Fed Gov Today

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...

This edition of Fed Gov Today is sponsored by Carahsoft and Salesforce. Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command features six major commands. One of them is Fleet Weather Center Norfolk . Capt. Erin Acosta , Commanding Officer of Fleet Weather Center Norfolk, says her command is a sister command to Fleet Weather Center San Diego . Readiness is still top-of-mind for the military, including the se...

This edition of Fed Gov Today is sponsored by Carahsoft and Nightdragon. The Commandant of the Coast Guard, Adm. Linda Fagan, says her service is in a race for talent . RDML David Barata , Commander of the Coast Guard’s Personnel Service Center,tells me how the Coast Guard competes for that talent. Industry will play a bigger part than ever in solving problems for the sea services, according to le...

This edition of Fed Gov Today is sponsored by Carahsoft. The U.S. Naval Observatory says its mission is to “define and apply the physical environment, from the bottom of the ocean to the stars.” The Observatory is only a few years away from its 200th birthday. At Sea-Air-Space 2023 this week, Geoff Chester, Chief Historian of the Naval Observatory, tells me about the unique place the Observatory h...

The Chief Information Officer of the Defense Department says the Pentagon now has enterprise cloud computing capabilities at all three security levels. John Sherman told Congress last week that capability will be a key tool in implementing its zero trust strategy. Brig. Gen. Paul Fredenburgh (USA ret.), Executive Vice President for the National Security and Defense Engagement Department for AFCEA...

Government leaders should - and can - move faster to deploy artificial intelligence solutions, according to a group of industry leaders . Those leaders tell me generative AI will enable government to do a lot more than it’s doing today. Angela Sheffield , Senior Director of Artificial Intelligence at Raft, and former Senior Program Manager for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at the Nation...

This program is sponsored by Carahsoft and NVIDIA. The Director of the Office of Personnel Management will release a cyber talent management plan soon , according to testimony to the House Oversight and Reform Committee. That commitment is one of several Kiran Ahuja made in testimony that you heard in part on Fed Gov Today recently. Angela Bailey, founder and CEO of Anandalife, former Chief Human...

The new National Cybersecurity Strategy aligns with the Defense Department’s key cyber initiative. The Chief Executive Officer of the organization partnering with DOD on that initiative calls the strategy a rebalancing of cyber responsibilities. Matthew Travis , CEO of the Cyber AB , explains how the CMMC program intersects with the strategy. The Defense Department is extending a pilot program tha...

The new Defense Department Cyber Workforce Strategy includes four pillars for the department to focus on. The Department says an implementation guide is coming soon. Brig. Gen. Greg Touhill (USAF ret.), Director of the CERT Division at the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and former federal Chief Information Security Officer, explains how to get the strategy from docume...

This program is sponsored by Denodo. The Department of Veterans Affairs says it will rely on its VistA electronic health record system for another five to ten years. The VA’s transition to the Cerner health record system is on hold now. VA officials outlined their plan for maintaining VistA at a hearing of the House Veterans Affairs Technology Modernization subcommittee Tuesday. Jim Gfrerer, found...

This program is sponsored by Denodo. The Department of Veterans Affairs says it will rely on its VistA electronic health record system for another five to ten years. VA officials outlined their plan for maintaining VistA at a hearing of the House Veterans Affairs Technology Modernization subcommittee Tuesday. Roger Baker, consultant at Roger Baker Consulting, former Assistant Secretary for Informa...

This program sponsored by Denodo. Brig. Gen. Denise Brown is in her seventh month as the Director of the Army’s Networks and Command, Control, Communications, and Computer Services and Integration . One of her primary jobs is to move the Army’s Unified Network Plan forward. At AFCEA DC’s most recent luncheon event, BG Brown explains her team’s role in strategic competition. The E-Gov Act is 20 yea...

From West 2023 in San Diego, CA, sponsored by Carahsoft. A lot of the focus at West 2023 was on the Pacific. But the war in Ukraine was top of mind too. Maj. Gen. Erich Staudacher (GEAF ret.), General Manager of AFCEA Europe , says the similarities in the Pacific and in Europe should inform the way industry works with governments. Navy leaders are shifting the way they look for solutions to proble...

Fact sheet about the new National Cybersecurity Strategy from the White House The complete National Cybersecurity Strategy (PDF) State Department statement on National Cybersecurity Strategy The new National Cybersecurity Strategy is out from the Biden Administration. It updates the last National Cyber Strategy that came out in 2018. It’s built on five pillars: defending critical infrastructure; d...

From West 2023 in San Diego, CA, sponsored by Carahsoft. SEAL teams around the world are just one group that gets its comms support from Naval Special Warfare Tactical Communications Command One. The command supports other special operations forces and conventional forces too. Commander Blythe Blakistone , commander of TCC1, tells me about her command’s mission. The Navy is using unmanned systems...

From West 2023 in San Diego, CA, sponsored by Carahsoft. Three weather operations provide data for the Navy. Those operations include Fleet Weather Centers in Norfolk, VA and San Diego , and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Oahu. Captain Kate Hermsdorfer, Commanding Officer for Fleet Weather Center San Diego, tells me who her command’s customers are, and what her command does for them. The Depa...

From West 2023 in San Diego, CA, sponsored by Carahsoft and Infoblox. The Defense Department is part owner of the effort to modernize the “ Public Safety Communications Ecosystem. ” It shares that work with the Department of Homeland Security. Sridhar Kowdley is Program Manager in the Office of Science and Engineering… in the Science and Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Securit...