BLM worker feels the heat after attending Burning Man

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

• The Interior Department’s inspector general, acting on tips, found a supervisory agent violated several ethics rules. He used his position to obtain tickets to the sold-out Burning Man festival. He used subordinates to drive his crew around the annual desert event. And he had his girlfriend spent the night in his BLM trailer. Interior officials removed the agent pending discipline proceedings. (Department of Interior Office of Inspector General)

• Dr. David Shulkin is one step closer toward Senate confirmation to be the next secretary of the Veterans Affairs Department. The Senate VA Committee unanimously approves Shulkin’s nomination. It now goes to a full vote in the Senate. Both Senate VA Chairman Johnny Iskason (R-Ga.) and Ranking Member Jon Tester (D-Mont.) praised the committee’s approval. (Senate Veterans Affairs Committee)

• Veterans health care and IT acquisition are back on the Government Accountability Office’s High Risk List. GAO had some hard truths for the VA. It says leadership turnover within the VA IT shop has stalled real progress. VA Chief Information Officer Rob Thomas said the past 18 months have been productive, as VA now has a strategy and it plans to implement it. (Federal News Radio)

• The Defense Department’s new, long-awaited electronic health record system is officially up and running. The system went live at Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane, Washington on Tuesday. It’s the first DoD medical facility to implement the new electronic health record, called MHS Genesis. Defense officials plan a broader rollout of the new EHR in other sites across the Pacific Northwest during the system’s initial operating capability phase in the coming months. Between now and 2022, the $4.6 billion program will gradually replace the military’s aging heath IT systems in the rest of its global health facilities. (Military Health System)

• The Air National Guard will graduate its first class of students from its cyber crash course. The two-month course teaches students basic cyber skills and some cyber offensive know-how. The Air National Guard is dealing with a backlog in its training of cyber warriors. The leader of the Air National Guard called the need for cyber troops “insatiable.” (Federal News Radio)

• The General Service Administration’s data collection initiative got off to a fast start. About 1,000 companies have signed up to take part in GSA’s transactional data pilot. GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service is testing out an approach to collect procurement data like prices paid, quantity bought and product descriptions to help its agency customers make better buying decisions. GSA said about 40 percent of all eligible vendors have signed up, and only about 8% percentof those eligible declined to take part in the program. Industry experts continue to be concerned about the pilot, around the burden to collect the data and the uncertainty of how the information will be used.

• Top members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee want President Donald Trump to find a new director for the Office of Personnel Management as soon as possible. Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and others wrote to the President, saying OPM needs a highly qualified leader and plays an essential human resources function. (House Oversight and Government Reform Committee)

• Two lawmakers want the Government Accountability Office to study last time the government consolidated the security clearance process back in 2005. Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) wrote to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro asking for an analysis of what went right and what went wrong when the Defense Department moved its security clearance efforts to the Office of Personnel Mangement’s Federal Investigative Service nearly 12 years ago. The lawmakers ask GAO to look at 11 elements of the 2005 transfer and complete the study before Oct. 1. (Federal News Radio)

• A congressman wants to know more about gag-orders issued within agencies the past month. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), a member of the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter to over a dozen large agencies requesting information on how employees are instructed to communicate with Congress. He wants to ensure agencies are implementing “anti-gag” laws. (Rep. Gerry Connolly)

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