Federal Drive with Tom Temin

The Capitol Hill Police made prime spots on the news in the last couple of weeks for all the wrong reasons. Because of failures that worsened the riot situation in early January, suddenly everyone is examining it. My next guest has studied the strengths and shortcomings of the Capitol Hill Police since way before the riots. To learn more, the Federal Drive spoke to Demand Progress policy advisor, Amelia Strauss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for several years has maintained a partnership with a couple of foundations. It brings geographically oriented health data to counties, zip codes and other census designated spots. Now the initiative, called Places, adds data for even smaller zones that had been unavailable. Joining the Federal Drive with more about the program, the director of the CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Dr. Karen Hacker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the Biden administration issues its first budget proposal in the coming weeks, agencies will come prepared with performance data to justify how they will spend that money. But the Office of Management and Budget, in the final days of the Trump administration, laid out some of the challenges it’s faced in actually putting this data to use. For more on how the Biden administration hopes to get the most out of agency performance data, Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman joined the Federal Drive with more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Makeup, nail polish and hair highlights, they'll soon be the new look of modern soldiers. The Army is changing some of its grooming standards to be more inclusive and to give troops a little more self expression. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione has the latest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2020 was a big year for advances in telework in the Defense Department – even for people who need access to classified information. The Army alone deployed thousands of new devices to let its leaders get access to both secret and unclassified information. But it’s not just for telework. The service is using some of the same concepts to make it faster, easier and cheaper to deploy secret networks on its own bases. Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu had details on Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the dust settled, literally, in the Capitol Building, the same old Congress was still there - with its partisanship and old fashioned modes of working. One local institution wants to help the beleaguered Congress with several 21st Century strategies. And as Congress seeks to modernize itself - or at least some members and think-tankers hope it does - it will inevitably hit the need for an infusion of contemporary technology. But that will be a hard buy and a hard sell to industry. Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke with Lorelei Kelly, the director of Congressional Modernization at Georgetown University's Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like so many new systems before it, the Columbia-class submarines are having software trouble - among other supply and development challenges. Federal Drive with Tom Temin got the latest look-see at this critical military program from Shelby Oakley, the director of Contracting and National Security Acquisitions at the Government Accountability Office. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking to see how artificial intelligence might be applied to the creation and maintenance of software, especially software controlling physical systems. It awarded a contract to a company called GrammaTech to develop this idea. For what it is and why it's important, Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to the GrammaTech's vice president of research, Alexey Loginov. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The new Biden administration spent its first few days in office pumping out new executive orders - a lot of them. Now agencies are charged with implementing them. The Office of Management and Budget is out with new guidance on the president's mask mandate for federal employees and contractors. OMB wants agencies to revisit their pandemic plans and submit new ones by the end of the week. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to explain what's different about the approach from OMB. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the latest in a string of executive orders, the Biden Administration has underscored a buy-American policy for federal procurement. It establishes a buy-American overseer at the Office of Management and Budget and clamps down on U.S. content in what agencies buy. Joining the Federal Drive with reaction from services contractors, the president and CEO of the Professional Services Council, David Berteau. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The federal government funds a lot of research and development each year. But not all of it. Yet protection of R&D intellectual property from foreign adversaries, that's a concern for both government and industry. That raises the question of how far the government should go in trying to secure private R&D. For one answer, the Federal Drive turned to the Senior Fellow at the Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Dr. Melissa Flagg. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Borrowing a program from the Defense Department, the Homeland Security Department's Science and Technology Directorate recently launched a Hacking for Homeland Security effort. Its goal is to find or adapt new technologies needed for DHS missions. One component of the program is a national academic course. For more on the course, the Federal Drive turned to the former Region 8 administrator of FEMA, Lee dePalo. And Colorado School of Mines associate professor Sid Saleh. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Movies and books about spies may have served the CIA well over the last four decades in recruiting the next generation of employees. But the need for new skillsets like data scientist or computer science engineers, and the competition for those experts, has forced the CIA to rethink its recruitment strategy. Candice Bryant is the chief of public communications for the CIA’s Office of Public Affairs. She tells Federal News Network's Jason Miller about how the CIA’s new website is one element of the broader 21st century recruitment strategy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Defense Department and intelligence community take in mass quantities of geographic data. Now the IC wants to turn artificial intelligence loose on it. The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity is working on ways computers can tag data on satellite imagery to free up time for analysts. Federal News Network’s Scott Maucione talks about the Space-based Machine Automated Recognition Technique with IARPA program manager Jack Cooper. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The riots and the inauguration behind it, the Congress has barely settled into the next session, with only a few bills actually introduced. The Senate is mainly concerned with Biden administration confirmations for the moment. For the week-ahead outlook the Federal Drive turned to Bloomberg Government Editorial Director Loren Duggan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices