Sen. Angus King, I-Maine; and Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., are asking Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra for a briefing on what HHS is doing to help share cyber threat data with members of the healthcare and public health (HPH) sector – particularly in light of ramped-up ransomware attacks against the sector in recent years. […]

NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) has appointed Nicholas Skytland as its new chief technologist and director of the Business Development and Technology Integration Office. […]

President Biden is vowing to sign the Inflation Reduction Act this week after a divided House of Representatives on Friday approved the legislation that backers hope will help the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) rebuild its antiquated technology systems. […]

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is looking for information on commercial space-based data relay (SBDR) capabilities to improve satellite data availability and resilience. […]

The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is doubling the size of its Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program, to $1.98 billion, NTIA said on August 9. […]

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), has awarded almost $90 million to nearly 1,400 community health centers across the county to improve their data collection and reporting efforts. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has spent ten years working on a new acquisition framework but still has yet to tackle central facets of how to implement the new framework – including identifying major programs that the framework will cover, integrating the new framework with the agency’s IT program, and addressing related acquisition workforce needs. […]

A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds that the National Science Foundation (NSF) could use better reporting to provide more visibility into whether goals are being achieved for a program designed to help ensure Federal funding for basic research is spread across U.S. states and territories. […]

Federal technology veteran Jason Gray is starting his new job as chief information officer at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) next week, according to sources. His start date on the new job is August 13. […]

Managing the ever-increasing growth of personal identifiable information (PII) at large organizations and government agencies continues to post difficult challenges, private sector and government officials said this week. […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has named David Updike deputy chief information officer (CIO) and director of the agency’s Office of Information Technology Operations (OITO), according to his LinkedIn. […]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has made further funding moves to help close the “homework gap” by committing nearly $68 million in two new funding rounds through the Emergency Connectivity Program (ECP). […]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a solicitation for Hack DHS – a multi-year bug bounty program – to procure services in support of the program going into the future and carrying a contract value of up to $43 million. […]

The rise in the number of students who opt for online higher education programs has led colleges contracting with third-party companies – called online program managers (OPM) – to help develop and deliver their online programs. However, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a new report that the Department of Education (DoE) needs to strengthen how it monitors the arrangements between OPMs and higher education institutions. […]

Several Federal agencies that have banded together to study ways to improve financial management policies and practices have released a new simulation tool that aims to illustrate concepts for improving identity verification and potentially reduce improper payments. […]

The Inflation Reduction Act winding its way through Congress contains a massive infusion of funds for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), including $4.8 billion that the bill’s authors hope will help to rebuild the agency’s antiquated technology systems. […]

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued an alert on August 1 warning of vulnerabilities in encoder/decoder devices for the agency’s U.S. Emergency Alert System (EAS) that could allow hackers to send fake alerts over TV, radio, and cable networks. […]

The Treasury Department sanctioned cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash on August 8, saying the service has been used to launder over $7 billion worth of virtual currency. […]

Sheena Burrell has been appointed the new Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), she announced on her Linked In page. […]

In a sources sought notice (SSN), the IRS is seeking to improve the security posture of Federal tax information (FTI) and optimize processes to reduce costs and minimize risk to FTI in possession of agency partners. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) is failing to track the continued progress of the military’s development of Global Positioning System (GPS) alternatives and lacks key information to make decisions on funding those initiatives, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. The GAO report – published last week – explained that the U.S. Air Force’s […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) on the top malware strains of 2021. […]

Officially designating the space sector as one of the “critical infrastructure” sectors designated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a “hot topic” of conversation at the agency, according to Tina Won Sherman, a director in the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) Homeland Security and Justice team. […]

The Small Business Administration (SBA) appointed Steve Kucharski as acting chief information officer (CIO) last month, a knowledgeable source confirmed to MeriTalk. […]

While the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Connected Care’s digital divide program has successfully been providing patients with video-capable devices for video-based virtual care for the past two years, an Office of Inspector General (OIG) report has found that less than half of patients that the agency issued video devices to ended up completing VA Video Connect (VVC) appointments. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has named Dr. David Massaro as the “functional champion” and acting senior medical advisor for the agency’s Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program. […]

The Federal government must take action to promote stronger research practices that will help ensure the reliability of its scientific research, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a new report. […]

President Biden has nominated Rob Shriver to become deputy director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). […]

David Shive, the chief information officer (CIO) at the General Services Administration (GSA), apologized to the vendor community today for the agency’s challenges in transitioning to a new online identification system for the Federal government’s awards process. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) on July 29 put out a request for information seeking market research that will help the agency move forward with its Ascend Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) to simplify and standardize the way that Federal government agencies buy cloud products and services.  […]