Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
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. […]

CISA

Troy Edgar, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be deputy secretary at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), told lawmakers today that he backs the administration’s decision to disband the Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB), adding that the board will be reinstated “at the right time.” […]

Michael Kratsios, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), pledged during his Senate confirmation hearing today to bolster the nation’s efforts in artificial intelligence and quantum technology if confirmed.  […]

Senate hearing Congressional-min

While the Trump administration plans to reshuffle funding priorities at the Defense Department (DoD) and eliminate “unnecessary” programs, President Trump’s nominee for the Pentagon’s second-highest civilian position, Steve Feinberg, assured lawmakers today that advancing autonomous capabilities would remain a top priority if he is confirmed – suggesting that the agency’s Replicator initiative may be continuing on a safer funding track. […]

House Oversight and Reform Committee Ranking Member Gerry Connolly, D-Va., demanded today in a letter to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that OPM rescind its memo issued earlier this month that redesignated Federal agency chief information officer (CIO) positions. […]

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., chair of the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, and Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, have sent several letters to national intelligence officials seeking an update on efforts to declassify documents related to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), more commonly known as UFOs. […]

Biometrics

Former top Federal officials and travel leaders are calling on Congress and the White House to create an interagency task force to oversee national travel policy and increase the rollout of biometric security screening and other technology-driven capabilities across U.S. airports.  […]

Treasury

Microsoft, after teaming up with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), last week unveiled a new chip that could fast-track the development of quantum computers and bring them into wider use within years instead of decades. […]

Pentagon Military Defense DoD

Elon Musk’s social media notice on Saturday that Federal government employees need to state five things they “got done” during the previous week or face the loss of their jobs drew swift pushback over the weekend and into Monday from several Federal agencies including the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and State, along with fierce criticism from both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill. […]

Defense Information Systems Agency, DISA

The president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS) employee union decried employee layoffs at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as “dangerous,” and broke down in an interview with MeriTalk how the job cuts impact technology and safety-related positions. […]

A Federal court judge on Feb. 20 blocked a request from five Federal employee unions for a temporary restraining order (TRO) challenging the Trump administration’s reduction-in-force executive orders and “deferred resignation” program. […]

House Oversight and Reform Committee ranking member Gerry Connolly, D-Va., is pressing the Trump administration to declare who actually runs the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after the White House said that Elon Musk – who is intimately associated with the effort – doesn’t work under the new agency.   […]

FBI

 Ron Ross, a computer scientist and fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is retiring from government service, an official from NIST confirmed to MeriTalk. […]

DoD

The Department of Defense (DoD) is gearing up to cut $50 billion over the next five years from its current budget lines in order to shift funding to “higher priority defense projects” that would align with President Donald Trump’s “achieve peace through strength” mandate. […]

Department of Transportation

The Department of Transportation (DoT) has named Pavan Pidugu as its new chief information officer (CIO), according to the agency’s website. […]

A group of probationary Federal employees who were fired by the Trump administration have brought a class-wide complaint before the Office of Special Counsel, an independent Federal agency that investigates allegations of prohibited personnel practices. […]

Democratic members of the Senate Appropriations Committee have asked the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for more information on what the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is doing at the agency after reports that DOGE has been granted access to veterans’ personal records.  […]

President Donald Trump issued an executive order (EO) late on Feb. 19 that focuses the administration on finding ways to cut from the Federal government’s “non-statutory” activities – or those not specifically described in laws approved by Congress – along with a host of other functions that the administration considers to be detrimental to the country.   […]

Labor

Lori Chavez-DeRemer, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Department of Labor, promised at a Senate nomination hearing on Feb. 19 to take a “deeper look” into how the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is approaching the agency and impacting its workforce. […]

As Federal agencies grapple with increasingly complex IT environments, AI Ops – which applies AI to automate IT operations – is a growing approach for organizations to identify and resolve system problems faster, experts from GDIT and ServiceNow said in a recent conversation. […]

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