Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
Census 2020 image-min

The Census Bureau did not implement security baselines and basic security practices for its cloud implementation, leading to “severe risks to 2020 Census cloud environments,” according to an audit from the Department of Commerce Inspector General released June 19. […]

The release of the Cloud Smart policy yesterday has given agencies a “North Star” of guidance on how to accelerate cloud adoption, Federal Deputy CIO for the Office of Management and Budget Margie Graves said today. […]

cloud cyber modernization AI

The Defense Department (DOD) aims to award its 10-year, $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud contract by the end of August, Inside Defense reported, citing comments from DoD CIO Dana Deasy to reporters today at a Defense Writers Group breakfast […]

Federal money spending government

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., is offering an amendment to the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act (HR 3351) that would boost the FY2020 budget for the Technology Modernization Fund by $15 million, to a total of $50 million. […]

Senate hearing Congressional-min

A bill being readied by Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Josh Hawley R-Mo., would require large online service providers to give users regular assessments of the monetary value of the data that consumers provide to them. […]

Cybersecurity cyber

Federal agencies are unprepared to confront and mitigate cyberthreats today, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affair Committee Investigations Subcommittee determined in a report released today, recommending that agencies give CIOs more authority to make decisions on cybersecurity. […]

US Federal CIO Suzette Kent OMB MeriTalk CCXB

The Federal government is dedicated to a whole of government effort on automated technologies and artificial intelligence, and agencies need to get started on their efforts sooner rather than later, said Federal CIO Suzette Kent today. […]

IRS

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is looking for technical and acquisitional aid from partners in refining its database to implement artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, DHS Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) Office CIO David Bottom said today at the AI World Government conference. […]

Women

A trio of women in senior IT leadership spanning the top ranks at Federal agencies counseled that hard work, skill in making key relationships, taking career-changing opportunities, and remaining authentic have been among the key steps in their paths to the highest levels of tech leadership in government. […]

FITARA

A new survey from MeriTalk finds that 70 percent of Federal IT leaders surveyed believe that FITARA (the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) has been effective in accelerating Federal IT modernization, with 68 percent agreeing that the law has improved Federal IT efficiency. […]

FITARA

Federal CIO Suzette Kent tops the witness list for the House Government Operations Subcommittee’s June 26 hearing to assess implementation of the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA), and to release the eighth version of the full House Oversight and Reform Committee’s FITARA Scorecard that grades Federal agencies on their progress under the law, MeriTalk has learned. […]

checklist, report

As the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) is set to become the primary background investigation provider today, Charles Phalen will be appointed acting director, effective July 1. […]

The Office of Management and Budget finalized its Cloud Smart policy today, making no major changes from the draft policy released in September 2018. […]

Veterans Affairs VA Vets

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is on track to achieve its agency goal under the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) of improving veteran customer experience (CX), according to a June update released by the VA.   […]

In a statement on the recent reports of Iranian cyberattacks directed at the U.S. government, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Christopher Krebs warned of “wiper” attacks that could compromise entire systems. […]

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) is seeing strong results from its effort to expand data analytics across the agency, and is meeting targets and exceeding goals on stakeholder buy-in, according to a June 20 update to the agency’s goals under the President’s Management Agenda. […]

State Department

The State Department is making progress on its IT modernization effort, but is still lagging behind some of the goals it set as part of the President’s Management Agenda, as a June 20 update to the agency’s priority goals showed. […]

Preparation for the 2020 Census is overall on-track, according to the second quarter Census Goal Action Plan, but the Census Bureau still faces the challenges of upscaling Area Census Offices (ACOs) to expand operations and recruiting and hiring the staff it needs to conduct the 2020 decennial. […]

Cybersecurity flag

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program aimed at helping Federal agencies fundamentally improve network security is moving ahead in a number of significant, future-leaning areas at the program level to advance its broad cybersecurity mission. […]

Cyber Security Brainstorm

In its June update to its agency goals under the President’s Management Agenda, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) revealed it is unlikely to meet goal on cyber hygiene scanning, intrusion detection, and high value asset vulnerability mitigation. […]

Kent Murphy

A new update to the Sharing Quality Services cross-agency priority (CAP) goal, released June 20, lays out the timeline for the currently designated quality services management offices (QSMOs), and hints at three more areas for the new, centralized approach to shared services. […]

CX Customer experience -min
White House

The Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) Goal Action Plan to Leverage Data as Strategic Asset released June updates under the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) on June 20, which indicated movement in the Federal Data Strategy’s development, as well as strategies the CAP Goal team is taking to overcome data use and strategy challenges. […]

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