The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has seen a nine percent increase in Veterans Health Administration (VHA) employees that have received the COVID-19 vaccine since the VA mandated the shot, but is still facing a 12 percent unvaccinated share of VHA employees with only a few weeks left before the Oct. 8 deadline. […]

The White House’s announcement this week of a new trilateral security partnership with Australia and the United Kingdom named AUKUS – which will focus on the Indo-Pacific region – features pledges for cooperation between the three countries on a range of advanced technologies. […]

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel – long an advocate for government action to make broadband services more affordable in order to lessen the digital divide in the U.S. – said this week that she welcomes current congressional action to boost funding for broadband benefits but also expressed some skepticism about the effectiveness of service rate discount cuts being contemplated by Congress. […]

Now that the Federal government, via the Department of Labor (DoL), has signed up to put $2 billion of stimulus-related funding into shoring up beleaguered state unemployment insurance (UI) systems overpowered by the jobless claim surge due to coronavirus pandemic, Federal and state officials discussed how those efforts will roll out during a panel discussion at MeriTalk’s State Tech Vision virtual program on September 15. […]

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, said on Sept. 15 that the United States’ supply chains are not resilient, and strengthening those supply chains is going to be critical for U.S. competitiveness going forward. […]

There is no “one size fits all” for an agency’s cloud journey, but chief information officers (CIOs) from the General Services Administration (GSA) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) offered some top-level advice for agencies to help them along their journey. […]

In this era of political division, technology can be a unifier. While only 15 percent of Americans say they trust the Federal government to do what is right for them and their families all or most of the time, the vast majority (68 percent) say Federal spending on technology is worth the investment. That sentiment crosses party lines, with 79 percent of Democrats, 56 percent of Republicans, and 60 percent of independents in agreement. […]

Proposed funding for a host of new tech-related spending projects are springing forth from new House committee legislative prints contributing to the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, and now it’s wait-and-see on which – if any – of them survive what is likely to be a free-wheeling House-Senate negotiation on the giant spending bill. […]

Federal CIO Clare Martorana today previewed the goals of ongoing efforts and forthcoming direction from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on improving customer/citizen experience (CX) with the Federal government, and set the bar high for expectations for service improvements that will follow. […]

A new data center industry report from the Uptime Institute found that the data center industry has had to adapt to increasing complexity and challenges such as evolving efficiency and sustainability requirements, rising outage costs, the ongoing workforce shortage, and supply chain interruptions while also experiencing widespread growth. […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is hoping to improve the energy efficiency of U.S. data centers by updating its Energy Star certification for data storage products. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va. – long a prime mover in Congress for improving Federal IT operations – said at MeriTalk’s State Tech Vision virtual program on September 15 that he plans to push two key pieces of legislation this year that aim to help state and local governments improve their own IT capabilities. […]

State and local government rely heavily on Federal funding sources to advance their IT goals even in the best of times, and government and industry experts explained at MeriTalk’s State Tech Vision virtual program how expanded Federal government funding streams during the pandemic era can work to help pay for traditional assistance for social service and healthcare applications, plus IT modernization efforts targeted by Washington. […]

The Army released its COVID-19 vaccination plan this week, which requires active-duty units to be fully vaccinated by Dec. 15, 2021, and Reserve and National Guard units by June 30, 2022. […]

Despite a target deadline of March 31 for Federal agencies to complete half of their transitions to the General Services Administration’s Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) communications services contract, less than 25 percent of Federal agencies hit that mark, according to data provided by GSA. […]

The Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) organization is updating its business infrastructure architecture to provide lawful immigration in a secure digital manner, explained Robert Brown, Chief Technology Officer at USCIS, during an FCW webinar on September 14. […]

StateRAMP, the nonprofit formed earlier this year by leaders from state and local governments and the private sector to help state and local governments manage their third party supplier cybersecurity risks, has released the initial roster of its Authorized Vendor List (AVL). […]

The Army Futures Command’s Army Software Factory – established in 2020 with a goal of developing capabilities to create custom-built system applications for current and future U.S. Army systems – is ramping up its workforce with several cohorts already introduced to the program, a factory official explained at a September 14 virtual conference organized by FCW. […]

Closer working partnerships between Federal cybersecurity authorities and the private sector hold the key to improving the U.S.’s ability to fend off and recover from the increasing wave of cyberattacks against U.S. targets including those from nation-states like Russia and China. […]

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said in a new report that it is mapping out IT modernization steps necessary to execute on a series of outside recommendations to improve agency functions, and will need additional funding to carry out that work.  […]

The Department of Labor (DOL) is continuing to experiment with new and emerging technologies by testing out standards for privacy and security on a smaller scale before mass implementation. As a part of this effort, the agency’s Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) has established an Innovation Incubator to ensure the adoption of game-changing technology is fully operationalized, said Krista Kinnard, chief of Emerging Technologies at the OCIO for DOL, during an FCW webinar on September 14. […]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced today the 50 members of the reestablished Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC), which will be co-chaired by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). […]

Federal employees have until Nov. 22 to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to new guidance this week from the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) has named Waldo Jaquith, a veteran technologist and former member of the Biden-Harris transition team, to be GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan’s senior advisor for state, local, tribal, and territorial government. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) has practices in place to minimize the effects of funding that comes from a continuing resolution (CR), the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found, due to the agency starting 11 of the last 12 fiscal years under a CR. […]

A recent report by the Aspen Institute found that despite existing efforts to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), the cybersecurity field remains mostly homogenous among technical practitioners and policy thinkers. […]

The Pentagon announced that it is partnering with two Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to establish Centers of Excellence (CoEs) in Biotechnology and Materials Science. […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee was still in the process late Monday of marking up its portion of the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill working its way through the House, but at our deadline was making a big splash with $10 billion of proposed funding for supply chain security. […]

The Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) program provides subsidized broadband service for eligible households. However, the program is now facing a trust challenge in its awareness campaign and is aiming to overcome that hurdle, said Jessica Rosenworcel, the acting chairwoman for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), on September 13 at an Internet Innovation Alliance webinar. […]

In its annual update to Circular A-11, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) made significant changes to section 280, which focuses on customer experience (CX) and service delivery.

The new changes provide a new expanded definition for customer experience – one that includes equity and designates CX as a priority instead of a nice-to-have. […]