The Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) employees have a new fashion accessory to wear to work – a contact-tracing device that utilizes 4G cellular data with the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has made progress on implementing its new electronic health records (EHR) system, but should postpone deployments of the system at additional locations because additional testing will likely identify issues that need to be resolved first, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report. […]

The Joint Artificial Intelligence Center and the Army Contracting Command have issued an Other Transaction Authority (OTA) Agreement to the Indiana Innovation Institute (IN3) to streamline procurement and delivery of AI capabilities for the Department of Defense (DoD). […]

The prospects for Snow Days for most Federal workers may be melting away in the Washington, D.C. area even as the 2021 winter season stays stormy, and the COVID-19 pandemic persists. […]

Anne Neuberger, deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology on President Biden’s National Security Council (NSC), said this week that the administration is working on a new national cybersecurity strategy and that it will likely feature some of the recommendations that have already been made by the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) but not yet implemented. […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee met Feb. 11 to begin marking up the legislative language it will report to the House Budget Committee as part of the reconciliation process. Currently, there is $7.6 billion allocated by the committee to bolster the E-Rate program, as well as funding for COVID-19 testing and data management. […]

As agencies are scrambling to recover and build up their cybersecurity from the Russia-backed hack of thousands of government and private-sector networks via SolarWinds Orion products, Federal agency leaders say it will not be easy. […]

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., introduced new legislation on Feb. 10 that would provide $500 million of Federal funding to help states deploy new technologies to improve performance of their unemployment insurance systems – many of which have had trouble dealing with higher demand during the coronavirus pandemic. […]

Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Deb Fischer, R-Neb., along with Reps. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., and Anthony Gonzalez, R-Ohio, are introducing bipartisan and bicameral legislation that would require the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support research on privacy enhancing technologies. […]

The Army is looking to develop a high-energy laser system that will be able to detect and shoot drones out of the sky, in order to protect Department of Defense (DoD) operations. […]

The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is looking to acquire a cloud-based Digital Evidence Management System to support its Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS) component. […]

Beth Cappello, acting CIO at the Department of the Homeland Security (DHS), explained agency IT progress on a range of fronts on Feb. 10 at a virtual conference organized by FCW, including ongoing modernization efforts, implementing “SecDevOps,” and enabling implementation of zero trust security concepts. […]

The road to better cybersecurity for government and the private sector looks like a long, uphill climb, with no concept of a finish line. […]

The U.S. Army Materials Command is forgoing a competitive bidding process for cyber training services while it waits for a bid protest between two contractors to be resolved. […]

As cloud-based services become the norm, Federal leaders are encouraging agencies to focus on cloud-native architectures in order to get the most out of their cloud approach. […]

President Biden’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Neera Tanden faced her second confirmation hearing today, this time in front of the Senate Budget Committee. The hearing follows her confirmation hearing Feb. 9 in front of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. […]

Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the committee’s ranking member, are urging the Biden administration to “assign a clear leader” to lead the United States’ response to the Russia-backed hack of thousands of government and private-sector networks via SolarWinds Orion products. […]

Federal officials stressed the need to view IT modernization as a continuous effort, rather than a buy- and-forget process, on Feb. 8 at the Resiliency Colloquium organized by MeriTalk, ACT-IAC, and the Partnership for Public Service, who partnered on the Resilient report issued earlier this month. […]

The State Department  has issued an update to its search for contractors to support its Cloud Program Management Office (CPMO). The search is part of the department’s overall quest to modernize IT capabilities across the State Department. […]

The IRS announced on Feb. 9 that Nancy Sieger will become CIO of the tax agency, after serving as the acting CIO since June 2019. […]

The Federal government has “won the battle” over historical cultural impediments to widescale telework, and going forward needs to reimagine the workplace as a mix of remote and in-person settings, said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., speaking on Feb. 9 at the Resiliency Colloquium event organized by MeriTalk, ACT-IAC, and the Partnership for Public Service. […]

Congressional Democrats are moving forward this week with the budget reconciliation process that aims to create the legislative language for President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan. […]

As government IT continues to get more complex, continuing education is an increasingly important ingredient for keeping up with the latest advancements. […]

The COVID-19 pandemic forced government agencies to innovate much more rapidly with their IT systems, and now Federal leaders are planning how to continue that momentum beyond the pandemic. […]

The advent of new leadership in the White House and the still-unfolding impact of the Russia-backed hack of thousands of government and private-sector networks via SolarWinds Orion products are leading to a fresh consideration of options to improve Federal cybersecurity, panelists said on Feb. 9 at the Resiliency Colloquium event organized by MeriTalk, ACT-IAC, and the Partnership for Public Service. […]

Building resiliency in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic was an essential aspect of keeping the Federal workforce humming and managing a hybrid workforce of the future. […]

President Biden’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Neera Tanden faced questions on cybersecurity, IT modernization, and supply chain during her confirmation hearing today before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. […]

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is proposing a rule change that would provide rate incentives for electric companies that go “above and beyond” current regulations in their cybersecurity investments. […]

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is launching an out-of-this-world program to create technologies for manufacturing off Earth to produce space and lunar structures. […]

Negotiations between congressional offices on President Biden’s proposal for a $9 billion funding increase for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) angled toward a compromise in the range of $5 to $6 billion of new funding before senators moved to drop the funding measure altogether from their consideration of the White House’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill. […]