Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
Budget Federal spending

Alongside a Federal employee pay raise and $25 million for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), the bipartisan and bicameral Fiscal Year 2020 budget proposal includes IT funding boosts across agencies with an emphasis on cybersecurity. […]

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A bill backed by members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee would give the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) the power to issue administrative subpoenas to internet service providers (ISPs) in order to identify vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure. […]

Military Data Center

The United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) is looking to support its Joint Enabling Capabilities Command (JECC) across its network and the various Department of Defense (DoD) networks it uses, as noted in a request for information (RFI) released December 13. […]

Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., have introduced new legislation to aid workers who lose their jobs to automation. […]

The Federal government took important steps forward with artificial intelligence (AI) technology policy in 2019 with the AI Executive Order, the DoD AI strategy, and the OPEN Government Act. With that said, however, weaving AI into our Federal DNA means integrating with (often aging) agency infrastructure and rethinking how we solve problems and deliver services. […]

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Federal money spending government

The Department of Defense (DoD) began development of the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) environment on Dec. 11, according to an article on the agency’s website. […]

cyber workforce

The General Services Administration (GSA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) are having problems with Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) fee collection and project cost estimations, according to a Dec. 12 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. […]

smart cities

The biggest downside impacts of tech-fueled automation may come in the form of major labor market dislocation and social costs connected with that – rather than permanent job losses – said James Bessen, Director and Founder of Research on Innovation at Boston University School of Law, at a Brookings Institution event Dec. 12. […]

The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) saw a spike in authorizations from 2017 to 2019, but the program is still not used in all cloud acquisitions and agencies have gaps in implementing controls, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released December 12. […]

Cybersecurity flag

A new bill introduced in the House – the Strengthening State and Local Cybersecurity Defenses Act (H.R. 5394) – would require the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to offer more outreach and support to state and local governments. […]

General Services Administration GSA

18F, the digital services delivery hub of the General Services Administration, launched a National Security and Intelligence Portfolio to help national defense agencies acquire new digital solutions, according to a Dec. 10 post on the agency’s blog. […]

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is looking to implement a zero-trust architecture, and increase cloud adoption, as the agency looks to the recompete of its NASA Integrated Communications Services (NICS) contract, a December 11 request for information notes. […]

Pentagon DoD Defense Military

The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) is exploring a move for its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from a Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) environment to a secure cloud environment, according to a request for information released December 9. […]

Congress Capitol Senate House

Federal agencies and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) need to continue notching progress  on IT acquisitions, operations, and cybersecurity necessary to meeting FITARA (Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) requirements, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said. […]

The Defense Digital Service (DDS) is seeking out a cloud-hosted Software as a Service (SaaS) to “improve, streamline, and automate its hiring process,” according to a Dec. 9 request for information (RFI). […]

Treasury

The Treasury Department Office of the Inspector General (OIG) reported that the agency’s cyber threat indicators in Calendar Year (CY) 2017 and CY2018 were “adequate and aligned with the provisions of CISA [the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015]” in an audit released on Dec. 10. […]

Anil Cheriyan, Director of Technology Transformation Services (TTS) at the General Services Administration (GSA), said Dec. 11 that legacy, talent, and culture – not just technology – are the biggest challenges to IT modernization. […]

Gerry Connolly

Members of the House Oversight Government Operations Subcommittee expressed happiness with the  progress that Federal agencies have made on their FITARA scores, but remained critical of the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) guidance on the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) due to the policy’s revised guidelines on what constitutes a data center. […]

Federal CIO Suzette Kent today hailed the results of the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s FITARA (Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) Scorecard 9.0 which shows a rising trend in agency grades and solid progress on a number of important Federal IT fronts. […]

FITARA

With three agencies receiving “A” grades and more seeing improvements in their scores, what do the best  performers on the FITARA Scorecard get right to earn such high marks? A look at the latest edition of the scorecard shows several factors that top agencies have in common, and shared issues among the low performers as well. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA), Education Department, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) all took top scores on the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s FITARA (Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) Scorecard 9.0 released by the Government Operations Subcommittee today. […]

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