The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

After years of working as a small shop with most of its requirements outsourced to the Air Force, Cyber Command’s J9 acquisition and technology directorate finally has the ingredients for an independent acquisition program. While it may be some time before it can take on big platform acquisitions on its own, it now has the budget, if not the manpower, to increase the scope and scale of what it buys.

The plan is part of a five-year build up that will eventually see the directorate operating with more people and more responsibilities. Now it just needs to move forward and develop a track record, said Michael Clark, CYBERCOM’s director of cyber acquisition and technology.

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With cameras whirring, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other congressional leaders will meet with President Biden tomorrow. Their topic? What else but the debt ceiling impasse. For more on this and other congressional matters, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with WTOP Capitol Hill Correspondent Mitchell Miller.

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For the Postal Service, acquisition of new delivery vehicles has been a long, convoluted affair. It's not over. Although the Postal Service did the requisite environmental impact statement, it wasn't good enough for stakeholders. USPS faces lawsuits. Somehow it all has to do with gas engine versus electric. For details and what has to happen next, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Josh Bartzen, the Audit Director of the Postal Service Office of Inspector General.

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Each year we turn to celebrate some of the most capable and accomplished career federal civil servants. Finalists for Service to America Medals, known as the Sammies. It's a signature program of the Partnership for Public Service. Federal Drive host Tom Temin got a preview on the Sammies with Partnership President & CEO Max Stier.

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

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Over the last several years, Congress has passed several pieces of legislation meant to speed up the Defense Department’s acquisition system. Now, DoD officials have an idea of their own: they’re asking for new authorities that would let the military services begin early work on critical new programs without lawmakers’ explicit permission, arguing the current approval process takes too long and risks putting the U.S. military at a technological disadvantage.

The reforms Congress has passed since the middle of the last decade have been focused on moving technologies through DOD’s acquisition bureaucracy more quickly. But none of them have made a significant dent in the delays that come from the annual budgeting and appropriations process.

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After years of alleged discrimination toward pregnant employees at the Department of Homeland Security, a group of Customs and Border Protection officers has now reached the next step in a lawsuit against the agency.

The discrimination case, affecting current and former officers and agricultural specialists in CBP’s Office of Field Operations, is now certified as a class action lawsuit. An administrative judge at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission certified the class of employees on April 21.

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Guidance from the White House a couple of weeks ago seeks to get more federal employees back to their offices. It's a big data-gathering exercise. To find out the pros and cons, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Bob Tobias, a Professor in the Key Executive Leadership program at American University.

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Camp Ripley is a 53,000-acre civilian and military training facility operated by the Minnesota National Guard. Keeping it up and maintaining it is no trivial matter. But Josh Pennington, the base's environmental supervisor, is up to the task. He and his team were among winners of the 2023 Secretary of Defense Environmental Awards. To learn more, Federal News Network's Eric White spoke with Pennington.

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The Selective Service System collects names on behalf of a place few Americans choose to work. Yet the Selective Service itself ranked in the top 10, of best places to work among small agencies in the latest list. To find out the secret, Federal Dive host Tom Temin conducted an in-studio interview with Joel Spangenberg, the Acting Director of the agency.

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