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. […]

President Biden announced today he plans to nominate Matt Olsen for Assistant Attorney General (AG) for the National Security Division at the Department of Justice (DOJ). […]

According to the White House COVID-19 Response Team and Public Health Officials, dating sites like Bumble, Tinder, Hinge, Match, OkCupid, BLK, Chispa, Plenty of Fish, and Badoo are adding features that are meant to encourage vaccinations. […]

In a short executive session today, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee advanced the nomination of Eric Lander to be the next director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). His nomination will now go to the full Senate for consideration. […]

Following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated mask guidance released last week, the White House said fully vaccinated Federal employees, onsite contractors, and visitors to Federal buildings no longer have to wear masks. […]

Tech-sector reaction to the White House’s sweeping cybersecurity executive order issued May 12 came in largely positive today, with security technology makers particularly applauding the urgency of the administration’s plans, the enterprise-wide view that the order takes for improving security, and its actions to hasten the movement of Federal agencies to cloud services. […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is seeking out methods to assess if Federal agency policies and actions equitably serve all eligible individuals – and specifically groups based on race, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, disabilities, persons living in rural areas, and persons adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality. […]

In recognition of Public Service Recognition Week – running from May 2-8 – President Biden issued a proclamation praising public servants at all levels of government and outlining his administration’s work to improve the Federal workforce. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Biden said public servants have “risen to the moment” and described them […]

Technology leaders in Congress and industry groups with a stake in Federal IT both applauded the Biden administration’s move today to relax Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) payback requirements in order to quickly put $1 billion of new funding to work to shore up agency cyber defenses and upgrade critical systems. The change in traditional TMF […]