A senior Biden administration official said on July 18 that an important mandate under the administration’s Cybersecurity Executive Order – deployment of multifactor authentication and encryption technologies across Federal civilian networks – could be “fully deployed within six months.” […]
The Biden administration took formal steps today to pin the Microsoft Exchange software supply chain hack disclosed earlier this year on people connected with the Chinese government’s Ministry of State Security (MSS). […]
Astrophysicist Jedidah Isler has been named the new assistant director of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Opportunity and Engagement at the Science & Society Division within the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). […]
Michael Brown, who now heads the Defense Department’s (DoD) Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), has requested that his name be withdrawn from consideration as the nominee for Under Secretary for Acquisition and Sustainment at DoD. […]
President Biden has nominated Alan Estevez to become Under Secretary for Industry and Security in the Department of Commerce – a position that helps decide which U.S.-made technology products cannot be exported to foreign countries, ensures treaty compliance, and promotes continued U.S. strategic technology leadership. […]
A wide-ranging executive order (EO) issued today by President Biden is aiming to boost opportunities for small businesses by directing all Federal agencies to promote greater competition in their procurement and spending decisions, although specific marching orders to agencies to accomplish that goal have not yet been spelled out. […]
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has issued new guidance for implementing the first part of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 (Evidence Act), with an emphasis from the White House for agencies to build a culture of evidence. […]
President Biden on June 25 signed an executive order (EO) that aims to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) for the Federal workforce. […]
President Biden on June 26 pledged his support for a separate voting track in Congress for legislation containing a $1.2 trillion compromise infrastructure agreement that the White House reached last week with a bipartisan group of senators. […]
President Biden announced that two nominations for the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) had been sent to the Senate. If both are confirmed, the board would have a quorum for the first time since 2017. […]
Federal employees that have been fully vaccinated and have completed the two-week efficacy period can travel for personal and professional reasons without self-quarantining and testing before returning to work, according to new guidance from the White House COVID-19 Response Team on June 24. […]
The House Appropriations Committee has implied its support for President Biden’s 2.7 percent pay increase for Federal employees, according to its FY2022 Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) funding bill approved by a House subcommittee this week. […]
Theodore N. Nemeroff has been named director for International Cyber Policy on the White House’s National Security Council (NSC). He will be responsible for expanding the U.S. government’s information and communications technology policy abroad. […]
The Alliance for Digital Innovation (ADI), a technology trade group that aims to help shape government innovation, is asking the Biden Administration to consider seven recommendations on Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) that it says will better achieve IT and cybersecurity priorities outlined in the administration’s Build Back Better agenda. […]
Legislation introduced by members of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology would require the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) to establish a national science and technology strategy. […]
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), along with the National Science Foundation (NSF) is launching the National AI Research Resource Task Force, which will serve as a Federal advisory committee to provide recommendations for establishing and sustaining the National AI Research Resource. […]
The 14 percent year-over-year budget increase requested by the Biden administration for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Fiscal Year 2022 would be devoted to hiring new career personnel across the agency, including increasing staffing that is critical for IT and cybersecurity oversight across the government. […]
The Safer Federal Workforce Task Force, led by the White House COVID-19 Response Team, announced this week that Federal agencies “generally” cannot require employees to receive a COVID-19 vaccine or require employees to disclose their vaccination status. […]
Shalanda Young, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), today called for a reimagined view of infrastructure in the United States, one that includes funding for broadband as well as technology at the southern border. […]
After a Senate committee hearing yesterday, Colonial Pipeline’s president and CEO was back in front of Congress today, appearing before the House Committee on Homeland Security for a hearing about last month’s ransomware attack. There he expressed a need from private industry for the Federal government to pressure the hosts of these ransomware actors. […]
The White House today released the first fruits of a February executive order that has Federal agencies looking at ways to improve supply chain security in several key critical infrastructure areas. […]
Cross-agency collaboration – which has been important to the larger Federal IT mission for years, and became even more so during coronavirus pandemic – is due for further acceleration as the next mechanism in how government works together, Federal officials said on June 7. […]
The continued flurry of high-profile ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure targets in the United States is climbing the ladder of presidential priorities – with President Biden saying it’s on the agenda for his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin later this month, and White House officials confirming that cryptocurrency will be part of a new examination of global corruption. […]
Now that there are real dollars beginning to finally accompany the many voices calling for government IT modernization, it’s perfect timing for Marianne Bellotti’s new book, “Kill It with Fire,” which cautions against the headlong approach the title connotes. She conveys this quite succinctly in the book’s pithy epigraph – with a quote from Ellen Ullman, a fellow author and computer programmer: “We build our computer systems the way we build our cities: over time, without a plan, on top of ruins.” […]
The Biden administration is publicly demonstrating its willingness to lend Federal help to respond to a variety of ransomware assaults against critical infrastructure sectors – the latest involving a cyberattack against JBS USA, the world’s largest meatpacker, that forced the company reportedly to shut down nine of its plants. […]
President Biden’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 budget includes an estimated $58.439 billion in IT spending for Federal civilian agencies, and $500 million for the General Service Administration’s (GSA) Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), according to a budget breakdown the White House released today. […]
President Biden’s FY2022 budget proposal published today envisions an eye-popping $6.01 trillion of Federal spending – up 36 percent from last year’s approved FY2021 budget – with a budget deficit of about $1.8 trillion. […]
President Biden is pushing for a 2.7 percent pay increase for the Federal civilian workforce in his FY2022 budget request released today. The budget also included funding to ensure more Federal workers are eligible for a $15 per hour wage. […]
Action on the Biden administration’s $1.7 trillion infrastructure spending proposal that debuted in late March as the $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan is sliding well into June as the White House and Republican senators have traded offers and counteroffers on the legislation, but still remain deeply divided on the scope of the bill and its price tag. […]
Anne Neuberger, the White House deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technologies who is a driving force behind the Biden administration’s cybersecurity executive order issued earlier this month, today noted an initial “disappointment” with Federal network hygiene in a follow-up discussion about the broader aims of the order. […]