The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

You'd think the government would be the most skilled buyer of office supplies in the world. It has the most offices after all. But a recent attempt at a blanket purchase agreement landed the General Services Administration into a big fat protest with Office Depot. To learn more about this, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Smith Pachter McWhorter procurement attorney Joe Petrillo.

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The National Institutes of Health could be called Clinical Trials - R - Us. It funds or conducts dozens of medical trials every year. Trials come with statutory requirements to report results. Now the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General has found shortcomings in NIH reporting on clinical trials. For more on this, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with HHS assistant regional inspector general Sylvie Witten.

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The National Science Foundation has joined up with the Czech Science Foundation, the NSF's counterpart in the Czech Republic. The two agencies are funding research into an area you probably never thought of. Namely: How to produce gamma rays with high powered lasers. Somebody has to think about this and Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with one of them, the head of the NSF office of international science and engineering, Kendra Sharp.

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In recent years, the Navy struggled with a handful of accidents that led to the death of sailors and damage to expensive warships.The collision between the USS Fitzgerald and a commercial ship in 2017, which killed 17, was an alarm bell for the Navy. Since then, after multiple reviews and Congressional investigations, the Navy is changing its approach to safety and in March elevated its Navy Safety Center to the 2-star-led Navy Safety Command.

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The Biden administration, expecting Congress will need more time to pass a comprehensive spending package for fiscal 2023, is requesting $47 billion in emergency funds to last through the end of the calendar year. Nearly half the funding would go toward the federal government’s response to COVID-19. That includes the rollout of updated booster shots approved this week by the Food and Drug Administration and restarting a program to deliver free COVID-19 rapid tests to households.

The administration is also seeking emergency funding for the first quarter of fiscal 2023 to support its response to the monkeypox outbreak, as well as supporting the war in Ukraine and providing domestic disaster relief.

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Services contractors are wondering just what their options are now that the Biden administration lost an appeal of a federal court ruling. The ruling upheld an injunction against the contractor vaccine mandate. But the same three-judge panel also said the injunction should not be national. Now companies are wondering whether every contracting officer will have read the confusing advice from the White House. To learn more, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with the president and CEO of the Professional Services Council, David Berteau.

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If the armed services didn't allow tattoos, they'd probably have to cut the forces in half. In recent years, they've relaxed rules on allowable tattoos, responding to the fact that ink has become a cultural norm. It's also become a recruitment and retention issue. The Government Accountability Office surveyed the armed forces' policies and came up with a few recommendations. For the details, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with GAO's director of defense capabilities and management issues, Brenda Farell.

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Everything about the Defense Department is large. The budgets. The number of people. The number of vehicles, buildings, projects, offices, and programs. Also big is the list of management and operational improvement recommendations from the DOD inspector general. For an update, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with the IG technical director for follow-up and quality assurance, Valerie McMichael.

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Congress treks back to Washington this week with only a few legislative days left before the end of the fiscal year. They'll have to deal with government funding. To get the outlook, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Bloomberg Government Deputy News Director Loren Duggan.

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The debate rolls on. Is remote and teleworking good for productivity and team performance? There's no clear answer, but some fresh research on how people feel about team performance gives a slight edge to, "Yes, things have improved in the last two years." Federal Drive host Tom Temin talk about this with the director of client solutions at Eagle Hill Consulting, Andrew Edelson.

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