Federal workers get new source for ‘official time’ laws

• Federal employees have a new source to make sure they are following the law about official time. The Federal Labor Relations Authority's (FRLA) new training video for federal employees, unions and managers highlights types of work included as part of official time, such as contract negotiations or challenging an existing bargaining unit. FRLA’s nine-minute video, narrated by its Assistant General Counsel Bill Kirsner, also addressed the type of work that is not part of official time like solicitation of membership or collection of dues.
  (Federal employees get new source for 'official time' laws - Federal Labor Relations Authority)
• Agencies continue to respond to the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene across the southeastern United States. More than 3,500 federal personnel are deployed supporting Helene response efforts. That includes more than 1,000 employees at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA has deployed 40 StarLink communication satellites to help with outages in the affected areas. Also responding are the Department of Health and Human Services, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Small Business Administration. The storm is responsible for widespread destruction and at least 120 deaths across six states.
  (Biden-Harris administration continues whole-of-government response to Hurricane Helene - Federal Emergency Management Administration)
• James-Christian Blockwood has been selected to be the next president and chief executive officer of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA). Blockwood will start at NAPA on Jan. 1. He will take over for Terry Gerton, the academy’s longest-serving leader. Gerton is ending her eight-year-term at NAPA later this year. Blockwood is a fellow of the academy with experience as a non-profit executive and former career senior executive in the federal government. Most recently, Blockwood served as executive vice president at the Partnership for Public Service where he oversaw its programs and the organization’s strategic planning efforts.
  (National Academy of Public Administration gets new president - National Academy of Public Administration)
• The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is launching a new service to make it easier for businesses to work with the agency, as part of its ongoing transformation efforts. The IRS Appeals Office is piloting a program through March 31, 2025 for corporate group mailboxes. This new feature allows large businesses with multiple representatives to securely communicate with the IRS online. It offers round-the-clock access and streamlines communications, while enabling secure records sharing and faster case resolution. Eligible businesses can request access by contacting their assigned appeals employee.
  (IRS pilots corporate group mailbox program - Internal Revenue Service)

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• The Pentagon’s next phase of the Replicator initiative will focus on countering small drones. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says he expects Replicator 2 to deliver enhanced protection against small uncrewed aerial systems. Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks will oversee the development of the plan. Austin says he expects Replicator 2 to be part of the fiscal 2026 defense budget request. Defense officials have until the end of 2024 to finalize the plan.
  (Replicator 2 to focus on countering small drones - Federal News Network )
• The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommends that the Defense Department (DoD) revise the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer program open topic guidance. In fiscal 2022, 40% of small business awards worth approximately $1.8 billion were from open topics. GAO found some DoD components' open topics were too similar to their conventional topics, narrowly defining their needs and limiting small businesses’ ability to pitch their innovative solutions.
  ( DoD defines open topics too narrowly - Government Accountability Office)
• Happy fiscal new year. Lawmakers dodged a shutdown last week by passing a continuing resolution (CR) keeping the government open through late December, thus, saving agencies time and effort to prepare for a partial closure. New data from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation found agencies are remaining under continuing resolutions for longer and longer periods of time. This include full year CRs in 2007, 2011 and 2013. Between 2011 and 2024, the foundation says CRs accounted for 45% of the federal fiscal year. In 2023, for example, agencies lived under a continuing resolution for 175 days, the most since 2017. For 2025, agencies are already at 81 days.
  (Continuing resolutions were designed to be stopgap measures — but now we average five a year - Peter G. Peterson Foundation)
• The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) plans to test out new tools to help agencies migrate to post-quantum cryptography. In a new strategy released last week, CISA says it doesn’t have the tools it needs to detect when a federal system is using quantum-vulnerable encryption. Under the post-quantum strategy, CISA plans to launch a pilot program for automated cryptography discovery and inventory tools. The agency plans to then embed those tools within its Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program.
  (Strategy for migrating to automated post-quantum cryptography discovery and inventory tools - Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency)
• The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is launching a $708 million data labeling contract called “Sequoia.” NGA released the Sequoia request for proposal (RFP) yesterday. The full RFP is classified. The single-award contract will have an order period of up to seven years. It’s NGA’s largest data labeling effort to date. The agency says it will help advance its artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities.
  (NGA announces $708M data labeling RFP - National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency )

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