Since the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) instructed all employees who could to work from home just over a month ago, the agency is now reporting that 95 percent of their employees are currently teleworking, a senior HUD spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk. […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) hasn’t implemented any priority recommendations made by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in 2019 and now GAO has identified three additional recommendations, including one involving cybersecurity. […]

The State Department workforce is at about 90 percent telework, with the remaining 10 percent performing duties not transferrable to telework such as driving, CIO Stuart McGuigan announced at the April 21 AFCEA breakfast. […]

The Department of Education has implemented three priority open recommendations that were identified by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in April 2019, including improving information security. […]

Air Force officials began planning for the Advanced Battle Management System about three years ago with the intent of replacing and modernizing aircrafts on the existing system by 2035. The Government Accountability Office said Thursday that the service needs to create a plan if that goal is to be reached. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) updated its language around the essential status of IT and operational technology employees and contractors in version 3.0 of its Guidance on Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers for the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, released today. […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has taken social distancing directives to heart and achieved a 100 percent employee telework rate, the agency told MeriTalk. […]

The Federal agency responsible for global development and humanitarian work released its first Digital Strategy this week, outlining its aims to improve lives across the world through partnerships and digital initiatives. […]

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) said this week they launched the Text Retrieval Conference (TREC)-COVID program to develop artificial intelligence (AI) tools to analyze a new dataset of machine readable COVID-19 scholarly literature. […]

Anil Chaudhry and Krista Kinnard from the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Center of Excellence (CoE) within the General Services Administration (GSA) reminded attendees at an April 16 AI in Government webinar to continuously put people first during AI implementation at the Federal level. […]

Federal agencies and departments have spent more than $5.7 billion on COVID-19 related contracts since February – with total virus-related spending more than doubling in the last nine days. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is teaming up with the American Red Cross and Facebook to provide Portal video calling devices to veterans, caregivers, and families as social distancing guidance remains in place. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and “innovators across the globe” are testing 3D designs of medical equipment used by healthcare professionals in the fight against the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. […]

In a move to further secure mobile devices, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) announced April 14 that it is developing a new Cloud-Based Root-of-Trust (CRoT) technology. […]

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it will send 10 additional letters of warning to companies to cease making unsupported claims that their products can treat or prevent coronavirus. […]

A group of Democrat senators urged Congressional leaders to include $1 billion in funding for the Lifeline program, which provides a discount on phone services for low-income consumers, in a future COVID-19 relief package.  […]

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is seeking proposals for a $40 billion, 15-year IT contract – including health, biomedical, and general services – as it integrates its medical systems with the agency’s broader IT infrastructure. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is seeing a “dramatic jump” in use of its virtual mental healthcare services as the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic makes it difficult for veterans to travel to VA facilities for care. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) looked into concerns in a recent report about data and technology security in connection with Federal agency telecommunications and call centers contracts where work is performed by subcontractors, and in overseas locations. […]

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Chief Acquisition Officer and Principal Executive Director Karen Brazell was promoted to assistant secretary of the Office of Enterprise Integration (OEI) on April 7. […]

Here’s an overview of some of the latest developments on the government and tech fronts due to COVID-19. […]

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is seeking artificial intelligence (AI) to develop an interactive, realistic simulation prototype – its own version of the video game The Sims – that generates synthetic data to test the agency’s IT systems. […]

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Procurement Innovation Lab (PIL) is going to conduct market research on a Knowledge Management System which doubles as both Workload and Data Management Systems that allow PIL Coaches to manage workload to more easily find other PIL projects. […]

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Chief of Staff Pamela Powers assumed the new role of deputy undersecretary on April 2, two months after the firing of James Byrne. […]

Here’s an overview of some of the latest COVID-19 coronavirus developments on the government and tech fronts: […]

A group of Federal agencies including the Defense (DoD) and Homeland Security (DHS) departments are urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to revoke authorizations held by China Telecom (Americas) Corp. to provide service between China and the U.S. The agencies said the company’s ownership by the Chinese government poses “unacceptable” risks to U.S. security. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) is setting up an ordering guide, templates, and procurement resources for Federal agencies to obtain enhanced screening services for their facilities due to the Coronavirus pandemic. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is advising the Federal workforce to use the “Zoom for Government” platform for teleconferencing instead of the company’s free service. […]

Federal Communications Commission Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has made access to broadband “no longer a luxury.” […]

Under the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has provided links to free and low-cost online cybersecurity educational content. […]