The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

An issue of costly importance to every agency recently came up in Federal Circuit Court. Namely, when you buy software through a reseller, who can enforce the end user licensing agreement, the software manufacturer or the company you actually bought it from? The answer isn't always so clear, as Federal Drive Host Tom Temin recently heard from Haynes Boone procurement attorney Zach Prince.

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The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has a long list of companies on a special artificial intelligence advisory group called the AI Safety Institute Consortium. Members advise NIST on a variety of matters. And among the latest members: The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. For details, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke the society's lead on outreach and government relations, President of SA Technologies, Dr. Mica Endsley.

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A potent brand of bug-killing dog and cat collars has killed thousands of dogs and cats. The EPA has known about the Seresto Pet Collars for years. Problems even reached the ears of Congress, which investigated the collars and the EPA a couple of years ago. Now the agency's office of inspector general has released a detailed look at the matter with a long list of recommendations. For more, Tom Temin spoke with Paul Bergstrand, the Assistant IG for Special Reviews and Evaluations.

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

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Years of pay caps have pulled the long-standing pay system for blue-collar federal employees away from the structure’s original intent.

The Federal Wage System (FWS), covering about 192,000 federal employees, was initially created to try to keep wages aligned with “prevailing,” or market rates in localized areas. But for the last 45 years, since fiscal 1979, many blue-collar feds have seen limits on their annual pay raises.

The intention of the pay caps is to ensure annual raises don’t exceed the raises that General Schedule (GS) employees get, and to address budgetary concerns, the Office of Personnel Management, which manages the pay system, has said.

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The Department of Homeland Security is pursuing multiple artificial intelligence pilot projects this year, while also establishing an “AI sandbox” for testing the use of large language models, under a DHS AI roadmap released this week.

The roadmap details how DHS will test out generative AI and large language models for uses ranging from training U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers to aiding law enforcement investigations.

In a statement released today, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the DHS AI roadmap will guide the department’s efforts in 2024 “to strengthen our national security, improve our operations, and provide more efficient services to the American people, while upholding our commitment to protect civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy.”

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The Congressional Budget Office recently advised Congress that unless full-year appropriations for 2024 get enacted by April 30, the White House might be obligated to initiate sequestration. You know, those "limits" on spending. But the shutdown deadline for six big agencies occurs this Friday. To find out how contractors are preparing, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with Stephanie Kostro, the Executive Vice President for Policy at the Professional Services Council.

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An Energy Department project called the Quantum and Space Collaboration, has drawn in several industry participants. DOE, in its own words, said the collaborative aims to harness cutting-edge quantum technologies for pivotal advancements. In search of the translation, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with Rima Oueid, the Senior Commercialization Executive in the Office of Technology Transitions and with Garland Garris, the Quantum Lead at Accenture Federal Services.

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While much of the technology world focuses on artificial intelligence, a small but steady community has emerged over quantum technologies. More than simply the elusive quantum computers, QIST, or quantum information science and technologies, will be crucial to future military dominance. For more on this, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Dr. Celia Merzbacher, the Executive Director of the Quantum Economic Development Consortium.

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