Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
President Biden

The Department of Education officially launched its formal online application for one-time student debt relief on Monday afternoon after President Biden announced that beta testing for the application handled more than eight million hits over the weekend. […]

The Federal government needs to move away from deterrence as its guiding strategy in cyberspace, and adopt a persistent security mindset instead, a U.S. Cyber Command official said today. […]

White House
Army

The U.S. Army last week updated its 2020 cloud plan to reinforce its objectives of digital modernization and integration of key services into one global cloud environment – cARMY – an Army spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk. […]

DHS

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is seeking feedback from industry on a plan to staff its unified Network Operations and Security Center (NOSC) with contract employees skilled in network management and cybersecurity operations, according to a request for information (RFI) posted to SAM.gov. […]

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va. – who know better than many about national security risks – likes the recently enacted CHIPS Act both as an eventual cure for semiconductor supply chain disruptions, and as a way to create effective competition against suppliers from China that pose potential national security risks to the United States. […]

IRS
health
FDIC
DoD Pentagon Military
NIST

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) this week released two requests for information (RFI) focused on how to best implement business incentive programs under the CHIPS Act that is providing funding to help rebuild U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturing capabilities. […]

CX Customer experience -min

Three officials from Federal agency high-impact service providers discussed new and innovative ways their agencies are reimagining customer experience (CX) by harnessing emerging tech as they drive toward the far-reaching CX improvement goals set out in President Biden’s executive order issued late last year. […]

GAO government accountability office

County-level election workers in at least two battleground states saw a surge in attempted phishing exploits in the runup to the 2022 midterm election primary contests, according to a new report from cybersecurity firm Trellix. […]

White House

The White House is targeting the communications, water, and healthcare sectors for further regulatory attention aimed at improving cybersecurity in those critical infrastructure sectors, according to Anne Neuberger, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology.  […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a new report on Oct. 12 finding that the Small Business Administration (SBA) needs to improve the timeliness of the agency’s reporting of awards for the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBTT) programs that it administers. The two programs allow small businesses to partner […]

military healthcare, veterans healthcare

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced today it will delay further deployments of its Oracle Cerner electronic health records (EHR) system until June 2023 to address well-publicized challenges with the system and ensure it functions effectively for veterans and VA health care personnel. […]

The Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) Office of Inspector General (IG) is searching for an online tool to help it with background information research during investigations. […]

Army

Oki Mek, who became the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) first chief artificial intelligence officer in late 2020 and left government service in February of this year, landed at Microsoft in August as the company’s chief information security officer (CISO) for the Federal civilian sector. […]

cyber workforce

The Federal Cyber Workforce Management and Coordinating Working Group has released a new report that lays out a multi-year strategy and implementation plan to address the shortfall of cybersecurity employees in the Federal government. […]

White House
semiconductor

The United States made a strategic mistake in allowing manufacturing and production of a quintessentially American industry – semiconductors – to be conducted offshores, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said on Tuesday during a Washington Post Live session.  […]

Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., formally opened deliberation for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on the Senate floor on Tuesday. However, a final vote on the bill is unlikely to occur until after the midterms. […]

General Services Administration GSA

The General Services Administration (GSA), in collaboration with the Department of Energy (DoE), announced on Tuesday a new request for information (RFI) about technologies that will help engineer net-zero carbon buildings. […]

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