Several senior House Oversight and Accountability Committee members this week asked the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for details on the degree to which the Federal government is living up to its legal requirements for outsourcing government work to the private sector as a way to generate cost savings. […]

President Joe Biden met with the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) on Tuesday to discuss the risks and opportunities that AI technologies pose, a White House official said in a statement to MeriTalk. […]

Black-owned businesses make up less than 1.6 percent of the Federal government’s contracting base on a revenue basis – a low level that leaves a lot of room for improvement, according to government officials looking to create a more inclusive environment in contracting. […]

A report released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) today found that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has failed to develop complete, timely, and fully transparent goals for the President’s Management Agenda (PMA). […]

Reps. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., and Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., introduced legislation on Wednesday to ensure better security of Department of Defense (DoD) computer systems through AI-enabled cybersecurity programs. […]

Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, introduced legislation last week that would stop the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) from deploying the Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) program until it makes system improvements. […]

A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds that over $240 billion was improperly distributed by the Federal government during fiscal year 2022. […]

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) announced this week the establishment of the Wadhwani Center for AI and Advanced Technologies. […]

The IRS’s Enterprise Case Management (ECM) System failed to meet all established cloud security requirements identified in reviews stretching back to 2021, according to a recent report from the Treasury Department’s Inspector General (IG). […]

The U.S. electrical grid connects over 11,000 power plants with about 158 million consumers across the nation. However, the electric grid was designed to deliver electricity to customers immediately – with very little energy actually stored. […]

MeriTalk recently sat down with Dewaine Beard, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (PDAS) in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Information and Technology (OIT), to talk all things IT modernization and workforce. […]

The Senate has voted last week 63-27 to confirm the nomination of Laura Taylor-Kale as assistant secretary of defense for industrial base policy. […]

A bipartisan bill to create a program that allows Federal agencies to lease underutilized properties – and to use the rent payments to help fund capital projects – has advanced in the Senate. […]

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., introduced new legislation last week that would invest in building out the Department of Defense’s (DoD) military technological workforce. […]

During the final day of the Summit for Democracy held last week, the White House launched a roadmap for both public and private sector entities to navigate the use of privacy enhancing technologies for user data. […]

Cloud security provider Zscaler has named Laura Fritzlen Vice President, Public Sector Alliances and Channels. […]

Top Department of Defense (DoD) officials told lawmakers during a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing last week that the U.S. needs to keep improving its capabilities in machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and cybersecurity in order to maintain its current strategic advantage over other major nation-states. […]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has announced the launch of its Trustworthy & Responsible Artificial Intelligence Resource Center (AIRC) to provide a repository of AI resources for Federal agencies. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) spends billions of dollars each year on IT, but a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reveals that the agency did not get the approval of its chief information officer (CIO) for many IT contract awards from fiscal year (FY) 2021. […]

MITRE Corp.’s Center for Data-Driven Policy is urging Congress and the Biden administration to embark on a new campaign to speed the migration of Federal agencies away from legacy IT technologies, and to hold government’s feet to the fire on that effort by providing transparent ways to track progress. […]

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has selected Prashant Bhardwaj to lead its recently established Office of Financial Technology. […]

During the United States’ second Summit for Democracy held in Washington, D.C. this week, the White House highlighted key steps the Biden-Harris administration has taken to advance innovation in emerging technologies, as well as unveiled a slew of new initiatives to continue to build on its work. […]

Verizon Public Sector announced today that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has awarded the company a 15-year, $2.4 billion contract to design, build, operate, and maintain the FAA’s next-generation communications platform. […]

The General Service Administration (GSA) has announced the release of a new set of guidelines that Federal agencies should follow to securely purchase 5G technology to meet their missions. […]

Senate Intelligence Committee members expressed frustration this week about an evident lack of efficiency among government agencies when it comes to hiring process conducted by U.S. intelligence agencies. […]

A new audit put out by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) of the IRS has found that the agency has not been keeping accurate estimates of taxes that have gone uncollected. […]

The perfect data management approach doesn’t exist, according to government experts. And because nobody’s perfect, they advised organizations to stop striving for perfection in data management and instead settle for “good enough” to reach effectiveness. […]

The Federal government is rapidly moving to cloud-native technologies to drive digital transformation and accelerate IT modernization, seeking to reap the benefits of cloud computing as agencies overhaul legacy systems. […]

A new watchdog report found that the Department of Defense’s (DoD) networks remain vulnerable three years after military services misconfigured remote access software.  […]

U.S. Army officials said this week that they are relying on bring-your-own-device (BYOD) technologies to connect service members and provide secure access to government data, with a focus on Army Reserve and National Guard units that have the most geographically dispersed and complex IT user population across the Federal government. […]