With fiscal year (FY) 2021 ending September 30, the House Rules Committee will be meeting on September 20 to decide which of the over 800 amendments filed for the FY2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) will get a floor vote. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) High-Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) awarded two contracts, totaling $68 million, to Penguin Computing to provide high-performance supercomputers and associated capabilities for the Navy and Air Force.  […]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) says that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) needs to update plans for protecting critical infrastructure. CISA Director Jen Easterly said that an updated plan will be in by Sept. 30, 2022. […]

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has invested “proactively and preemptively” in technology, so that when the coronavirus pandemic hit NIH it was able to seamlessly transition to a telework environment, according to the NIH CIO and Director of the Center for Information Technology, Andrea Norris. […]

President Biden has announced his intent to nominate John Sherman as chief information officer (CIO) at the Department of Defense. Sherman has served as acting CIO at DoD since January. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) named Dawn McGuinness, an international relation professional with years of experience in national security, as the new International Capacity Building Advisor.  […]

Richard Bird is an Army veteran and an internationally recognized identity-centric security expert who has been a CIO and CISO and the global head of identity for JP Morgan Chase. Now, he is chief customer information officer for Ping Identity. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) has signed a seven-year, $374 million contract with Concur Technologies that makes the company the sole source for DoD’s Defense Travel Modernization (DTM) project, DoD announced Sept. 15 on SAM.gov. […]

A new government watchdog report finds that further analysis of U.S. Postal Service (USPS) injury-related data based on career status could help the agency reduce injuries, particularly for non-career employees. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) is working on setting up a Cloud Marketplace for Federal agencies, with the first phase of the project coming in fiscal year (FY) 2022 and a request for information also being worked on, a GSA official said today. […]

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.  […]