The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is nudging Federal agencies to establish chief diversity officer positions – a key element in the Biden administration’s push to emphasize workforce diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA). […]
The Senate on Jan. 11 voted to approve the nomination of Alan Davidson as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, and head of the agency’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). […]
As part of its overall IT modernization efforts, the U.S. Coast Guard has transitioned to an updated integrated financial, procurement, and asset management system. […]
The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) published a notice on the Federal Register today looking for input on how to best distribute over $48 billion in new broadband funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is looking into how obstacles, including trees and buildings, impact millimeter waves – which is a new class of signal that 5G technology will use. […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) issued an updated request for information (RFI) this week that aims to help Federal government senior executives improve workforce policies and initiatives. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) plans to publish new regulations governing Federal anti-discrimination and whistleblower protection, following a 2021 law to improve agency accountability and transparency in discrimination-related incidents. […]
Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Kiran Ahuja emphasized in a recent report summing up the Federal government’s experience with telework during Fiscal Year 2020 that the practice will remain important to the government going forward particularly in creating further resiliency of agency operations and in helping workforce recruiting efforts. […]
The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) plans to take up a proposal to require “nutrition labels” for broadband service at the commission’s public meeting set for Jan. 27. […]
A bipartisan group of senators led by Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., is asking Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Transportation (DOT) Secretary Pete Buttigieg about the agencies’ ability to meet their responsibilities as co-Sector Risk Management Agencies (SRMA) to detect, prevent, and respond to cyber threats to critical transportation infrastructure. […]
The White House on Jan. 4 sent to the Senate fresh nominations for dozens of senior Federal government posts, including key positions at the Department of Energy (DoE), the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) made seven new appointments to its Health Information Technology Advisory Committee (HITAC), according to a Dec. 20 press release. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is extending the deadline for agencies to adopt skills-based hiring assessments, according to a memo from OPM Director Kiran Ahuja. […]
The Federal Communications Commission on Dec. 30 released membership rosters for the six working groups of its Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC), which provides advice to the agency on how to improve security and reliability of U.S. communications systems. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has established new criteria for Federal agencies hiring data scientists by releasing its new occupational series for data scientists in government – a project that has been more than two years in development. […]
Information security remains a prevalent concern for the State Department based on numerous previous recommendations regarding fundamental information technology-related issues that still require close attention, according to a recent agency Office of Inspector General (OIG) report.
The report assesses 107 unclassified, open OIG recommendations from 19 reports addressed to the Bureau of Information Resource Management (IRM) as of July 30, 2021. OIG found that IRM had addressed three of the 107 recommendations and closed one duplicative recommendation related to risk management, one related to data protection and privacy, and one related to general IT policies. Additionally, OIG closed 14 recommendations in August 2021 as part of its normal compliance process.
However, the remaining 90 recommendations – 57 percent of which dated back to fiscal 2019 or earlier – remain relevant and require “close attention to close them,” the report read.
A larger number of the recommendations involve configuration management of products and systems to ensure information security. The other unaddressed recommendations pertain to several areas including as risk management, IT investments, contingency planning, and shared services.
To facilitate closing the remaining recommendations addressed to IRM, OIG made two recommendations to Carol Perez, the agency’s under secretary for management. OIG recommended her office develop a method for periodically reviewing IRM’s efforts – and indicated that step has since been taken.
OIG also recommended that Perez’s office verify IRM plans of action and milestones (POA&M) documented for all 90 recommendations. However, Perez disagreed with that recommendation, explaining that if the end goal is for IRM to solve open recommendations, developing an individual action plan for each recommendation is “overly cumbersome.”
“IRM’s staff, time, and resources are better spent working on compliance-related activities, maintaining a high standard of day-to-day operations, and communicating directly with OIG,” Perez wrote in her response to OIG.
However, OIG argued that under guidance from the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, agencies are required to develop a POA&M, and that Perez must submit a POA for the recommendation. […]
According to a research survey from the Pew Research Center, nearly half of parents surveyed said their child faced technology-related obstacles causing them to fall behind their peers with proper broadband connectivity and technology access. Students who lacked these necessities for remote learning experienced what is often called the “homework gap,” which impact may continue to be felt in the future. […]
With 2022 just around the corner, MeriTalk is taking a month-by-month look at the most popular stories in Federal IT from 2021. […]
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is seeking input from stakeholders and the public on a plan to create a new data portal to help streamline contractor reporting requirements and improve the use of digital information in its missions and programs. […]
NASA has awarded $359 million to Mitchell Vantage Systems for software products, services, and engineering support. […]
A recent audit found that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has cybersecurity deficiencies that are leaving taxpayer data open to misuse, tampering, or disclosure due in part to the agency’s over-reliance on older systems. […]
The Senate confirmed the nomination of Kurt DelBene to serve as the chief information officer (CIO) and assistant secretary for information and technology at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) by voice vote on Dec. 16. […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) has released new details about several upcoming multiple-award blanket purchase agreements (BPA) to help speed up enterprise-wide modernization initiatives and meet increased demand for secure commercial cloud products and services. […]
The leader of the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Integrated Award Environment, which oversees government-wide Federal award systems such as SAM.gov, will be heading to the private sector in the new year. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is nudging the Department of Commerce to develop performance goals with measurable targets for the government’s Manufacturing USA effort – a joint effort among Commerce, the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Energy (DOE) on a network of 16 advanced manufacturing institutes to promote advanced manufacturing and technologies. […]
Software and cloud services provider Oracle Corp. said today it agreed to buy Cerner Corp., a provider of digital information systems for the health care provider market, in a deal valued at $28 billion. […]
State audit agencies reported unparalleled challenges faced by their workforces in providing pandemic-related unemployment insurance benefits, according to a new report released Dec. 16 by the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC). […]
Following its December meeting, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that it approved a proposal seeking comment on improving transparency and efficiency in the competitive bidding process for the E-Rate program. The FCC has now released the official Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, laying out the process and deadlines for submitting comment on the E-Rate bidding process. […]
Legislation introduced this week by the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee aims to increase the transparency of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) program through regular reporting requirements. […]
The Department of Defense (DoD) must address data reporting deficiencies to better prevent hazing and to improve response training. […]