In the spring, President Joe Biden set a goal of 70% vaccination American rate for by July 4th. While that mark has not been met, states like Vermont and Massachusetts have surpassed that number. As the White House celebrates the so-called “summer of freedom” and states continue to relax pandemic restrictions, there are concerns that new variants can reignite the crisis. Dr. Jessica Holzer is an Assistant Professor in Health Sciences at the University of New Haven and is an expert in public heal...
Jul 06, 2021•25 min•Season 2Ep. 88
On Thursday morning, the Supreme Court overruled a previous federal appeals court decision that held that Arizona voting laws disproportionately affected voters of color, a violation of the Voting Rights Act. The Thursday ruling is another blow to voting rights advocates, as the aftermath of the 2020 election has seen dozens of states pass dozens of laws restricting voting and making it harder for election officials to administer elections. David Levine is the Elections Integrity Fellow at the A...
Jul 02, 2021•23 min•Season 2Ep. 87
Since the “maximum telework” memo for federal employees came down nearly 14 months ago, federal employees have kept government operations going. But, the extent to which government has lost efficacy due to the move to remote work is disputed and Republicans on the House Oversight and Reform Committee recently claimed that mission delivery has suffered. Last week, Georgia Representative Jody Hice asked inspectors general at 10 federal agencies to issue reports on the effects of remote work, writi...
Jul 01, 2021•17 min•Season 2Ep. 86
The federal eviction moratorium was extended last week. The reprieve will now extend until the end of July, but the burden is still on states to create rental assistance programs to avoid evictions. The moratorium provides protection for more than 43 million renters across the across the U.S., but the CDC has assured the public that this will be the last extension. Route Fifty Staff Correspondent Andrea Noble joined the podcast to discuss the eviction ban's imminent extension and next steps....
Jun 29, 2021•15 min•Season 2Ep. 85
Even in a time of pandemic-related stresses, organizations are increasingly interested in getting maximum performance out of employees. While some employees rise to the challenge of managers’ high expectations, other staffers may underperform or worse. What is the level of performance pressure that managers can use to get the best out of the workforce? Dr. Marie S. Mitchell is a professor of Management and I. W. Cousins Professor of Business Ethics at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of...
Jun 29, 2021•26 min•Season 2Ep. 84
Last fall, when then-President Donald Trump signed the Executive Order colloquially called the Schedule F order, public administration experts, good government groups and federal public service unions vociferously criticized the order, with some even claiming it would bring the U.S. back to the spoils system. Upon taking office in January, President Joe Biden rescinded the order and many of the aforementioned groups breathed a sigh of relief. But, the issues around accountability in the civil se...
Jun 28, 2021•23 min•Season 2Ep. 83
Kiran Ahuja was confirmed this week as the director of the Office of Personnel Management by the Senate with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the 50-50 party-line vote. Ahuja will be the first permanent OPM chief since March of 2020 and will step into the role of administering President Joe Biden’s federal workforce policy. Erich Wagner covers the workforce for us here at GovExec. He joined the podcast to talk about the new OPM chief, controversy around her confirmation and other stories th...
Jun 24, 2021•18 min•Season 2Ep. 82
Last week, the Biden administration designated Juneteenth as a federal holiday, marking the first time the day has been recognized nationwide as such. A report released last week by the McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility and the McKinsey Global Institute identifies the biggest gaps Black people continue to face as business owners, consumers and Americans served by public programs. JP Julien is the lead author of the report and of the co-leaders of McKinsey’s Institute for Black Econo...
Jun 23, 2021•16 min•Season 2Ep. 81
Sunday marked the beginning of summer and the Biden administration is touting the 300 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered. But, the nationwide vaccination rate of 54% is still far short of the 70% White House goal as the July 4 mile marker approaches. While the country is opening up and federal agencies are submitting reopening plans, the pandemic continues to be a part of Americans’ lives. Courtney Bublé writes the Coronavirus Update on GovExec.com. She joined the show now to discus...
Jun 22, 2021•16 min•Season 2Ep. 80
The COVID-19 crisis forced the federal government into “maximum telework” since March 2020. As vaccination rates are on the rise and we approach President Joe Biden’s July 4 deadline, the federal government is looking to move to the new normal of a hybrid work enforcement. In fact, the White House has asked agencies to have plans for “both reentry and post-reentry procedures and policies by July 19.” Stephanie Rapp-Tully is a partner and federal employment attorney with Tully Rinckey PLLC’s Wash...
Jun 21, 2021•14 min•Season 2Ep. 79
In popular culture, the process by which bad employees are fired is far simpler than the reality. That is doubly true in the federal civil service, where there are often steps and processes needed to remove a poor performer. Many argue that these processes are there to insulate career civil servants from political and favoritism-style meddling from appointees, while others suggest these protections stifle the government from acting in service of the views of the voters. James Sherk is the Americ...
Jun 17, 2021•28 min•Season 2Ep. 78
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in recent months has offered incentives to leave the agency including early retirement and launched investigations into career senior executives to sideline or remove them, targeting about a half-dozen of the highest-ranked non-political staffers at the small independent agency. According to reports, the targeting is mostly aimed at Trump-era hires at CFPB and is likely flouting civil service protections. GovExec Senior Correspondent Eric Katz is covering...
Jun 16, 2021•20 min•Season 2Ep. 77
President Joe Biden's budget blueprint released late last month calls for hiring across much of the federal government, somewhat spurred from expiration of the 2011 Budget Control Act’s 10-year caps. If Biden’s budget is a priority document, a major priority for this administration is more civil servants into government. Dr. Reginald Wells was Deputy Commissioner of the Social Security Administration’s Office of Human Resources for 15 years and is now an Executive in Residence at American Univer...
Jun 15, 2021•16 min•Season 2Ep. 76
The Thrift Savings Plan is aggressively apolitical, but that may be changing. President Biden signed a recent executive order aimed at ensuring federal agencies consider the risks of climate change in their budgeting, which could change the way the TSP invests. Similarly, members of Congress have targeted China-based funds in the I Fund as something to be removed from the fund’s portfolio as a way for the U.S. to make a geopolitical point. Dallen Haws is a financial planner and host of the “Plan...
Jun 14, 2021•15 min•Season 2Ep. 75
The federal eviction moratorium protecting millions of renters is set to expire at the end of June, leaving the burden on states to create rental assistance programs to avoid a rash of evictions. The CDC moratorium provided protection for more than 43 million renters across the across the country, but the end of the ban would leave millions of households at least three months behind on rent. Route Fifty Staff Correspondent Andrea Noble joined the podcast to discuss the eviction ban's imminent ex...
Jun 11, 2021•14 min•Season 2Ep. 74
President Joe Biden’s fiscal 2022 budget blueprint would bring on more than 6,000 employees to the Internal Revenue Service, which could help ameliorate years of staff losses over the past decade. IRS chief Charles Rettig was on Capitol Hill this week to answer questions from Senators about IRS staffing and the role of the agency. GovExec Senior Correspondent Eric Katz is covering the IRS staffing story, this week’s hearing and the Biden budget proposal. He joined the podcast to discuss the pote...
Jun 10, 2021•20 min•Season 2Ep. 73
Recently, the Office of Management and Budget issued a request for information seeking potential DEI solutions to improve a range of government activities, including service to public assistance beneficiaries and federal procurement. The RFI reflects a larger strategy of using the procurement process as a way to further DEI progress in the federal government. Stan Soloway is president and CEO of Celero Strategies, LLC and a GovExec contributor. He formerly served as deputy undersecretary of Defe...
Jun 09, 2021•19 min•Season 2Ep. 72
Earlier this month, an email from a Biden administration task force asked agencies to submit by July 19 finalized plans for returning federal workers to their offices. This marks another step in moving toward whatever the “new normal” will be for civilian federal employees during the current state of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Courtney Bublé writes the Coronavirus Roundup on GovExec.com. She joined the show to talk about return-to-office planning and other COVID-19 stories that she’s been c...
Jun 08, 2021•17 min•Season 2Ep. 71
The beginning of the novel coronavirus pandemic forced organizations to rethink the way work is done, from things as complicated as collaboration to things as simple as VPN licenses. Public sector organizations have been no different during the COVID-19 crisis and have had to find new ways to accomplish mission critical work. Libby Bacon leads Deloitte’s Organizational Transformation practice across Government and Public Services. She joined the podcast to discuss Deloitte’s new report titled 20...
Jun 07, 2021•20 min•Season 2Ep. 70
President Joe Biden released the first budget blueprint of his presidency last week, calling for a 16% increase in non-defense discretionary spending from fiscal 2021 and a 1.7% increase for defense spending. The document claims that Biden’s $6 trillion plan is a way to recommit to good government. GovExec reporter Eric Katz is covering the budget. He joined the show to discuss some big takeaways from the Biden plan.
Jun 04, 2021•15 min•Season 2Ep. 69
Last week, President Biden sent Congress a $6 trillion budget request for fiscal 2022 in which he said he is “recommitting to good government” partially through re-empowering the federal workforce. The full budget request follows April’s release of Biden’s so-called skinny budget. Erich Wagner covers the federal workforce for us here at GovExec. He joined the show to discuss the budget request and how it will affect federal employees.
Jun 03, 2021•14 min•Season 2Ep. 68
President Joe Biden’s administration has promised to make the environment a major part of its agenda. The administration has brought in officials specifically to address climate change, has brought the U.S. back to the Paris Climate Accords and has directed agencies to employ “green” considerations in their procurements and strategies. But, there are other ways to further the climate agenda Kathleen Sifer, Managing Director, and Phil Kangas, Principal, are with Grant Thornton Public Sector LLC, ...
Jun 02, 2021•22 min•Season 2Ep. 67
Outside of government, most workers don’t know how much money their coworkers’ make. While such secrecy can create mistrust and turnover, an Academy of Management Journal article also finds that greater pay transparency can help boost retention in the situations where employees have a general feeling that they are being paid fairly. Dr. Peter A. Bamberger is a professor of Organizational Management at Tel Aviv University’s Coller School of Management. He’s one of the authors of the Academy of Ma...
Jun 01, 2021•14 min•Season 2Ep. 66
It's been one year since the murder of George Floyd. Since his untimely death, the United States has seen a resurgence of a focus on civil rights and coming to grips with its history of racial injustice. One of the most polarizing topics is whether or not to teach critical race theory in public schools across America. But what is critical race theory? How does teaching critical race theory in schools or including it in sensitivity trainings for federal employees important for understanding deepe...
May 28, 2021•21 min•Season 2Ep. 65
Government work is often criticized in the popular imagination and in the political discourse. Civil servants are derided as paper pushers or bureaucrats or, worse, nefarious agents of the deep state. The Government Hall of Fame and the Theodore Roosevelt Government Leadership Awards were started in 2019 to honor those who have achieved great things as federal officials and industry leaders. Nominations for the 2021 Government Hall of Fame and Theodore Roosevelt Government Leadership Awards clos...
May 27, 2021•18 min•Season 2Ep. 64
There are 10 American military bases named after Confederates who fought against the United States during the Civil War. And according to the annual defense bill passed at the start of the year, those bases will have different names soon. Perhaps, a base might be renamed after the woman who led the Combahee River raid, the very first U.S. military operation to be organized and led by a woman. Ben Watson is News Editor at GovExec sibling site Defense One and the host of the Defense One Radio podc...
May 26, 2021•31 min•Season 2Ep. 63
According to reports, hate crimes against Asian Americans have been on the rise during the coronavirus pandemic. The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University reported that while overall hate crimes dropped 7% in 2020, anti-Asian hate crimes increased by 149%. Last week, President Joe Biden signed a bill in response to the rise of violence and hate crimes during the pandemic. Courtney Bublé writes the coronavirus roundup for us here at GovExec. She joined the show...
May 25, 2021•22 min•Season 2Ep. 62
President Joe Biden came into office a few months ago with a fairly large agenda. At the forefront is combatting the novel coronavirus pandemic and the trillions of dollars in programs that come with administration plans. Someone will have to implement that policy and that someone will be the two million civilian federal employees. Mark Abramson is the President, Leadership Inc. He was the first Executive Director of the IBM Center for the Business of Government and is the author of Government f...
May 24, 2021•19 min•Season 2Ep. 61
American office workers are slowly returning to the workplace as more and more people are being vaccinated. The pandemic accelerated telework adoption and lots of organizations are embracing a hybrid environment. But, what makes people want or dread making their way back to the office? What makes an office where people feel comfortable working? Joining our program today is Michael Lee Stallard co-authored the book “Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Un...
May 20, 2021•18 min•Season 2Ep. 60
A recently-released DHS Inspector General report notes the poor handling by CBP officials upon learning that CBP employees had violated agency social media policy on Facebook and elsewhere in bigoted posts and comments. Ten senators and the Chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security had asked for an investigation after a private CBP-centered Facebook group became the heart of a series of news stories. GovExec Senior Correspondent Eric Katz is covering DHS hiring and workforce culture. He ...
May 19, 2021•28 min•Season 2Ep. 59
