Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
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Melvin Brown II has been replaced as chief information officer (CIO) of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), just a week after starting the new role and on the second day of the Trump administration, according to his LinkedIn. […]

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday to slash Federal Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) programs. The order revokes a 2021 DEIA order issued by former President Joe Biden and sets in motion a 60-day deadline to “terminate” DEI, DEIA, and environmental protection programs within Federal agencies. […]

Leo Garciga, the chief information officer (CIO) at the U.S. Army, announced on Friday that the Army plans to publish official guidance next week focused on “cross-domain solutions” (CDS) offered as a cloud-based service to transfer data more easily between networks. Speaking at the AFCEA NOVA Army IT Day on Jan. 17, Garciga said that […]

The Senate held a pre-nomination hearing on Wednesday for Chris Wright – Trump’s nominee for Department of Energy secretary – in which Wright outlined his plans for expanding nuclear energy technology, AI development, and quantum technology. […]

Senate hearing Congressional-min

During a contentious Senate pre-nomination hearing today, Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump’s pick to become the next Defense secretary, outlined his vision for rebuilding the military while facing tough questions from lawmakers seeking details on how his plans would meet both immediate and long-term defense needs. […]

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Ranking Member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., along with Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, reintroduced legislation this week that aims to protect Americans from their snooping appliances. […]

A new report from the General Services Administration (GSA) reveals that the Federal government is failing to meet its own accessibility requirements – in fact, accessibility remains largely “deprioritized” across the government with little to no progress in conformance over time, according to the document.  […]

workforce

As the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) pushes to revolutionize medical treatments and cures, it’s facing a challenge that no amount of cutting-edge science can solve – attracting the talent that the agency needs. […]

Army

The U.S. Army is turning to the private sector for feedback as it prepares to upgrade its current Vantage Army data platform (ADP). With a Jan. 9 deadline approaching, vendors have a few more days to weigh in on the draft solicitation. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) has concluded a red teaming pilot that resulted in the identification of more than 800 vulnerabilities in the use of large language models (LLM) to enhance military medical services. […]

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is setting the stage for a possible new program aimed at developing more robust quantum sensors that can be integrated onto U.S. military platforms, according to a special notice from the agency. […]

What Happened This Week – Ep. 53

The Biden-Harris administration released its artificial intelligence (AI) executive order (EO) at the end of 2023, but most of the work to implement the directive took place in 2024. As MeriTalk reflects on the past year – and looks toward the future of Federal IT work during the Trump-Vance administration in 2025 and beyond – AI is positioned to make impactful strides across agencies, policy, and defense. […]

White House

President-elect Donald Trump has named his picks for several top positions at the Pentagon including deputy secretary of defense, and other high-profile acquisition, research, and policy posts.   […]

Government officials at both the Federal and state levels are working on a wide range of new AI use cases with focuses on administrative efficiency and improving decision-making, several Federal and city officials said this week.    […]

generative AI, ChatGPT
Women

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic has tallied up a total of $191 billion of fraudulent claims paid out through state unemployment insurance (UI) agencies to hackers and fraudsters – up from previous estimates that put the fraud figure closer to $100 billion. […]

DoD

After delivering a minimum viable capability for its data-centric command and control (C2) effort, the Department of Defense (DoD) is now focused on deploying enterprise enablers through its new Open Data and Applications Government-owned Interoperable Repositories (Open DAGIR) program, ensuring that this capability is accessible across combatant commands at the strategic level. […]

The Pentagon announced today that it is sunsetting its organization that developed, evaluated, recommended, and monitored generative AI capabilities across the Defense Department (DoD) – dubbed Task Force Lima – and is replacing it with a new AI Rapid Capabilities Cell (AI RCC). […]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) is looking for public feedback on the draft of its new practice guide, Implementing a Zero Trust Architecture. […]

A leading Democratic member of the House Homeland Security Committee on Thursday urged the incoming Trump administration to spare the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in its much-publicized plans to increase Federal efficiency by potentially eliminating some government operations. […]

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