The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

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

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In one fell swoop, the Court of Federal Claims upended two major governmentwide acquisition contracts from the General Services Administration and almost five years of effort to change the culture of federal contracting.

The Court ruled April 21 that GSA’s interpretation of Section 876 of the 2018 Defense Authorization was too broad as applied to the Polaris small business GWAC. The decision, released publicly last Friday, not only forces GSA to pause its efforts on Polaris, but also make a significant change to its strategy for OASIS+, the follow-on multiple award contract for professional services.

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Federal retirement tends to stand like a three-legged stool: the FERS annuity, the Thrift Savings Plan and Social Security. But a fourth leg could make for an even sturdier retirement. Good old fashioned Savings Bonds are another instrument federal employees can invest in for their personal savings. Federal News Network's Drew Friedman got more from retired federal manager and financial counselor Abe Grungold.

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While federal agencies search endlessly to hire people skilled in cybersecurity, local government might have a different way. How about enlisting volunteers to help protect critical infrastructure from cyber attacks. That's the idea behind a detailed set of recommendations from the law firm McDermott Will & Emery. For more, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with McDermott Will & Emery attorney Mark Schreiber.

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The Coast Guard has long worked to boost its capabilities of operating in the Arctic, an area of increasing importance to national security. Now the Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate will fund research aimed at helping other DHS components operate in the Arctic. For details, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Rebecca Medina, Science and Technology Director of the DHS Office of University Programs.

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For more than a decade, harassment has remained the number one issue in employee discrimination complaints filed against federal agencies.

The prevalence of harassment in the federal sector makes it all the more important for agency leaders to commit to implementing effective anti-harassment policies, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in new recommendations for agencies.

“Leadership plays a pivotal role in preventing and correcting harassment,” Marqui Willoughby, an attorney advisor at EEOC, said in an interview with Federal News Network.

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The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has hired approximately 80 people through the Department of Homeland Security’s new personnel system for cyber personnel, while a new DHS sub-component is now looking to also take advantage of the system.

CISA Director Jen Easterly provided the updated numbers during a House Homeland Security cybersecurity and infrastructure protection subcommittee hearing.

“We’re at about 80 people with the cyber talent management system, and some really extraordinary talent at this point in time,” Easterly said.

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

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The Bureau of Prisons, an agency of the Justice Department, made two highly visible lists within couple of weeks. It placed at the very bottom of the list of Best Places to Work in the Federal Government, meaning its employees rank it as the worst place. And, it joined the three dozen other programs on the Government Accountability Office's High-Risk List. For why it made the High-Risk List, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with GAO's Director of Homeland Security and Justice Issues, Gretta Goodwin.

High-Risk List | U.S. GAO

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The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency picked a systems integrator for a computer vision project. The integrator, CACI, started to develop a proprietary function that a commercial company already offered. You can guess what happened. Everyone ended up in court. For the details on a case underscoring the legal preference for commercial products, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Haynes Boone procurement attorney Zach Prince.

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