The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

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

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The Department of Homeland Security is pledging to promote greater transparency and data-driven analysis through the Office of Homeland Security Statistics as part of a bid to centralize statistical activities across all its major missions.

The new organization announced on Thursday will replace and expand on DHS’s Office of Immigration Statistics. While immigration-related data will continue to be a major focus of OHSS, the office will also publish reports on areas ranging from law enforcement use-of-force incidents to cyber attacks on federal networks.

“In establishing this new office, we’ll begin releasing data more quickly, with greater granularity and covering a broader scope of DHS activities,” Marc Rosenblum, executive director of OHSS said, during an inauguration event at DHS headquarters on Thursday. “Simply growing the reporting and data governance that accompanies that will be a big undertaking.”

Robert Silvers, under secretary of homeland security for strategy, policy and plans, said the creation of OHSS is part of “maturing” DHS and going from “ad hoc, to institutionalized and systematic” in its processes.

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One of the best things a politically appointed agency head can do, but too often he or she does not, is what this guest will address. Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Bob Tobias, professor of good government and long-time labor-management observer.

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Because of military aid to Ukraine and, presumably Israel, the U.S. defense industrial base is strained right now. Manufacturers of platforms and ammunition must deal with a list of regulatory and legal challenges. For more, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with attorney Justin Chiarodo, a partner at Blank Rome.

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It's a program with a long name: Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery and Mitigation. It entails a lot of money from Housing and Urban Development grants: $82 billion over 10 years. But the HUD office of inspector general has found some oversight challenges in preventing duplication of benefits. For Details, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke In Studio with Deputy IG Stephen Begg.

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

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

A second year in a row of a big premium increase for the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program is just one reason federal health experts are encouraging employees and annuitants to take advantage of Open Season.

Open Season, which runs this year from Nov. 13 to Dec. 11, is the window of time when FEHB enrollees can make changes to their health care options for the following calendar year. But each year, just about 5% of enrollees end up making changes.

For 2024, the upcoming 7.7% average premium increase is certainly grounds for enrollees, at the very least, to take a look at what other options are out there. Because that 7.7% increase is an average, that of course means not every plan will increase the same amount — and some won’t increase at all.

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Growing numbers of federal employees are about to come under what's known as continuous vetting. Public databases automatically monitored by security officials to make sure you haven't been criminally charged or suddenly incurred large debt. Those with national security clearance are mostly under continuous vetting already. Now the Office of Personnel Management plans to expand that to feds with so-called non-sensitive public trust positions. How should agencies prepare? How should you prepare? For insight, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with the managing partner of the Tully Rinckey law firm, Dan Meyer.

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Contractors brought protests to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) more than 2,000 times last year, up more than 20% from fiscal 2022. GAO sustained them at more than twice the rate of the year earlier, siding with contractors in about a third of the cases. For what's going on, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with GAO's Managing Associate General Counsel, Kenneth Patton.

GAO Report

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