The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

The agency in charge of protecting thousands of federal facilities across the country is still facing steep staff shortages amid a rise in threats against government employees and buildings.

But the Federal Protective Service hopes retention incentives will help keep employees around long enough to bring in new recruits and respond to an uptick in activity ahead of next year’s presidential election.

Kris Cline, director of the FPS, said his agency continues to face recruiting and retention challenges, with approximately 25% of FPS positions currently vacant.

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

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For smaller suppliers, selling to DoD still isn't a walk in the park – but things are getting a little simpler. Last month, the department enacted a long-awaited rule change that prohibits prime contractors from flowing unnecessary contract clauses down to their subcontractors. It is all a part of more changes that are meant to simplify commercial buying in DoD that are still in the rulemaking pipeline. Dan Ramish is counsel at the law firm Hayes Boone. He talked with Federal News Network’s Deputy Editor Jared Serbu about what the changes mean.

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The bills for facility maintenance that federal agencies have decided to put off until future years are ballooning. The Government Accountability Office looked at four big agencies: GSA, HHS, Interior and Energy. GAO found the collective size of their deferred maintenance backlogs grew 80% over just the past five years – and agencies have not done a great job of explaining the reasons to Congress. David Marroni is an acting director for physical infrastructure issues at GAO. He talked about the problems with Federal News Network’s Deputy Editor Jared Serbu on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin. 

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Everywhere you look, you see more land covered by solar panels. In fact, the Energy Department estimates some 4,000 large solar projects are underway in the U.S. Now, thanks to Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and the U.S. Geological Survey, solar watchers can access a database of them. It shows their size, location and other details. For the whys and hows of this project, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with the Director of Energy's Solar Energy Technology Office, Becca Jones-Albertus.

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Great. The continuing resolution makes things seem normal until at least the middle of January. But contractors should take note. The CR is less than it seems in terms of opportunities. For insight, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with federal sales and marketing consultant Larry Allen.

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There are some notable changes to health care for 2024. Retired or not, it would serve you well to understand those changes and your options. With some timely advice, the editor of the Checkbook Guide to Health Plans for Federal Employees, Kevin Moss, talked with the hosts of the podcast Fed Life, Tom Temin and Drew Friedman.

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Across the country, crimes involving elder abuse and elder neglect routinely go unreported. But even when those cases are not immediately reported to police, there can often be clues in Medicare and Medicaid data. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) already looks for those signs in claims data. But a recent IG audit found a lot more cases that could have been reported to state and local authorities if CMS had done a more rigorous analysis. Curtis Roy is a regional inspector general with the Health and Human Services IG’s office. Richard Miller is an assistant regional inspector general. They talked with Federal News Network’s Jared Serbu about their findings. Miller speaks first.

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

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