Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
IRS

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has added five new priority recommendations for action to the to-do list of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), including new items related to improving taxpayer services and reducing tax fraud. […]

What Happened This Week - Ep. 70
cybersecurity

The House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee today approved a homeland security budget print for fiscal year (FY) 2023 that includes $2.93 billion for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), representing a $334 million increase from FY2022 and a $417 million increase over the requested amount. […]

As the digital assets market continues to grow, the White House has placed “urgency” on researching a potential U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and the cybersecurity risks and benefits that come with it, according to a White House official. […]

AI

The National AI Research Resource (NAIRR) Task Force – established by the Biden administration in June 2021 to determine the viability of establishing a NAIRR and develop a roadmap to establishing the resource – is working toward delivering its final report in December. […]

DoD

President Biden is nominating Radha Iyengar Plumb to serve as the next Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, the White House announced June 15. Plumb currently serves as the chief of staff for the Deputy Secretary of Defense and has a history in industry, as well. […]

The House Oversight and Reform Committee on June 15 approved legislation that would modernize Federal telework programs and promote additional data collection about the benefits of telework.  The bill now heads to the full House for consideration. […]

The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) said today it is targeting $100 million of nearer-term funding awards to Federal agencies that want to undertake projects to improve customer experiences with the government. […]

Preparing for a potential cyberattack enables agencies to regain the use of critical systems and infrastructures as soon as possible after a crisis. However, according to Federal leaders, the human element of any cyber preparedness plan remains a top challenge. […]

cybersecurity

The United States Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) is responsible for the nation’s joint cyber warfighting architecture, and its executive director said this week that additional budget authorities extended to the command under the fiscal year (FY) 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) will allow for more aligned joint training and advanced training of cyber operators, according to the CYBERCOM Executive Director. […]

funding

Draft fiscal year 2023 spending legislation released by the House Appropriations Committee today contains $100 million of new money for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) – far below the $300 million asked for by President Biden earlier this year in his FY2023 budget request. […]

Some of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) major IT acquisition business programs lack approved cybersecurity strategies and have failed to develop plans to address ICT supply chain risks, as well as report operational performance data to the Federal IT Dashboard, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. […]

Department of Education logo
FCC, Chinese suppliers

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce today voted to approve the Spectrum Innovation Act of 2022 (H.R. 7624) which will provide clarity on the auctioning of low gigahertz spectrum mandated by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, while also directing up to $3.4 billion of proceeds from the auction to help pay for communications service providers to “rip and replace” untrusted IT equipment from their networks. […]

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense voted to approve today by voice vote a full-committee draft released earlier this week for proposed fiscal year 2023 defense funding, including includes $11.2 billion for cybersecurity, cyberspace operations, and cyber research and development. […]

Pentagon Military Defense DoD

As the exclusive assessor partner for the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program, the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Accreditation Body has worked to make itself an accessible partner for the Defense Industrial Base. […]

Rep. Darren Soto, D-Fla., along with Christy Goldsmith Romero, a newly appointed commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), today urged Congress to provide regulatory clarity on the growing cryptocurrency and blockchain industries. […]

Pentagon Military Defense DoD

The Department of Defense (DoD) is evaluating its acquisition processes to understand how contractors interact with the department and how it can make it easier for small businesses to provide innovative solutions to the DoD, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said on June 13. […]

Health

As Federal and state government agencies face growing cyber threats, the Department of Justice (DoJ) must improve its coordination with other Federal agencies on cybersecurity requirements and assessments of state agencies to better manage fragmentation of that process, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in its latest annual open priority recommendations report to the agency. […]

Army

The United States Army plans to increase the size of its cyber branch across all components and double the size of its active-duty cyber corps, according to Army Spokesperson Bruce Anderson. […]

CISA

While the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is working to make progress on numerous discrete security policy directives and projects that it has been handed in recent years, a top agency official explained today that the higher-level goals uniting most of those tasks boil down to the government and the private sector achieving much greater visibility into cyber threats and how to defend against them, and not leaving organizations to defend against threats on their own. […]

Cybersecurity

After a releasing an op-ed with Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Jen Easterly last week that called CISA’s “Shields Up” campaign a new baseline for cyber defenses, National Cyber Director Chris Inglis said today that the cost of entry for cyber attackers is still too low to create stout deterrence. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has added three new priority recommendations to its list for the Small Business Administration (SBA) including new items that aim to improve COVID-19 response oversight and communications in order to reduce related risks. […]

At the onset of the pandemic, Federal, state, and local government agencies across the country needed to rapidly reach disparate populations with information about COVID-19, testing, and vaccines – and swiftly gather and assess pandemic data across multiple agencies and populations. To help address these new and unique challenges, the Federal government turned to Maximus, which has designed, developed, and delivered impactful health and human service programs for more than 40 years. MeriTalk sat down with Lisa Slaughter, senior vice president at Maximus Federal Services, to take stock of how agencies utilized data and technology throughout the pandemic response and how lessons learned are informing new efforts to share and leverage data to improve public health. […]

CISA

Building a zero-trust security architecture foundation that underlies better cybersecurity capabilities is at the top of the list for Robert Costello, Chief Information Officer at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). […]

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank focused on science and tech policy, has opened a new policy center focused on industrial strategy policy, the Hamilton Center on Industrial Strategy. […]

Categories