The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

As this year's black history month comes to a conclusion, we wanted to check how things look today for black managers in the federal government. For some perspective, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with the President of the African American Federal Executive Association, Tyra Dent.

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The National Science Foundation (NSF) is on the march, establishing what it calls regional innovation engines. It is getting organized around artificial intelligence. It's getting and granting-out more money than ever. For an update, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with NSF director Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan.

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The Army plans to shrink the size of its force by about 24,000 troops as it transitions from supporting counterinsurgency and counterterrorism missions for the last two decades to conducting large-scale combat operations against technologically advanced militaries.

The job cuts won’t affect active-duty soldiers as the service is looking to get rid of already empty positions that were created to support counterinsurgency operations but are no longer needed given current strategic priorities.

“We’re moving away from counterterrorism and counterinsurgency, we want to be postured for large-scale combat operations. So we looked at where there were pieces of force structure that were probably more associated with counterinsurgency, for example, that we don’t need anymore,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told reporters during Defense Writers Group breakfast Tuesday.

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Among the dozens of mandates in recent executive orders, there is bunch about artificial intelligence. Among them, a requirement for agencies to inventory their AI use cases for purposes of cybersecurity. Perhaps strangely, the Homeland Security Department put together an inaccurate list, according to the Government Accountability Office, which found a few problems. For more, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with GAO's Director of Science, Technology Assessment and Analytics, Candice Wright.

GAO Report

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Military services members might be serving far from home, but many of them still choose to vote. Now the Defense Department is testing the prototype of new technology for enabling absentee voting. The project is funded by DARPA. For how it works, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Dr. Ben Adida, the executive director of VotingWorks.

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One reason the Defense Department can't get to a clean financial audit has to do with its multiple and outdated financial management systems. The DoD does have a plan to modernize the systems, but the Office of Inspector General (OIG) finds a little trouble with how officials are going about it. For the latest, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with OIG project manager Chris Hilton and Shelby Barnes.

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

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The National Institute of Standards and Technology is out with a major update to its landmark Cybersecurity Framework.

But the key changes in “CSF 2.0” aren’t major shifts in cybersecurity best practices. Instead, officials point out that the new document reflects the broad use of the framework across different industries and technologies, as well as the deepening push to regulate cybersecurity in many sectors.

NIST released the CSF 2.0 today, culminating a two-year effort to update a framework that was first published in 2014.

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The brinkmanship in Congress isn't looking good for 2024 budget prospects. Contracting will continue even with a long-term continuing resolution or even a partial government shutdown. For some advice on how contractors should deal with what might lie ahead, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with long-time federal sales and marketing consultant Larry Allen.

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Military service members who want a way to get a professional credential in coaching, have an new way to do it. It is via the Credentialing Opportunities On-Line, or COOL program. COOL has been around for years. Now it has enlisted the International Coaching Federation. For more, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with Carrie Abner, the Vice President for Credentials and Standards at the International Coaching Federation, and with Coach Danny Doucette, a Trustee of the Air Force Aid Society.

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