Federal Drive Show Blog – June 7, 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:

Orice Williams Brown
managing director for financial markets and community investment
Government Accountability Office

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Fridays this summer we’re taking a look at the federal workers nominated for the annual Service to America medal, a prestigious career-achievement award. In today’s Sammies segment, Congress might be hyper partisan, but its investigative arm works hard to deliver facts that are thorough and impartial. From TARP to the Dodd-Frank law, Orice Williams Brown makes sure Congress gets the whole story on financial regulations.

View the Federal News Radio Sammies Photo Gallery.

Dr. Peter Budetti
director of the Center for Program Integrity
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

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Medicare has a $44 billion problem: improper payments, many of them to fraudsters. Now, just like in the Tom Cruise movie “Minority Report,” the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is trying to predict the crime and stop it before it even happens.

Related Interview: Federal Drive Interviews — April 11, 2013 (Kay Daly)

Charles Tiefer
law professor
University of Baltimore

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President Barack Obama has nominated three judges to fill vacancies on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Legal scholars say it’s the most important court in the nation after the Supreme Court. Democrats say the judges are needed for the workload. Republicans say the White House is packing a court that’s ruled against it. Charles Tiefer, former deputy general counsel to the House and now a law professor at the University of Baltimore, explains why he thinks the judges are needed.

Ed Zurndorfer
registered employee benefit consultant

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A Supreme Court ruling offers a lesson to any federal worker who puts insurance and benefits forms off for some other day. In Hillman v Maretta, the first and second wives of federal employee Warren Hillman each claimed they should get the money from their late husband’s insurance policy. The court sided with wife number one, even though that marriage ended decades ago. Why? Her name was on the beneficiary form. What does this mean for you?

Elise Golan
director of sustainability
Office of the Chief Economist, USDA

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Did your mother ever tell you: don’t waste food? If only she knew. Americans toss out 133 billion pounds or a third of the world’s food supply each year. Now the Agriculture Department and the EPA have launched the U.S. Food Waste Challenge. They are calling on everyone in the food supply chain to join the effort.

From Our Reporters

Agencies soon will be able to compare specific performance measures of the federal financial management shared service providers. The Office of Management and Budget says the information will be the difference maker between this and previous attempts to get agencies to move to shared services. Federal News Radio’s Executive Editor Jason Miller explains why OMB believes this time is different for shared services.

MORE FROM THE FEDERAL DRIVE

IRS official apologizes for lavish $4M conference (Federal News Radio)

IRS workers say supervisors directed targeting (Federal News Radio)

Report: IRS Lawyer Who Oversaw Tea-Party Targeting Said to Be Retiring (National Review)

Almost half-million VA loan, grant files mistakenly deleted (Federal Times)

House passes $45B homeland security spending bill (Federal News Radio)

US declassifies phone program details after uproar (Federal News Radio)

Letter to Arthur A. Elkins, inspector general, EPA (House)

DoD to give Congress 2014 spending outline under sequestration (Federal News Radio)

DoD Financial Management: Significant Improvements Needed in Efforts to Address Improper Payment Requirements (GAO)

Army releases new leaders’ handbook on cybersecurity (Army)

Lockheed Martin Receives Highest Level FedRAMP Authorization to Provide Government Cloud Services

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