In accordance with recent White House initiatives, the Department of Defense (DoD) is developing plans for Washington, D.C.-area employees to return to the Pentagon and begin a “new normal,” Secretary Mark Esper said at a May 4 Brookings Institution webinar. […]

The Federal government and other entities are adjusting to and planning for the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Here’s a quick look at some of the top developments of interest to the Federal IT community:

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., asked Defense Secretary Mark Esper in a March 20 letter to issue more detailed guidance on paid leave and telework options for uniformed, civilian, and Defense Department personnel amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Attorney General William Barr on March 16 ordered U.S. Attorney’s Offices to prioritize detection and prosecution of coronavirus-related fraud.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said March 5 that he and U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace will “work together to further reduce” the role of equipment and services provided by China-based Huawei in U.K. 5G communications infrastructure.

While the 2020 election cycle has been officially underway for less than a month, there have already been significant technology concerns. While the most notable tech concern was the Feb. 3 Iowa Caucus, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) raised additional concerns in a report published Feb. 13.

In a Nov. 7 letter, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., urged Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and National Security Agency (NSA) Director Gen. Paul Nakasone to conduct a cybersecurity audit of mobile voting app Voatz to “determine whether it can reliably protect the votes of U.S. servicemembers against foreign hacking.”

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told Defense Secretary Mark Esper in a Nov. 6 letter that the Defense Department (DoD) must act quickly to weed out Chinese-made surveillance gear in use at DoD facilities.

The Senate voted today to confirm the nomination of Dr. Mark Esper as Secretary of Defense.

The U.S. Army and Air Force Secretaries and Chiefs of Staff justified the Trump administration’s proposed FY2020 Defense budget before the House Armed Services Committee today by pedestalling the urgency of modernizing the services.

The secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force emphasized their commitment to working together, including a joint memo to make sure communications systems are interoperable between the service branches.