Fed Gov Today

The leader of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency , Jen Easterly , says her agency is “ not tracking a significant impact against the civilian .gov enterprise ” because of the MOVEit hack . But there is more CISA can do to help civilian agencies fight cyber attacks, according to Ron Sanders , the President and CEO of Publica Virtu ; former Associate Director at OPM; and former Chi...

The Department of Veterans Affairs and the IRS are two agencies dealing with backlogs for citizen services. The VA has a claims backlog in the Veterans Benefits Administration ; the IRS has a backlog of tax returns . Paul Lawrence, former Undersecretary for Benefits at the Department of Veterans Affairs and his co-author Mark Abramson have a piece in Gov Exec titled “ Helping Production Agencies D...

The Department of Veterans Affairs is rolling out its new Workforce Dashboard . The agency has set a monthly update schedule for the dashboard. Tracey Therit, Chief Human Capital Officer at VA, tells you what the dashboard tracks , who its customers are, and what they can do with the information there. She also describes how the dashboard will continue to evolve over time. Photo: Tracey Therit, Ch...

The nominee to become the next Commandant of the Marine Corps says technology is integral to preparing his service for the future fight. The Senate Armed Services Committee questioned Gen. Eric Smith, the current Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, at his confirmation hearing Tuesday . In this highlight of the hearing, the Chairman of the Committee , Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) asks Gen. Smith abo...

This edition of Fed Gov Today, featuring the ACT-IAC Health Innovation Summit 2023, is sponsored by Red Hat and Carahsoft. Innovation is coming fast for health care providers all across the federal government, according to speakers at the Health Innovation Summit. The people who run the support infrastructure will benefit from innovation too. Ryan Dempsey Argentieri is Deputy Director of the Offic...

On the latest episode of the Innovation In Government television show from SOF Week , you learned about five pillars the Operator Relief Fund bases its help around for Special Operators. The pillars are sleep; alcohol; hormones; nutrients; and psychological. At SOF Week, I asked Derek Nadalini , Beneficiary Advocate for the Operator Relief Fund, how his group settled on those five pillars. Defense...

The intelligence community is moving to the cloud through its Commercial Cloud Enterprise . But one of the I-C’s leaders says the community doesn’t have a multi-cloud strategy . Bob Osborn , Chief Technology Officer for Global Governments for ServiceNow & former CIO of the National Nuclear Security Administration, describes what goes into a multi-cloud strategy, and how to make it work. The Un...

The next evolution of FedRamp is here. A new blog post at FedRamp.gov is titled “ Revision 5 Baselines Have Been Approved and Released .” Dave Wennergren, CEO of ACT-IAC & former Chief Information Officer of the Navy, former Deputy Defense Department CIO, and former assistant Deputy chief Management Officer at DOD, explains what the new guidelines mean, and what comes next for industry and age...

This podcast was recorded at GEOINT Symposium 2023 , hosted by the US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, in St. Louis, MO, May 22-23, 2023. Technology isn’t the aspect of the metaverse government leaders are strategizing for. Personal privacy and personal security are important considerations for government leaders too. Dan Opstal, Acting Director of the National Civil Applications Center at the...

This podcast was recorded at GEOINT Symposium 2023 , hosted by the US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, in St. Louis, MO, May 22-23, 2023. The theme of this year’s event is “ From Maps To Metaverse .” Many of the discussions here focused on the metaverse. Christy Monaco , Vice President of Programs at the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation and former Chief Ventures Officer at the National G...

Congress could find budget savings in federal agency software, according to a veteran of the Hill. He calls those contracts “software vampire squid.” Matt Cornelius , former Senior Professional Staff Member for the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and former Senior Technology and Cybersecurity Advisor at the Office of Management and Budget, writes about software licensin...

The debt limit debate on Capitol Hill could have some impact for operations at federal agencies. Those implications for agencies could be somewhat familiar and different at the same time. Janice Haith, industry strategic advisor at Oracle and former Deputy Chief Information Officer of the Navy, tells you why, and how to prepare for it. Operators across the government are using the Team Awareness K...

The Inspector General’s office at the General Services Administration has a new look at the Transactional Data Reporting pilot on the Multiple Award Schedule. That new look finds more problems on top of the problems the IG office found before . Larry Allen , President of Allen Federal Business Partners , doesn’t think the problems the IG found are problems, and he explains why. U.S. Special Operat...

The Defense Logistics Agency says its supplier base shrunk 22% between 2016 and 2022. DLA leadership released supply chain data at the Supply Chain Alliance Conference and Exhibition in Richmond earlier this month. Tara Murphy Dougherty, Chief Executive Officer of Govini and former Chief of Staff for Global Strategic Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, describes how data can help th...

Today is day three of Public Service Recognition Week . Part of the observation of that week each year is the release of the finalists for Service to America Medals . Max Stier, President and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, outlines what goes into choosing the finalists each year, and some of the great stories of the work this year’s finalists do. The Defense Information Systems Agency...

The Chief Information Officer of Space Systems Command, Col. Jennifer Krolikowski, says she’s “cautiously optimistic” about generative artificial intelligence. DefenseScoop reports military services are just one part of the government deciding how they want to use the technology. CDR Juliana Vida (USN ret.), chief strategy advisor at Splunk and former Deputy Chief Information Officer of the Navy,...

The Office of Personnel Management’s new data strategy includes four goals. OPM says those four goals will push the agency toward becoming “the nation’s premier employer and provider of human capital data.” Robert Shea , Chief Executive Officer of Gov Navigators and former Associate Director at the Office of Management Budget, tells you what to look for as OPM works to deliver on the strategy. A d...

The National Cybersecurity Strategy is part of the Biden administration’s preparation for cyber attacks against the federal government and the private sector. Former Federal CIO Tony Scott, now CEO of Intrusion, calls them “cyber shocks” in a new presentation in collaboration with the IBM Center for the Business of Government and the National Academy of Public Administration. He joins me to talk a...

This edition of Fed Gov Today is sponsored by Interos and Carahsoft. April is Supply Chain Integrity Month . The theme this year is “Supply Chain Risk Management: The Recipe for Resilience.” Devin Lynch, Director of Supply Chain and Technology Security in the Office of the National Cyber Director, wrote a blog post about the recipe, and joined me to dig deeper into it. Federal agencies have a two-...

The House Oversight and Reform Committee will review the new edition of the Government Accountability Office’s High Risk List Wednesday. GAO publishes an updated list every two years; the newest list came out last Thursday. Michelle Sager, Managing Director for Strategic Issues at GAO, reviews what’s new about this year’s list. The Coast Guard is expanding its cyber work, and the size of its cyber...

The Air Force is on the hunt for a new Chief Information Officer. Lauren Knausenberger will leave that job June 2nd . She’s been in that post since August 2020. Lauren is my guest for the entire show today, to discuss zero trust, the cloud, and her other priorities and achievements as she prepares to wind down her service as Air Force CIO. Photo: Lauren Knausenberger, Department of the Air Force c...

This edition of Fed Gov Today is sponsored by SAIC. The Air Force calls its Cloud One offering a multi-cloud, multi-vendor ecosystem. Cloud One hosts more than 100 applications. Maj. Andrew Beckman , Program Manager for Cloud One, introduces you to some of his team, and explains how Cloud One’s multi-cloud environment drives mission success for the Air Force.  The Air Force’s multi-cloud environme...

This edition of Fed Gov Today is sponsored by Carahsoft and Hitachi Vantara. The Fleet C4I and Readiness Department at Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic is responsible for what it calls three thrust areas. The Department lists cybersecurity; innovative culture; and high velocity learning as those three thrusts. Greg Lancaster, head of the Fleet C4I and Readiness Department, tells me more a...

4/14/23: The Best Places to Work in the Federal Government NASA is the Best Large-Agency Place to Work in the Federal Government again this year, according to the Partnership for Public Service. This year’s rankings include some big moves in both directions for agencies - for a lot of reasons. Max Stier, President and CEO of the Partnership, reviews the new numbers, and recommends action for agenc...

This edition of Fed Gov Today is sponsored by Carahsoft and Dell. The new National Strategy for the Arctic Region takes a 10-year view of that region of the world. The strategy says it will be “a framework to guide the U.S. Government’s approach to confronting the new challenges and opportunities in the Arctic.” CDR Casey Gon , Director of the National Ice Center , and Commanding Officer of the Na...