As the ink is still drying – or its equivalent for a liquid crystal display screen – on the 12th edition of the House Government Operations Subcommittee’s Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) Scorecard, I pondered the question about whether and how the same measurement could be applied to state-level IT operations and progress. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has appointed Paul Courtney Chief Procurement Officer for the agency, effective August 15, 2021. […]
The Department of Defense’s (DoD) Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is looking for commercial solutions to counter Global Positioning System (GPS) spoofing of DoD’s global navigation satellite system (GNSS) by nation-state adversaries, according to a request for solutions DIU posted. […]
The Department of Defense (DoD) awarded a five-year $979 million contract to Peraton to counter misinformation specifically originating from adversaries of the United States. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) – which has already made much use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to provide more efficient, effective, and responsive services for its users – is also working on an AI trustworthiness framework that aims to avoid biases that can result from use of the technology, explained a VA official during a virtual GovLoop training on August 12. […]
John Costello has a new position at the Office of the National Cyber Director, serving as chief of staff, according to his LinkedIn. […]
The Senate is on break until September 15, but while on recess major committees will be working on legislative language for the $3.5 trillion budget resolution passed August 11. While the bill largely looks to tackle “soft infrastructure” and climate change, there are a variety of tech objectives in the resolution as well. […]
The Department of the Interior’s (DoI) Indian Health Service (IHS) Health Information Technology (HIT) Modernization Program is looking for industry feedback on a contract vehicle for vendors to help replace an outdated electronic health records (EHR) system. […]
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, wrote a letter to the Department of Commerce’s (DOC) Bureau of Industry Security (BIS) asking for details on implementing a “Final Rule” restricting access by China-based network equipment maker Huawei to U.S. technologies, and whether companies are still seeking to sell restricted technology to the company. […]
The State Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has found in a follow-up audit that the agency’s Bureau of Information Resource Management (IRM) has taken corrective action on one of several recommendations the OIG made in 2016 to improve IT management practices, but said the bureau still has work to do on another four recommendations. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is expanding its COVID-19 vaccine mandate on Aug. 13 to include most Veterans Health Administration (VHA) employees, volunteers, contractors, or anyone who comes in contact with VA patients and healthcare workers as part of their job, the agency announced today. Additionally, the National Guard, part of the Department of […]
The Cyberspace Solarium Commission released its Annual Implementation Report August 12 showing significant progress on recommendations that have been implemented, are nearing implementation, or are on track for implementation, but also showing some work that remains undone. […]
The General Services Administration’s (GSA) Technology Transformation Services (TTS) organization is planning to hire more than 100 new people this year – representing a 28 percent jump in headcount – to meet booming agency demand for its services to numerous Federal agencies. […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) organization is setting up a new CBP artificial intelligence center of innovation (COI) that will build on the agency’s increasing use of automation technologies, CBP CIO Sonny Bhagowalia said at an FCW event on August 11. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has begun to demo a new single-platform dashboard that will help Federal agencies use data to make better workforce planning decisions. […]
The Department of State’s Bureau of Information Resource Management Cloud Program Management Office is looking to determine what capabilities industry can provide for Enterprise Application Platform as a Service (aPaaS) solutions as the agency looks to migrate some legacy applications to the cloud. […]
The COVID-19 pandemic allowed the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to accelerate its digital transformation efforts in a way that wasn’t possible before the public health crisis, a VA official said this week, while explaining how the agency quickly adapted to become more agile and take advantage of previous investments in digital transformation solutions. […]
An August 10 memo from Shalanda Young, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is providing instructions to Federal agencies about how to comply with security guidance of “critical software” as directed by President Biden’s executive order (EO) on cybersecurity issued in May. […]
President Biden has nominated Sasha Baker to serve as the Department of Defense’s deputy under secretary of defense for policy, the White House announced. […]
The Senate on August 11 approved a $3.5 trillion budget resolution for Fiscal Year 2022 by a vote of 50-49. […]
The U.S. Navy is building on its experience in adopting commercial cloud services and further developed strategic approaches to cloud-delivered services and application development, a senior Navy tech official said during an August 10 ATARC virtual event. […]
The Department of Commerce (DOC) is in the process of building an IT services contract to be used agency-wide, and is seeking contractors who can deliver solutions to securely operate and manage the current IT infrastructure. […]
As the COVID-19 pandemic forced Federal agencies to quickly move to a remote environment, Federal and private sector leaders say the shift to telework provided valuable benefits, such as increased leadership and employee engagement, as well as digital savviness among employees. […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is still looking for a permanent lead for its Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program, but Richard Grabowski, the program’s deputy lead, has been elevated to acting program manager in the meantime, CISA told MeriTalk. […]
The United States Air Force (USAF) – like the rest of the Federal government – has focused a great deal of energy on IT modernization. Those efforts resulted in the sunsetting of 221 legacy IT systems over the past four years, a USAF official shared along with other insights during the inaugural Coffee Chat event organized by MeriTalk and Amazon Web Services. […]
Cloud service behemoths Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft appear to be squaring off once again over a big Federal government cloud contract – this time a deal awarded by the National Security Agency (NSA) to AWS. […]
FedRAMP released its annual survey for FY2021 today. […]
For some Federal agencies, taking a hybrid approach to cloud modernization is the best path forward in protecting data, as well as helping to manage costs. […]
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Acting Director Shalanda Young has delivered a report to Joe Biden assessing equity in government practices, and identifying significant existing barriers preventing historically underserved communities from accessing benefits and services in Federal programs. […]
As the number of cyberattacks continues to rise, Federal experts say information sharing between the private and public sectors is critical when it comes to defending against cyber threats. However, experts are warning agencies that they need to start getting more specific on their information sharing needs if they want to achieve “a joint end-state” with industry. […]