A top Biden administration cybersecurity official laid out her wish list today for how the incoming Trump-Vance administration should prioritize cybersecurity challenges and regulations. […]
The Federal government is curtailing its “surge” response to the SolarWinds Orion and Microsoft Exchange hacks after seeing improvements in patching that have helped to remediate the impacts of the cyber attacks, the Biden administration said today. […]
The Biden administration has suspended for 90 days a May 2020 Trump administration executive order that placed restrictions on the use of equipment made by “foreign adversaries” in the United States bulk-power system. […]
General Services Administration (GSA) chief Emily Murphy has asked for the resignations of all agency political appointees in order to demonstrate GSA’s “commitment to a peaceful transition of power” to the incoming Biden administration following the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol complex by a mob supportive of President Trump. […]
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a Dec. 23 update to its budget guidance to Federal agencies that removes a section that required agencies to evaluate the performance of their programs as part of the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA). […]
New legislation being prepared by House leaders will aim to track the promulgation of any “midnight” regulations by the outgoing Trump administration with an eye to amending or eliminating any eleventh-hour rules that are not based on “evidence and research.” […]
The White House launched a new online portal–AI.gov–today to outline the Trump administration’s national artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives in a consolidated website. […]
In response to the Trump administration’s American AI Initiative, Intel released its recommendations for a national strategy for artificial intelligence that hashes out the goals and actions needed to advance the AI industry. […]
A bipartisan group of senators urged Trump administration officials in a letter dated today to ban the use of inverter equipment made by China-based Huawei from the U.S. electric grid, citing the same cybersecurity concerns that led Congress to block Huawei network equipment from the U.S. market because of firm’s alleged links to Chinese intelligence services. […]
On Thursday, the U.S. government released its Fourth U.S. Action Plan for Open Government that will work to making Federal government data more accessible, ensuring the grant-making process is more accountable, and Federally funded scientific research is more accessible. […]
Yesterday, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released the Trump Administrations 2018 S&T Highlights report. […]
Underneath its more headline-grabbing aspects such as the proposed merger of the Departments of Labor and Education, the Trump administration’s Federal agency reorganization proposal issued on June 21 marks another step in the wider push toward greater Federal government IT modernization, a former Department of Commerce (DoC) official told MeriTalk. […]
While the White House’s proposal to reorganize the functions of many Federal agencies made the biggest headlines today with major steps like the proposed merger of the Departments of Education and Labor, the lengthy proposal document released today also touches on a host of other significant issues including the Federal cybersecurity workforce, delivery of government services to citizens, and handling of background checks for Federal Employees. […]
Welcome to MeriTalk News Briefs, where we bring you all the day’s action that didn’t quite make the headlines. No need to shout about ‘em, but we do feel that they merit talk. […]
The White House said on Thursday that it will create a new artificial intelligence (AI) advisory committee–dubbed the Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence–that will advise the White House on AI research and development efforts in government and industry. […]
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross emphasized on Tuesday that the Trump administration is prioritizing deployment of 5G wireless technology even as major service providers are restructuring their operations in pursuit of similar goals. […]
The $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill signed by President Trump on Friday gives a sizable boost to the Department of Defense, including a respectable 2.4 percent pay raise for DoD personnel, and for now at least gets Pentagon leaders off the frustrating, and at times wasteful, treadmill of continuing resolutions. And, while the bill doesn’t get into specifics about critical efforts such as cyber operations and artificial intelligence, it does continue programs DoD has underway. […]
Opening day for the Nationals might be a week away, but four Beltway insiders have already knocked one out of the park. The latest omnibus spending bill, which passed through the Senate early Friday morning, includes $100 million for the MGT Act’s centralized revolving capital fund. President Trump signed the MGT Act into law late last year as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act. […]
This week, two members of the White House technology policy team, Grace Koh and Reed Cordish, announced that they are leaving their positions. The White House already selected replacements for both positions. […]
The Trump Administration’s proposed $4.4 trillion budget for FY2019 would add some money to the cybersecurity pot, supporting ongoing programs and manpower levels, while cutting back on cybersecurity research and redistributing where the research money goes. Administration budget requests are largely political documents whose numbers won’t hold up once Congress gets done with making the sausage, but they do reflect White House priorities. […]
The Trump Administration proposes spending nearly $45.8 billion on IT investments at major civilian agencies next year, a slight rise from the $45.6 billion in fiscal 2018, according to the 2019 budget proposal released Monday. […]
President Donald Trump last week issued an Executive Order on veterans’ health care that included an announcement that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) would adopt the same electronic records systems as the Department of Defense (DoD), signing off on what was already a done deal. Emphasis on “deal,” because although the departments are on board with a project that could cost $10 billion over 10 years, history raises doubts as to whether a unified health records system can actually be achieved. […]
Last year brought a great deal of change to Washington, D.C., from a new administration moving into the White House to D.C. United building a new stadium. As 2018 starts up with seemingly limitless IT opportunities ahead, MeriTalk takes a look back on the top Federal IT stories from 2017. […]
President Donald Trump’s cybersecurity executive order will be announced in the near future, and will focus on the administration’s cybersecurity priorities of innovation, protecting critical infrastructure, and addressing international cyber norms, according to Robert Joyce, special assistant to the president and cybersecurity coordinator at the White House. […]
The Office of Management and Budget today unveiled its plan to reorganize Federal agencies, called the “Comprehensive Plan for Reforming the Federal Government and Reducing the Federal Civilian Workforce,” which responds to President Trump’s March 13 Executive Order to OMB. […]
Outgoing Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall during his final public appearance said the only measurement that really counts in DoD acquisitions is if the things the Pentagon buys increase the combat capabilities of the military. […]
Analysts and pundits have been wringing their hands for the past two weeks trying to predict what the election of Donald Trump means for Federal IT and technology policy. Of course, nobody has a good answer because nobody really knows. […]