Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy

A recent Federal watchdog report is urging the Department of Defense (DoD) to pause further investments in the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) laser communications technology until it can provide more evidence of its effectiveness in space. […]

DoD

President Donald Trump’s March 1 executive order that declares English to be the official language of the United States leaves Federal government agencies – many of which provide services in multiple languages to reach people with limited English proficiency – on their own as to how to provide those services following the order. […]

General Services Administration GSA

The General Services Administration (GSA) has shut down its 18F organization, a digital consulting office created during the Obama administration to partner with agencies to help them build or buy technology services. […]

A member of the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) stepped down last week, leaving the board with only a narrow quorum to act as its case load quickly mounts following the Trump administration’s moves to quickly reduce the Federal workforce.   […]

DoD

The Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is working to create pathways that bypass entrenched processes within the department’s ecosystem – which have become barriers to bringing innovative solutions into the Department of Defense (DoD), a senior official said on Thursday. […]

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is claiming millions of dollars of spending cuts across two large Federal agencies in information technology (IT) and modernization spending – including in one instance that involves return of funding that had been provided by the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF).  […]

Union leaders and Democratic members of Congress are hailing a Federal court judge’s decision issued late Thursday to uphold a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and its orchestration of Federal agency firings of their probationary employees – and language in the decision that finds OPM’s actions were likely unlawful. […]

TMF
IRS

Melanie Krause, who currently serves as chief operating officer at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), has been named the tax agency’s commissioner – the title that heads the agency – on an acting basis.   […]

Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., who co-chaired the prior Congress’s House AI Task Force, said on Wednesday that he is “really optimistic” about Congress’s ability to pass substantial AI legislation and plans to reintroduce the Creating Resources for Every American To Experiment with AI Act (CREATE AI Act). […]

Gene Dodaro, comptroller general of the United States and head of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), told lawmakers this week that his agency is preparing to potentially take President Donald Trump to court over his efforts to freeze Federal funding for programs that Congress has already approved. […]

DoD

The Department of Defense (DoD) has officially transitioned from the concept phase and into the execution stage of developing its meta-network of connected sensors to coordinate all the armed forces – the Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) system – with technology leaders now addressing the challenges of bringing it to fruition. […]

Karen Evans

Long-time Federal government IT and cybersecurity leader Karen Evans has been named executive assistant director for cybersecurity at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a CISA official confirmed to MeriTalk. […]

contract acquisition CFO

President Donald Trump is ordering Federal agencies to undertake a sweeping review aimed at cutting or modifying some existing contracts, and to build new technology into their systems to record all agency payments under certain contracts, display written justifications for payments, and give agency officials ways to actively monitor payment flows. […]

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is instructing Federal agencies to consider reclassifying “career reserved” Senior Executive Service (SES) positions as “general,” giving them until March 24 to review and revise a list of SES positions. […]

cyber workforce

Democratic members of the House Homeland Security Committee said today they are pulling their support for legislation that aims to build the cybersecurity workforce, citing their opposition to widespread Federal employee layoffs being instituted by the Trump administration.   […]

space

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) told most civilian Federal agencies today to get their Agency RIF and Reorganization Plans (ARRFs) wrapped up by March 13, and instructed that those plans should feature a “significant reduction” in full-time employees achieved by eliminating positions “that are not required.” […]

employee workforce federal worker-min

Members of the House Oversight and Reform Committee clashed on Tuesday over the impacts of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), mounting Federal worker firings, and defense spending levels, with one Republican member predicting that the current turmoil at Federal agencies may be the “tip of the iceberg.” […]

Federal Software Reimagined: Fueling Mission Success
EHR, electronic health record

Officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Government Accountability Office (GAO), and VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) told lawmakers on Monday afternoon that it will be “impossible” to complete the VA’s Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) program on its current timeline. […]

Categories