Federal Drive with Tom Temin

The incoming Biden administration needs a chief customer experience officer to improve agency services to the public. At least that's what researchers at Forrester say. Its annual customer experience index shows federal agencies continue to rank most of the private sector. For more on what a governmentwide executive could bring to the problem, Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman spoke with Forrester principal analyst, Rick Parrish. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Navy is becoming ever more digital, as information warfare, cybersecurity and command and control become data-driven activities. How it operates and how it acquires the goods and services it needs are evolving, and fast. For an update I checked in with the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Information Warfare and Enterprise Services, Jane Rathbun. In part one of the interview, we started with the fact that she has more than one job. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Businesses who took Payroll Protection Plan money to tide them over through the early months of the pandemic have a reckoning. The Small Business Administration is following up with a loan necessity questionnaire. At least those who took two million dollars or more. My next guest says the SBA could be acting unfairly in some instances, using the benefit of hindsight to question the motives of small business owners. Arent Fox attorney Justin Goldberg joined the Federal Drive with more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It may be slow to change, and cluttered like a baroque Christmas tree. But the federal acquisition and contracting apparatus in the government has proven surprisingly adaptable. That's a chief finding in the every-two-years survey conducted by the Professional Services Council. Joining the Federal Drive with details, the council's Executive Vice President and Counsel, Alan Chvotkin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A recent inspector general report found that Environmental Protection Agency labs and offices were inconsistent in how they enforced pandemic protocols as employees returned to the office. For details, Federal News Network's Eric White spoke to the Auditor in Charge, Debra Coffel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A few recent events involving the Office of Personnel Management are raising some skepticism among self-styled good government and federal employee groups. They fear OPM has become politicized and is failing to perform basic transition activities that used to be common. A recent memo from the White House describing a new order of succession at OPM reinforced those concerns. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko joined the Federal Drive with more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like the other military services, the Navy is still digging out of a readiness hole in its aviation enterprise, brought on in part by the Budget Control Act. Bigger maintenance budgets over the last few years have helped – but money isn’t everything. The Navy’s also using data in new ways to help solve the problem. For more, Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu spoke with two people. Robert Smith leads the reliability control board data analytics team at the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division in Patuxent River, Maryland. And Jason Thomas is the team’s principal analyst. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In her three years as the administrator of the General Services Administration, Emily Murphy faced many a tough decision. But the one she may be remembered most for was the decision to ascertain the 2020 presidential election. Murphy talks publicly for the first time with executive editor Jason Miller about what went into that announcement and why she was deliberate and careful in making the election ascertainment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The COVID-19 pandemic made a hash out of the Census Bureau's plan for field operations. Ultimately it has less time to do the work of following up in person with people who didn't mail in their questionnaires or answer online. And now it has less time than planned to do the data processing in order to deliver the final count on time. That means the data quality is at risk. We get more now from the managing director for strategic issues at the Government Accountability Office, Chris Mihm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Asked to picture the universe, most people likely think of an image from NASA's Hubble Telescope. This year, Hubble celebrated its 30th anniversary. To commemorate, NASA is releasing a collection of newly processed images of the cosmos. For an update on how the telescope's future looks, Federal News Network's Eric White spoke with the Hubble program's senior project scientist, Dr. Jennifer Wiseman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the first few million COVID-19 vaccines start to circulate, it's clear the nation still faces a tough winter. People who face hardships as part of daily life, like members of the armed services, have had extra challenges. Now the USO has received a $3 million grant from the Lilly Endowment to support its Combat COVID-19 initiative. Joining the Federal Drive with details, the USO president, J.D. Crouch II. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The COVID-19 pandemic made a hash out of the Census Bureau's plan for field operations. Ultimately, it had less time to do the work following up in person with people who didn't mail in their questionnaires or answer online. And now it has less time than planned to do the data processing in order to deliver the final count on time. That means the data quality might be at risk. Federal Drive with Tom Temin got more insight from the Managing Director for Strategic Issues at the Government Accountability Office, Chris Mihm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Asked to picture the universe, most people likely think of an image from NASA's Hubble telescope. This year Hubble celebrated its 30th anniversary. To commemorate, the agency is releasing a collection of more than 50 newly processed images of the cosmos. For an update on the telescope's future looks, Federal News Network's Eric White spoke with the Hubble program Senior Project Scientist Jennifer Wiseman, on Federal Drive with Tom Temin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recent actions by the General Services Administration is eliciting a strong response from contractors and consultants who are using phrases like "acting like a bully" and "being held hostage." The issue at hand is how GSA contracting officers are negotiating prices under the schedules program. In his weekly feature, the Reporter's Notebook, executive editor Jason Miller writes about why a growing number of contractors are upset with the hardline GSA's Federal Acquisition Service is taking when modifying or renewing schedule contracts. Jason joined the show to discus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’ve already learned the names of many of the people President-elect Biden plans to nominate for top cabinet positions. But any incoming administration has a lot of hiring to do. There are about 1,300 politically-appointed jobs that don’t require Senate confirmation. And our next guest says the Biden administration needs to prioritize those picks, maybe even ahead of the Senate-confirmed ones. Jeff Neal is a former chief human capital officer at DHS, now a member of the National Academy of Public Administration’s board of directors. He talked with us about why those mid-level appointments are so important. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices