now USPS is about to release a 10-year strategy to put the agency on firmer financial footing. This comes as the Postal Board of Governors has a new chairman to oversee it all. Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman had the latest on Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The executive orders frenzy has tailed off. We know what the Biden administration wants for pandemic relief. But what next? Contractors are looking to see who will fill the crucial sub-cabinet appointment slots and how 2022 budgets will play out. Joining the Federal Drive with what else, the president and CEO of the Professional Services Council, David Berteau. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Horowitz, the chairman of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, and inspector general of the Justice Department is still with me. Also joining the Federal Drive to discuss what the IG community thinks are the top challenges for the federal government in the next year, the National Science Foundation inspector general and chair of the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, Allison Lerner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's easy to appropriate money for pandemic relief. A simple vote in Congress. It's a lot harder to actually mitigate the pandemic, and spend that money in the right way. So how has the government done, with the first three trillion dollars already appropriated? With highlights of their just-released report, the chairman of the Pandemic Relief Accountability Committee, Michael Horowitz. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you thought the yearly year-long pandemic would have a depressing effect on military recruitment and the ability of the armed services to field their promised end strength. Well, you'd be wrong. That's not to say recruitment was easy, but the armed services held their own. The Federal Drive got more now from DOD reporters Scott Maucione and Jared Serbu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s been two months since the massive attack through the SolarWinds Orion product came to light. And while the full impact of the attack still is unknown, the Austin, Texas company is going on the offensive. SolarWinds officials are trying to earn the trust back of their federal clients by adding more rigor to their development processes. But cyber experts question whether will it be enough. In this week's Reporter's Notebook, executive editor Jason Miller writes about what SolarWinds is doing and why some cyber experts believe SolarWinds is the latest wake-up call to secure systems and networks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new Veterans Affairs Secretary is likely to be in place tomorrow. Labor and Education nominations aren't far behind. This as the Senate also prepares for a rather politically charged event. For more on what both houses of Congress are up to in the days ahead, here's Bloomberg Government Editorial Director Loren Duggan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Pentagon might have cleaned house, but many federal advisory boards continue to operate normally. One of them is the National Advisory Council supporting FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In fact, it recently came out with a long list of recommendations for the agency. Joining the Federal Drive with more, the acting director of the Council, Rob Long. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Without reliable data, about industry, about agriculture, about the U.S. population, it's impossible to form good public policy, much less have a meaningful debate about it. Supplying that data falls to a collection of federal organizations known as the statistical agencies. Now the American Statistical Association is warning, the government needs to bolster these agencies and better insure their objectivity and independence. Joining the Federal Drive with more, former U.S. chief statistician Katherine Wallman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let’s set the record straight, the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification or CMMC accreditation body is NOT part of the Defense Department. Of the misconceptions out there about, that's the most common, says one private sector information executive and a former member of the accreditation body. Chris Golden is director of information security for Blue Cross, Blue Shield. He tells executive editor Jason Miller that 18 months into the CMMC project, industry and agencies still need to grasp why it matters so much. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chief information officers have a lot of authority under federal law. And the Army’s brand new CIO says he fully intends to use them. The Army will soon stand up a new governing body to oversee a more disciplined approach to IT spending. As part of the latest reorganization, the Army’s looking to weed out legacy systems and make sure it sticks to the IT spending levels it’s promised Congress. Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu has details on what CIO Raj Iyer calls a “ruthless” approach. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices