Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
NIST
AI

The General Services Administration (GSA) on Feb. 8 launched an artificial intelligence (AI) challenge that seeks diverse and practical solutions to help Federal agencies provide the highest level of medical care. Prize money for the latest GSA AI challenge totals $100,000. […]

Army DoD military Defense AI

The Department of Defense (DoD) is experimenting with AI technologies to help with contract writing and other ways to speed up Federal acquisition processes, a Pentagon official said this week. […]

Cyber workforce

The Department of Defense (DoD) plans to release a cyber workforce strategy and implementation plan in the near future that will outline several initiatives for recruitment and retention of high-skilled cyber talent, said a Pentagon official during a Billington Cybersecurity virtual roundtable on Feb. 9. […]

telework

With Federal government agencies approaching the three-year anniversary of the turn to widespread telework in March 2020, a senior official at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) explained this week that cyber hygiene measures for the remote workforce remain as important as ever in securing an expanded attack surface. […]

Rural broadband

A bipartisan group of senators – Sens. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M.; John Thune, R-S.D.; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; and Deb Fischer, R-Neb. – have reintroduced the Rural Internet Improvement Act. The legislation would “streamline and bolster U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development broadband programs and ensure that their funding is being targeted to rural areas that need it the most,” according to the bill’s cosponsors. […]

The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee kicked off its first hearing of the 118th Congress on Feb. 9 with a focus on strengthening airline operations by upgrading the sector’s IT systems and technology. […]

electric grid
NIH

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently made two new technology appointments, including the hire of Jennifer Wendel as the agency’s deputy chief information officer (CIO), and Wei Ma as the acting director of the Office of Computer and Communication Systems (OCCS) at the agency’s National Library of Medicine (NLM). […]

Pentagon Military Defense DoD

The new chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee pledged this week to look at a number of tech issues in 2023 including quantum information sciences, boosting the government’s weather-related capabilities, and overseeing implementation of the Chips and Science Act approved by Congress last year. […]

Chris Inglis
VA, Veterans Affairs

Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., has been named ranking member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization – a subcommittee that oversees big-ticket tech issues such as the agency’s Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program. […]

The pandemic-fueled expansion of unemployment insurance (UI) benefitted millions of Americans even as the programs became riddled with fraud, a senior Federal watchdog agency official said on Feb. 8 at a congressional hearing marked by contentious exchanges between Republicans and Democrats over more than $60 billion in fraudulent payments. […]

IT

A top IT acquisition official at the General Services Administration (GSA) said this week that Feds need to stop relying on the next “cool tool” to push IT modernization forward, but instead see the process as a way to make agency-wide changes.   […]

IT modernization can feel like a never-ending process for Federal agencies, especially with new technologies emerging every day. However, having a modernization budget can help organizations ease those day-to-day hassles and stay ahead of the curve. […]

FCC

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers R-Wash., said today that she is looking to pass legislation firming up the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) spectrum auction authority after a similar measure failed to clear the Senate last year. […]

.gov website cybersecurity government

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) today released guidance updating requirements for Federal website domains – including .gov or .mil website domains – and marking another critical move in delivering trusted interactions to the American people when they visit official government sites.  […]

The director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) said today that the agency is facing challenges when it comes to overload in data – a situation that he described as only the “tip of the iceberg” – and suggested that’s where artificial intelligence needs to come into play as a solution. […]

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is looking into tech-assisted continuous vetting for Federal employees, according to a proposed rule on “suitability and fitness vetting” that OPM published in the Federal Register. […]

President Biden
cybersecurity

The Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) program’s National Coordination Office (NCO) is seeking input from the public on the forthcoming 2023 update of the Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development (R&D) Strategic Plan. […]

IRS

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is taking the Internal Revenue Service to task on a range of IT improvement fronts, including planning for how to get rid of legacy systems, and how to make sure the agency’s uptake of cloud-based systems meets Office of Management and Budget (OMB) policy objectives. […]

AI

ChatGPT, the chatbot technology launched by OpenAI late last year to much fanfare for its ability to create highly realistic narratives, may also end up delivering advantages to hackers who need to upgrade their phishing email pitches, according to new research released by BlackBerry. […]

State Department
5G

The Department of Defense (DoD) is collaborating with the Department of Commerce to launch their latest 5G competition, putting up to $7 million on the table to accelerate the adoption of 5G wireless solutions, the DoD announced on Feb 2.  […]

NSF

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