Priorities Podcast

For the past several years, the federal government has driven much of the nation's broadband expansion through a $42 billion investment in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, or BEAD. But as states put that funding to work, an important question looms: What happens when the federal investment runs its course? A new 50-state review from The Pew Charitable Trusts examines four key...

How a registry helped Minnesota reach “functional zero” in veteran homelessness Last week, Governor Tim Walz announced that Minnesota is the fifth state to effectively end veteran homelessness, a milestone known as “functional zero.” Functional zero does not mean veteran homelessness across the state has been eliminated, but it does mean that homelessness has become rare, brief or nonrecurring. Wa...

What does it take to modernize state government when legacy systems, limited budgets and competing priorities stand in the way? Minnesota is taking a different approach, using a $40 million Technology Modernization Fund to accelerate projects across state agencies. The initiative has earned national recognition from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers — but what makes the...

The everchanging role of State CIOs: a reporter's eye view Last episode, we heard directly from State Chief Information Officers who attended the annual National Association of State Chief Information Officers conference in San Diego last week. They shared their hopes and fears regarding artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, workforce development and the IT projects they’re undertaking. This wee...

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers held its annual conference this week in San Diego, bringing together dozens of state technology leaders to discuss the most pressing IT challenges agencies across the country are facing, including modernization, cybersecurity and privacy, data infrastructure and of course artificial intelligence. Some CIOs were enthusiastic about the opp...

Developers, states or the federal government: who's really responsible for AI regulation? Michael Pastor, New York Law School's Dean of Technology Law, discusses the intensifying debate for AI legislation and the urgency to regulate the rapidly advancing technology. He identifies the pros and cons of state regulation in the absence of federal regulation, and breaks down the real meaning behind wha...

Can a city combat homelessness with improved data? San Jose's new shelter dashboard aims to find out Matt Mahan, mayor of San Jose, California, discusses the city's new shelter system dashboard and how better data infrastructure could improve its response to homelessness. The new tool will track shelter use, length of stay, demographics, people housed, program exits and destinations, exits without...

Keith Wilson, a talent engagement manager at the U.S. Digital Response, discusses the organization’s new Digital Service Toolkit and the evolution of digital service teams in state and local government. He highlights the challenges governments face in building the internal structures and talent needed to deliver effective digital services, as well as the role artificial intelligence could play in...

Luis Bettencourt, a professor at the University of Chicago, discusses the evolution and importance of rural mapping. He highlights the role of high-resolution satellite imagery, drone technology, and AI in enhancing mapping precision. Bettencourt emphasizes the significance of the Modernizing Access to Public Roads Act (MAPS Act) in digitizing rural records and creating standardized data sets for...

Jason Kavulich, secretary of Pennsylvania's Department of Aging, talks about the state's new Comprehensive Aging Performance Evaluation tool, or CAPE, which delivers upgrades to the agency's IT system. The tool represents a new statewide approach to modernizing how the state evaluates its 52 area agencies on aging — which are local organizations that helps older adults and adults with disabilities...

A coalition of advocacy and privacy groups this month filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s effort to expand federal access to sensitive data collected through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Representatives from two groups involved with the lawsuit told the Priorities Podcast that the recent move violates federal privacy law. John Davisson, a deputy director...

After the Trump administration canceled the Digital Equity Act last May, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance sued the federal government. Now, more than a year later, there’s a path toward restoring at least some of that funding. In a joint status report filed last week, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration said it plans to reopen the program and restore funding — a d...

Last week’s cyberattacks against water and wastewater facilities in Minnesota have actually affected at least 12 states, according to ABC News. The federal government has said it’s looking into whether Iran is responsible for the coordinated attack, but has not formally attributed it to any particular party. On the Priorities Podcast, Patrick Gillespie, OT practice director at the firm GuidePoint...

One year after catastrophic flooding killed more than 100 people along the Guadalupe River, another round of deadly July flooding swept across Central and South Texas, creating flash flood emergencies that forced evacuations and rescues along the Guadalupe River and in Kerr County. To give emergency managers earlier, more precise warnings, a team at the University of Texas at Arlington is leading...

Extreme heat is becoming one of the fastest-growing challenges facing state and local governments across the country, an issue that affects far more than public health. Rising temperatures threaten infrastructure, electric grid reliability, worker productivity, agriculture, emergency management and government budgets. Grace Wickerson, a senior manager of climate and health with the Federation of A...

The democratization of technology is ordinarily considered a good thing, but as AI models become more powerful, people working in cybersecurity, in particular, have raised concerns about what that is doing to the threat landscape. The availability of models that can find vulnerabilities in software and rapidly exploit them is troubling for even the most powerful governments. But for cities, towns...

Things like identity management and threat intelligence are important for cybersecurity, said Kevin Greene, the public sector chief cybersecurity technologist with the software firm BeyondTrust, but limiting access is the key. The fast pace of change in technology has led organizations to become “very reactive,” he said, when instead they’d be served better by getting “ahead of the attack lifecycl...

When Estonia escaped Soviet occupation and regained its independence in 1991, it took a propitious turn to the internet. In seeking to establish a new, democratic government, the northern European nation began building digital services, setting a foundation that would lead it eventually to become one of the world’s most thoroughly connected governments. Liisa-Ly Pakosta, Estonia’s minister of just...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development last month offered state and local governments up to $3 million to deploy AI-powered building code permitting systems. Julia Richman, the former chief transformation officer of Colorado and a vice president of the software company Clariti, said on the Priorities Podcast that her company offers a solution to some of these common challenges with permit...

Assistant Secretary Adams joins the podcast to discuss the "A Home for Every Child Initiative," and how modernizing child welfare systems with predictive algorithms and automated tools can better support families in need. New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday. For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subs...

Greenberg joins the podcast to discuss the AIDE initiative and how it fits into the national effort to use emerging technologies in emergency management New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday. For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts , Soundcloud or Spo...

Michael Santorelli of the New York Law School said the BEAD program will involvle as many as four million utility poles across the country, and complex regulations and rules around their use could slow dow broadband deployment. Santorelli joins the podcast to discuss the his organization's recent report that evaluates the problem with utility poles when it comes to BEAD deployment. New episodes of...

Chief AI officer role is ‘part strategy, part operator, part change leader’ A growing number of states are hiring officials whose primary job is to ensure the considerate deployment of artificial intelligence. In Oklahoma, that’s Tai Phan, who last November was named the state’s first chief artificial intelligence and technology officer. Phan said the role is unique because AI is infused into all...

Lopez and Varn discuss how states are implementing BEAD while dealing with uncertainty, technical debates around the program and the core challenge of access versus adoption.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency could be headed for one of the biggest overhauls in its history. Samantha Penta, associate professor at the University of Albany’s College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity, describes for the Priorities Podcast what it might look like for the nation to return to what she called the “golden age of FEMA.” This week’s top stories: C...