The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

Among the 40,000-odd counties in the United States are some really big ones. Like San Diego County, California. At the recent National Contract Management Association's World Congress, I caught up with the buying chief of San Diego, who would like to see the GSA multiple award schedules open permanently to states and counties. Among the topics I discussed with procurement and acquisition director Jack Pellegrino.

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The great comedian Rodney Dangerfield became famous for his jokes about lack of respect, partly for being ugly. One went like this: He was so ugly as a child, his dad carried around the picture that came with the wallet. If buildings could talk, the Hubert H. Humphrey Federal Building, home to headquarters for the Health and Human Services Department, might also lament about being considered ugly. In fact, its become something of an internet thing, after a Washington newspaper called HHS the ugliest building in D.C. Here to speak for the 1976 structure, from Health and Human Services, online communications director Kelly Langford, and the acting assistant secretary for public affairs, Kamara Jones.

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Transportation Security Administration employees just got a historic pay raise. Now, the union representing TSA airport screeners is negotiating an expanded collective bargaining agreement. The progress for TSA employees in recent years has been swift. But it follows more than a decade of efforts to address low morale and high attrition at what is still one of the youngest federal agencies. For more, Federal News Network’s Justin Doubleday joined the Federal Drive.

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IRS officials expect to issue faster tax refunds once the agency goes paperless by 2025. The agency is planning to digitally process all the tax returns it receives by the 2025 filing season, thanks to billions of multi-year modernization dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act. The IRS struggled to keep up with its paper workload at the height of the pandemic. And that led to long wait times for taxpayers to hear back from the agency. Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman has the latest. 

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When Congress left for recess this month, it left lots of Defense Department questions up in the air. When it returns in September, it will have just a few short weeks before the end of the federal fiscal year. For an update, the Federal Drive turned to Bloomberg Government defense reporter Roxana Tiron.

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Protests of agency solicitations or contract awards draw protests about two thousand times every year. It's no fun for either side. But there are things the government can do in crafting an acquisition to lower the chances of a protest. At the recent National Contract Management Association World Congress in Nashville, the Federal Drive got the lowdown from the senior procurement analyst at the Army's Procurement Support Directorate, Michelle Miller.

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Poverty often means less access to good health care, and therefore worse outcomes than those of the wealthy. Now the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded $50 million in grants to establish five new organizations devoted to cancer prevention and care. The Federal Drive got details now from the senior advisor for health disparities, Shobha Srinivasan.

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The Defense Department has a new approach to talent management when it comes to its ever-expanding cybersecurity workforce. Officials hope to once and for all get past their recruitment and retention challenges. The department released its cyber workforce strategy late last week. For details, Federal News Network’s Alexandra Lohr joined the Federal Drive to discuss.

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Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency execs like to say security is so important they put it in their name twice. Now that same rationale is the impetus behind CISA’s first-ever cybersecurity strategic plan for 2024 to 2026. Security is so important CISA says it needs its own strategic plan to position itself to better handle the ever-changing cyber challenges. Eric Goldstein, CISA’s executive assistant director for cybersecurity, tells Federal News Network's Jason Miller about how the new cyber strategic plan provides a roadmap for transformative change.

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In more than a thousand federal employee complaints filed against their unions, only 1% of those employees prevailed. That is according to research by a group called Americans for Fair Treatment. AFT says it is dedicated to ensuring accountability for federal employee unions. Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with the group's special counsel, David Osborne.

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