Air Force facing major readiness issues

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

• The Air Force can’t be ready for battle if all it does is sit on the ground. Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein told a think tank audience that training in the air, with the space and money to do it, is essential to readiness. He said the Air Force doesn’t have enough of either. If the 2017 continuing resolution and civilian hiring stretch to a full year, Goldfein said readiness will keep falling behind. (Department of Defense)

• Customs and Border Protection may run into some big challenges to meet the president’s order of 5,000 new border patrol agents. The National Border Patrol Council said CBP is already 1,600 border patrol agents below the congressional staffing floor of about 21,000. Hiring at CBP also takes a while, at least 170 days on average. (Federal News Radio)

• Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants to continue the Justice Department’s use of private prisons. This is a reversal of a directive from the Obama administration era, which directed the Bureau of Prisons to reduce and ultimately end its reliance on contract facilities. The order, Sessions said, “impaired the Bureau’s ability to meet the future needs of the federal correctional system.” (Associated Press)

• Recently confirmed Veterans Affairs Secretary Dr. David Shulkin said he’s working “closely” with Congress on VA employee accountability legislation. In an interview with Fox & Friends, Dr. Shulkin said both Congress and him want a bill which makes sure “if people shouldn’t be working in the VA, they won’t be working in the VA.” (Fox News)

• Agencies have more than 1,000 open recommendations to fix cybersecurity holes in their networks. A large portion of those recommendations from the Government Accountability Office focused on how agencies can move to a risk-based approach to cybersecurity. GAO, in its biannual High-Risk List, found agencies need to address several broad issues, including improving their ability to detect, respond to and mitigate cyber incidents. Agencies also should focus more on patching, configuration management and conducting comprehensive tests and evaluations of their systems and networks. (Government Accountability Office)

• Despite an ongoing court battle over a contract bid, the team behind the Recreation.gov website is keeping its focus on improving customer service. The website allows people to plan their trip to federal lands and waters. Program manager Rick DeLappe said one of their goals is to provide real-time availability to third party sites. (Federal News Radio)

• Software developers around the world can now work with the Defense Department to help review and strengthen unclassified code. DoD launches its new Code.mil initiative. It’s using the open-source platform GitHub to help private sector developers collaborate with federal employees on DoD software projects. (Department of Defense)

• A survey conducted by the Census Bureau has found that Maryland is tied for the longest commute time. The Capital News Service reports the average commute time in the Old Line State is 32 minutes. It shares the top spot with New York. Some feds in the state don’t have it that bad, though, as residents on base at Aberdeen Proving Ground and Fort Meade had the shortest commutes of 13 and 17 minutes. (Capital News Service)

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