• Senate legislation targeting locality pay for federal teleworkers now has a companion bill in the House. If enacted, the Federal Employee Return to Work Act would remove locality pay for any federal employee who teleworks at least one day a week. Federal teleworkers would instead only receive their base pay rates. The House bill, introduced this week, comes after Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) introduced the legislation in August. The Republican-led bill is one of many efforts to scale back telework options for federal employees.
  (Federal Employee Return to Work Act - Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.))
• Agencies with higher employee satisfaction scores are also getting top marks on their performance. Research from the Partnership for Public Service finds agencies that received the highest internal customer experience scores also ranked high on the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. Brandon Lardy is the Partnership’s senior manager for data science and strategy. He said internal customer experience covers federal employees’ satisfaction with mission-support functions, including IT, human resources, financial management and acquisition. “As employees are receiving these services, that obviously has an impact on their ability to then deliver good services to the public.”
  (Federal employee satisfaction linked to higher agency performance - Federal News Network)
• The Office of Personnel Management has closed off its headquarters building, after discovering elevated levels of legionella in the water supply. OPM employees who normally work in the headquarters building in Washington, D.C., are being asked to telework for the time being. That’s after legionella bacteria were discovered in a small number of the building’s water fixtures, according to the agency. OPM officials said the maximum telework posture comes out of an abundance of caution, while they gather more information on the situation. The agency said at this time, it’s not aware of any legionella-related health issues impacting OPM employees. The OPM headquarters building is the only location currently impacted. All other OPM offices are operating as usual.
  (Legionella found in water supply at OPM headquarters - Office of Personnel Management)
• The Postal Service is moving away from the federal government’s Flexible Spending Account program. USPS is parting ways with FSAFEDS, but its employees can still sign up for an FSA account through a commercial option from Inspira Financial. The switchover begins with this year’s Open Season, which runs from Nov.11 through Dec. 9. USPS encourages employees to spend all their FSAFEDS benefits before the end of the calendar year.
  (New vendor to administer Flexible Spending Account program - National Association of Postal Supervisors )

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• One of the five open CIO positions across the Department of Health and Human Services has been filled. Patrick Newbold is the new chief information officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Federal News Network has confirmed Newbold will join CMS on Nov 4. He has been the deputy CIO at NASA since January and previously worked at the Social Security Administration for almost three years. Newbold replaces Rajiv Uppal, who left in November to take the CIO position at the IRS. Now that CMS has filled its CIO role, there are four other open positions across HHS, including the departmental CIO position, at CDC and at NIH. OrangeSlices AI first reported Newbold's new position.
  (CMS names new CIO - Federal News Network)
• The White House's Office of the National Cyber Director has finished reviewing a list of agency systems that could be susceptible to a cryptographically relevant quantum computer. This is the second inventory agencies submitted to ONCD as required by the National Cybersecurity Strategy. ONCD recently sent its report on the inventory to OMB and the National Security Advisor as part of the governmentwide prioritization effort. Phil Stupak, the assistant national cyber director, said this inventory featured better details about the systems potentially at risk. He said agencies will begin a third inventory early in 2025.
  (ONCD completes review of sensitive IT systems to prepare for post-quantum cryptography - AFCEA DC)
• The Defense Department is reviewing its supply chain risk taxonomy. The department first published the taxonomy in 2022, and it’s currently updating the categories and risks based on new insights and evolving threats. In 2022, the DoD identified 12 main categories and 123 sub-risks, including manufacturing, finance and foreign ownership and control. Brig. Gen. Stephanie Howard, who serves as the operational contract support executive director in the office of under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment said the department will keep the 12 risk categories identified in the initial version of the document.
  (DoD to update supply chain risk taxonomy - AFCEA DC tech summit)
• The Defense Department is bringing back the Small Business Investment Company Critical Technology Initiative. In a partnership with the Small Business Administration, the Defense Department is licensing new investment funds to drive investment into technologies deemed critical to national security. Rather than lending directly to companies, the program provides loans and loan guarantees to investors. This first group of funds will invest over $2.8 billion across more than 1,000 portfolio companies. Each licensed fund can receive up to $175 million in loans.
  (DoD, SBA initiative will invest $2.8 billions in small businesses - Department of Defense)

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