The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

Do you recall when the first COVID vaccines came out in early 2021. It turned from a scientific problem to a logistics problem. How would they distribute millions of doses to Americans clamoring to get them. It fell to FEMA's Robert Fenton to coordinate the set-up of 39 mass vaccination centers and 1,600 smaller ones across the country. Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Fenton, a finalist in this year's Service to America Medals program, the region 9 administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and recently named by President Biden to head up the country's efforts against monkeypox.

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The National Archives and Records Administration is looking to expand a successful approach for managing email records to text messages and other digital communications as part of a bid to help agencies with an ever increasing deluge of electronic records.The issue has become only more prevalent after COVID-19 forced agencies to work more remotely and widely adopt video meetings, chat messaging apps and other digital tools to carry out official government business. “The virtual environment has impacted electronic records management,” Laurence Brewer, the U.S. chief records officer at NARA, said during an Aug. 23 event hosted by the Digital Government Institute in Washington. “I think we’re still learning what the implications are as new tools continue to be developed that allow agencies to connect and collaborate electronically.”

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The Department of Veterans Affairs is setting up cybersecurity check points before an application can get on the network. The idea isn’t to replace the authority to operate (ATO) process, but it’s about becoming a great engineering organization like those in the private sector. Kurt DelBene, the assistant secretary for the Office of Information and Technology and chief information officer at VA, said these new cyber gates is part of how VA is embracing a more well-rounded approach to their ATOs.

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A freedom of information act request by a reporter seeks four years worth of federal contractor reports. Companies would have filed the reports -- concerning their equal opportunity hiring records -- with the Office of Federal Contractor Compliance Programs at the Labor Department. The information could be confidential. Contractors have just a few weeks to file an objection with OFPPC. To take a deeper look at all of this, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with Piliero Mazza attorney Kevin Barnett.

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Armed services and Defense Department organizations range all over the place when it comes to the "Best Places To Work" rankings. The Army, for example, had a middling index of about 63 in the latest list, slightly below the governmentwide average. But the Army Space and Missile Defense Command had an index of 77.5, on par with some of the best-rated agencies. That score makes it the best place to work in the Army. For how the command went about working on its employee satisfaction issues, Federal Drive host Tom Temin spoke with its Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey Lead, Dana Henslee. She's a member of the command's Civilian Workforce Development Office.

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The State Department is launching two new fellowships meant to bring on a diverse next generation of hires into the ranks of its Civil Service and Diplomatic Security Service. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the department will launch the Colin Powell Leadership Program, which will recruit college students and recent graduates to join the Civil Service.

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The Defense Department is in the midst of implementing a series of Congressionally-mandated reforms meant to address sexual assault in the military. And the latest numbers show change can’t come soon enough.According to figures the Pentagon released Thursday, sexual assault is more common than at any time since DoD started keeping data. Reporting, meanwhile, is down, as is military members’ level of trust in the military justice system.

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Agencies are finding out there's a lot more that goes into trusting the vendors that they work with besides what they can easily see. But new tools are giving agency acquisition and cybersecurity workers something equivalent to an MRI scan of companies. Federal News Network’s Jason Miller joins me with more on how agencies are using these technologies to better secure their supply chains.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention leadership recently announced the agency will undergo an overhaul to address the causes of repeated missteps during the pandemic. For how that might look, Federal News Network's Eric White spoke to Dr. Julie Swann, distinguished professor and department head in the department of industrial and systems engineering at NC State University. Dr. Swann specializes in health and humanitarian research.

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The armed forces have all been pursuing better technology for directed energy like laser beams for weapons of the future. Lasers have been around for decades, but making them operational on ships, ground vehicles or aircraft is another matter. In the second of three interviews from the Army's Space and Missile Defense Command in Huntsville, Alabama, Federal Drive host Tom Temin caught up with the acting director of the command's technical center, Mike Krauss. It's where much of the directed energy work takes place and where Krauss said research focuses on several technology areas such as direct diode lasers.

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