To listen to the Federal Newscast on your phone or mobile device, subscribe in PodcastOne or Apple Podcasts. The best listening experience on desktop can be found using Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

• The Pentagon wants input from industry as part of a new study on the financial health of the Defense industrial base. Among other things, the Office of Defense Pricing and Contracting is looking for input on obstacles companies have faced in getting financing, whether small firms are getting prompt payments from prime contractors, and the overall health of the Defense industry. The study was prompted by a GAO report that found DoD hasn’t analyzed how its policies affect the industry since 1985. Comments are due July 18.

• The Army takes an important initial step to consolidating five business systems. The Army kicked off an initiative to consolidate and merge five separate business systems. The Army Contracting Command released a request for information, a prototype project opportunity notice and a statement of need seeking industry feedback. The Army wants to use another transaction agreement to hire a lead systems integrator to design, develop and demonstrate a prototype enterprise resource planning or ERP system that pulls in the capabilities of all five systems, including the General Fund Enterprise Business System and the Logistics Modernization program. Army CIO Raj Iyer said in June that the service spends $1.4 billion on these systems and many are more than 20-years-old. Comments on the RFI are due by July 18. The Army says it will hold an industry day later this year after reviewing feedback.

• The Defense Department’s inspector general says the Pentagon is inconsistent in how it applies classification rules. A new IG report found DoD components largely failed to maintain their security classification guides in accordance with federal guidance. The IG says DoD runs the risk of misclassifying information and accidentally disclosing sensitive data to U.S. adversaries. The report recommends DoD direct components to account for their security classification standards and ensure they conform with the latest guidance.

• Here’s one you may not have heard about for awhile, auditors give the Office of Personnel Management high marks on how it’s securing a key system for retirees. The Annuity Roll System, which contains records on annuitants and their survivors and forms the basic pay records for disbursing benefits, met nine different cybersecurity requirements under the Federal Information Security Management Act or FISMA. The OPM inspector general says ARS’s security systems plan is update; it has a recent authority to operate and has an updated plan of action and milestones. The IG says these and other documents provide a good foundation to security, but doesn’t necessarily guarantee the data and systems are secure.

• The lead U.S. cyber agency is about to get its own contracting powers. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency will get procurement authority starting this month. CISA currently relies on Department of Homeland Security headquarters and other agencies for its contracting activities. It’s another step up for one of the newest standalone federal agencies. CISA was established in 2018. The new contracting authority comes as CISA takes on more responsibility for the cybersecurity of agencies and critical infrastructure. (Federal News Network)

• The Air Force is strengthening its separation policy to crack down on sexual assaulters. The Air Force will no longer consider an airman or guardian’s character, financial situation or mental health when deciding if a sexual assaulter should leave the service. The change is an effort to root out those in the military who commit sex crimes. The service will no longer grant exceptions to those who assault children or those who have previous convictions for sex related crimes. The Defense Department is beginning a concentrated effort to purge sexual assault from its ranks. Last year, it announced a handful of new measures to better handle sexual assaults, including taking sex crimes out of the chain of command and referring them to independent agencies. (Federal News Network)

• The Air Force’s Air Mobility Command is shifting to a new model it hopes will increase readiness and improve predictability. AMC’s previous force generation model has been in effect for 20 years. After a deep dive assessment, AMC will reconstitute manpower, aircraft and equipment that train, deploy and recover as cohesive units. That will happen through four specific phases that prioritize what each unit needs depending on its recent training and deployments.

• The Census Bureau is making its data easier to find, use and understand. The bureau redesigned its data webpage. It now features interactive text, ways to build customized maps based on their data, a new search tool to explore data tables and access to microdata files. It also includes search ideas for guests. With the new look, the website still has education, employment, health, housing and more data on over 100,000 American locations like states, counties, places, tribal areas, ZIP codes and congressional districts.

• Agencies have made progress in how they use data, but the Partnership for Public Service says some are looking to improve their data workforces. The way agencies recruit and develop their data and digital workforces scored poorly in a recent Partnership survey. Involving data and digital specialists in ongoing agency projects was one of the lowest scoring categories. But agencies who took the survey say they plan to dramatically improve their data workforce’s effectiveness over the next five years.

• A standard for the sustainability of federal buildings is coming soon. The Biden administration expects the first-ever Federal Building Performance Standards will put agencies on a realistic path to meeting some of President Joe Biden’s green government goals. The standards will establish metrics, targets and tracking methods to reach federal carbon emissions goals. Federal Chief Sustainability Officer Andrew Mayock says the standards will be publicly released in two or three months and will raise the bar on sustainability for more than 300,000 federal buildings. “We’re not getting where we need to go unless we focus on how we scale and how we scale is through technology.” (Federal News Network)

• The General Services Administration and National LGBT Chamber of Commerce are extending pride month by collaborating to expand support for LGBTQI owned small-businesses. The collaboration will provide owners of these companies greater access to GSA contracting opportunities. It also will focus on creating awareness of GSA’s programs among LGBTQI small business owners. The partnership will also provide information to local LGBTQI affiliate chambers of commerce around the country about GSA’s programs, services and events that help small businesses learn about contracting and subcontracting. There are an estimated 1.4 million LGBTQ business owners.

• There’s a new way to help federal employees affected by severe weather in Montana. Federal employees can donate unused paid time off to some of their colleagues. The Office of Personnel Management established an emergency leave transfer program for Montana’s federal workers, after severe storms and flooding hit the state in June. If you’re looking to either donate or receive unused paid leave, OPM says you should contact your agency. The paid leave will first be transferred among workers within the same agency, but OPM says it can be transferred across agencies, if needed.

• The Department of Veterans Affairs faces a 23% vacancy rate for Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselors, as well as Marriage and Family Therapists. Senate VA Committee Chairman Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Ranking Member Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) are seeking an update from VA and the Office of Personnel Management on steps to bring more of these personnel onboard. The senators specifically seek an update under the 2020 Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act, which requires the agencies to create a new federal occupational series for these specialists.

To listen to the Federal Newscast on your phone or mobile device, subscribe in PodcastOne or Apple Podcasts. The best listening experience on desktop can be found using Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

• The Justice Department is blocking the merger of two federal contractors because it threatens imminent competition for a government contract to provide operational modeling and simulation services to the National Security Agency. Justice says Booz Allen Hamilton’s move to buy Everwatch, an IT services company, would violate federal anti-trust law. U.S. Attorneys claim Booz Allen and EverWatch competed head-to-head to provide these operational modeling and simulation services. But just before NSA issued the solicitation, Booz Allen decided to buy its only rival, potentially creating a monopoly.

• Delta Air Lines agreed to a more than $10 million settlement over claims it falsified international mail delivery times in a contract with the Postal Service. The Justice Department says the USPS contract to Delta included delivering U.S. mail to soldiers overseas, as well as delivering mail to and from Defense and State Department posts. The settlement resolves claims that Delta falsely reported the times it delivered this mail. The USPS contract specifies penalties for mail that was delivered late or to the wrong location.

• GSA removed the “stop sign” in front of the POLARIS small business contract vehicle. Small businesses sharpen your pencils, the POLARIS GWAC is back in play. After pausing the solicitation for this mega small business IT services contract in April, the General Services Administration released the updated contract terms and conditions yesterday. One of the major changes is requiring the small business of a mentor protégé team to provide at least one example of relevant experience. GSA also limits the mentor to three examples of relevant experience. The previous solicitation placed no limits on what the mentor could provide. GSA says bids now are due Aug. 10.

• The General Services Administration is looking to reach 100 million users on Login.gov by the end of the year. GSA would more than double the number of Login.gov users if it meets its year-end goal. GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan says in a recent interview that Login.gov has about 40 million users right now across 27 agencies. “This digital identity area is one that is in in serious need of attention by the government.” Carnahan said about 60,000 veterans currently use Login.gov for VA services online. GSA is also in talks with the IRS as it plans its own rollout of Login.gov. (Federal News Network)

• The Coast Guard is taking steps to increase access to on-base child care for families. A new report from the Government Accountability Office finds the service will build four new child development centers and increase funding for off-base childcare subsidies. Compared to the rest of the DoD, the Coast Guard operates proportionally fewer on-base childcare centers. The Coast Guard serves 82% of children through community-based providers while the DoD serves 77% of children in on-base development centers. Therefore, most eligible Coast Guard families rely on subsidies to pay for childcare in the community. As of March, Coast Guard child development centers had 361 children on waitlists.

• The Defense Department says it is working to ensure abortion care for service members, but it is hamstrung in some situations. Federal law only allows abortions at military treatment facilities in instances of medical harm, rape or incest. That care won’t change for service members even if they live in states where abortion is banned. However, troops seeking an abortion that doesn’t fit into those categories may not get much support from the Pentagon. Per federal law, Defense Department is unable to reimburse service members who may have to travel hundreds of miles for care. Pregnant service members must also request leave from their commanding officers to take time off and travel to get a procedure. (Federal News Network)

• The Navy is taking measures to keep more sailors in uniform as it continues to have issues with recruitment. The service is changing its policy to allow sailors to serve longer by delaying separation or retirement. The Navy says the goal of the policy is to keep the service fully manned and operationally ready. The Navy recently announced it would increase recruitment bonuses to lure in more sailors.

• Lawmakers continue pushing the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board for answers to some major technical issues in the Thrift Savings Plan. D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton spoke with the board’s executive director, who agreed to give her weekly updates on FRTIB’s progress. That comes after the board rolled out a new TSP platform, causing many frustrations for participants, and difficulties reaching TSP’s customer service line. Norton says she may hold a hearing if the board doesn’t make improvements more quickly.

• The agency in charge of the Thrift Savings Plan has a new leader. President Joe Biden appointed Mike Gerber as chairman of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board. The Senate confirmed Gerber as a member of FRTIB in early June, for two terms lasting through September 2026. He will take over for Acting Chairman David Jones, who has held the position since July 2020. Gerber will work with the other recently Senate-confirmed board members, including Dana Bilyeu, Leona Bridges and Stacie Olivares, to manage the Thrift Savings Plan.

• The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s mobile app just got its biggest update in a decade. The application now allows people to customize what they see in the app based on their preferences and location. A new section gives users information about federal disaster declarations in their area, and provides answers to common questions about the assistance application process. FEMA says the update is important as the country enters peak hurricane and wildfire season.

• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services may be turning a corner on the technology front. USCIS is nearing an “inflection point” when it comes to its digital strategy. That’s the verdict from the USCIS’s ombudsman’s annual report. The agency has digitized more high-volume immigration forms, and it now has a plan for all forms to be submitted and processed digitally by the end of fiscal 2026. The Homeland Security Inspector General has found USCIS’s current backlog can be traced back, in part, to the agency’s failure to fully digitize before the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Ahead of the Freedom of Information Act’s 56th anniversary on Monday, public access to legislative documents could expand, if Congress agreed with the FOIA advisory committee’s new recommendation. The suggestion, in the Office of Government Information Services annual report, asks Congress to expand certain aspects of FOIA to include the legislative branch. Possible information includes procedures governing public requests for records. This is the only recommendation made by the advisory committee halfway through their two-year term. The committee sent the recommendation to the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

To listen to the Federal Newscast on your phone or mobile device, subscribe in PodcastOne or Apple Podcasts. The best listening experience on desktop can be found using Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

• More funds for the Department of Homeland Security’s consolidated campus are coming into focus. The fiscal 2023 spending bills making their way through the House would give $580 million to the DHS St. Elizabeth’s West Campus. The proposed funding is split between DHS and the General Services Administration. The St. Elizabeth’s campus has been a work in progress for than a decade, and is the largest federal building project since the Pentagon. The project has secured more than $2 billion in congressional spending so far.

• Senate lawmakers want to ensure two Homeland Security offices are permanent fixtures at DHS. A new bipartisan bill would re-authorize the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office. It would also codify the responsibilities of DHS’s Office of Health Security. The bill would also require the CWMD office to submit reports to Congress on the strategy to counter weapons of mass destruction and other emerging threats. The legislation is being led by Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Ranking Member Rob Portman (R-Ohio).

• The IRS needs more consistent funding from Congress to dig out from pandemic-era challenges, replenish and modernize its workforce, an advisory panel told Congress. The Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee finds the IRS experienced over 100 continuing resolutions since 2001. The committee tells Congress that funding uncertainty forces the agency to opt for more expensive, less effective, short-term hiring and IT solutions IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig, whose five-year term ends in November, says the agency went to extraordinary lengths to deliver $1.5 trillion in pandemic aid. “I think that history will be very polite to the Internal Revenue Service, and to everybody who’s helped the Internal Revenue Service during this period of time.” (Federal News Network)

• Six of seven metrics on federal customer service declined last quarter. The latest data from the Office of Management and Budget shows customer satisfaction, confidence and trust, and employee helpfulness were among the areas that dropped for the 35 High Impact Service Providers. The one metric that saw progress was around equity and transparency. These HISPs collect customer feedback after the citizen has completed their business with the agency. OMB released an update to the President’s Management Agenda earlier this month. This included updates on cross-agency goals like customer experience as well as individual agency goals.

• Standout Freedom of Information Act agencies are offering best practices to improve the public information request process. Among the recommendations from FEMA, the Postal Service and the FBI is for public information officers to be proactive in letting requestors know when estimated completion dates on requests are pushed back. FOIA mandates agencies provide estimated completion dates to the requester. Many agencies have had issues providing them. Other recommendations include connecting PIOs with agency leadership to expedite the process and releasing a list of frequently requested records. (Federal News Network)

• Federal employees still have the chance to help improve the Freedom of Information Act process. The Office of Government Information Services is extending the deadline for new members to apply to the FOIA Federal Advisory Committee to July 15 instead of June 30. OGIS is looking for nominations from at least three cabinet level and three non-cabinet level agencies. The committee is made up of 20 members who serve two-year terms and attend monthly meetings to discuss possible improvements to the FOIA process.

• The Interior Department made a major award as part of its network modernization effort. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Education is bringing high-speed internet to 64 reservations across 13 states. BIE awarded Verizon a 10-year contract that could be worth as much as $147 million under GSA’s Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions or EIS program. Under the task order, schools in states such as Arizona, California, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and others will gain access to 1 gigabyte internet connections. This is up from the 100 megabyte connections implemented over the last decade. Verizon expects the upgrades to be completed by the end of 2023.

• The Marine Corps wants the information domain to be a big part of how it thinks about warfighting from now on. The Corps formalized a new publication yesterday that makes “information” a core component of the service’s doctrine. Marine Corps Publication 8, as it’s called, tries to make sure individual Marines and commanders build communication, cyber, and other considerations into all of their combat and and training plans. Officials say they want the new doctrine to be a “living document” that continues to evolve alongside changes in communications technologies and warfighting realities.

• The Navy conducted its first-ever exercise focused on response to events caused by climate change. Imagine you’re a sailor in 2030 conducting an exercise on an island nation in the western Pacific. Suddenly, a typhoon changes course and completely bungles the operation. That’s what Navy officials, think tank experts and industry thought through this week as they considered how climate change might impact future operations. The Navy and the Defense Department are taking into account extreme weather as climate change is making more of an impact on installations, weapons and operations. The Navy says it plans to build climate contingencies into future training and to conduct more operations focused on climate events. (Federal News Network)

• Maj. Gen. Philip Garrant was tapped as the Space Force’s deputy chief of space operations for strategy, plans, programs and requirements. The new position would involve a promotion to lieutenant general. Garrant would replace Lt. Gen. William Liquori. Garrant currently serves as the program executive for ground-based weapons systems at the Missile Defense Agency.

• Federal hiring managers are trying to focus more on applicant’s skills, rather than where they learned them. Jenny Yang, director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, says agencies are starting to reexamine degree requirements for job openings. Yang adds that eliminating educational requirements can expand applicant pools, a common federal hiring issue. She joined an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission workshop series, addressing challenges that prevent underrepresented communities from accessing jobs. The Office of Personnel Management has also posted guidance to help agencies recruit more diverse candidates.

• A new report suggests the national security community reexamine how it recruits and clears people with foreign ties. The security clearance process may be unnecessarily preventing people with foreign backgrounds from serving in national security positions. That’s the crux of a new white paper from the Intelligence and National Security Alliance. INSA suggests investigators take a more granular approach to evaluating factors like foreign family members and dual citizenship. INSA vice president of policy Larry Hanauer. “Investigators are never going to be able to learn everything they want to know about a candidate’s uncle in rural China somewhere, but they can assess whether such a family tie really affects a candidate’s loyalties or creates security risks that can’t be mitigated,” Hanauer said. (Federal News Network)

• The American Federation of Government Employees says agencies should better compensate feds seeking an abortion. Federal workers can use sick leave to travel for medical care under current policy from the Office of Personnel Management. But AFGE says the federal government should do more, and instead provide paid administrative leave. That’s for federal employees who live in states with restricted, or now banned, abortion access. The union is part of a growing number of organizations calling to expand paid medical leave for feds, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last week.

To listen to the Federal Newscast on your phone or mobile device, subscribe in PodcastOne or Apple Podcasts. The best listening experience on desktop can be found using Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

• Federal building alarm systems and security cameras are falling short of expectations. But just how short? Well that’s unclear from a heavily redacted report released by the General Services Administration inspector general this week. Auditors reviewed the security systems and cameras at 14 federal buildings and seemed to find they were in various states of disrepair. One of the IG’s recommendations is for GSA to implement a plan to repair, replace and even install security cameras and alarm systems as part of a nationwide assessment. The IG also says GSA and the Federal Protective Service should revise their memorandum of understanding to clearly identify who’s responsible for maintaining these systems.

• The Government Accountability Office found $206 billion of waste in government spending on personal property like office chairs and cars between 2016 to 2020. GAO found agencies use only 8% of the over 2.6 million excess items. Recommendations include promoting the maximum use out of excess property and advising agencies to review their internal guidance on considering excess property. Tuesday’s report comes two weeks after Comptroller General Gene Dodaro addressed the Senate with ways to limit government overlap earlier this month.

• USPTO is investing in a foundational piece of its zero trust architecture. With what may be the first of its kind in the federal sector, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is going all in on SASE or secure access service edge. Jamie Holcombe is the CIO at USPTO and he explains why this is the first foundational piece of the zero trust architecture that they can act upon. “I like SASE as that architectural philosophy so to ensure that we can identify users and devices, and apply the policy-based security controls delivering that secure access to the applications and ensuring that our data is secure.” (Federal News Network)

• Agencies need to prepare for a big change to a widely used email and collaboration service. Microsoft will start disabling Basic Authentication for Exchange Online starting on Oct. 1, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is making sure agencies are ready. In new guidance, CISA laid out steps agencies should take to determine to what extent they still rely on basic authentication, if they haven’t already. Microsoft announced the Oct. 1 deadline last year. The company says Basic Authentication is one of the most common ways its customers are compromised, and its shifting to methods that support multifactor authentication.

• The Social Security Administration is looking to replace its current system for managing public records requests. SSA is among the agencies phasing out the FOIA online case management solution. In a request for information, SSA says the new system should allow its FOIA analysts to communicate directly with public requesters. It also should be compatible with an electronic payment system, like Pay.gov. SSA is looking for responses by July 6.

• The Biden administration wants to hear your ideas about sustainability. At the first Federal Sustainability Solutions forum, Federal Chief Sustainability Officer Andrew Mayock asked all federal workers and contractors to share their journeys and experiences with sustainability during their careers in the public, private or nonprofit sectors. Mayock said the government needs to learn from, and copy, the successes achieved in the private sector, whose efforts surpassed those of the government during the last few years, to combat climate change while customizing the ideas to scale across the government.

• The Department of Veterans Affairs adopted Login.gov to improve online customer experience to veterans. With Login.gov veterans can now use the same username and password to access VA.gov, My Health-E-Vet and VA’s Health and Benefits mobile. The service also allows veterans to use the same credentials to access services across multiple federal agencies, including the  the Office of Personnel Management and the Small Business Administration. VA’s adoption of Login.gov meets a key goal of the Biden’s administration’s executive order on improving customer experience.

• The agency in charge of the Thrift Savings Plan is trying to keep up with high call volumes to customer service. Another 100 staff members are likely heading to TSP’s customer service center. The TSP board has so far added 320 representatives, now up to a total of 800 employees. That’s a 66% increase to the agency’s call center — and a record high for the board. The staff increase is an effort to alleviate unprecedented delays and hold times after a major TSP update on June 1. (Federal News Network)

• Agencies get an extension for hiring temporary employees in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Office of Personnel Management says agencies can continue to use a special hiring authority to add short-term staff, through March 1, 2023. OPM says agencies have an ongoing need to hire short-term workers, to meet both their missions and responsibilities related to the pandemic. Agencies may continue to fill positions on a temporary basis for up to one year. They can also extend the appointments for an additional year if needed.

• Sean O’Donnell has been serving as the Pentagon’s acting inspector general for more than two years. But the Government Accountability Office says he hasn’t had the authority to serve in the position since last November, and his initial appointment also violated federal law. GAO’s findings are based on its own, new, interpretation of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, a law designed to limit how long acting officials can serve in Senate-confirmed positions. DoD’s OIG says it’s still reviewing the opinion. DoD hasn’t had a Senate-confirmed inspector general since 2016. (Federal News Network)

• The Defense Department and Air Force are teaming up with Historically Black Colleges and Universities to create a new research center. The military’s 15th academic research center will focus on tactical autonomy, helping the Defense Department develop technologies that involve independent computer systems. The Air Force is committing $12 million a year for five years to the center. DoD will add another $2 million a year. The organization will be a consortium of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, furthering DoD’s push for diversity and inclusion. The Pentagon hopes to use the center to help the schools build out their research capacities and recruit a more diverse workforce. (Federal News Network)

• The Joint Staff approves the military’s first-ever accredited space exercise. The Space Force’s SPACE FLAG exercise joins other approved exercises like the Air Force’s RED FLAG and the Navy’s Fleet Synthetic Training as programs providing capability to provide realistic environments in a joint context. In total there are 37 accredited joint training programs.

• The Supreme Court denies a petition from the National Postal Policy Council to review a federal appeals court’s ruling from last year. U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit found last November that the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) struck a careful balance when it allowed USPS to set mail rates higher than the pace of inflation. The commission, however, is reexamining its decision to grant greater pricing flexibility to USPS under a provision of the fiscal 2022 omnibus spending bill. (Federal News Network)

To listen to the Federal Newscast on your phone or mobile device, subscribe in PodcastOne or Apple Podcasts. The best listening experience on desktop can be found using Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

• A bid to fight the vaccine mandate for federal workers lives to see another day. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans said it will reconsider its own ruling from April that allowed the Biden administration to require federal employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The appeals court will re-hear the case, this time before all 17 of its judges. Until then, the court is vacating its earlier ruling in favor of the Biden administration. The legal battle stems from an executive order President Joe Biden signed in September requiring more than 3.5 million federal workers to get vaccinated, with no option for regular COVID testing. (Federal News Network)

• House appropriators push for improvements and more transparency in federal retirement services. A committee spending bill for fiscal 2023 requires more oversight for the Office of Personnel Management’s federal employee retirement program. Groups like National Active and Retired Federal Employees said they’re “pleased” with the bill provision, and hope it will elevate the urgency of service delays and call center issues. The spending bill advanced out of the House Appropriations Committee Friday. The Office of Personnel Management is also piloting an online retirement application, while working through a backlog that resulted from the pandemic.

• A dozen senators reject the Department of Veterans Affairs’ plans to reshape its real-estate for health care. The senators said they will not proceed with the President’s nominees to serve on the Asset and Infrastructure Review Commission. The commission, under the 2018 MISSION Act, is supposed to review the VA’s recommendations from March on how it expects to right-size its real-estate portfolio of medical facilities across the country. The VA proposed closing about three dozen VA medical centers under this plan, but would replace about half of them with new construction. VA Secretary Denis McDonough said the MISSION Act still requires the VA to conduct four-year reviews of its real-estate needs in each of its regional health care markets, even if the AIR Commission process falls through. (Federal News Network)

• Marijuana restrictions on service members might follow the national trend of becoming more lax. The House version of the 2023 Defense authorization bill holds two provisions that reframe marijuana use and possession. One provision asks the Military Justice Review Panel to draft recommendations for new sentencing guidelines around marijuana. A second measure asks the Pentagon to study using medical marijuana instead of opioids for service members on terminal leave or about to retire.

• The Pentagon is setting a course for creating ethical artificial intelligence. The Defense Department said artificial intelligence is imperative to the future of warfare, but many are concerned about leaving life or death decisions up to computers. The Pentagon released its responsible AI plan to implement a set of ethical guidelines it established two years ago. Now DoD is ready to implement those principles. The chief data and AI office will create a set of evaluation criteria for AI and write guidance for how industry can meet DoD’s ethical principles. DoD will also develop a legislative strategy to ensure the chief data and AI office has appropriate messaging and assistance when working with Congress.

• The Air Force is looking to create the first University Affiliated Research Center led by a Historically Black College or University and is soliciting HBCUs with high-research activity ratings to apply. The new research center will be focused on tactical autonomy. Air Force officials said the initiative will help establish and maintain essential research and development capabilities for the Department of the Air Force to deliver operationally relevant autonomy. The Pentagon has set aside $12 million per year for five years to fund it.

• The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is going on a hiring spree. CISA has nearly 150 open cybersecurity positions, and it wants to fill them fast. The agency is hosting a virtual hiring fair on June 29, and it’s already received more than 1000 applications. CISA aims to have 100 job offers out the door within two weeks of Wednesday’s event. The agency is also using the Department of Homeland Security’s new Cyber Talent Management System to help streamline the hiring process and offer better pay compared to the General Schedule.

• As Pride Month comes to a close, the U.S. Agency for International Development is trying to create a more inclusive environment. Administrator Samantha Power announced a new inclusive development e-module that will be mandatory for all USAID staff. The announcement comes nine days after President Joe Biden signed an executive order advancing LGBTQ equality during pride month. USAID abides by the principles of “do no harm” and “do nothing about them without them” when working worldwide to advance the human rights of LGBTQ people.

• Looking for a way to donate food to fight hunger? The Agriculture Department kicked off the annual Feds Feed Families campaign Monday to tackle food and nutrition insecurity across the country. The USDA said hunger is a year-round issue and is asking federal families like yours to donate food from June 27 to September 30. Since its launch in 2009, Feds Feed Families has donated more than 99 million pounds of food to local food banks. In 2021, the drive collected 7 million pounds of food. Your donation this year can contribute to topping 100 million pounds of food donated over the last 13 years. You can donate to the food bank of your choice and can track your donations on the USDA’s website.

To listen to the Federal Newscast on your phone or mobile device, subscribe in PodcastOne or Apple Podcasts. The best listening experience on desktop can be found using Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

• The deadline for the Army’s reserve components to get vaccinated against COVID-19 is this week. But tens of thousands of soldiers are still unvaccinated. Data obtained by the Associated Press says there are still 40,000 Army National Guard members who are unvaccinated. The Pentagon has previously said those soldiers won’t be allowed to participate in federal training exercises or deployments. At least 14,000 reserve component soldiers have flatly refused the vaccine. (Federal News Network)

• A former Army pilot admitted he sold aviation information to representatives of the Chinese government while working as a cleared defense contractor. Shapour Moinian pleaded guilty to federal charges that he acted as a representative of a foreign government and lied on national security background checks. The Justice Department says Moinian sold information about aircraft designed or manufactured in the United States. He faces up to 10 years in prison for acting as an agent of China, and up to five years for making false statements.

• Four people were arrested Thursday for allegedly participating in a health care fraud scheme that robbed Amtrak’s health care plan of at least $9 million. That’s according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey. The defendants are accused of recruiting Amtrak employees to participate by offering cash kickbacks in exchange for the employees allowing the defendants to use their patient and insurance information. The defendants then allegedly used this information to fraudulently bill Amtrak’s health care plan. They were released on a $200,000 unsecured bond.

• A former registered nurse at the Department of Veterans Affairs pleaded guilty to stealing or embezzling authentic COVID-19 vaccine cards from a VA hospital in Michigan. The Justice Department says she used lot numbers from the COVID vaccines the hospital received to make the cards seem legitimate. Prosecutors say she started selling the cards as early as May 2021, for up to $200 each. The VA inspector general’s office investigated the case, along with VA Police and the Medicare Fraud Strike Force.

• Congress is getting a closer look at the cost of the Veterans Affairs Department’s new Electronic Health Record. President Joe Biden signs the VA Electronic Health Record Transparency Act into law. The legislation from Senate VA Committee Chairman Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Ranking Member Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) requires the VA to submit quarterly reports to Congress about the cost of its ongoing EHR rollout. The first report is due to the House and Senate VA committees in 90 days. The VA recently pushed four of this year’s EHR go-live dates to next year, following a draft inspector general report claimed more than a 100 cases of patient harm at the site of the first EHR go-live.

• House appropriators advance a bill calling for more spending transparency, funding for federal interns and much more. In a vote of 31 to 22 along party lines, the House Appropriations Committee advances a spending bill for financial services and general government. The legislation includes $100 million for the Technology Modernization Fund and an additional 100 million for electric fleet vehicles at the General Services Administration. Another $70.9 million would go to the Office of Personnel Management. That’s out of a total of $29.8 billion under the bill an increase of $4.3 billion over the 2022 bill’s level.

• House appropriators also pass the Homeland Security Department’s funding bill. In a vote of 32 to 25, the House Appropriations Committee advances DHS’s spending bill for fiscal 2023. The bill would provide a total of $60.3 billion to the department. That’s a $2.7 billion dollar increase over the enacted funding level for 2022. The spending bill includes a new pay system for Transportation Security Administration employees that’s equivalent to similar federal jobs in other agencies. It also adds investments to enhance the department’s cybersecurity infrastructure.

• The State Department kicked off its Acq-X program. A central tenet of the State Department’s new strategic plan is to create a holistic acquisition experience, known as Acq-X. One of the first steps in that effort is to develop a single web-based, procurement forecasting application for industry. State issued a request for information detailing its modular plan for that forecasting tool that includes an award for a minimum viable product for up to $350,000. In the RFI, State is asking vendors for feedback on nine questions about the statement of objectives, the timeline for the MVP and an estimate of total cost to develop and support the forecasting too. Responses to the RFI are due by July 8.

• The Postal Service performs better during its peak mailing season this fiscal year compared to FY 2021. A partially redacted audit from the Government Accountability Office says the Postal Service increased service performance for the peak mailing season — from November to January — in fiscal 2022 by 12 percentage points for First-Class Mail, by 10 percentage points for Marketing Mail, and by 14 percentage points for Periodicals. Even though total mail volume process increased year over year, package volume decreased by 12%.

• The Labor Department is getting on the digital transformation office bandwagon. It is joining agencies like the FDA in hiring a director of digital transformation to lead its new office. This senior executive service position will oversee Labor’s effort around the executive order on customer experience and improving service delivery through technology. The director will lead the to modernize Labor’s citizen services and work across the government to improve the user experience. Labor is accepting applications for the director of digital transformation role through July 14.

• The Interior Department announced 65 programs to be part of the Biden administration’s Justice40 Initiative, which aims to deliver drive more benefits of climate change mitigation efforts to disadvantaged communities. Justice40 is an environmental justice initiative introduced under last year’s Executive Order to Tackle the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, using federal procurement and other agency authorities. The Interior programs include existing efforts and new ones instigated by the president’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Examples include the Seeds for Success Program, Water-SMART and abandoned mine reclamation programs.

• The Justice Department is preparing to help agencies resolve any questions about their authority in providing reproductive care. DOJ tells agencies they may continue providing reproductive health services to the extent that it’s authorized under federal law. The Justice Department announcement comes after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday in a vote of 6-3. Attorney General Merrick Garland says he and DOJ are working to protect federal employees who provide reproductive services that are allowed under federal law.

To listen to the Federal Newscast on your phone or mobile device, subscribe in PodcastOne or Apple Podcasts. The best listening experience on desktop can be found using Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

• New legislation would make it easier for security clearance applicants to overcome a history of using marijuana. A provision in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s 2023 intel authorization bill would prohibit agencies from denying a clearance solely based on the applicant’s previous pot use. The provision was championed by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). He’s also pushing to make it so ongoing marijuana use is not the basis for denying or losing a clearance. Today, cleared individuals can still expect to forfeit their clearance due to ongoing pot use, even if it’s legal in the state in which they reside.

• Kiran Ahuja reaches one year as director for the Office of Personnel Management. Ahuja is the first confirmed OPM director to reach one year in office since 2015. After implementing changes like adding time off to vote and updating telework policies, Ahuja said she’s pushing for more reforms to federal recruitment, “We’re going to stand up a chief diversity officer council, which is something that will be coming this summer, paid internship guidance that will be coming out later this summer. We want to ensure that federal jobs and opportunities are accessible to all, as well as doing some reforms to the Pathways Program.” (Federal News Network)

• Agencies have some new guidance for securely using cloud services. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency updated its Cloud Security Technical Reference Architecture this week. The agency received more than 300 comments on the original TRA released last September. The new document reflects requests to bring the guidance in line with the federal zero trust strategy, clarify its connections to the FedRAMP program, and create more consistency with Identity and Access Management capabilities.

• Health and Human Services welcomes its inaugural class of digital fellows. The fellows are part of an early career program to get technology career workers into government. At HHS, the fellows will use data, analytics and innovation to help with pubic health outreach. The program is designed to recruit new tech employees into federal government. Fellows come from a variety of backgrounds ranging from recent college grads, to software engineers and product managers. The Office of Management and Budget last week announced the 41 fellows who will spend the next two years working at 13 different agencies to solve technology challenges.

• Frontline employees at the Federal Emergency Management Agency may see more resources from federal leadership. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell requests funding in the fiscal 2023 budget to expand mental health programs for agency workers. That’s as FEMA faces staffing shortages and a now year-round pace of disaster response in the U.S. Criswell said the agency is analyzing its future staffing model to determine how to increase services, without placing more strain on employees. FEMA’s budget request also includes $6.4 million for the incident management workforce.

• A bill to make federal buildings more resilient against natural disasters makes it through the Senate. The Disaster Resiliency Planning Act would require the Office of Management and Budget to issue guidance to agencies on how to make natural disaster resilience part of their asset management decision-making. OMB would also work with the Government Accountability Office and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help agencies identify potential gaps in their disaster resilience prevention efforts. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.) introduced the bill.

• The upside to Congress’ decentralized nature is that innovation can come from anywhere. The downside is that coordinating those innovations is hard. Current and former staffers say technology can and has solved many common problems for members of Congress, but they want to see members tap into more commercial-friendly platforms and give centralized authority to bodies like the Bulk Data Task Force, or the House Digital Service. The House Modernization Committee said they agree Congress needs better collaboration on tech solutions but it may take dedicated staff from each member office. (Federal News Network)

• Federal contractors and subcontractors have less than a week to certify their compliance with their affirmative action requirements. The Labor Department’s Office of Contractor Compliance set a June 30 deadline for vendors to submit their plans to the OFCCP Contractor Portal. Labor found most contractors and subcontractors were not meeting federal affirmative action requirements forcing them to create this new rule. It mandates companies, on an annual basis, to develop and maintain annual affirmative action plans and upload them to the portal. Contractors and subcontractors who fail to register or certify their compliance will face an audit from Labor.

• The IRS is looking to diversify its contractor base. A new request for information published on SAM.gov says the agency is doing market research. It wants to determine if there is a sufficient population of contractors capable of providing goods and services the IRS needs. The RFI specifically asks for responses from businesses that qualify for socio-economic set-asides. IRS is looking for responses by July 12.

• The Department of Veterans Affairs is now better at negotiating prices of pharmaceuticals. The VA’s National Acquisition Center heeded the advice of its inspector general and renegotiated prices with 10 pharmaceutical suppliers and achieved almost $43 million in immediate savings. The acquisition center went back to the contractors after the IG found all 10 did not have valid reasons for not offering the agency most-favored-customer pricing. The IG also found the acquisition center didn’t reliably track all the items contractors offered through the Price Reduction Clause, causing the higher prices. VA expects to save more than $328 million over the life of the contracts.

• The Department of Veterans Affairs encourages veterans to self-check for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder on PTSD Screening Day, June 27. The agency shared a 50-second self-evaluation to help determine if the subject may have symptoms of PTSD by answering six questions. Paula Schnurr, the executive director of the National Center for PTSD said that the message they want to send is one of hope and she said that PTSD is treatable and a normal response to trauma.

• The concept of a government scorecard for customer experience is coming into focus. Former federal officials suggest a customer experience category could be added to the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act scorecard, or could exist as a standalone scorecard. Matt Lira, former special assistant to the president for Innovation Policy and Initiatives tell the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee a FITRA-like scorecard for CX would get results. “It’s tangible, it’s binary, it’s quantitative. And I will say firsthand, being on the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue, it was an incredibly useful tool, the FITARA scorecard, in driving agency deliverables,” Lira said. (Federal News Network)

• Two observers of federal management have a list of nine tenets for more agile government. The National Academy of Public Administration and the Project Management Institute’s latest report, “Agile Regulation: Gateway to the Future,” outlines an agile regulatory framework with tenets like collaborating early and often on regulatory development, using small inclusive teams to manage the regulatory development process, and automation tools. NAPA President Terry Gerton saidthat after the pandemic, the public sector must begin to operate differently and make public satisfaction the top priority.

To listen to the Federal Newscast on your phone or mobile device, subscribe in PodcastOne or Apple Podcasts. The best listening experience on desktop can be found using Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

• The backlog of immigration cases waiting at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reached nearly 5.2 million, that is cases waiting longer than the target processing time. And about 8.5 million cases are pending. The USCIS Ombudsman says cutting that backlog is the core of their annual report to Congress, due next week. USCIS struggles to hire and train employees fast enough to process cases, but the agency hopes to hire as many as 4,000 employees by the end of the year. The ombudsman recommends more online options for applicants to check their immigration status. (Federal News Network)

• GAO has some recommendations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to improve how it assesses contractor performance. The Government Accountability Office’s latest report finds ICE isn’t fully assessing the impact of its $2.2 billion contract to administer the Alternatives to Detention program. The program uses options like home visits and GPS minoring instead of detaining those awaiting their day in immigration court. GAO also says ICE doesn’t ensure its contractor meets standards. Recommendations to fix this include measurable performance targets and more information on absconsion.

• A contracting officer at the General Services Administration pled guilty to accepting bribes and now faces up to 15 years in prison. The Justice Department says Charles W. Jones of Staunton, Virginia, took more than $411,000 in return for awarding more than $1.3 million in contracts. Jones was a contracting officer overseeing construction and renovation projects at certain federal buildings throughout Norfolk, Richmond and Alexandria, Virginia, including federal courthouses. He will be sentenced on Nov. 9. The presidents of the companies Jones took money from, Contractors USA, Inc., and SDC Contracting LLC, previously plead guilty on related charges.

• One agency dropped the ball in securing its national security systems. End of life software, no multi-factor authentication and poorly managed authorities to operate have plagued the Commerce Department’s national security systems for the better part of the last two decades. The Commerce inspector general found these systems were at risk, and were deprived of resources to be managed effectively. Auditors also found Commerce spent $380,000 on a investigations and threat management system that it didn’t use. Commerce decided to turn off the system in 2021. The IG made five recommendations that Commerce’s CIO agreed with.

• The National Security Agency is trying to make its cybersecurity guidance more accessible. Bailey Bickley, a chief strategy officer at NSA, says she’s meeting people where they are, on social media like Twitter, rather than only posting information at NSA.gov. The agency also publishes cyber information that’s easier to understand by using infographics and clear language. NSA regularly incorporates feedback loops to update and release multiple rounds of guidance based on users’ input. Bickley says as a result, the agency sees more actions taken based on NSA’s cyber guidance.

• The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is looking at ways to improve talent management. CISA is hiring a chief people officer within the next few months. The individual will help establish workforce development priorities and lead a unified approach to talent management. CISA’s Cybersecurity Advisory Committee is also recommending the agency move with greater speed and urgency when it comes to talent management. The committee says CISA should aim to go from job offer to onboarding within 90 days — less than half the time it takes today. (Federal News Network)

• New supply chain security training for feds is on the horizon. President Joe Biden signed the Supply Chain Security Training Act into law last week. The General Services Administration will set up a supply chain security training program to educate federal employees on issues like cyber supply chain threats. The Office of Management and Budget is responsible for developing guidance that helps agencies understand how to use the program and who should participate.

• Federal employees with young kids can now take a little time off from work. The Office of Personnel Management’s leave policy for COVID-19 vaccinations now applies to more feds. The policy adds employees who need to accompany their kids ages six months to five years old in getting the vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration previously approved Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for the younger age group. The leave policy from the Safer Federal Workforce task force applies to feds with all kids eligible for the vaccine. Federal workers can use administrative leave for the appointments.

• Federal firefighters across the country are celebrating their recent pay raises, but many fear it won’t be enough. Advocacy groups say even with the raises, firefighters can make significantly more money in municipal departments, or even at grocery stores. They’re calling for the creation of a new job classification, making them year-round employees. They also warned that without permanent raises, attrition will likely continue. Currently the raises would expire in September of next year. (Federal News Network)

• The U.S. Mint has its first African American director. Ventris Gibson was sworn into the role Wednesday after being confirmed by the Senate on June 15. Gibson is the 40th director of the Mint and is the seventh woman to serve in this role. Gibson’s career in federal service includes several senior human resources roles at the Federal Aviation Administration and at the Department of Veterans Affairs. She brings over 40 years of human resources experience to the Mint.

• The Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services meets today for the first time since it was disbanded in January of 2021. It will have 14 new members appointed by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, among them retired Col. Nancy Anderson of the Marine Corps, and retired Brig. Gen. Allyson Solomon of the Air National Guard. The committee is made up of civilian men and women who are charged with offering advise and recommendations on issues related to the service and retention of women in the military.

• The Department of Veterans Affairs is looking into patient safety concerns following the rollout of its new Electronic Health Record. VA Secretary Denis McDonough says VA’s patient safety expert team is looking into cases of patient harm at a VA hospital in Spokane, Washington and that the team at this point can’t rule out whether the new electronic health record there contributed to the harm caused. “I do now know that there are instances of patient harm” he says. The Spokesman-Review newspaper over the weekend first reported that a draft inspector general report found 148 cases of patient harm following the EHR go-live at the Spokane hospital. (Federal News Network)

• The federal government’s landlord is getting a new tenant, bees! The General Services Administration is installing honeybee hives at 11 federal buildings as part of a yearlong pilot. GSA awarded a contract to a beekeeping serving to maintain the hives, analyze honey production and identify plants and environments that are hospitable to the bees. GSA is collecting data throughout the pilot so that federal buildings and other facilities can serve as a habit for bees and other pollinators that play a role in agriculture and food production.

To listen to the Federal Newscast on your phone or mobile device, subscribe in PodcastOne or Apple Podcasts. The best listening experience on desktop can be found using Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

• The Department of Veterans Affairs will postpone the rollout of its new Electronic Health Record at four sites until next year. The agency made the decision following several reports that raised significant concerns about the system’s reliability. The new EHR will now go live in March 2023 for VA medical centers in the Puget Sound VA Health Care System. The EHR will also now go live at two facilities in the Portland VA Health Care System next April. The EHR will still go live in Boise, Idaho on July 23 this year as planned. (Federal News Network)

• The Defense Department is now more than halfway through the deployment of its new multibillion dollar electronic health record. Officials say the latest waves of the rollout, finished earlier this month, brought MHS Genesis to the point where it’s now operating across the continental US, with more than 114,000 users. The military health system is using a customized version of the same Cerner Millennium software VA has been struggling to implement, but the DoD version is much further along. Defense officials say they still expect to finish deploying the system to all of their facilities by the end of next year.

• Three agencies win money to modernize their technology systems. The Technology Modernization Fund board handed out another $95 million dollars to three agencies for network upgrades and cybersecurity projects. The Agriculture Department is receiving $64 million to consolidate the number of networks from 17 to one. This is USDA’s fifth award from the TMF board. The Department of Homeland Security won $26.9 million to help modernize its Homeland Security Information Network or HSIN. Finally, the Federal Trade Commission will receive $3.9 million to procure a security operations center-as-a-service in order to implement a zero trust architecture.

• The General Services Administration receives the highest honor from the Professional Services Council for how it forecasts procurement opportunities. PSC says GSA did the best job of the 62 agencies and sub-agencies it reviewed in its fourth annual Federal Business Forecast Scorecard. The Marine Corps Systems Command and the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command earned honorable mentions for their efforts to provide industry with timely and relevant information about their acquisition plans. Overall, 17 agencies received a high rating, up from 15 in 2021.

• 15,000 federal firefighters are about to see more money in their paychecks. The White House announces a temporary pay raise for federal wildland firefighters. The wage increase is part of a $600 million investment under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Federal wildland firefighters will get the lower amount between either $20,000 more per year, or a 50% boost to their base salary. The firefighters will also receive retroactive pay going back to October of last year. The temporary increase will last through September 2023. (Federal News Network)

• The Army is bumping up its quick-ship bonus for all new recruits. The service is offering $35,000 to future soldiers who go to basic training within 45-days of signing a four-year contract. The previous bonus was $25,000. There is also a two-year enlistment option, which can afford new soldiers with an extra $10,000.

• Lawmakers want to ensure the Defense Department has a stock of rare earth minerals for future fighting systems. The Senate Armed Services Committee wants to authorize $1 billion for the National Defense Stockpile in 2023. That would double the value of the rare earth minerals the Defense Department amasses for rainy days. Concerns over the National Defense Stockpile rose during COVID as supply chains dried up. Many military officials and lawmakers are concerned that China is becoming the United States’ only source to get some critical elements for making weapons.

• The Air Force and Air University are considering the best ways to incorporate joint all-domain operations training into professional military education. JADO is part of the Defense Department’s larger strategy and connects aspects of air, space, land, cyber and sea. The Air Force recently held initial discussions on how to add JADO to its training during a two-day summit. Officials say JADO training is needed for DoD’s next generation of weapons, which will be interconnected and use technologies like artificial intelligence.

• Federal cyber professionals could soon get more chances to broaden their government experience. President Joe Biden signed the Federal Rotational Cyber Workforce Program Act into law on Tuesday. The goal of the program is to give cybersecurity employees the chance to rotate between different cyber jobs in different departments and agencies. The Office of Personnel Management is now responsible for setting up the rotational program.

• The Department of Homeland Security is making some big changes to its disciplinary processes. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is directing DHS components to centralize disciplinary actions. Allegations of serious misconduct will be handled by a dedicated group of trained professionals who are not the employees’ immediate supervisor. DHS is also refining its disciplinary guidance to ensure penalties match the severity of the misconduct. Mayorkas directed the changes after unpublished inspector general reports came to light showing sexual misconduct and domestic violence being overlooked at some DHS law enforcement components. (Federal News Network)

• Challenges in the new Thrift Savings Plan system are raising concerns on Capitol Hill.  Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) calls on the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board to explain the cause of technical issues, unprecedented customer service hold times, and missing financial information. She asked the board to share its plan for how to fix the issues. The board responded to Norton’s letter, saying the new system is an essential modernization effort for TSP, and that they’re making progress to resolve the issues. Norton says the board’s response does not fully address her questions, and she’s continuing to push for more answers.

• The IRS is rounding the corner on its pandemic-era backlog of tax returns. The IRS this week expects to finish processing the backlog of individual tax returns the agency received in 2021. As of June 10 this year, the IRS processed more than 4.5 million of the 4.7 million individual paper tax returns it received in 2021. The agency says it’s also successfully processed the “vast majority” of tax returns filed this year. The agency started 2022 with a higher than average workload because of staffing shortages and the COVID-19 pandemic. (Federal News Network)

• President Biden nominated Marilynn “Lynn” Malerba to be U.S. Treasurer. If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first Native American in the role, which oversees the U.S. Mint and is a liaison to the Federal Reserve. The treasurer also oversees Treasury’s Office of Consumer Policy, and the Biden administration’s new Office of Tribal and Native Affairs at the Treasury Department. Malerba is the 18th chief of the Mohegan Indian Tribe, and she would join at least four other prominent Native appointees in the administration, including Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and several federal judges.

• A veteran of the federal science and technology community is up to be President Biden’s chief advisor for S&T. Biden nominates Arati Prabhakar to be the new director of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy. She was director of DARPA — short for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — under the Obama administration and was the first female director of NIST during the Clinton administration. Currently she is the CEO of Actuate, a nonprofit that designs R&D solutions using the DARPA method for innovation.

To listen to the Federal Newscast on your phone or mobile device, subscribe in PodcastOne or Apple Podcasts. The best listening experience on desktop can be found using Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

• Service members may see bigger bonuses coming their way in the near future. The Senate version of the 2023 Defense authorization bill budgets for higher enlistment and reenlistment bonuses for specific jobs in the military that are not being filled. It’s part of the reason why the Senate Armed Services Committee wants to give the Pentagon $45 billion more than it requested.

• The House and Senate Armed Services Committees are proposing differing topline numbers for the Defense budget next year. The Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the 2023 Defense authorization bill allows for $817 billion in Pentagon spending. On the other hand, the House Armed Services Committee’s version of the bill trends closer to what the Biden Administration requested with $772 billion. The discrepancy could lead to disputes over the yearly defense policy bill. Last week, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Calif.)  said he expects an amendment that will increase the House bill’s topline. (Federal News Network)

• The Defense Department wasted an estimated $5 million in a single year by buying items it already had in its inventory. That’s according to a DoD inspector general’s review of the Defense Logistics Agency’s excess property program. The IG found the military services bought more than 130,000 items that were already in like-new condition at DLA warehouses in 2020. The report found one main reason is that the services’ ordering systems don’t communicate with DLA’s excess inventory database.

• The Defense Logistics Agency’s Chief Data and Analytics Officer Lindsey Saul said data analytics are the “weapon system of the future,” and DLA is preparing for that day. She said DLA is working on a strategy to increase its data maturity level from two to three. To do that, DLA is preparing its data for cross functional applications and collaboration. It’s already gotten a head start with programs for COVID 19 response, and with the Advana analytics platform. (Federal News Network)

• The Health and Human Services Department’s Office of Inspector General is using data to analyze issues geospatially. Renata Miskell, the OIG’s Chief Data and Analytics Officer, said they’re using predictive analytics and location data to map out risky Medicare and Medicaid providers. That’s helping the Office of Investigations better target their investigations. “It’s one thing to look at spreadsheets and another thing to look at a map,” she said.

• The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is set to get some new ideas on how to address its recruiting challenges. CISA’s Cybersecurity Advisory Committee meets on Wednesday to consider its very first slate of recommendations. These include suggestions on CISA’s cyber workforce. Wednesday’s meeting will also feature discussions around improving national cyber hygiene, as well as vulnerability discovery and disclosure recommendations.

• The Federal Acquisition Regulations Council is reviewing a dozen different proposed rules to improve how agencies manage and protect their supply chains. Jeff Koses, GSA’s senior procurement executive, said in his 30 years in government, he’s never seen so much focus on any one topic. The FAR cases mostly fall into one of four categories: identifying risks, protecting sensitive information, exclusion orders and additional high risk procurements. Koses said he expects many of these FAR Cases to be ready for public comment or finalized by late fall.

• The Commerce Department was able to see early drafts of the President’s Management Agenda which helped it incorporate the initiatives into its own strategic plan. NASA said it also stuck close to the PMA for it’s strategic plan. Along with the Evidence Act, federal performance management leaders say these directives put additional weight behind their own messages of data-driven decision making and incorporating diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility principles. But they still face the same challenges of more requirements without the extra funding. (Federal News Network)

• Around 3,600 allegations of prohibited federal workplace practices are one step closer to seeing the light of day. Merit Systems Protection Board members Tristan Leavitt and Raymond Limon have decided on about 200 federal labor cases. That’s before the Senate confirmed MSPB’s third and final member, Cathy Harris. She told Federal News Network the board is now working through an initial “mix” of cases. Those include new and old cases, ones that may issue employee backpay and some whistleblower cases. Harris said her confirmation could help MSPB get through the backlog more efficiently. (Federal News Network)

• Another group of employees at the Bureau of Land Management elects to unionize. In a unanimous vote, BLM frontline workers in Taos, New Mexico, elected the National Treasury Employees Union as their representative. This is the third group from BLM to join NTEU in the last 18 months. The employees will be part of the New Mexico chapter, merging with their counterparts in Santa Fe. Tony Reardon, the NTEU’s national president, said this vote represents a growing movement of federal employees joining unions.

• Security clearance reform efforts are moving forward quickly. The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency is adding four new categories of alerts to its continuous vetting program this year. And more agencies are also adopting DCSA’s continuous vetting service. Heather Green, the assistant director of vetting risk operations at DCSA, said the agency is focused on growing its personnel security services. “It’s an extremely exciting time. We’re seeing that reform and transformation is here. And we’re seeing the impact of that change in our personnel security process,” Green said. (Federal News Network)

• Three proposed locations for a new FBI headquarters in suburban Maryland and Virginia are still viable sites for the agency to relocate. The General Services Administration told lawmakers in a phone briefing Friday that sites in Greenbelt and Landover, Maryland, and Springfield, Virginia continue to meet the agency’s mission needs. The FBI has been working with GSA, as the federal government’s landlord, on plans for a new consolidated headquarters for nearly two decades. The Maryland and Virginia congressional delegations are both vying for the new FBI headquarters to be built in their state. (Federal News Network)

• GSA makes the final set of awards under a governmentwide small business contract. Joining the other 1,047 firms to have won a spot on the 8(a) STARS III contract are 61 small businesses. The General Services Administration announced the third and final cohort of awardees on Friday. 8(a) STARS III is a governmentwide acquisition contract for IT services. GSA made two other sets of awards, the first coming in June 2021 and the second coming in February. Over the last year, agencies have awarded more than 150 task orders worth more than $180 million through 8(a) STARS III.

• The IRS is using AI-powered bots to set up payment plans with taxpayers over the phone. Individuals who owe less than $25,000 to the IRS and who receive a mailed notice from the agency, can now call an AI powered bot and set up a payment, all without having to wait on the phone to speak with an IRS employee. Taxpayers can name their own price for the payment plan, as long as they pay their balance within the timeframe of the relevant collection statute or up to 72 months. The IRS expects the bots will free up time for IRS employees to handle more complex requests from taxpayers calling the agency. (Federal News Network)

To listen to the Federal Newscast on your phone or mobile device, subscribe in PodcastOne or Apple Podcasts. The best listening experience on desktop can be found using Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

• Federal employees are one step closer to a 4.6% pay raise. A fiscal 2023 draft spending bill does not include a provision on the pay raise for federal workers. That means House appropriators are aligning with the White House’s 4.6% proposal from earlier this year. But the exact number for a federal pay raise is still in the air. Some Democrats are pushing for a 5.1% percent boost, but Republicans are concerned about overspending. The Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government advanced the draft spending bill to the full House Appropriations committee.

• The Air Force will soon launch a cost-free program that will lend maternity uniforms to pregnant airmen and guardians. Maternity uniforms are costly, as service members need to buy different sizes throughout a pregnancy. The pilot program will take place on 10 bases in the U.S. and Japan.

• The first cohort of a new artificial intelligence research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health begins in September. NIH’s AIM AHEAD is a research consortium of institutions dedicated to fostering diversity in data science. AIM AHEAD’s program will provide fellowships to early stage researchers from communities typically under-represented in AI and machine learning. Fellows will be given access to data, infrastructure, training and mentorship. They will also receive financial support for research involving AI and health disparities.

• GSA has finally settled on a new name for its new services multiple award contract. First it was BIC MAC. Then it was the services MAC. Now, finally, the General Services Administration is going with OASIS Plus as the name for the follow-on to the popular OASIS services contract vehicle. GSA also will split the contract into six separate pools, five for small businesses and one that will be unrestricted. In addition, GSA plans to keep the solicitation open after initial awards so new companies can apply to get on and small firms that grow can apply to move to the unrestricted version. GSA expects to release the draft RFP in early fiscal 2023 and the final RFP for OASIS plus in second quarter of 2023.

• Defense Department contracting officers and other acquisition personnel are getting some just-in-time training to deal with inflation as it hits a 40-year high. The Defense Acquisition University is offering a new course to better explain the economic price adjustment, or EPA clause. The online course will help acquisition workers understand when to adjust prices contractors charge, based on inflation and contract type. It also will help them negotiate future contracts to better apply the EPA clause.

• The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is working on one very specific pathway through the transition from prototype to full-scale production. The Embedded Entrepreneurship Initiative focuses on commercialization. It helps innovative companies develop convincing business cases in order to secure early investment. Otherwise, companies can be forced to turn to foreign investors, which can create complicated situations involving intellectual property and security concerns. Ensuring innovative companies are financially viable helps protect DARPA’s investments.

• The Senate Armed Services Committee wants to authorize more money for the Defense Department and nuclear maintenance next year to offset inflation. The 2023 Senate Defense authorization bill proposes $857 billion for the Pentagon and parts of the Energy Department. That number is $45 billion more than what the Biden administration requested. The Senate Armed Services Committee said the funds are needed to hedge against inflation, which has creeped up to around 8%. The bill provides a 4.6% pay increase for service members and Defense Department civilian employees. The legislation also increases investments in artificial intelligence and authorizes the closure of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in Hawaii.

• The Defense Information Systems Agency’s $11 billion contract award for the Defense Enclave Services program survived a protest. The Government Accountability Office denied GDIT’s complaint of DISA’s award to Leidos from March. GAO found DISA’s best-value trade off was reasonable, and there were no problems with its technical and past performance evaluations. GDIT declined to comment on GAO’s decision. Under the DES program, DISA wants to consolidate and modernize networks and technology that support the Fourth Estate.

• The push for evidence-based decision making at federal agencies means data-driven studies are scrutinized more and more. Long-term studies are vulnerable to environmental changes, technology barriers and cooperation. All of these have an outcome on the data, which is why Teri Caswell at the National Telecommunication and Information Administration said all parties need to agree on how trustworthy the data is. She also said she takes an iterative approach to sharing results with stakeholders earlier and not just waiting until the study is completed. (Federal News Network)

• The Technology Modernization Fund is making a big investment in better customer experience throughout government. The TMF will award $100 million to projects that reduce wait times for public-facing federal services and reduce other barriers to access. TMF Chairwoman and Federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana gave an overview of projects that could receive funding. “It can be something as simple as making sure that a website is mobile-optimized, available and written in plain language and accessible,” Martorana said. She added that the TMF board will give funding “priority” to the 35 agencies and program offices designated as High-Impact Service Providers (HISPs). (Federal News Network)

• Agency leaders are critical to improving federal employees’ trust in public institutions. That’s according to new research from the Partnership for Public Service. The Partnership said to improve trust, the Office of Personnel Management should reexamine and update the standards for feds to join the Senior Executive Service. Rita Sampson, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s lead on equal employment, added that federal managers can increase employees’ trust by investing in resources to advance diversity. The Partnership’s findings are based on a survey of 500 federal employees.

• A whistleblower office at the Department of Veterans Affairs once again faces the possibility of a significant restructuring, only a few years into its existence. Members of the House Veterans Affairs Committee’s subcommittee on oversight and investigations are revisiting legislation that would eliminate the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection’s statutory authority to investigate whistleblower retaliation complaints. A discussion draft of the bill, if passed, would cease all of OAWP’s ongoing investigations of whistleblower retaliation. Instead, the Office of Special Counsel would take on the workload. (Federal News Network)

• Agencies got some key guidance for securing their cloud computing architecture. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency published the Trusted Internet Connections 3.0 “cloud use case” this week. The guidance helps agencies think through how to adopt secure cloud services. TIC 3.0 was conceived to help smooth agencies’ transition to the cloud, removing previous roadblocks like TIC access points. CISA is accepting comments on the draft document through July 22.  (Federal News Network)

• The Department of Homeland Security said cybersecurity is a cornerstone of its updated space policy. The document, signed in April and just released this week, is the first update to DHS’s space policy in more than a decade. It highlights the growing commercial space industry and the critical role space systems play in homeland security missions. And the policy said DHS will take a leading role in advocating for cybersecurity principles across all phases of a space systems lifecycle, from design through operation.

• The Department of Labor’s new data strategy has arrived. Labor said through the strategy it will improve how it organizes, manages and shares data, while also encouraging greater use of the collected information in agency operations. The strategy is built on five goals, including the data should be open by default, should fit a purpose and should be comprehensible.

To listen to the Federal Newscast on your phone or mobile device, subscribe in PodcastOne or Apple Podcasts. The best listening experience on desktop can be found using Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

• The House Appropriations Committee released its draft Homeland Security funding bill. It would provide $615.8 million dollars to support the Transportation Security Administration’s pay equivalence initiative. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency may be in line for another big budget increase. The spending bill includes $2.9 billion for CISA. That’s $334 million above CISA’s 2022 budget and $417 million more than the Biden administration’s request for the agency. CISA has seen a steady increase in funding over the last several years as lawmakers respond to cyber threats to both government and the private sector. The bill will be considered in subcommittee today.

• The Federal Emergency Management Agency is taking a hard look at its workforce requirements. FEMA is doing a deep dive analysis of its staffing needs so it can start to plan for what has become a nonstop operational tempo for the agency. FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell told the House Homeland Security Committee that the increase in the rate of natural disasters has put a strain on the agency’s workforce. “We are taking a look right now at taking a step back at now that we have more of this year-long operational tempo instead of the peak that we have traditionally seen during hurricane season, of what does the future staffing model need to look like,” Criswell said.

• Funding for two agency headquarters projects are coming into focus. The House Appropriations Committee, in its proposed financial services and general government spending bill, would give the General Services Administration another $200 million to continue work on a consolidated Department of Homeland Security campus at St. Elizabeth’s in Southeast D.C. The draft bill also gives GSA $500 million to build a new FBI headquarters in suburban Maryland or Virginia.

• The Department of  Veterans Affairs is looking to overhaul pay and hiring as part of a bill expanding veterans’ access to care. The Honoring Our PACT Act would give the VA up to $40 million a year to buy out the contracts of certain private-sector health care professionals in exchange for employment at rural VA facilities. The bill also expands merit awards and pay incentives for employees that have high-demand skills. The PACT Act also gives the VA 180 days to work with the Office of Personnel Management to establish standardized performance metrics for its human resources positions. The Senate expects a final vote on the bill later this week. (Federal News Network)

• The IRS gets a $1 billion increase in a draft spending bill for fiscal 2023. The House Appropriations Committee, in its proposed financial services and general government spending bill, is calling for this money to largely go toward IRS enforcement and taxpayer services. This comes after Congress passed a fiscal 2022 omnibus spending deal that gave the IRS its largest spending increase in decades. The draft bill directs the IRS to maintain an employee training program focused on taxpayers’ rights, dealing courteously with taxpayers, ethics and other topics.

• The House makes its first proposal to fund technology modernization efforts. Even with all the letters and interest from industry associations, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government isn’t convinced that it needs to fund the Technology Modernization Fund at the president’s request. The subcommittee allocated $100 million for the TMF in the draft version of its 2023 spending bill. The Biden administration requested $300 million for next year. The House and Senate zeroed out the TMF in 2022 after giving it $1 billion in the American Rescue Plan Act. The subcommittee is marking up the spending bill today.

• House Democrats want to expand what telework means for federal employees. The Oversight and Reform Committee passed a bill, along party lines, that would include remote work under the larger umbrella of telework. Currently, remote work falls under a separate category for feds. The bill would include remote workers in its goal to improve training and management of federal telework programs. The committee also passed legislation to improve optional survey questions collecting data on LGBTQ+ individuals. And another bill looking to combat Census disinformation also passed the committee favorably.

• Bipartisan House lawmakers want agency leaders to be more transparent in their actions. Reps. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Chip Roy (R-Texas) introduce new bipartisan legislation. The bill would require agency heads to publicly share copies of their schedules and speeches. The Transparent Leadership Act gives agencies 30 days to publish information about meetings and events that they lead. Beyer says agency heads should be held accountable for being transparent on their actions, as they’re in a position to serve the interests of the public.

• Nine House Republicans sent a second batch of letters to 12 agencies on Wednesday over concerns about President Joe Biden’s March 7 executive order. The Congressmen raised alarm bells about Biden’s lack of constitutional and statutory authority to enact the executive order promoting access to voting. The letter asks six questions from each agency about how they plan to implement the executive order, under what authorities and how they plan to protect employees from Hatch Act violations. The lawmakers want a response by June 29. The representatives received no response from agencies after sending the first letter on March 29 expressing similar concerns.

• House appropriators are sticking with President Biden’s 2023 defense budget. The House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee is budgeting $761 billion for the Defense Department in 2023. That number is in line with what the Biden administration requested earlier this year. The appropriations are $32 billion more than what the subcommittee budgeted for 2022. The funds support a $15 minimum wage for contractors, $2.5 billion for investments in clean energy and additional assistance to Ukraine. Some critics are concerned that the budget is not big enough to take recent inflation rates into account and may hinder the Pentagon’s buying power.

• The Navy has relieved five high-level officers over the past week. On Tuesday, the service took the commanding officer of the USS Preble off duty. The Navy also relieved the chief of Recruiting Training Command, the top officer and enlisted sailor of the USS Bulkeley and the commanding officer of Electronic Attack Squadron 137. The Navy has not given any further details into the staff changes except that the men were relieved due to a lack of confidence.

• The Air Force is leading the Department of Defense in expanding its uses for artificial intelligence by training the workforce to become citizen developers with a broad understanding of AI. The citizen developers brainstorm potential ways to adapt AI to automate manually intensive processes, making them faster and more efficient. Winston Beauchamp the deputy chief information officer at the Air Force, says citizen coders have developed 12 solutions and implemented 5 of them, including using AI for weather prediction in areas lacking weather radars.

• The Hosting and Compute Center, or HaCC, at the Defense Information Systems Agency wants to be the “provider of choice” for Defense Department organizations. Director Sharon Woods said to do that, HaCC is prioritizing the customers over the technology itself. HaCC’s customer service experience focuses on agile customer relationships, self-service support, and resiliency. Woods said that philosophy is helping HaCC keep pace with changing technology to provide solutions for warfighters. (Federal News Network)

• The Coast Guard’s Cyber Red and Blue Team Branch chief, Kenneth Miltenberger, says that a ransomware attack is probably coming to a federal agency soon. He says that it’s important to be prepared for such an outcome following recent attacks in Costa Rica by a Russian-tied group called Conti. These attacks have disrupted many of the Costa Rican government’s essential services. Miltenberger also says that while programs like FedRAMP are good at protecting agencies from malicious actors, they do not protect against internal threats like human error when setting up automations.

• Federal risk management remains a growing skillset in the government but just how much does it need to grow? That is the question the Association of Federal Enterprise Risk Management is asking federal employees. AFERM released its annual survey seeking agency leaders to answer questions about the current state of enterprise risk management and any emerging trends. The deadline to take the survey is July 15. AFERM will release the results from this 8th annual survey at its ERM Summit in October.

To listen to the Federal Newscast on your phone or mobile device, subscribe in PodcastOne or Apple Podcasts. The best listening experience on desktop can be found using Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

• Agencies have saved or avoided spending $552 billion after addressing recommendations from the Government Accountability Office. But after taking action on about three quarters of nearly 1,300 actions, agencies can still save billions of dollars more. GAO finds 94 ways that Congress and agencies can improve federal efficiency. Some of those actions fall to the departments of Energy and Health and Human Services. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro says agencies should prioritize recommendations that would save the most money, along with those that directly impact public health and safety. Over the past 11 annual reports, the government has at least partially implemented 74% of the recommendations and saved or avoided spending $535 billion.

• Comptroller General Eugene Dodaro called on Congress to designate one federal agency to develop a national strategy for diet related chronic health conditions. The new department would reduce overlap between the 21 agencies and over 200 federal efforts dealing with diet and health issues, which is costly for the healthcare system.

• Ten states urge a federal appeals court to keep the Biden administration from enforcing its vaccine mandate for federal contractors. Missouri and Nebraska lead the coalition of states telling the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit not to overturn an injunction that prevents the federal government from enforcing its vaccination mandate for federal contractor employees. The states argue the policy amounts to government overreach, and would include about a fifth of the U.S. workforce. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in heard oral arguments in a case against the contractor vaccine mandate led by the state of Georgia. (Federal News Network)

• House committee members clash over the future of telework for federal employees. The House Oversight and Reform Committee considered Rep. Gerry Connolly’s (D-Va.) bill to expand federal telework programs. But some committee members like Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) say federal employees must make a full return to the office to best serve the public. Connolly reported that telework during the pandemic resulted in higher productivity and employee satisfaction. He adds that feds have continued to do their jobs and serve the public while working from home.

• Managers across the federal government need to take faster actions to improve working environments for people with disabilities. Disability inclusion experts said at a seminar held by the Partnership for Public Service and the Boston Consulting Group that agencies should encourage a mentorship program to create a promotion pipeline for more people with disabilities to be leaders. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found on average people with disabilities were 53% more likely to involuntarily leave the federal government than people without disabilities between 2014 and 2018. Other suggestions for inclusive environments include viewing accessibility as productivity tools instead of budget burdens and creating encouraging workplaces for people to feel safe self-identifying. (Federal News Network)

• The Department of Homeland Security’s watchdog helped DHS recover or avoid spending $11 million during a recent six-month period. The DHS Inspector General’s office reported a total of $63 million in recoveries, fines and restitution between October 1, 2021, and March 31, 2022. The watchdog closed 296 investigations during that period. The IG says its inquiries led to 45 arrests, 38 indictments, 62 convictions, and 18 personnel actions over the six-month period.

• The U.S. Marshals Service has its work cut out managing cryptocurrencies seized by the Justice Department. The DOJ’s inspector general office found the Marshals Service in September 2021 held 22 different types of seized cryptocurrencies worth about $466 million. The IG found the agency lacks adequate policies or a system to keep track of these cryptocurrencies. The IG said the Marshals Service is looking to contract out its management of these cryptocurrencies, which should address some of the IG’s concerns.

• The latest audit of the Defense Department’s biggest IT business systems revealed some major gaps. Fifteen out of DoD’s 25 major IT business programs lack a supply chain risk management plan. That’s according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. DoD budgeted more than $38 billion in 2022 for the 25 software programs GAO reviewed. But the report says the 15 programs who lack supply chain risk plans are more susceptible to threats like internal malware insertion or data exposure in a cloud environment.

• U.S. Cyber Command is preparing for its increased budget authority that starts in 2024. Executive Director Dave Frederick said CYBERCOM is going to prioritize joint cyber training, and the joint cyber warfighting architecture. Right now, those programs are both managed across multiple branches. Frederick said the new budget authorities will allow CYBERCOM to align the funding for those efforts. That will improve efficiencies and effectiveness, and allow a more agile response to the changing cyber threat environment. (Federal News Network)

• U.S. Cyber Command wants to prioritize future investments in machine learning. That’s why it’s running a broader survey of machine learning requirements across the DoD in conjunction with DIU, DARPA and the new CDAO. CYBERCOM’s executive director, Dave Frederick, said he hopes to have a better handle on those priorities later this fall. But two areas he’s currently looking at investing in are synthetic users and continuous monitoring. (Federal News Network)

• The Navy and Marine Corps are taking a safety pause after fatal accidents. Earlier this week the Navy and Marine Corps took time to review safety measures and conduct training on the threat and error management process. The pause comes after aviation accidents rocked the services this month. Two of those accidents were fatal. The Department of the Navy said in a statement that safety remains one of its top priorities and that the pause was necessary to maintain readiness. So far this year the Navy and Marine Corps have had nine class A mishaps, which is terminology for the most serious crashes resulting in damage totaling $2.5 million or more.

• Space Systems Command says it is working with a buy first policy when procuring new space products. In order to get space weaponry into the battlespace faster, the command is looking to see if any industry solutions will work best before it uses resources building something itself. The command is also prioritizing solutions from allies as well by sharing space on satellites and cooperating on projects. (Federal News Network)

• GSA has plans to improve the process to get a new or renew current schedule contracts. The General Services Administration wants to know if its current process for vendors to submit an offer to get on its schedule contract could be improved. GSA released a request for information yesterday seeking industry and agency feedback on four distinct schedule workflows. The first is for existing contractors seeking to renew their contracts. The second and third are for new companies wanting to get on the schedules, either through the Startup Springboard or through the Transactional Data Reporting or TDR offer. The fourth is for joint ventures. Responses to the RFI are due June 30.

To listen to the Federal Newscast on your phone or mobile device, subscribe in PodcastOne or Apple Podcasts. The best listening experience on desktop can be found using Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

• The Defense Department is evaluating its own processes with an eye toward making it easier for small companies to provide innovative solutions. Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said the DoD innovation steering group is mapping out the transition process from prototype or commercially available product to DoD contract. This process has never been mapped before. The intent is to identify and mitigate bottlenecks in the DoD innovation pipeline. (Federal News Network)

• Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks is calling on Congress to pass the American Innovation Act to help shore up the Department of Defense’s supply of microelectronics. The act would provide funding for U.S. companies to manufacture microchips. The chips are used across the American economy including in DOD weapons systems. Passing the act would help the DoD get access to enough chips to securely upgrade their systems. The department has already received funding for microelectronic processing in 2022 and asked for similar money in its 2023 budget request. (Federal News Network)

• The 11-month project to develop a zero trust architecture is paying off. The National Institute of Standards and Technology is giving agencies their first look at a year long collaboration with 20 vendors for how best to create a zero trust architecture. Draft Special Publication 1800-35A details considerations when building a zero trust architecture using commercially available technology through interoperable, open standards. The high level architecture creates policy enforcement points for people and devices, and brings in functional components like identity and access management and end point security. Comments on the draft publication are due by July 5.

• The Department of the Air Force is tapping Kelly Hammett to lead the Space Rapid Capabilities Office. In the new role, Hammett will deliver space capabilities quickly to the Space Force by working closely with industry and the service. Hammett is currently the leader of the directed energy directorate at the Air Force Research Laboratory. She’s held that position since 2016.

• The Biden administration doesn’t think a Space National Guard is the best idea. Now some interest groups are pushing back. The Office of Management and Budget balked at creating a new National Guard service for the Space Force this year. However, groups like the National Guard Association of the United States say that OMB’s assumptions about a Space National Guard were incorrect. The organization says OMB assumed a Guard would be set up in every state, which greatly increased the cost estimate. Only states like Colorado and Florida with space capabilities would set up units. The association is now asking the Biden administration to rethink its stance.

• Another new museum may be on the horizon for the Smithsonian Institution. President Joe Biden signed a bill on Monday creating a commission to look into an Asian American and Pacific Islander history museum. The commission will consider whether that should join Smithsonian’s 19 other museums. The Smithsonian currently already has two new museums in the works: the National Museum of the American Latino and the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum. (Federal News Network)

• The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has a new way to help agencies improve their cyber defenses. CISA is building up a Federal Enterprise Improvement Team to assist agencies with their cybersecurity plans. CISA Executive Assistant Director Eric Goldstein says the so-called FEIT teams will help augment the agency’s shared cyber services model. “With these new FEIT teams, we now are hiring personnel who can actually work with individual agencies based upon their unique maturity and characteristics to identify gaps, develop improvement plans and really be with them on their entire journey to improvement,” Goldstein said. (Federal News Network)

• The Social Security Administration should focus on improving cybersecurity and protecting vulnerable beneficiaries. That’s according to the Government Accountability Office, which has released its list of priority recommendations for the SSA. GAO also says the agency should focus on modernizing its operations for information technology. That comes as agency leaders say some of SSA’s technology infrastructure is more than 50 years old. The agency is also prioritizing improvements to cybersecurity and IT modernization in its fiscal 2023 budget request.

• Thrift Savings Plan participants will soon have access to more of their financial history. The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board says starting by mid-June, TSP users will be able to see ending account balances going 10 years back. That’s after the TSP board launched a new account interface on June 1. After the update, many participants said they were unable to see their historical account data. Many TSP users have expressed frustrations about the new system, including difficulties navigating the website, and technical glitches.

• The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is trying to bring a national strategy on privacy-preserving data sharing and analytics into focus. OSTP through a request for information is asking for feedback on how privacy-enhancing technologies might assist in climate change, financial crime, human trafficking, pandemic response, and other federal missions. OSTP expects these technologies will also help promote trust in artificial intelligence. OSTP will accept submissions to its RFI through July 8.

• The National Security Agency has a new top lawyer. April Falcon Doss was named general counsel of the NSA in May. The agency confirmed her appointment last week. Doss first began working for the NSA in 2003. She is returning to the agency after a stint as Executive Director of the Georgetown Institute for Technology Law and Policy. Her selection comes more than a year after the NSA ousted a former Trump White House official who was briefly installed as the agency’s top lawyer.

• The Internal Revenue Service revealed their selection for the next deputy chief for the department’s criminal division. Guy Ficco will oversee the 20 field offices, 11 foreign posts and 2,000 special agents investigating financial crimes like tax fraud. Ficco currently serves in the department as executive director of global operations and has worked within the IRS since 1995. Ficco is replacing Jim Robnett who is retiring Wednesday after 28 years in the role.

• An IRS whistleblower program that pays tipsters a portion of the money they help recover saw a slump in payouts last year. The IRS Whistleblower Office last year made 179 awards to whistleblowers worth more than $36 million. Whistleblower tips helped the agency collect more than $245 million that same year. That’s just a fraction of the payout from fiscal 2018, when the office issued $312 million in awards to whistleblowers. The report’s findings underwhelmed whistleblower advocates, who are calling on Congress to strengthen the program through bipartisan legislation. Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) introduced the IRS Whistleblower Program Improvement Act last summer. (Federal News Network)

• Forty new technologists are coming to help agencies improve their digital services. Thirteen agencies will welcome the first ever cohort for the U.S. Digital Corps. The fellows will work at places like the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Biden administration launched the program last year as a cross-government effort to recruit early-career technologists. The Digital Corps received more than 1,000 applications in one week and offered 10 more positions than the initial plan.
• The Army is about to kick off a major business systems modernization effort. The Army’s Office of the Chief Information Officer wants to modernize and consolidate five enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and 150 support systems. Raj Iyer, the Army’s CIO, said the service will release later this summer a call for white papers under an OTA. That will lead to several prototypes over the next 12-to-18 months to help determine what commercial products can meet the service’s needs. Iyer said this business systems initiative will be done using an agile approach and could take up to 10 years to complete. The Army is asking for $1.4 billion in fiscal 2023 to support those 5 ERPs and 150 support systems.

• The Department of Veterans Affairs is trying to streamline how contractors interact with the department. Last month it announced the Pathfinder site, a new digital one-stop shop for contractors looking to work with the VA. On June 7, that website officially went live. VA also has a portal to help developers interface with VA services. A third shares style and design guidelines to promote consistency. (Federal News Network)

• Federal Executive Boards prioritized emergency preparedness and workforce development for agencies. FEBs across the country provided training for 23,000 federal employees over the last year. The training covered areas like managing virtual teams and preparing for retirement. The boards also hosted 36 workshops and six exercises, and helped agencies collaborate with state and local governments. That’s all to better prepare for emergencies like pandemics, natural disasters and cyberattacks. The Office of Personnel Management said the boards made significant progress in 2021 to improve cross-agency collaboration.

• Military personnel are at risk for some brain injuries, but not the same kind as football players, according to a new study. A limited study of service members’ brains found the chronic traumatic encephalopathy may be rare in military personnel. CTE is most famous for being linked to sports like football and boxing and is caused by repeated sub-concussive hits. About 4% of the 225 brains studied had the disease, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine. All of those service members had a history of playing in contact sports. The military is still increasingly concerned about brain injuries caused by being in blast zones and from using heavy weaponry.

• The Pentagon is moving forward with a plan to build a mobile prototype nuclear reactor that may be an alternative energy source in some locations. The Defense Department chose BWTX Advanced Technologies and X-energy to build the prototype for what it calls Project Pele. The contract could be worth as much as $300 million, with a delivery date in 2024.

• The Biden administration is outlining its plan to maximize COVID-era IT modernization funds from Congress. The Office of Management and Budget plans to spend what’s left of the $200 million Congress gave its IT Oversight and Reform Account to hire technical experts who can lead modernization projects across government. The General Services Administration will use what’s left of the $150 million that went to its Federal Citizen Services Fund to improve customer experience across several dozen agencies and programs designated as High-Impact Service Providers. The Technology Modernization Fund will use its remaining funds, in part, to identify new opportunities for shared services across government. (Federal News Network)

• The IRS is suffering from more and more impersonation scams. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration finds that between October 2013 and March 2022,  more than 16,000 victims have lost $85 million to these IRS impersonation scams. The IG said scammers usually try to obtain sensitive taxpayer information or coerce victims into buying gift cards. TIGTA said it has initiated 893 impersonation scam-related investigations. These efforts have resulted in 300 individuals being charged in federal court. Of those, 197 individuals have been sentenced collectively to more than 910 years’ imprisonment and ordered to pay more than $224 million in restitution.

• An advisory panel is pushing for a review of how the Department of Homeland Security handles immigration records requests. The Freedom of Information Act Advisory Committee is recommending Congress fund an independent assessment of how DHS handles FOIA requests for Alien Files. So-called A-Files are one of the largest categories of FOIA requests. They are crucial for those requesting immigration benefits or seeking to defend themselves in court proceedings. The FOIA Advisory Committee’s latest report also recommends U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services establish a fast-track processing alternative for A-File requests. (Federal News Network)

• Agencies are inconsistently addressing the risks brought on by using time and materials or labor hours type contracts. The Government Accountability Office found agencies spent $139 billion between 2017 and 2021 using these contracts, which require the government to play a more active role in managing costs. Auditors said agencies — such as the Army and the Department of Homeland Security — have taken steps to switch T&M contracts to firm fixed price-type contracts to reduce risk. Meanwhile other agencies, like the Air Force, the Department of State and the Social Security Administration, have increased their use of T&M type contracts.

• The General Services Administration is taking the next steps to transition to an electric fleet. The GSA launched 19,000 new telematic devices to collect data on vehicle usage, trip duration, idling time and fuel use in its automobile fleet. The data will help the agency understand which vehicles can be replaced with electric ones. The new devices are an addition to the over 60,000 already in use. The GSA is working with other vehicle manufacturers to put the telematic devices in more models.