Federal Drive

Federal Drive interviews – July 30

The White House's intellectual property enforcement coordinator explains what Congress needs to do to update the country's intellectual property laws. And feder...

Federal News Network Staff

July 30, 2012 9:33 am

3 min read

Victoria Espinel — U.S. intellectual property enforcement coordinator

The Obama administration has a homework assignment from Congress that’s due by the end of the year. By law, it must come up with a new strategy for protecting the nation’s intellectual property from thieves and pirates. Existing policy dates to 2010. The proposed new policy is nearing the end of its comment stage. Espinel said much has been accomplished in the last three years, but some new threats have emerged to intellectual property that call for updated policy.

John Mahoney — Chairman of the Labor and Employment practice at Tully Rinckey

For the first time in four years, the Office of Special Counsel is reporting a drop in the number of whistleblower disclosures. So does that mean there are fewer agency abuses to report, or that federal employees are becoming more afraid to blow the whistle?

Read the blog post on Tully Rinckey’s website.

Cheryl Miller — Program Manager for the AEI Program on American Citizenship

It’s not so easy for eager young adults to join the military. Nearly a third do not qualify because they are too overweight. And a recent story in the Atlantic points out another problem for those who live in the Northeast. The number of ROTC programs at colleges and universities there has declined steeply over the past 50 years. As a result…the military is focusing its recruiting efforts elsewhere. Miller has studied the decline of ROTC programs in New York City.

No More Urban Officers? How an Uneven ROTC May Change Our Military (The Atlantic)

Sheryl Shenberger — Director of National Declassification Center, National Archives and Records Administration

The federal government expends a lot of effort each year declassifying old documents. But it’s more than a matter of ripping the seal of a box and hitting papers with an unclassified stamp. The National Declassification Center just released its report on activities for the six months ending June 30.

Claire Jellinek — 2011-2012 Washington Teaching Ambassador, Education Department

Federal leaders say they are looking for new ideas from their staff. But the Education Department went outside Washington to find innovative ideas for making its work better. It invited five real…live…teachers to work at the department for a year. and teach agency staff a thing or two. Jellinek just finished her year at the agency. When she taught high school social studies in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jellinek says Washington seemed pretty remote. She signed up for the fellowship to get a closer look at how education policy is formed.