A new report from MeriTalk – issued in partnership with Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va. – reveals that cybersecurity is the top priority for Federal chief information officers (CIOs) in fiscal year (FY) 2025. […]

The Department of Energy (DoE) will soon operationalize its public-private pilot program which aims to secure critical energy infrastructure against threats as it also looks forward to improving security through work within industry sectors, a top DoE security official said on Sept. 17.  […]

Transportation Department (DoT) CIO Cordell Schachter emphasized top findings of the “Digital Dozen” Federal chief information officers whose thinking underpins MeriTalk’s “Tech Tonic: FY25 Federal CIO Forecast” report in remarks at Tech Tonic on Sept. 19, and how important it is for the Federal government to modernize IT systems to address many of those priorities.   […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is issuing more than a dozen recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) after it discovered that HHS has failed to implement all the key privacy safeguards for its pandemic IT systems that collect and store personally identifiable information (PII).  […]

What are government agencies’ top tech priorities for 2025? We skipped the speculation and went straight to the real experts – the Federal agency chief information officers (CIO) – for those answers. […]

In this episode of MeriTalking, Mike Nash, director of engineering and Kent Laursen, GDIT’s technology director for digital engineering, sit down with MeriTalk’s Gail Emery to explore how digital engineering provides benefits for Federal organizations. […]

The Pentagon is preparing to re-compete its Advana enterprise data and analytics platform, transitioning from its current contracting vehicle to a new model, with plans for a 10-year, multi-vendor contract worth up to $15 billion, Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer (CDAO) Radha Plumb announced during an industry day event on Wednesday. […]

Federal agencies received the highest number of ‘A’ grades ever on the 18th edition of the FITARA Scorecard issued on Friday by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., leading the congressman to make plans to evolve the scorecard with new categories. […]

Eighteen of the 24 largest Federal agencies have failed to establish guidance on service level agreements for their cloud providers – ignoring one of the five key requirements put in place by the White House. […]

House members vented their frustrations on Thursday over the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) action to pause use of the agency’s troubled Program Integrity Tool (PIT) last year, which has resulted in the VA not being able to collect about $665 million in revenue since then and created potential financial impacts for veterans.  […]

CSC 2.0 – the private sector successor to the government’s Cyberspace Solarium Commission – is teeing up a series of cybersecurity-related legislative and policy actions that it says the next administration and Congress still needs to pursue. […]

Federal agency grades were up sharply and nearly across the board on the latest edition of the FITARA Scorecard issued today by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who is ranking member of the House Cybersecurity, IT, and Government Innovation Subcommittee and who compiles the scorecard with substantial input from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). […]

How did 18 of the 24 largest Federal agencies improve their overall grades on the 18th edition of the FITARA Scorecard issued today? […]

Members of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs are calling on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide more transparency on its budget needs just as Congress bailed the agency out on Thursday with billions of dollars in supplemental funding for fiscal year (FY) 2024. […]

Federal employees reported high satisfaction with available benefit programs according to the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) 2023 OPM Federal Employee Benefits Survey (FEBS) released by OPM on Sept. 18.  […]

The U.S. Army is turning its attention to artificial intelligence (AI) to help the contracting workforce which is facing a significant increase in workload, an Army official said this week. […]

Private sector tech leaders warned lawmakers on Wednesday of foreign efforts to influence U.S. public opinion ahead of the 2024 election, and emphasized that various “misinformation campaigns” are increasingly being shaped by advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technology. […]

U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) last week unveiled its AI roadmap, which aims to improve analytic capabilities, scale operations, and enhance adversary disruption. […]

Senate AI Caucus Co-Chair Mike Rounds, R-S.D., predicted on Tuesday that artificial intelligence (AI) will be embedded in every piece of legislation that passes through Congress in the coming years. […]

MeriTalk recently spoke with Gabrielle Rivera, vice president at Maximus, to discuss data integrity challenges and how to overcome them, as well as key considerations for enabling efficient and secure information sharing. […]

The White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is working on a data literacy credential program that will accompany its circular announced earlier this year, a top OMB official said on Wednesday.   […]

The State Department announced on Wednesday that its new online passport renewal system is now fully available to the public – a service it estimates up to five million Americans a year will be able to use. […]

Two key Federal workforce bills won approval from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) today. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) announced on Sept. 16 a $269 million investment to enhance U.S. microelectronics manufacturing capacity and workforce development through the Pentagon’s Microelectronics Commons (ME Commons) initiative. […]

White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Director Arati Prabhakar called on Congress Tuesday to provide billions in funding for the government’s National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) so that AI development does not become reliant on the biggest tech companies. […]

The head of the FBI said today that the bureau has successfully taken offline a Chinese hacking group known as “Flax Typhoon.” […]

The House of Representatives’ Task Force on Artificial Intelligence (AI) is set to release its report with AI policy recommendations by the end of the year, and Task Force Chair Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., previewed on Tuesday that the report will feature “some of the most comprehensive policy work that’s been done on AI by the legislative branch so far.” […]

Intelligence and defense agencies must not only attract digital-savvy new recruits and upskill their current employees but also need to update their career development processes to retain both groups over the longer term, former Defense Department (DoD) Chief Information Officer (CIO), John Sherman, said on Sept. 16. […]

Artificial intelligence and other automation technologies are essential for the Department of Defense (DoD) to maintain its technological edge over adversaries like China – but increasing the use of both of those will require more funding and leveraging of industry capabilities, witnesses said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Monday.   […]

The Pentagon is seeking information on advanced technologies expected to be needed between 2030 and 2040 to enhance its space domain awareness and better safeguard space assets amid growing orbital competition. […]