The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

Illegal fishing harms the legal fishing industry and endangers the marine ecosystem. That is why the Coast Guard and other agencies spend so much time trying to detect and stop it. Now the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency is launching a prize challenge for data-based ways to get on top of illegal fishing. For details, Federal Drive Tom Temin spoke with research and development scientist Mike Brady.

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

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After federal employees saw their first paychecks with a 5.2% raise this year, House and Senate Democrats are once again turning their attention to next year’s federal pay raise.

But under a continuing resolution that’s now funding the government well into 2024, many agencies are trying to figure out how to fund the already higher pay rates for their employees.

Still, in what’s become an annual tradition, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) reintroduced the Federal Adjustment of Income Rates (FAIR) Act in the House and Senate Tuesday. If enacted, the FAIR Act would give most civilian federal employees a 7.4% average pay raise next year. The legislation accounts for a 4% across-the-board raise, plus an average of a 3.4% locality pay adjustment.

The two lawmakers, alongside dozens of Democrat co-sponsors, said a hefty raise for federal employees is only fair given past years of pay freezes, government shutdowns and sequestration cuts.

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Things are moving fast on the federal procurement front. New small business rules, GSA data gathering to club contractors with, all while appropriations seem to be forever in the future. For a perspective, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with federal sales and marketing consultant Larry Allen.

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While the threat of a partial government shutdown still looms, one group of federal employees has a message for Congress. Find a way past it. That is, in part, what concerns Federally Employed Women (FEW). For more, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Pamela Richards, FEW's president.

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Brain injury, whether sustained at a test firing range or in battle, has long been a priority for the Defense medical system. The Warfighter Brain Health Initiative this year has boosted its research efforts on service members cognitive abilities and how certain events can threaten it. For an update, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with the Director of Warfighter Brain Health Policy, Kathy Lee.

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On this episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin:

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With spending against governmentwide acquisition contracts reaching an all-time high in fiscal 2023, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy is pushing agencies to make changes to ensure a healthy amount of small businesses participate on these vehicles.

In a new memo from OFPP, the Biden administration is telling agencies to take specific steps like on-ramps, applying the “rule of two” and even not using a “best-in-class” contracts should they be detrimental to small firms, when managing or buying from a multiple award contract.

“This guidance takes an important step in ensuring our diverse base of small businesses have opportunities in a greater diversity of acquisition strategies,” said Small Business Administration Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman in a blog posted by the Office of Management and Budget today. “By taking advantage of the strategies in this guidance, the federal government will be able to increase the number of small business firms in the federal supplier base and increase contracting opportunities for small disadvantaged businesses (SDBs).”

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Veterans and their families should have an easier time accessing military service records, now that the National Archives and Records Administration has eliminated a pandemic-era backlog of requests.

The agency announced Wednesday it finally cleared its backlog of veteran records requests.

The backlog at NARA’s National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Missouri peaked at more than 600,000 unprocessed requests at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pandemic-era building occupancy limits led to the backlog, and constrained the agency’s ability to send employees back into the facility and access the mostly paper records.

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