The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

In 2020, Congress repealed something known as the Survivor Benefit Plan - Dependency and Indemnity Compensation offset. Better known as the Widow's Tax, it disappeared after a three-year phase-out ending earlier his year. Mike Meese, President of the American Armed Forces Mutual Aid Association, calls the situation a once-in-a-generation opportunity for veterans. Federal Drive host Tom Temin talks to him in this podcast.

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Among the uglier mass human-rights violations going on in the world today, is forced labor imposed on the Uyghur minority by China. Congress, in the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, gave U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) the job of gathering and publicizing where this forced labor exists in the worldwide industrial supply chains. To find out where the agency is in addressing the issue, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Eric Choy, the Executive Director for Trade Remedy Law Enforcement in CBP's Office of Trade.

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In today's episode of The Federal Drive with Tom Temin:

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Throughout the pandemic, citizens might have suspected that components of the Health and Human Services Department weren't quite coordinated. Now the Government Accountability Office has put HHS leadership and coordination of public health emergencies on the list of at-risk federal programs. To find out why, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Mary Denigan-Macauley, GAO's Director of Health Care Issues.

GAO Report to Congressional Committees

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Bad things can happen when contractors fail to include their subs in negotiations with the government. The Air Force decided to redo its approach to a small construction contract. It drove up costs. But the prime signed on to a new price without agreement of its subcontractor, so the whole thing ended up before the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals. For more, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Boone Haynes procurement attorney Dan Ramish.

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Leaning into negative feedback from employees is uncomfortable, but necessary.

It’s an idea that Erin Moore, chief human capital officer at the Department of Energy, said contributed to a slow, but steady rise in the agency’s results in the 2022 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government rankings. DoE moved from 14th place in the 2021 rankings, up to eighth place this year for midsize agencies.

“It’s human nature to try and explain away unfavorable results. We do it in our personal lives, we do it in our work lives. But the explanations that we give ourselves don’t change the results,” Moore told Federal News Network.

At the same time the governmentwide score in the Partnership for Public Service’s rankings sank 1.1 points, Energy increased its employee engagement and satisfaction score by 1 point. The department was one of just 19 agencies in the rankings this year that either improved or held steady.

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The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives isn’t known for jumping into cutting edge technology with both feet.

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In today's episode of The Federal Drive with Tom Temin:

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In today's episode of The Federal Drive with Tom Temin:

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The Department of Veterans Affairs is putting all future deployments of its new Electronic Health Record on hold, until it addresses problems at sites already using the system, as part of a “larger program reset.”

The agency announced Friday that “additional deployments will not be scheduled until VA is confident that the new EHR is highly functioning at current sites and ready to deliver for veterans and VA clinicians at new sites.”

VA Secretary Denis McDonough said in a statement that the Oracle-Cerner EHR is not yet meeting expectations, and that “we’re holding Oracle Cerner and ourselves accountable to get this right.

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