Smarter Gov Tech, Stronger MerITocracy
Federal money spending government

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a new report that the government is missing out on generating up to $182 billion in savings and financial benefits for taxpayers because Federal agencies are slow to implement – or won’t take action at all – thousands of recommendations from the government watchdog agency. […]

us passport government publishing office gpo

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., plans to introduce new legislation that would address the State Department’s passport applications backlog that now stands at over three million, giving the agency more support in its efforts to trim down the backlog. […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) launched a $30 million program to assess gains from research and development (R&D) related investments, and to predict how the U.S. could strategically fund future research in emerging technologies. […]

military healthcare, veterans healthcare

Leaders at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are using technology to meet their mission outcomes of bettering healthcare across the nation for those who served in the military, as well as leveraging tools to help clinicians provide the best care possible for veterans. […]

U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton announced Federal charges on June 28 against 14 people who allegedly defrauded the Small Business Administration’s SBA COVID-relief Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) of $53 million. […]

contract acquisition CFO

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) upheld 98 protests to the National Institutes of Health Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center’s (NITAAC) $50 billion Chief Information Officer-Solutions and Partners 4 (CIO-SP4) IT services contract, concluding that the agency “unreasonably evaluated” companies in the first evaluation phase. […]

VA, Veterans Affairs

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hosted a DigitalVA Expo today in Palo Alto, California, where VA leaders shared some of the technology experiences the agency has been working on to improve care for veterans, as well as the transformation that needs to happen at the VA to continue to build excellence in technical solutions. […]

cyber workforce

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) today repeated its call for the White House to quickly appoint a permanent National Cyber Director, and also urged the Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) to move with dispatch on helping Federal agencies prepare for implementing the National Cybersecurity Strategy released by ONCD in March. […]

NASA

NASA made strides during the first half of this year in key priority areas around digital transformation – including data consolidation and incorporating artificial intelligence tech into daily operations – and for the second half of the year is continuing the focus on digital transformation from a cultural perspective. […]

A bipartisan group of House members has introduced legislation that would give the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Justice (DOJ) authorities to take more aggressive action in countering illicit drone aircraft activities. […]

The State Department is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information that would link the CL0P Ransomware Gang or any other malicious cyber actors targeting U.S. critical infrastructure to a foreign government. […]

With the importance of cybersecurity and IT taking center stage across the Federal landscape, three agency chief technology officers (CTO) talked this week about actions they are taking to help meet their organizations’ cybersecurity needs. […]

OPM Office of Personnel Management
Veterans Affairs

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced the establishment of a new team that aims to advance equity in benefits to all veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors – regardless of their age, race, ethnicity, gender, religion, disability, or sexual identity. […]

The Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a new report today estimating that of the $1.2 trillion SBA disbursed through its pandemic assistance loan programs, over $200 billion was potentially fraudulent. […]

Bipartisan leaders of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on June 21 issued calls for briefings and further information from the General Services Administration (GSA) and component offices as it digs more deeply into how GSA misled Federal agencies by falsely claiming that its identity-proofing website – Login.gov – met government standards for identity-proofing. […]

Treasury

The Department of Treasury has awarded Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) a $1.3 billion cloud modernization contract to “support a complete range of cloud and professional IT services,” the company announced last week. […]

DHS
VA, Veterans Affairs

MeriTalk recently sat down with Kurt DelBene, chief information officer (CIO) and assistant secretary for information technology at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to talk all things zero trust, Special Salary Rate (SSR), and his time so far as the agency’s CIO. […]

General Services Administration GSA

The General Services administration (GSA) said on June 22 that it plans to exercise the five-year option period under its Alliant 2 Governmentwide Acquisition Contract, which provides Federal agencies with access to more than 40 different companies offering integrated IT services and service-based solutions. […]

HUD Urban Development

Amber Chaudhry, acting chief experience officer at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), has left her position at the department, according to her LinkedIn posting. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is helping Federal agencies to save taxpayer money on duplicative programs, offices, and initiatives, saving roughly $600 billion since GAO began this work in 2011 – with more cost-saving opportunities available. […]

DHS

Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, who chairs the House Oversight and Accountability Committee’s Government Operations and Federal Workforce Subcommittee, took to task Federal agencies with notable service backlogs – and the pandemic-era workplace norms that he says contributed to them – during a subcommittee hearing on June 21. […]

As cybercrime continues to grow across the United States, Federal agencies need to step up and develop streamlined metrics that can help better categorize and deter these crimes, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. […]

Ann Dunkin

The Department of Energy (DoE) is in the “drafting process” of creating a new cybersecurity strategy that will address cloud technologies to be used by the agency going forward, according to Ann Dunkin, chief information officer at DoE, who talked about process for the strategy during a June 20 event organized by Federal News Network. […]

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