The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

The U.S. should take a lesson from Ukraine to innovate and deploy technology fast or potentially miss the boat, according to several witnesses at a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing on the Defense Department’s Replicator program, which aims to scale drones within the next two years.

Replicator pulls on lessons from Ukraine, who uses large numbers of cheap drones to deter Russia and inform its decisions. The panelists agreed that using this technique could help the Defense Department create operational dilemmas for adversaries. The witnesses agreed that Ukraine is a good example of what can be done when quickly deploying commercial drones and other technologies, but they questioned Replicator’s ability to copy this success in part because of red tape.

“What we’re seeing there is that the proliferation of commercial technology is influencing an agile acquirer and the Ukrainians are being very agile in this and pulling together various commercial technologies to achieve military significant means,” Bill Greenwalt, nonresident senior fellow at American Enterprise Institute, said. “The lessons learned that we should be taking from there is that the commercial marketplace is maybe lightyears ahead of where the Department of Defense is and we need to figure out how to be agile and bring that in and then bring the unique military knowledge that we have to bear on that commercial attack. And that is going to be a process that moves against the Department of Defense’s culture.”

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Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) correctional officers are concerned that an upcoming loss of retention-based pay bonuses will lead to worsening staff attrition and further deterioration of workplace conditions.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents over 30,000 BOP correctional officers and other staff members, is urging BOP to renew annual retention incentives for correctional officers at United States Penitentiary Thomson (USP Thomson) in Illinois, ahead of BOP’s planned end of the bonuses on Dec. 31.

The more than 34,000 correctional officers and staff at BOP, a Department of Justice agency, face near-countless workforce challenges, including significant and persistent understaffing.

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The Federal Lab Consortium (FLC) is looking to see if there is interest in a mentorship program for federal technology transfer professionals. It recently wrapped up a survey of FLC members to gauge the viability of such a program. To hear about how the survey went and what a program like this would look like, Federal Drive Executive Producer Eric White spoke to Whitney Hastings, the Chair of the FLC, as well as a Senior Technology Transfer Professional with the National Cancer Institute, along with David Kistin, Vice Chair of the FLC, and also Manager of Technology and Economic Development at the Sandia National Laboratories.

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Ever since last year's ruling from the Supreme Court, which paved the way for states to ban abortion, confusion among the medical community in certain states is at an all-time high as to the treatments they are able to provide. The same goes for those working for the Veterans Health Administration. To get a sense on how VA facilities are handling the ongoing changes, the Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General recently conducted a review of its reproductive care for female veterans. For what the review found, Federal Drive Executive Producer Eric White got the chance to speak with Julie Kroviak, Principal Deputy Assistant Inspector General for the Office of Healthcare Inspections at VA OIG.

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On this episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin:

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Lawmakers are once again proposing changes to telework and remote work for federal employees, this time by attempting to put the government’s definitions of the workplace arrangements into law.

If enacted, the Telework Reform Act would codify the definitions of telework and remote work. It would also require teleworking federal employees to report to the office at least twice per two-week pay period.

Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), who introduced the bill last week, said it is an effort to promote management, accountability and transparency in federal telework.

If the bill is enacted, agencies would have to report to Congress on the potential value, expected cost savings and productivity outcomes of an increase in remote work and telework in the federal workforce. The Telework Reform Act would also require agencies to identify job classifications that would benefit from remote work.

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The Social Security Administration overpaid about 2 million beneficiaries over the past two years, and is telling lawmakers that more staffing is needed to reduce improper payments.

SSA is dealing with its lowest staffing level in 25 years, but at the same time is providing benefits to a record 71 million Americans. The agency pays out about $1.4 trillion in benefits each year.

Acting SSA Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi told members of the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday that the agency overpaid more than a million beneficiaries in fiscal 2022, and more than 980,000 individuals in FY 2023.

Kijakazi said those overpayments make up a small fraction of SSA transactions. She said improper payments make up 0.5% of Social Security payments and 8% of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments.

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With the third quarter of 2023 wrapped up, TSP returns did not look quite as solid. To get a sense of what that means and what investors should consider, Federal Drive host Tom Temin got an update from certified financial planner Art Stein.

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Obesity is worsening as a military recruitment and readiness problem. Too many potential enlistees arrive at recruitment stations too fat. More than two thirds of active duty service members carry too much weight. Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with someone who has studied this problem extensively, and has some recommendations for improving it: National Security Research Fellow at the American Security Project, Courtney Manning.

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