Priorities Podcast

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...

The civic tech nonprofit Code for America is hosting its annual summit, in Chicago, this week. Amanda Renteria, the group’s chief executive, said the event is “one moment you get in community on this marathon,” the marathon being the long stretch of challenges facing government technology leaders: changing budgets, changing federal policy and new technologies that are both offer promise and challe...

The House of Representatives this month approved legislation that would extend the legal mandate of the FirstNet Authority through 2037. Such a long-term authorization would come with both “a positive and a negative impact,” according to Paul Rosenzweig, a lawyer who served in the Department of Homeland Security’s policy directorate about two decades ago, when the idea of a fully interoperable pub...

Zach Boyd, director of the Utah Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy, said in a recent interview that he’s trying to “lay the foundations for AI governance.” His office doesn’t regulate or enforce AI policy, but acts as “a developer of legal frameworks” and “manager of pilot” projects in the private sector. Body said he thinks successful AI policy will come from including many different types...

Tony Sauerhoff has been serving as Texas’s interim chief information officer since January, after Amanda Crawford, the former statewide CIO, stepped down. Last month Gov. Greg Abbott removed Sauerhoff’s interim status, leaving him to head the state’s IT policy work, from AI to cyber. “I think AI is going to play a big part of where we're headed and what we're focused on going forward,” he said on...

The fire department of San Bernardino County, California, is testing a new firefighting technology that uses low-frequency sound waves, rather than water or chemicals, to suppress flames. The Paiute Tribe of Bishop, California, on Thursday became the first group to connect to the state’s middle-mile broadband network when it linked its education and community centers. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and t...

The Commonwealth Office of Digital Experience, Pennsylvania’s digital services bureau, also called CODE PA, has a new executive director. Sara Hall recently took over the office, with plans to build on the “strong foundation” built by Bry Pardoe, now the state’s chief information officer, she told the Priorities Podcast. Hall said the office is busy as April’s federal accessibility compliance dead...

“Smarter people than I always describe it as: cyber is a team sport, and you don't want it to be a pick-up game,” Geoff Hale, visiting fellow for election security at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said in a recent interview for the Priorities Podcast. “You want to know who you're passing to, you want to know who you're engaging with and who your defense is. Nobody's going to be an exper...

A piece of legislation advancing through the legislature in Idaho would, uniquely, prohibit state agencies from procuring or even using artificial intelligence systems that promote principles of diversity, equity or inclusion. Borrowing much of the same language from a similar proposal advanced last year in an executive order by President Donald Trump, Idaho House Bill 687 would require vendors an...

New Mexico's timely broadband subsidy program by StateScoop

On April 24, states will be held to new accessibility standards for their websites. Some states are further along than others in being able to meet that deadline. Some states — including Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota and Texas — are ahead of the pack, said Marie Cohan, Texas’ statewide digital accessibility coordinator, while others are less prepared. But more states are jumping in, even without s...

“People should not be forced to choose between serving their community and protecting their family,” Justin Sherman, interim vice president of the Public Service Alliance, told the Priorities Podcast. States’ data privacy laws are typically focused on protecting the public, but offer little to protect public servants, he said. “There are a growing number of cases where … individuals who want to ha...

“Technology is the engine of government,” and any administration looking to accomplish its policy objectives should hire a strong technology team. That’s the advice of Minnesota Chief Information Officer Tarek Tomes, who after nearly seven years, will soon step down for a CIO role with the University of Minnesota. For the Priorities Podcast, Tomes recalled Gov. Tim Walz’s request that he provide “...

“A lot is going on” with state and local government cybersecurity in 2026, said Carlos Kizzee, senior vice president of MS-ISAC strategy and plans at the Center for Internet Security. He told the Priorities Podcast that he thinks government is going through yet another transition to a “new normal”: “A lot of our jurisdictions in the state, local, tribal and territorial community are adjusting to r...

Faced with budget constraints and diminished support from the federal government, many states are turning to modernize their processes and technologies, according to a recent report from the Pew Charitable Trusts. Melissa Maynard, a project director at Pew who authored that report, says states are feeling pressure, including from changes to Medicaid and SNAP programs, that will in many cases requi...

States are working toward approvals that could help them soon begin building out their broadband networks with funds from the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program. Drew Garner, director of policy engagement at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, said this begins with getting plans approved by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a step 42 sta...

In Alaska, state officials responsible for keeping the public safe from avalanches are increasingly looking to use commercial products, such as drones, roadside sensors and digital maps to reduce their reliance on military technologies. Timothy Glassett, Alaska’s statewide avalanche and artillery program manager, says on the Priorities Podcast that the system currently used to spur “preventative”...