The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

People running federal contractors must forecast their annual business, no less than any other CEO. What makes the federal market unique is that the specific size is known year after year. IT services company Unanet and the law firm Cohn Reznick asked contractors about their biggest challenges. To hear about the results, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Kim Koster, Unanet Vice President.

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Imagine a federal procurement shop where you use every technique, except the Federal Acquisition Regulation. And you don't do grants, either. And you've got congressional backing for your novel approach. That's the case for one of the government's newer agencies, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, known as ARPA-H. For a look on the inside, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Diane Sidebottom, ARPA-H Director of Acquisition and Contracts.

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

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The Department of Veterans Affairs says its pause on a new electronic health record (EHR) will probably continue for much of next year.

That timeline is frustrating lawmakers, who say the VA has little to show for the project, after five years and billions of dollars going into it.

But VA officials and the contractor behind the project said upcoming EHR rollouts will go more smoothly, once the current “reset” period ends.

Neil Evans, acting program executive director of VA’s EHR Modernization Integration Office, said the department is targeting summer 2024 for the Oracle-Cerner EHR rollout to continue.

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

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Federal employees have not been able to purchase long-term care insurance for the past couple of months. That's because the Office of Personnel Management suspended the program, pending the new plans and prices that are expected from the carrier. It is likely to be very expensive. For what to expect, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with the with John Hatton, the Policy Vice President at NARFE, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association.

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The Office of Federal Contractor Compliance Programs, part of the Labor Department, has gotten White House go-ahead, for what one lawyer calls, "A significant expansion of data that contractors must report." It is all in a new schedule letter and itemized listing. To unravel it all, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with that attorney: Andrew Turnbull, a partner at Morrison Foerster.

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The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is often among the first to arrive on the scene, after an airplane or train crashes. Its expertise is renowned. But the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found the NTSB needs to tighten up its own performance planning, particularly by more effectively connecting its strategic goals with its mission of transportation safety. For more on this, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Heather Krause, GAO's Director of Physical Infrastructure Issues.

GAO REPORT link

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The Defense Department can improve the acquisition process for space technology with more “market intelligence.” Its acquisition leaders need to make clearer distinctions between investing in programs that will have limited commercial support and in programs that have broader commercial applications.

A new report from RAND Corporation, initiated at the request of the Air Force, looked at the way the department developed and acquired new technologies, and how it could get access to a broader spectrum of innovation.

Jonathan Wong, a senior researcher for the report and an analyst for RAND, said contracting officers need a more sophisticated view of how the commercial marketplace for technology works.

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In many ways, retirement after a federal career is all about the numbers. Do you have enough saved that, together with your annuity, you won't run out of money. In some ways, retirement is not about numbers at all. There's also the danger of being bored to death. To delve into the issue of non-monetary advice, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with federal retiree and AG Financial Services owner Abe Grungold.

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