The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

• More trouble for the Veterans Affairs hospital in Phoenix. The VA Inspector General said the Phoenix hospital incorrectly canceled specialty care appointments for 24 percent of the cases it reviewed. The IG said long wait times for care may have contributed to the death of one patient. The hospital has 38,000 open consults since July 2016. The latest findings are similar to those that sparked controversy and led the administration to overhaul the department’s leadership in 2014. (Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General)

• The Army National Guard will boost training days for its Stryker and Armored Brigades. It wants to reduce the time the units spend at a mobilization site after a unit is called up for duty. The Guard thinks the training could reduce mobilization time by at least 30 percent. No timeline yet for when the increased training days will start.

• One of the largest agencies in government is heading to a financial management shared services provider. The Veterans Affairs Department chose the Agriculture Department’s National Finance Center to provide financial management services. The decision by VA to move to a shared services provider comes after more than a decade of the VA trying to modernize its general ledger and other financial systems on its own. VA said moving to NFC is a high priority for 2017 and beyond. VA said working with NFC will increase the transparency, accuracy, timeliness and reliability of its financial information. VA becomes the second cabinet agency to move to shared service provider after HUD. (Department of Veterans Affairs)

• A legislative proposal that would have cut back on the use of veterans’ preference in federal hiring appears to be dead — at least for now. A provision the Senate passed in its version of this year’s Defense authorization bill would mean veterans only receive preferential hiring treatment for their first job within the federal government — they’d be treated as typical applicants if they wanted to apply to another government job later on. Under pressure from veterans groups, John McCain (R-Ariz.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he’ll ensure that language is taken out of the final version of the bill the House and Senate are now negotiating. The American Legion said roughly two-thirds of veterans change jobs within their first two years of leaving the military.

• GSA is helping agencies get a handle on artificial intelligence. The General Services Administration stands up a new inter-agency resource to educate agencies and industry on machine learning. The interagency AI community is one of 15 other designed to help federal agencies meet their mission of civilian services. (Federal News Radio)

• A new, governmentwide mobile strategy coming soon from an interagency group of experts. The Office of Management and Budget formed the Mobility Services Category Team over the summer. The group said it has ways agencies can better manage their mobility services. The goal is to consolidate some of the 1,200 service agreements and 200 contracts on which the government spends $1 billion every year. (Federal News Radio)

• You can now find the Federal Acquisition Regulation on IBooks. The General Services Administration said they wanted to give the contracting community a mobile version of the FAR regardless of whether they’re connected to the internet or not. It may even be better than hard copies since rule changes occur once a month. (General Services Administration)

• Congress is taking a look to make sure political conversions to career jobs are all kosher. Government Accountability Office auditors found 69 people switched from political to career in a five-year period ending in 2015. It found 17 conversions occurred without the agencies getting prior approval from the Office of Personnel Management, as required by law. When it did examine them, OPM denied four. Auditors urge OPM to strengthen its reporting relationships with agencies. (Government Accountability Office)

• You’ve heard all the outrage this election season about the carelessness of classified emails. Turns out the Homeland Security Department is having trouble with the concept as well. DHS’ inspector general said it has not trained employees how to use its new classification management tool. The IG found 48 classification marking errors out of the 269 classified documents it reviewed. It recommended the DHS Office of the Chief Security Officer step up training efforts. (Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General)

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