The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

Federal agency scores plummeted on the 17th Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) scorecard. The reason for the drop in grades: Continued struggles to implement best practices for moving workloads and services to the cloud.

But oversight leaders say the decrease in grades is not only expected, but not indicative of the progress agencies have made over the last decade.

The scorecard, released today by Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), co-author of FITARA, showed double the amount of “C” grades with 10 “Cs” and three “Ds” for the first time since July 2022.

At the FITARA scorecard roundtable today on Capitol Hill, Connolly and Carol Harris, the director of cybersecurity and technology at the Government Accountability Office, were quick to downplay the drop in grades.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Defense Department is sending a signal that it wants to build a workplace culture accepting of remote work and telework and it’s setting preconditions to make it happen.

DoD recently updated its telework policy for the first time since 2012. The policy is a permissive one and reflects lessons learned and knowledge gained during the pandemic about working remotely. The biggest change is that the document now addresses both remote work and telework.

The new instruction is clear – telework is a workplace flexibility and not an entitlement, and a remote work arrangement won’t be approved unless it meets all of the telework eligibility requirements. At the same time, it instructs the DoD components to “actively promote” telework and remote work, and to eliminate barriers to program execution through education and training.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Immigration and what to do about the Southern border will occupy Congress this week. Lawmakers hope to actually read the purported bill and maybe get the issue off the dime. For a look ahead on Capitol Hill, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Bloomberg Government Deputy News Director Loren Duggan.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

With conflicts in the Middle East, and having to keep tabs on affairs in the Pacific, the Navy has a hefty to-do list. How is it coping? To find out, Federal News Network’s Eric White spoke with naval analyst and Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Bryan Clark.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO), once a bastion of ink, paper, heavy printing presses, and light-emitting diode or led type, is now fully in the 21st century. It is looking at ways it can improve operations with artificial intelligence. GPO Director Hugh Halpern recently testified before the Senate Rules and Administration Committee about AI. Federal Drive Host talked to Director Halpern about AI and much more about the goings-on at GPO.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

With labor and management leaders preparing to sit down at the bargaining table, hundreds of employees at the Federal Housing Finance Agency may soon see changes in their workplace.

Pay equity, employee engagement and the creation of a clear grievance procedure are top of mind for Nathan Watkins, president of the nearly brand-new bargaining unit under the National Treasury Employees Union.

“It was almost exactly two years ago that a small group of employees, including myself, reached out to a couple of national unions trying to form a chapter at FHFA,” Watkins said in an interview. “We wanted, first and foremost, to give employees a voice.”

The organization campaign for FHFA, a small financial regulatory agency with a staff of a little over 700 employees, culminated in an overwhelmingly majority vote to unionize in August 2023. FHFA employees voted 254-24, or 91%, in favor of the union’s establishment. Currently, the bargaining unit represents about 500 employees.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Agencies have just over 24 hours to shut down any instances of widely used software products that were found to contain major cybersecurity vulnerabilities in January.

In a supplemental directive released Wednesday, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency tells agencies to disconnect all instances of Ivanti Connect Secure and Ivanti Policy Secure VPN products on their networks by the close of Friday. The latest missive in part supersedes a Jan. 19 emergency directive from CISA telling agencies to remediate the vulnerabilities in those Ivanti products.

In addition to disconnecting the products, CISA is telling agencies to continue threat hunting on any systems that have been recently connected to the affected Ivanti devices.

Agencies should also continue monitoring any authentication or identity management services that could have been exposed; isolate those connected systems from enterprise resources “to the greatest degree possible;” and continue to audit privilege-level access accounts, according to CISA’s directive.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

By all accounts, artificial intelligence is changing how organizations must approach cybersecurity. Not everyone is quite certain how. Now, a really big working group assembled by the Aspen Institute has come up with specific recommendations on dealing with AI in the cybersecurity context. For some highlights, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with the Institute's Senior Director for Cybersecurity Programs, Jeff Greene.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Financial accounting is so iffy at two Housing and Urban Development programs, the inspector general issued an alert. HUD can't figure out improper payments in these programs. Hasn't been able to for years. Won't be able for years more. For details, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with Deputy IG Stephen Begg.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.