The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said in a new report that it is mapping out IT modernization steps necessary to execute on a series of outside recommendations to improve agency functions, and will need additional funding to carry out that work.  […]

The Department of Labor (DOL) is continuing to experiment with new and emerging technologies by testing out standards for privacy and security on a smaller scale before mass implementation. As a part of this effort, the agency’s Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) has established an Innovation Incubator to ensure the adoption of game-changing technology is fully operationalized, said Krista Kinnard, chief of Emerging Technologies at the OCIO for DOL, during an FCW webinar on September 14. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) has named Waldo Jaquith, a veteran technologist and former member of the Biden-Harris transition team, to be GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan’s senior advisor for state, local, tribal, and territorial government. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) has practices in place to minimize the effects of funding that comes from a continuing resolution (CR), the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found, due to the agency starting 11 of the last 12 fiscal years under a CR. […]

The Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) program provides subsidized broadband service for eligible households. However, the program is now facing a trust challenge in its awareness campaign and is aiming to overcome that hurdle, said Jessica Rosenworcel, the acting chairwoman for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), on September 13 at an Internet Innovation Alliance webinar. […]

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Acting Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel released the agenda for the FCC’s upcoming September Open Commission Meeting, scheduled for September 30. […]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) selected three contractors to a $3 billion blanket purchase agreement (BPA) to supply financial management software across the agency to unify its disparate financial systems. […]

In a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, the agency identified challenges related to exposure notification applications that allow for contact tracing for the spread of COVID-19. According to GAO, half of U.S. states have COVID-19 exposure notification apps as of June 2021 and identified five challenges related to the apps. To address the challenges, […]

Bipartisan members of Congress this week introduced legislation that would make the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) director’s tenure a five-year term and reaffirm that the position is presidentially appointed and Senate confirmed. […]

The Department of Transportation (DoT) has hired Cordell Schachter as its new chief information officer (CIO), according to Schachter’s LinkedIn. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) is not currently utilizing its newest high-frequency, or narrowband, military satellite communications system to its fullest capabilities, a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) is seeking information from learning content providers to help upskill the workforce, focusing on data, technology, and financial management, the GSA announced in a September 2 request for information (RFI). […]

The first Federal agents will begin using body-worn cameras (BWCs), the Department of Justice (DoJ) confirmed in a press release. […]

The U.S. Department of State awarded AT&T a $609 million 5-year task order to provide telecommunication support to the Department’s vast network of more than 270 diplomatic posts and operational sites worldwide. […]

The Department of Labor (DoL) established a new office specifically focused on modernizing state unemployment insurance (UI) systems. The Office of Unemployment Insurance Modernization will be tasked with helping support the DoL UI modernization plan and oversee the $2 billion appropriated to the department in the American Rescue Plan, DoL announced on August 31. […]

The General Services Administration’s (GSA) Technology Transformation Services (TTS) is looking for a contractor who can assist the agency in its remote identity proofing process to validate government-issued IDs with data via the login.gov platform, according to a request for information (RFI). […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has named Dr. Neil Evans as its new acting chief information officer (CIO), the agency confirmed to MeriTalk. […]

In a report providing an update on priority open recommendations by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the agency outlined 38 priority open recommendations for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and highlighted two additional recommendations regarding domestic intelligence and information sharing. […]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved $41.98 million for Round 2 of its COVID-19 Telehealth Program. […]

The State Department is taking a mission-oriented mindset when deploying cloud services to operate effectively within a multi-cloud environment and to avoid unnecessary costs, an agency official said on August 26 during an FCW webinar.  […]

With the vast amount of data available to Federal agencies today, government and private sector experts agreed this week that security teams have a pressing need to leverage automation technologies to better decipher the threat landscape, and to free up their creative capacity to pursue innovation and modernization. […]

According to a new rule published on August 26, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is launching its new DHS Cybersecurity Service (DHS-CS) that will allow the agency to hire and manage cybersecurity professionals outside of traditional civil service requirements. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently surveyed 24 Federal agencies on their facial recognition technology (FRT) use and found that a majority of the agencies use it for digital access and cybersecurity for employees. […]

The State Department’s Office of the Science and Technology Adviser (STAS) has been an asset for the State Department in the ten years since its inception. Still, a failure to develop implementation plans and constant personnel and leadership turnover hampered the agency’s overall effectiveness, according to a recent audit from the department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG). […]

The Department of Energy (DoE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is looking to enter into a blanket purchase agreement (BPA) to deliver enterprise IT services that support NNSA’s mission and reduce administrative costs through acquiring commercial and commodity items and services. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is seeking information on support services for the President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competition (PCCC) – a competition to reward top cybersecurity professionals in the Federal government.  The competition gets underway next week and wraps up in December. […]

Creating a culture of innovation is essential to government success, according to both Federal and state government officials. During a recent GovLoop webinar, Carlos Rivero, chief data officer for the Commonwealth of Virginia, and Jason Barke, acting principal deputy associate director for employee services at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), explained that a culture of innovation has to begin with a leadership mindset change to both encourage innovation and reduce the fear of failure. […]

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced $61 million in funding for infrastructure and research projects to advance quantum information science (QIS). […]

The Department of Treasury’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced five $7.5 million contract awards August 18 to help the agency scan and digitalize over a billion of the agency’s files. […]

As Federal agencies modernize IT systems to meet mission goals, they must overcome barriers to creating business cases for change.

Agency culture is one of the barriers that can prevent change from happening at departments, Head of Office of Online Services at the IRS Karen Howard said today during the GovLoop Virtual Summit. […]