The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation advanced key IT legislation, as well as a Federal Communications Commission (FCC), out of today’s business meeting. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced July 20 that CIO James Gfrerer swore in Todd Simpson as deputy assistant secretary for DevSecOps. […]

After two days of floor debate, the House of Representatives on July 21 approved its version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, by a vote of 295 to 125. […]

Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) Program Manager Kevin Cox on July 21 discussed the importance of data quality in the CDM ecosystem that stretches from sensors on Federal agency networks, up to agency-level dashboards, and then through to a Federal-level dashboard that gives the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) a wide view of the civilian Federal agency security posture. […]

As the General Services Administration’s 18F stepped up to help agencies with the quick technical shift to telework, two officials from the program shared their top tips for helping the workplace culture adjust to a remote environment. […]

Federal IT has proven its value as the vital lifeline between government and citizen service during the COVID-19 pandemic. MeriTalk is chronicling the untold stories of how Federal IT is getting the job done – and lessons for the road to recovery. Our latest chapter of CIO Crossroads explores IT operations at the Department of Education. […]

The U.S. Department of Justice announced charges against two Chinese nationals for hacking into computer systems and stealing intellectual property and business information over more than a 10-year period. […]

In a brief meeting today, the Senate Budget Committee advanced the nomination of Derek Kan to be the next deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). […]

A Federal network environment that supports classified telework is coming soon to agencies within the intelligence community, Jennifer Zbozny, director of the Software Engineering Center at the Army’s Communications-Electronic Command, confirmed at an event today. […]

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) announced today it has established three new Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes. The institutes will receive a total of $75 million in funding for quantum information science research and development. […]

While the commander of U.S. Cyber Command emphasized action in protecting the elections on July 20, so too did a group of over 30 former government officials in a letter to House and Senate leadership. […]

The U.S. Air Force issued a request for information (RFI) to gain feedback from entities that could provide capabilities for creating a wrist-worn physiological tactical wearable device. […]

The Senate confirmed Russell Vought as the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) yesterday in a 51-45 vote. […]

ACT-IAC released a best practices guide July 10 for industry and government on how to approach other transaction authorities (OTAs), a novel approach to Federal contracting governed by the Federal Acquisition Regulation. […]

The House voted late on July 20 to include in the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) legislation that would codify into law the FedRAMP program – giving the program a statutory foundation and formal standing for congressional review. […]

President Donald Trump has nominated John Gibbs, who currently serves at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), as the next director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for a term of four years. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., chairman of the House Government Operations Subcommittee and a leading voice in Congress for IT modernization, emphasized today that the effectiveness of Federal and state IT systems carries tremendous weight in government’s ability to help the nation through the coronavirus pandemic. […]

The House Government Operations Subcommittee plans to hold a hearing July 30 to discuss the upcoming tenth version of the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) scorecard that is issued every six months by the House Oversight and Reform Committee. […]

In a letter to House leadership, a group of House Democrats urged leadership to block Federal spending on facial recognition technologies for law enforcement. […]

IT leaders across the Federal government are reviewing lessons learned from the past few months. Most acknowledge that agencies have significantly accelerated modernization efforts as part of their work to effectively support (and secure) mass telework environments. […]

Three congressmen in positions of leadership sent a letter to the president today requesting a classified briefing on China’s cyber activity directed towards the United States and recommending sanctions against hackers. […]

U.S. Navy NAVAIR Cyber Warfare Detachment (CWD) is pursuing research and development (R&D) to fill gaps in the cyber resiliency strategy for protecting its weapons systems. […]

The American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC) released a white paper titled “5G Capabilities: Enabling Services and Innovation in the U.S. Federal Government” to build an understanding of 5G and use cases in the Federal government. […]

Senator Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, is calling for any changes made to accommodate telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic to be made permanent following new data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) demonstrating the expanding use of telehealth services to avoid the virus. […]

Sen. Angus King, Jr., I-Maine, said July 17 that a recent hack of Twitter accounts and warnings of Russian-government attempts to steal coronavirus research show the need for the U.S. to adopt a stronger cyber deterrence doctrine of the type called for by the Cyberspace Solarium Commission that he co-chairs.  […]

Witnesses at the House Government Operations Subcommittee’s July 20 hearing on Federal IT modernization will call for swift action by Congress and agencies to modernize IT infrastructure and services. The witnesses will offer a host of recommendations to clarify and simplify funding and policy inputs that can spur faster modernization. The hearing – entitled “Federal […]

Federal IT’s ability to sustain delivery of vital services to citizens stands out as one of the brightest aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. MeriTalk is chronicling the untold stories of that heavy lift, and the lessons it holds for the future as the nation embarks on the journey toward a more certain future. In the latest chapter of CIO Crossroads, we look at the U.S. Army’s IT evolution four months into the fight. […]

Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Christopher Krebs is saying that the 2020 election “will be the most secure election in modern history,” but continued to advocate for backup paper ballots to ensure an accurate count. […]

The House Appropriations Committee this week approved its defense funding bill for fiscal year 2021 on a vote of 30 to 22. The bill includes $694.6 billion in new discretionary spending authority for the Department of Defense, and a slight decrease in funding for research, development, test, and evaluation of new technologies. […]

The coronavirus pandemic hasn’t slowed the government’s progress on managing the Federal background check inventory, which has returned to a stable state of roughly 200,000 cases, according to a quarterly report on the Security Clearance, Suitability/Fitness, and Credentialing Reform Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) goal action plan from the President’s Management Agenda. […]