Fed Gov Today

The Air Force Research Lab digital transformation strategy has four key components: faster research, streamlined transitions, better decisions, and low-friction business and operations. The leader of that transformation at AFRL says she sees five deadly sins for digital transformation. Alexis Bonnell is CIO and Director of the Digital Capabilities Directorate at AFRL. At the ACT IAC Digital Transf...

“ Government Can Deliver ” is a rallying cry of technologists and program leaders all across government. It’s also the title of the new book from the former Chief Information Officer at the IRS and DHS, Richard Spires . My thanks to Richard for the invitation to MC a book signing event at the headquarters of the Partnership For Public Service yesterday. At that event, I ask Richard what prompted h...

The General Services Administration is rolling out several artificial intelligence projects to make the jobs of its contracting officers easier. Several of those projects revolve around automating tasks. Jeff Koses is Senior Procurement Executive at GSA. At ACT IAC’s AI Procurement Forum at Carahsoft headquarters in Reston, he says his agency has a lot going on in the acquisition AI space. The kin...

The artificial intelligence executive order the White House released in October calls for agencies to “improve A-I procurement.” Agencies may soon actually start to use AI to do that. Polly Hall is Senior Advisor to the Chief Procurement Officer at the Department of Homeland Security. At ACT IAC’s AI Procurement Forum recently at Carahsoft headquarters in Reston, she says the use cases for AI in a...

The Department of Veterans Affairs lists three items among its highlights for 2023. The Chief Technology Officer, Charles Worthington, and CIO Kurt DelBene named VA’s Health and Benefits mobile app; improvements to VA.gov; and expanding the online Veterans Legacy Memorial program as those three items on the latest episode of the Office of Information and Technology’s monthly LinkedIn Live series,...

The newest “ Data, Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence Adoption Strategy ” from the Chief Digital and AI office at the Pentagon focuses on the convergence of those three elements. Experts believe the impact on warfighting will be profound. Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan (USAF ret.) is former director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center. He’s writing about AI and geopolitics , and we discuss wha...

The Air Force will apply data to determine readiness of pilots. That’s one of a number of areas the Air Force will apply data… to measure its success. Colt Whittall is Founder and CEO of BRAVO17, and former Chief Experience Officer of the Air Force. He linked to an article on LinkedIn titled “ Readiness Redefined But Not Measured ” where the author, Matthew Ross, writes about the pilot readiness d...

A new National Defense Industrial Strategy is coming from the Pentagon any day now. The model to operationalize that strategy already exists in the MRAP story , according to Jerry McGinn . He’s Executive Director of the Baroni Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University , and former Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manufacturing and Industrial Base. He’s writing ab...

Some of the numbers for your TSP will change in 2024, and some will stay the same. And, the TSP is digging into a social science. Kim Weaver, Director of External Affairs at the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, tells you what’s changing , and how the TSP is trying to get its message across better with social science. Civilian agencies in the federal government have thousands of use case...

Federal agencies have a roadmap now for delivering digital-first experiences to the customers they serve. The guidance the Office of Management and Budget calls “ Delivering a Digital-First Public Experience ” can be a roadmap for the vendor community too, according to Clare Martorana, the Chief Information Officer of the United States. On Fed Gov Today TV recently , I asked her what she meant by...

This podcast is sponsored by SAP Concur. The Chief Information Officer of the Navy, Jane Rathbun , says her service’s enterprise work platform, Flank Speed , will be the foundation of the Navy’s zero trust effort. The Navy stood up Flank Speed when the pandemic forced almost the entire service into remote work. Darren Turner , chief technologist for the Department of Navy Chief Technology Office,...

A change may be coming to your Thrift Savings Plan account. The TSP will use a new benchmark for the International Fund .  Kim Weaver, Director of External Affairs at the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, explains what the change means for participants, and what differences, if any, you’ll see in your account. A theoretical shift is under way at the Patent and Trademark Office. That shif...

The new Chief Information Officer at the Interior Department is the old CIO at the Farm Service Agency at the Agriculture Department. Darren Ash moved from USDA to Interior a little more than a year ago. He worked closely at USDA with that agency’s CIO, Gary Washington. At AFCEA Bethesda’s Energy, Infrastructure, and Environment Summit recently, I hosted a discussion with Darren and Gary. To begin...

The General Services Administration is pioneering human centered design in a number of areas. One of those areas in acquisition. Mike Shepherd is Director of the Catalog Management Office at GSA. At ELC 2023 , I ask him about the state of the art in human-centered design in contracting. More than half of agencies have moved off legacy telecom contracts, onto the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions...

A reorg is complete inside the Federal Acquisition Service at the General Services Administration. The Commissioner of FAS, Sonny Hashmi, told you about it on the Nov. 1st Fed Gov Today podcast (if you missed it, you can listen on demand at FedGovToday.com). At ELC 2023, Laurie MacNamara, Chief Customer Officer at TTS within FAS, says the position TTS has, and she has within it, are unique. Agile...

This Special Fed Gov Today podcast is sponsored by Verizon . The Labor Department’s customer experience efforts include its response to a major piece of legislation. The American Rescue Plan Act features several services the Labor Department provides. Lesley Sheffield, Senior IT Project Manager for ARPA Unemployment Insurance Modernization at Labor, details the path that Labor has taken to moderni...

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,...