The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seeking assistance to identify vendors that can provide simulations with virtually implanted generic medical devices using a whole-heart computational model. […]

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issues close to $360 million in potentially erroneous tax refunds on an annual basis due to the lack of e-filing for amended returns, a process that would cost approximately $4.1 million to implement, according to a July 31 report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). […]

Cofense, a provider of phishing defense services announced publication of a database of more than 200 million compromised email accounts being targeted by a “sextortion” scam. […]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) wrote to Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., on July 22 sharing details about its forthcoming guidance on how to securely share .zip files. […]

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced in an Aug. 2 news release it is seeking proposals for a new program in the agency’s multi-year, $2-billion AI Next Campaign. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) released several notices of intent today to negotiate its existing Local Service Agreement (LSA) contracts to continue to 2023, as the agency continues to transition Federal telecommunications and networking contracts to the $50 billion Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract. […]

Sens. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., introduced the TOWER Infrastructure Deployment Act (TOWER Act) with the goal of increasing broadband deployment across the country and addressing the workforce shortage within telecommunications industry. […]

Preliminary findings on the Multiple Awards Schedule (MAS) Consolidated Solicitation Requests for Information (RFI) revealed that a strong majority of the industry community believes that the proposed solicitation format is clear and beneficial to the industry. […]

While the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has completed its migration of existing records into the data center of its electronic health record (EHR) vendor, the VA and Department of Defense (DoD) are jointly searching for a director and deputy to oversee $10 billion, 10-year modernization effort. […]

President Donald Trump announced on Twitter today that he will withdraw his nomination of Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, to serve as director of national intelligence. […]

The Senate voted unanimously on July 31 to confirm Mary O’Brien to the rank of Lieutenant General, as O’Brien steps into the role of the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and cyber effects operations. […]

The Defense Advanced Research Program Agency (DARPA) announced in an Aug. 1 news release that it will test defensive hardware it is developing to secure voting ballot boxes at the DEF CON 2019 Hacking Conference later this month in Las Vegas.  […]

Michael Kratsios, deputy director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), will become the Trump Administration’s first U.S. Chief Technology Officer, following Senate confirmation of his nomination on an August 1 unanimous voice vote. […]

The U.S. Army is seeking industry partners to assist with securing cyberspace operating areas to free up soldiers to “defend forward.” […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has completed the migration of its existing records in the VistA system into the data center of its electronic health record (EHR) vendor Cerner, notching a key milestone for the EHR modernization effort. […]

Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, a long-time champion of Federal IT legislation and oversight, announced August 1 that he will not be running for reelection in 2020, and instead will pursue opportunities in the private sector “at the nexus between technology and national security.” […]

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is seeking a subscription service that will help it monitor for potential threats on social media service while maintaining privacy rights, according to an amended request for proposal (RFP) published July 30. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office Inspector General (OIG) discovered in a July 31 report that a VA healthcare facility in Long Beach, California, failed to adhere to VA and Veterans Health Administration (VHA) privacy and security policies in the midst of a patient electronic health record (EHR) complication. […]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on August 1 voted to approve reports, orders, and notices of propose rulemaking that taken together aim to improve mapping the availability of “fixed” broadband service – the type generally provided by cable and phone companies – in the U.S. […]

The FCC on August 1 voted to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking seeking comment on a range of proposals that would establish a Rural Digital Opportunity Fund funded with up to $20.4 billion to subsidize the further buildout of broadband services to rural areas of the U.S.  that don’t have widely available high-speed broadband service. […]

Government agencies are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance workforce capacity, improve mission effectiveness and drive operational efficiencies. In a July 30 FedInsider webinar, Federal IT leaders discussed the “building blocks” of AI in the Federal government. […]

The Senate, in a 67-28 vote today, passed a budget deal that raises Federal spending $320 billion over current levels and lifts the debt ceiling for two years, averting a shutdown. The Senate budget, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called “a strong deal,” is a companion to the House’s budget, which emerged from […]

The FITARA (Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) Scorecard issued twice per year by the House Oversight and Reform Committee is likely to see some changes in the near term due to the need for new data sources, new policies, and shifting congressional priorities, said Kevin Walsh, FITARA executive at the Government Accountability Office (GAO). […]

A lack of budgeted funds for cloud initiatives is slowing down Federal government cloud adoption, according to a report from Netwrix released today. […]

Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., on July 31, introduced a bill to combat illegal robocalls. […]

In response to the 2017  Cambridge Analytica scandal, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced the Voter Privacy Act on July 31. The legislation would give voters greater control over how their personal information is used by political candidates and campaigns in Federal elections. Feinstein’s office said currently there is no Federal law regulating the collection and use of voter data by political organizations. […]

The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) released a draft interagency report to establish a core baseline guide for cybersecurity that manufacturers may adopt for Internet of Things (IoT) devices they produce. […]

The Senate on July 25 approved the Federal Agency Customer Experience Act (S. 1275), which would charge Federal agencies with gathering customer feedback about agency services, and to make some of that feedback data public. […]

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) has taken implementation of FITARA (Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) to heart, making it part of performance plans, department policy, and gaining visibility across its IT environment, USDA officials explained July 31 at an ACT-IAC event. […]

Christopher Krebs, Director of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), today outlined a range of security concerns associated with deployment of 5G wireless networks in the U.S., and offered a list of top-level recommendations for government and industry to deal with them. […]