The latest COVID-19 relief legislation being prepared by House Democrats – the HEROES Act – proposes $1 billion for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) to help Federal agencies improve their information technology systems. […]

We’re all looking for guidance in these uncertain times. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., will join MeriTalk for an online Town Hall Meeting this Thursday from 11:00 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. to discuss Federal workforce, telework, and IT modernization issues in the COVID-19 pandemic. Connolly will speak to all Federal employees and contractors – so tune in and bring your questions. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and other Washington-area House members are questioning the Federal government’s decision to remove the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) building operation authority, and claiming that action is part of the Trump administration’s plan to move forward with an OPM-General Services Administration (GSA) merger. […]

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. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., is hosting a roundtable discussion for private sector companies to discuss what challenges they face when seeking Federal security clearances on Feb. 24 at George Mason University. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., chairman of the House Government Operations Subcommittee, and Federal CIO Suzette Kent said Thursday night at MeriTalk’s FITARA Awards (LINK) ceremony that they are looking forward to considering ways to further evolve the FITARA scorecard that tracks Federal agency IT performance and accountability.  […]

The FedRAMP Authorization Act, sponsored by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., passed unanimously in the House by voice vote on Feb. 5. […]

Thursday at the FITARA Awards ceremony, a powerful group of government, Hill, and industry leaders will launch the public-private FITARA Forward Initiative. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, introduced a bill Jan. 28 to give Federal employees a 3.5 percent pay raise in 2021. […]

Representative Mark Meadows, R-N.C., announced today that he will not run for reelection in 2020, removing a top Republican voice on Federal IT in the next Congress. […]

The House Oversight and Reform Committee voted to advance the Federal Risk Authorization and Management Program (FedRAMP) Authorization Act to the full House during a work session today. […]

Members of the House Oversight Government Operations Subcommittee expressed happiness with the  progress that Federal agencies have made on their FITARA scores, but remained critical of the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) guidance on the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) due to the policy’s revised guidelines on what constitutes a data center. […]

Seven Federal agency chief information officers and their senior staffs won well-deserved recognition earlier this month for boosting their agencies’ grades on the latest FITARA (Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) Scorecard issued by the House Oversight and Reform Committee. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., chairman of the House Government Operations Subcommittee, pledged late Tuesday to continue his subcommittee’s vigorous oversight of Federal agency IT modernization efforts, and to evolve the criteria underlying one of the more visible aspects of that oversight effort – the semiannual FITARA (Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) Scorecard issued by the full House Oversight and Reform Committee. […]

With summer coming to a close and back-to-school season approaching, agencies will need to catch up on their assignment to get task orders in for the next generation of telecommunications contracts – Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions, or EIS. With a September 30 deadline fast approaching, did the class of Federal agencies do their homework on the contract? Current indicators show some progress, but a long way to go. […]

With the year quickly coming to a close, the FedRAMP Authorization Act will be one of Rep. Gerry Connolly’s “big priorities” for legislation, with a markup session expected when the House returns from its August recess, Connolly said during MeriTalk’s Cyber Security Brainstorm today. […]

The Senate on July 25 approved the Federal Agency Customer Experience Act (S. 1275), which would charge Federal agencies with gathering customer feedback about agency services, and to make some of that feedback data public. […]

Leadership of the House Government Reform Subcommittee introduced legislation today that would codify into law the FedRAMP (Federal Risk Assessment and Management Program), and take a number of other actions aimed at making the program work more efficiently. […]

Federal IT is on the right path and is making progress on modernization, but Congress will continue to push agencies to modernize faster and address slowdowns in processes, including FedRAMP, said Representative Gerry Connolly, D-Va. […]

Democratic and Republican leaders of the House Subcommittee on Government Reform today previewed their bipartisan effort to create legislation that would codify into law the FedRAMP (Federal Risk Assessment and Management Program) program that standardizes security requirements of cloud services used by the government, and make the FedRAMP program operate more efficiently. […]

With ever-changing threats, advances in technology, and persistent adversaries, the cybersecurity landscape for Federal IT can seem like a shootout against attackers coming from all angles. […]

Reps. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and Gerry Connolly, D-Va., strongly voiced doubts that the Trump Administration’s plan to merge the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the General Services Administration (GSA) would help solve OPM’s existing IT troubles in a July 15 letter to OPM Acting Director Margaret Weichert. […]

The House on July 11 approved an amendment to its version of the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 2500) that would block the Trump administration’s plan to merge the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the General Services Administration. […]

Two Democratic senators told Margaret Weichert, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), to put the brakes on proposed furloughs of OPM employees in connection with a plan by the Trump administration to merge OPM with the General Services Administration. […]

While the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) may be struggling with its outdated and constrained IT systems, the need for modernized technology is not a valid reason to merge OPM with the General Services Administration (GSA), said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., in a June 30 interview with Government Matters. […]

Most Federal agencies earned stable scores in the latest FITARA (Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) Scorecard issued by the House Oversight and Reform Committee, but two big shifts in the way the committee reached those grades could portend significant changes going forward. […]

Members of Congress raised concerns over what they called a spotty response from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to requests from the Hill for documents related to OPM’s reorganization plan, during a hearing of the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations on June 27. […]

The chairman and ranking member of the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Government Reform delivered a clear to-do list on Thursday to Federal CIOs: pursue further data center consolidation, tighten the reporting lines between CIOs and agency heads, and craft better roadmaps for IT modernization. […]

Congressional concerns over the revision to the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) policy were a main focal point during a hearing on the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) Scorecard 8.0 today. […]