Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's hidden surgery and hospitalization set a bad example on several levels
Science, technology, engineering and mathematics education (STEM), is a critical need for the United States, especially since math skills of American students keep dropping. The National Science Foundation has been funding research into STEM education.
Washington, and much of the nation, has been scratching its collective head over the case of Lloyd Austin. The Secretary of Defense was hospitalized with major surgery followed by complications. Yet the White House didn't know for nearly a week. For what might have been going on and what should have, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke with Ezra Cohen, a Hudson Institute adjunct faculty member and former Defense Department and National Security Council official.
In today's Federal Newscast: Since June 2023, the first permanent chief human capital officer at GSA is waiting in the wings. The chief of naval operations crafts a one-page document called, "America's Warfighting Navy." And federal facilities still present physical barriers for disabled feds.
Rulemaking. The government does lots and lots of it. But because the power to regulate is the power to destroy, rulemaking has rules. And like all agency activities, it requires congressional oversight. The Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress asked the Government Accountability Office for ideas on how to improve rulemaking oversight.
In a long federal career, Elizabeth Cappello has typified people who get things done. A former Marine, she worked at the old U.S. Customs Service, later at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Now, she's the deputy chief information officer for the Homeland Security Department. The Federal Drive with Tom Temin talked to her about her storied career, that just had an exclamation point attached to the end of it with a Presidential Rank Award.
National security eyebrows shot up last month when a former FBI counterintelligence special agent received a four-year prison sentence. Why? He had gone to work for a Russian oligarch, a sanctioned oligarch no less. Robert McGonigal had headed the New York field office counterintelligence work. For some of the lessons everyone with clearance should learn from this, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin talked with attorney Dan Meyer, managing partner at Tully Rinckey.
In today's Federal Newscast: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has a new inspector general. Holiday returns keep the Postal Service busy and raking in the cash. And more Bureau of Prisons pay incentives get the death penalty.