The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

An organization that supports active duty service members has launched an initiative to make it easier when changing duty stations. The Military Family Advisory Network has partnered with some large retailers to give families a little something when they arrive at the new location. For the details, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Shannon Razsadin, the network's president and executive director.

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For better or worse, the Postal Service will replace its old local delivery trucks with a combination of gasoline and electric ones. It's a huge acquisition at nearly $10 billion. The program includes the acquisition of electric chargers, which require testing and evaluation. The USPS Office of Inspector General took a look and Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked about it with Deputy Assistant IG Amanda Stafford.

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

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The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued an emergency directive after software firm Ivanti discovered vulnerabilities in two widely-used products.

“This emergency directive directs all federal civilian agencies to immediately take specific actions and implement vendor mitigation guidance to these Ivanti appliances,” CISA wrote in a release. “Last week, Ivanti released information regarding two vulnerabilities, CVE-2023-46805 and CVE-2024-21887, that allow an attacker to move laterally across a target network, perform data exfiltration and establish persistent system access. CISA has determined an emergency directive is necessary based on the widespread exploitation of these vulnerabilities by multiple threat actors, prevalence of the affected products in the federal enterprise, high potential for compromise of agency information systems and potential impact of a successful compromise.”

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If the government needs something made, it is supposed to look for a small business to make it. If no small business exists, an agency can get a waiver from the Small Business Administration to have it made by any domestic company. But there is a problem with waivers. For details on that, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Blank Rome procurement attorney Justin Chiarodo.

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Armies in other parts of the world have called on the U.S. Army, and other armed forces, for platforms and ordnance. This as the U.S. military ponders its own supplies, readiness, and the overriding question of the capacity and resilience of the defense industrial supply base. For an update on what's going on at the Army Materiel Command, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Deputy Commander, Lt. Gen. Chris Mohan.

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The Department of Veterans Affairs is looking to grow its human resources staff to meet its hiring, onboarding and retention goals for its health care workforce.

To meet its HR staffing needs and encourage new hires, VA’s Veterans Health Administration is giving its HR workforce about a 15% pay increase.

VHA approved a Special Salary Rate for HR professionals at the end of last year, and covered employees will see the pay bump appear in their paychecks, starting this week.

VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes said Wednesday that the SSR covers VHA HR specialists (GS-0201) and HR assistants (GS-0203) in grades GS-4 through GS-15.

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The 2024 Defense authorization bill caused a sigh of relief in parts of the Pentagon. Why? Congress decided not to impose new rules and requirements for using other transaction authority, an increasingly popular way to streamline acquisition of new technologies. And anyhow, DoD recently updated OTA guidance on its own. For more, Federal News Network's Jason Miller spoke to the director for contract policy in the Office of Defense Pricing and Contracting, Mary Kathryn Robinson.

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Lots of people make financial resolutions early in a calendar year. Here's one that's east to follow through on: Life insurance. How much do you really need and where do you find the best deal? For advice and answers, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talks with the well-insured Abe Grungold of AG Financial Services.

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Several years in, and still no national guard component for the Space Force. What Space Force got in the most recent Defense Authorization bill is a feasibility study. For what that means, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Brig. Gen. Michael Bruno from the Colorado National Guard.

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