Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
State Department

What ends up happening to at least some of the steady stream of Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommendations for Federal agencies to improve their operations? Sometimes, they remain outstanding for years, and too often, they aren’t explained in adequate detail when agencies assemble their annual budget requests. […]

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) is rolling out a new zero trust scorecard across the agency’s different operating divisions to accelerate zero trust security adoption and drive strategy across HHS. […]

As artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing many different aspects of human life, it is still important for the Federal government to understand how this new technology will ultimately impact the healthcare sector, according to a top official at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). […]

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is looking at researchers, clinicians, and patients as vital sources to enhance the quality of data available to President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative to combat cancer, an NIH official explained today. […]

VA

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is ramping up its hiring and technology capabilities to meet the challenges of backlogged benefits claims, a VA official told the House Veterans’ Affairs Modernization subcommittee at a June 6 hearing. […]

NIST

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) today announced new leadership to head the agency’s CHIPS Research and Development Office as part of the Federal government’s larger efforts to reinvigorate semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. […]

As the department that interacts more frequently on a daily basis with the American public than any other Federal agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently announced that it has reduced the total amount of time the public spends accessing its services by 20 million hours annually. […]

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released a final request for proposal (RFP) for its $8 billion ProTech Oceans Domain 2.0. contract, which covers major domains of satellites, fisheries, weather, and oceans. […]

President Biden signed the NOTAM Improvement Act into law over the weekend, which requires the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to establish a task force to provide recommendations for improvement of the agency’s Notices to Air Missions (NOTAM) system. […]

A senior Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) customer experience (CX) official said last week that the value of taking a deliberate approach in the process for generating CX improvements can generate better understanding of the problems trying to be solved, and ultimately the way that the agency may go about making improvements. […]

The Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has ranked IT investments as one of the top eight “critically important” challenges for the agency in the OIG’s first half fiscal year (FY) 2023 Semiannual Report to Congress. […]

website

Just three months after the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) at the General Services Administration (GSA) found that the Federal agency had been misleading users on the standards of its Login.gov identity proofing website, GSA Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) Commissioner Sonny Hashmi said this week that the tool’s adoption curve continues to increase despite the OIG’s findings earlier this year.   […]

Customer experience CX-min

Tanya Bradsher, the Biden administration’s nominee to become deputy secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), told senators at a confirmation hearing on May 31 that her top priority at the agency – if her nomination is confirmed – would be to help fix the troubled rollout of the agency’s Electronic Healthcare Records (EHR) program. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a new report finding that the Department of Energy (DoE) has failed to fully implement a program to protect against insider threats to the agency’s nuclear weapons and related secret information. […]

Jen Easterly, CISA

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Jen Easterly said today she is confident that Congress will give CISA the funding it needs to execute on its mission even in times of skinnier Federal budgets, and emphasized her belief that cybersecurity is an issue with substantial bipartisan support among lawmakers. […]

FCC
NIST

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on May 24, released the final guideline version on how agencies should manage their vulnerability disclosure for information systems within the Federal government. […]

CISA

Members of the House Committee on Homeland Security sent a letter to Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), on May 23 asking about the agency’s progress in defending critical information and communications technology (ICT) supply chains. […]

The Small Business Administration (SBA), and the General Services Administration (GSA) have launched a joint effort to help small disadvantaged businesses (SBD) gain access to more Federal contracts in GSA’s Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Program. […]

IRS

During its audit of the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) fiscal years 2022 and 2021 financial statements, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the tax agency has been operating with two new deficiencies related to information system controls. […]

During a House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing on May 24, officials from the Social Security Administration (SSA) testified before the committee on some of the actions they have undertaken to combat online identity fraud. […]

OPM Office of Personnel Management

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released the OPM Retirement Quick Guide this week to help walk Federal employees through the retirement process and know what to expect as a retirement application is processed and benefits are determined. […]

A new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Department of Energy (DoE) hasn’t fully implemented its Insider Threat Program, more than eight years after it established the program in 2014. […]

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