The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) told Federal agencies in a March 20 memo to work with their Federal contractors, “if they haven’t already, to evaluate and maximize telework for contractor employees, wherever possible” during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. […]

The Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Dr. Kelvin Droegemeier continues to collaborate with World Health Organization (WHO) Chief Scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan to address the global impact of COVID-19 and information sharing. […]

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) launched the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium – a partnership with Federal agencies, industry, and academia – to provide supercomputing resources to COVID-19 coronavirus researchers on March 22. […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is requesting $45.8 billion in Fiscal Year 2020 emergency funds to support the government-wide response to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, including updates to agency IT to support telework and improve cybersecurity. […]

The White House said on March 18 that President Trump intends to nominate Russell Vought to be Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). […]

The Professional Services Council (PSC), a trade group representing the Federal contractor community, today called on the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to issue “clear and comprehensive government-wide guidance” to provide maximum telework flexibilities for contactors. […]

Thanks to COVID-19, most of us are now working from home – or otherwise isolating to take care of on-prem mission-critical functions.  In this new world order, managing anxiety and stress has become just as important as taking care of the normal workloads. […]

As Federal agencies increasingly move to telework due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Federal IT leaders across the government agreed that communication is a key building block for successful teleworking. The panelists specifically zeroed in on the importance of maintaining a strong cybersecurity posture even as employees begin to conduct work on their own network and potentially expose the agency to more cyberattacks. […]

In a letter to Federal CTO Michael Kratsios, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., questioned the Federal government’s plan to use American’s smartphone location data to fight COVID-19. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., along with 56 other House members, pressed ahead today with a demand to President Trump for an executive order mandating telework for all eligible Federal employees and contractors. […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) told Federal agencies in a March 17 memo  to “maximize telework across the nation for the Federal workforce” due to the COVID-19 coronavirus, marking a significant shift from previous guidance which had included that mandate only for the Federal workforce in the National Capital Region surrounding Washington, D.C. […]

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) received extensive, machine readable coronavirus data and is now asking artificial intelligence (AI) experts to accelerate answers to high-priority COVID-19 questions from the science community.  […]

The Federal government and other entities are adjusting to and planning for the impact of the spreading COVID-19 coronavirus. […]

Verily Life Sciences plans to begin offering online COVID-19 coronavirus screening and information services to parts of the San Francisco area today, separate from virus information site efforts by its sister company Google. […]

It was a fast-moving weekend for the Federal government and its evolving responses to, and planning for, impact of the spreading COVID-19 coronavirus.  Here’s a quick look at some of the top developments of interest to the Federal IT community: […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in a memo dated March 15 asked Federal agency and department heads to offer “maximum telework flexibilities” to all current telework-eligible Federal employees in the National Capital Region (NCR). […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued instructions to Federal agency and department heads on March 14 to limit any travel by Federal agency employees to “mission-critical” situations due to the COVID-19 coronavirus. […]

The COVID-19 outbreak has created a flood of information to sift through for the Federal workforce. MeriTalk will attempt to collect and disseminate information as clearly as possible regarding the Federal workforce and IT policies as they relate to the Coronavirus. […]

The Office of Management and Budget released guidance dated March 12 to all heads of Federal departments and agencies to “maximize telework flexibilities” for the portions of the Federal workforce that are most at risk of severe illness from the COVID-19 coronavirus. […]

The director of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and government scientists from countries around the world are calling for publishers to make COVID-19-related research available to the public including in formats where they can apply artificial intelligence (AI) to the task of analyzing the data. […]

President Donald Trump signed the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019, solidifying $1 billion in funding for smaller telecommunications providers to rip out and replace equipment from Chinese firms, such as Huawei and ZTE. […]

The first round of cybersecurity job opportunities for graduates of the Federal Cyber Reskilling Academy has been posted on the USAJobs Open Opportunities site, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Chief Information Officers Council, and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced March 11. […]

Office of Management and Budget and NASA Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement are cohosting the second annual Best-in-Class (BIC) Fair on March 18 to teach participants the value of BIC category management principles. […]

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and several Federal agencies are planning more collaboration with the tech industry on innovative responses to the COVID-19 outbreak, as discussed today in a meeting between public and private sector representatives. […]

Federal CIO Suzette Kent said at the Micro Focus Government Summit today that preparing for the next decade of public sector modernization must include proper Fed training for cyber skills alongside the tech upgrades.  […]

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., has been selected as President Donald Trump’s next chief of staff after announcing in December that he will not be seeking reelection. […]

President Trump today signed into law a bill quickly approved by House and Senate this week that provides $8.3 billion of funding for Federal government response to the COVID-19 coronavirus, including vaccine and treatment development, support for state and local health agencies, and loans for small businesses impacted by the virus. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report issued today that most of the largest Federal agencies made good progress in meeting goals to close data centers in Fiscal Year 2019, but also recommended that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) take several steps to improve clarity of reporting on data center closures under OMB’s Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) issued in 2016 and modified last year. […]

President Trump announced March 2 that he intends to nominate VMware CEO Patrick Gelsinger to the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC). […]

The General Services Administration’s (GSA) release of Federal website standards in December 2019 was intended to aid agency compliance with the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (IDEA), but Larry Gillick, chief of web and digital strategy at the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Production and Conservation Business Center, raised concerns with unintended consequences of the standards. […]