And even before the first hearing Republican calls for Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign intensified Wednesday with top Republican leaders from both the House and the Senate saying she should step down. The director has said she has no intention of resigning.

Rep. James Comer said initially that the Secret Service committed to her attendance but that Homeland Security officials appeared to intervene and there has been no “meaningful updates or information” shared with the committee.

Comer said the “lack of transparency and failure to cooperate” with the committee called into question Cheatle’s ability to lead the Secret Service and necessitated the subpoena.

Cheatle has said the agency understands the importance of a review ordered by Democratic President Joe Biden and would fully participate in it as well as with congressional committees looking into the shooting.

In response to the subpoena and an earlier letter from Comer, Zephranie Buetow, an assistant secretary at Homeland Security, said that while the department was “disappointed that the Committee rushed to issue a subpoena,” Cheatle welcomes the chance to testify. The official said that given Cheatle’s focus on securing the ongoing Republican National Convention, the department would appreciate if she could appear on July 25 or July 26, or the following week, instead of Monday.

The Oversight panel rejected that request for a change of date and committee spokesperson Jessica Collins said, “Director Cheatle has agreed to comply with Chairman Comer’s subpoena and the hearing will take place as scheduled.”

“Americans demand and deserve answers from the director about the attempted assassination of President Trump and the Secret Service’s egregious failures,” Collins said.

The subpoena was just one of a series of developments that occurred Wednesday in the wake of the Saturday assassination attempt.

The fact that a shooter was able to get so close to the former president while he’s supposed to be closely guarded has raised questions about what security plans the agency tasked with taking a bullet for its protectees put in place and who is ultimately responsible for allowing the 20-year-old gunman to climb a roof where he had a clear line of sight to a former president.

House Speaker Mike Johnson announced he would be setting up a task force to investigate security failures that occurred during the assassination attempt. He also said he would be calling on Cheatle to resign from her post as director of the Secret Service, saying on Fox News Channel without elaborating, “I think she’s shown what her priorities are.”

He said the task force would be made up of Republicans and Democrats and its formation would speed up the investigative process.

“We must have accountability for this. It was inexcusable,” Johnson said. “Obviously, there were security lapses. You don’t have to be a special ops expert to understand that. And we’re going to get down to the bottom of it quickly.”

Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, added his name to the list of lawmakers calling for Cheatle to step down. He said on the social media platform X that the near assassination was a “grave attack on American democracy.”

“The nation deserves answers and accountability,” McConnell tweeted. New leadership at the Secret Service would be an important step in that direction.”

The House Homeland Security Committee also invited several state and local law enforcement officials from Pennsylvania to testify at a hearing in the coming days with Rep. Mark Green, the committee’s chairman, saying their accounts of events were critical to the investigation.

A key issue in the unfolding aftermath of the shooting is how security responsibilities were divided between Secret Service and local law enforcement at the rally and what breakdowns occurred that eventually allowed the gunman onto the roof.

Cheatle said during an interview Monday with ABC News that the shooting should never have happened, but also said she has no plans to resign.

When asked who bears the most responsibility for the shooting happening, she said: “What I would say is the Secret Service is responsible for the protection of the former president.”

“The buck stops with me. I am the director of the Secret Service,” she said.

Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service, on Wednesday said: “Director Kimberly Cheatle is proud to work alongside the dedicated men and women of the U.S. Secret Service and has no intention to resign.”

So far, she has the support of the administration.

“I have 100% confidence in the director of the United States Secret Service. I have 100% confidence in the United States Secret Service,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Monday.

But in addition to the Congressional inquiries, Cheatle and the Secret Service are also facing an inquiry by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general.

In a brief notice posted to the inspector general’s website Tuesday, the agency said the objective of the probe is to “Evaluate the United States Secret Service’s (Secret Service) process for securing former President Trump’s July 13, 2024 campaign event.”

The agency also said Wednesday it is launching a review of the agency’s Counter Sniper Team’s “preparedness and operations.”

“Our objective is to determine the extent to which the Secret Service Counter Sniper Team is prepared for, and responds to, threats at events attended by designated protectees,” the inspector general’s office said.

Biden on Sunday said he was ordering an independent review of the security at the rally. No one has yet been named to lead that inquiry.

Since the shooting, Cheatle and the Security Service have come under intense scrutiny over how a gunman could get in position to fire at a former president.

The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to get within 135 meters (157 yards) of the stage where the Republican former president was speaking when he opened fire. That’s despite a threat on Trump’s life from Iran leading to additional security for the former president in the days before the Saturday rally.

A bloodied Trump was quickly escorted off the stage by Secret Service agents, and agency snipers killed the shooter. Trump said the upper part of his right ear was pierced in the shooting. One rallygoer was killed, and two others critically wounded.

Cheatle said her agency was working to understand how Saturday’s shooting happened and to make sure something like it never does again.

Cheatle and FBI Director Christopher Wray participated in a telephone briefing Wednesday afternoon with senators. Republicans came away critical.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., tweeted on X that it was a “100% cover-your-ass briefing.” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., called for administration officials to hold a daily press conference to share updates with the public, and Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said “they are so disjointed that they don’t have their own facts together yet.”

The Secret Service has roughly 7,800 staff members and is responsible for protecting presidents, vice presidents, their families, former presidents, their spouses and their minor children under the age of 16 and a few other high-level Cabinet officials such as the Homeland Security secretary.

___

AP writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.

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The FBI on Sunday identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.

The gunman, who officials said was killed by Secret Service personnel, fired multiple shots at the stage from an “elevated position outside of the rally venue,” the agency said.

An Associated Press analysis of more than a dozen videos and photos taken at the Trump rally, as well as satellite imagery of the site, shows the shooter was able to get astonishingly close to the stage where the former president was speaking. A video posted to social media and geolocated by the AP shows Crooks’ body lying motionless on the roof of a manufacturing plant just north of the Butler Farm Show grounds, where Trump’s rally was held. A different image shows Crooks wearing a gray T-shirt with a black American flag on the right arm, with a bloody wound to his head.

The roof was fewer than 150 meters (164 yards) from where Trump was speaking, a distance from which a decent marksman could reasonably hit a human-sized target. For reference, 150 meters is a distance at which U.S. Army recruits must hit a human-sized silhouette to qualify with the M16 assault rifle in basic training. The AR-style rifle, like that of the gunman at the Trump rally, is the semiautomatic civilian version of the military M16.

President Joe Biden said Sunday he has directed an independent review of the security at the rally.

Biden said he also directed the U.S. Secret Service to review all security measures for the Republican National Convention, which begins Monday in Milwaukee. Audrey Gibson-Cicchino, the Secret Service’s coordinator for the convention, told reporters later the agency was satisfied with what she called its comprehensive planning for the Republican convention.

Biden urged Americans not to make assumptions about the motive of the shooter. He said investigators are working swiftly to investigate the attack.

“Unity is the most elusive goal of all,” he said, but “nothing is more important than that right now.”

Calls for an investigation came from all sides.

Rep. Mark Green, a Tennessee Republican who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security, sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday raising questions about the shooting and demanding information about the former president’s Secret Service protection.

“The seriousness of this security failure and chilling moment in our nation’s history cannot be understated,” Green wrote.

The Secret Service did not have a speaker at a news conference Saturday night where FBI and Pennsylvania State Police officials briefed reporters on the shooting investigation. FBI Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek said it was “surprising” that the gunman was able to fire at the stage before he was killed.

Members of the Secret Service’s counter-sniper team and counterassault team were at the rally, according to two law enforcement officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss details of the investigation.

The heavily armed counterassault team, whose Secret Service code name is “Hawkeye,” is responsible for eliminating threats so that other agents can shield and take away the person they are protecting. The counter-sniper team, known by the code name “Hercules,” uses long-range binoculars and is equipped with sniper rifles to deal with long-range threats.

Mayorkas said his department and the Secret Service are working with law enforcement to investigate the shooting. Maintaining the security of presidential candidates and their campaign events is one of the department’s “most vital priorities,” he said.

“We condemn this violence in the strongest possible terms and commend the Secret Service for their swift action today,” Mayorkas said. “We are engaged with President Biden, former President Trump and their campaigns, and are taking every possible measure to ensure their safety and security.“

Green also noted reports that the Secret Service had rebuffed requests from the Trump campaign for additional security. A spokesman for the Secret Service, Anthony Guglielmi, said on X Sunday that those allegations were “absolutely false” and that they had added resources and technology as the campaign’s travel increased.

Green said he would be talking with Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on Sunday.

Former top Secret Service agents told The AP that Crooks should never have been allowed to gain access to the roof, and the agency will have to figure out how that happened. They said such a lapse could have been caused by officers neglecting their posts or a flaw in the event’s security plan.

The agency is “going to have to go through the security plan and interview a number of people from the director on down” to figure out what went wrong, said Stephen Colo, who retired in 2003 as an assistant director after a 27-year career in the service.

Colo said presidential candidates and former presidents don’t typically get the same level of protection as the sitting president. In fact, Colo said he was surprised that the agency had staffed the event with a counter-sniper team. Such a valuable resource — there are not many of those highly trained agents — is usually reserved for the president. Candidates don’t usually get such teams.

Timothy McCarthy, a former agent who retired from the agency in 1994, said the Secret Service “better be doing a deep dive into what happened there and doing whatever it takes to figure it out” because the gunman should not have been able to occupy such a vantage point.

“How did that person get up on that building?” said McCarthy, 75, who in 1981 took a bullet when President Ronald Reagan was shot outside the Washington Hilton Hotel. “How did that happen? I mean, that’s the key to the entire thing. And what measures were put in place to prevent it?”

James Comer, a Kentucky Republican who is the House Oversight Committee chairman, said he contacted the Secret Service for a briefing and called on Cheatle to appear for a hearing. Comer said his committee will send a formal invitation soon.

“Political violence in all forms is un-American and unacceptable. There are many questions and Americans demand answers,” Comer said in a statement.

U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat, called for investigating “security failures” at the rally.

“The federal government must constantly learn from security failures in order to avoid repeating them, especially when those failures have implications for the nation,” Torres said.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, posted on X that he and his staff are in contact with security planning coordinators ahead of the Republican National Convention set to begin Monday in Milwaukee. “We cannot be a country that accepts political violence of any kind — that is not who we are as Americans,” Evers said.

The FBI said it will lead the investigation into the shooting, working with the Secret Service and local and state law enforcement.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department “will bring every available resource to bear to this investigation.”

“My heart is with the former President, those injured, and the family of the spectator killed in this horrific attack,” Garland said in a statement. “We will not tolerate violence of any kind, and violence like this is an attack on our democracy.”

___

Associated Press writers Del Quentin Wilber, Colleen Long and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.

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NASA has a history of firsts. Now it has a new first: a first chief artificial intelligence officer. Joining the Federal Drive with Tom Temin is that chief AI officer, Dave Salvagnini.

Interview transcript:

Tom Temin
Well, let’s begin with you. Are you new to NASA, or is this a new job for you at NASA? I think I know, but you tell us.

Dave Salvagnini
Certainly. So, it’s a little bit of both, quite candidly. So, I spent most of my career in the Department of Defense for a period of time as an active duty Air Force officer, and then also as a civilian, for the Defense Intelligence Agency and some other parts of the intelligence community during that career. I joined NASA last year in June. So, I just passed my one-year anniversary. I joined as the chief data officer, and then led a group to evaluate how NASA should best respond to the executive order that was released last October, requiring federal agencies to have a chief artificial intelligence officer. We closed out a study and made our recommendations to the deputy administrator and administrator, and I was named as the chief artificial intelligence officer here in May.

Tom Temin
Now, I’m imagining that throughout the hundreds of mission areas and projects that are going on at a given time in NASA, people are using artificial intelligence, because everything NASA does is basically software that goes somewhere. So, what will the chief AI officer actually do, then?

Dave Salvagnini
No, that’s a great question, and you’re absolutely right. And I just want to amplify your point, NASA has been using artificial intelligence for many, many years, quite successfully. So, what will the chief artificial intelligence officer do? Certainly we will meet the requirements in the executive order and the OMB guidance that required the federal agencies to appoint a leader who is looking after the use of artificial intelligence across the agency. Of course, what has occurred more recently is the advent of, or the advancement of general AI capabilities, and the ability to equip the workforce writ large with those capabilities, which means now, we also have to equip them to use those capabilities responsibly, ethically. So, that requires some training. So, one of the things that the chief artificial intelligence officer will have to do is look at equipping the workforce for safe and responsible use of AI tools, especially those tools that have become more widely accessible.

Tom Temin
Yeah, that’s a big difference, because the traditional AI tools and robotic process engineering, that required some expertise to make it do anything, like programming, whereas the generative, it’s in everybody’s palm of their hand and at their fingertips.

Dave Salvagnini
That’s exactly right. And it’s important for the workforce to understand that ultimately, the employee is responsible for any outcome, any work product outcome, whether it be solely derived by their own cognitive abilities, or whether it be augmented or enhanced in some way with an AI capability. So, it’s really about equipping the workforce to understand that they own the responsibility for their work, and they also have a responsibility for the ethical use of those tools. They have a responsibility to protect data, and that means not presenting proprietary data that shouldn’t be put out in the public, to tools that may not protect that data, or may circumvent some of the security controls around that data. So, there’s a whole host of things, just like if you imagine some of the cyber training that we all go through every year so that we can safely operate our computer within our work environment, which equips us with what does a phishing email look like, or text, and how not to click on that and how to report on it. We have to do the same thing with this new emerging technology.

Tom Temin
And you could say, maybe AI divides along another axis. And that is, what it is I’m using to apply to my personal work. Say I’m evaluating download data or something, or some flight pattern data from an aircraft wing experiment, and I’m creating a work product from that, versus what, say, HR might deploy using generative AI, looking at NASA’s personnel policies, and therefore you have an enterprise type of application.

Dave Salvagnini
The guidance from the administration right now is that we have to report an inventory of all AI use cases across the agency. In the past, NASA has reported over 400 AI use cases. I would expect in some cases that will grow. In some cases, based on some of the rule changes, it may actually shrink a little bit. But in particular, the administration is concerned with safety and rights impacting AI use across the federal government. So, safety would have to do with and in particular with NASA, it has to do with, let’s say the movement of vehicles across ground, sea, air or space. So, obviously NASA moves vehicles across space and any use of AI to enable that is subject to a safety use case criteria. The other would be certainly in the area of aeronautics and air traffic control, where AI is starting to be experimented with as it relates to the air traffic control system and looking at opportunities to increase the capacity of that system. That would be certainly a safety categorized use case. An area of rights use cases, for NASA, we don’t have nearly as many as a lot of our other federal departments would have. We’re not adjudicating health claims. We’re not dealing with education benefits requests, we’re not adjudicating housing requests. So, we’re not in that public facing services space, where the rights impacting use cases will be quite important. We’re not handling a lot of public data. So, we don’t have people applying for services where there’s an implicit expectation of privacy. I would say where rights impacting use cases start to enter into the equation is where NASA may start to use AI in its HR practices, whether it be to triage, let’s say, a set of candidates or maybe in a performance evaluation system at some later date. At this point in time, we’re not doing that, but it’s certainly being considered because there is some opportunity there.

Tom Temin
We’re speaking with Dave Salvagnini, he’s NASA’s new chief artificial intelligence officer. And are you also still the chief data officer? Again, in my view, the AI officer kind of would be a higher notch than data, because data is needed for AI. So, do you report to yourself in that manner?

Dave Salvagnini
I like how you phrase that. I am still the chief data officer here at NASA, so I have the role of chief data and artificial intelligence officer. What we evaluated when we looked at the opportunities as we looked at separating them, so there could be a chief AI officer role, a chief data officer role, or combining them. And we found that there is a lot of synergy in combining the two roles. You don’t enable AI without data. And there are some very specific things that have to be thought about as you manage data over its lifecycle to ensure that that data is really prepared for AI, or what I sometimes would refer to as AI-ready. So, for the time being, there’s a synergy in having those roles under a single leader. And now that said, I am scaling the team. So, we’ve just selected a deputy chief data officer who will handle a lot of the data officer functionality. We’re hiring some folks on the AI front as well. I do have a chief, a deputy chief AI officer supporting me. So, much like a CIO would do, where there’s a broad scale, a broad portfolio of activity under their domain, I see myself having that kind of role as well as an executive, where I’ll have a team that’s looking after the data needs and the team that’s looking after the AI needs. And, in some cases, this synergy comes from, let’s say, governance. So, when you think about governance for AI, while there’s also a connection with governance for data, and maybe there’s an opportunity for those to converge at some point. So, that’s where we are now. One of the things that we recommended to our leadership, when we briefed out our recommendations was, we will evaluate and reassess, certainly after six months, and then annually thereafter. So, there could be a change in our future.

Tom Temin
NASA, being highly federated organization, you have the different flight centers and the different labs that are pretty autonomous. What is the governance? How do you relate to the leadership within those different mission areas and different large projects, such that can all get along and downtown over the expressway isn’t dictating out to the West Coast?

Dave Salvagnini
No, that’s absolutely correct. So, rightsizing the governance, building a governance model that really honors the value associated with the highly distributed nature that NASA has, I think is important. Of course, I’ve spent my first year here at NASA doing that on the data side. So, the approach we’re taking is a federated governance model. It’s tiered, where, yes, at the headquarters level, there is enterprise governance for data. But the expectation is, is that mission organizations would stand up their own governance function that’s specific to their needs. And likewise for AI. So, what we will do is we will set conditions so that centers and mission organizations can create governance that’s tailored to their mission needs. So, a mission support organization is going to have different types of AI governance needs than, let’s say, our science mission directorate, or aeronautics directorate. So, in giving the organizations the latitude to be able to build the governance and optimize it for their needs has been the approach that I’ve been taking. And, candidly, I think it’s well-received because people certainly don’t want headquarters saying this is a one solution fits all approach to how we’re going to do governance, and just take it or leave it. That’s not a way to win friends and influence people in an organization, any organization, but particularly NASA.

Tom Temin
I would think that you would have to have some centralized policies, such as for how handling data has to be done, and so on. Whereas there’s got to be some latitude if someone wants to reexamine old data on blown lift for some new insight. That’s where the expertise is, whereas the data stewardship is more universal in scope. Fair way to put it?

Dave Salvagnini
Absolutely. I mean, well think about science data, as compared to wind tunnel test data, as compared to HR data, as compared to contracts data, as compared to cyber data, on and on and on, right? Financial data. I mean, there’s so much nuanced difference in how you manage that data. And there’s so much nuanced difference in a, well, I wouldn’t even say nuanced difference in AI use cases that can apply to any of those domains. So, giving organizations latitude, but setting conditions from a guardrails perspective, more broadly, such as, again, you know, what are what are the right sets of training courses that an employee should have, if they’re going to be using a generative AI capability as part of their work? Or if you’re going to work on what are the tests that validation procedures that are going to go into deployments of an AI capability? And I’d like to just take a moment to comment on that for a second, because I often talk about AI here at NASA and the many years of AI experience that we have, but that experience is in very well-tested circumstances. So, if you think about our systems engineering lifecycle where we have autonomous capabilities and space vehicles, like the Perseverance Rover on Mars, or in our science mission directorate, the amount of rigorous testing that goes into the development of those systems is, it’s quite substantial. And in the case of science, the amount of peer review, and validation and replication of results that goes into some of that work is quite substantial. So, there is a lot of validation, verification, validation in our history of AI use. Of course, now, with generative AI, and putting it in the hands of every employee, you know, that is not the case. So, again, now we have to equip people with understanding its appropriate use, responsible use, ethical use, and so on.

Tom Temin
Right. That’s a pretty daunting training challenge, then, because there’s technology, there’s policy, there’s data handling. And in the case of generative, you have to teach people how to prompt. It turns out that’s really where the magic is, and not in all that soup of data that they’re prompting.

Dave Salvagnini
I completely agree and often talk about that, you know, because there are errors of omission that can enter into the equation if you don’t prompt the act correctly. So, equipping the workforce, not only with that, but also understanding. I was testing a capability more recently that a colleague had developed, it was a prototype. And I intentionally asked the AI questions that I knew were very broad in scope, but the responses I got were narrow in scope. So, there were errors and omissions. But you know, me being somewhat of an evaluator, in that particular scenario, knew enough to be able to, again, ask those questions and be able to verify whether the AI was giving me a complete an answer or not. So, again, that’s part of the role of equipping the workforce and making sure that they know they’re ultimately responsible for the completeness of an answer that might come from generative AI capability.

Tom Temin
And as the chief data and AI officer, are you in the CIO channel at NASA?

Dave Salvagnini
I am, and I think there’s a lot of synergy there as well. But of course, I am probably unlike some of the other organizations that are part of the CIO. In other words, I’m not directly delivering IT services. There’s other parts of the CIO organization that do that. However, I’m the advocate, the functional advocate, and a bit of, certainly the advocate for the deployment of AI tools across NASA. So, one of the things I’m working with the CIO, Jeff Seton, on, is accelerating access to AI tools, so that people can have, I won’t say the identical experience they have at home, but they’ll have access to the tools because candidly, the point that I make is, is the longer we don’t have access to tools that are protected within our protected boundary, the higher the risk to our NASA data we incur because people will find creative ways of using these tools, whether they’re available to them or not. So, what I would rather do is put the tools in their hands within a protected boundary, nasa.gov, rather than have them go outside of that boundary and start to potentially do harm. Tolerating access to those tools is one of our main thrust areas.

Tom Temin
And as someone relatively new to the agency, is part of your job getting out and checking out what the different centers and labs are doing? I mean, NASA has, outside of the Air Force, some of the greatest toys in government.

Dave Salvagnini 
You know, to think that I have even the level of understanding I have about this organization and its vastness is, it’s pretty small, you know, with one year in the sea. So, I absolutely have to get out. And I get out virtually, and I also get out physically, but building that network of trusted colleagues, and having people be open to sharing the work that they’re doing with me, is an important part of my role as a leader and an important part of my leadership style as it relates to how I interface with and how I interact with organizations across the agency. But this is an amazing organization, it’s an amazing culture, the things that we do are just looked up upon by the world all over. And it’s just a pleasure to be here and be in this role. I can’t imagine being a chief AI officer anywhere else. I mean, this is an organization that wants to explore, that wants to push the envelope. So the culture is just eager to capitalize on the opportunities that AI bring, but also understands the value of verification and validation testing. It’s very much part of our culture as well. So I think it’s a perfect blend of being responsible, and also looking to be innovative and trailblazing.

Tom Temin
So, artificial intelligence works best when the natural intelligence is pretty high.

Dave Salvagnini
I would agree.

Tom Temin
Dave Salvagnini is NASA’s new chief artificial intelligence officer and data officer. There’s much more to the interview. Hear it in its entirety at federalnewsnetwork.com/federaldrive. Hear the Federal Drive on demand. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

The post Meet something new for NASA — its first chief artificial intelligence officer first appeared on Federal News Network.

Inhofe, a powerful fixture in Oklahoma politics for over six decades, died Tuesday morning after suffering a stroke during the July Fourth holiday, his family said in a statement.

Inhofe, a Republican who underwent quadruple bypass heart surgery in 2013 before being elected to a fourth term, was elected to a fifth Senate term in 2020, before stepping down in early 2023.

Inhofe frequently criticized the mainstream science that human activity contributed to changes in the Earth’s climate, once calling it “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.”

In February 2015, with temperatures in the nation’s capital below freezing, Inhofe brought a snowball on to the Senate floor. He tossed it before claiming that environmentalists focus attention on global warming as it kept getting cold.

As Oklahoma’s senior U.S. senator, Inhofe was a staunch supporter of the state’s five military installations and a vocal fan of congressional earmarks. The Army veteran and licensed pilot, who would fly himself to and from Washington, secured federal money to fund local road and bridge projects, and criticized House Republicans who wanted a one-year moratorium on such pet projects in 2010.

“Defeating an earmark doesn’t save a nickel,” Inhofe told the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce that August. “It merely means that within the budget process, it goes right back to the bureaucracy.”

He was a strong backer of President Donald Trump, who praised him for his “incredible support of our #MAGA agenda” while endorsing the senator’s 2020 reelection bid. During the Trump administration, Inhofe served as chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee following the death of Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell called Inhofe a good friend whose work benefited all the nation.

“Jim’s diligent stewardship of massive infrastructure projects transformed life across the Heartland,” McConnell said in a statement. “His relentless advocacy for American energy dominance unlocked new prosperity across the country and his laser focus on growing and modernizing the U.S. military strengthened the security of the entire free world.”

Republican Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford called Inhofe a “true patriot” and an “institution.

“His passion for our military, aviation, energy, infrastructure, Africa, and our personal freedom was vital for our state and our nation,” Lankford said in a statement.

In Oklahoma, Inhofe helped secure millions of dollars to clean up a former mining hub that spent decades on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund list. In a massive buyout program, the federal government purchased homes and businesses within the 40-square-mile (104-square-kilometer) region of Tar Creek, where children consistently tested for dangerous levels of lead in their blood.

Inhofe championed veterans and firmly believed in the “American Dream,” said Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, who ordered flags on state property to fly at half staff through Wednesday.

In 2021, Inhofe defied some in his party by voting to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election, saying that to do otherwise would violate his oath of office to support and defend the Constitution. He voted against convicting Trump at both of his impeachment trials.

Born James Mountain Inhofe on Nov. 17, 1934, in Des Moines, Iowa, Inhofe grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Tulsa in 1959. He served in the Army between 1956 and 1958, and was a businessman for three decades.

He won legislative seats in the ’60s and unsuccessfully ran for governor and Congress in the ’70s. In 1978, he became Tulsa’s mayor, and held the job for three terms.

Inhofe went on to win two terms in the U.S. House in the 1980s before winning a bitter U.S. Senate race in 1994. He would be reelected five times.

Former longtime Democratic Sen. David Boren said he and Inhofe worked together in a bipartisan manner when both were in the state Legislature. He later defeated Inhofe in a race for governor.

“While we ran against each other for governor, we were opponents but never enemies and remained friends,” Boren said in a statement. “I hope we can rebuild that spirit in American politics.”

Inhofe lived up to his reputation as a tough campaigner in his 2008 reelection bid against Democrat Andrew Rice, a 35-year-old state senator and former missionary. Inhofe claimed Rice was “too liberal” for Oklahoma and ran television ads that critics said contained anti-gay overtones, including one that showed a wedding cake topped by two plastic grooms.

Inhofe’s bullish personality also was apparent outside politics. He was a commercial-rated pilot and flight instructor with more than 50 years of flying experience.

He made an emergency landing in Claremore in 1999, after his plane lost a propeller, an incident later blamed on an installation error. In 2006, his plane spun out of control upon landing in Tulsa; he and an aide escaped injury, though the plane was severely damaged.

In 2010, Inhofe landed his small plane on a closed runway at a rural South Texas airport while flying himself and others to South Padre Island. Runway workers scrambled, and Inhofe agreed to complete a remedial training program rather than face possible legal action.

“I’m 75 years old, but I still fly airplanes upside down,” Inhofe said in August 2010.

He later sponsored legislation that expanded the rights of pilots when dealing with Federal Aviation Administration disciplinary proceedings.

In 2016 Inhofe, then 81, walked away from a forced landing during severe weather in northeastern Oklahoma.

Inhofe is survived by his wife, Kay, three children and several grandchildren. A son, Dr. Perry Dyson Inhofe II, died in November 2013, when the twin-engine aircraft he was flying crashed near Tulsa International Airport.

___

Retired Associated Press journalist Tim Talley was the principal writer of this obituary.

The post Former US Sen. Jim Inhofe, defense hawk who called human-caused climate change a ‘hoax,’ dies at 89 first appeared on Federal News Network.

There have been a lot of high profile cyber-related folks on the move recently with Chris DeRusha, the federal chief information security officer, leaving in May, and then Eric Goldstein, the executive assistant director for cybersecurity in the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the Homeland Security Department, announcing his departure two days later.

While DeRusha landed at Google as its director of global public sector compliance, Goldstein waited until last week to announce his next job. He will be the managing vice president and head of cyber risk at Capital One.

“As with any role, transitions are essential. I’m thrilled that my dear friend Jeff Greene has stepped into the leadership seat for the Cybersecurity Division — there is no one better suited for the role,” Goldstein wrote on LinkedIn. “And I’m equally delighted to be starting the next phase in my journey at Capital One, where I’m joining an amazing team that is transforming the financial sector through innovation, scalable risk management, and a laser focus on customer experiences. I’m looking forward to new perspectives while continuing on our shared mission of keeping our country’s critical services safe and resilient against cyber risks.”

Greene came to CISA in May from the Aspen Institute where he was senior director for the cybersecurity program.  Prior to that, he was the chief, of cyber response and policy at the White House’s National Security Council from 2021 to 2022. He also worked at the National Institute of Standards and Technology for five years, for Symantec and was a senior counsel for the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for three years.

Along with the top level changes in federal cybersecurity, two more cybersecurity executives headed out the door.

Ross Foard, as senior engineer in CISA’s cybersecurity division, retired after eight years at the agency where he lead efforts on identity security and helping to shape the continuous diagnostics and mitigation program.

“It was a rewarding experience over the last eight years, on par with the eight years I spent as a U.S. Navy submariner at the beginning of my career,” Foard wrote on LinkedIN. “I have been honored to serve as a subject expert and elevate identity and access management (IdAM) and cryptographic capabilities across the federal civilian executive branch (FCEB) and beyond.”

Among the areas Foard helped lead included serving as CISA’s CDM program lead engineer and architect for IdAM capabilities.

He said this helped the CDM program provide identity management and privileged management capabilities to the largest federal agencies and establish the ability to understand who authorized users were by creating a master user record at each agency.

Additionally, Foard served on the Federal Mobility Group (FMG) Mobile Security Working Group, where he helped demonstrate how mobile devices can serve as important and secure sources of identity and enable phishing-resistant authentication.

Finally, Foard highlighted his time as the co-chairman on the Federal CISO council’s ICAM subcommittee.

White House leaders heading back to academia

Jake Braun is a fourth federal cyber leader to move on over the last two months. Braun, the acting principal deputy national cyber director in the White House’s Office of the National Cyber Director, is returning to the University of Chicago where he is a lecturer and on the faculty of the Harris School of Public Policy.

Braun was the executive director of the cyber policy initiative from March 2018 to February 2021 where he joined DHS as a senior advisor to the Management Directorate, which oversees all operations for the department.

He has been working at ONCD since June 2023 as what some would call the functional chief operating officer for the office where he oversaw the implementation of the national cybersecurity strategy.

“Helping run a startup in the White House has been one of the best experiences of my professional career. ONCD has accomplished so much in such a short period of time,” Braun said in an email statement. “I can’t thank the team at ONCD — especially Director [Harry] Coker and Kemba Walden — as well as President [Joe] Biden enough for giving me this opportunity.”

At the recent AFCEA TechNet Cyber conference, Braun spoke about the changes to ONCD over the last year, including growing to almost 100 people.

“One of the main things we are doing, and we haven’t had this before where there is one agency or White House office like ourselves whose sole job is driving federal cohesion on cybersecurity. We do that through implementation of the national cyber strategy. Nearly every agency in the federal government has some aspect of cybersecurity tied to their part of the Implementation of the national cyber strategy,” Braun said.

In a statement, Coker praised Braun’s dedication and efforts to improve the nation’s cybersecurity posture.

“From the beginning of the Biden-Harris administration, and even earlier, Jake Braun has been a fierce advocate for our Nation’s cybersecurity. At every opportunity, I’ve seen Jake be a champion for the implementation of the National Cybersecurity Strategy, rallying ONCD and our mission partners to collaboratively focus on achieving meaningful outcomes. I am especially grateful for Jake’s advocacy and action on behalf of our nation’s critical infrastructure owners and operators, helping them learn about and take advantage of the resources wisely allocated through the President’s investing in America agenda,” Coker said. “Along the way, Jake repeatedly heard organizations tell us they need two things: resources and trained workers. In every meeting, in every engagement, his focus on having an impact for those on the front lines of our nation’s cybersecurity has been unwavering — that’s leadership. I personally am grateful to Jake for not only his incredible leadership while he’s been here at ONCD, but also his guidance and friendship.”

Outside of the cybersecurity realm, one other federal technology leadership retirement that is worth mentioning. Terryne Murphy, who had been the chief information officer of the Railroad Retirement Board since August 2019, retired after more than 35 years of federal service.

“To my leaders along the way, thank you — I learned so much from you. Thank you for every opportunity to stretch and to grow, for your counsel, your cover, and your patience while I learned to get better at leading/serving!” Murphy wrote on LinkedIN. “To my colleagues, teammates, and my classmates, thank you — I learned so much from you, too. Thank you for the challenges and the tough lessons to always strive to take the high road and to give back better than what we received! I did my best to serve you all well.”

Rich Kramer is the deputy CIO for the RRB, but it’s unclear if he stepped into the acting role with Murphy’s retirement.

Along with her time at RRB, Murphy also worked at the Commerce Department for 18 months serving as the acting CIO for seven of those months.

She began her career with the Army as a telecommunications officer and after nearly 12 years of service, Murphy joined the civilian sector working at the Justice Department, the Homeland Security Department and the Census Bureau.

Beyond these departures, there are several federal executives who have found new roles in government.

For starters, Mike Wetklow, the deputy CFO for the National Science Foundation for the last eight years, is taking a new job at the IRS as its chief risk officer.

“I am excited to join an organization dedicated to public service and to help drive innovation, leverage data, and improve compliance processes,” Wetklow wrote on LinkedIn. “Most importantly, I look forward to collaborating with the talented team at the IRS and contributing to an environment where we can all thrive.

Wetklow also worked at the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Federal Financial Management for four years as a branch chief and previously worked at DHS and the Government Accountability Office.

He also was the co-chairman of the CFO Council’s working group on improving the federal financial management workforce.

New leaders at HHS, Air Force

A second federal executive heading into a new job is Melissa Bruce, who is taking over as the deputy assistant secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services Program Support Center (PSC).

She joins HHS PSC after spending the last four years working in the Treasury Department’s Special Inspector General for Troubled Asset Relief Program. (SIGTARP) office. Bruce has been acting IG for the last 2-plus years. Previously, she spent 10 years at DHS in the management directorate and worked in the private sector.

Bruce takes over PSC after several turbulent years, including the cut back of its assisted acquisition services and controversial treatment of its leadership.

Finally, Darek Kitlinski is the new chief technology officer for the Air Force’s Manpower, Personnel and Services (A1). He comes to the service after spending the last almost two years as the chief of the cloud services division for the Army’s Enterprise Cloud Management Agency.

In this new role, Kitlinski serves as the senior civilian advisor on cloud computing, computer systems and information technology.

Kitlinski also has been CTO for the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) and chief technology advisor for enterprise architecture, cloud, cyber and governance for the Coast Guard.

The post People on the move: RRB CIO retires, IRS gets new CRO first appeared on Federal News Network.

That came to mind when reports surfaced last week that First Lady Jill Biden wanted her husband to stay in the presidential race because she, Mrs. Biden, was so enamored of the perks that come with White House life. But maybe it’s because she’s simply someone protective of a beloved spouse. With the questions surrounding the president, how about a little empathy and humanity, regardless of your views on President Joe Biden’s politics and policies?

I recall that during the final phase of Richard Nixon’s eventful presidency, many news people outside of opinion and editorial sections decided to go ahead and take sides. They mostly called for his resignation. Here they go again.

Now we have an upcoming presidential election that seems unreal to many: A man convicted of felony charges running against a man many believe is in mental decline and are urging to drop out of the race.

I’m not going to express an opinion here, neither on whether Trump is good or bad, nor whether Biden should or should not get out. We don’t take political positions here, and anyway, you’ve got a thousand other places to go for that sort of material.

But I did want to comment on dealing with mental decline and dementia. If you’d ever been close to someone who has dementia coming on, you soon realize it’s a one way street. A cruel one at that. Once, when visiting my parents when they were still living the retired-in-Florida life, my wife and I exchanged silent stares when we observed my mother preparing dinner. A meticulous and skilled cook, my mother dropped three frozen lamb chops into a hot skillet, trying to prepare dinner for four.

Suddenly a lot of behaviors came into focus. We witnessed the advent of dementia that would, over the next several years, rob her of her personality and eventually render her mute. During the early years, she functioned well because the episodes only occurred occasionally. But the end — why, no one with an ounce of empathy would wish that on anyone.

Dementia has great efficiency in wiping out a person’s functionality and their life savings at the same time. Eventually, it plucks away their dignity in the absence of compassion by those nearby. Luckily, my parents were prudent and my mother didn’t outlive their money. My dad had passed a few years earlier and left mom reasonably well, financially. I feel he was fortunate not to stick around for the slow, then fast, mental and functional meltdown of his spouse of 64 years. The images and experiences of dealing with a loved one’s dementia, though, never leave you.

Which brings me to Joe Biden. People saw what they saw during the debate. It’s produced a new twist on the election chatter. Someone medically qualified can and should determine whether the President is able to keep working. Maybe he just needs more rest. Maybe he’s mostly out of it. Maybe this, maybe that.

But let’s say for the sake of argument that Biden has entered the decline from dementia. My position is this: Regardless of your views on the man, no one should take pleasure or delight in witnessing a misfortune befalling someone else, a fate that person absolutely can’t control. Whatever his condition, let’s hope people actually qualified to assess him do so, and let decisions on his future depend on the medical science.

For sure, the questions need rapid resolution by qualified people, given the consequences. But in the meantime — sorry if I sound preachy — can we all remember there’s nothing amusing in another’s declining mental or physical condition? As the great sages wrote, don’t insult the deaf nor cause the blind to stumble.

Even presidents deserve dignity.

The post How about a little humanity in the questions surrounding Biden? first appeared on Federal News Network.

• It didn't take long for Chris DeRusha to find his next job, after leaving as the federal chief information security officer last month. DeRusha is joining Google Cloud as the director of global public sector compliance. DeRusha was the federal CISO from January 2021 to May 2024. He will work with former CISA executive Jeanette Manfra, who is the global director of security and compliance. In his new role at Google Cloud, DeRusha will focus on the expansion of Google Cloud’s growing suite of products and services — across AI, cloud computing and security to the public sector. Besides being federal CISO, DeRusha has worked as the chief security officer for the state of Michigan and worked at Ford Motor Company.
  (Former Federal CISO DeRusha lands at Google Cloud - LinkedIn)
• The Department of Homeland Security is bringing in some new artificial intelligence talent. DHS has hired the first 10 members of its new AI Corps. The group includes a mix of people with government and industry backgrounds. DHS plans to hire a total of 50 experts into the AI Corps by the end of this year. They will help lead high-priority AI projects across the department. DHS has named some initial use cases for AI, including detecting fentanyl at the border, combating child abuse, and training asylum officers.
  (DHS AI Corps hires an initial 10 experts - Federal News Network)
• Despite a growing caseload, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is dealing with limited resources. Managing workloads for EEOC caseworkers is becoming all the more difficult as the agency is currently under a hiring freeze. That means when an employee leaves EEOC, for any reason, they cannot be replaced. The workload challenges are especially true for investigators dealing with discrimination cases: “The average is about 100 per investigator, but we have some districts where we are way north of that. That is a real challenge and something that I personally worry a lot about,” EEOC Chairwoman Charlotte Burrows said in an interview. EEOC is trying to work creatively and doing the best with what they do have, but Burrows said more resources are going to be necessary.
  (Interview with EEOC Chairwoman Charlotte Burrows - Federal News Network)
• The Defense Department’s new IT advancement strategy is a roadmap for better aligning information technology efforts across the entire department. The Fulcrum strategy, signed by Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, focuses on investing in IT infrastructure and delivering innovative solutions, while prioritizing user experience. Leslie Beavers, the principal deputy CIO at the Defense Department, said the strategy “crystallizes” what success looks like for the DoD in the digital age. The DoD chief information officer office will release an implementation plan this summer.
  (DoD releases IT advancement strategy - DoD)
• The White House plans to conduct a hiring surge to fill open federal cyber jobs this year, according to a new progress report on the national cyber director’s workforce and education strategy. The report said the Office of Personnel Management’s “Tech to Gov” initiative has extended 150 job offers to experienced cyber professionals over the past year. While OPM plans to conduct another Tech-to-Gov job fair this fall, White House officials are working on a longer term plan to transition most federal IT jobs to skills-based hiring starting next summer.
  (Report on “National Workforce and Education Strategy: Initial Stages of Implementation” - Office of the National Cyber Director )
• Federal employees with Flexible Spending Accounts have not been receiving any reimbursement payments on their FSA claims since as early as June 16. Federal News Network has learned that the Office of Personnel Management made the decision to suspend all payments in an effort to strengthen the program's security measures. The decision came after a recent surge in fraudulent activity affecting hundreds of FSAFEDS accounts. But FSAFEDS enrollees are raising concerns and frustrations about the pause on payments. Many said there was no communication from OPM or FSAFEDS about the suspension. The pause on reimbursements, however, has been lifted, and enrollees should see payments resume soon.
  (FSAFEDS update - Office of Personnel Management)
• New data from the Government Accountability Office shows in fiscal 2023, agencies spent $60 billion more on acquisition than in 2022. GAO found total acquisition spending hit $759 billion last year. Civilian agencies accounted for $303.2 billion and the Defense Department spent $456 billion. In 2022, agencies spent $694.2 billion. But it is not just total spending that went up. GAO said agencies spent more on services, on products, and through OTAs (other transaction authority) last year. The one area where an increase isn’t good news is around competition. In 2023, GAO found an overall competition rate of 66%, which is 2% lower than in 2022.
  (Federal procurement spending tops $759B in 2023 - GAO)
• The Defense Information Systems Agency will release its 2025-2027 data strategy in the coming months. The goal of the current data strategy was to understand the data the agency holds and to start breaking down data silos. The agency will now focus on data integration, establishing data governance, and setting data-related policies. Before releasing the strategy, the Office of the Chief Data Officer is gathering input from senior leaders, as well as the emerging technology team.
  (DISA to release data strategy in the coming months - DISA)

The post DeRusha finds new Google gig after departing government first appeared on Federal News Network.

• The House of Representatives is coming out strong against federal telework. That chamber’s version of the 2025 Defense appropriations bill would prohibit the DoD from using any of its funding for any telework or remote work that is done on a “regular and recurring basis.” The same measure would cut DoD’s payroll for civilian employees by nearly a billion dollars. The White House has objected to both provisions and several others, saying the president would veto the bill if it reaches his desk as-is.
  (DoD Appropriations bill, 2025 - House Appropriations Committee)
• Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has selected a State Department official to be the Pentagon’s new chief of staff. Derek Chollet, who has served in various senior policy roles at the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department, will replace Kelly Magsamen, who is stepping down at the end of June. Chollet served as assistant secretary of Defense for international security affairs from 2012 to 2015. President Joe Biden nominated Chollet to be the Pentagon’s policy chief last year, but his nomination got stalled in Congress. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is naming Tom Sullivan to become the next State Department counselor.
  (Top State Department official tapped to be the Pentagon’s chief of staff - DoD)
• The Department of Homeland Security is hosting a career expo in Chantilly, Virginia this Thursday and Friday. Free and open-to-the-public, attendees will be able to meet with DHS hiring managers and apply for openings. Senior DHS officials will also be on-site to share more details about departmentwide career opportunities.
  (DHS Career Expo - Department of Homeland Security)
• Federal buildings across the country are getting new tools to measure their sustainability. The General Services Administration (GSA) will invest $80 million to bring new meters, smart sensors and more tools to about 560 federal buildings across the nation. Using money from the Inflation Reduction Act, GSA said it will install about 1,000 new meters to measure electricity, water, and gas performance to find inefficiencies and fix them in building performance. At more than 70 buildings, GSA will put in smart sensors to measure indoor air and environmental quality, carbon dioxide levels and other conditions to adjust building operations based on real-time data. GSA said these investments will help accelerate the government's progress toward achieving net-zero emissions in the federal building by 2045.
  (GSA to invest $80M to install green building technologies - GSA)
• Lawmakers are pressing the Biden administration for progress on classification reform. A group of bipartisan senators is asking for an update on efforts to use technology to support both classification and declassification. In a June 18 letter to federal CIO Clare Martorana, the lawmakers said technologies like AI could help streamline classification and improve transparency. The 2023 Sensible Classification Act requires the White House to deliver a progress report on those technology efforts by the end of this year.
  (DoD sees ‘big breakthrough’ with using AI for declassification - Federal News Network)
• Five senators are urging the Labor Department to change its interpretation of a policy that would make it more difficult for fraudsters to obtain unemployment insurance. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) led a group of Republican lawmakers in a letter to Labor Department leaders seeking to give states more power to stop paying benefits when they believe fraud is likely occurring. Labor's current interpretation of the policy issued during the pandemic requires states to pause benefits to a suspected fraudulent claimant for a week. It also requires states to resume paying benefits on claims on which payment has already been made after a week-long pause, which the lawmakers said does not give states enough time to confirm eligibility.
  (Senators press Labor Dept. on unemployment insurance fraud - Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.))
• The White House has rejected the House Appropriations Committee’s homeland security funding bill. In a statement Monday, the White House slammed the bill, largely due to disagreements over border and immigration spending. The Biden administration wants more money than the bill provides to hire extra asylum officers. The White House also criticized the lack of funding in the bill for DHS’ National Capital Region consolidation project. The House is slated to vote on the spending bill later this week.
  (Statement of administration policy on DHS Appropriations Act - White House)
• House appropriators are pushing through a number of software and digital technology pilot programs in the 2025 defense budget, including projects focused on defensive cyber operations, space domain awareness software and improving access to accurate acquisition data. The funds are earmarked for various activities, ranging from research, development, testing and evaluation to procurement and production.
  (House appropriators funding several DoD software pilot programs - House Documents)
• The six finalists for the 2024 Sammies People’s Choice Award are now entering the third and final round of voting from the public. The award is a unique one in the Partnership for Public Service’s annual awards series, in that it is based entirely on the total number of votes that each finalist receives. The second round of voting officially closed last night, which narrowed the finalists from 12 down to just six. Round three voting is open until July 12. The People’s Choice winner, as well as winners for the rest of the Sammies categories, will be announced ahead of an awards ceremony the Partnership will host in September.
  (People's Choice Award - Partnership for Public Service)

The post House intensifies its war against DoD teleworkers first appeared on Federal News Network.

• Lawmakers are once again probing bonuses paid to federal executives. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) are asking Amtrak leaders to explain why it was appropriate for officials to receive significant pay awards as the federally-chartered corporation deals with financial challenges. In a letter to Amtrak’s chairman, the senators cited reports that Amtrak paid $75 million in bonuses in fiscal 2023. That is about 4% of the rail service's $1.75 billion net loss that year. About 14 Amtrak executives received bonuses of more than $200,000 each.
  (Sens. Cruz, Fischer Demand Answers on Exorbitant Amtrak Bonuses - Senate Commerce Committee Republicans)
• The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is raising questions about the cybersecurity of federal background investigation systems. The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) needs to improve its cyber risk management plans for the government’s background investigation systems, according to a new report from GAO. It highlights gaps in DCSA's cyber plan for both legacy background investigaiton system, as well as the new National Background Investigation Services. DCSA took over responsibility for background investigations in the wake of a 2015 breach that exposed the sensitive data of 22 million feds and contractors.
  (DOD needs to enhance cybersecurity of background investigation systems - GAO)
• The failure to pass a fitness test will no longer be career-ending for sailors. Under the previous policy, failing two fitness tests would bar sailors from being able to reenlist or be promoted. A new policy allows individual commanding officers to evaluate sailors’ physical readiness and performance. Sailors who fail their fitness test don’t have to have it entered into their annual evaluation. While the service is on track to meet its recruitment goals this year, it has been falling short on its recruitment numbers the past couple of years. The new policy is effective immediately.
  (Navy changes its fitness test policy - U.S. Navy)
• Federal contract employees for the National Nuclear Security Administration are struggling with workforce diversity. The NNSA’s diversity plans do generally fall in line with existing federal guidance, but the Government Accountability Office says the agency is lagging on diversity-focused training and succession planning. GAO recommends that NNSA, a component of the Energy Department, should update its acquisition guidance to better incorporate long-term practices for diversity improvement. In general, Energy’s diversity goals involve improving their outreach, recruitment, hiring and promotion strategies.
  (NNSA: Guidance enhancements could improve contractors’ diversity plans - Government Accountability Office)
• The Treasury Department is out with a proposed rule that would restrict and monitor American investments in China for artificial intelligence, computer chips and quantum computing. The notice, issued on Friday, outlines what companies and private citizens would need to disclose to the agency when they are investing in Chinese companies working in those fields. The regulation springs from an executive order President Biden issued last fall on U.S. investments in the Chinese technology sector. Treasury is accepting public comments on the proposal through August 4.
  (U.S. proposes rules to stop Americans from investing in Chinese technology with military uses - Associated Press)
• A new report finds that so far, the IRS has spent about 10% of the $60 billion in multi-year modernization funds it received in the Inflation Reduction Act. The agency spent most of the money on improving taxpayer services, operations support and updating some of the oldest IT systems still running in the federal government. But the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found about a third of those funds went toward the agency’s annual operating expenses.
  (Quarterly Snapshot: The IRS's Inflation Reduction Act - Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration)
• The Department of Homeland Security is calling out threats to U.S. critical infrastructure, including China and artificial intelligence. Those are just some of the priorities in a new strategic guidance memo signed by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas this month. It also said agencies should look to establish minimum security requirements for critical infrastructure. The guidance comes as agencies that oversee sectors, including energy and healthcare, develop new risk management plans.
  (DHS names China, AI, cyber standards as key priorities for critical infrastructure - Federal News Network)
• The Department of Health and Human Services has officially hung up its “help wanted” sign for a new Chief Information Officer. Since former HHS CIO Karl Mathias stepped down from the position in December, Jennifer Wendel has been serving as the department’s acting CIO. The permanent position is now open for applications on USAJobs. The senior executive role will be tasked with leading HHS’ broad modernization efforts and managing one of the largest IT budgets in government. Interested candidates have until July 2 to apply.
  (Chief information officer job announcement - Department of Health and Human Services)
• Jude Sunderbruch, the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3) executive director, has officially retired from federal service. Sunderbruch also retired from the Air Force Reserve on June 1. Prior to his current role, Sunderbruch served as the executive director of the Air Force office of special investigations. DC3 Deputy Director Joshua Black will serve as the interim executive director. DC3 provides a wide range of services to the Defense Department, including cyber training, vulnerability disclosure and cybersecurity support to the Defense Industrial Base.
  (DC3 executive director retires from federal service - DC3: A Federal Cyber Center)

The post GOP Senators slam financially strapped Amtrak for paying $75M in bonuses first appeared on Federal News Network.

• The Office of Personnel Management is ramping up preparations ahead of the presidential election this fall. Agencies have until July 1 to give OPM a list of all their politically appointed positions, and who is currently serving in those roles. They will also have to provide a list of any vacancies for political roles at their agency. Once agencies hand in their information, OPM will pass it along to both the Republican and Democratic parties for their review ahead of the election.
  (Memo on listing appointed positions for Republican and Democratic presidential nominees - Office of Personnel Management)
• Civilian employees may be a step closer to a more modest pay raise next year. Both Senate and House lawmakers have advanced legislation that aligns with President Biden’s 2% federal pay raise request for 2025. The Senate Armed Services Committee’s fiscal 2025 defense policy bill, advanced last week, also showed support for a 4.5% raise for military members. President Biden’s request of a 2% pay raise for the General Schedule, if enacted, would be the smallest annual raise for feds since he took office. But nothing is set in stone until Biden signs an executive order enacting the raise, which usually happens in December.
  (Proposed 2% federal pay raise gets support in 2025 defense authorization bill - Federal News Network)
• The Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit has a new plan for the nearly one billion dollars Congress allocated to the organization in this year’s spending bill. DIU said about half the funding will go toward speeding up programs it is already playing a major role in, like DoD’s Joint Fires Network and contested logistics. Another quarter of the money will go toward new projects. The rest is aimed at expanding DIU’s original mission: building new bridges between commercial companies and the military.
  (DIU Announces Strategic Allocation of 2024 Budget and Plan To Scale Commercial Tech Adoption - Defense Innovation Unit )
• The National Guard’s ongoing support of the Department of Homeland Security’s missions on the southern border is viewed by some military leaders as preventing the Guard from building its warfighting readiness. National Guard Bureau Chief Gen. Daniel Hokanson said sending Guardsmen to the U.S.-Mexico border does little to contribute to their military training, adds stress to their families and impacts the Defense Department’s long-term goals of building a “combat capable National Guard.” The National Guard has provided logistical support to DHS for the last seven years. There are currently 2,500 troops deployed at the Southwest border. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the Defense Department uses its operating budget to fund the deployment of National Guard troops to the border to support DHS’ operations.
  (Guard’s support of DHS adds no military training value - Federal News Network)
• NASA is doing a better job of keeping the costs and schedules of its biggest programs under control, according to the Government Accountability Office. GAO said NASA’s overall cost overruns came down from $7.6 billion last year to $4.4 billion in 2024. The biggest cost drivers are also the agency’s most ambitious ones – a return to the moon for long periods of time, and human exploration of Mars.
  (NASA: Assessments of Major Projects - Government Accountability Office)
• The IRS has tens of thousands of pages on its website — but a small fraction of those make up nearly all online traffic. The IRS maintains about 37,000 web pages on its site. But only 2% make up nearly all of its web traffic. IRS.gov chief Angela Render said those less-explored sites are still valuable to the public. “We have to serve everyone. We can’t pick our verticals like a business would,” Render said. More than half of the IRS’ online audience reads at a sixth-grade level or lower. The IRS is holding focus groups with certain demographics, such as first-time filers, to understand their challenges navigating the website.
  (IRS has 37,000 webpages. About 2% get nearly all of its traffic - Federal News Network)
• The Marine Corps is cutting time for DoD SkillBridge, a transition program that connects service members with civilian employers. The program, for which potential participants are required to get their commander’s approval, is a chance for service members to gain civilian work experience in the last six months of service. The Marine Corps is cutting that time in half for officers and warrant officers. Service members with the rank of sergeant or below can be granted up to four months to focus on industry training or internships at the end of their service. These changes will go into effect on August 31.
  (Marine Corps cutting hours for military-to-civilian transition program - U.S. Marines)
• A top official tasked with improving customer service across the federal government has stepped down. Amira Boland served as the federal customer experience lead at the Office of Management and Budget for more than five years. But she has announced that she has left government service for a job in the private sector. Boland said public satisfaction with government services improved over the past five years, and that agencies are staffing up with customer experience experts. President Joe Biden signed an executive order in 2021 calling on agencies to step-up their level of customer service.
  (Exit interview: OMB's CX guru Amira Boland - LinkedIn )

The post OPM deadline nears for agencies to hand over list of their politically appointed positions first appeared on Federal News Network.

• Teleworking DoD employees are once again a target in the latest spending legislation from House appropriators. A policy rider in the fiscal 2025 defense spending bill would block any funding from going toward the costs of teleworking or remote working for defense employees and contractors. The GOP-led appropriations committee advanced the spending bill last week. The telework measure, however, may be unlikely to make it into the final appropriations package for fiscal 2025. Democrats, with a Senate majority, have remained largely in favor of federal telework. They say it fosters better workforce recruitment and retention.
  (Fiscal 2025 Department of Defense appropriations bill - House Appropriations Committee)
• Early signs are pointing in the right direction after some recent federal workforce reforms. The Office of Personnel Management’s initiatives over the last couple of years have included banning the use of salary history in hiring, creating a portal for internship openings and broadening eligibility for the Pathways Program. Larger impacts of those changes are likely still further down the road. But there are already some initially positive indications, especially for early-career recruitment: “It’s going to take a little more time. I do think what we’re seeing, though, is a renewed and increased interest in federal job opportunities by early-career talent,” OPM Acting Director Rob Shriver said.
  (Early-career federal job openings seeing ‘renewed and increased’ interest, OPM’s Shriver says - Federal News Network)
• The Energy Department wants to secure the future electric grid from cyber threats. Energy’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response (CESER) is working to set security expectations for using the cloud. Later this year, the CESER office will convene with big cloud service providers and the clean-energy sector to collaborate on cybersecurity requirements. The discussion comes amid growing threats to critical infrastructure, including the energy grid. Many renewable energy operators are relying on cloud computing for critical services.
  (Energy working with renewables industry, cloud providers on cyber requirements - Federal News Network)
• The Department of Veterans Affairs is looking to keep aging and disabled vets living independently. The VA is looking at how smart-home technologies and wearables like smartwatches can flag when aging and disabled veterans are having a medical emergency in their homes. Joseph Ronzio, VA’s deputy chief health technology officer, said the department is also taking steps to ensure veterans have a say as to who gets this data, and how it may be used. “Everyone nowadays has some smartness in their home, whether it’s a speaker, whether it’s light switches, whether it’s different types of lights or other physical devices — cameras, motion detectors that leave a digital service," Ronzio said.
  (VA looking at ‘smart home’ tech to keep aging, disabled vets living independently - Federal News Network)
• The Army has taken over the role of the Combatant Command Support Agent for U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM). The Department of the Air Force has served in this role since 2017. The shift mainly happened because the primary location of CYBERCOM operations is at Fort Meade in Maryland, where the Army has a significant presence. About 350 Air Force civilian employees in U.S. Cyber Command became Army civilians as part of the reshuffle. The Army will now provide administrative and logistical support to CYBERCOM. Congress mandated the transition as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.
  (Army becomes combatant command support agent for CYBERCOM - U.S. Army)
• The Defense Department has signed a $248 million deal with Duke Energy to deliver solar power to five military bases in the Carolinas over the next 15 years. The power will come from two newly-built solar arrays in South Carolina, and DoD has agreed to buy all the electricity those facilities can generate. Defense officials said the project helps meet the government’s energy sustainability goals, and – in combination with on-base microgrids – makes the five bases more resilient against disruptions to off-site power supplies.
  (DoD Announces Two Solar Projects to Supply Five Military Installations in the Carolinas With Clean Energy - Department of Defense)
• Three more agencies are getting nearly $30 million to accelerate their IT modernization projects. The governmentwide Technology Modernization Fund is granting $17 million to the Energy Department to update its human resources IT systems. The fund is also backing a Bureau of Indian Education project to modernize school websites for tribal communities. The Federal Election Commission is also getting funding to improve online services for political campaign filers.
  (Technology Modernization Fund announces investments to modernize tribal school websites, campaign finance software, federal HR system - General Services Administration)
• The Department of Transportation (DOT) is drafting a new cybersecurity strategy. Transportation officials told the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that the agency will finalize the plan by September. GAO said DOT needs a strong cyber risk management plan to address threats to its data and systems. The congressional auditor is also urging Transportation officials to take a closer look at their cyber workforce needs.
  (Priority open recommendations for Transportation Department - Government Accountability Office )
• The Space Force’s first chief technology and innovation officer, Lisa Costa, has officially retired from federal service. At the Space Force, Costa was responsible for developing strategies and policies that advanced science and technology efforts across the service. She also spearheaded the Unified Data Library project, a repository that collects space situational awareness data from military and commercial sources. Prior to her current role, she served as the chief information officer at U.S. Special Operations Command. There is no information yet as to where Costa will be working next.
  (Space Force’s chief technology and innovation officer retires from government service - LinkedIn)

The post Teleworking DoD employees targeted by House spending bill first appeared on Federal News Network.

• The spending bill to support the funding for the rest of the government is facing a 25% cut. House appropriators passed the Financial Services and General Government 2025 spending bill yesterday and it is 20% below the administration's request and 10% below this year's enacted levels. But Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said the reductions, especially those to the IRS of some $2 billion, will have a much bigger effect than any one agency's budget. "This bill funds every other bill you are going to consider or it funds paying the almost $900 billion to the debt." Hoyer said the cuts also mean federal workers could face hiring freezes, furloughs or layoffs, which will impact the services to citizens.
  (Markup Fiscal Year 2025 - House Appropriations Committee)
• A new report by the research organization RAND found that the majority of federal funding to assist military-to-civilian employment transitions goes toward educational benefits rather than helping service members and veterans find work. In 2019, four programs, including the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill and DoD's Tuition Assistance Program, accounted for $13.5 billion out of $14.3 billion in total. Meanwhile, the DoD's Transition Assistance Program received $140 million in funding. But there is not enough evidence to support that federally funded employment transition programs are effective. The study also found that military-to-civilian transition programs have limited oversight.
  (Military-to-civilian transition programs focus on education rather than employment - RAND)
• The Department of Veterans Affairs is staying the course on plans to roll out a new Electronic Health Record. The VA extended its contract with Oracle-Cerner for another 11 months. Both parties agree to come back to the negotiating table each year to renew the multi-billion-dollar contract. The VA and Oracle-Cerner approved a one-month extension in May to continue contract talks. The Defense Department is done with its deployment of the same EHR. But only six VA sites are using it and further rollouts are on hold, as the VA addresses problems at those sites. The VA said it plans to resume go-lives in fiscal 2025.
  (VA awards second option period to Oracle Health in support of Federal Electronic Health Record modernization contract - Department of Veterans Affairs )
• A bill looking to expand fertility treatment coverage in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program has failed to advance to a floor vote. Senate Republicans effectively blocked the Right to IVF Act Thursday afternoon. The legislation, which Democrats introduced last week, did not reach the 60-vote threshold to advance to a floor vote. If passed, the bill would in part increase requirements for carriers in the FEHB program to provide more fertility treatment coverage to enrollees. Even after the bill failed, advocacy groups are calling on the Office of Personnel Management to take it upon itself to make the changes. They want OPM to heighten requirements for FEHB carriers to further cover in-vitro fertilization (IVF) — both medications and treatments.
  (Senate GOP blocks bill to expand IVF access as advocates call for better FEHB coverage - Federal News Network)
• The White House joins a chorus of opposition, including that of Army leadership, to the idea of creating a separate Army drone branch. The White House Office of Management and Budget said creating a separate drone corps will limit the service’s flexibility to deploy drone technology at scale. OMB also said the Army secretary already has the power to create new branches within the service and that creating a separate drone branch through legislation will hinder the Army’s ability to address current and future requirements.
  (White House joins chorus of opposition to Army drone branch idea - White House)
• Oversight processes at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission need some work, according to the Government Accountability Office. Agencies are responsible for managing their own EEO programs for federal workers. But GAO said the commission’s system for tracking those programs does not have guardrails for clearly identifying issues, or making sure decisions are timely. A lack of oversight can lead to challenges in figuring out whether agencies are EEO-compliant. GAO’s new report shows, for instance, that 16 agencies did not have anti-harassment policies in place. The EEOC said its working on enhancing and modernizing its oversight processes.
  (EEOC: Improved oversight processes needed to help agencies address deficiencies - Government Accountability Office)
• A major change to the General Services Administration's schedules program will make it easier for agencies to buy software more like the private sector. GSA will now let agencies pay upfront for software licenses through the schedules program. This change is specifically aimed at making it easier for agencies to buy cloud services, which has been hampered by the Advance Payment Statute, which originated in 1823. The interpretation of the statue required agencies to pay for services in the arrears. The update comes after GSA conducted research and gathered input from agency buyers and vendors last summer.
  (GSA updates rules for buying SaaS off the schedule program - GSA)
• The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is one step closer to getting new leadership. President Joe Biden nominated Christy Goldsmith Romero, a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, to lead the FDIC. The current FDIC Chairman says he will step down as soon as a successor is confirmed. An independent report commissioned by the FDIC recently substantiated claims of a toxic workplace culture.
  (Nominations sent to the Senate - White House)

The post Rep. Hoyer warns of ‘freezes, furloughs, layoffs’ first appeared on Federal News Network.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is looking for a new chief information officer. HUD is now one of five major agencies looking for a new technology leader.

But unlike the departments of Defense and Health and Human Services, and the Small Business Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the HUD CIO didn’t actually leave the agency to create the job opening.

Beth Niblock, who has been CIO since July 2021, moved to a new position as senior advisor for disaster management. The reason for the opening is purely political. HUD decided to move the CIO’s position back to a career one from a political one.

“[O]ver the past few years, HUD leadership determined the department would be best served by having a career CIO to ensure steady and consistent leadership, and to better position the department to deliver high-quality, transformative solutions enabling HUD to deliver on its mission,” said a HUD spokesperson in an email to Federal News Network.

HUD posted the CIO job on USAJobs.gov in mid May and applications are due today. In the meantime, Sairah Ijaz will step in as the acting CIO until a permanent career leader is selected.

Political CIOs close to leadership?

The decision by HUD to transition the CIO position back to career from political isn’t that unusual.

Over the course of the last 28 years — January 2026 will be the 30^th anniversary of the Clinger Cohen Act — several agencies ranging from the departments of Commerce, Energy, Treasury and Transportation as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and others have flipped the position back and forth between career and political to suit the needs of the leadership.

But HUD’s decision brought up a long-standing and healthily-debated question of whether CIOs, especially at this point in time of history where technology is at the center of every agency’s mission, are better off being political appointees?

To many, the answer continues to remain as it has for the last almost 30 years: It depends. But what has become clearer than ever is the role of managing, implementing and securing technology puts the CIO and deputy CIO on a higher plane across all agencies. Thus, requiring the federal community to continually re-ask the political appointee question.

“How the agency positions the CIO’s role in theory versus practice for the best possible function is really a question of how the head of the agency and the culture of that agency sets that role up for success,” said Dan Chenok, the former Office of Management and Budget official who helped with the Clinger-Cohen Act and now executive director of the IBM Center for the Business of Government. “Given the ubiquity of technology today, what is the right balance? My own personal view is a political CIO is more likely to be close to the head of the agency, and a career deputy CIO gives you continuity.”

Finding that seat at the table

But that closeness doesn’t always result in a CIO’s success.

If you look at the January 2024 Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) scorecard as one measure of CIO effectiveness, agencies with career CIOs versus those with politically appointed ones faired about the same. Agencies with political CIOs — the departments of Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs and HUD — received the same mix of “B” and “C” grades as those with career CIOs.

Simon Szykman, the president and founder of Cambio Digital Transformations and former Commerce Department CIO, said the role of the CIO is inherently not one that strongly aligns with any political ideology.

“Ideally it should not be necessary to make a CIO political appointment in order for that person to support the agency mission, or even the political leadership’s agenda,” he said. “However, the flip side to the argument for career CIOs is that no CIO will be successful if they don’t have that proverbial seat at the table. They need to be able to operate, influence and impact decisions at the senior-most levels. It can be a challenge for career senior executives to fully operate as peers to political leadership, and this challenge can be dependent on agency culture as well the leadership tone set higher up in the administration.”

Many times an agency hires a political CIO because the secretary wants a specific person in that role. That was the case, for example, with Steve Cooper, when he worked at Commerce from 2014 to 2017.

For other agencies like VA, Congress required the position be presidentially appointed and Senate confirmed — one of the few that requires Senate confirmation.

HUD’s great strides

But even then, there is no guarantee of success.

“Moving the CIO to political or a career position is situational and based on the candidates available and what’s going on at the agency at that moment,” said Margie Graves, a former deputy CIO at DHS and federal deputy CIO and now a senior fellow at IBM’s Center for the Business of Government. “A lot of times the decision to bring on a political CIO may be because the secretary wants a specific person on board to do something specific. I would advocate for choosing the best person for the moment. It’s really no different than what you’d do in private sector. And the times I’ve see the decision fail is when the person has no background in the technology management discipline and no expertise. I saw a couple of those at DHS.”

Graves added, at least for the CFO Act agencies, she would prefer to have someone in the C Suite who is “hearing” those political conversations as opposed to someone who is relegated as an “outsider.”

HUD’s reason for moving the CIO back to a career position is not entirely clear. The spokesperson said Niblock and her team have made “great strides over the past few years” to modernize the technology and improve the cyber posture of the agency’s infrastructure. But the spokesperson seems to insinuate there may be some bumpy roads ahead.

“However, HUD’s IT only received 0.5% of the department’s fiscal 2024 budget, which is one of the lowest percentages across cabinet level agencies. HUD is continuing to work with its federal and congressional partners to build on the progress of the past several years, while also continuing to pursue the ability to leverage various funding flexibilities that other agencies are able to leverage, including a working capital fund for its IT needs,” the spokesperson said.

HUD’s IT budget for 2024 is $641 million, of which it is spending only $94 million on development, modernization and enhancement projects. The agency requested $540 million for IT in 2025.

The post Political vs. career: Role of CIO remains unsettled first appeared on Federal News Network.

The FBI has reinstated the the security clearance of a former employee. Marcus Allen had his clearance revoked and was suspended from his role of staff operations specialist with the FBI back in February 2022, for what it called “questionable judgment” when it came to the agency’s investigations into the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. One of the organization’s who defended and represented Allen was Empower Oversight. To learn more about this case, Federal News Network’s Eric White talked with that organization’s president, Tristan Leavitt.

Interview Transcript:

Eric White  The FBI has reinstated one of its former employee’s security clearance after revoking it. Marcus Allen had his clearance revoked and was suspended from his role of staff operation specialist with the bureau back in February of 2022 for what it called “questionable judgment” when it came to the agency’s investigations into the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. One of the organizations who defended and represented Allen was in power oversight. To learn more about this case, we welcome the organization’s President Tristan Leavitt. Tristan, thank you so much for taking the time.

Tristan Leavitt  Yeah. Happy to be with you, Eric.

Eric White  So, let’s just start from the beginning. What happened to Mr. Allen, if you can just give me kind of an overview of the events that led up to this point?

Tristan Leavitt  So, Marcus Allen is somebody who had been in the Marines working as an intel analyst and had been deployed to Iraq a couple times. So he knew what he was doing when he’d worked for the FBI for several years down in their Charlotte field office, and he had received awards in there, commendations, so he never had any issues within the FBI. After January 6, Marcus Allen wasn’t present there, by any means, didn’t have anything to do with it. But as most of us in the United States saw, FBI Director Chris Wray came up to Capitol Hill just a couple of weeks after the events of January 6, and in one particular exchange before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Amy Klobuchar said to him, don’t you just wish we had some informants there, some way of knowing what was happening? And you just see the look on Director Wray’s face. He’s navigating that, so he gives a response, you know, understandably, the FBI needs to protect its confidential sources, but this is a pretty significant event. And it’s important for Congress to be able to do oversight of that. So he left the impression there were no informants there. Throughout 2021, there was maybe one Reuters article that came out that hinted that there might have been some informants. And then in late September, The New York Times splashed across the very top story, front page of the Sunday paper, that there had in fact, been at least two informants there for the FBI on January 6. Now today, we know that there were over 20, but at the time, this was very big news, which is why it was so prominent in New York Times. And so Marcus Allen took that information and relayed it to his supervisor saying, we need to be careful, there’s a very real chance that the D.C. elements of our organization may not be fully forthcoming here, based on director Wray’s testimony. That set off alarm bells within the FBI. Even though it was Marcus’s job to forward information like this around, all of the January 6 investigations had been farmed from the FBI’s Washington Field Office out to their various regional offices. And so Charlotte was engaged in that. So this was situational context he believed they needed to know. But after this, his security clearance was suspended, so that’s how we got involved. A year ago, I testified before the House weaponization subcommittee with Marcus and two other FBI whistleblowers we had represented and at the time, the FBI had just put out information the night before saying that their clearances had been revoked. So you know, they were called a security threat by the ranking member of that committee. But we had filed an Inspector General complaint alleging that it was because of whistleblower retaliation. January 6 aside, longstanding whistleblower law protects federal employees’ right to make disclosures about the head of an agency, and to, you know, share that information with one’s supervisors or colleagues. And so in that context, it simply was inappropriate for them to suspend his security clearance over that. But after a long period of time working with the Inspector General, I think the FBI knew that an IG report was probably likely to come out soon, and so they agreed to settle with him. And secondly, they reinstated his security clearance, giving him complete and full vindication.

Eric White  We’re speaking with Tristan Leavitt, he is the president of Empower Oversight. And, you know, as with most whistleblower cases, the idea is not just to punish somebody who maybe went against what the FBI desired, but it is to send a message or have a chilling effect. If I could ask you to speculate, what was that message that was being sent to other potential whistleblowers at the FBI?

Tristan Leavitt  Well, we’ve since learned a fair amount about this. And this is actually the subject of a lot of concern, something that’s actually, we believe, we expect the FBI, the DOJ Inspector General is going to open up a new probe on, which is that after January 6, where it was perfectly legitimate for the FBI to investigate any FBI agents, certainly who were inside the Capitol who are engaged in violence, you know, is appropriate for them to investigate that of the American public, much less people from within the FBI. But after that, it kind of led to this hysteria within the FBI where anybody that got brought to the attention of the security division within the FBI, once they were inside that funnel of suspicion, they couldn’t get out. The disclosures that are coming to us indicate that that office really just said, well, we just don’t want people to have clearances in these instances, even if it’s for completely valid political views. And not long after January 6, one of the things that we highlighted recently in a letter to IG Horowitz, just from this week, we reminded him of a letter we sent last summer where we had provided an affidavit from an FBI supervisor who was on a call with all special agents in charge from the FBI about a month after January 6, and said, if you don’t like the way the FBI is approaching this, you don’t need to be in the FBI. The FBI, you know, we don’t need people like that here. And so we’ve seen is that the security division asked questions about things. We just released a document where they asked questions specifically like, of an employee’s coworker. So to be clear, this is an instance where you’re under suspicion, they suspend your clearance, they go to do interviews with coworkers of the individual whose clearance is suspended, and someone’s required to answer those questions. You’re told at the beginning of the interview, failure to, you have a duty to reply to the issues. Should you refuse to answer or fail to reply fully and truthfully, actually it’s your own clearance may be taken. So people were being asked to rat out their coworkers and the questions for them were, did you, after being asked if you’ve ever socialized with them, so it’s asking about, even outside of work, did you ever hear them vocalize support for President Trump? Did you ever hear them vocalize objection to the COVID-19 vaccination? So these are entirely inappropriate questions for the security division to be asking. I mean, for anyone in the FBI to be requiring answers to, much less as a basis for revoking someone’s security clearance. And so this is the real, you know, the chilling seems to have been where people came into this funnel suspicion with the security division. They pushed out people that had views that were not in keeping with those and in the mainstream, you know, in the leadership of the agency there, including just support for President Trump even. Now, for someone like me, I’ll say, right, having been at the Office of Special Counsel where you enforce the Hatch Act, right. The whole goal of creating a nonpartisan civil service system at the end of 1800s was to get rid of things like loyalty tests and patronage. And so this idea that, in an effort to keep the FBI pure, they’re going to ask questions like this, it goes exactly to what the civil service system was designed to prevent, is really, really dangerous.

Eric White  Well, can I come at it from the other side here, as saying, you know, January 6’s unprecedented attempt to really subvert the U.S. government, there was probably a lot of speculation regarding how the agency should react? And obviously, the agency had not seen anything like this before. So are you saying that this was maybe an overreaction? Or could they have handled it a little bit better in trying to decipher, you know, we have to make sure that none of our people were actively trying to support this movement, that, you know, once again, was something that the government had never seen before.

Tristan Leavitt  I think asking questions like, do you support violence? I mean, security clearance process, do you support the overthrow of the US government? Were you present on January 6 inside of the Capitol? All of that is completely legitimate, in my view. When you step beyond that, to just political views, did the employee ever vocalize support for President Trump? I mean, people had a First Amendment right to go and hear him at a rally. And again, if they are outside of the Capitol, that’s just not the FBI’s place. And again, the COVID-19 vaccination questions, even if they might overlap among a segment of the population that did express objections to the vaccination. Keep in mind these questions were asked three months after the federal employee vaccine mandate was suspended. So there’s no legitimate purpose for them to ask a question like that. When I was at the Merit Systems Protection Board, as we tried to implement the executive order that came out, we put a lot of thought into making sure that these questions about someone’s personal medical health information weren’t spread all over the agency. So we were very careful in making sure that went to just one designated individual within the agency to have the security division of the FBI ask this of someone’s colleagues, again, that goes way beyond the events of January 6, which again, people should have been punished for engaging in violence for breaking laws. It’s a very different thing to ask someone’s political views. Those are not one in the same.

Eric White  Tristan Leavitt is president of Empower Oversight. Thank you so much for joining us.

Tristan Leavitt  Thanks for having me, Eric.

Eric White  And we’ll post this interview along with a copy of those documents that Tristan had mentioned at federalnewsnetwork.com. You can also subscribe to the Federal Drive wherever you get your podcasts.

The post FBI reinstates its removal of FBI staffer’s security clearance first appeared on Federal News Network.

Colleen Heller-Stein, formerly deputy CHCO at the Treasury Department, has stepped in as executive director of the CHCO Council, Federal News Network has learned. The senior-level position within the Office of Personnel Management leads agency CHCOs and other human capital leaders to innovate on best practices for managing the recruitment and retention of the federal workforce.

Heller-Stein is the first career federal executive to serve in the CHCO Council leadership role. She took over the position a few weeks ago from Latonia Page, who had been working as acting executive director of the CHCO Council since September 2023. Prior to Page’s time on the job, Margot Conrad — currently deputy chief of staff at OPM — served as the council’s executive director for about two and a half years.

Before taking on the role of leading the CHCO Council, Heller-Stein worked for 14 years at the Treasury Department. In addition to her experience as Treasury’s deputy CHCO, she previously served as the agency’s director of HR, as well as taking on a one-and-a-half-year stint as acting Treasury CHCO. Before moving to Treasury, Heller-Stein held various other roles in state and federal government, including working at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Government Publishing Office and Department of Veterans Affairs.

“As the former deputy CHCO and acting CHCO of a large, cabinet-level agency, I recognize the important role of the council as a collaborative resource and connective tissue for the largest and most complex workforce in the country,” Heller-Stein said in a statement to Federal News Network. “I look forward to working alongside human capital leaders across the federal government to support and strengthen the federal workforce.”

The CHCO Council, composed of federal human capital leaders from many major agencies, has been around now for more than 21 years. The council routinely convenes the senior leaders across government to discuss trends and strategies for improving the federal workforce through recruitment, retention and more. In May 2023, the council celebrated its 20th anniversary during a ceremony at OPM headquarters in Washington, D.C.

In recent years, the CHCO Council has focused on replicating and scaling up promising practices in agency recruitment and retention, including pooled hiring, shared certificates, skills-based recruitment and reducing time-to-hire for prospective job candidates.

The post Treasury’s Heller-Stein stepping in to lead the CHCO Council first appeared on Federal News Network.