New legislation introduced in the Senate today would authorize $100 million of Federal spending per year, for a period of seven years, to help state and local governments take quick action on fixing pressing IT problems. […]
The House Homeland Security Committee voted May 18 to advance five bills that would look to improve the nation’s cybersecurity in several areas, including protecting pipeline infrastructure, testing cybersecurity readiness, and improving state and local cybersecurity, among others. […]
The Endless Frontier bill championed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and set for Senate floor debate over the next several days has grown by leaps and bounds this week with the addition of semiconductor manufacturing and cybersecurity components and has even gotten a new name – the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act of 2021. […]
Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., ranking member of the House Government Operations Subcommittee, urged the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in a May 18 letter to bring Federal employees back to their pre-pandemic workplaces quickly, or explain how the Biden administration will deal going forward with the billions of dollars it spends on currently underutilized facilities if Federal employees continue large-scale work from other locations. […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) May 17 released a blueprint on integrating Grid-Interactive Technologies into building renovation and improvement plans, along with the Department of Energy’s (DoE) National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL). […]
The Department of Education is redesigning and modernizing its current website to provide a seamless digital experience for the American public, according to a department blog post. […]
Democracy Forward and a coalition of public interest organizations wrote to the General Services Administration (GSA) and the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) and requested that they address the reduced transparency of GSA’s Regulations.gov website. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is looking for parties to help the agency create a request for information (RFI) that would look to examine China’s role in setting international standards around emerging technology, according to a May 12 sources sought notice posted to beta.SAM.gov. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced on May 13 the formation of a new Space Systems Critical Infrastructure Working Group, in an effort to minimize risks to space systems by bringing together space system critical infrastructure stakeholders. […]
In a rapidly changing aerial-technology landscape in which the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is increasingly overseeing flights of emerging technologies like drones, FAA needs to step up its processes to gather quantitative data on skills gaps in its current workforce, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released May 13. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will pilot a program to assess the competencies of AI practitioners to ensure that the AI workforce at the VA is knowledgeable and capable of producing trustworthy results with the technology, according to Gil Alterovitz, director of artificial intelligence at VA. […]
The Department of Energy (DoE) Office of Science (SC) Nuclear Physics (NP) program is seeking interdisciplinary applications for open scientific research on quantum information science (QIS) and quantum computing to explore all forms of nuclear matter. […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) is seeking industry feedback through a request for information (RFI) on a governmentwide cloud acquisition strategy and blanket purchase agreement (BPA). […]
If President Biden’s requested $6.5 billion to launch the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) receives approval from Congress in Fiscal Year 2022 appropriations legislation, the new agency will use such funding to “accelerate” transformational innovation in health research with a focus on diseases, according to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra. […]
Education Department CISO Steven Hernandez joined MeriTalk’s CDM Central: the Age of the Cyber Defenders virtual conference on May 12 to discuss how the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program and automation are impacting the agency. […]
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is working on a “hardened” cloud environment that it can evaluate through pilots with Federal agencies, CISA Acting Director Brandon Wales told senators on May 11. […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is looking to publish by the end of June an internal AI Oversight framework that will be a first step in a “trust, but verify” development of AI solutions across the agency. […]
As Federal agencies and organizations are looking to make the move to zero trust security architectures, the Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) program should help guide that transformation, Sean Connelly, TIC program manager for the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said May 12 at MeriTalk’s CDM Central: the Age of the Cyber Defender virtual conference. […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has adopted the final rules to implement the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program, which will help schools and libraries purchase the technology needed to close the homework gap. […]
The Department of Homeland Security has named its next chief data officer (CDO), elevating senior advisor Mike Horton to the position. Horton took over in April, according to his LinkedIn, for Carlene Ileto, who had served as acting CDO since October 2020. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has officially withdrawn a rule proposed during the Trump administration that would have required anyone associated with an immigration benefit or request – including United States citizens – to appear for biometrics data collection. […]
In a move to better serve individuals with hearing and speech disabilities, the General Services Administration (GSA) is transitioning to the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS), GSA announced May 10. […]
Perryn Ashmore is stepping down as CIO of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) later this month and is retiring from government service after long stints in senior IT management roles at HHS and several other Federal agencies, HHS confirmed to MeriTalk. […]
The Treasury Department is seeking a tool to help trace cryptocurrency that may be linked to parties placed on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. […]
Numerous Federal agencies are springing into action in response to the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline Company, a major supplier of fuel to the northeastern U.S. that temporarily shut down pipeline operations after disclosing the attack on May 7. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is extending the implementation deadline on an executive order (EO) issued last year by President Trump that would modernize Federal hiring to place less emphasis on collegiate degrees, according to a May 7 memo. […]
With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing a record number of citizens to interact with the Federal government, constituents are still worried about their data safety in interactions with the government and believe the government still needs to modernize its systems, according to a Carahsoft study released May 6. […]
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is looking to improve its airport screening technology – and its use of machine learning within that technology – in an effort to make the process easier and faster for travelers while enhancing security effectiveness. […]
Ensuring customers are happy is important, but Federal customer experience (CX) experts believe ensuring employees are happy is equally important. Federal experts say the same human-centered design framework can be applied to both CX and employee experience (EX) to give agencies a competitive advantage. […]
The Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has recovered over $1.1 billion in funds paid through the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL) that were initially granted based on false application information, SBA OIG said in a report released May 6. […]