The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

It's a bit of a nerve wracking time for contractors. Congress is currently flirting with the possibility of a government shutdown, as well as the potential yearlong Continuing Resolution no one wants. Add to that the fact that inflation is making it harder to conduct business and getting permission to increase prices remains difficult. For an idea of how to handle these obstacles, the Federal Drive's Eric White with Larry Allen, president of Allen Federal Business Partners.

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Union arbitrators routinely reinstate fired federal employees who grieve their dismissals, according to an analysis of cases conducted by a think tank. The conservative-leaning America First Policy Institute said the arbitrators' rate of reinstatement is way higher than that of the Merit Systems Protection Board. For details, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with director of the Institute's Center for American Freedom, James Sherk.

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The Million Veteran Program of the Veterans Affairs Department doesn't quite have a million participants. Not quite yet. But it did recently reach 900,000, when a retired reservist and purple heart recipient joined up. For an update on what VA calls its largest research project ever, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with program director Suma Muralidhar.

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The continuing resolution to keep the government's lights on next week. It's hitting some last minute political hurdles related to, of all things, the so-called inflation reduction act. For details on this and other critical matters in Congress, WTOP Capitol Hill Correspondent Mitchell Miller.

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Management of new information technology: It's always been a challenge in the federal government. Now a new course at the University of Maryland's business school aims to fix that. Many federal career mangers have voiced a need for such a course. Joining me with more about it, professor and assistant dean Joe Bailey.

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Management of new information technology: It's always been a challenge in the federal government. Now a new course at the University of Maryland's business school aims to fix that. Many federal career mangers have voiced a need for such a course. Joining me with more about it, professor and assistant dean Joe Bailey.

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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The United States is not as sharp at diplomacy as it needs to be. That's the chief finding of the American Academy of Diplomacy. Earlier this year it published a series of policy and practice recommendations for the State Department. They focus on the idea of multilateral diplomacy. For highlights, we turn to two long-serving former ambassadors. Marc Grossman is vice chairman of the Cohen Group. Marcie Reis is now a national security consultant.

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The 10th annual survey of inspectors general changed in two major ways. First, the Association of Government Accountants focused entirely on the impact of the pandemic on the oversight community. Second, AGA brought in more state and local oversight executives because of how closely they worked with federal officials over the last two years. Ann Ebberts, the CEO of the Association of Government Accountants, said the biggest challenge that emerged from the survey was about data sharing across the different organizations. She said the recognition that federal, state and local auditors could work faster and smarter if agencies and Congress removed some of the major roadblocks to sharing data.

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The Office of Management and Budget last week released what it called a learning agenda for federal agencies. It's the research they need to do to answer big questions. Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with someone who wonders whether the learning agenda actually gets to the root challenge of agency performance: Bob Tobias, professor in the Key Executive Leadership Program at American University.

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For several years, the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress has been developing ideas for just that: Updating a whole branch of government. Recently it held its final hearing. Earlier in September it introduced a resolution to advance 32 recommendations the committee itself endorsed. For a summary and what comes next, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with committee chairman Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.) and vice chair Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.).

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