The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

A new book details the beginning days of the Defense Innovation Unit. Written by two of the agency's early leaders, Raj Shah and Chris Kirchhoff, Unit X tells the story of those who were there to establish DIU, which acts as a go between silicon valley and the Pentagon. One of the main characters is Lauren Dailey, who at the time was DIU's director of acquisitions, where she discovered how the agency could construct contracts that would be more attractive to tech firms. Federal News Network's executive producer recently had the chance to speak with her about it and how everything came together.

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On today's episode of The Federal Drive with Tom Temin:

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The Department of Veterans Affairs has a budget shortfall. A big one. Officials say the department is on track to spend 3 billion dollars more than Congress allocated for this year. And there’s another projected shortfall of 12-billion dollars next year. V-A leaders say the root cause is more demand for services from veterans, but lawmakers think expenses surrounding the department’s new electronic health record are partly to blame too. Details now from Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu.

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Agencies just passed the deadline for only managing their records in an electronic format. But there are some exceptions to that June 30 deadline. At the same time, agencies are confronting challenges with a growing tide of digital records. Federal News Network’s Justin Doubleday, recently spoke with the director of records management policy and outreach at the National Archives and Records Administration, Lisa Haralampus.

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While Veterans Affairs has been trending in the right direction on some metrics, the failures are still magnified due to the subject matter. A recent inspector general report found VA Failed to identify Tens of Thousands of Vietnam Veterans who could qualify for retroactive benefits. To get some reaction and legal knowledge about what is required of the agency, Federal News Network executive producer Eric White welcomes Bart Stichman, Co-Founder and Special Counsel for the National Veterans Legal Services Program on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

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The Veterans Affairs Department recently announced that three-quarters of the way through the fiscal year, it has granted benefits to 1.1 million veterans and their survivors, an all-time record. However there is always room for improvement, especially when you're talking about providing for our nation's veterans. The Government Accountability Office recently checked back in on how VA is training its claim processors. To learn more about what they found, Federal News Network executive producer Eric White spoke with Elizabeth Curda, Director of GAO’s Education, Workforce, and Income Security team.

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The deadline for agencies to submit digitized records for archiving and preservation by the National Archives and Records Administration or NARA came and went earlier this summer. For an update on dealing with modern textual records and other types, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke with two people from NARA, the director of Records Management Policy and Outreach and Lisa Haralampus, the director of digitization for the Office of Research Services. Denise Henderson, whom you hear first.

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This guest is 35 years old and joined federal service only three years ago. But she's having a big impact in a lot of ways having to do with health care delivery. She's the chief digital strategy officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and a finalist in this year's Service to America Medals program. Andrea Fletcher joined the Federal Drive earlier to discuss.

https://servicetoamericamedals.org/honorees/andrea-fletcher/

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The Bureau of Prisons may operate federal incarceration facilities, but the Marshals Service also detains people. Nearly 60,000 every day. So it has to partner with jail operators, both governmental and private. The Government Accountability Office has found, the Marshals Service need to improve its oversight of these facilities. More now from the GAO's acting director of homeland security and justice issues, Derrick Collins.

https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-106348

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