Fed Gov Today

The beginning of December will mark the one-year anniversary of Ann Lewis’s tenure as Deputy Commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at the General Services Administration, and Director of GSA’s Technology Transformation Services. She followed Dave Zvenyach as TTS’s head; he left in August 2022. At ELC 2023, I ask Ann about her vision for TTS. The acquisition arm of the General Services Ad...

The Air Force Research Laboratory has a new Chief Information Officer. Alexis Bonnell has served in government before, including as Chief Innovation Officer at the US Agency for International Development. At ELC 2023 , I ask her about her priority list in her new job. The President’s Management Agenda includes a pillar on rebuilding the federal workforce. One element of that is a focus on diversit...

The Navy is on the hunt for a new Principal Cyber Advisor . Chris Cleary’s tenure as PCA expires after three years. CDR Juliana Vida (USN), former Deputy Chief Information Officer of the Navy, details what makes a good PCA, and what makes a good relationship among the PCA, CIO, and CISO in a department. Chris Cleary on Fed Gov Today TV Leaders at the Office of Personnel Management say they’ll use...

10/24/23: A 3-pronged approach to solving cyber at sea; financial managers get a new tool in the toolbox The Navy is celebrating a cyber anniversary. The service’s Cyberspace Superiority Vision document turns one year old this month. Chris Cleary is the Principal Cyber Advisor of the Navy. On the newest Fed Gov Today TV , he says the Vision has gotten a lot of uptake in the department over the pas...

Federal CIO Clare Martorana says AI will be an important part of the federal government’s Customer experience efforts . One of the agencies using AI to improve the experience of the people it serves is the Department of Veterans Affairs . Gil Alterovitz is Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer at the VA. Joe Boye is System Engineer for Palo Alto Networks. They both were guests on the new Fed Gov T...

Agencies across government are looking at use cases for artificial intelligence projects. Leaders say they’re trying to avoid forcing technology onto their challenges. Use cases for AI is only one of several topics you can learn about on the new Fed Gov Today special show “AI In Depth.” This highlight of that show features Dimitri Kusnezov, Under Secretary for Science and Technology at the Departm...

Three agencies have As on the new FITARA scorecard . And eight agencies have better grades on this scorecard than they did on the last one. David Powner , Executive Director of the Center for Data-Driven Policy at MITRE and former Director of IT Issues at the Government Accountability Office, reviews the new grades and changes to the scorecard; compares those changes to the ones an ACT-IAC all-sta...

The continuing resolution Congress passed, and President Biden signed , puts the next shutdown deadline just before Thanksgiving. The current CR runs out November 17th. Margaret Weichert , former Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget, and Gordon Bitko , Executive Vice President for Public Sector at the Information Technology Industry Council and former Chief Informa...

This edition of Fed Gov Today is sponsored by Leidos. Today, the second episode of conversations from the Department of Veterans Affairs National Artificial Intelligence Institute ’s International Summit for AI in Health Care , September 6-8 in Washington. First episode from Tuesday The VA says it’s working toward a concept of trustworthy AI throughout its health care system. At the VA AI Summit,...

This edition of Fed Gov Today is sponsored by Leidos. Today and Thursday, conversations from the Department of Veterans Affairs National Artificial Intelligence Institute ’s International Summit for AI in Health Care , September 6-8 in Washington. The VA is optimistic about moving AI solutions from prototype and testing to deployment. Part of that transition is engaging end users in that deploymen...

A 10-year roadmap for agency digitization is out from the Office of Management and Budget. The guidance is called “ Delivering a Digital-First Public Experience .” Suzette Kent, CEO of Kent Advisory Services and former Federal Chief Information Officer, explains what’s in it, and what it means for agencies and the government as a whole. “Data as a strategic asset” is not a new term in the federal...

A government shutdown wouldn’t just stop work for the two point one million federal employees of the government. It would stop work on almost all the contracts that almost all the contractors that work for the government work on. Soraya Correa , Executive Director of the Contract Management Institute at the National Contract Management Association , and former Chief Procurement Officer at the Depa...

Early fiscal year 2024 is the target date for a reorganization at the General Services Administration . GSA will restructure the Federal Acquisition Service. Alan Thomas , Chief Solutions Officer at Leadership Connect and former Commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at GSA, tells you how the reorg will work, and what it will mean for GSA and its employees; GSA customers; and industry. He...

A new initiative from the Defense Department will try to counter China with large quantities of autonomous systems. Breaking Defense reports Deputy Secretary of Defense Kath Hicks says the Replicator project will “ leverage platforms that are small, smart, cheap, and many. ” Dov Zakheim, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former Under Secretary of Defense (Com...

The Merchant Marine service is dealing with some of the same people problems the rest of government is dealing with. RADM Ann Phillips (USN ret.) is Administrator of the Maritime Administration at the Transportation Department . On the latest edition of Fed Gov Today TV , she explains why the people problem is her biggest issue right now. Several federal agencies are increasing the number of days...

The Department of Veterans Affairs is the recipient of one of the most recent Technology Modernization Fund awards. The TMF Board says the $7.4 million award “ aims to help the VA tackle the digitization of forms at scale .” Maria Roat, Founder and CEO of MA Roat Consulting and former Deputy Chief Information Officer of the United States, details the potential pitfalls of digital modernization pro...

The Federal Government is getting better at moving money from one agency to another . But it still has work to do in a number of money management areas. Dawn Simpson , Director of Financial Management and Assurance at the Government Accountability Office, explains what those issues are, and how to fix them. Customs and Border Protection has a 70% goal to hit by the end of this month. That’s the pe...

The Commerce Department is counting down to a big cloud move at the end of this month. On the latest edition of the Fed Gov Today TV show , the Chief Information Officer at Commerce, Andre Mendes , tells you what’s coming October 1st. The Chief Information Officer at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is making a culture shift. Robert Costello told me about it in a one-on-one con...

The White House is asking agencies to “ aggressively execute ” back-to-office strategies this fall. President Biden’s Chief of Staff, former Deputy Director for Management at OMB Jeffrey Zients calls in-person work “critical to the well-being of our teams.” John Sawyer , Director of Education, Workforce, and Income Security Issues, and Michael Hoffman , Director of the Center for Economics, both a...

The Office of Management and Budget is working on a 10-year plan to modernize federal IT. Chris DeRusha, the Federal Chief Information Security Officer, says legacy system modernization is “ the number one biggest rock that needs to get moved for us to be able to secure our systems. ” Richard Spires, principal at Richard A. Spires Consulting and former Chief Information Officer at the Department o...

The National Finance Center does payroll, human resources, and retirement services for 650,000 federal employees across 170 agencies. It’s up against the same modernization challenges other federal government organizations are facing. Margie Graves , Senior Fellow at the IBM Center for The Business of Government , and former Deputy Chief Information Officer of the United States, led a team for the...

GovForward FedRAMP Headliner Summit August 23 Big changes are coming to the 8(a) program at the Small Business Administration. Vendors will soon have to tell their own stories about why they should be in the program . Joe Jordan , President and CEO of Actuparo and former Administrator of Federal Procurement Policy, explains why both contractors and SBA could have some trouble ahead. The newest ser...

GovForward FedRAMP Headliner Summit August 23 The new edition of one of the federal government’s guiding performance documents is out. The update to Circular A-11 includes references to strategic reviews, customer experience, and evidence-based policymaking. Robert Shea , Chief Executive Officer of GovNavigators , former Associate Director at the Office of Management Budget, and former Commissione...

The State Department’s “ Tech for Life ” initiative will give each employee her or his own phone number to connect to the department’s IT. The CIO at the State Department, Kelly Fletcher, says the department is running two pilot programs this summer. Karen Evans, Partner at KE&T Partners, and Managing Director of the Cyber Readiness Institute and former E-gov Administrator at OMB, and former C...

The Department of Veterans Affairs is moving to a new supply chain management solution . The agency’s solicitation has been on the street for a couple weeks now. Greg Giddens , Partner at Potomac Ridge Consulting and former Principal Executive Director of the Office of Acquisition, Logistics and Construction at VA, tells you what he sees in the solicitation, and what he reads between the lines. Th...