On the show today – April 6

On the In Depth show blog, you can listen to the interviews, find more information about the guests on the show each day and links to additional resources.

This is the In Depth 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:

Fergus HansonBrookings Institution Fellow and director of polling at the Lowry Institute

E-diplomacy is one area in which the State Department is taking a leading role, but not many other countries are following.

Fergus Hanson, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and director of polling at the Lowry Institute, discusses the definition of e-diplomacy and State’s growing online presence.

In a Lowry Institute analysis, “Revolution @ State: The Spread of Ediplomacy,” Lowry writes: “In Public Diplomacy, State now operates what is effectively a global media empire, reaching a larger direct audience than the paid circulation of the ten largest US dailies and employing an army of diplomat-journalists to feed its 600-plus platforms.”


Tammy FlanaganSenior benefits director, National Institute for Transition Planning

Tammy Flanagan

Your retirement plan: Do you have a numbers problem, or a knowledge problem?

Federal employees have a leg up on their private-sector counterparts when it comes to saving for retirement — they have the Thrift Savings Plan.

Click here to see March TSP returns.

Tammy Flanagan, the senior benefits director for the National Institute for Transition Planning, said interest in federal retirement is growing at her seminars across the country. Could this be an indicator of a coming wave, or tsunami of federal retirements?


Patti TitusChief Information Security Officer, Symantec

A data breach at your agency will cost lots of money — for a lot of reasons. Patricia Titus, the chief information security officer at Symantec and former Chief Information Security Officer at the Transportation Security Administration, discusses how to quantify the cost of a data breach and whether cleaning up one is getting more expensive or cheaper.

This story is part of Federal News Radio’s daily Cybersecurity Update. For more cybersecurity news, click here.


Rick KiernanVice President and Partner, World Media Network

The crisis at the General Services Administration is generating attention from lots of people around the country. Rick Kiernan, vice president and partner at the World Media Network is a veteran of crisis management and public affairs — from the Defense Department, the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and the contracting community.

He discusses what a company or federal agency’s first move should be when it has a crisis on its hands.

Read the full story


Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.)

Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif)Chairman, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s public building’s subcommittee

The first hearing on the scandal at the General Services Administration is set. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hear from Martha Johnson, who resigned this week, among others, on April 19. Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) discusses what he’ll be looking for.

House probes $400K GSA awards program

Read the full story


Also on the show:

Federal News Countdown: GSA spending scandal, telework and flattening IT budgets Molly O’Neill, a fellow at the CGI Initiative for Collaborative Government and former chief information officer at the Environmental Protection Agency and Ruben Gomez, coordinating producer and reporter for Federal News Radio, count down the top federal news stories of the week.

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.