The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has added 22 new fields of study to the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Optional Practical Training (OPT) program for enhancing contributions of nonimmigrant students studying STEM subjects. […]
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been using funds from the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) fund since 1993, but according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the agency could generate better data to deliver those funds to vulnerable populations in an equitable fashion. […]
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded Lumen Technologies an 11-year task order worth more than $1.2 billion to modernize the agency’s IT infrastructure with “a fully integrated wide-area data transport service with secure remote access, contact center, and cloud connectivity solutions.” […]
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) completed a framework to allow electronic health information to be more easily shared among providers and individuals called the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA). […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Electronic Health Records Management (OEHRM) is looking for a dashboard that will help to coordinate its Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) program with the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Defense Health Agency (DHA). […]
The House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology favorably reported several bills to the full House today, including H.R. 847—the Promoting Digital Privacy Technologies Act. […]
vThe Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently reviewed five financial regulators to understand their systems for protecting personally identifiable information (PII)— which can be shared with Federal agencies, law enforcement, and contractors— and found room for improvement in certain areas. […]
Step one in Federal agency digital transformation has little to do with ones and zeros – and everything to do with hashing out a coherent vision of functional improvements and goals that an agency wants to achieve over the longer term. […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced it is delaying its Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) program deployment schedule at the second location in Columbus, Ohio, amid a surge in COVID-19 cases. […]
Reps. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., and Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., are seeking more information on efforts by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) efforts to reduce security risks to Federal networks through the use of multi-factor authentication (MFA). […]
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is preparing to rebid a contract for the digital platform that connects taxpayers, paid tax preparers, and IRS employees to agency systems. […]
Kenneth Wainstein, the Biden administration’s nominee to become undersecretary for Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), fielded questions on several tech-related issues from members of the Senate Intelligence Committee at a Jan. 12 committee hearing to consider his nomination. […]
The Department of Energy (DoE) announced plans to upgrade the U.S. electricity grid with a major aim of helping to protect vital energy infrastructure against supply disruptions caused by environmental, physical, and cyberattacks, and to minimize the impact of supply disruptions. […]
Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Jody Hice, R-Ga., have sent letters to the IRS, Social Security Administration (SSA), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) seeking feedback on how the agencies are implementing the CASES Act. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has updated its cybersecurity guidance for system engineers, adding more insight for engineers and programmers on mitigating system vulnerabilities. […]
Facing over $4.6 billion in potentially fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and continuing challenges with IT investments, the Small Business Administration (SBA) has yet to meet its goal to revise the agency’s Certify system by the end of 2021, according to SBA Inspector General Hannibal “Mike” Ware. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is nudging Federal agencies to establish chief diversity officer positions – a key element in the Biden administration’s push to emphasize workforce diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA). […]
The Senate on Jan. 11 voted to approve the nomination of Alan Davidson as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, and head of the agency’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). […]
As part of its overall IT modernization efforts, the U.S. Coast Guard has transitioned to an updated integrated financial, procurement, and asset management system. […]
The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) published a notice on the Federal Register today looking for input on how to best distribute over $48 billion in new broadband funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is looking into how obstacles, including trees and buildings, impact millimeter waves – which is a new class of signal that 5G technology will use. […]
The General Services Administration (GSA) issued an updated request for information (RFI) this week that aims to help Federal government senior executives improve workforce policies and initiatives. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) plans to publish new regulations governing Federal anti-discrimination and whistleblower protection, following a 2021 law to improve agency accountability and transparency in discrimination-related incidents. […]
Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Kiran Ahuja emphasized in a recent report summing up the Federal government’s experience with telework during Fiscal Year 2020 that the practice will remain important to the government going forward particularly in creating further resiliency of agency operations and in helping workforce recruiting efforts. […]
The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) plans to take up a proposal to require “nutrition labels” for broadband service at the commission’s public meeting set for Jan. 27. […]
A bipartisan group of senators led by Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., is asking Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Transportation (DOT) Secretary Pete Buttigieg about the agencies’ ability to meet their responsibilities as co-Sector Risk Management Agencies (SRMA) to detect, prevent, and respond to cyber threats to critical transportation infrastructure. […]
The White House on Jan. 4 sent to the Senate fresh nominations for dozens of senior Federal government posts, including key positions at the Department of Energy (DoE), the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) made seven new appointments to its Health Information Technology Advisory Committee (HITAC), according to a Dec. 20 press release. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is extending the deadline for agencies to adopt skills-based hiring assessments, according to a memo from OPM Director Kiran Ahuja. […]
The Federal Communications Commission on Dec. 30 released membership rosters for the six working groups of its Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC), which provides advice to the agency on how to improve security and reliability of U.S. communications systems. […]