Federal Newscast

CBP settles class action lawsuit that says it discriminated against pregnant employees

In today's Federal Newscast, after eight years, Customs and Border Protection has reached a $45 million class action settlement.

Eric White@FEDERALNEWSCAST

August 14, 2024 11:55 am

< a min read

After eight years, Customs and Border Protection has reached a 45-million-dollar class action settlement. The lawsuit, covering more than 1,000 CBP officers and agriculture specialists, alleged that the agency discriminated against pregnant employees by involuntarily removing them from active duty. The class members said being put on a "light duty" status removed opportunities for overtime and other employee benefits. The lawsuit was initially filed in 2016 with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. As part of the settlement, CBP will have to reform its workplace policies in an effort to address and remove instances of discrimination.
(CBP employees reach $45 million settlement after uncovering widespread pregnancy discrimination - Gilbert Employment Law)

FEMA, the IRS and the U.S. Geological Survey are among the new agencies welcoming new technology experts under the U.S. Digital Corps program. The General Services Administration, which runs the USDC, says 70 technology experts are fanning out across 19 agencies to provide expertise in everything from cybersecurity to data science and analytics to design to product management to software engineering. The 2024 fellows are USDC’s third cohort, which includes individuals who will focus on AI and AI-related projects in response to the National AI Talent Surge. The digital corps is a two-year paid fellowship that provides a pathway for early-career technologists to apply their skills and expertise in the federal workplace.
(GSA announces new cohort of US Digital Corps fellows - General Services Administration)

The Biden administration has set return-to-office expectations. But it’s clear that no telework policy is one-size-fits-all. Many agencies are requiring their employees to be in the office, on average, for about half their work hours. But within that, there are nearly countless variations in each agency’s approach to their workplace posture. Nuances in the policy can come from the type of position, a manager’s discretion or even the nature of the work itself. A new Office of Management and Budget report also emphasized that more than half of federal employees can’t telework at all.
(An updated list of agencies’ return-to-office postures - Federal News Network)

A bipartisan group of lawmakers say the decision to exempt optical pluggables from the buy American requirements pose a national security threat. Led by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas),the lawmakers are raising concerns about the waiver that allows the use of foreign-made components for the middle mile section of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. The inclusion of network components sourced from other countries could lead to cyberespionage and cyberattacks. The lawmakers are urging the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to reconsider the waiver.
(NTIA’s waiver for broadband expansion poses national security risks - Federal News Network)

The White House is getting ready to release a new post-quantum encryption directive. The Office of Management and Budget will soon direct agencies to develop migration plans for adopting post-quantum cryptography. The National Institute of Standards and Technology yesterday released three finalized post-quantum cryptographic algorithms. While a quantum computer capable of breaking current encryption standards doesn’t yet exist, officials are concerned adversaries could steal sensitive data now and decrypt it later with a future quantum computer.
(White House to require post-quantum encryption plans from agencies - Federal News Network )

Vendors no longer will have to go through the Joint Authorization Board or JAB under the cloud security program FedRAMP, as a path toward authorization. Instead, they just need a hook to get through the authorization process faster, such as one or more agencies interested in the cloud service. The FedRAMP program management office says the transition away from the JAB process is well underway. The PMO says both the JAB and the tiered authorization designation are coming to an end. Going forward, cloud service providers will be FedRAMP authorized or not. This is the latest step by the PMO in the year-long modernization effort, which culminated with the recent policy update from OMB.
(Moving to one FedRAMP authorization: An update on the JAB transition - FedRAMP)

The Department of Homeland Security’s science arm is accepting new research and development proposals. DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate released a new long-range broad agency announcement this week. The directorate is accepting proposals across 23 research and development topics. S&T will also host a hybrid industry day on August 21 at Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters in Washington D.C.
(DHS S&T invites scientific and technical communities to propose research and development projects that support national security - Department of Homeland Security)

The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering will host the second Technology Readiness Experimentation event this year, also known as T-REX . The event is crucial to the Pentagon’s Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve program, which helps the military services to field modern technologies. T-REX will evaluate over 75 new defense technologies from traditional and non-traditional defense companies. The event is scheduled to take place from August 19 to August 28 at Camp Atterbury, Indiana.
(DoD to host another technology experiment for RDER - Defense Department)