Bipartisan civil service reform needed but maybe not moving OPM, former CHCO says

The most recent federal spending data show agencies are unlikely to use all of their appropriated money by the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30th. There is just not enough time, and Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel at the Professional Services Counsel, spoke on Federal Drive with Tom Temin about the implications.

Federal inspectors general have been thinking about about how far they've come and what they have left to accomplish to fully realize the intent of the Inspectors General Act four decades after its enactment. The Bipartisan Policy Center brought current and former IGs along with other agency leaders and congressional staff to think about what the next 40 years of the IG Act might look like. Federal News Radio's Nicole Ogrysko had more on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

Remember war bonds? The last time anyone saw those down at the Post Office was back in Korean War days. Today the U.S. relies more on private and foreign borrowing to pay for its wars. But that way of spending might be breeding inequality. Federal News Radio's Scott Maucione spoke with Rosella Cappella Zielinski, assistant professor of political science at Boston University, about the implications of credit in wars on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

If any of the Trump administration's plans for reorganizing actually come through, they could have a big impact on contracts held by merged agencies or functions. For more on this and a few other fiscal 2019 contracting matters, Rob Levinson, senior analyst at Bloomberg Government, spoke with Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

The Air Force apparently failed to exercise some basic cybersecurity hygiene when it didn't configure a router correctly. One thing led to another and sensitive documents about the MQ-9 Reaper drone ended up for sale on the dark web. Analysts at Recorded Future discovered the hacker. Andrei Barysevich, director of Advanced Collection at Recorded Future, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for the details.

Forty years after former President Jimmy Carter signed the Inspector General Act, IGs have grown in strength and number. But neither the Trump nor the Obama administrations seemed to make it a top priority to fill vacant IG slots at some of the large departments and agencies. Federal News Radio's Jory Heckman had more on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

President Donald Trump has jumped onto the idea of a Space Force as a new and separate branch of the armed services. Some believe that probably will happen some day, but now is too soon. Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula is dean of the Mitchell Institute of Aerospace Studies and he joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss further.

Congress has handed the Defense Innovation Board a gargantuan task: Fixing the Defense Department's problems with software acquisition. But as the board's members get to work, they're finding a major problem. DoD doesn't actually have much data about how its software programs are managed. Without that information, it's hard to pinpoint exactly where the problems lie. Federal News Radio's Jared Serbu had details on what the board's doing to solve that challenge.

When the Zika virus hit the United States in 2015 it caused birth defects and widespread alarm. My next guest spearheaded the U.S. response. She led teams that created a tracking system, figured out the virus transmission mechanism and set up a pregnancy hotline. Margaret Honein is an epidemiologist and director of the Division of Congenital and Developmental Disorders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She is also a finalist in this year's Service to America Medals program, and she joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for more.

The Trump administration's government reorganization plan includes a proposal that would essentially eliminate the Office of Personnel Management. This idea has raised a few eyebrows. Is there a way to make the civil service system more efficient without handing off OPM's responsibilities to, say, the Office of Management and Budget? For one view, Federal News Radio's Eric White spoke with Jeff Neal, senior vice president of ICF and former chief human capital officer for the Homeland Security Department, on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.