The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

The back and forth continues on whether there will be some sort of government shutdown by the end of the week. Members of Congress continue to try to find some resolution that either everyone can live with or few enough people can't. To gain some insight on what's happening, Federal Drive host Tom Temin had a chance to speak with Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), whose district contains several thousand federal employees that could be effected.

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A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initiative called "the Joint Requirement Council" hasn't gone very far in 10 years. The Council is supposed to discover capabilities multiple DHS components have in common, in order to avoid duplication and redundancy. But the Council doesn't meet very often and no one at the top seems to pay any attention, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). For more, Federal Drives Tom Temin spoke with GAO's Director of Contracting and National Security Acquisitions, Travis Masters.

GAO Report link

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It's no longer the relentless killer it was 40 years ago, but HIV is still around and still infecting people. And it remains a focus of the Health and Human Services Department's Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). For an update, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with the Director of the Division of Policy and Data for HRSA's HIV/AIDS Bureau, Michael Kharfen.

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

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Enrollees in the Federal Long-Term Care Insurance Program (FLTCIP) are bracing for another big premium increase starting in 2024.

The Office of Personnel Management, which runs the federal insurance program, announced plans to hike up premium rates for current enrollees. The changes will take effect on Jan. 1.

Unlike the averages offered in past years, OPM declined to share an average percentage increase for FLTCIP premiums. An agency spokesperson said the percentage increases for enrollees were too variable for an average to accurately depict how much the rates are rising.

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The Department of Veterans Affairs is taking back nearly $10 million in bonuses it paid to career senior leaders earlier this month, over concerns the awards went to more executives than intended.

VA officials said in a statement Friday that the department, after a recent review, found it was “imprecise” in how it implemented its new critical skill incentive (CSI) authority under the toxic-exposure PACT Act

“This led to more career senior executives receiving these payments than intended,” VA officials said in a statement.

The VA said 170 career senior executives received about $9.7 million in critical skill incentive payments in early September.

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Nearly five years in the making, the time has come for the catalyst to bring agencies into the digital 21st century.

Agencies have about 100 actions to transform, evolve and standardize the citizens’ online experience under new guidance from the Office of Management and Budget.

OMB today released the Delivering a Digital-First Public Experience guidance to accomplish the spirit and intent of the 2018 21st Century IDEA Act.

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One member of the Technology Modernization Fund board would like to see agencies lean into artificial intelligence and automation projects, especially those that have a “customer experience” angle.

“One of the things that I would love to be able to see more of . . . is more artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, machine learning,” Sheena Burrell, chief information officer at the National Archives and Records Administration, said during an event yesterday hosted by Venable to celebrate the TMF.

Burrell is on the seven-member TMF board that provides funding recommendations and monitors the progress of projects.

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There's never a convenient time for a full or even a partial government shutdown, but we've reached the beginning of the end of another fiscal year with the likelihood of a shutdown rising. So how can contractors make sure they're ready for it and minimize the damage. As always for these kinds of questions we turn to Larry Allen of Allen Federal. Sitting in for Tom Temin is Federal Drive executive producer Eric White.

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Companies operating at U.S. airports sometimes need extra help in processing inbound international passengers or cargo. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will provide that help as a service, for which the agency receives reimbursement. In fact, CBP's Office of Field Operations recently signed up with several dozen companies. For how the program works, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with the Director of the Alternative Funding Division, Ryan Flanagan.

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