Federal Drive with Tom Temin

The U.S.Development Finance Corporation fired a whistleblower who refused to sign off on a road project in Africa. That is according to theProject onGovernment Oversight. POGO reports, the project didn't meet the agency's standards for displacement of people and the fired analyst who wouldn't sign off on it. For more, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with POGO senior investigator Nick Schwellenbach. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Postal Service managed to cut hiring times thanks to some reforms back in 2019. But for thousands of job postings, it gets no applicants. Those are among the top findings of an audit by the Postal Inspector General. For details, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with the Deputy Assistant IG for Finance, Pricing and Human Capital, Alan MacMullin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: Postal hiring reform helped, but there's more work to do. Do whistleblowers get the bum's rush at this finance agency? A new OMB push to get a handle on the 10,000 federal websites. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lawmakers on the House and Senate Armed Services committees have previously signaled openness to boosting the Pentagon’s budget beyond the 1% cap imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Now,top appropriators who allocate funding for the Pentagon are pushing for a higher topline number, but negotiations on going beyond the budget caps are “not going well.” “We are a long way from increasing the caps.There’sa number ofpolitical reasons why that’s the case. What I would tell the folks on both sides of the aisle is that if we don’t do a good job in deterrence right now, it’s going to cost us a hell of a lot more money later,” Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Jon Tester (D-Mont.) said during the Ash Carter Exchange conference Wednesday. “The negotiations on the budget caps are still in flux.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s been four years since the Defense Department created six new acquisition pathways — including one specifically intended to speed up software acquisition. But as often happens with policy reforms, implementation is off to a slow start, so officials are building a cadre of software experts at the Pentagon to help speed up adoption. DoD created the software acquisition pathway as part of a broader overhaul to make its acquisition system more “adaptive” to the particular products or services the department buys. The software pathway in particular came out of a recognition that most of DoD’s traditional approaches were geared toward large weapons systems. It’s designed to encourage rapid development and close coordination with users, and also eliminates some steps of the traditional acquisition process that don’t make sense for software. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today's episode of The Federal Drive with Tom Temin: A fresh effort to help overseas military spouses work federal jobs remotely Two DoD agencies team up to collect software vulnerabilities Five ways to really louse up your Thrift Savings Plan account Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The American Federation of Government Employees is gainingmore traction in representing federal employeesin Europe. Negotiations are justabout to get underway, after a couple hundred feds at twoDoD locations in Germany voted to unionize. And AFGE has plans to expandoverseas. Federal News Network's Drew Friedman got more from AFGE District 14 Special Assistant Peter Winch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Thrift Savings Plan might be the easiest way to accumulate wealth ever devised. Still, people find ways to mess it up, or not get the most out of it. Joining the Federal Drive with five of the most common TSP mistakes, retired federal manager Abe Grungold of AG Financial Services. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Defense contractors now have a place to voluntarily report cybersecurity flaws. The Vulnerability Disclosure Program started last month under the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center, the DC3, working with the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency. For details, the Federal Drive turned to the program director, Melissa Vice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new agreement between the Defense and State Departmentsaims to help military spouses living with service members overseas to get the ok to work remotely for eligible federal positions.To learn more, Federal News Network's Eric White spoke to theDeputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy,Patricia Barron. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices