The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

Billionaire investor Steve Feinberg, President Donald Trump's choice for the Pentagon second in command, says his background as a private equity executive gives him the experience necessary to fix the Pentagon's long standing problems. Federal News Network's Anastasia. Obis joins us now with more.

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Today on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin

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The Trump administration's treatment of the U.S. Agency for International Development crystallized the move-fast, take-no-prisoners approach. Opinions have broken out all across the spectrum. My next guest argues that shrinking USAID and merging it with the State Department only helps U.S. rivals strategically. Steven Kull is a senior research associate at the University of Maryland's school of public policy and he joins me now.

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With so much uncertainty around their employment status these days, some federal employees may be considering just resigning, rather than waiting to be told they've been terminated. According to our next guest though, that may not be the best route. To learn why we bring in Shauna Weatherly, president and founder of Federal Subcontract Solutions.

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Read about a new government initiative or program, and likely it's not coming from actions of Congress. More and more, federal policy is being established via executive order from the President, which more and more has left Congress as a legislative body on the sideline. For some insight into how we got here and what it could mean for future administrations, we bring in Joshua Spivak, senior fellow at the Hugh Carey Institution for Government Reform at Wagner College.

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My next guest worked for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau until today when the Trump administration sort of canceled. Ironically, this CFPB attorney wrote about how to count-proof administrative branch decisions. That was in December, before the onslaught of Trump-Doge activities that have mostly ended up in court. Attorney Domenic Powell joins me now.

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A half dozen probationary feds swept up in the government's mass layoffs got some good news this week. They're getting their jobs back, at least for now. The Merit Systems Protection Board found there's at least some evidence that their firings were unlawful, but this week's MSPB decision leaves a lot of questions still open, and one of the biggest does the same rationale apply to thousands of other feds who were recently let go during their probationary periods. Federal News Network's Jared Serbu has been following this case. He joins us now.

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The Energy Department via the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is boosting research into fusion energy. It's signed a cooperative research and development agreement, a CRADA, with a company called Focused Energy. Here is the details, Focused Energy's Harris Walker.

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Today on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin

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The General Services Administration, like many other federal agencies, after yesterday's memo from the White House, is looking at major work force cuts. GSA in particular, is looking at slashing the Public Building Service. It's real estate operation that handles office space leasing for most other agencies. GSA's new policy says they'll need fewer employees once they manage fewer buildings. Federal News Network Jory Heckman has the latest.

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