Guidance from the Biden administration released recently announced that covered federal contractors and subcontractors must be vaccinated against COVID-19 and show proof of it by December 8, unless they are granted an exemption. As that date approaches, firms will have to navigate the ins and outs of the mandate. Eric Leonard is a partner with Wiley Rein LLP and Martha Vázquez is an associate at Wiley Rein, a firm specializing in regulatory, litigation, and transactional matters. Vázquez is also...
Oct 04, 2021•24 min•Season 2Ep. 148
Congress passed a continuing resolution on Thursday that will fund the government until Dec. 3. Funding was set to run out at midnight, which would have triggered a government shutdown. Eric Katz has been covering the shutdown threat . He joined the podcast to discuss the story and the next steps for Congress.
Oct 01, 2021•16 min•Season 2Ep. 147
In what has become a semi regular occurrence, a shutdown threat has hung over agencies this fall. The uncertainty around the continuing resolution negotiations has left federal employees scrambling to plan for their finances once again. GovExec senior reporter Erich Wagner covers the federal workforce. He joined the podcast to discuss the shutdown threat and other pay and benefits stories that he has been following.
Sep 30, 2021•17 min•Season 2Ep. 146
A seemingly constant conversation around the Defense Department and innovation is the interplay between the private sector and the Pentagon. Contractors and commercial firms want to get their innovative ideas to the Defense Department and Pentagon officials want to speed up the process by which they adopt new innovations from the commercial sector. As part of GovExec Media’s Roadmap to Modernization event recently, Defense on Deputy Editor Brad Peniston spoke to Art Trevethan, Director of Corpor...
Sep 29, 2021•15 min•Season 2Ep. 145
The immigration system in the United States consists of different systems, including but not exclusive to detention, processing and adjudication. The government keeps plenty of records on all these systems. While the politics of the immigration system can be malleable, the data is pretty concrete. Dr. Austin Kocher is an Assistant Research Professor in the Newhouse School of Public Communication and a researcher with the Transactional Research Access Clearinghouse, a research institute at Syracu...
Sep 27, 2021•17 min•Season 2Ep. 144
The evacuation of Afghanistan in connection to the military withdrawal there has drawn criticism. Afghan allies have needed visas to leave the country and get to the United States, but are faced with a long, complex and difficult process to obtain visas. Shelley Inglis is the Executive Director of the Human Rights Center and Research Professor of Human Rights and Law. She comes from the United Nations Development Programme where she held various management positions working on peacebuilding, dem...
Sep 27, 2021•34 min•Season 2Ep. 143
The coronavirus pandemic has shown the importance of government work in stark reality over the past 18 months. 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. GovExec this week announced the Government Hall of Fame and Theodore Roosevelt Government Leadership Award winners. Tom Shoop is editor at-large at GovExec Media. He joined the podcast to discuss...
Sep 24, 2021•18 min•Season 2Ep. 142
The seven-day average for American coronavirus deaths reached 2,000 again this month, matching similar numbers of the spring of 2021. But, vaccine news has sparked some optimism lately on the booster and children front. Courtney Bublé writes the Coronavirus Roundup on Govexec.com. She joined the show to discuss vaccines and other news that she’s been covering about the pandemic.
Sep 23, 2021•15 min•Season 2Ep. 141
Democratic leaders this week announced a bill that would fund federal agencies through the end of the year and suspend the debt limit through December 2022. The plan would avert a shutdown, but the debt limit aspects will face major Republican opposition in the Senate. GovExec reporter Eric Katz is covering the negotiations around the continuing resolution. He joined the show to discuss the state of play as we approach a potential shutdown.
Sep 22, 2021•14 min•Season 2Ep. 140
President Joe Biden’s administration has diversity, equity and inclusion as cornerstones of his administration’s policies. Systemic problems lie at the heart of inequality and federal agencies need to address these problems both within and outside their organizations. Shrupti Shah is a Managing Director with Deloitte Consulting LLP where she leads the Behavioral Insights practice. She is also one of the authors of a new Deloitte report titled “Government’s equity imperative. The path toward syst...
Sep 21, 2021•18 min•Season 2Ep. 139
The modernization of government has been a phrase often repeated in the public sector over the past few decades, with human capital, technology and broader management all factoring into the concept. Part of modernization, however, will also involve making it easier to support collaboration between different levels of governments and different agencies. The National Academy of Public Administration recently announced the establishment of the Center on Intergovernmental Partnerships to help rebuil...
Sep 20, 2021•18 min•Season 2Ep. 138
A presidential administration still in its first year can mean shifting contracting priorities and policies. Additionally, the past 18 months of a worldwide pandemic have shifted public sector IT priorities for firms and agencies alike. Todd Gustafson is President of HP Federal, and An Nguyen is President of NCS Technologies. They joined the podcast to discuss tech trends and the future of IT in the public sector.
Sep 16, 2021•23 min•Season 2Ep. 137
As the Delta variant of COVID-19 has changed the federal government’s calculus in combating the pandemic, the White House is putting into place new vaccine mandate requirements for federal employees and contractors. President Joe Biden announced the new rules last week. Courtney Bublé writes the Coronavirus Roundup on Govexec.com. She joined the podcast to discuss the mandate and other news that she’s been covering about the pandemic.
Sep 15, 2021•17 min•Season 2Ep. 136
The bipartisan 9/11 commission recommended dozens of changes to information sharing and intelligence gathering. The war in Afghanistan initially focused the post-Sept. 11 military, while the Authorization for Use of Military Force kick-started the Global War on Terror. In these and other ways, the American response to the Sept. 11 attacks ushered in a new era of government. The United States continues to reckon with these effects, 20 years after the most devastating attack of its kind on America...
Sep 14, 2021•19 min•Season 2Ep. 135
The Sept. 11 attacks exposed vulnerabilities in American antiterrorism policy and execution. The government and public wanted to know what went wrong and what could be done to prevent further attacks. To better answer these and other pressing questions, President George W. Bush and Congress established The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. The 9/11 Commission would eventually present its 500-plus-page report to the nation in July 2004. As part of a series marking t...
Sep 13, 2021•18 min•Season 2Ep. 134
Congress passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force as a joint resolution a week after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The AUMF authorized the use of the military against terrorist organizations and every president since George W. Bush has interpreted that authority to extend operations beyond al Qaeda and the Taliban. The Global War on Terror has spanned the globe over the last two decades and continues to this day under the cover of secrecy, as the full list of targeted groups remains ...
Sep 10, 2021•18 min•Season 2Ep. 133
Twenty years ago this week, terrorists struck the United States in the largest attack of its kind on American soil. The Sept. 11 attacks were a shock to the world and a turning point for the nation. In the subsequent decades, the federal government reoriented its intelligence gathering infrastructure, waged the Global War on Terror and shifted its thinking and resources around administrative power and function. Over four episodes, GovExec Daily examines the ways the attacks have changed governme...
Sep 09, 2021•16 min•Season 2Ep. 132
In 2020, two parts of Raytheon technologies merged. When Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services and Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems came together, it brought tens of thousands of employees under one umbrella, all during the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Roy Azevedo is president of Raytheon Intelligence & Space, where he leads 37,000 employees and is responsible for a broad portfolio, including advanced sensors, training, and cyber and software solutions. He joined the s...
Sep 08, 2021•14 min•Season 2Ep. 131
The COVID-19 crisis has forced so many of us to remote work, including the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center. The center’s mission might be different than the one at your workplace, but the center's workforce proved the mission can be accomplished anywhere during the pandemic. The crisis has led the center leadership to rethink the nature of work, prompting the launch of the Office of the Future project. Colonel Kevin R. Mantovani is the Air Force Installation and Mission Support...
Sep 07, 2021•17 min•Season 2Ep. 130
The General Services Administration recently awarded a first-of-its-kind contract to WeWork and several other co-working firms. The contract comes as the pandemic has changed the way federal workplace culture is evolving during the COVID-10 crisis. Courtney Bublé writes the Coronavirus Roundup on GovExec.com. She joined the podcast to discuss the contract and other news that she’s been covering about the pandemic.
Sep 03, 2021•16 min•Season 2Ep. 129
President Joe Biden recently met with some of the top CEOs from the tech sector. Participants such as Apple's Tim Cook and Amazons Andy Jassy along with representatives from IBM, Bank of America and more were urged by the president to do more to improve cybersecurity. But this will most certainly be a group effort, according to Alex Major and Matt Wrigh, partners with McCarter and English, LLP. They joined the podcast us today to discuss how federal contractors can reduce ransomware risk and the...
Sep 02, 2021•21 min•Season 2Ep. 128
On Friday of last week in a letter to Congressional leadership, President Joe Biden formalized a plan to provide civilian federal employees with an average 2.7% pay raise next year. The number is lower than some Democrats had urged earlier this summer. Erich Wagner covers the workforce for us here at GovExec. He joined the show to discuss the pay raise process and other stories he has been covering.
Sep 01, 2021•13 min•Season 2Ep. 127
African-American history is colorful. It goes beyond the history of slavery, the civil rights movement or a few well-known historical figures. Its business owners, owners and everyday people that helped build this country. Many of them are from towns just like yours and many Americans currently live in communities that were once majority African-American. At Route Fifty, GovExec Editor-at-Large Tom Shoop wrote a moving story about two towns in Virginia and their efforts to gather and evaluate hi...
Aug 31, 2021•20 min•Season 2Ep. 126
The COVID-19 crisis has made many of us reevaluate our relationship with work, from our physical locations to our use of technology. Much of the workforce is also reevaluating relationships with our coworkers, managers and employers as the evolution of work continues during the coronavirus pandemic. Jeffrey Bradfield leads the Human Capital Consulting practice for Government & Public Services and Kraig Eaton is Principal in the Human Capital practice, both at Deloitte. They joined the show t...
Aug 30, 2021•25 min•Season 2Ep. 125
In 2017, Congress passed the landmark VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act as a way to make it easier to fire Veterans Affairs employees while fairly treating them. The rule, however, has seen mixed results and two court cases recently knocked down the VA’s interpretation of the law. Conor D. Dirks is an attorney at the firm of Shaw Bransford & Roth, where he has represented federal officials and employees in all aspects of federal personnel employment law. He wrote a case law ...
Aug 27, 2021•27 min•Season 2Ep. 124
In recent years, the Pentagon has confirmed the authenticity of videos depicting military pilots seeing unidentified flying objects. In fact, last year, the Office of Naval Intelligence launched the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force to standardize data collection on the issue. But the Pentagon’s role in this is not that new. In 2007, the unclassified but largely unknown Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was appropriated for five years, largely because of the efforts of fo...
Aug 26, 2021•17 min•Season 2Ep. 123
A Taliban spokesman this week reiterated that the August 31 deadline to withdraw Americans will not be moved, putting urgency on the U.S. government’s attempts at evacuating Americans and Afghan nationals in danger. In the last few weeks, the federal government has ramped up its civilian response as the deadline nears. Eric Katz is a senior correspondent at Government Executive. He joined the show to discuss the Biden administration’s Afghanistan withdrawal efforts and how civilian feds are invo...
Aug 25, 2021•19 min•Season 2Ep. 122
As part of its vaccine-or-testing mandate for on-site federal employees, the Biden administration is instructing agencies to establish their own COVID-19 testing programs, either at their offices, in partnership with other federal entities or through contracted services. Stephanie Rapp-Tully is a partner and federal employment attorney with Tully Rinckey PLLC’s Washington, D.C. office. She joined the show to discuss the Safer Federal Workforce update to the testing-or-vaccine mandate....
Aug 24, 2021•14 min•Season 2Ep. 121
Congress is in the midst of negotiations about government funding, as the legislative branch holds the power of the purse. But, the executive branch has some budgeting tools at its disposal, including one that is supposed to produce more efficient management of public funds. The Office of Management and Budget holds this tool, called apportionment, and it is often used to circumvent Congress’ budget authority and is increasingly opaque. Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette is a Government Affairs Manager at t...
Aug 23, 2021•15 min•Season 2Ep. 120
Internships are a good way for young people to get experience in their preferred line of work, a way to buttress a resume and a way for organizations to create a pipeline for young employees. Federal agencies have strict regulations on internship programs and how they can put interns onto a path of full employment, but the Office of Personnel Management is in the process of issuing regulations to make it easier for federal agencies to pay and offer jobs to their interns who are still in college....
Aug 19, 2021•18 min•Season 2Ep. 119
