Passport Services also plans on rolling out push notifications for application renewals, as part of its efforts to reduce the burden on customer service phone lines.
The Veterans Affairs Department is preparing a "State of VA" report on the challenges facing the agency, Secretary David Shulkin told reporters Wednesday. The report comes as VA quickly begins to plot some of its efforts to comply with the President's government reorganization efforts during the fiscal 2018 budget cycle. VA is one of few civilian agencies that may see a major funding boost next year, according to the President's budget proposal.
New Defense guidance says the blanket hiring freeze is now over. But it includes several caveats in line with the goal of reorganizing and reducing the size of the federal workforce.
Deputy secretaries do much of the important, day-to-day work of running departments and making sure policy gets carried out. The Trump administration has a precious two deputies confirmed and that's a problem. Mallory Barg Bulman, vice president for research and evaluation at the Partnership for Public Service, offers her take on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.
Former DHS Chief Human Capital Officer Jeff Neal says federal employees can count their blessings under the new omnibus bill — but for how long?
Some members of Congress are encouraged by a new solution to overhaul the outdated and lengthy appeals process for veterans. Members of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committee introduced new legislation Tuesday that would create three paths for veterans to move more quickly through the appeals process. VA has roughly 470,000 claims pending as of April 1.
Contractors, no less than federal employees, can relax now that Congress and the administration managed to keep the government open for business. Luckily some processes didn't hesitate. Such as a training session for contractors recently staged by the General Services Administration. Larry Allen, president of Allen Federal Business Partners, shares the details on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.
The Navy brass have decided to buy a dozen new ships they're calling a frigate. But it's basically a littoral combat ship with some modifications. The Government Accountability Office found there's too little information about the frigate for Congress to make informed decisions. Michele Mackin, director of acquisition and sourcing issues at GAO, provides details on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.
President Donald Trump voices his displeasure over the $1 trillion budget deal for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2017 and suggests a shutdown might be in order if the 2018 elections don't favor Republicans.
In today's Top Federal Headlines, the Follow the Rules Act gets through the House. The legislation tidies up a few loopholes in laws protecting whistleblowers at federal agencies.
The spending package gives the Homeland Security Department about $1.5 billion for border security activities for the remaining five months of the fiscal year. For civilian agencies, here are six other areas to take note of in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017.
How can federal IT professionals innovate in a constantly changing environment with a shrinking budget? Find out this week, when Larry Katzman, vice president of Business Development at Applied Information Services, joins host John Gilroy on Federal Tech Talk. May 2, 2017
President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing the American Technology Council to transform and modernize the federal government’s information technology and how it uses and delivers digital services.
NASA is planning a series of interim steps aimed at someday getting astronauts further than low earth orbit. Kevin Fagedes, project manager for space operations in the NASA Inspector General's office, offers a detailed look at NASA's plans on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.
In some cases, too much organizational drag slows things down and saps energy. Bain and Company partner Michael Mankins is the co-author of a new book called "Time, Talent, Energy." He talks about what he calls "collaboration overload" on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.