The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

Few people can boast 50 years of federal service. But Federal Drive host Tom Temin's guest started as a page in Congress in 1972 and he never left. He is no longer a page, of course. Now he is the building services coordinator for the House office buildings, an employee of the Architect of the Capitol. Take a listen to Tom Temin's interview with Donnie Ward.

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Region Six of the EPA encompasses 15% of the U.S. land area. But it accounts for 25% of enforcement actions by the EPA. The region covers five states and 66 tribal nations. It also includes many oil and gas fields, chemical plants, and paper factories. Federal Drive host Tom Temin's guest, helped helped drive much of the enforcement activity. Now she's a finalist in this year's Service to America Medals program. She's Cheryl Seager, EPA's Region Six Director of Enforcement, Compliance and Assurance.

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Watch out, a new small business subcontracting rule took effect Tuesday. It brings new limits on subcontracting on set-aside contracts. It harmonizes a confusing situation of a mismatch between Small Business Administration rules and the Federal Acquisition Regulation. For the details, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Haynes Boone procurement attorney Dan Ramish.

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The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) will aid FEMA in feeding disaster victims. The DLA's troop-support unit acquires the rations used by troops the world over. Now it has created what it calls the Survivor Daily Ration for use by FEMA. For details, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with the DLA's Operational Rations Chief, Harry Streibich.

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

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The build up to the Defense Enterprise Office Solutions contract vehicle, starting in 2015, was full of anticipation and promise.

Before the award of this contract that many estimated to be worth $8 billion-to-$10 billion, Defense Department technology and program executives said the effort will “better align our resources,” it has the “potential to dramatically change the way the Army does business,” and it would “eliminate some barriers to collaboration, and also help to eliminate duplicative spending.”

The Department of Navy was writing its multibillion-dollar Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN) contract at the time, and specifically took steps so it could easily move its email and collaboration capabilities to DEOS. There even was talk of using DEOS as a model for a civilian agency version, called CEOS.

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As the Defense Department’s newest service, the Space Force took lessons learned from other services to create its own path forward in acquisition policy. It now increasingly uses middle tier acquisition (MTA) to get the equipment it needs on a streamlined timetable. The Space Development Agency’s (SDA) low earth orbit (LEO) satellites turned out to be trailblazers in an approach that aligns with commercial business practices and takes a little over two years from the start of the acquisition process to launch.

After a successful launch of its first 10 communication satellites in April, the next group of LEO satellites have a scheduled launch in June. The SDA ended bidding for its tranche 2 (beta) transport layer satellites on Wednesday and it plans to make an award announcement by mid-summer.

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The debt ceiling bill must traverse a tortured path to become law. Nothing's guaranteed quite yet. But presuming it becomes law, it will put defense and non-defense spending under caps in place, even with a military pay raise staying in place. Contractors are already analyzing what it all means, as is Federal Drive host Tom Temin, along with his guest David Berteau, President & CEO of the Professional Services Council.

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A House bill would change the way the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) would deal with tribal police departments. It would give them easier access to duty weapons by eliminating ATF regulations that don't apply to other police departments. For details, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with the bill's sponsor, South Dakota Republican Congressman Dusty Johnson.

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Among the troubling programs on the Government Accountability Office's High-Risk List, is the ability of the Health and Human Services Department to manage the national response to health emergencies. In the most recent pandemic, the response of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was at best disjointed. That left many other agencies to make their own decisions. Federal Drive host Tom Temin talks about this with Sanjay Patnaik, who says CDC reform should include a way to make CDC expertise available to help other agencies' responses. Sanjay Patnaik is the Director of the Center on Regulation and Markets at the Brookings Institution.

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