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On the show today — March 27

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.

Federal News Network Staff

March 28, 2012 1:57 am

2 min read

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:

Larry Allen — President, Allen Federal Business Partners

A small change to the General Services Administration’s GSA Advantage contract may have a big impact on small businesses. GSA Advantage is, essentially, the agency’s version of Amazon.com and GSA recently mandated that suppliers with particular Special Item Numbers had to carry at least one product with a UPC code on the site.

Larry Allen, the president of Allen Federal Business Partners, explains why this could be problematic for small business.

Tom Shoop — Editor-in-chief, Government Executive

Federal employees are getting hammered on the campaign trail. Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently said about federal employees: “Not only do we have to pay for them, but they have to do something every day. So they look at things that they can do, places that they can interfere.”

Tom Shoop is writing about the anti-fed bus that Romney has jumped on. (Click here to read Shoop’s GovExec column).

Click here to watch video of Romney’s speech.

Asif Khan — Director of Financial Management and Assurance Issues, GAO

The clock is ticking for military branches to get their books ready for audit. But one hold-up for the Army stems from problems getting the Army payroll in order. GAO’s Asif Khan recently testified before a joint House/Senate hearing about the problems the watchdog agency found.

Federal News Radio DoD reporter Jared Serbu also reported on how Army payroll problems could impact DoD’s path toward audit readiness.

Click here to watch video of the hearing.

Also on the show:

Tighter budget inspires services to rethink their workforce
Tighter budgets are forcing agencies all over government to rethink their workforces. Federal News Radio’s Jason Miller spoke with Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Air Force Service Acquisition Executive David Van Buren for their perspective.

Lawmakers skeptical of USPS proposal to set up own health plan
The Postal Service’s plan to leave the federal health insurance program is raising doubts in Congress. But if nothing changes, the Postal Service expects that by 2016, they’ll lose more than $21 billion a year. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe appeared before a House subcommittee today to explain how a postal service health plan could work.