The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

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

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The Senate got its pound of flesh from the Technology Modernization Fund after all.

Despite the efforts by industry and the Office of Management and Budget over the last six plus months to change the committee’s mind, Senate appropriators rescinded $100 million from the TMF for fiscal 2024.

Senate lawmakers released the remaining 2024 appropriations bill today that detailed the decisions to reduce funding for centralized IT modernization accounts across the board.

The TMF is taking a double hit as the Senate also zeroed out any new funding for this year, possibly leaving the IT modernization effort in a tough spot from a funding perspective.

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As Federal News Network has previously reported, feds stationed in Japan — particularly civilians — have had a very hard time accessing health care for well over a year, largely due to a lack of providers at military treatment facilities (MTFs). But there are signs that the shortage has more to do with a complex mix of policy decisions than an actual shortage in the labor force.

That’s one of the key takeaways from a new report by a volunteer advocacy group called Hire Oki Spouses, whose research was funded by the Air and Space Forces Association.

As to Okinawa in particular, where the authors focused, there appears to be a big surplus of trained health professionals available to DoD: military spouses with health care degrees who are already in Japan. But they also issued wide-ranging recommendations that highlight the problems military spouses face getting federal jobs worldwide.

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Congress is looking for details on federal telework as part of the latest government spending agreement — echoing months of return-to-office scrutiny from the House Oversight and Accountability committee.

Among its many provisions, the agreement congressional appropriators reached Thursday for the back half of fiscal 2024 government spending bills lays out six new requirements on federal telework and return-to-office for federal employees.

Within 90 days of the legislation’s enactment, the Office of Management and Budget will have to turn over all agencies’ return-to-office “action plans” outlined earlier this year, lawmakers said in an explanatory statement for the 2024 Financial Services and General Government bill.

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In voting last week, Congress managed to fund the half of government it had not already. For some highlights of the bill and other congressional matters, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with WTOP Capitol Hill Correspondent Mitchell Miller.

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IBM has opened a spiffy new training range for federal agencies who want to sharpen their cybersecurity chops. The X-Force Cyber Range is right in downtown Washington D.C. IBM said it is designed for both federal executives and technical security leaders. For details, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with the leader of IBM's X-Force Incident Response practice, Troy Bettencourt.

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Except for when it has something to say about stamp prices, you don't seem to hear much about the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC). But in reality it is an active organization and just came out with its annual report covering the 2023 fiscal year, which is the year right after the 2022, Postal Service Reform Act. For a review, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with PRC Chairman Michael Kubayanda and with Commissioner Ashley Poling.

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On this episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin:

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You might not have heard of the Death in Custody Reporting Act (DCRA), which was enacted a decade ago, but it requires the Justice Department to collect and manage reports on people who die while in government custody. Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with David Janovsky, a senior policy analyst at the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), who said the DoJ has a long history of not quite living up to the law.

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The Office of Justice Programs is among the biggest grant-making operations in the federal government. Each year, through several program channels, it administers some $5 billion in grants to a variety of organizations, starting with local police departments. For some details, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke to Assistant Attorney General Amy Solomon.

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