• The Defense Department generally escaped the effects of Friday’s global internet problems. That’s according to Gen. C.Q. Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He told an audience at the Aspen Security Forum that the botched Crowdstrike update didn’t impact DoD operations, but that it’s a reminder that the department needs to be ready to respond to cyber incidents.
  (Aspen Security Forum - YouTube)
• A worldwide IT outage on Friday struck multiple government agencies. The Social Security Administration plans to reopen field offices on Monday after a global IT outage forced SSA to close all local operations Friday. The outage is linked to a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services also warned some callers to expect long wait times due to the outage. The White House is convening agencies to better understand the impacts of the incident across government.
  (Crowdstrike outage: SSA shutters offices, other agency impacts - Federal News Network)
• The governmentwide Technology Modernization Fund is awarding more money to agency AI projects. The TMF is giving $10 million to the National Institute of Standards and Technology to support the growth of its recently launched AI Safety Institute. The TMF board also granted nearly $4 million to the Energy Department to modernize its critical nuclear emergency response infrastructure.
  (Technology Modernization Fund announces investments in nuclear safety and AI governance - General Services Administration)
• The Army’s new memo on generative artificial intelligence provides guidance for developers, system owners, users, and commands on how to use GenAI tools. The document instructs system owners and developers to ensure that users can easily determine if their systems rely on GenAI and have the option of accepting or rejecting Gen AI-generated outputs. The guidance encourages the commands to use Gen AI tools and puts the onus on them to identify their GenAI developers, system owners and users to mitigate risk when introducing AI tools into their workflows. The guidance is effective immediately. The Pentagon’s chief information officer office will review this guidance annually.
  (Army’s memo on GenAI setting guardrails around technology - Army Publishing Directorate (APD))
• Higher pay rates could be coming soon for some blue-collar federal employees. A proposal to reform the Federal Wage System is entering the early stages of the government’s rulemaking process. The pay system was first created to improve pay rates of nearly 200,000 blue-collar feds. But now decades after its creation, three-quarters of the pay system’s localities have fallen out of step with the private sector. Proposed regulations to fix the issue by re-mapping the Federal Wage System are expected to be published to the Federal Register this October.
  (Blue-collar federal pay reform heading toward rulemaking process - Federal News Network)
• Federal employees can now donate their unused annual leave to feds impacted by Hurricane Beryl. The Office of Personnel Management program lets feds offer any leave hours that they haven’t used, to those who may need additional time off during emergencies. Launching the program for Hurricane Beryl is the most recent instance, but OPM’s use of the emergency leave transfer program has grown in recent years. In 2023, there were seven emergencies that led to OPM initiating a new leave transfer opportunity.
  (Emergency leave transfer for feds affected by Hurricane Beryl - Office of Personnel Management)
• The Defense Innovation Board said the Pentagon continues to overclassify information. The advisory board wants the Pentagon to revisit the issue of classification when working with allies and partners. Board members said the Pentagon defaults to no foreign dissemination protocols. The Defense Department even failed to develop processes for communicating controlled unclassified information in an environment where information sharing is important from the earliest stages of projects.
  (Defense Innovation Board wants DoD to address overclassification - Defense Department)
• A longtime intelligence official is taking the reins at the National Counterterrorism Center. Brett Holmgren has been named acting director of the NCTC. He replaces Christine Abizaid, who had served as NCTC director for the past three years. Holmgren previously served at the State Department as assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research. He spearheaded a new digital modernization strategy at the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. Holmgren started out his career as an analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency.
  (DNI Haines thanks NCTC Director Christy Abizaid, welcomes acting Director Brett Holmgren - Office of the Director of National Intelligence)

The post Though the Defense Department managed to go unscathed through the Crowdstrike outage, it remains on the alert first appeared on Federal News Network.

It’s been a major policy initiative of the Biden administration to get more Americans and agencies utilizing electric vehicles. Well, how about the agency that probably has the largest number of vehicles in its garage? The Postal Service is in the process of electrifying its fleet. To do that though, there needs to be the infrastructure to support them once they do get out there. To get an update on where things currently stand, Federal News Network Executive producer Eric White spoke to Amanda Stafford, Deputy Assistant Inspector General for the USPS’ IG office, on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin.  

Interview Transcript: 

Eric White  Absolutely. So, let’s just start with the goals here that USPS set for itself. What is it exactly trying to do? I imagine electrifying the whole fleet would be ideal, but that’s going to be a huge undertaking. What’s the timeline that they gave you?

Amanda Stafford  Well, as part of the delivering for America 10-year plan, the Postal Service plans to transform and modernize their network to improve sustainability, with a goal of not only driving revenue growth, but also reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 40%. In some key areas by 2030. So, a part of achieving this goal includes replacing a large portion of its delivery fleet of approximately 225,000 vehicles with the purchase and deployment of over 66,000 electric ones. And this Fleet Modernization plan, bases investment is approaching 9.6 billion. So, I think their goal is go through 2030. But they’re trying to move things along quickly.

Eric White  All right. And so that’s a pretty massive undertaking, what is required as part of the infrastructure needed to support electric vehicles, you got to have places to charge them and got to make sure that have the proper repair units in place to actually maintain the fleet. What has the Postal Service been able to accomplish so far?

Amanda Stafford  Well, in terms of achievement, some of our previous work has noted the successes they’ve had related to the acquisition of charging station infrastructure. We also had a report related to the vehicle maintenance facilities and their preparedness for this effort. Our most recent engagement highlighted that the Postal Service expects to complete the charging station related to construction and deployment at 130 sites by the end of 2024. But as of March 26, the Postal Service confirmed that completed six sites. And by mid-June that just passed, construction was underway at 50 locations, A-2 had also related construction schedule. So, they’re moving things along kind of first, all those planning processes doing the acquisition, and then to your point, kind of making sure they have that charging station infrastructure in place. So that’s all that’s needed prior to rolling out those vehicles.

Eric White  As with any major government project, there’s going to be speed bumps along the way pun intended, what sort of delays and challenges has the agency withstood to try and get this thing off the ground?

Amanda Stafford  Well, we acknowledge that the Postal Service’s electrification efforts are unprecedented their progress is truly significant. We did find that the first 29 sites that were slated for deployment of the charging station equipment were delayed by an average of 219 days compared to its original schedule. So, it’s a huge undertaking, but they’ve had, as you said, a few bumps in the road to get started.

Eric White  And what were the reasons behind those delays? Was it just a personnel issue or were costs problems coming into play because this is probably a lot of moving parts, including a lot of moving dollars.

Amanda Stafford  Right. And the charging station construction delays, the Postal Service noted several challenges such as weather site specific conditions like sinkholes, utility specific regulations, and coordination. And while we recognize that a lot of those conditions truly were outside of its control, we found that the Postal Service did not establish realistic completion dates that should have factored in many of these foreseeable issues while planning schedule. So, for example, the construction in the Terre Haute SMDC, which is one of the facilities it’s located in Indiana, was originally supposed to be completed on December 28. Well construction was delayed due to foreseeable weather conditions, that area has predicted temperatures of 28 degrees or lower by the end of October, which makes construction difficult and paving the parking lots where the charging stations are basically impossible. So really in addition, the Postal Service did not really follow schedule management best practices entirely. They really to establish an informed baseline that reflected these conditions and constraints. And really, their schedule was driven by you know, an extremely aggressive business objectives. And then lastly, they didn’t use an overarching project management system that tracked real time updates and the cause of delays. They acknowledged though, that they need to replace that you know, spreadsheet that they were using in the process of not only acquiring but deploying a project management system.

Eric White  We’re speaking with Amanda Stafford, she’s Deputy Assistant Inspector General with the US Postal Service IG o Office. And so, what can be done to help them better prepare and execute these vehicle deployment plans, I know you laid out some of the problems that they had as far as planning goes. But you know, when they do incur these delays, what can be done to help speed things up a little bit.

Amanda Stafford  To set up the vehicle deployment plans for success, it really is essential to get all that related charging infrastructure in place. So, we had a few recommendations coming out of that specific audit, one to really support the Postal Service preparedness, we recommend that they use best practices to inform a baseline schedule for the future sites. So yes, we’re learning as we go. But as we go forward, can we take those best practices forward. Two, replace their spreadsheet with a project management system, which has dynamic updates and centralizes, all that information and as analytics, and as I mentioned, they’re in the process of addressing that already. And then lastly, to adopt these best practices, we recommended that the Postal Service could explore obtaining outside consultative support, that money could be well spent and fake to help them quickly. Evaluate lessons learned and, and pivot. So as early delays could really jeopardize the ability to use the vehicles which you know, and really achieve these aggressive, aggressive business objectives. So that was our last recommendation in that space.

Eric White  Yeah, and I guess the one ray of hope here, I mean, it’s not too dreary. But a hopeful observation would be that these are all very fixable problems. I mean, we’ve interviewed you all before. And there have been, you know, insurmountable issues of, you know, like you said, cost overruns, and things like that. But it seems as if it’s just more organization is needed.

Amanda Stafford  Yeah, I don’t think these are insurmountable. Just as you said, the Postal Service is resilient. And I think they can pivot, you know, they were very open and receptive to our recommendations and discussion. And they, you know, during the course of the audit, recognize that they had opportunity. So, I agree with you, I think that this is, it’s a bump in the road, and the deployment is ongoing. And so now they can, they’re in the place to quickly pivot.

Eric White  And the Postal Service also has a sort of different approach to this with these incentive programs to actually get this thing moving. How effective has that been? And are people actually utilizing it?  Great question. So, for the utility incentive program participation, and in our audit, we identified 13 programs that were currently available, and seven programs that have since expired, and these programs can really allow the Postal Service to save money along the way by partnering with different entities. So, we found that they could potentially have achieved cost savings, around 8 million approximately, for the first 29 sites. Management have previously done some analysis and reviews around the incentive space, but at the time, has decided not to pursue the incentive programs, but rather focus on the implementation of the certain delivery centers. So really, the network modernization to prepare to drive revenue strategies, which is obviously a huge facet of their 10-year plan. You know, we cited some opportunities, I think the Postal Service is going to revisit this space. And I think, you know, we do see that there could be a chance to drive cost savings, which is always an important thing to do. And especially important for the Postal Service itself. Do you foresee that they are happy with this structure that they have set up and are actually seeing positive results from it, they just need a little bit better job executing it would be the way to simple way of simplifying it.

Amanda Stafford  I would say that the Postal Service at this juncture and you know, that during the beginning of the audit, and through the course, did not was playing not to pursue this Avenue at that time. There are limitations, which we cited in our report that, you know, there could be required to subcontractors by the program owner, there could be easements and other terms and conditions. But we really asserted that, you know, the continued evaluation could bear fruit, as the postal service may be able to negotiate eligibility terms with program administrators and take advantage of these opportunities. For example, the Postal Service Management say they were not eligible to participate in some of the programs, one that comes to mind, we directly communicated with that representative from the program. And they said, well, actually federal fleet such as the Postal Service, are eligible to register and participate. So, I think it requires a lot of digging additional work. So, we had some recommendations in that space that that they’re pursuing and looking at now based on what we’ve described. So, I think that this could be a facet of their plan, but they’re also balancing that with the need to go very quickly. And there are other priorities related to the 10-year plan. So, we understand kind of the balance that they’re trying to continue to have.

The post The road to electrifying America’s personal vehicles starts with the USPS EV fleet first appeared on Federal News Network.

Been a hectic week on the political side of government. The 2024 election is in full swing as one party hosts its convention, and with an attempt on a candidate’s life, you know members of Congress are going have questions for the agencies in charge of protection. Meanwhile, there’s other legislation that could have an impact on other federal activities. To help break it all down for the Federal Drive with Tom Temin, Federal News Network Executive producer Eric White welcomes Deputy News Director Loren Duggan.

Interview Transcript: 

Eric White  Of course. So yeah, let’s start with the big news. We’ve seen some inquiries come in already, regarding Congressional investigations into just what happened on the security breakdown front, with the attempt on presidential candidate, well former President Donald Trump, what’s the latest? And what are members of Congress saying?

Loren Duggan  Well, they’re hitting the ground running on this one that they haven’t been in session since the assassination attempt. But tonight, Monday night is going to be the first hearing on this and it’s a committee that called the Secret Service Director to come and provide answers. Members got briefings wherever they were last week, whether they were at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee or back home for the Democrats. Both sides got at least some briefing from the administration. But now we’re going to see this hearing stage start, where she’s going to have to answer questions in an open forum and provide information there. So, it’s the first of several hearings, we will see Christopher Wray, the FBI Director up later this week, probably asking questions about what the agency may have known about the shooter. And then there’s also been invitations for the DHS Secretary who oversees the Secret Service as part of his job. So, lots of questions coming from lawmakers about what happened, what the breakdown in security was, and probably what lessons can be learned. And we’ll probably hear, I think, maybe some calls for resignations, or for some sort of consequence here over the course of the week.

Eric White  Yeah, we’ve already seen them come through for Kimberly Cheatle, she’s the director of the US Secret Service. And she’s held steadfast that she’s not going to step down. And really, she’s kind of putting Congress on notice saying, Hey, we’ve been stretched thin for a while. And we’ve been telling you this, and this is the kind of thing that’s going to happen. If you don’t give us what we need is that kind of what we’re probably going to hear from her.

Loren Duggan  We may hear some of that, you know, I’m sure she’ll try to explain what the posture was going into that event and, and what she knows, and probably what their relationship was with other law enforcement on the ground there in Pennsylvania. So, we’ll probably hear a lot about that. I’m sure money will come up. And there might be a monetary question to deal with here. At some point, normally, in an election year, they step up protection, because they have whoever the sitting president is, and then whoever the president, potential candidates might be. So, I’m sure we’ll get some questions around that and some discussion, too.

Eric White  All righty. So back to policy matters, something a little bit less dreary. Members of Congress and agencies are still kind of trying to figure out what exactly the Supreme Court’s ruling on the chevron doctrine and which virtually made it powerless. And what that means for agency activities going forward. We’ve seen members of Congress trying to inquire with agencies on whether or not it will affect their agendas. What are the latest stances from members of Congress who are either celebrating it or not happy with it?

Loren Duggan  Well, a hearing this week that I think is interesting is Congress asking, What does this mean for Congress, the House Administration Committee, which oversees the operations of the House of Representatives is having a hearing looking for what this means for lawmaking going forward? How specific do you need to be what does it mean, because the idea of Chevron was, if there’s a law, that somewhat ambiguous course would give deference to agencies? Well, if you’ve gotten rid of that changes the dynamic maybe you have to be more prescriptive in your rulemaking or in your lawmaking, so that the rulemaking will be on solid footing. So that’s the question Congress is confronting right away. And I think this has a long tail as agencies get back to Congress on how they’re going to approach it and what approach they’re going to take to writing rules and defending them in court. Because those are really the different fronts here. This ruling has effects on all three branches of government in very different ways.

Eric White  Yeah. Could mean some longer hours and longer bills written by those staffers, right. Absolutely.

Loren Duggan  And perhaps getting more staff or tapping expertise and other places to get there. So yeah, a lot to figure out how this is really going to work going forward. Right? Well, the two chambers are working on their different bills in the House Committee has done all 12 At this point, set them all to the floor. And they’re going to take up four of them this week, including I know your listeners care about the financial services general government bill because that has some of the matters that touch more broadly on the federal workforce. So that’s one of the four that will come up. And in general, the House appropriators are looking for places to cut to keep spending down. And on the Senate side, there’s a little bit more openness to spending more. So, as we see the Senate Appropriations Committee continue to work. They’re scheduled to do I think it’s four bills on Thursday, keep this progress going, perhaps by the August recess, which is only a couple of weeks away, we’ll have an idea what the House and Senate positions are. And then that will lead to the real discussions on these things later in the year when they figure out and have to come to an agreement on how much to spend in total, then what to give to the agencies. But we are seeing a lot of flashpoints, especially in the house on agencies they want to cut or officials whose salaries they want to reduce to $1 as a punishment for, you know, what their policies have been or their approach to policy matters. So, a lot to walk through and get through in these bills. But this isn’t the final word on this subject.

Eric White  We’re speaking with Bloomberg government’s Loren Duggan. So other funding matters that are on the House floor and the Senate is discussing them as well. Why don’t we just go through some of the major spending bills that are being debated currently and what they mean for potential agency funding matters.

Loren Duggan  Let’s zero in on probably the, well, no, probably it is the largest spending bill every year. And that’s the NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act, there’s always a couple of issues that stick out when this debate happens. What are the sticking points this time around? Is it going to be you know, providing reproductive services again? Or is it going to be the use of drones over in the Middle East? What’s, what’s the goings on right now with that? all that might come into play and the bill, the house has already passed its bill, it started out very bipartisan, but all the social writers, the kind of things you talked about were tacked on to that bill and eroded the Democratic support pretty significantly on the House version, the Senate version has come out of committee and could come up maybe before the August recess or later in the year, they’re trying to figure that out. I think a challenge there might be more than 840 amendments have been filed to it on things that don’t directly affect defense. But because defense is so far-reaching things like AI policy and other matters, they might want to tack on to that the Water Resources Development Act. That could be the real challenge, getting it through the Senate. It’s just how do you deal with all these amendments moving forward. And the other issue is going to be the top line on the defense bill. The Senate side did authorize more money in their bill. But the chairman who wrote the bill, Jack Reed actually voted against it in committee because he didn’t like that spending level. So, a lot to work through here on the spending picture on both the authorization and appropriation side. But that’s one of the core things Congress does every year. And this year is no different in the level of interest in work being put in.

Eric White  There’s also a few bills that will have a direct effect on federal workers themselves. One regarding telework and the other one regarding An act that maybe some federal workers have neglected to take part in because of the rules surrounding the substance that is in question. What can you tell me about the two bills that you know that I’m nodding towards here?

Loren Duggan  Well, the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which also does a lot of work on government efficiency and matters like that is doing one is the telework Transparency Act. And that’s just trying to get agencies to be more upfront about what their policies are and how they monitor employee use of telework. So, kind of wading into that debate that has been going on obviously, for a long time now. The other bill you mentioned is what’s known as the Doobie Act, which some staffer worked hard to come up with an acronym that would be D O B I E. But the idea there is that if you have past marijuana use, it shouldn’t be an obstacle to you passing a security clearance or getting a job. Now, if you have other issues, then those issues can come to bear. But that can’t be the sole reason you’re denied federal employment and the chair of the committee, Gary Peters is pushing forward that legislation along with a lot of other bills at this markup this week.

Eric White  Yeah. And for those of you who live outside the Beltway, that’s kind of a big deal. Because Maryland recreational is already legal, DC semi recreational is legal. And Virginia is on its way as well. So that’s going to be a big deal for potential federal workers of the future.

Loren Duggan  Absolutely. And with a push to you know, change the scheduling of cannabis and marijuana that’s also going to feed into this as well. So, a lot leading to that bill, which some are going to refer to as common sense legislation at this point.

The post Congress tackles spending, policy and candidate protections on the road to the August recess first appeared on Federal News Network.

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service recently had its first in-person national conference since before the pandemic. Which got us thinking … what is it like on the ground in the world of labor relations in the United States. For an update, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke to the FMCS deputy director Javier Ramirez.

Interview Transcript: 

Tom Temin  And just briefly, so in case there’s a few people out there that may not know exactly what the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service does.

Javier Ramirez  So, we were created in 1947, primarily to help with the large number of strikes that were happening after World War II. So, we were created primarily for the private sector. But as the Congress saw the work that we do in dispute resolution, they gradually started to expand our authority. And so, in 76, under the Civil Service Reform Act, is when we started to federal sector collective bargaining, then we then in the 90s, under the Administrative Dispute Resolution Act, we started to do additional work for other federal agencies through interagency agreements. So basically, dispute resolution, give us a call, if we can help you out, we’ll point you in the right direction.

Tom Temin  And so how do you interact visa vie with the FLRA, the Federal Labor Relations authority.

Javier Ramirez  So, the NLRA, you know, they’re separate. And so, what happens is they have a number of arms, they’re the in the FRA but we work really nicely with them, if we specifically work with Khandro,

Tom Temin  The Collaboration and Alternative Dispute Resolution Office.

Javier Ramirez  That they handle negotiability claims, so when folks are negotiating their collective bargaining agreement, and they’re not sure if this is a permissive subject of bargaining, they usually go before CADRO. And then they will help them either mediate that and or resolve that issue. And so, we work really closely with them. They’ll do training programs to help with federal sector folks. And we sometimes partner with them to do to do those. And interestingly enough, before cases go to the federal services impasse panel, which is part of the Federal Labor Relations authority, they have to go through mediation, so although they’re not required to use our services, they could use a private mediator, our price is kind of hard to beat right. So, we don’t charge federal agencies. So, the majority do come through us.

Tom Temin  But you still do commercial industrial private sector mediation, also?

Javier Ramirez  that is the bulk of our work. And if I’m being candid with this federal crowd, we could have done better in servicing the federal sector workforce. And we learn that when we send somebody over to that federal services didn’t Impasse panel to work with them for six months, they came back and gave us a report out on stuff that they saw that we could be doing better. And we implemented those changes, and so on, when we implemented those changes in matter of three months, we went from resolving disputes about half of them, these cases that came to us from 50% to 80%. Resolution rates, and the number of issues that move forward to the federal services impasse panel went from dozens to two or three. So dramatic changes, in the federal sector there.

Tom Temin  and what does the workload of the Conciliation Service look like? Do you do 1000s of cases a year hundreds, dozens? What’s the order of magnitude?

Javier Ramirez  Yeah, so 10s of 1000s. And I say that as a whole, right, because there’s a number of type of cases that we handle, but federal sector collective bargaining, we’re in the range of about 200, plus or minus 50, that we handle in a given year before they go to the panel. But we get in the private sector, we get about 15,000 notices a year of contracts that are expiring, and that that including grievance mediations, public sector, when we do teachers, police fire, we just help out on those as well. So, our volume is pretty high.

Tom Temin  Yeah. And so mainly, then the work is when a contract is expiring, or has expired, negotiations aren’t finished, and they seem to be going nowhere. And people are on the verge of possibly a strike. That’s when you tend to come in.

Javier Ramirez  Yeah, you know what, the Labor Management Cooperation Act was an amendment to the National Labor relations act. And that act asks us to start trying to do stuff before that situation occurs. Right. So we will go in there and during midterm bargaining, we will or the middle the negotiations, rather, we will come in and do training programs to help them communicate more effectively resolve disputes more effectively, and to establish their management committees and just good communication processes so they could avoid the battle when it comes to negotiations.

Tom Temin  Right. Trust is kind of a big factor in having these things go well, isn’t it?

Javier Ramirez  You know, I tell people, you don’t necessarily have to trust each other, but trust the process. And sometimes we help them honor the process. So, they can trust the process and use that to reach agreement even though there may be some trust issues within the relationship.

Tom Temin  We’re speaking with Javier Ramirez, Deputy Director for field operations at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and in the federal disputes that you take care of. Are there any themes and trends? I mean, what happens to cause an impasse the most often have you seen?

Javier Ramirez  Yeah, you know, as far as in the federal space, the number one issue that we’re seeing right now is returned to office and I’m very careful with that term, right? It’s not returned to work. The federal sector has proven that we can be very effective working from home. But we understand that depending on the type of role that they’re doing, that there is a need for a return to Office situations. So, it’s that battle back and forth of what’s the appropriate amount of office time versus working from home time. And that seems to be the number one issue that we’re seeing in the federal space at the moment.

Tom Temin  Well, does it have to have been something in a contract or a labor agreement clause in order to come before the Commission? Because otherwise, it’s simply agency management discretion, correct?

Javier Ramirez  Sure. Yeah. Unless there is a collective bargaining agreement. Right? And if like the barring agreement, then then yeah, that would be something that they have to negotiate with their union.

Tom Temin  And what do you find that the somewhere is cutting the baby in the middle? That is to say, some people might want to telework all the time, the agency just to make an extreme, the agency may want people to come in five days a week plus Saturday morning. So, you have to find some way in the middle of that.

Javier Ramirez  Yeah, each case is very unique. Because in some cases, we’ve found that a lot of federal agencies have actually given back-office space because of budget restraints. And so sometimes there’s just isn’t a sufficient infrastructure to support everybody coming back, then it also you have to look at the work that they’re doing security levels, you know, some folks during pandemic had to either come in or not do any work, because there’s security issues. So, it really depends on the work that you’re doing and the resources available, but they’re all over the place. We don’t we’re not seeing a standard resolution for this issue.

Tom Temin  Sure. And let’s talk about the FMCS itself for a minute. How many people do you have that are actually in the mediation business, and what kinds of skills to those people need to have?

Javier Ramirez  On the whole the number of mediators that we have, we have about 120 – 130, mediators. They all do work within the federal sector. In regard to training, implement mediation cases, some of that work like that. When it comes to the collective bargaining mediation, that was one of the changes that we made after we had our detailed with the federal services impasse panel, where we’ve reduced the number of mediators that handle collective bargaining in the federal space and gave him specialized training so that we they could better service the federal space when it comes to collective bargaining. So, we have about 120 130 mediators in total that handle it. However, the skills and one of the things that we did, and it was primarily because of the work in the federal sector was we realized that we had to move from an instinctual practice to an intentional practice, right move, our mediators come in, and they help resolve a dispute. And you’ll ask them, so what did you do? What techniques did you use to help the parties reach that resolution, and we refined them, many of them were like, you know, I’m not sure I just, I just did it right. And so we want to, we want to move from that instinctual practice to intentional where they may be able to see the dynamic, put a name to it, and understand that when we see this behavior, these are some skills or techniques that we could apply when we see that we’re calling that our conflict management professionals program. And we implemented that a couple of years ago, and we’re training up all our mediators on these conflict management professional skills, you see that going into the private sector, also.

Tom Temin  Because often they don’t have a legal reference. That is to say, the cases aren’t the same as in nature as what might become, you know, before the Merit Systems Protection Board, for example, where there’s a legal kind of true north that they’re measuring against statutory language. In this case, it’s what’s really the right here for the situation.

Javier Ramirez  Yeah, exactly what’s right, and what the party is willing to accept. And unless we see something that we know, is glaringly, you know, illegal, where we would say, Hey, you may want to check with your counsel, before you sign off on this thing, right? Because we don’t get legal advice. We’re not an enforcement. We’re non regulatory, we’re there truly, to just help the parties resolve disputes. It’s a matter of fact, one of the things I tell our folks is that your job is to try to put us out of business, right? Unfortunately, we’re in a growth industry, there’s no shortage of conflict. Wouldn’t it be nice if we have never putting ourselves out of business, right? It’s not going to happen. But that’s the mindset put us out of business.

Tom Temin  And if people don’t accept the mediation, then they can always go to court. How often does that happen?

Javier Ramirez  So with collective bargaining, you know, it’s a little different, because you have the federal services impasse panel that they would go to in the private sector, you go, you have strikes, there are occasions where they can do arbitration, but in other disputes, like employment mediation cases, then yeah, they could go to the next steps, whether it be with the EEOC or some other agency, depending on what the issue is where they would do that. But our resolution rates and I would need to check on this to be sure, but it’s in that 80% ballpark range.

Tom Temin  All right. And just briefly, how did you come to this work? Tell us a little bit about yourself?

Javier Ramirez  Yeah. you know what, our mediators in general, we get them from one to four sources. We get some that come from other federal agencies like the national relations board, or maybe they’re doing Some ADR work in their in their agency, we get a few that come from there. We get another small percentage that come directly out of school. We’ll bring them in as developmental mediators, and they have a longer runway to develop as well just generically called journeyman mediators. But the bulk of our mediators come out of either having management or labor backgrounds where they spent years negotiating contracts. They’ve been at the bargaining table for years. And so, my background is on the labor side. I come out of a labor union. I spent 14 years negotiating contracts there before I came to the agency, and now I’ve been with the agency for 19 years.

The post What’s new from the agency in the middle of labor-management disputes first appeared on Federal News Network.

One measure of a career is the financial remuneration and whether your money and health needs are taken care of. One federal retiree analyzed the question of whether he was right to switch from the private sector to federal. Joining the Federal Drive with Tom Temin with the details, Abe Grungold, owner of AG Financial Services.

Interview transcript:

Tom Temin  One measure of a career is the financial renumeration and whether your money and health needs are taken care of. My next guest, a federal retiree analyzed the question of whether he was right to switch from the private sector to federal. Here with what he found, Abe Grungold, owner of AG Financial Services. You took a long look back at a long career, Abe. Just give us what you are doing here.

Abe Grungold  Tom, this was a question that has always plagued me my entire federal career. Did I make the right choice from leaving my senior position at a hospital and transitioning to the government? Because I took a $12,000 pay cut, which was about 35% of my previous salary, to work for the government. And I always wondered, did I make the right choice?

Tom Temin  Well, let me ask you this, though, what was the motivation in the first place to go to the government?

Abe Grungold  Well, the hospital was going through a lot of financial problems. They had merged with another hospital and I saw the beginning of the decline of this hospital, and I didn’t see a future with the hospital. I was afraid I was going to get laid off one day.

Tom Temin  Sure.

Abe Grungold  So, that’s why I sought something else a little bit more secure. And, it’s funny. In 1985, I started with the government, and a very close friend of mine also started at the hospital in 1985. I recently had dinner with her, and we discussed our salary, our benefits, and her future retirement. She’s going to retire in three years. And it was just wonderful, comparing my federal salary and benefits and retirement, comparing to hers, and I learned quite a bit.

Tom Temin  Now, we know from previous interviews that you are a multimillionaire in the TSP. And you are not three years from retirement, but about three years into retirement, enjoying the pickleball life and so on. So, tell us about what some of the findings were, compared to your friend.

Abe Grungold  Yes, so we hit upon five major areas: salary, health insurance, the TSP or her 401K, the retirement monthly annuity, and life insurance. So, what I found out from salary is that in the hospital, they did not provide very many COLAs. Over the past 40 years. I remember receiving a COLA once in the seven years that I was there. Now, with the government, I basically received a COLA every year with the government. I think during my last 40 years, there were two or maybe three occasions where the government did not provide a COLA. So even though I started my federal career at a lower hourly rate, I accelerated through promotions, and my salary was much higher than my friend’s present salary, who was also a manager, but I think that was largely due to the COLAs.

Tom Temin  The cost of living adjustments, by the way, for those that don’t yet know what a COLA is. So, you ended up ahead in the long run on salary, then.

Abe Grungold  Yes, yes. I ended up with a $75 per hour last salary that I had three years ago, and her present salary is $55, with a maximum she can achieve of $65 per hour. And I was already at the maximum when I retired with the government. But I think that difference in salary was certainly due to all the COLAs that I had received during my federal career. And, with respect to health insurance, the government provides a large variety of health insurance plans to pick from. The hospital where my friend works, they basically only have two or three choices. And variety is really the spice of life and health insurance. You want to pick a health insurance plan that really tailors to your needs, and that is very important. But the most critical part of the health insurance benefit is, I carry my health insurance into retirement. My friend will not have that opportunity to take their health insurance into retirement. That is a big, big benefit that I received.

Tom Temin  Yes, in some ways, it’s one of the biggest ones. And it’s really pretty much that situation for the rest of the private sector as well as your friend. We’re speaking with Abe Grungold, retired federal employee, and now owner of AG Financial Services. And then there’s the TSP, and the ability to save in a 401K, in which the government and private are a little bit more equal in most circumstances.

Abe Grungold  Yes, my friend had a variety of different deferred compensation plans to pick from: a 401K, a Roth IRA, and a 403B. And I remember participating in the 403B when I was at the hospital. But with the government and the TSP, I have always received a 5% matching to my TSP every year of federal service. My friend has never received any matching from her employer to her tax deferred plan. And that is probably the most important benefit that a federal employee can obtain, in addition to their health insurance. So, that is where I really grew tremendously with my 401K. I certainly didn’t ask my friend what her balance was, but the key is that she never received any match.

Tom Temin  There’s so many variables, such as your tolerance for aggressive investing for much of those years. And you had a pretty good tolerance for that.

Abe Grungold  Yes. I mean, I was a roller coaster rider, and I was always aggressive with my TSP and the merry-go-round riders are the ones who are solely in the G fund. There’s nothing wrong with those investors, but if you want to be a TSP millionaire, you’ve got to ride the roller coaster. And that was a big difference I found in our discussion was the employer matching.

Tom Temin  And then the other factor is, if you had a steadily higher increase in pay, then the more you contribute to social security, which means that at the end of a career, your social security benefit is greater.

Abe Grungold  Yes. I mean, certainly my social security benefit would be higher. I didn’t even ask my friend about that, because I knew that was already going to be true. So, we didn’t even hit upon that question. But what I did ask her was about her retirement annuity that she would receive from the hospital after 39 years, or she’ll have over 40 years when she retires. Now, I didn’t have her formula for her retirement annuity. But we did discuss what the amount is, and mine was more than twice what she would be receiving. She’s going to receive $1,800 per month, and I received at retirement $4,500 per month as my annuity. Now, that is probably also largely due that I have a higher salary. And I also received COLAs for my retirement annuity. She did not know if she’s going to receive any COLAs and I don’t think she will, because they usually buy those from an insurance company.

Tom Temin  You’re a FERS.

Abe Grungold  I was always a FERS employee. And certainly, your retirement annuity is very important. It’s one of the three-legged parts to your stool, and your three-legged stool is your annuity, your TSP and also your FEHB plan that you can take into into retirement. And the last thing that we discussed was life insurance. Life insurance is something that she was always able to obtain at the hospital and I could obtain it through the government. But the key difference is that she cannot take her life insurance into retirement. That benefit will end when she ends her employment. With the government, you could take your life insurance into retirement, and the government provides a basic $10,000 free portion to your life insurance, I believe when you hit age 65. But you could still carry any amount of life insurance into retirement as a federal employee. That is also a significant benefit.

Tom Temin  Well, it certainly helps your spouse take you to your eternal reward in style\, should that need arise.

Abe Grungold  Actually, Tom, I terminated all my life insurance when I left federal service. I just didn’t see a point of needing any, and that was just a personal decision. Every employee needs to evaluate their life insurance needs. And for us, we terminated ours. But, basically, what I learned, Tom, is that overall, I absolutely made the right decision with my federal career in all five of these categories. My federal career excelled in all these categories with salary, benefits, retirement, and certainly social security as well. And there were many other little benefits that we talked about. But certainly these were the five most important.

Tom Temin  All right, so the federal slot machine comes up with a row of cherries, but I have to ask you one existential question. Did you like the work? Was it good to work for the government and you didn’t go crazy waiting until the end?

Abe Grungold  I loved all four federal agencies that I worked for. It provided me with a feeling that I was doing good. Each position was a little bit different. But I was always sort of in the investigative side of government and trying to, you know, correct problems, and catching criminals, etc. And I found that work to be very fulfilling. I mean, I certainly enjoyed working at the hospital. But my federal career far exceeded my needs, in that self actualization on the Maslow hierarchy of needs. Yes, it certainly fulfilled that. All right, Abe ‘Moneybags’ Grungold is a federal retiree and owner of AG Financial Services. Thank you for that detailed analysis.  Thank you, Tom. It really was important to be finding out and now I’m so happy that I did.

Tom Temin  That’s right. Well, you know, living well is the best revenge, they say. We’ll post this interview at federalnewsnetwork.com/federaldrive. Hear the Federal Drive on your schedule, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

The post One way to figure if you made the right federal career choice first appeared on Federal News Network.

Predictable calls have emerged for Cheatle to resign. The true course of action isn’t so obvious, though. I mean “true” in the sense of manifest or straight. She took ultimate responsibility in a TV interview, but then the Secret Service sort of bumbled the PR by seeming to blame the local police on hand at the Trump rally. After this came a string of revelations about how the shooter was in plain sight, was found to have a rangefinder, generally aroused suspicion, and yet somehow to hide himself until too late.

If Cheatle should step down — and she probably will have to — I’d say her departure would come under the “that’s the way it is” category. It won’t come because she’s a terrible person or acted nefariously. She didn’t personally commit the planning and protective lapses, so far as we know. Nor was she caught stealing or harassing employees or such. By all accounts I’ve read, Cheatle is an earnest law enforcement person with long personal experience in presidential protection.

The Secret Service itself has had issues. The object of more or less continual critique, it ranks 413 out of 459 component agencies in the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government for 2023. It’s experienced its share of scandals over the years, but not since Cheatle returned as director. The agency has many functions, but its most visible — official protection — is also the most difficult and carries the highest stakes.

This situation is more like a Navy ship commander who runs aground while under the guidance of a harbor pilot. Grounding a warship often, but not axiomatically, means the skipper takes the fall. Officers know and accept that when they move up to O-5 grade.

I checked in with retired Navy Captain Bill Toti, who built a successful post-naval career as a consultant and author. He told me, in a ship accident “the default is that the CO will be sacked.” He added that the Navy conducts investigations to see if a chart was wrong, whether the crew took prudent precautions, or whether something made the situation beyond control.

“Normally these extenuating circumstances don’t exist,” Toti wrote in an email exchange, ” and it’s quickly determined to be crew error. In those cases, the CO will always be relieved for cause, because it was his/her responsibility to ensure the crew [is] properly trained and procedures properly followed.”

That’s the case here with the Secret Service. Only this case amounts to more than the equivalent of running aground. A grazing of Trump and the murder of a bystander equate to a near shipwreck. The incident evokes unpleasant national memories.

Yet we’ve seen, in the corporate world no less than in the federal, instances wherein terrible mistakes did not result in ouster or resignation of a top official. Boeing CEO David Calhoun came in after the previous CEO because of two crashes with many deaths. Then came the door that fell off a jet liner full of passengers. Calhoun didn’t personally leave the bolts off that plane, and company seems to face a new challenge weekly. Calhoun said months ago he’ll retire at the end of the year. At the FDIC, chairman Martin Gruenberg, overseeing a toxic work environment, said he’d leave, but only after the Senate confirms a successor. In other words, sometime after the next president is inaugurated.

I recall, it must be 40 years ago, a reporter at the Washington Post had to return a Pulitzer Prize because, if turned out, she’d fabricated the winning story. Her resume, it came out later, was mostly lies, too. The reporter resigned, but none of the editors who ignored obvious signs, resigned or were fired.

Mistakes large and small occur in every organization because we humans are frail and imperfect. Therefore, magnitude and criticality of a failure also figure into whether the boss stays or leaves. For the Secret Service, failing to prevent a sniper, plainly visible in daylight, from getting a few rounds off and actually striking a high level protectee, well that’s nearly as bad as it can get. Now the Secret Service and the politicians have to decide whether Director Cheatle is part of the solution, or not.

My earliest memory fragment is New Year’s Eve 1960. The earliest event for which I have detailed memory took place November 22nd, 1963. As a third grader, I first heard the news on the walkway leading from Churchill Elementary School in Churchill Borough, Pennsylvania. But it’s a memory of witnessed emotion and low-resolution black-and-white. To this day, the only visual documentation of the President Kennedy assassination is the short piece of 8mm film taken by the late Abraham Zapruder (whose life is another story). Both the Kodachrome film and the Bell & Howell camera ended up stored at the National Archives and Records Administration.

The JFK assassination caused a revolution at the Secret Service, which at the time was behind the times. The attempt at former President Trump’s life looks more like a lack of adherence to known best practices and a breakdown in communications, and less like some emergent, heretofore unknown phenomenon.

Nearly Useless Factoid

By Michele Sandiford

The Secret Service employs approximately 3,200 special agents, 1,300 Uniformed Division officers, and more than 2,000 other technical, professional and administrative support personnel.

Source: The Secret Service

The post Secret Service Director Cheatle likely can’t hang on first appeared on Federal News Network.

Modernizing how the government conducts human resources, that’s the subject of a lot of modernization effort. A case in point: The Human Resources Quality Services Management Office recently launched at the Office of Personnel Management. My next guest says OPM and the QSMO have become an information hub for the several agencies trying to modernize their HR processes. Steve Krauss is senior Advisor to OPM’s HR Quality Services Management Office, and he joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin earlier to discuss.

Interview Transcript: 

Tom Temin  And what are you seeing I mean, a lot of agencies, a lot of them are talking about HR Modernization. And they mean, from what I’ve understood the basic processes of how you just do all the millions of myriad steps for getting people what they need in HR.

Steve Krauss  there are a significant number of large-scale HR IT modern modernization efforts underway across most of the federal shared service providers, and a number of large agencies as well. And for the most part, these projects entail consolidating a set of fragmented or disparate systems into a more cohesive end to end HR system that can meet the needs of federal agencies and employees across the entire hire to retire lifecycle. So, what these agencies tend to be doing is moving to modern commercial cloud-based software as a service platforms. And there’s a significant degree of business process reengineering and change management that goes along with that.

Tom Temin  Yes, they typically have older systems that were hand coded or custom coded for each agency. And it sounds like they’re finding that just the commercial cloud-based providers software as a service providers can provide that functionality with a little tweaking maybe for government, but checking on vacation time, checking on your raises or retirement levels, whatever that might be. That’s kind of universal.

Steve Krauss  It’s a real mix, and kind of a menagerie in terms of what’s out there today. As an example, about 75% of civilian federal agencies use Oracle’s PeopleSoft as a core HR platform today. But in the older paradigm of IT system deployment, what that meant was buying the software and then customizing it in house. And that leads to all kinds of issues in terms of technical debt, and not being able to keep pace with changes in technology, in addition to which agencies have a whole slew of systems, some of which are custom built, some of which are commercial to handle various aspects of the human capital management lifecycle, and will be called the Human Capital Business Reference Model, which is all the human capital management functions that agencies perform. But the bottom line is yes, the set of commercial platforms that exist today and that agencies are looking to move to can handle more of those things in an integrated fashion. And that’s what agencies are trying to get to.

Tom Temin  And what effect does that have on their infrastructure, because a lot of them are trying to modernize that in the way they handle data. At the same time, they’re trying to modernize the applications themselves.

Steve Krauss  It has a whole slew of implications for infrastructure for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that most of these systems operate in the cloud. So, they are consistent with what agencies are trying to do more broadly in terms of moving to cloud based infrastructure. But also, because these systems tend to be more integrated in nature, there’s less room for error. And for data integrity issues that crop up in interfaces between systems and data quality and the use of data to improve strategic human capital decision making is a core issue that OMB and the White House and agencies are very interested in. And so, moving to these new platforms, has significant positive implications to making that happen as well.

Tom Temin  We’re speaking with Steve Krauss, senior adviser to the HR quality services management office at the Office of Personnel Management, and let’s talk about what OPM is doing in the QSMO trying to guide agencies in all of this. Tell us more.

Steve Krauss  From an HR  QSMO perspective, we do a couple of really significant things when it comes to helping agencies modernize. One thing is we serve as an advisor and a coordinator. So, you’ve got a number of agencies that are all sort of moving in the same direction. They’re all looking essentially at the same commercial platforms. So, they’re all kind of heading to relatively similar destinations. And we work among all of those agencies and with our counterparts at OMB to help coordinate this effort on a government wide basis. So, there are opportunities to either consolidate, collaborate or share solutions over the next several years that really have never existed in the federal government. And it’s a big task, but our primary objective is to help agencies do that and get to it to a better state along with that, the other thing that we’ve done is we’ve recently stood up the HR QSMO marketplace. Mind you, this is one of the fundamental aspects of what quality services management offices are supposed to do. The founding document for the QSMOs is an OMB memo M 1916 that launched these efforts. And the fundamental job of the QSMOs is to stand up these marketplaces. And so, we have just within the last couple of months, stood up version 1.0 of our HR QSMO marketplace, it’s publicly available on GSAs Acquisition Gateway, and it serves as a market research hub. It provides information about the various solutions that are available to agencies as they’re looking to modernize and upgrade their services. Today it includes the federal service providers, the shared service providers, and OPM. But we are also working to figure out how to onboard and incorporate commercial solutions into that marketplace.

Tom Temin  Yes, there are alternatives to PeopleSoft now, and some of them are coming in. But you touched on something I wanted to follow up with. And that’s the idea of shared services. And for decades, there has been the interior Business Center and the National Finance Center that have had some HR services and payroll services. Where does the Shared Services ideal? If you will play into all of this? And is it possible for a single solution to serve many agencies?

Steve Krauss  Well, it absolutely is. And the HR shared services marketplace is actually probably in some respects, the most mature shared services marketplace that we have with OPM and OMB is help and assistance. We consolidated the payroll provider marketplace some 20 years ago from 26, payroll providers down to four, one of the great success stories in terms of federal shared services. And today, just as you pointed out, the National Finance Center, interior Business Center, Treasury’s administrative resource center and a couple of others provide HR and payroll services to a variety of agencies across the government. And I would say that while there have been some ups and downs with regards to agencies’ desire to move to shared services, to shared service centers, per se, the role of shared services, I think is not going to shrink in the future, it’s going to grow. And it’s not just based on the economies of scale that shared services can provide. But increasingly, we’re seeing this in terms of economies of skill, there’s a real shortage of talent in terms of federal HR, federal HR talent, right HR specialists, and the HR departments that are out there to serve agencies and help them achieve their missions. And so, the more that we think about these shared service centers is like centers of excellence, that the more obvious it is how important this is going to be for agencies to achieve their missions in the future.

Tom Temin  And you see the shared services providers themselves changing, for example, Interior has got these big cloud contracts, that they are almost cloud brokers. And that becomes the shared service rather than Interior mainframes so to speak.

Steve Krauss  Yeah, that’s true. I mean, there’s opportunities to turn all kinds of things into shared services, right, the fact that agencies have similar needs, and once you have an entity, like the Interior Business Center, or the National Finance Center, you have the business model, quite frankly, and the infrastructure to be able to transact with various agencies and to get them the services that they need. Frankly, it doesn’t have to be limited to HR shared services.

Tom Temin  Two questions in one. Who initiates an agency’s journey toward a modernized HR and where should they go first? Should they go to the GSA marketplace, or should they go to OPM.

Steve Krauss  It kind of depends on where they are in the ecosystem. For a lot of agencies who are already currently customers of some of these shared service centers, their journey towards modernization has a lot to do with partnering closely, probably with their existing shared service center. But they can also go to the HR QSMO small marketplace now to see what options are available. Different shared service centers provide different services, and some agencies buy different services from different service centers. And so that is a viable option. We tend to be focusing a lot of our attention on some of the largest agencies and the shared service providers themselves because that accounts for probably 80 to 90% of the HR IT ecosystem that exists across the federal government. And at this point, for the most part, those agencies know that they should be coming to us for market intelligence, but also to ensure that they’re aligned with the standards and the strategies that OMB and OPM are deploying and we’re working hand in hand with most of those agencies today on their modernization projects.

The post A lot is changing in the way the government does human resources first appeared on Federal News Network.

Interstate 95 is a lifeline along the eastern end of the United States. When a bad truck accident knocked out a bridge near Philadelphia in 2023, a team from the Transportation Department orchestrated an effort that got it replaced in a week and a half. For their work, Tony Mento, Hari Kalla and Camille Otto of the Federal Highway Administration are finalists in this year’s Service to America Medals program. Ms. Otto is deputy administrator of the Pennsylvania division and she joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin to talk about their achievement.

Interview transcript: 

Tom Temin
And just recreate what happened in the aftermath, as everyone remembers, this tanker truck of gasoline exploded underneath the bridge. And the heat caused the bridge to collapse. What’s the process by which the Federal Highway Administration finds out about a thing like this? Or do you just watch TV.

Camille Otto
So fortunately for us, we have wonderful relationships with our State Department of Transportation, people know them as PennDOT, as well as the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. And so we have an electronic system actually, that when these incidents happen, that we get alerted through email almost immediately. So we were made aware of through email, and honestly, through phone calls from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. We have long standing relationships and cell phones. So immediately calls were being made to all three of us at federal highway.

Tom Temin
And so state officials, I guess some extent maybe even city officials and federal officials are standing and looking at a hole in the road with a kind of a embankment on either side. Who’s in charge at this point?

Camille Otto
To start off, it was actually the National Transportation Safety Board and the Pennsylvania State Police, as well as emergency management agencies were out, because the fire was still ongoing. And as folks may know, there was a gasoline tank or so. That gasoline was still on fire and leaking into the drainage systems. So they were on the scene to get everything stabilized. Really before anyone else could access it to take a look at the damage and assess things.

Tom Temin
Right. Tell us about the immediate aftermath. Eventually the flames are out. It’s probably hot for a long time. When did the Federal Highway Administration kick in? And what did you perceive your role to be once the flames cooled off?

Camille Otto
So even more, while the fires were still burning, we were communicating with the state DOT, and getting things lined up and working on traffic control. But once the fires were out, we had already assembled a team. So we were down in Philadelphia, and we’re on site actually the next day on Monday to start assessing and working on a plan to get the bridge reopened.

Tom Temin
And did you see the site yourself?

Camille Otto
I did not on the first day. When we were able to access it, I stayed back to manage some of the traffic control and all of the coordination efforts. And I sent my senior bridge engineer Jonathan Buck, as well as my lead for engineering so that they could be down on site to really look at the technical aspects of it and provide PennDOT with the best advice tactically that we could add as quickly as possible.

Tom Temin
So the issue then is how far the damage goes beyond what you can see, such that you know that whatever you attach back is going to stay up. Just to put it in simple terms.

Camille Otto
That’s exactly correct. So we knew immediately that the northbound lane had actually collapsed, but we were not sure about the condition of the southbound lane, as well as some of the abutments. So immediately, everyone was looking at those to determine what was their status and it was identified that the southbound lanes would also have to be replaced. So from that point, then we could look at what else needed to be done to get that removal going and move forward with a plan.

Tom Temin
Yes, sort of was standing by habit, the one way, and the other one had collapsed completely. It was gone. We’re speaking with Camille Otto. She’s Deputy Administrator of the Pennsylvania division of the Federal Highway Administration, also a Service to America Medals finalists this year. What happens then once the damage is finished happening, and the traffic is rerouted, you’ve got this hole. And how do you get going next? You need contracts, you need contractors, you need assessments. Tell us about the process.

Camille Otto
So the first thing to look at was what type of alternatives do we have? Fortunately, we had done work on this bridge not too long ago. PennDOT sprang into action and we looked at design plans, what type of materials we can get, and how quickly you can get them. We were very fortunate that a contractor was nearby. So he sprang into action and their group was able to do the removal within a few days. While PennDOT and Federal Highway we’re actively working on what can we do to get a temporary repair up and running. And fortunately we had some very innovative solutions for as you know, the lightweight glass aggregate fill, which is local to a Delaware County group. So we were able to gather all that information very quickly, even while the contractor was doing removal and come up with a design plan. So it really took a large effort on behalf of multiple agencies, both local, state and federal, and the private sector to kind of come up with some innovative solutions quickly.

Tom Temin
How was it bridged in 12 days? Even though that wasn’t the permanent bridge, but enough that it can handle. And let’s face it, a lot of trucks go over 95 on 95 every day, so it had to bear some real weight and wear and tear.

Camille Otto
Absolutely. So we were fortunate in the fact that we were not overwater, which allowed us some extra leeway in innovative solutions. So what they ended up doing was placing this fill within sort of cages from a layman’s term, and compacting it layer by layer with this glass aggregate that PennDOT has done lab testing on in the past and federal highway has done testing as well. So we knew what this product was based on some of those innovative technology testing that had previously been done. And they just layered and compacted, and you can watch on the video as they continue to build it up and up and up until they could put the page surface on the top.

Tom Temin
In other words, they had to spam something. And what they had to span it with was this material compress, that could stand up for that distance across the lanes of the road below.

Camille Otto
Exactly. So they we’re spanning over a ramp and off ramp to the interstate. So they were able to fill that space, with this aggregate. Had that been water, it would have required a different solution. So like I said, this was very innovative to use this to span that to get a temporary solution to open that back up to traffic, including trucks. And so the lab testing was key to know that this would be able to carry that kind of weight.

Tom Temin
So in some ways, the technology and the mechanisms administratively to have this were already in place, you might say.

Camille Otto
Correct. So we have our innovative councils and our Everyday Counts initiative. And this was included in some of those things. So that advanced innovation testing was very key to making this successful.

Tom Temin
And what is happening next? Because that fill materials in there, but that’s not intended to be the permanent solution. And you watch roads get built and you wonder why it takes them six months to pave a mile or something somewhere, and the one that drives a long road construction. So what’s next to make it permanent?

Camille Otto
So the fix is actually permanent now. So we have done the temporary fill. And while they had that done, they were actually able to get the steel beams and build the outside portions of the bridge, while people ran on the inside in the fill. Once that was done, which was late last fall, they began pulling out the fill. And once the fill was out, they could build the inside of the bridge while the traffic was running on the outside. So as of May 23, last month, they were able to complete all of that and one lane of the Cottman ramp is back and restored. So everyone is back and running on a fully restored version of i95. And the only remaining work is really to do one more lane of Cottman Avenue on the off ramp, and put a few more safety features. So we’re going to have some high friction surface to help vehicles navigate the curve and some additional signing as well just to warm.

Tom Temin
As someone who spends a lot of time on two wheels, I like the idea of a high friction surface for the curves. And couple of questions then. After removing the film material, are you evaluating it to see how it was stood for approximately a year of temporary use, just to see what happens.

Camille Otto
So they were able to look at it before they even removed it. So it performed adequately. And additionally, I would assume some of that testing data will obviously go back to federal highway for future uses as well.

Tom Temin
Yeah, cause glass fill sounds like something that could be an abundant commodity to make stuff out of that could be put in maybe permanently in some places.

Camille Otto
So we do have some of this permanently in place on some projects. Typically, I believe in some interchange slopes and things. So this is actually being used already in other areas.

Tom Temin
Are there any lessons learned from bridges where in this case it wasn’t 95 where a crash occurred, but underneath 95 and the flames went up to 95? If I’m describing it right, is there any alterations to bridges that could be promulgated, so that if another tanker blows up the bridge won’t melt?

Camille Otto
We have looked at some of that information. Of course the the amount of heat coming from a gasoline fire is a very very, very intense. And so there’s limited in what you can do. But we have looked at how can we make a stronger steel? And what kind of information? And a lot of these things will feed back into some of our everyday counts initiatives. Is there some innovation there, and other materials or strengthening that can be done. And so those are things that our bridge engineers do take back and look at, and we try to provide information and always looking to build a better safer product anytime we can.

Tom Temin
And by the way, do you come to your job from the engineering side? Because you know a lot about this. Or do you come to it from the program administrator side.

Camille Otto
So for me, originally, I’m actually a biologist and not an engineer. So it’s one of the few maybe that comes from this angle. But I’ve worked with a lot of engineers. So I’ve been in Transportation for 27 years. Starting out in the consulting arena working for state DOT’s. And now I’ve been with federal highway 14 years now. So my job now comes from the program administration side of things, but I think it really takes a team, so we pull everyone together to have all aspects covered when we’re working on things. So I think it’s helpful to have all of those different diversities to bring to the table and really come up with a solution that covers all all aspects.

The post An award-winning federal response to a sudden transportation disaster first appeared on Federal News Network.

Lockheed Martin recently won a settlement worth more than $130 million in a protest with the Air Force. The company completed a contract to update the big C5 transport places with new engines. But it also had to do thousands of repairs outside the scope of the contract, and that’s where the disagreements started. The Federal Drive with Tom Temin  got details from Haynes Boone procurement attorney Dan Ramish.

Interview transcript: 

Tom Temin  Apparently, the planes arrived to Lockheed from the Air Force in such neglected condition that Lockheed had to do a lot more than they originally contracted in order to get the things flyable and to meet the Air Force requirement that the planes come back out like new. Is that the gist of it?

Dan Ramish  Well, Tom, part of the issue was that the planes weren’t required to come back like new. So, the contract wasn’t really repair contract, the contract was intended to modernize the C5 transport aircraft and to kind of get them online a greater percentage of the time and have them be more reliable. But, as part of this, there was a line item that provided for Lockheed to provide repair services to fix legacy issues that were either necessary for them to be able to make the upgrades or that affected the safety of flight for the aircraft. So, pretty limited types of repairs that were expected under the contract, but that wasn’t the way it played out in principle. Now, there’s always going to be some amount of additional legacy repairs of issues. It’s hard to predict exactly what types of repairs, what’s going to wear out on different aircraft. And there was testimony in this case about that issue, that aircraft fly different and unique missions in different environments. And, so, you never know exactly what’s going to wear out when. So, there’s a built-in flexibility for what the contract called “over and above work.” The problem was that there was so much over and above work, that it kind of affected the overall performance of the contract. And the work that Lockheed was really supposed to be doing, modernizing the aircraft.

Tom Temin  Right. So, the over and above was provided for, but maybe the Air Force vastly underestimated how much beyond the scope repairs would need to be made, in other words.

Dan Ramish  I think that was part of it, Tom. The other part of it was that DCMA imposed a higher standard than was supposed to be applicable under the contract. DCMA required a like-new standard. After a few aircraft had been modernized, they started having a more zealous inspection routine that looked at things that didn’t go to whether the modernization could be performed on the aircraft or whether it was safe to fly. So they were looking at things like foreign object debris, and requiring all of that to be removed, which didn’t affect the safety or the ability to make the upgrades and they’re requiring Lockheed to fix other technical issues that weren’t really necessary.

Tom Temin  If say, the engines were put in and the thing flew safely, they might have complained to the Air Force, well, you didn’t reupholster the copilot seat, which was split. I’m making that one up.

Dan Ramish  Yes, issues that would be extraneous. Yes, things like that, that were not really essential. And the contract only expected there would be essential repairs. So, the interesting thing about this, and this comes up a lot in government contract disputes, is that Lockheed was actually paid for the extra repairs that it performed under the contract. There was a mechanism in the contract for them to be paid the direct cost of performing the repairs. The problem was that it wasn’t just that they had to perform these repairs, but that there were so many legacy repair issues that they had to re-sequence the actual work that they were supposed to be doing and move personnel around. Some of the legacy repair issues were difficult to perform, and so they took some of their best mechanics who should have been working on the upgrade to the aircraft to have them instead deal with the legacy repair issues. And they changed the sequence of performing the repair work so that they could deal with all the extra repairs that DCMA was requiring.

Tom Temin  We’re speaking with Dan Ramish, a procurement attorney with Haynes Boone. Probably some of the mechanics might have encountered parts of their grandfathers had installed on this plane, because I think the first one was delivered, like, in 1969, you know, during the Nixon administration to the to the Air Force, and they’re still flying.

Dan Ramish  Well, yes.

Tom Temin  So, the dispute then arose in what Lockheed felt it had to lay out for allowable repairs, but it was just more than the Air Force felt it should pay and so Lockheed sued for that money.

Dan Ramish  Yes, Lockheed brought a claim for the loss of productivity and disruption caused by having so, so many extra repairs that DCMA was requiring. And during the performance of the contract, Lockheed and the Air Force tried to address these issues. You know, they brought in an Air Force onsite representative who was helpful in speeding up decisions, whether repairs needed to be made, and they introduced a new government advisory team that reviewed the repairs to make sure that they were really essential. And those measures helped, but there was still a significant volume of repairs above what should have been expected under the contract.

Tom Temin  Got it. So, for example, if putting in a new engine, and you found that the part that the engine hangs on was cracked? Well, that’s something you could reasonably expect Lockheed to say, yep, this has got to be fixed. But sounds like there were things inside and away from the modernizing parts that they fixed at the Air Force’s urging, that then didn’t get paid fully for the, as you say, the inconvenience and the out of sequencing that it caused, which is a real cost in a production situation.

Dan Ramish  Absolutely. So, to give you a sense, in the decision, they noted that Lockheed expected over and above work to be 3% of the initial production unit, and they experienced two and a half times that amount. So we’re talking about massive excessive increases in the amount of legacy repairs. So, they did bring this claim. They filed the claim with the contracting officer and then appealed to the Armed Services Board of contract appeals. And what did that board of appeals find? The Armed Services Board ruled in favor of Lockheed on its disruption claim and sustained the appeal and awarded the $131 million that Lockheed was seeking. And the board looked at the disruption claims. So, Lockheed, as I said, was paid for the direct repairs. And it was arguing that its fixed price work to modernize the aircraft cost more because of legacy repairs. And Lockheed brought out an expert. What they argued was that the first few aircraft didn’t involve that much over and above work. But then DCMA started using this heightened standard of like new, and that really kicked up the number of legacy repairs. And so what they did was they used a methodology that’s referred to as the measured mile approach, and said, listen, we can’t prove the amount of extra cost with each individual repair that the government ordered here. We need to look at all of the costs, and we’re going to use as a baseline, the first few aircraft where the government was being reasonable, and the repairs were kind of in line with what they’d experienced on other contracts. And they compared that against later aircraft, where DCMA was applying this higher standard and said, well, the reason these other aircraft cost so much more was because the additional legacy repairs were being required and affected the sequence of the work.

Tom Temin  It’s almost a case of if you have a kitchen done by a contractor, it’s while you’re here, can you add this and that effect that the Air Force was imposing?

Dan Ramish  Yes, historically, this is a challenging kind of claim to prove. As you can imagine, because there’s a preference if you can to identify the specific costs that increases rather than looking at the total cost, a version of a modified total cost claim. But Lockheed was able to do it here. And their expert actually compared the learning curve for the first few aircraft to the learning curve to the later aircraft that were affected, and kind of had an unusual approach to proving those damages. But ultimately, the Board found that methodology to be appropriate and was persuaded by Lockheed’s case.

Tom Temin  So, in other words, the later planes of the 49 that were fixed are actually nicer than the first ones that are fixed. But the Air Force had to pay for the difference.

Dan Ramish  Yes, they involved fixing a bunch of additional auxiliary issues that weren’t really necessary under the contract. Because of the volume of those extra repairs to those legacy issues that weren’t needed, the board was persuaded that that caused Lockheed to incur all these extra costs.

Tom Temin  Right. So, the lesson for the government here is keep your requirements straight and stick to them, and don’t have this kind of creep in scope while you’re underway, because you’ll end up paying for it.

Dan Ramish  That’s right. Ultimately, the government and the taxpayer had to pay for the extra work. And if they had stuck with the repairs that were actually essential, that, of course, would have saved money. There are also litigation lessons for the government here. The government’s defenses really were technical defenses. Many of them had been raised earlier in the litigation. They argued again that Lockheed’s claim was subject to the statute of limitations and that Lockheed had released its claims in a previous modification. And the board said, we’ve already ruled on these issues, you haven’t raised any new arguments, but the government seemed to really be counting on that in order to win and didn’t put on its own expert or its own evidence to refute Lockheed’s account of the extra costs that it incurred.

Tom Temin  And by the way, the project was completed several years ago, like 2018, actually, and so it shows that it’s never too late to try to recover your costs.

Dan Ramish  That’s right. Ultimately, it’s a difficult burden for the contractor to prove damages in these kinds of scenarios. And Lockheed here provides an example of how you can do it with an appropriate expert. And another thing that they did that was helpful to them here was that their expert backed out offs that were unrelated to the legacy repair issues, and that really helps the credibility of a contractor’s claim to show the board affirmatively that you’re pulling out things that the contractor could have been responsible for and are overclaiming.

Tom Temin  Dan Ramish is a procurement attorney with Haynes Boone. Thanks for that update.

Dan Ramish  Thanks, Tom.

Tom Temin  And we’ll post this interview at federalnewsnetwork.com/federaldrive. Hear the Federal Drive on your schedule, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

The post What happened when the Air Force neglected its biggest plane for too long first appeared on Federal News Network.

• It’s the season when feds tend to get reminders about the do's and don’ts of political activity. For Department of the Navy employees, that means mandatory training. In a message yesterday, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro ordered commanders to finish training all of their personnel on the Hatch Act and DoD’s official instruction on political activity no later than Sept. 15. The rules are different for various categories of employees — like active duty members, reservists, “less restricted” and “greater restricted” civilians. But there are some universal prohibitions — like using government resources for politicking, or doing anything that might imply government endorsement of a candidate.
  (Guidance on Political Activities of Department of the Navy Personnel - U.S. Navy )
• A new bill is trying to ease restrictions for federal applicants who have used marijuana in the past. If it’s enacted, a bill nicknamed the “DOOBIE” Act would mean agencies can’t deny a job or security clearance application only because of a candidate’s past marijuana use. There’s already guidance for agencies pushing similar policies, but Senator Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who introduced the bill, says there’s still confusion on the topic. Some candidates are still hesitant to apply for a federal job or security clearance because they’re worried about past marijuana use. The Senate Homeland Security Committee is expected to consider the new legislation next week.
  (‘DOOBIE’ Act looks to ease security clearance restrictions on past marijuana use - Federal News Network)
• The Defense Department is still finalizing new plans for its delayed background investigation system. The Pentagon expects to finalize a new schedule and cost estimate for the National Background Investigation Services system, or NBIS, within one month. The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency oversees the new IT system. It was originally scheduled to be completed by 2019. But officials say the project has been beset by cost overruns, an unreliable schedule and an inadequate technical approach. Now, DCSA is just working to get the next-generation background investigation system on track over the next 18 months.
  (Troubled background investigation system still under review at Pentagon - Federal News Network)
• Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira is now expected to face a military court-martial, months after he pleaded guilty to federal charges for leaking highly classified military documents. Teixeira has admitted to illegally collecting some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets and sharing them on the social media platform Discord. Military prosecutors say he will now face charges of disobeying orders and obstructing justice. The Air Force said he'll be tried at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts, though no trial date has been set. Teixeira’s lawyers have argued that a court-martial would amount to prosecuting him twice for the same offense.
  (Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira to face a military court-martial, Air Force says - Associated Press)
• The Department of Veterans Affairs is weaning veterans off a traditional username and password to access their health and benefits records online. The VA said it will transition all veterans to use the government’s own identity verification service, Login.gov, or a commercial provider, ID.me, over the next year. VA said the transition will improve security, and impact about 3 million veterans and other beneficiaries. The VA said veterans will no longer be able to sign into its health portal with a username and password after Jan. 31 next year. Veterans will be able to access their data and manage their benefits once they create a new account.
  (VA begins transition to simpler online sign-in experience for veterans’ account access - Department of Veterans Affairs)
• The Department of Veterans Affairs is telling lawmakers it’s looking at a nearly $15 billion shortfall. VA officials are projecting a $3 billion shortfall this year, and a nearly $12 billion shortfall in fiscal 2025. The department gets funding for its mandatory health and benefits programs a year in advance to avoid any disruption from a government shutdown. VA financial experts briefed the House VA Committee earlier this week. Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.) said hiring accounts for some of the cost overruns. The VA planned to shed 10,000 positions next year. But Bost said the VA is now on track to add 22,000 full-time employees.
  (VA warns of historic $15B budget shortfall. House committee says more hiring ‘above all’ is driving up costs - Federal News Network )
• The Defense Department’s mental health program is often too slow to get in touch with service members transitioning to civilian life. Military members who may need mental health support typically don’t hear from DoD’s “inTransition” program until two or three months after they’ve separated from their service. A new report from the Government Accountability Office said those first few months are a particularly vulnerable time for transitioning members. GAO said the program should change its outreach methods, and create auto-contact options to reach at-risk members more quickly.
  (DoD and VA Health Care - Government Accountability Office)
• Kristyn Jones, who performed the duties of the Air Force under secretary for over a year, has officially retired from federal service. Jones has served as the assistant secretary for financial management and comptroller since 2022. During her time as under secretary, Jones helped launch a sweeping review of the service’s processes and organizational structures. Melissa Dalton stepped into her role as under secretary in May following her Senate confirmation.
  (Air Force Kristyn Jones officially retires from federal service - Linkedin)
• The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has made some key leadership changes official. Jeff Greene is now CISA’s executive assistant director for cybersecurity. And Trent Frazier has been appointed assistant director for stakeholder engagement. Both had been serving in those roles in an acting capacity. Greene previously was at the Aspen Institute. He replaced Eric Goldstein, who left CISA’s top cyber job to join Capital One last month. Frazier joined CISA after serving in a variety of leadership roles throughout the Department of Homeland Security.
  (CISA announces key leadership appointments - Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency)
• DISA’s program executive office for transport wants a more graceful transition plan from the industry. The Defense Information Systems Agency’s PEO for transport is essentially the internet for the Defense Department. As the office is working to adopt next-generation networking gear, it is seeking standards-based solutions from multiple vendors. Chris Paczkowski, the PEO transport director, said he wants to see more roadmaps from the industry.
  (DISA’s PEO transport wants ‘graceful transition plan’ from industry - Federal News Network)

The post Navy members get a reminder to watch how they participate in the upcoming election season first appeared on Federal News Network.

National elections often have economic effects. This year’s presidential election is proving a bit more volatile than we’ve seen in recent years. With what that might mean for investment returns, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin turns to certified financial planner Art Stein of Arthur Stein Financial.

Interview transcript: 

Tom Temin  This is a question you’re getting these days, huh, Art?

Art Stein  Oh, so many people ask me about the election and and what it will mean for investment returns going forward after the election. And, you know, there’s a real split. The Democrats are, you know, panicked that if President Trump wins again, that’ll be bad, and Republican clients are worried about, you know, if President Biden or some other Democrat wins, that that’ll be a disaster. And, so, you know, there have been a lot of studies on this. I look at it every four years, because people do bring it up, although not quite with the level of concern that I feel like I’m hearing now. And, basically, you know, there’s just no discernible relationship that you can come up with. And people have split the statistics a lot of different ways, Tom, but, one, investment markets do not tend to do better with either Republicans or Democrats. There’s just no statistically significant difference, and that’s partly because there just haven’t been that many presidential elections by the standards of statistical significance. The other thing is, in my opinion, that looking at what happened before World War Two, it’s just not so relevant to what’s happened since World War Two, because now the Federal Reserve is much more powerful, much more interventionist. And, you know, there’s a lot more transparency in the investment markets, a lot of things are different. But, just as an example, if we rank investment returns per year for each of the presidents since World War Two, by far the best was President Clinton. I mean, the Dow Jones averaged 16% a year. Then, we’ve got five Republicans and one Democrat who are in the 10 to 11% range per year. That’s Ford, Eisenhower, Trump, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush, and then President Biden, where its averaged 11% a year, three presidents where the market actually lost during their term, President Nixon and George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter. Market, Dow Jones all had a negative rate of return during their presidency. So, there’s just not much there to hang your hat on. One of the things a lot of this is from a firm called Bespoke Investment Group, and they really did a deep dive this time around. They looked at what would happen if you only invested when Republicans were in office, or you only invest when Democrats held the presidency. And if you just looked at it like that, then you’d be much better off only investing when the Democrats were in office. You’d have about twice as much money as only investing when Republicans were in office. But if you just stayed invested, no matter which party held the White House, you would have 30 times as much money over the period they looked at.

Tom Temin  Right, and anyway, the Republicans say if they’re doing well, it’s because of their policies. And the Democrats say if we’re doing well, it’s because of our policies. And if things happen, good or bad, sometimes they’ll blame it on the previous administration of a different party, or the party out of power will claim it’s what we did that’s helping this next guy in power, who’s of a different party. So, it’s all this gamesmanship. I guess, ultimately, what this says is that the economy itself in the investment markets are resilient, depending on what policies the administration might pose.

Art Stein  Absolutely. And, you know, the fact of the matter is, in today’s world, the Federal Reserve Board has a lot more influence over the economy than the White House and Congress. And you may think that’s a good or a bad thing, but I think that’s what’s going on. And you know, and they looked at a couple of other things. One thing that I liked was whether stock market returns 12 months before an election where there was a sitting president running an incumbent president running, did incumbent presidents, were they more likely to be elected? So, they looked at every time going back to 1900, where that was the case. And 52% of the time, if this stock market was positive before the election, the incumbent won. Well, 52% is a coin flip, you know, so what good is that? And they’re only they looked at, you know, suppose the Dow Jones decline before the election, well then the incumbent lost only 13% of the time, and the rest of it was just didn’t fit anybody’s theory.

Tom Temin  And anyway, you’re talking about percentages of small samples. I mean, there’s twenty presidents.

Art Stein  Very small samples. And you know, the extraneous things going on are so important. Wars, revolutions, COVID. I mean, it’s just, there isn’t a relationship, except that there’s a very strong relationship to just staying invested and not worrying about who gets elected president and letting that take care of it. And you know, for listeners, I’m posting a blog, and then today or tomorrow, with a lot of these charts in it, and statistics, you know, if people want to look at that, take their own look at it.

Tom Temin  We’re speaking with Art Stein of Arthur Stein Financial near us in Bethesda, Maryland. And, therefore, I’m guessing that the best advice then at this point is just leave your TSP alone, maybe make some adjustments in the funds if you feel like that. But don’t pull out because you’re afraid of Trump, don’t pull out because you’re afraid of Biden. Don’t double down for the same reason.

Art Stein  Yeah, exactly. I mean, you TSP investors need to choose an appropriate allocation between the stock funds and the bond funds. And if it’s appropriate, then they should just stick with it. And time in the market is a much better strategy than timing the market, the money that TSP investors have in the stock funds should be for long term needs, not for money they need to take out the next year or two. But for the money that, you know, someone retiring at 65 is going to need money 10, 20, 30 years in the future. And that’s where the stock funds are very likely to, you know, outperform.

Tom Temin  And I guess sometimes events can cause gyrations in the stock market. I don’t know what happened. I don’t remember when Kennedy was assassinated, President Kennedy back in 1963, or whether you know, the markets jittered in the last few days after the near assassination of candidate Trump, but those tend to be like knocking a top. It’s going to go to its natural momentum after the little shock is over.

Art Stein  Most of those, you know, there was a dip in the market after Kennedy was assassinated. And then it recovered and just kept going up. And, you know, the big event in our lifetime was 2008 when we had that massive crash in the real estate markets. I mean, that definitely had an effect. But that was an economic effect, not a political event. And things like Brexit. I don’t know if you remember, years ago. That was supposed to have a huge effect on the markets. Didn’t. You know, all these things just, and even you know, when President Trump was elected in 2016, the general feeling on Wall Street was that that would cause a market crash. Not everybody said that. But really the stuff I read was, that’s going to be a major crash if he’s elected. And what really happened was that the market had been going down until three days before the election, three trading days, then it started going up. And clearly no one knew that Trump was going to win. And it just kept going up after he got elected. I mean, so if you read anything from that, it’s just the stock market does better when there’s no election going on. And there’s a certain, there might even be a reason for that. Because, you know, they tend to say the stock market doesn’t do well with uncertainty.

Tom Temin  All right. Well, if you’re uncertain, then stick with what you’ve got going. Stay the course and you’ll probably be better off in the long run. Fair to say?

Art Stein  Fair to say, Tom.

Tom Temin  Certified financial planner Art Stein, proprietor of Arthur Stein Financial. As always, thanks so much.

Art Stein  Thank you, Tom.

Tom Temin  We’ll post this interview with federalnewsnetwork.com/federaldrive. Subscribe to the Federal Drive wherever you get your podcasts.

The post How the election could affect your Thrift Savings Plan returns first appeared on Federal News Network.

In a recent interview with an executive of the industry group, the Professional Services Council, I discussed the State Department’s plan to establish three federally-funded research and development centers, FFRDCs. Industry was puzzled by this move because of the nature of State Department’s requirement, facilitate public private collaboration for numerous activities related to diplomacy and modernization. Joining the Federal Drive with Tom Temin with the State Department’s view, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisition and Senior Procurement Executive, Michael Derrios.

Interview transcript: 

Tom Temin  Mr. Derrios, good to have you in studio.

Michael Derrios  Hi, Tom, thanks for having me.

Tom Temin  Let’s begin at the beginning. FFRDCs, you have a RFQ out now for three of them. Tell us the purpose here.

Michael Derrios  Sure. And actually, I’ll clarify, it’s actually not an RFQ, we’re not quite there to that part of the process. So, this is the federal register process where we have a 90-day clock. We’re taking in public comments during the period. And then at the end of that process, we’ll be putting out an RFP. I want to stress that point because I think that that’s probably something that industry and trade associations should think about. So, what you see right now in those very broad-scoped buckets, if you will, in that notice, is really just again, broad language that describes what the centers would would do in an R&D environment for the mission set. The specific requirements are going to be contained in that RFP at the end of the public comment period.

Tom Temin  But at first glance, you think of FFRDCs for scientific-related agencies, looking for partners, typically non-profits, the miters, and so forth of the world to do research in scientific technical areas. State Department is loosey-goosey, diplomacy in getting along with people, advising military. So, give us the vision here.

Michael Derrios  I’m so glad that you actually mentioned that, Tom. I think that a lot of people don’t actually know about the the real robustness of the mission set. When you when you think about R&D, and what, well, actually, you know what, let me start here. We use FFRDCs today. This is not a new thing for us. We’re already leveraging FFRDCs through other agencies, so, Treasury, DHS, etc. What’s new for us is wanting to sponsor agreements with FFRDCs for the first time directly. So, the usage of FFRDCs is definitely not new for the department. And that’s because we absolutely have requirements that fit that space. If you think about diplomatic security, or INL, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement. We also have a bureau focused on paramilitary affairs. We actually have an office of science and technology. So, you know, the mission set is actually much broader than I think a lot of people realize. A lot of folks kind of associate the bigger bureaus like Consular Affairs, which would also have, I think, some requirements that would fit in this space, or Diplomatic Security, formerly known as IRM. There are a variety of areas across the mission set that I think would would benefit from direct usage of FFRDCs. And just to kind of peel back the layer of the onion a little bit more, we’re trying to solve for three problems. Essentially, it’s scope, it’s ceiling, and it’s expedited access. When we leverage FFRDCs through other agencies, we have to use the interagency process for that. So, there’s a lot of documentation that goes into that.

Tom Temin  A lot of bureaucracy.

Michael Derrios  Absolutely, absolutely. Oftentimes, we are challenged with trying to fit our scope into the nature of their vehicles, make sure that it’s a clean fit. In some cases, that could mean that we are cutting our requirements to try to fit into their box, if you will. And then the other piece of it is ceiling. Rightfully so, any agency is going to scrutinize the ceiling on their vehicle, because the dollar. They want to make sure that they can support their internal customer base and you know, and others if they do support other agencies, but they’re going to protect the scope and the ceiling mostly on their vehicles, very tightly, as they should. We have seen where we’ve been kicked off of vehicles because of ceiling issues, right? And then you’ve touched on it, the bureaucracy. So, getting access, just getting on the vehicle can sometimes be a very elongated process. You’re talking about interagency documents that have to be signed on both sides. Again, there’s that negotiation about the scope and the ceiling. And sometimes it could be months before we’re actually able to tap into one of the vehicles. So, by issuing direct sponsoring agreements, we’re trying to solve for those three issues. And most importantly, I would say, structure agreements with FFRDCs that are very unique and tailored to what we need.

Tom Temin  We’re speaking with Michael Derrios. He’s deputy assistant secretary of state for acquisition and the senior procurement executive. And, for the FFRDC types of requirements that could be filled that way, where do your demand signals come from? Is it from those areas you mentioned, diplomatic security, paramilitary office?

Michael Derrios  Yeah, great question. Frankly, I think a variety of the bureaus in the department would be users. I’ve been contacted twice in the last month from offices that are asking, hey, Mike, is ready to go yet? We’re actually nowhere near being ready to go yet. That’s an indication of how much interest there is. And we obviously did the, we looked at how much usage we have today. Through the interagency process, we’ve done some pulsing. So, we know that there’s definitely a demand signal. I think there’s a variety of organizations that could use it. So, the benefit of an FFRDC arrangement is that it gives us the ability to enter into a kind of trusted relationship with a nonprofit organization. And the FAR actually encourages us to have a long term relationship. And also, it’s the ability to share information and data that we can’t always share with for-profit companies for a variety of reasons.

Tom Temin  Because that was one of my questions. Are some of these things, could they ordinarily be done by some of the big, broad based contractors, the Lighthouses or the SAICs of the world?

Michael Derrios  Sure, yeah. So, we’re going to be governing the process very tightly. We’re going to establish an apparatus to make sure that as requirements come in, we’re vetting those and that we know that they’re a good fit, number one, for R&D work. And, then, the customer, you know, is actually wanting to use the right center within the construct. And, then, three, is this a fit for industry? There’s actually two key words, when you look at FAR part 35 and the policy that describes FFRDCs. Actually, two key words. It talks about, you know, whether or not industry can as effectively do the work. I think those two words actually offer us a lot of broad latitude to make that determination. I’m not a requirements owner, but I’m going to illustrate, you know, potential requirements for you right to try to explain that. So, I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possible for diplomatic security to come to us and say, hey, we’re interested in R&Ding some security solutions, right? And maybe we would want to feed in FFRDC threat information that we couldn’t necessarily share with a for-profit company, right? To help us develop and prototype something unique for diplomatic security. You can say the same thing for potentially cyber missions across the department. Variety of different organizations, kind of, you know, collectively own that. Intel and INR, you know, intelligence. There could be a need.

Tom Temin  Yeah, I was wondering about the paramilitary, thinking about something that’s kind of been wiped off of the front pages, so to speak. And that’s what’s going on in Haiti. Unfortunately, the nation has focused on the President’s mental acuity or whatever that might be, instead of issues like Haiti, which I think is still festering.

Michael Derrios  Yes. And we’re actually, the State Department is very actively involved in the situation with Haiti. Can’t speak on the broader issue you raised, but definitely, whether it’s studies—

Tom Temin  It’s just dealing with that weird situation where you write government that has a rival that’s as powerful as the government, in this kind of distributed paramilitary situation.

Michael Derrios  Right, and the ability to possibly tap into an FFRDC that could offer some very technical knowledge and help us study a problem set and potentially propose alternative approaches to addressing something, right? And that’s the kind of work that we’re talking about. So the need is absolutely there. I would say to trade associations, and in our industry partners, bear with us. Take a look at the RFP when it comes out, and offer a little bit of trust. We are going to put a very tight governance process on this. And if something is a much better fit for industry, we’re going to go in that direction.

Tom Temin  Sure. And how do you budget for this? Because in some sense, an FFRDC functions in almost like an IDIQ mode. And so you have to know what your ceiling is, what state department’s ceiling will be, without knowing how much once it’s established, people could come running and saying, hey, we need this and that done.

Michael Derrios  Now, that’s a fantastic point. So my policy shop is actually doing all of the outreach today to build a statement of objectives. And then we’re pulsing the department to figure out what we think those requirements might look like over a five-year period. And the way that FFRDCs work is we’re required to actually examine the usage after a five-year period and determine whether or not it makes sense to continue on with that relationship. But yeah, we’re definitely wanting to pulse right now to figure out what the ceiling should be set at for these vehicles, because, you’re right, they are IDIQs. It’s not a matter of, you know, forward funding anything. We’re going to fund at the task order level as requirements come in. But we definitely are trying to do that pulsing across the department today to figure out what the demand signal will be in terms of potential dollars.

Tom Temin  All right, so, any other great procurement initiatives we should know about from state?

Michael Derrios  I would say, you know, we are actually trying to get OTA authority as well, which I think you’re aware of.

Tom Temin  Other transaction authority, uninitiated listening.

Michael Derrios  Yeah. And the main thing there is to really to try to attract non-traditional companies to the mission set. We know that there are a variety of companies out there, especially small startups that offer some tremendous capability that just don’t always want to deal with the bureaucracy of a federal contract in its typical form. So, if we had the ability to tap into those companies, that would greatly expand our industrial base. So, we’re working on that as well.

Tom Temin  All right, we’ll have to have you back when some of these things start to take concrete form.

Michael Derrios  Happy to do it.

Tom Temin  All right. Michael Barrios is deputy assistant secretary of state for acquisition and the senior procurement executive. Thanks so much for joining us.

Michael Derrios  Thank you.

Tom Temin  We’ll post this interview along with a link to more information at federalnewsnetwork.com/federaldrive. Subscribe to the Federal Drive wherever you get your podcasts.

The post Why the State Department wants to set up federally-funded research and development centers first appeared on Federal News Network.

• The Social Security Administration says a recent policy change should make it easier to compensate beneficiaries who received underpayments. To try to get reimbursements out more quickly, SSA recently updated its requirements for payment distributions. Now any underpayment less than $15,000 can be distributed without a peer review. Previously, that was capped at just $5,000. As a result, SSA says more underpayments are going out more quickly. In total, the SSI program has released more than $900 million in underpayments to about 80,000 people.
  (SSI policy change - Social Security Administration)
• A coalition of employee organizations is heightening calls of support of women in law enforcement. Advocacy groups are pushing back against recent stories calling the assassination attempt on former President Trump a result of the Secret Service’s efforts to promote gender diversity in hiring. In a memo published Tuesday, the coalition, led by the 30-by-30 initiative, says blaming women in law enforcement for the attack is “disingenuous” and “dangerous.” Increasing public safety is a matter of expanding, not shrinking, the federal law enforcement applicant pool, the coalition says. The group adds that it will continue to push in favor of agencies hiring officers based on their skills and qualifications — not based on their gender.
  (Statement supporting women in law enforcement - 30x30 Initiative)
• Agencies are sitting on more real estate than they need, and could recover billions of dollars by selling off excess space. The Public Buildings Reform Board is looking at 27 high-value federal properties in cities with a strong federal presence. Those include DC, Boston, Atlanta, Miami and Los Angeles. The board found that most of these 11 million square feet of federal office space is underutilized, and that agencies could save about $3 billion in the long term by eliminating about 60% of this space. Here’s the board’s executive director, Paul Walden. “The board views this current reality as an extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the government to right-size its portfolio,” Walden said.
  (Federal buildings board: Agencies can save billions by shedding ‘vastly underutilized’ office space - Federal News Network )
• Top Republicans who oversee the Small Business Administration are calling on the agency to delay an overhaul of its online certification portal, at least until after the end of the fiscal year. SBA is planning to upgrade its online certification platform, starting on August 1. The agency says the upgraded system will be available for new applications by early September. Lawmakers say taking the platform offline in the final months of fiscal 2024 could cause problems for firms with critical year-end contracting deadlines that may need to recertify their small-business status.
  (GOP lawmakers demand SBA postpone IT upgrades amid year-end contract spending surge - Federal News Network )
• Agencies just passed a major digital records deadline. They submitted requests to transfer nearly 1 million cubic feet of analog records to the National Archives and Records Administration over the past year. Those transfer requests came in advance of the June 30 deadline for analog records transfers. Going forward, NARA will only accept records in an electronic format, with some limited exceptions. The only governmentwide exception is for federal official personnel folders and employee medical files. Agencies will still have more time to digitize those records.
  (NARA sees requests to transfer nearly 1M cubic feet of records ahead of deadline - Federal News Network )
• The Defense Department is looking for acquisition professionals to join a 12-month immersive fellowship program. The Defense Innovation Unit and Defense Acquisition University launched the program in 2022 to help the DoD adopt best practices for commercial procurement within the department. The program includes virtual classroom training and experiential learning focused on other transaction authorities through DAU's Defense Acquisition Credentials program. Applications are open through early August.
  (DoD looking for acquisition professionals to join fellowship program - Defense Department)
• The Defense Department is preparing to recompete its contract for Advana. Since 2021, the General Services Administration has provided most of the lifecycle IT support for the Advana platform. Advana has grown exponentially in the last three years, prompting the DoD to open up the platform to multiple vendors. Recompeting the contract for Advana platform is part of the Pentagon’s broader approach to scale data, analytics and artificial intelligence capabilities across the DoD known as Open DAGIR.
  (DoD recompeting Advana contract - Federal News Network)
• A bipartisan bill in the Senate would direct the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services to tighten their collaboration on cybersecurity initiatives. The “Healthcare Cybersecurity Act of 2024” would create special liaison to HHS within CISA. The legislation would also direct those agencies to share cyber threat indicators and defensive information with the health sector. The new bill comes after several major cyber attacks on the healthcare organizations this year, including the Change Healthcare ransomware attack.
  (Rosen, Young, King introduce bipartisan bill to improve cybersecurity in healthcare, public health - Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) office)

The post A policy tweak by the Social Security Administration should make it easier to give money to recipients it underpaid first appeared on Federal News Network.

Lot of firsts occurred during the pandemic. Among them: the first time the Federal Emergency Management Agency used its Disaster Relief Fund to respond to a nationwide public health emergency. FEMA used the funds to cover the costs of vaccinations and testing sites, among other things. Government Accountability Office has found FEMA may have underestimated just how much would be required. For more, Federal News Network’s Eric White spoke to the GAO’s director of homeland security and justice issues, Chris Currie.

Interview transcript: 

Chris Currie  The COVID-19 pandemic, surprising in a number of ways. I think most people are surprised to even know that FEMA was involved in the response because they think of hurricanes and natural disasters, but FEMA has a large fund of money that’s very flexible to use in the case of emergencies. And, so, it was definitely tapped into in the COVID-19 pandemic. So, one of the things that the appropriations committees wanted us to look at is just seeing how large the costs were getting out of the pandemic for FEMA. They wanted us to look at the effect on the disaster relief fund long term, and also just how good of a job FEMA was doing in anticipating some of these costs. And, as you set up, they they blew well past their initial estimates. Initial estimates right out of the bat, which understandably, were, you know, there wasn’t as much information, were around 20 billion, and FEMA now estimates it’s going to spend about $171 billion by the end of fiscal year 2026.

Eric White  It was just crazy time for all of us. Was that lack of knowledge just due to the fact that nothing had ever happened like this before, A, and, B, FEMA had never had to deal with anything like this before.

Chris Currie  It is true. I mean, it’s impossible to see the future and no one had a crystal ball in 2020 to see how big of a problem this is going to be and how much it was going to cost. But I think that there were a number of places, as the pandemic wore on, where estimates probably could have been a little bit more realistic and accurate. FEMA sort of re-baselined their estimates at different stages, and at each point, they underestimated what it was going to cost. For example, in 2021, the President authorized basically FEMA to cover 100% of costs. Usually, with its programs, they cover 75%, the state or the local governments covered 25%. It went to 100%. So, at that point, I think it was reasonable to expect that states were going to start sending in a lot more projects and requests just given that we’re going to be 100% federally funded. And so all along, they just continue to underestimate the cost.

Eric White  Yeah, is this sort of thing a, you know, it’s never used this for a public health emergency, but has it used the DRF funds for other matter or other disasters where certain things were required, you know, such as, you know, personal protective gear and things of that nature, or, you know, even just setting up sites? You know, it’s all very similar to what FEMA does for other disasters, right?

Chris Currie  You’re right, you make a good point, because a lot of what FEMA was doing is providing equipment, and logistical capability to get equipment to different places, and to get things where they needed to be, which is what FEMA does in a disaster. So, while the pandemic, the scale of it was unprecedented, you know, 59 individual disaster declarations, the operation was not unforeseen or unprecedented. And this is a really important point we were trying to get across to FEMA and they didn’t really agree with us on, but, you know, their response to our findings and our recommendation was that they don’t expect to have to respond to a pandemic like this again, and they don’t expect to be asked to do something like this again, which, that could be true. None of us know. But what the point we were making is there are a number of different scenarios, whether it’s a cyber attack, whether it’s a wide scale, multi-state disaster, whether it’s multiple concurrent disasters in different states across the whole country. There’s a number of scenarios where they are going to have to manage a huge response and recovery operation that potentially is going to be very, very difficult to estimate. So, that’s the reason we actually recommended that they do a better job of trying to develop these estimates, rather than just trying to forget the pandemic and move on with business as usual.

Eric White  We’re speaking with Chris Currie. He is the director of homeland security and justice issues with the Government Accountability Office. Yes, so what’s at stake here of not getting those estimates right? Where does the DRF currently stand, because FEMA is still obligated to spend some, mostly, unfortunately, funeral funds towards this disaster declaration? You know, what is going to happen if these estimates aren’t as accurate as they could be?

Chris Currie  It’s a big problem. Right now, today, FEMA estimates there’s going to be a $6 billion shortfall in the disaster relief fund by the end of September. And, remember, that is also with almost a $35 billion appropriation earlier this year for this fiscal year 24 appropriations bill. So, the DRF was replenished and that quickly it’s back going to be in the red, and they’re likely to get another annual appropriation, which will help a little bit, but what the COVID-19 pandemic has done to FEMA is it’s essentially put it in a position where it’s going to be behind all the time with the DRF. And, of course, it’s going to need supplemental appropriations from here on out. Now, that’s just with what we know today. I mean, just, if we have another 2017, for example, where we have three huge concurrent disasters and wildfires, that’s only going to exacerbate the problem and going to require that much more in supplemental appropriations. Also, remember, this fund is used for recovery projects for disaster, it’s going back 20 years. Hurricane Katrina is still an open disaster. There’s still obligating dollars for infrastructure projects. So, if there’s no money in disaster relief funding, those past recoveries are sort of paused. That’s what FEMA did last year. And they do that so they can respond to things happening immediately, but it’s not sustainable for the long term.

Eric White  Yeah, long term, I mean, is there maybe an over reliance on the fact that they’re always going to get that supplemental funding because there is nothing more direct of government services to citizens than disaster response? So, it is always something that gets front and center as soon as something happens. Do you sense there’s there may be an over reliance on that factor, rather than planning for long term when it comes to disaster relief spending?

Chris Currie  Well, there absolutely, there is a reliance on supplemental spending. Congress caps the amount FEMA can get in the regular annual appropriation for the DRF. And, so, what that basically says is that if anything large happens in the country that year, you’re gonna need a supplemental. And, so, most of FEMA’s funding over the last 20 years has been in supplemental appropriations. It’s a massive amount. I mean, if you look back to 2017, they spent over $250 billion on disasters, which is just a huge amount. That’s, you know, six times DHS’s annual budget. So, what COVID did was it just it made this problem worse. And, so, it used to be where maybe they’d get behind toward the end of the fiscal year, and it would get replenished. Now, it seems like they’re behind multiple points of time in the fiscal year, which, you know, think about it. This requires Congress several times a year to try to add funding or attach funding to different bills, which requires those to get passed. And, that’s, you know, that can be difficult sometimes.

Eric White  So as you mentioned, nobody can tell the future. What can be done to actually get some long term planning in some fiscal solvency for the DRF?

Chris Currie  We just like to see more realistic estimates at different stages early on in the disaster, and a different way of doing this. And, so, in month one after disaster, it’s really difficult. All right, I mean, if you have a huge hurricane, maybe you don’t know if it’s going to cost you $10 billion, if it’s going to cost you $50 billion yet, but in month six, it the picture is starting to develop, you know what projects are going to, you know, come into play, you know how long it’s going to take. We want to see more accurate estimation quickly and that way Congress and the appropriations committees can then forecast out what they’re likely going to need to appropriate in the future.

Tom Temin  Chris Currie, director for homeland security and justice issues at the Government Accountability Office, speaking with Federal News Network’s Eric White. Find this interview along with a link to the report at federalnewsnetwork.com/federaldrive.

The post FEMA is still on the hook for several pandemic-related expenses first appeared on Federal News Network.

The upcoming presidential election keeps taking surprising and unsettling turns. One constant, though: the Biden administration doesn’t seem to be holding back on an ambitious agenda for regulation, which means contractors could see a slew of new and interim regulations in the next few months. Joining the Federal Drive with Tom Temin  with his take, federal sales and marketing consultant Larry Allen.

Interview transcript: 

Tom Temin  You’ve looked at the latest rollout of the regulatory agenda, and if you’re a contractor, you’ve got to pay attention.

Larry Allen  Tom, you really do have to pay attention. And this regulatory agenda, which only came out within the last few weeks, didn’t really get a lot of attention. And yet, it’s pages and pages of proposed rules. Now, of course, all of those don’t impact government contracting, but a number of them do. The list of proposed defense, federal acquisition regulations in and of itself, is pages long, and it can catch up any type of company that’s doing business with the Department of Defense, not just those who are paying attention to DOD rules.

Tom Temin  Right. A lot of it has to do with the origin supply chain issues vis-a-vis China.

Larry Allen  Oh, absolutely. There’s a whole big discussion about Chinese supply chains. And look, we’re all in favor of secure supply chains, Tom, everybody wants to make sure that we keep national security at the top of the list. But you know, the one of the problems that we’re starting to see already is that the pendulum never really stops in the middle. And you’re starting to see and hear some anecdotal evidence about contracting officers really taking umbrage with anybody that has even the most tangential relationships with China. And while we don’t want Chinese-made things in critical infrastructure, we do have to understand that China makes a substantial amount of the world’s goods and if we want to operate, then we’re going to have to find some medium between using those where we need to and keeping those solutions out of sensitive operations.

Tom Temin  I remember a few months back, the GSA got dinged because it bought conference room cameras by a manufacturer called Owl, which are made in China. And, you know, conference room camera. Well, you know, confidential things get discussed in GSA conference rooms, maybe not so much for national security, as in, say, Pentagon conference rooms. But I guess the the worry is, are these cameras somehow sending back what they’re seeing and hearing to China, that type of thing?

Larry Allen  Well, right, and that’s a legitimate concern to have. And, look, the bottom line is GSA expects contractors to abide by Trade Agreements Act rules and regulations and if contractors have to do that, then GSA should as well. And, you know, that case that you mentioned, Tom, I think really helped create kind of an atmosphere of fear inside the General Services Administration, over Chinese-made goods to the point where I’m starting to wonder if you can have General Tso’s chicken for lunch and still ended up being a valid U.S. supplier.

Tom Temin  Yeah. Well, you know, it is hard to get by China. I mean, I was looking at webcams for my home use. And, you know, Logitech, I don’t know why I presume they’re made in China. But there’s some very innovative cameras out there. And you know, one of them like it’s on the stalk. So, that ends up in the middle of your screen. So, you’re looking right into someone’s eyes, as opposed to the cameras which are above or to the side. And nobody’s ever looking at each other on meetings. All right, seems like a good idea. But it said you could download two spec sheets, one in English and one in Mandarin. I thought, well, okay, we know where this is made. You know, I’m not sure I’d want that in my house.

Larry Allen  No, as I said, we really do have to make sure we’re protecting national security. And there are legitimate concerns with some Chinese-made goods that you have to pay attention to, but what you don’t want to do is you don’t want to end up throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There’s going to be some times when you have to do that. You just need to be able to manage the risk appropriately until such time as either the U.S. or its allies ramp up their own domestic production and present alternatives that are both effective and within the reasonable cost realm. You know, we’ve seen this start to happen, Tom, with section 889, that I know we’ve talked about before. This is the telecommunications ban across all of government. And what’s in the news right now? Well, for something like the fifth year in a row, the Department of Defense has come out and asked Congress for a waiver from section 889. And it’s not because the Department of Defense doesn’t want to have secure supply chains. It’s the realization that in certain parts of the world, there are no alternatives to Huawei servers. And, you know, that’s why DoD has said, Look, we can’t realistically leverage a U.S. law to get all of our allies to dump servers that they use that are fully integrated into their systems, when there are no ready made alternatives that they can turn to. You know, that’s just another example of where you need to mitigate the risk and manage it, and understand that this is the world that we live in. And, you know, the same thing should be true for contractors, Tom. I think that, you know, if DoD has problems with 889 compliance, and they’re asking for a break, maybe we should give a similar break to industry.

Tom Temin  We’re speaking with Larry Allen, president of Allen Federal Business Partners. That’s the other side of this, even though things like student loans, you know, are forgiven, or the administration tries to, you know, they get rebuffed by the courts here and there. And also health care cost burdens, they’re looking for relief there for people, but contractors never get a break.

Larry Allen  No, contractors don’t get a break, Tom. And while it may seem like no one is held accountable for their actions these days, contractors most definitely are. So, while other people may be looking at certain types of monetary forgiveness, I am counseling contractors not to do that. Contractors have to make sure that they are up-to-date on their compliance processes, understand what they’re signing up to when they sign not just that contract, but a modification to that contract, because sometimes those modifications can undo things that you originally agreed to. And it’s not like if you say, please give me forgiveness, that you’re going to be treated the same as people with student loans or medical debt.

Tom Temin  And that leads to the question of people, companies, small companies in particular, entering the federal market and whether they want to give them the regulatory and compliance costs and burdens, and just trying to understand it all, you know, can be hard for a new company. And you’re also pointing out this week that there is some technical issues with respect to simply registering with the SAM system operated by GSA on behalf of the government. It’s not so easy to get your unique identity ID. So, what do you see going on there?

Larry Allen  Tom, this is something that I’ve experienced myself and some of my clients have experienced recently, as well. And that is, when you’re registering on SAM, you have to understand the difference between getting a unique identifier and full SAM registration. And you also have to understand that while the federal service desk and the SAM site may look the same and offer to the same types of solutions, they are two, in fact, different websites. And I think where a lot of companies get frustrated as they try to execute something on sam.gov, when they’re technically on the FSD site, and they can’t do it, they can’t figure out why. Well, this is my recommendation to contractors, whether you’re new, or whether you’re experienced, and that is, even when it comes to SAM registration, read the fine print. There are a lot of good helpdesk articles that GSA has put out. But you can’t just scan through this in a second and think that you’ve got it, because that will lead to substantial frustration. So, like anything else, while it may be a little confusing because there are several different sites and more than a couple of acronyms to understand, just to get started in government business, to get started in that business, you have to make sure that you’re paying attention to the details, just as you would after you get a contract.

Tom Temin  And SAM, System for Award Management, I think is what that stands for, was originally set up as a way to streamline and simplify contractors getting their names into the system, so federal contracting officers could find them. But it’s worked out to be just ever more complicated, hasn’t it?

Larry Allen  They’ve had a series of challenges, Tom. When GSA transitioned away from DUNS numbers to unique entity identifiers, that was supposed to be straightforward, and of course, nothing is really ever straightforward in government contracting. And that caught up companies of all sizes, and one of the most unfortunate outcomes was that it really delayed payment to small businesses, small businesses that are dependent on cash flow. And I think it took a while for GSA to work through those problems, and most of them now have been addressed. But that only works if you’ve been in the system for a while. If you’re still coming in new to it, then you need to understand that the barrier even to sam.gov registration is maybe a little bit higher than you think it is, and that when you’re registering in SAM, you are taking the first step towards saying my company will comply with these certain rules.

Tom Temin  Right, so yeah, the acceptance into SAM and the completion thereof is not just a privilege, but it’s also a great big obligation, you might say.

Larry Allen  That’s right. As always, it’s important to understand what you’re getting into.

Tom Temin  All right. Larry Allen is president of Allen Federal Business Partners. As always, thanks so much.

Larry Allen  Tom, thank you, and I wish your listeners happy selling.

Tom Temin  And we’ll post this interview at federalnewsnetwork.com/federaldrive. Hear the Federal Drive on your schedule, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

The post Election uncertainty doesn’t slow an ambitious regulation agenda first appeared on Federal News Network.