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

Skeletons and fossils in museum cases look like interesting artifacts to most of us. But to Anna "Kay" Behrensmeyer they tell deep stories of long-ago life. She is the curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the recent recipient of a major award from the National Academies of Science. She spoke with Federal Drive with Tom Temin for the third and final installment in this week's series.

High spouse unemployment, tough family conditions like run down housing and high stress for the service member him- or herself. Those are just some of what military families say they encounter. Now there are numbers to underscore how challenging military life can be, thanks to a survey just completed by the Defense Department itself. Federal News Network's Scott Maucione had more on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

The government can't shut down again until September but that may not be reassuring. For many federal employees, the mother of all shutdowns produced a permanent sense of uncertainty. Yet leaders and line employees alike can do certain things to stay confident through uncertainty. Federal management professor Bob Tobias from American University joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for his list.

The National Science Foundation is reviewing submissions now from the Career Compass Challenge. The agency collected ideas for potential tech solutions that could help agencies re-imagine and re-skill federal positions and employees for future work. It's a government challenge in the sense that NSF will award prize money to the most promising submissions. But it's designed to be more of a conversation starter than anything else. Dorothy Aronson is chief information officer and Robyn Rees is a senior IT adviser at the foundation joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin. They tell Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko about the goals of the challenge.

You can learn a lot from studying the structure and dynamics of planetary magnetospheres, or at least some of us can. Michelle Thomsen, senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, is a long-time federal and recently won a major award from the National Academies of Science. She was one of three winners interviewed this week on Federal Drive with Tom Temin and she called from her station at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

Nearly a month into the tax filing season the IRS is still digging out from the backlog of work created by the 35-day partial government shutdown. Just last week agency leadership spoke with members of the IRS Advisory Council, a volunteer group of tax professionals, to get their input on tax administration issues. That session made up for a cancelled January meeting. Kathy Hettick of Hettick Accounting & Tax is a co-chair of the Council. She told Federal News Network's Jory Heckman how the council has adjusted to a delayed start to the new year. Hear more on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

A company trying to get an IT services contract with the Department of Health and Human Services decided to go the protest route. As Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Tenn.) might have said, the company lost the first time, but, nevertheless it persisted. That persistence paid off, as Washington procurement attorney Joe Petrillo explained on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

It might not be enough to call it a tsunami but 2018 saw a spike in federal retirements for the first time in five years. Nearly 12,000 more federal employees filed for retirement in 2018 than they did the previous year. The last time retirements reached a comparable peak was back in 2013, a tumultuous year for the federal workforce. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss retirement numbers, and a few other workforce stories that she's been covering this past week.

Life is never easy for the IRS but the past few months have been particularly challenging. The agency experienced budget ups and downs, a long government shutdown and is dealing with a complex new tax code. How has this affected its customers the nation's taxpayers? For highlights of her latest report to Congress, Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke with National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson, whose office was also furloughed for five weeks.

President Donald Trump signed a policy directive that the White House said will lay the groundwork for the standup of a sixth military service. Assuming Congress goes along, the Space Force will be a separate service within the department of the Air Force. Federal News Radio's Jared Serbu had details on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.