The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

The Veterans Affairs Chief Information Officer is often on the sidelines of major IT acquisitions. The CIO, by law, is suppose to be involved in all of the major acquisitions. But maybe it's not. That's what the Government Accountability Office found. For more, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Carol Harris, GAO's Director of Information Technology Acquisition Management.

Full GAO Report

IT Management: VA Needs to Improve CIO Oversight of Procurements

https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-105719

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The 5G wireless network has a way to go before reaching the lofty potential its purveyors promised. Now the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is part of the Commerce Department, has a 5G research competition running and is seeking interoperable network equipment. For more, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with NTIA Director April Delaney.

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Lots of things have days, like National Ice Cream Day. Lots of things have whole months, like USDA Invasive Plant Pest Month. So why not emergency communications? Emergency Communications Month is in fact going on right now. And for an update on developments in this field, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Billy Bob Brown, Executive Assistant Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

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Federal agencies have new guidance from the White House on their return-to-office and telework policies. The Office of Management and Budget called on agencies to try to strike a balance between adding in-person work where necessary, while still maintaining telework flexibilities.

Agencies are expected to increase “meaningful” in-person work at federal offices, especially at headquarters offices, OMB said in a memo published Thursday.

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Joseph Cuffari, the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, is suing the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency over what his lawyers call “baseless inquiries” into his conduct.

The unusual lawsuit pits Cuffari and some of his top aides against his fellow inspectors general in a complaint that challenges the authority and structure of the council’s Integrity Committee. He has enlisted a legal team from an advocacy group that said it views the “administrative state” as “a threat to the Constitution.”

And court documents show the Integrity Committee has been probing Cuffari’s actions around the deleted Secret Service texts from the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.

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The only thing larger than the paperwork it sometimes takes to win a federal contract, is the amount of complaints you hear from folks both inside and outside the government contracting community. With around $665 billion in goods and services purchased annually from outside contractors, you might expect some issues with transparency, equity and fairness to pop up. So what can be done to address those issues? A new report from the Brookings Institution looks for solutions to those problems. Federal Drive Executive Producer Eric White talked about the report with Brookings Senior Fellow Darrell West.

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It’s been decades since the last time the Defense Department took an in-depth look at how its contract policies affect the financial health the defense industrial base. That long-awaited report is now out. Meanwhile, a separate, outside study is examining what DoD needs to do to speed up its adoption of innovative technologies. To take a deeper look at both of those studies, Federal News Network’s Deputy Editor and DoD report Jared Serbu talked with Stephanie Kostro, Executive Vice President for Policy at the Professional Services Council.

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An emerging need for the future of manufacturing is application of biology. As a result, the Defense Department has issued a strategy for bio manufacturing. To take a deeper look as to what bio manufacturing is and why it matters to national security, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Kate Sixt, Principal Director for Biotechnology in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.

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Agencies are tightening access to sensitive intelligence and reviewing their practices around granting security clearances and sharing classified information after a Massachusetts Air National Guardsman was arrested for allegedly leaking highly sensitive information online.

Experts say the case raises important questions about access to classified information, while pointing out that more details are needed to determine exactly what went wrong in the case of the leaks. And some are worried about an overreaction to a situation that’s garnered international attention.

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Just 19 of the 74 agencies in the 2022 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government rankings either held steady or improved their employee engagement score. But among many declining trends in the Partnership for Public Service’s results, some agencies still managed to shine.

“When we look at these averages, I think it’s so much more powerful when we pull apart and look at the variation across government and within agencies,” said Max Stier, the Partnership’s president and CEO, at a Best Places to Work ceremony Wednesday.

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