FCW Insider: April 28, 2021
The latest news and analysis from FCW's reporters and editors.
Biden orders $15 minimum wage for federal contractors
The new minimum wage is set to take effect in early 2022. Agencies will have to include the $15 wage floor in any new contract solicitations starting on January 30, 2022 and have this minimum wage in new contracts by March 30, 2022.
Biden selects former Army acquisition exec for DOD's top tech job
The White House announced it would nominate Heidi Shyu, former assistant secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, to be DOD's undersecretary for research and engineering.
Former CIO urges lawmakers to relax TMF paybacks
The $1 billion boost to the Technology Modernization Fund can help agencies, but some changes to strict payback rules will help CIO shops get started on much-needed modernization.
ICYMI: Federal employee job satisfaction climbed during pandemic
The survey documents the rapid change to teleworking postures in government under the COVID-19 pandemic.
Quick Hits
*** President Joe Biden appointed Celeste Drake, a former AFL-CIO official, to serve as the first-ever Made In America director at the Office of Management and Budget. According to the White House press announcement, Drake will "shape and implement federal procurement and financial management policy to help carry out the President's vision of a future made in America by all of America's workers -- including minority entrepreneurs and small businesses in every region in our country."
*** The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board is spending a lot of its money on operations and maintenance for recordkeeping, but officials say that it won't always be that way. Out of the $343.1 million that was spent as of the end of March, 82% or $281.7 million was spent on supporting recordkeeping, maintenance and transition to a new contract, said Susan Crowder, the chief financial officer during a board meeting on Tuesday. Last fall, the board awarded its consolidated recordkeeping contract to Accenture Federal Services. The board is transitioning to that contract.
"This year we are spending on essentially what is two systems. We are spending on our old system, the legacy system, and we are spending heavily on [transition efforts to the new system]," said Ravindra Deo, the executive director of FRTIB. The agency is also pursuing two other modernizing initiatives for financial systems and IT systems. Once those and the recordkeeping consolidation are executed, the expenditures should normalize, Crowder said.