Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
White House flag at half mast

The President’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC) is calling for mandatory cybersecurity standards for the security and resilience of critical infrastructure assets, on the heels of the Biden administration’s release earlier this month of its national cybersecurity strategy that tacks in a similar direction. […]

IRS

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen mounted a robust defense today of how the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is already benefiting from an influx of funding from Congress under legislation approved last year, and why the money is necessary for longer-term improvements. […]

Senate hearing Congressional-min

The Biden administration’s proposed $859 million fiscal year 2024 budget for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) will help the agency to maximize its science, technology, and cybersecurity reporting capabilities to meet Congress’s growing demand for those services, GAO’s top official told lawmakers at a Senate Legislative Branch Subcommittee hearing on March 15. […]

data center

Nearly a decade ago, in May of 2013, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform’s Subcommittee on Government Operations conducted a field hearing at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., to address the Federal government’s ongoing efforts to consolidate data centers and optimize cloud adoption. […]

Data
CISA

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said on March 15 that multiple attackers were able to compromise a system at one unnamed Federal civilian executive branch agency from November 2022 to January 2023, and issued an advisory for other organizations to take action to mitigate any similar vulnerability. […]

NASA on March 13 awarded L3Harris Technologies a $765.5 million contract to develop the imager for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellite program. […]

CISA

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced on Monday its new Ransomware Vulnerability Warning Pilot (RVWP) to warn critical infrastructure entities of vulnerabilities commonly associated with known ransomware exploitation. […]

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee today voted 8-4 to favorably report Colleen Shogan’s nomination to the full Senate to be the eleventh archivist for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). […]

The U.S. Marine Corps said on March 10 that it is launching its Marine Corps Software Factory (MCSWF) as a three-year pilot project that aims to develop a Marine-led software development capability and evaluate demand and requirements for the factory effort’s services. […]

AI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR) technology can both be used as great tools to help in Federal government hiring processes, according to Dr. Rebecca Ayers, group manager of HR strategy at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). […]

EHR

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has issued a new report that recommends specific solutions to improve its Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) program, following its “assess and address” pause for the program. […]

Cyber-Defenders-2023

Who’s on your list for the Most Valuable Players in helping to ensure the nation’s cybersecurity? MeriTalk wants to hear from you – now through April 14 – with nominations for our 2023 Cyber Defenders Awards that will honor those individuals who have made significant contributions across cyber programs in Federal IT. […]

Budget Federal spending

The Biden administration’s fiscal year (FY) 2024 budget request includes a total of $74 billion of IT spending for Federal civilian agencies and $12.7 billion for cybersecurity spending, according to a budget appendix released by the White House on March 13. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) employs approximately 2.8 million people – civilian, active duty military, national guard, and reservist – and to support such a large workforce, Pentagon officials are using digital services to ensure the wellness of their employees and build a supportive workforce culture. […]

VA Deputy Secretary Donald Remy, DHS Deputy Secretary John Tien

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the Federal government to make a lot of fast changes that helped agencies to build a more resilient government, according to deputy secretaries at the Departments of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Homeland Security (DHS). […]

GSA General Services Administration

Nearly two years after the White House released its cybersecurity executive order (EO) that homed in on zero trust, Federal agencies are well on their way to completing their zero trust maturity journeys and are using the president’s guidance as an opportunity to modernize their systems. […]

CISA
wireless networks
Rep. Mark Green

Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, today pledged that his committee will conduct tough oversight of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to ensure that the agency “responsibly” carries out its mission without branching into excessive regulation. […]

Raj Iyer
ServiceNow Fed Forum, DEIA panel

A top Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) official said today that the agency’s investment in customer experience (CX) is paying off, with nearly 80 percent of VA users citing that they trust the Federal agency. […]

Sue Gordon

The chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety reintroduced the Crypto-Asset Environmental Transparency Act, and this week held the Senate’s first hearing focused on the emerging technology’s impact to climate. […]

OPM Office of Personnel Management

New legislation introduced on March 9 by Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., aims to strengthen in Federal law the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) role at the center of the Federal government human resources functions, and take steps to make sure that the agency’s leadership is not politically driven. […]

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