The Department of Veterans Affairs’ ability to protect its computer systems and the data of tens of millions of veterans is under fire by a former senior cybersecurity official. Jerry Davis spent more than two years as the deputy assistant secretary for information security in VA’s Office of Information and Technology before leaving in February. He says VA is shortcutting the process to secure its computers and data but VA denies Davis’ allegations. Federal News Radio’s Executive Editor Jason Miller spoke with Tom and Emily about the details of his investigative report on this topic.

READ JASON’S REPORT: Millions of veterans’ data at risk, former VA cyber official alleges

The Navy says its program to upgrade and standardize the technology aboard its ships is so important, the service can’t get it done quickly enough. But, sequestration is slowing it down in a big way. Federal News Radio’s Jared Serbu has the story.

The IRS is an agency in trouble. It’s beset by charges it enforced a new section of the tax code in a highly political way. Plus, a new IG report coming out tomorrow is expected to charge the agency with excessive conference spending. Yet, it’s the same agency that answers tens of millions of taxpayer questions, personally, every year and has found a way to handle 2.2 billion forms. For some perspective, Tom and Emily spoke with Mark Everson, former commissioner of the IRS, who is now vice president of the Alliant Group.

The Social Security Administration has four management challenges looming on the horizon, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. And the agency has no long-term approach for these challenges, GAO says. Daniel Bertoni, director of education, workforce, and income security issues at GAO, spoke with Tom and Emily about the findings of the report.

The Office of Management and Budget has launched a new inventory of federal programs. It was called for in the 2010 Government Performance and Results Modernization Act, and now lives at Performance.gov. Robert Shea, principal in Grant Thornton’s Global Public Sector and a former associate director at OMB, spoke with Tom and Emily about the benefit of the new portal and what still needs to be improved.

The Obama administration has proposed selling off the Tennessee Valley Authority to the private sector. Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker (R) agrees, but others say, no way. TVA provides electricity to 9 million people in 7 southern states and was created during the New Deal era, but it is drowning in a sea of debt. Dave Flessner, business editor of the Chattanooga Times Free Press, has written about this recently. He spoke to Tom and Emily about the positives and negatives of such a plan.