FCW Insider: Aug. 31

Good morning and welcome to a very VA-heavy edition of the FCW Insider. The Department of Veterans Affairs is hosting a Demo Day today at the National Press Club in Washington. The event showcases how the agency is putting technology to work to try to solve urgent health and healthcare access problems facing veterans.

In other VA news, President Trump temporarily elevated James Byrne, the agency's general counsel, to be the acting deputy secretary of the agency. Byrne steps in amid an organizational reshuffle from new agency chief Robert Wilkie.

The VA is also expecting a new CIO – in late July James Gfrerer was tapped to serve as the top tech official to replace acting official Camilo Sandoval. Sen. Jonny Isakson (R-Ga.), the chairman of the Senate VA Committee, met Gfrerer on Aug. 28, according to a Capitol Hill source, and a confirmation hearing is expected to be scheduled soon.

Federal employee unions are looking to agencies to rein in efforts to implement three workforce executive orders in the wake of a court decision invalidating some key provisions of President Trump's plan to make it easier to fire feds and to curtail some union activity.