The General Services Administration, the National Park Service, and the Department of Veterans Affairs each manage a lot of older buildings. Some they use for themselves and others get leased out to private industry. The Government Accountability Office did a study to find out how effective these agencies are at managing their historic buildings. Federal News Radio spoke to Reid Nelson, who directs the Office of Federal Agency Programs Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, about the report and the challenges federal agencies have maintaining these buildings.

On the White House’s “We the People” website, people can petition the administration to address topics of any kind — like copyright legislation and even death stars. If a petition gets a certain number of signatures, the White House promises to address the issue. That threshold recently went up from 25,000 to 100,000 signatures. What does the change mean for opening government to the public? For some perspective, Federal News Radio talked with Sean Moulton, director of the federal information policy program at the Center for Effective Government (formerly known as OMB Watch).

The National Organization on Disability, a non-profit group, says it knows the secret to helping severely wounded warriors find jobs. 70 percent of participants in its program found jobs, which is double the rate of seriously injured vets using other services. Now, the non-profit wants the Pentagon to adopt its methods. Federal News Radio spoke about the program with retired Lieutenant General Franklin Hagenbeck, a member of the non-profit’s board of directors, and a former deputy chief of staff for personnel with the Army.

When it comes to economic development, it’s sometimes hard for one agency to avoid stepping on another agency’s toes. For example, the Department of Agriculture and Housing and Urban Development both have housing programs. USDA Undersecretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager spoke with Federal News Radio about what the department is doing on its own and with other agencies to help rural communities.

2012 USDA Rural Development Progress Report