The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

Leaders at the Defense Logistics Agency say they are still assessing the effects of an aggressive return-to-office policy that’s led to widespread employee dissatisfaction and two formal allegations of unfair labor practices, but that so far, the policy does not appear to have had a serious negative impact on recruiting and retention.

DLA’s new policy is one of the most prescriptive in the federal government, but officials say it’s necessary as part of a broader effort to “transform” the agency for great power competition. The changes took effect in January, requiring all employees to be in the office at least three days each week.

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The Defense Department will be high on the agenda, as Congress returns from recess today. A House committee has passed a version of the defense authorization bill for 2025, while Senate Republicans will try to expand the DoD budget. For details, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with WTOP Capitol Hill correspondent Mitchell Miller.

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The Supreme Court recently ruled unanimously, that a Defense Department employee could challenge a six- day furlough that took place in 2013, during a lapse in appropriations. In doing so, the court brushed away a 60-day filing deadline imposed by the Merit Systems Protection Board. It's more complicated than that, though. For an explanation, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin was joined by federal employment attorney Heidi Burakiewicz.

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The extensive new rules for cybersecurity incident reporting are on the way and they will cover a lot. The issuing agency is the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The enabling legislation is CIRCIA: the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act. to find out more about the recent hearing that took place on the voluminous rule making, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with cyber policy expert Bob Metzger, a partner at the law firm, Rogers, Joseph O'Donnell.

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

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After negotiating for more than two years, the Environmental Protection Agency has finally ironed out a new collective bargaining agreement with its union, the American Federation of Government Employees.

AFGE Council 238, which represents over 8,000 EPA employees, unanimously ratified the new contract on May 16. The agreement is now in a final review process with agency leaders. By late June, the changes in the contract will become official for the next four years, replacing an interim labor-management agreement.

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PHILADELPHIA — The Army is making a major change to how soldiers and civilians access data through their email and other applications in early June.

Starting on June 11, the Army is shutting down the network port that lets users pull data through commercial internet providers onto their laptops or cell phones.

Maj. Gen. Chris Eubank, commander of the Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM), said the decision to turn off what is commonly known as “Flow 3” came down to two factors. One is basic cybersecurity and protecting data and networks. The second, however, was the maturity of the Army’s virtual desktop initiative (VDI) and overall network architecture.

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

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With too much data, you can lose sight of the forest for the trees. Federal Drive Host Tom Temin's guest revolutionized the ability of the U.S. Forest Service to visualize, as useful information, the mass of data from aerial surveillance. For his work, he's a finalist in this year's Service to America Medals program: Research Forester Robert McGaughey.

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The federal agencies in charge of cracking down on anti-competitive behavior have already agreed to work together on health care issues. Now, they are looking for tips from the public. The Federal Trade Commission, Health and Human Services, and the Justice Department launched HealthyCompetition.com last month. It is for people who have a good reason to think medical bills spring from antitrust violations in the health care industry. David Lawrence is the policy director in the Justice Department’s antitrust division. He talked about the outreach effort with Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu.

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