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 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. […]

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. […]

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 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 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. […]

Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Margaret Weichert will be leaving government in mid-March to return to the private sector, MeriTalk has learned.  […]

Successfully implementing DevOps methodology requires a maturation process and cultural shift for organizations, experts from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) advised today. […]

With multiple hearings on the Hill, an FY 2020 budget proposal coming from the White House, and numerous non-government organizations hosting technology events, the week ahead looks to be a busy one for Federal IT. […]

The House and Senate late today voted to fully reopen the Federal government until Feb. 15, ending a 35-day shutdown that began before Christmas. […]

In a Monday briefing, acting White House budget director Russell T. Vought said that tax refunds will be permitted to be processed during the shutdown. […]

A partial government shutdown was still in effect as of Monday, December 24, 2018, after Congress and the Trump administration could not come to an agreement on a government funding bill over the weekend. […]

Data from the Federal government’s IT Dashboard website appear to indicate that Federal CFO Act agencies have made some progress but are still more than 1,000 data centers short of their intended closure goals for 2020 under the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI). […]

The Office of Management and Budget today released a draft of its new Cloud Smart strategy, marking the first update to White House guidance on Federal agency cloud adoption since 2011. With the new draft strategy the administration has broadly highlighted three areas–security, procurement, and workforce–as the foundational areas of the strategy and where it feels that updated guidance is most necessary. […]

The Office of Management and Budget received more than 40 responses to a request for information (RFI) for its planned Government Effectiveness Advanced Research (GEAR) Center, and today a representative from OMB provided more detail about the RFI’s results, the proposed structure of the new center, and where the currently-unspecified amount of “seed funding” for the center would go in order to support various disciplines including Federal IT modernization. […]

A new report published today by the Government Accountability Office is calling attention to persistent agency difficulties in complying with the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA), as well as difficulties with finding skilled acquisition professionals across the Federal government. […]

The White House released a memo to agencies on Tuesday that highlighted its priorities for research and development for fiscal year 2020, including leadership in artificial intelligence and strategic computing, increased connectivity and technology modernization within agencies. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report today tracking progress of the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on developing an e-commerce program that Federal agencies can use to purchase commercial products through portals that the program will create. […]

At a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Wednesday, July 25, to examine findings of the Federal Cybersecurity Risk Determination Report and Action Plan released by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in May, lawmakers and private sector witnesses hailed new legislation as a necessary – but on its own insufficient – step to bring down the security risks of three-quarters of Federal agencies deemed in cyber danger. […]

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said today that he introduced legislation – the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Reform Act – which would codify the FedRAMP program in Federal law and address what the congressman said are shortcomings of the program, including the slow pace of implementing standardized practices and realizing efficiencies in the certification process. […]

The White House called on the Senate to appropriate FY2019 funding for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), although it did not suggest a specific funding level in a statement of administration policy issued by the Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday. […]

Federal CIO Suzette Kent, testifying today at a joint subcommittee hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said that the Federal government intends to complete all of the tasks outlined in the Federal IT Modernization Report by the end of the year. She said that the majority of those tasks are already complete, and that many have beaten the timelines the government had set for itself. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report today finding that three-quarters of major Federal agencies maintain incomplete, untimely, inaccurate, or poor-quality spending data, and that around half of them are not even implementing required data standards in the first place. […]

The House Oversight and Government Reform (OGR) IT subcommittee followed up last week’s release of the sixth FITARA Scorecard (Scorecard 6.0) by releasing a second, more detailed scorecard. It provides insight into each of the categories of FITARA scoring, with methodology, metrics, calculations, and detailed data points on just how well each of the 24 agencies fared.  […]

As Federal agencies move away from older telecom contract vehicles and transition to the new Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract–completion of which is due by the spring of 2020–a logical place to start is with conducting an inventory of all network devices. This will provide a good look at what type of future network is needed to achieve mission goals and objectives. […]

Federal agencies might not meet the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) data center closure goals, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. Based on current projections, only 7,221 of the 12,062 data centers that agencies reported in August 2017 will be closed by September of this year. […]

On Tuesday, President Trump released his management agenda, which focused heavily on his IT modernization goals. Top of mind for the administration? Improving the customer experience, helping agencies better deliver on their missions, and reducing costs to the taxpayer. […]