• Top lawmakers on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee are calling on a government watchdog to take a closer look at how agencies are addressing improper payments. They’re asking the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to examine what agencies are doing to prevent improper payments and whether they have access to the right data to do this work. Agencies saw a surge in improper payments at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when they distributed about $5 trillion dollars in emergency aid. GAO estimates the federal government made more than $200 billion dollars in improper payments in fiscal 2023.
  (House Oversight leaders ask GAO to probe ‘root causes’ of federal improper payments - Federal News Network)
• After false claims that FEMA has been withholding aid to hurricane victims, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is offering support to the local federal workforce. The union, which represents FEMA employees, said threats have taken a toll on workers' mental health and wellbeing. AFGE is encouraging FEMA employees to report any urgent threats to their supervisors, and call 911 if they feel unsafe in a situation. The union is also reminding feds of available resources for stress management and mental health services.
  (AFGE local works with FEMA to protect employees from threats, misinformation - American Federation of Government Employees)
• The State Department sees more hiring as a key feature of its modernization agenda. The department has grown its Civil Service workforce by more than 20% over the past three years. That’s the biggest hiring surge in decades. The State Department is also hiring some of the largest classes of new Foreign Service officers it’s seen in 10 years. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the department needs a more efficient hiring process and a budget deal from Congress for the rest of the fiscal year to fill staffing shortages.
  (American Diplomacy for a New Era - State Department)

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• The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) board has brought on three new members. The board added Pritha Mehra the U.S. Postal Service's CIO and Katherine Sickbert, the associate director for technology strategy and delivery for monetary affairs for the Federal Reserve Board, as permanent members. It also added Matt Montaño, the associate CIO for the National Park Service, as an alternate member. The seven-member TMF Board, which is led by Federal CIO Clare Martorana, reviews proposals and oversees investments to help accelerate agency IT modernization projects.
  (TMF board brings on 3 new members - GSA.gov)
• The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) names its chief artificial intelligence officer. Mark Munsell will serve as NGA’s chief AI officer. He’ll take on that role in addition to serving as head of the agency’s data and digital innovation directorate. Munsell has already been pivotal in shepherding key NGA AI programs, such as Maven. The geospatial agency is focused on using AI and machine learning to derive insights from massive amounts of overhead imagery and other data. NGA recently launched a pilot program to accredit GEOINT AI models to ensure their reliability, safety and trustworthiness.
  (NGA announces Chief AI Officer - National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency)
• The head of the National Archives and Records Administration is reminding agency leaders to be mindful of federal records law through the presidential transition. In an Oct. 28 letter to agency leaders, National Archivist Colleen Shogan runs down their responsibilities under the Federal Records Act. She said records management takes on increased importance during transitions. She says agency leaders should work with records staff to ensure departing employees are aware of records preservation requirements.
  (Memo: Federal records management during presidential transition - National Archives and Records Administration)
• Six federal contractors are facing charges of bid rigging, kickbacks and bribery. A federal grand jury in Baltimore filed charges against six people for their roles in schemes to rig bids, defraud the government and pay bribes and kickbacks in connection with the sale of IT products and services to federal government purchasers. The Department of Justice's Antitrust Division and its Procurement Collusion Strike Force alleged these defendants actions resulted in overcharges of millions of dollars to the Department of Defense and other agencies. DoJ said the executives used their positions to learn sensitive, confidential procurement information and developed bids to artificially determine, non-competitive and non-independent prices to win the contracts. These are the first charges in the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into IT manufacturers, distributors and resellers.
  (Six charged in scheme to defraud the federal government - Department of Justice)
• Many agencies struggle with recruitment and retention, but it's much harder in far-reaching parts of the U.S. In Hawaii, Alaska and U.S. territories, agencies are facing heightened challenges with hiring and retaining the federal workforce. A recent report from the Government Accountability Office found that those areas have particular difficulty with using pay incentives, and encouraging job seekers to apply on USAJobs. Those challenges can have ripple effects too, according to GAO official Dawn Locke. “This can create a great burden have a huge impact on not just the existing employees and their increasing workload, but can also have an impact on customer service and the customer experience,” Locke said in an interview.
  (The farther from agency headquarters, the harder the federal workforce challenges - Federal News Network)
• The solicitation for the Defense Information Systems Agency’ Enterprise Transport Management two point oh contract will be released by the end of November. The award of the contract is planned for the third quarter of fiscal 2025. The contract will support the Pentagon’s day-to-day operation, infrastructure and maintenance of its networks. ETM 2.0 is a blanket purchase agreement and a small business set aside. The estimated value of the contract will range from 100 million to 250 million dollars.
  (DISA will award Enterprise Transport Management 2.0 in third quarter of fiscal 2025 - DISA Forecast to Industry)
• The Defense Department’s pilot program now covers 51 health conditions that were previously disqualifying from military service. The medical accession records pilot allows recruits with medically disqualifying conditions to join the service without a waiver. Katie Helland, the military accessions policy director in the office of the under secretary for personnel and readiness, said the goal of the pilot is to understand how quickly the department can process applicants with those conditions. ““Largely, we are seeing positive results, and we'll continue to monitor the data to make that decision about these conditions on whether we can build them into our standards instruction.”
  (DoD’s medical accession records pilot now covers 51 conditions - Federal News Network)

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