The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

In just a few weeks, tens of thousands of career federal employees could lose their civil service protections. Positions that get converted to the new Schedule Policy/Career will no longer have the ability to appeal an adverse action or termination. But additional guidance is out, showing some other benefits employees might lose if they are reclassified. Here with more, Federal News Network’s Drew Friedman.
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The IRS is notifying back-office employees that they will temporarily cover frontline filing season work through this summer. Training for these detailed employees will begin nearly a month after the start of this year’s tax filing season. The agency’s taxpayer service division lost a significant number of employees last year. The IRS also fell short of its hiring goals this season. Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman has more.
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New research from Brookings shows that rural counties with stronger access to post offices have more small‑business activity, even when broadband and other factors are the same. That suggests the postal network is doing far more economic heavy lifting than policymakers assume. We’ll dig into the findings with Elena Patel, co-director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and a senior fellow in the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution.
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GAO found the Bureau of Prisons struggling with timely assessments and unreliable program data, making it harder to know whether incarcerated people are getting the programming the First Step Act requires. Add in delays applying earned time credits, and the whole recidivism‑reduction strategy wobbles. GAO’s Gretta Goodwin joins me to talk about the risks and the fixes.
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For patients waiting on transplants, the gap between supply and need has always been measured in lives. ARPA‑H’s new program aims to close that gap entirely by pursuing bioprinted organs that don’t require a donor and don’t trigger rejection. It’s a bold bet on what medicine could look like next, and we'll explore the details with the Program Manager of the PRINT program, Ryan Spitler.
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