Federal Drive Show Blog – July 8, 2013

On the Federal Drive show blog, you can listen to our interviews, find more information about the guests on the show each day, as well as links to other stories...

This is the Federal Drive show blog. Here you can listen to the interviews, find more information about the guests on the show each day and links to additional resources.

Today’s guests:

Thomas Richards
communications director
Office of Personnel Management

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It didn’t take long for the federal government to swing into action when the Supreme Court struck down much of the Defense of Marriage Act. A lot of the work fell to the Office of Personnel Management now that spouses in same-sex legal marriages are eligible for a range of federal employee benefits.

Jared Serbu
DoD reporter
Federal News Radio

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The Defense Department is putting the finishing touches on a major update to the key document that governs cybersecurity policy for the entire military.

Jason Miller
executive editor
Federal News Radio

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The Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration spent almost half of its IT budget last year to remediate a cyber attack that barely happened. Commerce’s inspector general found a string of errors and miscommunications that led to EDA’s overreaction of removing employee email and website access from the main agency network.

John Mahoney
chairman, Labor and Employment Practice Group
Tully Rinckey

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Does reading a short statement mean you waive your constitutional right to remain silent? Yes, according to the Republican majority on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. IRS official Lois Lerner testified in May on the targeting of political groups that applied for tax-exempt status. She raised lawmakers’ ire by reading a prepared statement then refusing to answer their questions. The panel’s Republicans say: you can’t have it both ways.

David Wyld
professor of management
Southeastern Louisiana University

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In the era of sequestration agencies are trying to save money in every way possible. This includes hiring freezes, furloughing federal workers and spending less money on contracts and contractors. Easier said than done, most agencies know that they are climbing an uphill battle. David Wyld, a professor of management at Southeastern Louisiana University, is the author of “Controlling Federal Spending by Managing the Long Tail of Procurement.”

Danielle Brian
executive director
Project on Government Oversight

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An inspector general usually serves as a watchdog for federal agencies. But lately some of the IG positions have been in limbo. The Senate is now investigating a variety of allegations against Charles Edwards. He’s serving as acting inspector general at the Homeland Security Department while the position is vacant. President Barack Obama recently nominated Steve Linick to serve as the state department inspector general. That position has been unconfirmed since 2008. And two other IGs are duking it out over proper government accounting standards.

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