The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a loan program implemented by the Small Business Administration (SBA) designed to help small businesses keep workers on their payroll, will resume accepting applications from lenders today. […]
Four House members introduced a bill to provide up to $750 million in funding for fifth-generation wireless (5G) technologies and equipment. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) will lead as the first formally designated Quality Service Management Office (QSMO) for cybersecurity services, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced today. […]
The Department of Energy (DoE) has moved the vast majority of its workforce – 85 percent – to telework to help stem the spread of COVID-19, a DoE official confirmed to MeriTalk. […]
The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) launched its website and Twitter account today, and appointed Robert Westbrooks as Executive Director of the committee. […]
We’ve all done it – it’s really easy to do. […]
Three Democratic senators wrote to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on April 24 urging the agency to implement past Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommendations to protect Americans from COVID-19 coronavirus fraud. […]
Following a May 2017 disruption in the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS), the Government Accountability Office (GAO) made numerous cybersecurity recommendations that the agency still has not implemented. […]
President Trump signed the $484 billion Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, H.R. 266, today to bolster funding for small businesses and healthcare organizations amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) issued a human-centered design Evaluation and Buying Guide today to help Federal agencies seek out tech that improves the customer experience. […]
Federal agencies are making progress on the Federal Data Strategy 2020 Action Plan, having completed seven early milestones with three on their way to being completed. […]
As a part of its CHARIot Challenge, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is launching Internet of Things (IoT) and augmented reality (AR) challenges to improve public safety communications for first responders. […]
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser wrote a joint letter to the Trump administration urging them to not prematurely reopen Federal offices. Each of us have made tough decisions about which employees in our governments are performing essential roles and must still report to work locations, and which […]
Sixteen Democratic senators, led by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., are requesting more funds for the General Services Administration (GSA) Technology Transformation Service (TTS) and the United Stated Digital Service (USDS) to upgrade COVID-19 coronavirus economic relief tech at the state and local levels. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released a white paper on how to mitigate the risks of software vulnerabilities through adopting a Secure Software Development Framework (SSDF). […]
The Office of Personnel Management released guidance on April 22 to agencies on how to implement sections of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act that involve emergency paid sick leave. […]
How’s this for an emergency drill within the eye of the swirling coronavirus storm? As America social distanced, Federal IT has literally brought us together – as a government, and as a nation. As government IT operations achieve steady-state amid the demands of the pandemic, let’s begin to lift the veil on that story, starting with the Small Business Administration (SBA). […]
As political leaders and public health experts look to both stem the spread of COVID-19 and work towards economic recovery, the use of contact tracing for those testing positive for the novel coronavirus has come to the forefront. While he praised the idea of contact tracing, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., urged Vice President Mike Pence to data privacy at the forefront of any policy decisions. […]
As we enter week six of telework, I find myself looking for small bits of normalcy. Finding new ways to support local businesses that I enjoy frequenting the most has helped achieve that. Rewinding to early March, I packed up my essentials at the 300Brand offices and thought I’d be back in a few short weeks. In those early days, I saw a lot of my favorite local businesses scrambling to launch virtual offerings. Yoga studios were streaming classes on social media, coffee shops were offering online ordering, and neighborhood restaurants were adding delivery for the first time. Were these options perfect? No. But they were helping us all get by. […]
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., today urged the Federal government to proceed with an abundance of caution with its nascent planning to return workers to their office locations amid the coronavirus pandemic, and offered some insider handicapping on the likelihood that Congress will act to provide more funding in the near term for Federal IT modernization. […]
Federal agencies and departments have spent more than $6.9 billion on COVID-19 related contracts since February – spending more than a billion dollars in the past week. […]
The Small Business Administration (SBA) transitioned to telework “without missing a beat,” quickly implemented new programs, and scaled to adjust to a mass number of new users amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic thanks to prior IT modernization and cloud transitions, per CIO Maria Roat. […]
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is requesting that Federal government offices meet a list of preconditions before reopening to employees. […]
A dozen legislative proposals designed to make the nation more resilient to a cyber attack have been submitted to congressional committees by the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, who released its report the week before Federal agencies were told to “maximize telework.” […]
Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Accreditation Body (AB) Chair Ty Schieber and Department of Defense (DoD) Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Katie Arrington shared new insights on what CMMC-AB looks like and how companies can expect to interact with it. […]
Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., introduced a bill to the House on April 21 to provide support for internet devices during emergencies related to COVID-19. […]
In a Department of Defense (DoD) press conference on April 22, U.S. Air Force General John E. Hyten and Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist laid out a four-tiered testing program for service members. […]
The Department of the Interior (DOI) has tripled its remote work numbers amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic as agencies were instructed to maximize telework. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has been on maximum telework mode since March 15, an OPM spokesperson told MeriTalk, adding “on any given day approximately 90 percent of the workforce is teleworking.” […]
Just like in pharmaceuticals, IT teams and end users use technology and applications off label. And, in extraordinary times, necessity is the mother of invention – you see heightened human ingenuity and even more creative off-label tech adoption. […]