The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the Census Bureau to make a series of late-stage adjustments to the census design and these changes have opened risks to the “quality of data that the Bureau provides for apportioning congressional representation among the states.” […]

For the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) to further narrow the pay gap for Federal workers, better quality data on promotions is needed as it is often incomplete. […]

As Federal agencies increasingly look to capitalize on the rich data they are collecting, they need to ensure their workforce is up to the challenge. However, many agencies are finding that their current workforce lacks the needed skills.  The Office of Management and Budget estimates that approximately 400,000 Federal employees will need to be reskilled by Fiscal Year 2021 – accounting for nearly 20 percent of the government’s current workforce. To help get the workforce they need in place, agencies are looking for ways to effectively retrain and reskill their workforce to enable an agency-wide digital transformation. […]

The Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program is making progress but has run into issues with the data that commercial capabilities report to its dashboards, making it difficult for the program to quickly pull insights from that data, said Judy Baltensperger, project manager for CDM program dashboard operations, today at MeriTalk’s CDM Central event. […]

How did the Defense Department (DoD) succeed in rolling out its commercial virtual remote (CVR) capability – in non-military speak, Office 365 – to the entire department in 30 days at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic to meet the demand for widescale telework capabilities? […]

A Department of Defense Information Network (DoDIN) official explained Nov.2 that some of the organization’s priorities in defending cloud-based services used by the Defense Department, and a range of the technologies involved in that effort. […]

The Trump Administration has expressed its support for a pay freeze for civilian Federal employees – a step back from the one percent pay raise that the White House proposed in its initial budget, and a move that has ramifications for budget negotiations between the House and the Senate. […]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is launching an inspector general (IG) investigation into Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) warrantless tracking of phones after an inquiry from Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii. […]

Peter Ranks has left his post as the deputy CIO for information enterprise at the Defense Department (DoD) to return to the CIA. […]

Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Armed Services Committee said today they have reached agreement on provisions of the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). […]

In a press release from House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., and Ranking Member Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, a bicameral agreement has been reached on the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). […]

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), working in collaboration with the Defense Innovation Unit, is seeing promising early results for pre-symptomatic detection of COVID-19 among personnel. […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) should put a greater emphasis on data to best further advance category management and help leverage the Federal government’s buying power, save taxpayer dollars, and eliminate duplicative contracts. […]

The first steps of the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) stronger approach to securing the defense industrial base take effect today, setting the stage for full implementation of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program, said Katie Arrington, the Defense Department’s (DoD) CISO for Acquisition and Sustainment. […]

The FedRAMP Program Management Office (PMO) recapped its efforts to gather feedback from Third Party Assessment Organizations (3PAOs) in a new blog post. […]

Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Director Vice Adm. Nancy Norton said today she expects to release reference architecture documents “very shortly” for DISA’s planned implementation of zero trust security concepts. […]

A senior Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) official said today that the coronavirus pandemic may turn out to have one silver lining – it has helped the agency and the Defense Department (DoD) to be more innovative and flexible with their use of technology to accommodate dislocations including telework requirements. […]

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) intends to release a new cloud solicitation at the beginning of next year, according to a post on DHS’ website. […]

In a new report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is highlighting policy options to improve artificial intelligence (AI) tools that in turn can improve data access, create best practices, and improve health care delivery. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) issued a November 20 memo to component agencies that will allow civilian employees with kids to continue working remotely until at least June 30, 2021, extending the COVID-related telework flexibilities issued by DoD in March. […]

The Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program – the Federal government’s primary program to improve civilian agency cyber security – is running short on money and putting its four prime contractors on half rations until the funding situation improves. […]

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said today he will leave the commission on January 20, 2021, when the Biden administration takes over the executive branch. […]

NASA’s Technology Transfer Program is soliciting inquires from companies interested in licensing its cloud-based Sky Router technology, according to a Nov. 30 Special Notice on Beta.Sam.gov. […]

Christopher Krebs, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director fired
by President Trump earlier this month for disputing broad White House assertions of fraud in the 2020 general election, said on a Nov. 29 broadcast of “60 Minutes” that multiple recounts of votes in Georgia offer a measure of proof that the election’s outcome was not impacted by widespread fraud. […]

President-elect Joe Biden is continuing to establish top leadership for the incoming administration by announcing plans to nominate key members of his economic team, including Neera Tanden as Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). […]

Build once, use many times is a foundational framework to accelerate IT modernization, drive innovation and maximize the value of investments. In Federal IT, standardizing security and compliance of cloud solutions is underway with the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP). But the process has historically been time consuming and expensive for vendors, preventing the rapid delivery of cloud-based solutions in support of agency missions. […]

Brian Hajost is not an MMA fighter, but he did provide us with great tips to put up a good fight against cyber adversaries. MMA: Mitigation, Mechanization, and Automation are some of the key talking points. MeriTalk sat down with Brian, President and CEO at SteelCloud, to talk about that big M in CDM – Mitigation – ahead of Brian’s appearance at our CDM Central conference on December 3. […]

Marine Corp. Lt. Gen. Michael Groen, the recently installed director of the Defense Department’s (DoD) Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), explained his vision for JAIC 2.0 in an address to reporters on Nov. 24, and what people should know about DoD’s AI aims going forward. […]

The U.S. Army is partnering up with Howard University as they continue to assist the Department of Defense (DoD) guide its research in developing its $7.5 million center of excellence meant to deliver AI technologies. […]

The chairs of 23 House committees and subcommittees sent a letter to Federal agency heads on Nov. 25 inquiring about the extent to which Trump administration political appointees may have “burrowed” into more permanent employment with the government through conversion of their jobs into civil service positions. […]