Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
EHR

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has faced a troubled rollout of its Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) program, including underreported costs, deficiencies in training, and diminished employee morale. But VA’s recently installed CIO says the agency is coming to grips with those problems and looking for better performance in coming expansions of the program. […]

Federal money spending government

Congressional attention is turning over the next three weeks to negotiating and approving full-year Fiscal Year 2022 (ending Sept. 30) appropriations legislation after the Senate on Feb. 17 voted to approve a continuing resolution (CR) funding bill to keep government operations funded until March 11. […]

AI

The Department of Energy (DoE) is pursuing tech policy and workforce training initiative aimed at illuminating ethical concerns with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and making sure that DoE’s AI projects work to maintain human dignity and do not cause harm, an agency official said. […]

Space NASA Satellites

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Acquisition and Grants Office (AGO) is seeking information about existing or planned commercial sensors and tracking services for objects orbiting Earth, with an eye for action from 2022 through 2030. […]

Proving that there is no substitute for good timing, TaxBit – a provider of automated tax and accounting services for virtual currencies – opened up its new Washington office earlier this month amid growing policy and legislative action that may end up wrapping cryptocurrencies more tightly into “traditional” economic models. […]

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Jen Easterly made a strong pitch on Feb. 17 for the agency’s push to create an underlying culture of organizational success that she said is critical to creating optimal performance at the nation’s cyber defense agency. […]

FEMA

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has awarded AT&T four Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contracts to modernize the agency’s telecommunications and transition FEMA off the Networx contracts, AT&T announced. […]

Just over a week after announcing the agency’s largest-ever financial seizure – $3.6 billion in Bitcoin – Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said today that Eun Young Choi will serve as the first director of the Department of Justice’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET). […]

DoD

President Biden has announced new leadership for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), following the resignation of OSTP Director Eric Lander last week. […]

Federal CIO Clare Martorana currently has a data call out to several Federal agencies asking them how they are currently using artificial intelligence (AI), their current AI use cases, and what AI work they have in production, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program manager. […]

The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is in the process of beefing up its infrastructure, technology, policy, and procedures with a broader aim toward modernizing business processes and promoting evidence-based decisions, asset management, and knowledge sharing. […]

Senate hearing Congressional-min
Army

The General Services Administration (GSA) has committed to increasing the number of Historically Black Colleges and Universities with Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contracts in fiscal year (FY) 2022, which ends Sept. 30., according to a press release. […]

A new cybersecurity advisory from the Federal government’s top cybersecurity watchdogs says that Russian state-sponsored hackers have compromised numerous defense industrial base (DIB) contractors both large and small over the past two years, and warns about the extensive bag of tricks that those hackers use when they target defense contractors. […]

Big Data Analytics

The General Services Administration is extending the deadline – by one year – for Federal agencies to transition off of their Networx telecommunications contracts by implementing a continuation of services (CoS) clause, a GSA spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk today. […]

funding

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., filed cloture on the latest House-passed continuing resolution (CR) – which would extend Federal government funding through March 11 – setting up a timeline for a Senate vote on the funding bill by Friday. […]

A group of senators led by Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., have introduced legislation that would make it easier for international students with advanced STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) degrees to work in the United States upon after their schooling is completed. […]

DoD Pentagon Military

The Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee on Feb. 15 voted to approve the Small Business Administration (SBA) Cyber Awareness Act (H.R. 3462), which requires SBA to issue an annual report on its cybersecurity capabilities, and notify Congress in the event of a cybersecurity breach potentially compromising sensitive information. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) expects around 80,000 Defense Industrial Base (DIB) contractors will need a third-party assessment to reach Level 2 compliance for the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certificate (CMMC) 2.0 program – double the previously estimated number of companies. […]

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is utilizing AI and big data to predict weather disasters and alert the public in real-time, according to NOAA’s Chief Information Officer Zachary Goldstein. […]

Enterprise cloud adoption is proving to be an ideal fit with the rapidly changing mission rhythms of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) – the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) component agency that is tasked with coordinating the Federal government’s disaster preparation and response capabilities. […]

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