FCW Insider: March 8

Senate votes to extend pandemic relief for contractors

A Senate amendment to the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Act extends pandemic relief authorities to government contractors for paid leave through the end of the fiscal year.

OPM tells agencies to restart union talks to uproot Trump-era orders

The Office of Personnel Management is looking to remove vestiges of workforce executive orders from the Trump administration from federal agency contracts with employee unions, including restrictions on official time and union use of agency facilities.

TMF money, more leave in Senate's take on COVID relief

The $1.9 trillion relief package could give federal employees up to 15 weeks of pandemic-related paid leave.

House GOP urges increase in defense spending

House Republicans are urging the Biden administration to seek an increase in defense spending in the upcoming budget request to better compete with China and "fill ongoing readiness gaps."

Quick Hits

*** Washington Technology reports that Will Roper, the former Air Force acquisition chief, has joined the board of directors of Volansi, a company focused on autonomous, vertical take-off and landing middle-mile drone delivery services and holds a spot on the USAF's Skyborg program, and also joined the board of advisers at augmented reality firm Red 6.

*** According to a recent Government Accountability Office report, federal agencies continue to pursue data center consolidation goals without a clear, consistent metric for server utilization, a key data point for measuring accomplishments. Separately, the report notes that agencies are showing impressive progress on the consolidation policy, with $6.24 billion in reported savings or cost avoidance from 2012-2020 and the closure of hundreds of federal agency data centers.

*** The Transportation Security Administration is exploring the use of video analytics for better security screening. Read more on this story in GCN.