Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
White House

At the first-ever White House Summit on STEMM Equity and Excellence, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) announced a slew of bold actions to expand access and opportunity across the science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) workforce ecosystem.  […]

FITARA

Cybersecurity issues are likely to be front and center at the House Government Operations Subcommittee’s Dec. 15 hearing at which the panel will unveil the 15th edition of the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s FITARA (Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) Scorecard. […]

Joe Biden

President Biden has appointed 15 leaders in the quantum information science (QIS) field from industry, academia, and Federal laboratories to serve on the inaugural presidential National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee (NQIAC), according to a Dec. 9 White House press release. […]

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is asking agencies to take a number of actions to better track progress on the first priority in the President’s Management Agenda (PMA), which aims to strengthen and empower the Federal workforce. […]

The Senate on Dec. 9 unanimously approved legislation passed earlier this year by the House that helps to set the Federal government on the path to defend against quantum computing-enabled data breaches that will become more of a threat as quantum tech advances in the coming years. […]

State Department

As the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wane in many places around the world, Federal agency leaders are sorting through lessons learned from remote work that can be combined with more traditional ideas with the aim of boosting efficiency overall. […]

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is seeking information from industry on how to upgrade its Stardust program, which develops models of the Earth used for matching GPS coordinates to locations on the ground, according to a recent request for information (RFI). […]

Google released a new research report on Dec. 8 outlining how organizations can better defend themselves against cyberattacks that target their software supply chains. The report follows up on supply chain security concerns brought to light by exploits such as the SolarWinds software supply chain attack, and efforts to guard against Log4j vulnerabilities. “We believe […]

AI

The Biden Administration’s Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights has been public for two months, and artificial intelligence experts want to see more Federal agencies leveraging the guide to help protect the rights of Americans in an AI-powered world. […]

As Silicon Valley companies continue to lay off thousands of tech workers, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is actively recruiting many of those facing layoffs – and may soon be able to pay them a salary more comparable to private sector levels. […]

FITARA

The House Government Operations Subcommittee will hold a hearing on Dec. 15 at 9:00 a.m. to discuss results from the 15th edition of the FITARA Scorecard expected to be released by the House Oversight and Reform Committee on the same day. […]

The Federal government continues to invest heavily in quantum computing research to ensure the United States becomes the global innovation leader in this emerging discipline, however, the technology for applications is still largely unavailable as quantum research remains in the early stages, according to Federal quantum experts. […]

A new report from cloud security provider Zscaler titled The State of Zero Trust Transformation 2023 report finds that more than 90 percent of IT leaders surveyed are implementing zero trust architecture I connection with their cloud migration strategy over the next 12 months. […]

DoD Pentagon Military

The four vendors selected for the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) program – Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, Microsoft, and Oracle – will duke it out for task orders beginning in about two weeks, DoD leaders told reporters during a Dec. 8 press briefing. […]

Dr. Timothy Persons, Chief Scientist and Managing Director, Government Accountability Office (GAO)

Tim Persons, founder of the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) Innovation Lab, said the government watchdog agency is currently working on building distributed ledger technology (DLT) to more efficiently deliver on the agency’s mission. […]

The House today voted to approve the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which green-lights $847 billion of spending for defense-related purposes, and includes numerous technology and cybersecurity provisions. […]

The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Directorate of Technology, Innovation, and Engineering has made great strides to develop some important aspects of artificial intelligence (AI) through the creation of a new branch that looks at emerging technologies, according to a DOL official. […]

OPM CIO Guy Cavallo

During the closing keynote speech at MeriTalk’s Dec. 8 “New & Next: The Government Tech Renaissance,” event in Washington, D.C., a top IT official at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said agencies need to take care of their employees first when it comes to implementing good customer experience (CX). […]

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.
CDC

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded a five-year, $443 million contract to Palantir Technologies to help modernize the nation’s public health infrastructure with leading-edge software and digital capabilities. […]

Rep. Ritchie Torres D-N.Y., introduced legislation on Dec. 2 that would direct the National Cyber Director (NCD) to create a Cyber Education Task Force aimed at increasing cybersecurity education and workforce diversity. […]

workforce

Nearly 18 months after the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued its memorandum on network incident log management and retention for Federal agencies as part of Biden administration’s cybersecurity executive order, a top cyber official at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) discussed how his agency is dealing with staffing and standards in order to implement the mandate. […]

The Defense Department said late today that it has awarded Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) cloud contracts to the four bidders that have been in the mix for sizable chunks of the contract since the beginning of the process – Amazon Web Services, Google Support Services, Microsoft, and Oracle. […]

Veterans Affairs

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Information and Technology (OIT) has recently promoted Joseph Stevenson as its new data enterprise architect within the Enterprise Cloud Solutions Office (ECSO), according to his LinkedIn profile. […]

ICAM

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) plans to host a new tech challenge next year that will test industry on its ability to deliver secure, accurate, and easy-to-use remote identity validation technologies. […]

Cybersecurity flag

The Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) bill released by the House Rules Committee late Tuesday evening features numerous provisions designed to bolster cyber capabilities and operations not only at the Defense Department (DoD), but at other Federal agencies as well. […]

Air Force

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