The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

Dozens of Drug Enforcement Administration agents are on the job without having taken a mandatory polygraph examination or, in some cases, they failed the test. This, according to a look-see by the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General. For more, and what's happened since this discovery, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

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

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The Office of Personnel Management is making preparations ahead of a pending pay raise for civilian federal employees in 2024.

Agencies have one month to submit any requests to OPM where they want to offer higher salaries for typically hard-to-fill federal positions.

Every fall, OPM sets a deadline for agencies to submit special salary rate (SSR) requests to take effect the following year. If they choose to, agencies can recommend positions to receive an SSR outside of the likely, but not yet official, pay raise for most civilian federal employees on the General Schedule (GS).

OPM can then decide whether to authorize those special salary rates for certain roles, grades or locations where agencies find it particularly difficult to hire.

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With continuing resolution discussions seeming to nowhere, the chances of a government shutdown are rising. Contractors and federal employees will feel it first. For more, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with David Berteau, President & CEO of the Professional Services Council, who has developed a contractor checklist that might help you.

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Managed care. It's a substantial part of the gigantic Medicare program. The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services figures half of Medicare enrollees gets health care from the Medicare Advantage program. In the words of the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the growth of managed care has transformed how the government pays for and covers health care. This for 100 million people. That's why the IG has made managed care a top priority. For more on its new strategic plan, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with the Senior Adviser for Managed Care in the OIG's Office of Audit Services, Carolyn Kapustij.

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The Build Back Better Act, passed nearly two years ago, secured over $2 trillion for many aspects of the Biden Administration's agenda, one of which includes infrastructure projects for state and local governments. But accessing grant money isn't as simple as sending a Venmo request. There's a lot that goes into showing exactly how and what the money would be used for, a process not many know how to navigate. To help, members of Congress have introduced a bill tasking the Economic Development Administration to make itself available to aide local governments in predevelopment procedures. One of those congressmen is Louisiana's Troy Carter, who spoke with Federal Drive Executive Producer Eric White about the Economic Empowerment Through Predevelopment Act.

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

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One decade after the Washington Navy Yard shooting, officials and other experts say the tragedy has proven to be a catalyst in overhauling the government’s approach to managing potential security risks from its employees and contractors.

In the years following the shooting, the Defense Department established a central organization to manage “insider threats,” while the military services and other organizations also set up insider threat “hubs” to share information about potential risks from employees.

DoD has also taken over the background investigation process from the Office of Personnel Management and adopted a more proactive approach to identifying red flags in an employee’s background.

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With concerns growing around a possible return of Schedule F, the Biden administration is taking a step to try to safeguard career federal employees against its potential effects.

The Office of Personnel Management issued a proposed rule Friday that seeks to clarify and reinforce merit system principles and other worker protections for career, non-political feds.

The rule comes in direct response to the now-revoked Schedule F executive order from the Trump administration. The order sought to move about 50,000 career federal employees in policy-determining, policy-making or policy-advocating positions to a new job classification outside merit system principles. If implemented, the order would have made these workers at-will and easier to fire.

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With government shutdown on everyone's mind, the Senate this week is trying to fashion a package of three bills. This as the House seems to be at war with itself. Well, one of the party's, at least. For a Capitol Hill update, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Loren Duggan, Bloomberg Government Deputy News Director.

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