Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
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John Ratcliffe

Dan Coats, the Director of National Intelligence, will step down on August 15, with President Trump naming Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, as his nominee to replace Coats as the head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). […]

Cyber Security Brainstorm

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) needs to do more to help Federal agencies with FISMA (Federal Information Security Modernization Act) compliance, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. […]

Capital, House of Representatives, Congress, Senate

FITARA, FedRAMP, and 21st Century IDEA are all shaping Federal IT modernization efforts, explained Rich Beutel and Mike Hettinger at ServiceNow’s Knowledge 2019 Conference. […]

AI Quantum Computing
Machine learning AI-min

A principal author of Senate legislation that would pump $2.2 billion of Federal funding into development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies over the next five years said last week that investment would help a host of industry sectors including healthcare, energy, and agriculture. […]

Army DoD military Defense AI

An inspector general (IG) for the Department of Defense (DoD) found internal control weaknesses relating to contractors installing cybersecurity controls that protect networks and systems containing DoD controlled unclassified information (CUI). […]

AI Cyber World machine learning-min

Government agencies are excited to implement artificial intelligence (AI) and automated technologies, but should remain aware of the risks and challenges of doing so, says a new report from the Partnership for Public Service and the IBM Center for the Business of Government. […]

federal workforce worker hired-min
Cybersecurity cyber

Most government agencies have met Federal mandates to establish cyber risk executives and establish policies to make risk-based decisions on cybersecurity, but many agencies still need to establish cyber risk strategies, conduct risk assessments, and address gaps in existing risk management policies, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released July 26. […]

Kids at computers hackers students education

r00tz Asylum, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching kids ages 8-16 about white-hat hacking, announced July 24 that it would be allowing students to attempt to hack into simulated campaign finance portals at this year’s DEF CON, set for August 8-11 […]

IT modernization data center

The House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress voted today to approve 10  recommendations related to modernizing and revitalizing House technology, including one proposal to recreate an offer to advise House members on tech issues. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is in the final stages of planning for its transition to a commercial electronic health record (EHR) system, but faces congressional concern on two fronts: the agency’s inability to reliably define costs for the existing VistA system, and its estimate of $4.8 billion to maintain the system throughout the EHR transition effort. […]

General Services Administration GSA Headquarters 1800 F St 18F TTS FAS

After finding evidence of unfair price comparisons, higher pricing, and undue influence from an employee, the inspector general for the General Services Administration (GSA) recommended that the agency cancel the IT Schedule 70 contract of consulting firm McKinsey in a report released July 23. […]

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) plans to open later this year an artificial intelligence (AI) policy “observatory,” following the OECD’s approval in May of an intergovernmental standard on AI agreed to by 36 member countries including the U.S. […]

The International Society of Automation has announced the first founding members of its recently created Global Security Alliance, which is will bring together industry stakeholders explore ways to prevent and respond to catastrophic threats to mission-critical operations. […]

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), has awarded a $41.9 million contract for 49 Health Center Controlled Networks (HCCNs) to expand health information technology. […]

Capital, House of Representatives, Congress, Senate
capitol washington dc senate house congress-min

Leadership of the House Government Reform Subcommittee introduced legislation today that would codify into law the FedRAMP (Federal Risk Assessment and Management Program), and take a number of other actions aimed at making the program work more efficiently. […]

US Federal CIO Suzette Kent OMB MeriTalk CCXB

With modernization initiatives advancing across Federal government in areas like automation, data, and cybersecurity, moving to the cloud can be the jumping off point for all of those efforts, said Federal CIO Suzette Kent. […]

The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) today announced the launch of its Ideation Challenge that aims to inform the next iteration of the program’s processes and supporting functions. […]

Facebook

The Department of Justice (DoJ), along with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), announced today that Facebook has agreed to pay a $5 billion fine regarding data privacy claims. The fine is the largest civil penalty ever imposed by the FTC. […]

Washington DC capitol federal government-min

Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., Cory Gardner, R-Colo., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., reintroduced the Advancing Innovation and Reinvigorating Widespread Access to Viable Electromagnetic Spectrum (AIRWAVES) Act on July 23. The legislation will “encourage the Federal government to continue to free up spectrum for commercial licensed and unlicensed use and leverage the success of spectrum auctions to help close the urban-rural divide,” according to the bill’s sponsors. […]

FBI

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) BI is looking to map its IT architecture as it implements Technology Business Management (TBM), and is investigating if industry can meet the bureau’s needs. The FBI issued a request for information for a commercial tool on July 23, with responses due by August 20. […]

Connolly

Federal IT is on the right path and is making progress on modernization, but Congress will continue to push agencies to modernize faster and address slowdowns in processes, including FedRAMP, said Representative Gerry Connolly, D-Va. […]

FCC

The Federal Communications Commission announced on July 22 the creation of six new working groups to assist the FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CISRIC) VII in carrying out its work. […]

FDIC

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