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• The inspector general for the Capitol Police is being nudged to make its reports public. It comes on the eve of what is sure to be a contentious one-year anniversary of the insurrection at the Capitol. The latest push comes from the left-leaning group Demand Progress which asked the Senate Rules Committee and House Administration Committee to force the Capitol Police to publish inspector general reports online. The group said the IG missed a March deadline to report back to Congress, listing which reports it could make public.
• The Office of Personnel Management wants to repeal federal workforce policies made under the Trump administration. OPM is looking to repeal a Trump administration policy that prevented agencies from agreeing to remove or change information on a federal employee’s performance record as a condition for leaving the agency. OPM said that policy, which happened under a now repealed Trump executive order, gave agencies limited options to deal with personnel problems. OPM is also looking to end a policy that requires agencies to notify supervisors at least three months out, and then a month out, from when a newly hired employee’s probationary period expires, and to determine whether that employee should remain on the job. (Federal News Network)

• Agencies have a new time table in 2022 to report their employees use of telework. The Office of Personnel Management is shifting the annual data call to begin Feb. 1, instead of the traditional timeline of mid-November. OPM is giving agencies until March 11 to answer questions and report data electronically. By changing the reporting timeline, OPM said it is mitigating the challenges of an end-of-year data call. It also is maximizing the opportunity for agencies to collect, assess and report the most accurate telework data possible.

• Military and civilian members of the Air and Space Forces are authorized a four-hour pass from work in order to get a COVID booster shot. The Department of the Air Force is strongly encouraging all of its employees to get the vaccine and booster. To date, 95% of the total Air and Space Forces have been vaccinated.

• This year marks the Air Force’s 75th anniversary. The Air Force will celebrate this milestone throughout 2022 with various events around the country that highlight the service’s history, accomplishments and distinguished airmen. The branch was officially born on Sept. 18, 1947. Celebrations began on New Year’s Day at the Rose Bowl, where the service displayed its B-2 bomber and the Air Force Total Force Band.

• The Defense Health Agency is building a large network for small hospital markets. Over the past few years, the Defense Health Agency has been assuming control of military hospitals and clinics from the services and putting them into geographical markets. Those markets would help standardize care and share resources. However, there were some that didn’t fit into one market or were just too far away. At the end of 2021, DHA created a catchall organization for small market clinics and standalone hospitals. The organization is a massive conglomerate over 140 facilities, which will all band together to standardize health care in the military. (Federal News Network)

• U.S. Transportation Command is planning a new multi-year contract for a wide swathe of its IT and cybersecurity functions. TRANSCOM said it is planning a solicitation in early March and a final award in September. The planned contract goes beyond the command’s current Managed Information Technology Services contract. TRANSCOM also planned to include network operations, hardware and software purchasing, cybersecurity and a range of other technology services.

• The Federal Aviation Administration is exploring how to bring zero trust into the national air transportation infrastructure. The FAA is trying to better understand how to move its four operating environments into a micro-segmentation architecture and apply zero trust principles. To that end, the FAA released a request for information asking for industry feedback on how to apply these cyber tools at both the network and application layers. The FAA also wants the zero trust micro-segmentation approach to work on-premise and in the cloud as well as in sensitive environments. The FAA is asking industry to answer more than 70 questions about their approach, supply chain risks management and training and support of this set up. Responses to the RFI are due Feb. 1.

• A big data contract in the intelligence community is now under protest. Leidos is protesting a potential $4.5 billion data services contract awarded by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. NGA awarded the deal to General Dynamics Information Technology in early December. The potential 10-year contract provides for IT services at three core NGA sites and more than 150 partner sites across the globe. The Government Accountability Office has until April 7 to issue its decision on Leidos’ bid protest.

• An internal government watchdog is urging U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to ditch the paper. In a new report, the Department of Homeland Security inspector general zeroes in on USCIS’s continued reliance on manual processing and paper files. USCIS has limited electronic filing capabilities for more than 80 types of benefits. The IG said technology performance issues further constrained productivity at the agency. The challenges have led to lengthy processing times and a backlog of more than 3.8 million cases as of May 2021.

• The head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation plans to step down next month. Former President Donald Trump appointed Jelena McWilliams to serve as FDIC chairwoman for a term that would expire in 2023, but she said she’ll leave the position a year early. Democrats hold a majority on the FDIC board, and Martin Gruenberg will serve as acting chairman. In her resignation letter, McWilliams applauded the FDIC workforce for supporting the U.S. financial system throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The National Treasury Employees Union gained a new second in command. NTEU members elected longtime union leader and IRS revenue officer Doreen Greenwald to serve as its national executive vice president. Greenwald is taking over for former executive vice president Jim Bailey, who retired at the end of 2021. Greenwald previously helped lead NTEU’s ongoing COVID discussions for its largest bargaining unit, and served as president of the union’s chapter in Wisconsin.

• The Postal Service’s regulatory agency chose a new vice chairwoman to help lead operations. Members of the Postal Regulatory Commission elected Commissioner Ann Fisher to serve a one-year term as its second in command. Fisher previously served as the commission’s director of public affairs and government relations before former President Donald Trump nominated her to serve as one of its commissioners. Fisher served as deputy staff director for Sen. Susan Collins, and helped developed that last major postal reform bill to pass in 2006.

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