The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

An acting undersecretary has told managers throughout the Defense Department to review contracts for consulting services. Not just a casual review, but with an eye towards terminating or what Steve Morani called descoping them. This as agencies are terminating services contracts across the government. The Professional Services Council has been tracking all of this. We get some analysis by its executive vice president for policy, Stephanie Kostro.

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The Postal Service has entered new turmoil with the departure of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. It's midway through a controversial reform plan. It continues to lose billions of dollars yearly. My next guest says it's time to seriously consider privatizing USPS. He's an economist and vice president for research at the Cato Institute, Jeffrey Miron.

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Prince George's County, Maryland, is one of the three Maryland and Virginia counties, along with Alexandria, that border the District of Columbia. Like the others, it's home to thousands of federal employees. In light of orders from the Trump Administration, Maryland Congressman Glen Ivey whose district includes Prince George's County wants to help. He joins me in studio now with plans for a resource fair coming up soon.

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Plenty of federal agencies have begun deep cuts to their workforces – starting with probationary employees. The Defense Department is next up. The Pentagon says it will start laying off those new hires this week. About 54-hundred people are expected to be let go this week as part of what DoD says is just the start of a broader workforce reduction effort. Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu joins the Federal Drive with more on what’s happening this week and beyond.

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President Donald Trump has ordered the elimination of the Presidential Management Fellows

Program. Trump's mandate will end a government wide effort that has recruited early career talent in the federal workforce for nearly 50 years. Since the news of the program's termination, many current and former fellows now say they're at a loss. Federal News Network's Drew Friedman files this report.

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After an all night session last Thursday, the Senate has adopted a 340 billion dollar budget blueprint to try and implement the Trump administration's agenda. That agenda seems to include letting go more federal employees, which is starting to get bipartisan pushback as more and more districts are affected. For more on all of this, WTOP Capitol Hill correspondent Mitchel Miller joins us now.

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The Trump administration has imposed, or threatened to impose, tariffs on several countries, including China. Trump wants to replace imported goods with goods manufactured in the United States. In the meantime, one commodity crucial to national security is still mostly made in Asia. Printed circuit boards, the foundation of electronic systems used in communications and defense. For how would tariffs affect these products, we turn to the executive director of the Printed Circuit Board Association of America, David Schild.

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The Trump administration has promised to move the headquarters of some agencies away from the Washington area. There's even legislation proposing this called the Strategic Withdrawal of Agencies for Meaningful Placement. Yep, the swamp act. My next guest says he's skeptical this would help much or save money. You might not like his alternative, but its an idea that also has support. From the conservative Cato Institute, former economic committee staff member Chris Edwards.

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Today on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin

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Technology is like a flywheel. Flywheels do a lot of work, but they slow down if the don't get an injection of new energy. Artificial intelligence looks like the energy coming into the flywheel of information technology. My next guest has looked into this. He's the chief technology officer at Booz Allen, Bill Vass.

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