The Daily Scoop Podcast: Recent Episodes
The Daily Scoop Podcast
A podcast covering the latest news & trends facing top government leaders on topics such as technology, management & workforce. Hosted by Francis Rose on FedScoop and released every weekday afternoon.
A website created by President Donald Trump’s DOGE to tally its purported cost savings contained myriad data quality issues and inaccuracies, a congressional watchdog reported Thursday. In a review of the Department of Government Efficiency’s “Wall of Receipts” website, the Government Accountability Office found the group didn’t use transparent methods to produce its figures, included lease terminations that predated DOGE’s creation, and listed savings with unknown origins. The findings again call into question the roughly $215 billion DOGE claimed to have saved the government and adds to reporting on the deficiencies of the website’s accounting. The New York Times, for example, has previously documented errors and deletions on that page. FedScoop has reported inconsistencies between officials’ publicly stated savings claims and the figures included on the website. GAO concluded its report by recommending that the website prominently display the existence of the data-quality issues and limitations. “Prominently displaying data limitations would enhance the value of the Wall of Receipts by providing users with the information that they need to interpret and use the data appropriately,” the report said. According to a letter included within the report, the audit was ordered by Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. Peters is the ranking member on the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Blumenthal is ranking member of its subcommittee on investigations. The report came a day after GAO released another report that revealed little available documentation of financial disclosures and completion of ethics and records management training by DOGE personnel.A House-passed bill to scrap educational requirements in federal contracting jobs cleared a key Senate panel Thursday, putting it on track for a vote before the full chamber. The Skills-Based Federal Contracting Act (H.R. 5235) advanced out of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee by a 10-0 vote. No senators commented on the legislation during the business meeting. The bill, led by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., would block federal solicitations from including any minimum education standards, unless the contracting officer provides a written justification on why the agency needs an exemption. “Washington created the paper ceiling. This bill tears it down,” Mace said in a statement. “A four-year degree should not be a government-mandated checkbox when hardworking Americans have already proven they can do the job. Demonstrated ability should open doors in this country.” The legislation passed the House in February and has been a pet project of Mace’s for years.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Only a fraction of the 206 DOGE personnel identified by a congressional watchdog had paper trails associated with ethics and records management training and financial disclosures, a congressional watchdog reported Wednesday. The findings came as part of a Government Accountability Office report focused on identifying the employment statuses and administrative activities of personnel while a part of the notorious, and now mostly defunct, Department of Government Efficiency. According to the report, GAO obtained relevant training and disclosure records for just 64 of the DOGE personnel it identified. Of that number, 49 completed ethics training, 18 completed records management training, and 38 submitted financial disclosures. It also identified that 27 DOGE officials were “special government employees,” which means they could hold employment elsewhere while working for the federal government temporarily. GAO noted that type of designation creates difficult ethics issues. But GAO reported difficulty finding even that level of information as a result of lack of responsiveness from multiple federal entities and limited information it received, the report revealed.The Technology Modernization Fund would be able to finance new projects through Dec. 11 under a provision in a Senate bill to avoid a government shutdown this fall. The current version of the fiscal 2027 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill authorizes $5 million for the fund, and though the bill has not yet received a floor vote in either chamber, the TMF is prioritizing artificial intelligence and projects to support faster permitting with the money it has left. But the Senate version of the continuing resolution, moving through a legislative vehicle (HR 6500), cleared its first hurdle Monday night with a motion to invoke cloture 89-4. While the chamber is set to continue consideration throughout the week, the House is out until the last day of the month, and its “clean” version stands in opposition to the Senate bill’s authorizing extensions like the TMF.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Throughout 2026, you cast your nominations for the FedScoop 50, and the results are in. Hundreds of top executives from across the government tech landscape are now up for vote to see who will be honored among this year’s FedScoop 50. Voting is open now and runs through September 25. Make your voice heard to help us select who will be recognized on this year’s list. One of those nominees in the prestigious Golden Gov category for this year is Department of Energy CIO Dawn Zimmer. Zimmer joined the Daily Scoop Podcast to discuss how the agency is balancing innovation and security in the age of AI, what the Genesis Mission means for her office, how AI adoption is going across the department and much more.A senior General Services Administration technology official has been placed on administrative leave after criticizing the government’s veterans’ hiring preference on his personal LinkedIn page, the agency confirmed Monday. Pete Waterman, director of FedRAMP and a career GSA official, said in the July post that his office needs experienced tech professionals, but federal hiring is “terribly broken.” “Veterans preference is brutally unfair when taken to the extreme of blocking any consideration of non-veterans, but we’re seeing that everywhere these days,” he wrote. “The future for FedRAMP is pretty dark if we can’t hire experts from private sector who have actually worked on cloud services.” GSA Administrator Edward Forst said in a statement that “we categorically and completely disagree with a senior employee’s recent remarks denigrating veterans preferences in hiring,” noting that veterans represent about 30% of GSA’s workforce. “GSA has zero tolerance for comments that disparage or disrespect America’s veterans,” Forst said. “The men and women who have worn and continue to wear our nation’s uniforms deserve our respect and unwavering support.” Veterans’ preference requires federal agencies to prioritize hiring qualified veterans before civilians.OpenAI’s self-reported breach in which an agent escaped testing and autonomously hacked the open-source AI tool company Hugging Face is generating interest in a congressional investigation. In a Friday open letter, dozens of public interest groups, progressive organizations, and academics urged lawmakers to open an investigation into the incident to determine whether stronger safeguards and independent oversight of AI model development and testing is needed. They called the incident “a historic inflection point” for AI. The letter comes after OpenAI’s July 21 disclosure of the breach added fuel to the fire of preexisting concerns about the capabilities of the ever-learning technology. According to the ChatGPT maker’s statement, an agent driven by several of its models found a way to break free of a testing sandbox, gain internet access, and discover ways to breach Hugging Face — all in an effort to cheat on a benchmarking test. OpenAI has been working with Hugging Face and third-party organizations to investigate and analyze the incident. The organizations that wrote the letter argued the incident arose from OpenAI’s own choices on system capabilities and testing design, including decisions it made on objectives for the agent and safeguards to prevent any issues.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Trump administration’s top IT official, Federal CIO Greg Barbaccia, is headed back to Palantir after he leaves government later this month, a White House official confirmed Friday. The news was first shared offhand by General Services Administration leader Edward Forst during a Thursday graduation ceremony for the U.S. Digital Corps. FedScoop verified the move with a White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be more candid. Barbaccia previously announced his departure in an email to the CIO Council earlier this month. In that email, obtained by FedScoop, Barbaccia said it was a “difficult decision to leave government” and that he planned to depart at the end of August. It did not, however, share where he planned to go. Prior to joining the Trump administration, Barbaccia spent roughly a decade at Palantir in roles such as head of intelligence and investigations.Department of Defense CIO Kirsten Davies recently approved a far-reaching directive laying out policy, responsibilities and procedures for information technology category management and digital modernization investments. The new guidance follows in the footsteps of other Trump administration tech-buying initiatives meant to streamline enterprise IT procurement and leverage economies of scale across the government’s massive footprint, like the General Services Administration’s OneGov initiative for federal civilian agencies. DoW Instruction 8000.02, which was approved by Davies on July 23 and became effective July 29, applies to all components of the department. It covers “all IT assets, including IT services, hardware, software, licenses, and associated components, in all IT categories (including national security systems (NSS) within DoW authorities and defense business systems) relevant to DoW mission and operations,” the directive states.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Existing FedRAMP certification is no longer required for Department of Veterans Affairs contractors to win bids, a top agency IT official said Tuesday in a memo obtained by FedScoop. Any acquisition documents, including requests for information, proposals or quotations, should not state or imply that a cloud company must have already completed the governmentwide security check, Zack Schwartz, principal deputy assistant secretary in the VA’s Office of Information and Technology, said in the memo. Schwartz wrote that the “memo supports VA’s ability to sustain momentum with mission needs to provide secure technology solutions in a dynamic cyber risk environment, while avoiding unnecessary delays in the procurement of critical systems and services.” He added that the “distinction is intended to preserve acquisition flexibility while maintaining VA’s risk management and operational security standards.” Instead, cloud systems, services and solutions companies must fully comply with other security requirements — including those from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, VA directives and handbooks — and receive a VA Authorization to Operate, which could be granted in 60 days.The Department of Homeland Security is expanding its AI use for FOIA processing in response to a sizable backlog and increasing number of requests, per the agency’s annual report. In fiscal 2025, DHS started with 221,068 pending FOIA requests. After receiving more than 1 million requests and processing nearly the same amount, the agency ended the year with 245,572 pending requests. Despite the uptick, DHS said it maintained its backlog — defined as the number of requests or administrative appeals at the end of the fiscal year that are beyond the statutory time for a response — at just 16% of total requests received. Technology could help the agency make a bigger dent in the years to come. “The DHS Office of Privacy continues to invest, develop, implement, and deploy new technological advances in FOIA processing,” the agency said in its 2025 FOIA report, published Thursday. “It expects to launch additional automation tools this coming year to further improve efficiency and reduce administrative redundancies.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Health and Human Services has a vacancy in its top IT post. Clark Minor is no longer listed as the agency’s chief information officer, per a webpage with the health department’s IT leadership. Instead, David Hong, the principal deputy CIO, is now identified as the department’s acting IT chief. It is unclear when the change to the webpage was made. HHS spokespeople did not immediately respond to FedScoop’s requests for comment on the timing of Minor’s departure as CIO. Per an agency source granted anonymity to speak more candidly, Minor gave notice to the secretary and is staying on as an advisor to help with the transition. Minor began at HHS as its chief technology officer in the early days of the second Trump administration, and was eventually tapped to replace Jennifer Wendel as CIO upon her departure. He has often been affiliated with the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency organization. Before joining the department, Minor was global head of cloud at Palantir Technologies for over a decade, per his financial disclosure published by ProPublica.The United States and United Arab Emirates are setting up a new bilateral military crew that will hustle to integrate their forces’ artificial intelligence capabilities, and deploy joint assets to monitor and enhance regional security. Task Force Talon Synapse is slated to soon be fully operational, U.S. Central Command announced Tuesday. Approximately 20 American and Emirati personnel with expertise in AI, data, cybersecurity and related technology areas will serve on the Abu Dhabi-based team. Centcom spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins told DefenseScoop: “We’re working to sign the agreement in the weeks ahead.” The UAE shares maritime borders with Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iran. It’s considered one of America’s key strategic and geopolitical partners in the Middle East. The two nations’ increasingly close cooperation over recent decades has been largely anchored by combined defense operations, major arms sales and the technological interoperability of their militaries.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Throughout 2026, you cast your nominations for the FedScoop 50, and the results are in. Hundreds of top executives from across the government tech landscape are now up for vote to see who will be honored among this year’s FedScoop 50. Voting is open now and runs through September 25. Make your voice heard to help us select who will be recognized on this year’s list. One of those nominees in the prestigious Golden Gov category for this year is Department of Commerce CIO Brian Epley. Epley joined the Daily Scoop Podcast to share updates on Commerce’s AI adoption and how the sprawling department manages the pace of innovation within the bureaucratic government planning and budgeting cycles, and much more.The Secret Service is planning to spend up to $20 million on AI robots for target practice as part of a contract it expects to award in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, per recently published acquisition planning documents. The Department of Homeland Security unit wants to add one autonomous robotic system that will include eight all-terrain infantry targets, one vehicle target and four other infantry targets. The Secret Service will require its robotic training squad to wear ballistic protection for various ammunition calibers. The agency has been building up its autonomous training tools with Marathon Targets, starting back in 2023. Over the past few years, the Secret Service has spent more than $4 million on the vendor’s autonomous robotic targeting system, according to USAspending records. The latest follow-on, no-competition contract is an expansion of these efforts.The Department of Government Efficiency’s time in Washington is over, but a pair of Democratic senators aren’t done pushing for answers about the Elon Musk group’s undertakings at the Social Security Administration. In a letter sent last week, Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Ron Wyden of Oregon blasted SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano for providing “inadequate responses” to congressional inquiries about DOGE’s handling of data and related information security risks. “Over the past fourteen months, we have repeatedly sought basic information about DOGE’s activities at SSA,” the Democrats wrote. “Your responses have either been unresponsive or later disproved by SSA’s own admissions.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Post-award bid protests filed at the Government Accountability Office will not hold up the Office of Personnel Management’s rollout of a governmentwide HR system. OPM spokeswoman McLaurine Pinover confirmed to FedScoop via email that all companies that were entitled to and requested a debriefing received one, and that all debriefings were completed “well over 10 days ago.” Per rules that govern bid protests before the GAO, that means that the nearly $400 million award the agency made to Oracle in June can no longer be challenged before the watchdog agency’s adjudicatory body. The eventual 10-year award to Oracle came after a rocky start for the push to build a governmentwide HR platform. OPM initially awarded a sole-source contract — one without a competitive bidding process — to Workday in May 2025 to facilitate the Trump administration’s HR modernization efforts, only to walk the award back shortly thereafter. OPM eventually launched open competition for a contract to establish a governmentwide HR system. That contract faced pre-award protests from IBM and Economic Systems, Inc., which were withdrawn or resolved, freeing up the agency to make its award. And ultimately, Oracle was announced as the winner.Most of the Technology Modernization Fund’s projects have yet to achieve expected cost savings, according to the Government Accountability Office, but there’s big money to be saved on the horizon. Two dozen projects are expected to reach savings of more than $1 billion, a figure that exceeds total TMF investments across its broader 68-project portfolio. Nearly a dozen of those have realized a combined $13.5 million in savings, while another 13 have not achieved savings at all, according to the GAO audit published Thursday. “While savings thus far have been small, the amount is not unexpected given that 21 projects — with expected savings of about $1.04 billion, or 98.3 percent of the total — anticipate achieving their savings in fiscal year 2027 or later,” the watchdog said in its report. Six TMF-funded projects that expected cost savings have been completed. Two were on track to meet their cost savings target. The watchdog found that the others missed the mark. A General Services Administration project went through “a major change that descoped planned work and reduced expected savings,” per the report. At least one other project met a similar fate, leading to less savings than initially planned. Higher-than-expected migration and transition costs led another project’s predicted savings to not materialize. Seven other projects were cancelled.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Genesis Mission is expanding beyond the Department of Energy to include 20 federal agencies that are bringing a combined commitment of more than $5 billion and a range of challenges to tackle. The Genesis Mission is a DOE-led effort to combine the advancements in AI, quantum and high-performance computing to stand up supercomputers, launch a national platform and double the productivity of the country’s research-and-development budget. The federal agencies enlisting in the initiative include the departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Transportation, and Interior, as well as NASA and the National Science Foundation. The expansion was announced Wednesday at the Genesis Mission 2026 Summit in Washington, D.C., with several agency leads in attendance.Seven out of 10 federal cyber regulations requiring written reports to federal agencies are duplicated elsewhere, a government watchdog found in a report to Congress Wednesday. And so far, efforts to de-conflict haven’t had much success, the report from the Government Accountability Office concluded. At the request of two top lawmakers, the GAO examined federal cyber regulations at 37 agencies. It counted 80 out of 117 rules that “either contain the same kind of reporting requirement applicable to a sector or the same reporting requirement as at least one other regulation.” The desire to harmonize those conflicting rules gathered steam under the Biden administration, as it undertook a more aggressive push to regulate cybersecurity than prior administrations. It has continued into the second Trump administration. The GAO scrutinized regulations that required the private sector to report cybersecurity incidents, plans and reviews to federal agencies, as part of a study sought by House Homeland Security Chairman Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., and the top Democrat on the Senate counterpart to Garbarino’s panel, Gary Peters, D-Mich.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Six Tech Hubs will get a combined $169 million under Department of Commerce awards announced Monday, redistributing funds the agency clawed back from winners over a year ago. The new awardees include projects in Virginia, Idaho, Illinois and Wyoming, among other states. The focuses of those hubs range from nuclear energy to forest bioproducts. Just two of the hubs — located in Maine and Missouri — again won after their previous awards were rescinded. The award announcement from Commerce’s Economic Development Administration comes more than a year after a decision by the department to rescind over $200 million in Tech Hub awards that were made in the final days of the Biden administration, and hold a new competition. At the time, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick called the previous process that led to those awards “rushed, opaque, and unfair.” But while that decision frustrated supporters, it also indicated that the bipartisan regional development program aimed at bolstering the technology economy across the country would continue after questions early in the Trump administration about its future. The new awards are confirmation of the program’s support. The awards also follow a National Science Foundation announcement last week for a similar program, Regional Innovation Engines. It named 12 engines across 20 states. While the Commerce and NSF programs have historically had bipartisan support, they’re up for reauthorization in fiscal 2027.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Throughout 2026, you cast your nominations for the FedScoop 50, and the results are in. Hundreds of top executives from across the government tech landscape are now up for vote to see who will be honored among this year’s FedScoop 50. Voting is open now and runs through September 26. Make your voice heard to help us select who will be recognized on this year’s list.One of those nominees in the prestigious Golden Gov category for this year is OPM Director Scott Kupor. Kupor recently sat down in the Daily Scoop Podcast studio to share updates on OPM’s ongoing federalwide modernization initiatives, from the latest on Tech Force to what’s next now that the agency has awarded Oracle its massive HR 2.0 contract.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Pentagon placed an immediate freeze on forthcoming cybersecurity requirements after government research suggested the policy would drive many businesses out of the defense industrial base at a time when the U.S. military urgently needs their innovations. Defense Department Chief Information Officer Kirsten Davies and Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael Duffey unveiled plans earlier this week to suspend the much-anticipated Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Phase 2 requirements that were set to take effect Nov. 10. A new CMMC Reform Task Force is expected to conduct a review of the entire program and submit a report of its findings and recommendations within the next 60 days. This major pause comes as contractors have been hustling to obtain third-party assessments of their CMMC compliance in preparation for that near-term enforcement date. The Pentagon released a new request for information to garner stakeholders’ feedback on the move and associated compliance challenges. The CMMC Reform Task Force will analyze the responses as part of its upcoming review of the program.Scale AI is joining the Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission consortium, serving as the collaborative hub for working groups and structured partnerships, the vendor shared with FedScoop prior to its announcement Thursday. The technology provider is the latest private-sector partner to join DOE’s Genesis Mission Consortium as the agency continues building up its roster. Emerald AI and SambaNova Systems have also jumped on board in recent weeks. For Scale AI, the partnership represents a further expansion of its role in the Genesis Mission and comes after it signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this year. “Scale’s contribution to the Genesis Mission builds on the work we’ve been doing for years: creating high-quality evaluation benchmarks, preparing data for advanced AI systems, developing AI agents for complex workflows, and supporting computer vision and robotics applications,” a Scale AI spokesperson told FedScoop. DOE launched the consortium in February as a way to deepen public-private partnerships that it believes will fuel the larger initiative. Scale AI joins the likes of Accenture, Amazon Web Services, Databricks and IBM.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Small Business Administration is ramping up its relationship with Palantir, announcing a “new phase” in its anti-fraud work with the data analytics and software giant. In a press release Tuesday, the SBA said it’s formalizing and expanding its work with Palantir after signing a $300,000 contract in January for a fraud prevention pilot and bootcamp. That deal had a projected end date of April 4, but the agency said in the release that the “collaboration” with Palantir will now continue through “ongoing efforts to identify, investigate, and help prosecute fraud in pandemic-era small business relief programs.” The agency pointed specifically to its Paycheck Protection Program and COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program as areas previously beset by fraud. SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said in a statement that the Palantir partnership “will strengthen our ability to expose fraudulent actors, support criminal enforcement actions, and recover stolen funds with advanced technology and artificial intelligence.” “No amount of fraud is acceptable — whether it is $10,000 or $10 million — which is why the SBA is deploying these tools to accelerate our work to surface wrongdoing and ensure those who cheated taxpayer-funded programs face consequences,” she added.The National Institutes of Health selected Kristen Honey, a longtime government data and technology official, to head up its coordination of public-private research partnerships. In a social media post, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT announced Honey as the inaugural official in the NIH role. As part of her duties, Honey will help “to build robust partnership models, reduce duplication, improve transparency, and move promising ideas from concept to execution with greater speed and consistency in collaboration with” ONC and across the department, per the post. The chief partnerships officer role is housed in the Office of the Director’s Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, per the post. “The ‘wicked problems’ that I run toward—complex, interdisciplinary challenges no one wants to own and that require cross-sector solutions—just got bigger. Joining NIH as Chief Partnerships Officer,” Honey said in a LinkedIn post. Honey has served in various HHS and White House roles over the past decade — including as HHS’s chief data officer. Honey was initially installed as CDO after President Joe Biden’s administration reorganization of its IT, data and artificial intelligence portfolio. Her time as CDO, however, appears to have ended after the Trump administration undid that reorganization in March, per her LinkedIn. Since then, she has listed her role as senior executive service. Currently, Arman Sharma, HHS’s deputy chief AI officer, is listed as the agency’s top data official on the CDO Council webpage.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The top IT leader at the Department of Transportation is resigning, FedScoop was the first to report last week. Pavan Pidugu, the DOT’s chief digital and information officer, was sworn in February 2025 after serving as the CTO for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for nearly five years. His last day will be Sept. 4. Under Pidugu’s leadership, the agency underwent a restructuring of its technology department. The agency also migrated to Google Workspace, becoming the first cabinet-level agency to fully transition using the General Services Administration’s OneGov deal. A DOT spokesperson told FedScoop in May that the Federal Aviation Administration was gearing up to migrate later this year. In total, more than 50,000 employees across the agency will have access. Pidugu’s resignation comes amid a wave of technology leader departures, including federal CIO Greg Barbaccia, whose last day will be at the end of August. Interior Department CIO Paul “Macca” McInerny left the agency last week.The Technology Modernization Fund is open for proposals and prioritizing faster permitting technology and artificial intelligence adoption projects, its acting director said Thursday. Jessie Posilkin said the TMF is “being explicit” about its desire for Council on Environmental Quality-supported projects to speed and scale permitting, and to advance USAi adoption in agencies facing capability and infrastructure gaps preventing responsible use. Posilkin said in a LinkedIn post: “TMF was made for moments like this, where agencies can’t afford to wait on budget and procurement cycles. I’m excited we’re still poised to help agencies meet a critical moment of opportunity – and a bipartisan one, at that!” Last month, Posilkin said the fund had $200 million left, pending potential reauthorization for fiscal 2027. But that might not stretch as far as it would have in the past, even with 100% of agencies repaying TMF loans, as the “scale and scope of government technology challenges are only going up” because of AI, Posilkin said at the time. The current version of the fiscal 2027 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill authorizes $5 million for the fund, but has not yet received a floor vote in either chamber. Agencies can submit a project proposal until July 24, but Posilkin encouraged them to move quickly so the small TMF team can review proposals expeditiously. She said: “This call is moving fast, partly out of necessity. We have a very narrow window between now and September 30, when our authorization to make new investments ends (absent congressional action, of course…). With more time, we could do even more — but we’ll meet as much of the agency need as we can, while we can.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
technologies.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Longtime IT industry leader Teresa Carlson has joined Anthropic to lead its public sector strategy as the artificial intelligence company navigates relationships with the U.S. and other governments. Carlson — who is known for her past leadership at Microsoft and Amazon Web Services — is now Anthropic’s global head of public sector, the Claude maker shared Tuesday. She is the first person to hold that title at the company. “After more than two decades helping government leaders navigate new technologies, I joined Anthropic because it prioritized working alongside government early and takes this as seriously as anything it does,” Carlson said in a written statement shared with FedScoop. “AI is changing how we work and how we live, and that change has to happen in collaboration with governments.”Multiple U.S. Army internet subdomains were defaced in a 404 hijacking campaign, CyberScoop has confirmed. As of Monday morning, error pages on two U.S. Army websites – oil.army.mil and ai2c.army.mil – displayed defacement messages visible to users. The messages denigrated President Donald Trump and United States Ambassador to Türkiye Tom Barrack, called to “FREE KURDISTAN,” And included another line reading “Kurdish sr was here.” One of the websites, oil.army.mil, belongs to the Army’s Open Innovation Lab, a test bed for software and cyber capabilities established in 2020. The other belongs to the Artificial Intelligence Integration Center, established in 2019 to integrate AI technologies into the Army and train personnel on emerging technologies. The defacements were initially discovered by independent cybersecurity researcher Ronald Lovelace, who notified U.S. Army officials and CyberScoop.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Anthropic announced earlier this week its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models will once again be available to the public as it has reached an agreement with the Commerce Department to deploy the AI models with new guardrails and classifiers meant to address jailbreaks. In a blog posted Tuesday, Anthropic said that export controls that prevented their sale to foreign companies and individuals have been lifted after weeks of negotiation with the White House and Commerce Department. The company has also restored access to the model for U.S. users. The export controls were put in place after the Trump administration became alarmed by a threat intelligence report from Amazon claiming to have jailbroken Fable’s cybersecurity capabilities. On X, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick appeared to confirm that the restrictions would be lifted. “Over the past two weeks, we have worked closely with Anthropic to analyze and approve Fable 5 to ensure alignment across the US Government and strengthen America’s leadership in AI,” Lutnick wrote.The Department of Veterans Affairs’ under secretary for health is resigning effective next week, according to an internal email sent Tuesday and confirmed by the VA on Wednesday. John Bartrum has led the massive rollout of electronic health record modernization since his December 2025 confirmation, but did not explain why he is leaving only months into his tenure. “We successfully relaunched the Electronic Health Record Modernization program, putting it back on a credible path after years of uncertainty,” Bartrum said in the email. “In the spirit of President George Washington upon his retirement from public life, I am persuaded that, with these initiatives now firmly on track, you will not disapprove my determination to retire from public service.” The formerly assailed EHRM effort has been ramping up in recent months, with plans to have 19 sites updated by the end of this year. It’s the beginning of an “aggressive timeline” to complete deployment at all sites as early as 2031.
The White House isn’t planning to review the so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s performance as the Elon Musk-launched project that eviscerated large swaths of federal agencies winds down, its top budget official said Tuesday. During a House Appropriations hearing, Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee Chairman Dave Joyce noted that DOGE has been “pretty much eliminated” in the proposed fiscal 2027 budget. The Ohio Republican then asked Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought if he planned to present any documentation on “what exactly DOGE accomplished” in terms of “reductions in dollars spent” and “people at agencies.” Vought answered that the administration has “no plans to do … a closing DOGE report,” though it is “happy to give you our assessment of that work” saying he thinks “it made some really important strides.” An executive branch funding proposal for fiscal 2027 released in January called for $8 million to the OMB-housed Information Technology Oversight and Reform bucket to fund DOGE. The 2027 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act (H.R.8495), introduced in April, also appropriated $8 million for ITOR, though DOGE wasn’t mentioned by name in the bill. The White House’s fiscal 2027 budget proposal, also released in April, requested $35 million for DOGE.The CIA has reorganized several of its key acquisition and tech directorates to better embrace emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum computing as they reshape “the reality of conflict and asymmetric warfare,” Director John Ratcliffe said Tuesday. During rare public remarks at the AWS DC Summit, Ratcliffe pointed to recent CIA-supported operations in Venezuela and the Middle East, including the rescue of a downed F-15E Strike Eagle pilot in Iran, as examples of the outsized impact of technology on the agency’s intelligence operations. Recognizing there’s no shortage of conflict or crisis around the globe, Ratcliffe said the CIA does not have the luxury of relying on what’s worked in the past. Instead, the agency must position itself as a leader in adopting cutting-edge technologies. With that in mind, the CIA has undertaken a “fundamental reshaping” of its “entire approach to technology,” Ratcliffe said. That includes overhauling its digital innovation office, reconstructing its commercial tech procurement strategy, streamlining communication channels with industry and elevating its offensive cyber capabilities as a core mission function.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Secret Service has serious gaps in its mobile device management and security practices, leading to heightened risks for the nation’s leaders, other protectees and its employees, according to an inspector general report published Thursday. Those security and management gaps included a culture of using personal devices even in protective operations, a lack of security software on government-issued devices and the approval of apps containing vulnerabilities, among others. Much of the blame, per the report, lies with the Department of Homeland Security unit’s Office of the CIO, which is responsible for establishing security standards and ensuring compliance with policies. Employees pointed to issues with their government-issued devices as the reason for the lapse in protocol, citing technical limitations and diminished reliability. Government-issued devices, for example, would “frequently” disconnect from the virtual private network and couldn’t download “essential” apps to conduct investigations and communicate with local law enforcement. Records revealed employees were claiming reimbursement for use of personal devices after traveling internationally, illustrating the practice was “routine” and “expected,” per the watchdog.President Donald Trump’s new supplemental spending request includes $67.1 billion to support the Defense Department, featuring funds to advance new capabilities and offset the cost of operations in the Middle East. The Office of Management and Budget sent the spending package to Congress on Wednesday, requesting a total of $87.6 billion. While the lion’s share of the funds would cover the mounting costs of Operation Epic Fury, the White House is also seeking money for other issues — such as aid to American farmers and responses to the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa. In a letter sent to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., OMB Director Russell Vought urged lawmakers to approve the additional funding as a way to reimburse the Pentagon for the war in Iran. The biggest ticket item in the supplemental is a $21 billion request for munitions, which would likely support the Pentagon in replenishing weapons that have been spent during Operation Epic Fury.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Education Department’s Office of the Chief Information Officer lost more than half of its staff in early 2025 during the Trump administration’s reduction-in-force campaign, leaving some suboffices completely empty, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found in a report issued Monday. The OIG used Microsoft Office and Teams to track down who was subject to the RIF during the first nearly ten weeks of President Donald Trump’s second term, finding it gutted 40% or 1,579 of the agency’s workers in total. The OIG said it was presented with a scope limitation for the review due to the department not providing all requested information or giving unfettered access to Department staff, which limited its ability to fully address the review objective. Specifically in the CIO’s office, the OIG counted 44 remaining employees of the 92 employed in January 2025 — a 52% reduction. About 8% of all separated employees in the agency were in IT management, it found, and about $6 million in OCIO contracts were terminated as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s massive agency reorganization campaign in early 2025. Suboffices within the OCIO that are statutorily required to oversee all departmental operational enterprise IT infrastructures and software, develop IT investment performance measures and conduct security reviews mandated by the Federal Information Security Modernization Act have no remaining employees, the report said.NASA issued a long-awaited list of awardees for the latest iteration of a multibillion-dollar cross-government IT acquisition vehicle, moving the large-scale contract forward. In a brief notice on Monday, the agency said it would start processing the awards for the sixth generation of its Solutions for Enterprise‑wide Procurement contract, known as SEWP VI. It also disclosed more than 2,100 awardees across three categories: IT solutions, enterprise-wide IT services, and mission-based IT services. Among the hundreds of awardees, the list includes IBM, Leidos, KPMG, Carahsoft Technology Corp., Peraton, REI Systems, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), CACI, Cherokee Nation Government Solutions, Amivero and Guidehouse. All of the awards are indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity, with a 10-year ordering period and a maximum ordering value of $20 billion. The contract period begins Nov. 1 and will run through October 2036.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Energy is kickstarting a quantum computing effort tied to the Genesis Mission following a pair of quantum-focused executive orders signed by President Donald Trump on Monday. The newly launched Quantum Genesis initiative aims to develop and deploy a more resilient quantum computing capability by 2028. Darío Gil, under secretary for science and Genesis Mission lead, told FedScoop that the new initiative serves as a foundation for the charges Trump issued in his directives for “challenging America’s quantum information science community and industry to build the world’s first fault-tolerant quantum computing capability that will transform scientific discovery, strengthen national security, and power the next era of American innovation.” To reach that goal, DOE has three main priorities: set up a competition to accelerate quantum system development, conduct targeted research to advance high-impact, scientific quantum use cases, and build a supercomputing facility for engineers to access the new capabilities. The facility, along with DOE’s existing high-performance computing systems and the Genesis Mission’s in-progress American Science and Security Platform, will form a unified high-performance computing, AI and quantum computing ecosystem.The Pentagon’s workforce shrank by roughly 10.7% during the height of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency implementation efforts, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office. That decrease represents 82,940 employees — from a baseline 778,188 civilian employees at the Defense Department in December 2024 near the end of the Biden administration, down to 695,248 in January 2026. Outlining governmentwide workforce contractions across 2025 that were sparked by multiple presidential directives, GAO’s report offers a fresh, data-driven look at DOGE’s downsizing impacts inside the Pentagon. It indicates that, while DOD remains America’s largest employer of federal civilian personnel, the department’s workforce is now substantially smaller in volume than it was in prior years. Dawn Locke, director with GAO’s Strategic Issues team and lead on the review, told DefenseScoop: “A key takeaway for DOD is the role the Deferred Resignation Program played in the agency’s efforts to reduce the size of its civilian workforce.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
President Donald Trump signed two executive orders Monday to accelerate the federal government’s transition to post-quantum encryption and reprioritize government financing to support the domestic quantum computing industry. The orders, which CyberScoop first reported on last year, direct the government to throw its weight behind the quantum computing industry. They are part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to put its stamp on the development of another key emerging technology. Ahead of the signing, sources previewed details of those orders to CyberScoop. Per one of those sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss pending administration actions, a “whole of government approach is used to empower research and development into quantum computing, as well as quantum sensing [and other resources].” They described the Trump administration’s attitude for propping up industry as “don’t let us miss out on prioritizing the feeders for the research or the development of quantum.” The second order requires federal civilian networks to adopt quantum-resistant encryption faster than the current 2035 deadline. The new encryption algorithms, vetted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, will protect against future quantum computer attacks. Agencies that miss the new deadline must report to the Office of Management and Budget explaining why.Four proposed rules to begin formally overhauling 20 sections of the Federal Acquisition Regulation were published in the Federal Register on Tuesday. While the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council has been rewriting and deviating from the FAR for over a year now as part of what it’s calling “the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul”, the unpublished proposed rules are a step toward codification of these changes. Over a combined total of more than 1,000 pages of proposed rules, the overhaul would establish regular regulatory reviews and sunsets, as well as move the bid protest system to the agencies involved in disputes instead of the Government Accountability Office. The FAR update comes in response to an April 2025 executive order mandating the procurement policy be pared down to the essentials and presented in plain language, void of any “undue barriers” and “unnecessary regulations.” The FAR has not been significantly updated in 40 years.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Veterans Affairs hosted an IT industry day last week with a specific takeaway from the agency’s deputy CIO: incumbency itself is not enough. Zack Schwartz, principal deputy assistant secretary in the VA’s Office of Information and Technology, said he’s made it clear that tech contractors need to bring their “A-game when it comes to supporting the veteran,” and the VA is open for business with whoever can do it best. “Incumbency is not a guarantee, incumbency is not an advantage,” Schwartz said in an interview with FedScoop. “We will not settle just because you’ve supported the VA in the past.” Schwartz said last Wednesday’s private IT Advanced Planning Brief to Industry was a breakthrough between the agency and industry, as he made it clear that the “massive organization” is “moving extremely fast” to modernize and integrate AI with governance.LOGZONE, an Alabama-based logistics services provider, has agreed to pay more than $507,000 to resolve allegations that it misrepresented its compliance with Pentagon cybersecurity requirements while doing work with the Navy. According to a settlement agreement published last Thursday, the Justice Department alleged that LOGZONE failed to fully implement required security controls under NIST Special Publication 800-171 despite its contract mandating compliance. While not an explicit violation of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program, the suit highlights the Defense Department’s increasing scrutiny of the defense industry not implementing required cybersecurity measures for sensitive information. The settlement stems from two contracts awarded by the Navy between 2021 and 2022 for logistics, inventory management and facility support services for the Naval Oceanographic Command located at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. According to the settlement agreement, LOGZONE received more than $682,000 under the contracts through March 2025.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency might undergo a major change to its IT operations if President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security unit is confirmed. Cameron Hamilton, Trump’s pick to lead FEMA, told Senate lawmakers during a Wednesday hearing some of the tools and technology that FEMA uses are a bit antiquated and that if he’s confirmed, he’s planning to do a significant IT overhaul of the entire agency for better accountability. Hamilton would be the first permanent leader of FEMA in Trump’s second term. The agency has gone through four different acting administrators, including Hamilton, whose stint lasted from January-May 2025. The instability at its helm is representative of the turmoil throughout FEMA, which has seen its net workforce contract by nearly 4,000 since 2025. More than half of those departures occurred in the first four months of 2026, according to OPM’s Federal Workforce Data website’s latest update in April. FEMA was especially impacted by the historically long DHS shutdown earlier this year, with its operations scaled back to the bare minimum.The Environmental Protection Agency has run artificial intelligence pilots on “everything,” but its chief information officer only wants subject matter experts to be using the technology at a high level. CIO Carter Farmer said last week that while the agency has piloted AI to review public comments and analyze large scientific datasets, he still wants experts to review outputs. Farmed explained: “Something we tell our staff quite regularly is if you’re not an expert in the subject matter you’re using AI for, you probably shouldn’t be using AI because it can be very convincingly wrong. If you’re not an expert at that, validating those outputs is very hard.” Another reason why using AI can require more experience: “Prompt engineering is a real skill,” Farmer said, and proper use is rarely plug-and-play. He added that: “Having to learn how AI works — and how the back end of it actually works — is very helpful in how to think about how you should be using this tool.” But the agency’s daily use of AI is less high-stakes. Farmer said the EPA’s biggest focus currently is using AI for “low-level” or “low-risk functions” like email drafting and creating presentations.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Homeland Security is taking the next step toward reaching its cloud aspirations by officially bringing the first vendor onboard its Cumulus project, according to contract documents published last Friday. The agency awarded nearly $2.6 billion to Amazon Web Services via a single-award indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract for its cloud offerings, including Infrastructure as a Service, training and marketplace solutions. Cumulus was first introduced in January as part of procurement forecasting documents that outlined DHS’s plan to increase the efficiency, flexibility and effectiveness of its cloud purchases in the hopes of unlocking “significant discounts.” At the time, DHS anticipated potential contracts would surpass $100 million, which is the ceiling for estimates on the Acquisition Planning Forecast System platform. The Cumulus project marks the first time cloud service providers have been tapped at an agencywide level, rather than by individual components. DHS plans to bring on other notable cloud providers. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is expected to join next quarter, as is Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. The award amounts for those contracts have not yet been disclosed.More than 2 in 5 IRS IT employees have either been separated from the agency or involuntarily reassigned to other positions during the second Trump administration, according to a watchdog report released last week. In its third workforce snapshot since President Donald Trump began his second term, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that the IRS lost 30% of its workforce (31,273 staffers) from January 2025 through January 2026, though it also added 2,000-some positions for a net decrease of 28%. Those departures were a mix of voluntary separations, deferred resignations or other incentive-induced exits. Among the tax agency’s IT staff, 42% are gone, including 29% (2,497 individuals) who departed via separation or workforce reduction efforts. The remaining 13% (1,143 employees) were reassigned to the chief operating officer’s staff, per the report. “According to the IRS, restructuring the IT department allowed them to simplify and align technical work with the agency’s mission and core functions,” TIGTA reported. “IRS officials stated that the reassignment was not performance-related but was done to support Chief Operating Officer responsibilities.” Those non-IT responsibilities included the oversight of integrated support functions, implementing economy-of-scale efficiencies and facilitating better business practices, tax agency officials told the watchdog.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Trump administration is already trying to bring talent from industry into the government via its U.S. Tech Force program, but the next step could be putting federal workers on exchanges to companies, according to remarks from an Office of Personnel Management official Thursday. During a panel at a federal technology-focused conference, Kevin Hennecken, senior advisor to the director at OPM and leader of the Trump administration’s Tech Force hiring effort, mentioned the agency’s interest in such a program as a way of helping train federal workers. Something OPM has been focused on is “creating more pathways for people to sort of experiment going to the private sector for periods of time and coming back,” Hennecken said. “I think that can also be quite helpful, just to expose them to some different ways of getting things done.” Such efforts would add another layer to the Trump administration’s current Tech Force program, which is focused on filling the government’s hiring needs with early career workers. Those workers, who have just started onboarding, will serve two-year stints before it’s up to them whether to stay in government or go to industry. A small number of management-level professionals will also temporarily join the federal workforce from the private sector as part of the program.A National Institutes of Health contracting arm responsible for a series of large-scale IT contracting vehicles is ending all of its cross-government contracts and ceasing all functions by the end of 2028, according to a notice from the agency. All of the governmentwide acquisition vehicles (GWACs) under the NIH Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) will expire Oct. 29, which is also the last day to award new orders, the Tuesday announcement stated. That includes the office’s ongoing iterations of its Chief Information Officer-Solutions and Partners contracts. The functions will be moved to the General Services Administration.The announcement comes after the Trump administration’s push to consolidate procurement led to a decision earlier this year to cancel NITAAC’s long-running and embattled next iteration of its governmentwide IT vehicle, known as CIO-SP4. That contract would have been worth roughly $50 billion, but faced numerous legal challenges and was delayed time and time again before it was ultimately scrapped.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
BOD 26-04 sets forth timelines for how quickly agencies must fix a vulnerability based on how many of the four criteria it meets. If it meets all four, for example, agencies need to fix it within three days and carry out a “forensic triage” to assess whether their systems were compromised.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is moving forward on AI-powered autonomous surveillance towers that are expected to be deployed across the southern border, signing a $71 million task order with GDIT last week. The award is the latest in a massive indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract, worth up to $1.8 billion, that kicked off three years ago and is aimed at modernizing and expanding CBP’s surveillance tower system. GDIT is a key player in CBP’s modernization plans as the prime contractor on a remote video surveillance program, the developer of a CBP database with quantum sensors and a fundamental part of a number of other projects including the smart border wall. Michael Wagner, VP of biometrics, border and transportation security at GDIT, told FedScoop that the company started working on this next-generation autonomous tower about three years ago and has gone through several iterations of solutioning and testing and validating out in the field.The American military deployed an autonomous Corsair maritime drone built by Saronic to find and recover two soldiers who were stranded near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday after their Army AH-64 Apache helicopter crashed during a patrol operation, U.S. Central Command spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins told DefenseScoop. The confirmation of this unique rescue mission comes as military tensions are surging in the Middle East amid the United States-Iran conflict. It marks the U.S. military’s first publicized use of an autonomous surface vessel to locate and retrieve downed aircrew in real-world warfare, following years of experimentation with different types of sea drones. Hawkins said the drone used in the operation was a U.S. Navy Corsair unmanned surface vessel operated by U.S. 5th Fleet’s Task Force 59. In that rescue operation, he told DefenseScoop, the maritime drone picked the two pilots up “and transported them to another location on the water where they were then hoisted up to a helicopter for further transport.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The federal government’s human capital arm added several new industry partners to its Tech Force hiring effort Monday as the program begins to take root in agencies. The new batch of companies is Cisco, Scale AI, Wiz, Arista Networks, Armada, Cognition AI, Cognizant, Payward, and Moveworks, per a release from the Office of Personnel Management. They join a cohort of a couple dozen companies that are already part of the program’s industry support, including OpenAI, Google Public Sector, xAI, and Palantir. “These partnerships bring world-class engineering expertise into public service and create a stronger pipeline between industry and government at a moment when modernizing federal technology has never been more important,” OPM Director Scott Kupor said in a written statement Monday. According to the release, the companies will provide training resources and programming, as well as their own employees who they’ll nominate for temporary federal service.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
President Donald Trump on Friday signed out a new artificial intelligence national security memorandum that the White House says establishes “a new framework to put the most advanced, secure, and reliable AI systems into the hands of America’s warfighters and intelligence professionals while ensuring their responsible use.” The memo rescinds the Biden administration’s National Security Memorandum-25 from October 2024 that similarly set governance for the use and safety of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in national security and intelligence systems. The new guidance sets policies driving four key actions around AI in the national security space.The Department of the Air Force has tapped Ashley Devoto — a veteran and cybersecurity expert — as its new chief information officer, the department announced Thursday. Devoto enters the role after the department has been without a permanent CIO for over a year following the departure of Venice Goodwine in March 2025. With a decades-long career in cybersecurity fields, Devoto will now oversee the Air and Space Forces’ modernization and sustainment efforts for information technology and more. As CIO, she will lead the department’s enterprise information technology, data and artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and defense business systems portfolios and steward approximately $17 billion in technology investments that enable the missions of more than 800,000 Airmen, Guardians, civilians, and contractors worldwide.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Earlier this year, the CIA issued a new acquisition framework that it hopes will “turbocharge” collaboration with industry by proritizing the adoption of commercial products. Along with the framework, the agency released new processes for centralized vendor vetting and streamlined IT authorization. In her first interview as the CIA’s chief procurement officer, Effie Frangogiannis joins the Daily Scoop to break down the new framework, how interested industry partners can get involved and what’s coming next.The Trump administration issued a revised executive order Tuesday focused on artificial intelligence, offering a significantly pared-back vision for the federal government’s role vetting AI systems compared with a draft version that was spiked weeks ago. The order keeps in place the administration’s largely voluntary framework for companies to engage with the federal government around testing new models before release, but appears to considerably weaken or loosen provisions that had been opposed by industry. Under the order, AI companies would voluntarily provide the federal government access to frontier models before release, but now it will be for “up to” 30 days instead of the 90-day timeline included in previous drafts. It also explicitly states that nothing in the program will be construed as mandatory or part of a federal licensing or permitting regime, and gives AI companies significant influence to help define what models would and would not be covered under for testing. Under the order, all federal testing and access to the models would be subject to “confidentiality, cybersecurity, insider-risk, and intellectual-property protection, use, and nondisclosure requirements.”The Pentagon’s next iteration of the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) contract would establish a cloud marketplace for military users while expanding support for artificial intelligence, edge computing and cross-domain operations, according to a draft solicitation. On May 20, the Defense Information Systems Agency published a draft performance of work statement for the upcoming JWCC Unified Cloud Marketplace (UCM) contract on Sam.gov. Previously known as JWCC Next, the program is intended to create a single marketplace through which Defense Department organizations can access authorized cloud services from a broad range of vendors. Under the proposed structure, the UCM would be organized into three tiers. The first would consist of hyperscale cloud service providers delivering core infrastructure and platform services. A second tier would encompass “Everything-as-a-Service” (XaaS) offerings — including software-, platform- and infrastructure-as-a-service capabilities. A third tier would be dedicated to commercial innovators and small businesses offering cloud-based technologies that meet the department’s security requirements.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s AI Safety Consortium will now be called the NIST Artificial Intelligence Consortium, the agency said Friday, continuing a shift in approach to the technology under President Donald Trump. According to NIST’s announcement, the renamed group will retain some of its previous work but will change its scope. The group is also seeking new member organizations to carry out its aims. Craig Burkhardt, deputy NIST director, said in a statement included in the release. “To encourage more extraordinary AI technological innovations, NIST is seeking to expand its AI measurement efforts by harnessing the broader community’s interests and capabilities.” The decision comes about a year after the Trump administration changed the name of NIST’s AI Safety Institute, pivoting away from “safety.” That organization, which was originally established under the Biden administration, is now called the Center for AI Standards and Innovation. It’s also the first news about the consortium in some time. The consortium was established in 2024 alongside the AI Safety Institute as a venue for input from companies, universities, and other organizations on measurement standards for AI safety.NIST is in the headlines once more this week, but not for reasons it’s going to be excited about. Department of Commerce inspector general report released Thursday found that the National Institute of Standards and Technology has mismanaged a critical cybersecurity vulnerability database through poor planning, inefficient operations, duplicate federal programs, and failure to communicate with users. The National Vulnerability Database, maintained by NIST since 2005, collects information about computer security flaws and adds details like severity ratings and affected products. This information helps cybersecurity professionals across government and the private sector decide which security problems to fix first. In February 2024, the database’s enrichment contract lapsed, creating a backlog of unprocessed security flaws that has only grown worse. The report identified the lack of strategic planning as a core problem. NIST leaders admitted they had no long-term plan for clearing the backlog, even as it grew from about 13,000 unprocessed security flaws in June 2024 to over 27,000 by the end of 2025. NIST publicly promised in May 2024 that it would clear the backlog by September 2024, setting a goal of processing 6,200 security flaws per month, but the agency had never processed more than 5,000 per month in the past.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Tucked into the Pentagon’s budget materials for fiscal 2027 is a request for more than $2 billion to purchase command-and-control technology licenses and engineering support for the U.S. combatant commands, Joint Staff and National Guard Bureau. That total includes more than $1.5 billion to expand defense users’ access to Palantir’s Maven Smart System in support of the Defense Department’s “Joint Force AI-Enabled Headquarters initiative” and $60 million for the “Virtual Joint Operations Center (VJOC) initiative.” Little has been disclosed publicly about those two efforts to date, and a Pentagon spokesperson declined to share more information about them with DefenseScoop this week. However, the budget documents indicate that the department is looking to swiftly consolidate “software-centric C2 onto a single pane of glass” over the next fiscal year. The DOD’s foundational concept for Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2), which broadly involves breaking down long-standing boundaries between the military services to enable a unified network where all sensors and shooters can seamlessly connect, started to take clear shape in the early 2020s.A House subcommittee will hold an open hearing next week on how frontier artificial intelligence models are shaping the cybersecurity landscape, for good and for ill. The June 4 hearing will be the second the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection has held that was focused at least in part on the subject, following a similar hearing held in December. But unlike at that joint subcommittee hearing, where members also examined other emerging technologies, AI takes center stage next week. It caps a series of closed-door meetings of the Homeland panel where members and staff have been evaluating the intersection of AI and cyber.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Workers hired under the Trump administration’s Tech Force program are gradually making their way into the government. About 200 people have been hired so far, and onboarding began over the past couple of weeks, Tech Force Director Kevin Hennecken told an audience gathered in a meeting room within the U.S. Capitol Visitor’s Center on Wednesday. He estimated about 10 people have been onboarded and expects that to be over 100 next month. The goal, he said, is to have about 300 to 500 workers by the end of summer. “Going from hiring to onboarding in the government can take a little bit of time,” Hennecken said. “We’re moving as fast as we can.”Immigration and Customs Enforcement is spending more than five times what it did last year on a single vendor’s identity verification technology, according to procurement documents published this month. ICE’s contract with BI2 Technologies from Sept. 24, 2025 to Sept. 23, 2026 totaled $4.6 million, while the new award, set to run from June 1, 2026 to May 31, 2027, surpasses the $25 million mark. The Massachusetts-based, venture capital-backed vendor will supply ICE agents with an additional batch of 1,570 iris-scanning devices. The handheld devices are wireless and connect to BI2 Technologies’ Inmate Identification and Recognition System, which provides access to 5 million-plus booking records, including arrest and incarceration data from 47 states.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Federal agencies will shift to a priority and risk-based method of logging cybersecurity events under a Friday memo from the Office of Management and Budget aimed at cutting “red tape” and costs. The memo from OMB Director Russell Vought rescinds and replaces a previous directive from the Biden administration issued after the 2020 SolarWinds breach that affected both the public and private sectors. While the previous policy “improved foundational capabilities across agencies,” OMB said the amount of data agencies were required to retain was costly and operationally difficult. In its place, the Trump directive outlines “a risk-based, prioritized logging approach” to logging. OMB’s policy comes amid concern about the use of artificial intelligence and automation to fuel cyberattacks. That technology can speed up the process of gaining access to a system and help covertly maintain that access for a long time. It’s also increasingly being used by threat actors, the memo said.Anthropic’s Mythos large language model is the talk of federal tech and cyber practitioners across the Beltway, and for good reason. According to the company, its month-old Project Glasswing initiative, which allows select researchers to get their hands on the Mythos model, has uncovered more than 10,000 high- or critical-severity software vulnerabilities across systemically important code, a finding that Anthropic says has shifted the central problem in cybersecurity from discovering flaws to verifying and patching them. The findings, drawn from partner reports and independent evaluations, mark one of the first large-scale accountings of what a frontier AI model can do when pointed at widely used code, and of the bottlenecks that emerge once it does. Several partners reported that their rates of bug discovery had increased more than tenfold.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Defense Department is requesting close to $30 billion in fiscal 2027 to purchase and enable next-generation AI supercomputers and modernize the military’s computing infrastructure to power them. According to recently published budget documents, the Pentagon aims to build out its portfolio of highly secure data centers, and ultimately centralize and scale supercomputing assets across the joint force through its new “AI Arsenal initiative.” The fiscal 2027 proposal comes with a $29.5 billion spending plan. This proposed funding increase is up for consideration as DOD is hustling to integrate commercial AI models into battle management and warfare operations, threat detection and analyses, supply chain logistics and more. A Pentagon official told DefenseScoop: “The department’s AI Arsenal initiative is an investment in foundational, government-owned AI infrastructure to maximize federal buying power and build the strategic advantage we need.”The House Small Business Committee continued its push last week to make the agency it oversees embrace artificial intelligence in its work, advancing a new AI-focused bill aimed at more transparency around those efforts. In a Wednesday markup, the committee unanimously approved the SBA Artificial Intelligence Utilization Act (H.R. 8881) from Reps. Brad Finstad, R-Minn., and George Latimer, D-N.Y. The legislation would require the Small Business Administration to provide a yearly report to Congress on its use of AI and machine learning, detailing the benefits, risks and related issues. Additional oversight on SBA’s AI program from the committee comes in the wake of a Government Accountability Office report this month that called attention to years of SBA failures to comply with federal requirements on AI use case inventories. In March, the agency publicly posted its inventory — two months past the Office of Management and Budget deadline, but for the first time in SBA history nevertheless.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
President Donald Trump said he would postpone the release of an executive order that would set up a 90-day testing and vetting regime for frontier AI models, hours before the White House was set to publicly announce the signing. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office Thursday, Trump said he opted to delay the order “because I didn’t like certain aspects of it” and expressed concerns that it could harm U.S. AI industry competition with countries like China. According to multiple sources, a draft version of the order circulating in the last 24 hours would have set up a voluntary testing regime between the U.S. federal government and frontier AI companies that would allow the government to study new models for 90 days before they’re publicly released. In addition to the government, the draft order would also facilitate access to the models for cybersecurity testers in critical infrastructure sectors, like finance and healthcare.
Artificial intelligence and cloud-based data products through Snowflake will now be available to all federal agencies, the General Services Administration announced Thursday. The GSA has struck a OneGov deal with the cloud-based data warehousing and analytics company in order to “empower federal workers to break down data silos, enhance mission effectiveness, and accelerate their IT modernization initiatives,” it said in a press release. Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy said in a statement: “Federal agencies are seeking efficiency in cost, enterprise scaled performance, intuitive design driven tools for the workforce and simplicity in contracting — we are the only multi-cloud data platform that can meet this charge on day one.” Just over a year old, OneGov is a government contracting framework allowing for cross-agency use of commercial products at a discounted price. For Snowflake users across the federal government, this means 20% off compute services, which could go up to 50% as usage increases, as well as nearly a 27% discount on storage, the release said. The Small Business Administration’s information security program is largely ineffective after falling below the federal baseline for controls in nine of 10 domains, according to a new watchdog report. Under Office of Management and Budget guidance on ratings for security effective controls, the SBA “has defined policies but it has not consistently implemented them,” the agency’s Office of Inspector General wrote, relaying findings from an independent auditor’s review of SBA’s fiscal 2025 performance under the Federal Information Security Modernization Act.The SBA surpassed OMB’s baseline for incident response, earning an “optimized” rating under federal FISMA guidelines. But the OIG said that six domains — cybersecurity supply chain risk management, risk and asset management, configuration management, identity and access management, contingency planning, and information security continuous monitoring — were considered “defined” (a rating of 2 on the 5-level maturity model scale). Another three domains — cybersecurity governance, data protection and privacy, and security training — were slightly better, per the watchdog, with ratings of “consistently implemented” (3 out of 5).
Congressional Democrats want answers from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency https://cyberscoop.com/cisa-credential-leak-congress-demands-answers/ on GitHub in an incident that the security researcher who discovered it called one of the worst leaks he’s ever seen. Other security professionals also voiced concern Tuesday about the leak and the potential for abuse by any malicious parties who got a hold of the information. Security firm GitGuardian said it discovered a public GitHub repository last week that exposed credentials for privileged AWS GovCloud accounts and internal CISA systems dating back to November. The repository, apparently maintained by a contractor, was named “Private-CISA.” Krebs on Security first reported the incident. A GitGuardian researcher said his main fear upon verifying the leak was real “is that a state actor will get the data and might be able to do bad stuff.” State-based attackers who obtained the credentials “might be able to gain persistence,” the researcher said, calling it worse than an attacker destroying a database or having an intruder gain access to a government system.The Office of Personnel Management would get a better handle on the federal biotechnology workforce under a pair of bills from a bipartisan House duo. Introduced Wednesday, the Federal Biotechnology Workforce Assessment Act directs OPM to coordinate with agency heads on defining the federal biotech workforce, in addition to assessing current and future needs for those “bio-literate” federal employees. The bill from Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Rich McCormick, R-Ga., shared first with FedScoop, is aimed at ensuring the federal government workforce keeps the country a step ahead of China in the biotech space. Priority No. 1 for OPM’s assessment is identifying the total number of biotech positions required at federal agencies. The legislation is focused specifically on the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Interior, State, and Treasury, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, NASA, and the offices of the Director of National Intelligence and the U.S. Trade Representative.
After the White House’s move last year to kill Direct File, three senators are asking the congressional watchdog to examine the alternative program the Trump administration is pushing: the IRS’s beleaguered Free File system. In a letter sent Sunday to acting Comptroller General Orice Williams Brown, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Angus King, I-Maine, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., requested a Government Accountability Office investigation into Free File, an IRS partnership with private tax prep companies. The partnership has been heavily scrutinized over the course of Free File’s 20-plus-year existence, with critics pointing to scant consumer use, hidden industry costs and data privacy issues. “Due to this history of misconduct, we have serious concerns that Free File cannot efficiently, effectively, and securely serve the taxpayers who are statutorily entitled to free tax filing services,” the lawmakers wrote. Direct File, the IRS’s consumer-praised free electronic filing tool, was launched in the aftermath of an April 2022 GAO report that recommended the tax agency develop new no-cost filing options. Under the Biden administration, the IRS launched a pilot program of Direct File in a dozen states in 2023, and doubled the number of participants the following year. The Trump administration quickly terminated the program, however, pointing to high costs and low user uptake during the purposefully limited pilot seasons.Federal agencies would be required to develop artificial intelligence standards and use the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s AI guidelines under a bipartisan bill introduced Thursday. Led by Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., the bill would require agencies to use the Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework, developed by the NIST in 2023, and work with the agency in developing other consistent standards and guidelines. Reps. Zach Nunn, an Iowa Republican, and Don Beyer, a Virginia Democrat, co-sponsored the bill, with Beyer calling it “a natural starting point” to ensure agencies have the tools they need to navigate AI’s complexities. “This bill lays the foundation for harnessing the power of AI for the benefit of the American people, while upholding the highest standards of accountability and transparency,” Beyer said in a statement. The bill would also direct NIST to recommend training and use the standards when acquiring any AI systems or services.
All active-duty Marines and reservists must complete a new Basic AI Course before the end of the calendar year, according to a new directive. The announcement comes amid a broader push by the Marine Corps, and the Defense Department writ large, to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence capabilities for warfighting and back-office functions. One of the strategic goals outlined in the Corps’ AI implementation plan, released last year, is to develop an “AI competent workforce.” “Emerging and disruptive technologies (EDT) offer the potential for Marines to gain a decisive advantage but also create the possibility of an adversary exploiting these technologies more effectively. Among these EDTs, artificial intelligence (AI) stands out as the first among equals, demanding our immediate and focused attention,” officials wrote in the new MARADMIN message, which was approved by Lt. Gen. Benjamin Watson, deputy commandant for training and education. The Corps is now implementing a “broad educational framework” with a goal of ensuring that “AI-trained Marines are supported by informed peers and leaders” across the service, according to the announcement. The Basic AI Course, which officials estimate will take 45 minutes for service members to complete after logging into the MCELE system, is designed to give troops a “foundational understanding” of artificial intelligence, including key concepts and use cases, such as how AI can support decision-making.Sean Plankey, most recently the nominee for director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, is joining defense technology company UFORCE as its U.S. chief executive officer. The London-based company created out of nine Ukrainian-based firms announced Plankey’s move Monday less than a month after he withdrew his nomination amid difficulties overcoming objections from senators who had placed a hold on it. Plankey’s a cyber veteran of the first Trump administration but also had been serving as senior adviser on the Coast Guard at the Homeland Security Department, retiring from the Coast Guard this year. UFORCE makes combat drones for air, land and sea and plans to have its first U.S.-made unmanned surface vessels hitting the water by this summer. The startup reportedly brought its valuation to $1 billion earlier this year. “The United States and its allies are looking for defense technology partners that can move quickly, innovate continuously and deliver systems already proven across theaters of combat,” Plankey said in a statement. “UFORCE is uniquely positioned to meet that demand and we will do that by manufacturing these capabilities in America.” CISA has gone without a permanent director for the entirety of the second Trump administration, and the president has yet to put forward a nominee for the position since Plankey’s withdrawal last month.
The Office of Management and Budget plans to make public at least some of the technology contract data it’s collecting from agencies, per the government’s top IT official. Under a March memo, certain chief information officers are required to update OMB each month on contracts they or their subordinates have approved. That same memo also mandates data collection about pricing and agency use of services from vendors themselves. The memo received some positive reception as a possible method to better inform procurement decisions, but a common critique was that it provided no assurances the information would ever be transparently published. Despite citing data standards consistent with the OPEN Government Data Act — a law that requires agencies to publish non-sensitive information in machine-readable and open formats by default — the memo did not state whether the information would be publicly disseminated. When asked by FedScoop recently whether public sharing is part of the plan for that information, Greg Barbaccia said: “Absolutely. This is the citizens’ data.” The format that might take is less clear, however. Barbaccia said it “remains to be seen what amount we could share responsibly” and he would “have to take that back and think about that a bit.”The White House is keeping an eye on Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s progress on a plan to deploy wearable identification technology for its agents, according to ICE Assistant Director Matthew Elliston. The Department of Homeland Security’s fiscal 2027 budget proposal, set by the White House, allocates $7.5 million for the agency’s Science and Technology unit to develop critical technologies that strengthen the component’s ability to execute its mission. If passed, a portion of those funds would go to delivering operational prototypes of smart glasses that will “equip agents with real-time access to information and biometric identification capabilities in the field,” per the budget justification. “We have been toying with the idea of wearable facial matching” technology, Elliston said during AFCEA Bethesda’s LEAPS Summit Thursday in Washington, D.C.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
A group of 32 congressional Democrats is calling for the Federal Aviation Administration to help hold Immigration and Customs Enforcement accountable following reports that the Department of Homeland Security unit is withholding aviation data. While deportation flights significantly increased last year, data about the air operations is difficult to find, according to the House members’ letter to FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford. The representatives are asking for a detailed report about ICE’s use of the Limiting Aircraft Data Displayed (LADD) program and whether the FAA is aware of additional data-suppression methods contributing to the decreased transparency. The program “was established to enable private aircraft owners and operators of non-commercial flights to filter their flight data from public display websites,” the coalition said in the letter sent Monday. “ICE’s use of this program to obscure routine government operations and suppress information about deportation flights is out of the scope of this program, and therefore inappropriate and dangerous.”The price tag for the Golden Dome for America could reach $1.2 trillion to develop, deploy and operate over 20 years, according to a new report published Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office. The updated cost estimate is based on a “notional” missile defense architecture that broadly includes capabilities outlined in President Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order calling for Golden Dome’s development. CBO’s projections are significantly larger than the $185 billion already budgeted for the project — with space-based interceptors (SBIs) accounting for over half of the office’s estimate. “Of the $1.2 trillion amount, acquisition costs for the notional [national missile defense] system would total just over $1 trillion,” the report stated. “The most expensive component is the space-based interceptor layer, which accounts for about 70 percent of acquisition costs and 60 percent of total costs.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
If you ask Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor how he thinks about the role of AI in his agency’s mission, he’ll tell you he sees two different prevailing perspectives: one with a “big OPM” mission and another for “little OPM.” At least that’s how he described it to me recently at UiPath’s Fusion conference in Washington, DC. During our interview, Kupor shared about juxtaposition, emerging AI use cases that OPM is driving forward, and much more.The Department of Homeland Security intends to continue its work with Cellebrite, a provider of digital forensics hardware and software tools, according to forecast documents released last week. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as the department’s Homeland Security Investigations unit, plan to award a five-year, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract with a $100 million ceiling to the vendor later this year. Cellebrite’s products enable the agency to access data from cellphones, tablets and — more recently — unmanned aerial vehicles. The Israeli firm’s data extraction capabilities are “the most widely utilized and deployed computer forensic tool” within HSI, per the document. Cellebrite has been deployed across DHS, including its reported use within the Secret Service to break into the phone of the man who shot President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., in 2024.DOGE’s playbook for using artificial intelligence to eliminate regulations was on full display at the Department of Housing and Urban Development last summer with the introduction of an AI tool built for the “extermination” of federal housing rules. Documents obtained by Democracy Forward via Freedom of Information Act requests reveal a PowerPoint presentation delivered at HUD on SweetREX, a tool named for DOGE associate Christopher Sweet, according to Wired reporting last August. The new documents, shared with FedScoop, laid out a multistep process in which all HUD regulations would be analyzed by the AI. The tool would then provide recommendations to “keep, delete, or partial delete” each rule, per the presentation. Attorneys would review the suggestions and agency staffers would make the final decision. HUD regulations cover everything from the prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sex in mortgage assistance to providing legal aid for foreclosure-related issues.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Federal CIO Greg Barbaccia has tapped the Department of Education’s chief information officer as the government’s new No. 2 IT official. Thomas Flagg will take over as deputy federal CIO after spending more than 11 years at the Department of Labor and leading Education’s IT shop since October 2024. In an email sent Thursday to agency CIOs and shared with FedScoop, Barbaccia said there was “an overwhelming amount of interest” in the deputy role “from an exceptionally strong field of candidates.” Flagg stood out due to the “depth and seriousness of his experience across multiple technology leadership roles,” Barbaccia wrote, pointing to his time at the Department of Education and DOL. The hiring of Flagg gives the White House its first permanent deputy CIO since September 2025, when Drew Myklegard left the public sector to become Carahsoft’s executive director of government programs. Since then, the acting deputy federal CIO position has been held by Jay Teitelbaum, an Office of Management and Budget, U.S. Digital Service and Department of Homeland Security alum.The Trump administration is redirecting a cybersecurity scholarship program that requires recipients to work in government service toward artificial intelligence, leaving some current program scholars dismayed and bewildered. In an email to participating school program coordinators obtained by CyberScoop, the Office of Personnel Management and National Science Foundation said the CyberCorps Scholarship For Service program would now be known as CyberAI SFS. The email reads: “The SFS students we enroll today will not be employable when they graduate in 2-3 years without significant AI background. Any SFS student in this new program must be proficient in using AI in cybersecurity or providing security and resilience for AI systems. Therefore, new students in the legacy CyberCorps program must learn to acquire AI expertise to augment their cybersecurity expertise.” It also explains that “new SFS scholars will not be accepted to the Legacy CyberCorps(C) program without a description on how they will develop competencies at the intersection of cybersecurity and AI.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Office of Personnel Management is applying artificial intelligence to modernize the writing of position descriptions in the hiring process. OPM Director Scott Kupor touted the agency’s new USA Class tool during an interview at the UiPath Fusion conference, presented by FedScoop, as a way to streamline notoriously slow and complex federal hiring. The federal government “has a lot of jobs,” the director said, with more than 600 classifications and a workforce north of 2 million civilian federal employees. “So the ‘n factorial’ is pretty significant.” Kupor said OPM sought to leverage AI’s strength in digesting large volumes of information — in this case, thousands of existing job descriptions — to train a model, and then prompted it to create new position descriptions aligned with OPM’s classification standards. Federal hiring managers then review the outputs to ensure accuracy, further strengthening the model.The Pentagon plans to require service members to complete cybersecurity training once every three years, DefenseScoop has learned, a move that will scrap an annual mandate and is set to upend the Army’s recent shift to a five-year requirement. In a Sep. 30 memo, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the military to “restore mission focus” by reducing, consolidating or eliminating a slew of mandatory courses, such as cybersecurity training, that he said were distracting from the military’s core job of fighting wars. Hegseth did not specify by how much the services should “relax the mandatory frequency” of cybersecurity training, and by February, the Army issued its own directive that required soldiers to take the course once every five years instead of annually, DefenseScoop reported. But more than a month after the service’s directive, the Pentagon is moving to require troops to conduct cybersecurity training once every three years, according to a recent memo reviewed by the publication and a senior defense official, which would effectively overrule the Army’s move.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is urging critical infrastructure owners and operators to plan for delivering essential services under emergency conditions – potentially for months at a time. The federal government’s top cybersecurity agency warned that state-sponsored hackers, particularly two Chinese groups known as Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon, continue to threaten critical sectors like electricity, water, and internet. The agency is now working with the private sector to protect operational technology – the systems that control the heavy machinery and equipment that powers most critical infrastructure – from attacks that enter through business IT systems or third-party vendor products. The initiative — known as CI Fortify – will include CISA conducting targeted technical assessments of critical infrastructure entities and aims to create plans that “allow for safe operations for weeks to months while isolated” from IT networks and third-party tools.Leonel Garciga left his role as the Army’s chief information officer last week, the service announced Tuesday. His departure from the job had been anticipated. Garciga, a Navy veteran who has served in the federal government across intelligence, information technology and engineering sectors for nearly three decades, was selected as the Army’s CIO in July 2023. He stepped down as CIO on May 1 during a ceremony that highlighted his “many accomplishments advancing the Army’s digital transformation, cybersecurity, and data strategies,” according to a social media post from his former office. As the Army’s CIO, Garciga was responsible for ushering the service through a tumultuous time in the digital domain amid heightened cybersecurity risks, AI advancement, and the military’s push to access and streamline its own vast data repositories.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Eight U.S. technology companies have signed formal agreements to deploy their frontier AI capabilities on the Defense Department’s classified networks “for lawful operational use,” according to a Pentagon press release published Friday. DOD’s new deals with SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, NVIDIA, Reflection, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Oracle follow a major contract dispute between the department and Anthropic that culminated earlier this year over potential ethical constraints that accompany the use of AI in warfare and for national surveillance. “Integrating secure frontier AI capabilities into the Department’s Impact Level 6 (IL6) and Impact Level 7 (IL7) network environments will streamline data synthesis, elevate situational understanding, and augment warfighter decision-making in complex operational environments,” officials wrote in Friday’s press release.A bipartisan congressional push to codify a National Science Foundation-based artificial intelligence research enabler continued this week with the reintroduction in the Senate of the CREATE AI Act. The bill from Sens. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., Todd Young, R-Ind., Mike Rounds, R-S.D., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., would establish the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) that would give AI researchers, educators and students more access to tools, data and other information to help develop new systems. Heinrich, founder and co-chair of the Senate AI Caucus, said in a press release that the NAIRR would go a long way toward “democratizing access to AI,” ensuring that American workers are prepared for the future and primed to lead “rapid advancements” with the emerging technology that boost the U.S. economy.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The White House wants to revamp federal contracting practices by making cost-reimbursement structures the exception, not the rule, per an executive order signed Thursday. President Donald Trump’s order calls on the federal government to view fixed-price contracts with performance-based considerations as “the default and preferred method of procurement.”Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins told lawmakers Thursday that the VA’s beleaguered electronic health record modernization efforts have turned a corner with the successful rollout of the system this month at four Michigan facilities. Collins said the April 11 deployment of the EHR at hospitals in Detroit, Ann Arbor, Battle Creek and Saginaw “has been phenomenal, even by industry standard.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Two DOGE associates dispatched to the Treasury Department in the early days of the second Trump administration flouted various IT security rules while the agency itself fell short on implementing proper cyber controls, a new watchdog report found. The Government Accountability Office examined access that a pair of DOGE staffers had to Bureau of the Fiscal Service payment systems from Jan. 20-April 11, 2025.The Office of Management and Budget’s public tally of governmentwide AI use again grew in 2025 — this time amid the Trump administration’s push to use the technology in the name of efficiency. Per OMB’s recent publication on GitHub, the U.S. government reported about 3,600 AI use cases across agencies, a nearly 70% increase in disclosed applications of the technology from the previous reporting year.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Less than two weeks after the IRS wrapped what its CEO called the “most successful filing season” in history, the House passed a pair of bills aimed at giving the tax agency better tech for its next go-round. The lower chamber cleared the BARCODE Efficiency Act and the Taxpayer Experience Improvement Act this week, teeing up the modernization-focused pieces of legislation for the Senate.The Department of Labor aims to unveil its AI workforce hub in “the coming months,” an agency official told FedScoop Tuesday. The concept of a Labor-managed AI workforce hub was first introduced in President Donald Trump’s AI Action Plan last July. The portal will feature recurring analyses and actionable insights meant to inform workforce and education policy, per the plan.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
One of the largest federal government labor unions expects to lose tens of thousands of members due to the Trump administration’s crackdown on collective bargaining agreements, a new court document shows. The National Treasury Employees Union said in a filing that President Donald Trump’s April 2025 executive order on exclusions from federal labor-management relations programs and subsequent Office of Personnel Management rule making has resulted in “irreparable harm” to the labor group.The Department of Justice charged a senior enlisted soldier assigned to U.S. Army Special Operations Command for allegedly using insider knowledge to bet on the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro via a prediction market site before the raid was made public. The DOJ accused 38-year-old Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke — who officials said was involved in the planning and execution for Maduro’s capture by special operations forces in January — of using classified information to place tens of thousands of dollars worth of bets on Polymarket in the days before the mission, according to court records.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The General Services Administration announced 17 new Presidential Innovation Fellows, refreshing the technologist-focused program. A release shared with FedScoop ahead of the announcement described the 2026 cohort as “experts from top tech companies, startups, and organizations around the country.” Per that announcement, the fellows will serve their yearlong tours of duty at 10 federal agencies. The PIF program is located under GSA’s Technology Transformation Services and has been around since 2012.The Treasury Department’s loss of “confidence” in Booz Allen Hamilton led to the agency’s decision to cancel its contracts with the consulting firm earlier this year, Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier this week, a surprise move that came years after a former employee leaked tax returns to media outlets. Booz’s response to Bessent’s new comments was that Charles Edward Littlejohn’s conduct more than five years ago occurred on government systems, not Booz Allen systems. The firm said that it stores no taxpayer data on its systems and has no ability to monitor activity on government networks.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has tapped Palantir for IT modernization and other digital work as part of a $300 million Blanket Purchase Agreement that continues the data analytics and software giant’s bonanza of business under the Trump administration. The first task order under the BPA, announced this morning, formalizes USDA’s work with Palantir — specifically the agency’s National Farm Security Action Plan and its “One Farmer, One File” initiative. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins previewed the launch of a “single, streamlined record that follows the farmer” during a February event in San Antonio, but the new task order makes it official.The Federal Aviation Administration is making progress on its goals tied to the modernization of the systems powering air traffic control and the National Airspace System, according to Administrator Bryan Bedford and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. The Department of Transportation officials were two of the speakers that gave updates on the initiative during the agency’s Modern Skies Summit at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
House Democrats are calling on the Trump administration to scrap its plans to collect health data about federal workers from insurance companies. The lawmakers argue that the sensitive information could be used to target employees seeking care it disagrees with. Signers of the letter, which was led by House Oversight ranking member Robert Garcia of California, were specifically concerned about the potential targeting of federal employees who have accessed abortion care, contraceptives, in vitro fertilization (IVF), gender-affirming care, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for the prevention of HIV, or any other health care services targeted by Republicans.”The Federal Trade Commission is poised to deepen its involvement in curbing the use of AI for malicious purposes, including the spread of nonconsensual sexualized deepfakes and voice cloning scams. Last year, Congress passed the Take It Down Act, a law that allowed for criminal prosecution of individuals who share or distribute nonconsensual, intimate images and digital forgeries, including those that are AI-generated.Also in this episode: Salesforce Public Sector Strategist Mia Jordan joins host Wyatt Kash in a discussion about how the emerging “agentic enterprise” model could help government eliminate fragmented workflows and operate more efficiently. This segment was sponsored by Salesforce.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Energy Department might be all in on artificial intelligence, but the increasing apprehension among the American public is starting to pose a challenge, according to the agency’s top official. During a budget hearing on Capitol Hill last week, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told lawmakers that “The country as a whole is going very negative on AI, and this is a risk,” AND that “It will be a loss to America if we stop this development and this investment and this improvement.” The DOE under Wright has a major role to play in the Trump administration’s ambitious, AI-focused Genesis Mission, with plenty of focus on the national laboratories, especially. Wright said he views opposition to AI as a risk that’s “very real” and “growing, particularly across rural America.”Maj. Gen. Christopher Niemi has been nominated to serve as the Air Force’s first-ever chief modernization officer as part of a reorganization of the service’s Air Force Futures. The Trump administration announced Niemi’s nomination for promotion to three-star general last week. If confirmed by lawmakers, he would serve in a dual-hatted position as both the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for strategy, design and requirements and the service’s official chief modernization officer, according to an Air Force spokesperson.
Elon Musk-led xAI is pursuing a FedRAMP High Authorization as part of the company’s efforts to expand adoption of its tool Grok across federal agencies and their workflows. The company’s authorization pursuit is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a partnership first reported Monday by Fast Company and confirmed by FedScoop through a source familiar with the matter. Typically, the metaphorical rubber stamp indicates a high level of rigor and shows that a tool is ripe for the federal government’s most sensitive workloads. To meet the FedRAMP High requirements, xAI will need to adhere to more than 400 security controls, a third-party assessment and documentation reviews for its Grok Enterprise for Government tool. All in all, the process could last a couple of years, according to estimates from accounting firm Schellman. Despite the lengthy road ahead, xAI’s pursuit of the authorization is already sending signals to federal agencies that the company is serious about courting them. For some, however, Grok’s infamous reputation could precede any security standards badge it may earn.Funding has emerged as a key factor in determining whether the Department of Energy can keep pace with its ambitious Genesis Mission timeline, according to Carl Coe, the agency’s chief of staff. Speaking at AITalks on Tuesday, Coe called Genesis a massive project that needs funding to reflect that. The Genesis Mission is framed by the Trump administration as a national effort to stand up supercomputers, double the productivity of the country’s research-and-development budget and launch a platform that combines quantum, high-performance computing and AI advancements. The effort kicked off in November via an executive order. Coe, who previously served as DOE’s Department of Government Efficiency lead, said that even though the White House allocated a good amount [of funding], Energy needs a lot more. Budget season is underway with the release of the White House’s agency-level funding proposals earlier this month, offering a peek behind the curtain at what could potentially be coming DOE’s way.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Transportation is launching a new campaign with a focus on gamers as part of an air traffic controller hiring push, according to a Friday announcement. The agency is targeting early career professionals for the technical role as it prepares to open its annual hiring window next week. “To reach the next generation of air traffic controllers, we need to adapt,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement. “This campaign’s innovative communication style and focus on gaming taps into a growing demographic of young adults who have many of the hard skills it takes to be a successful controller.” The hiring push aims to attract candidates with “demonstrated high cognitive functions,” multitasking skills, spatial awareness and problem solving, according to the agency. The agency said the effort is focused on reaching talented young people pursuing alternative career paths, many of whom are active in gaming, adding that “feedback from controller exit interviews reinforces this, with several controllers pointing to gaming as an influence on their ability to think quickly, stay focused, and manage complexity.”The Navy plans to use underwater drones in the coming days as part of its new effort to clear Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command announced Saturday. The strait is a critical maritime chokepoint for oil exported from the Middle East, and reopening it to more shipping traffic has been a top objective of President Donald Trump amid the shaky ceasefire between the United States and Iran that began a few days ago and paused Operation Epic Fury, the military name for the American war effort against Tehran that kicked off Feb. 28. Last month, the New York Times reported that Iranian forces were using small boats to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz. On Friday, the outlet reported that the Iranians cannot locate all the mines they placed and lack the capacity to remove them, citing U.S. officials. Centcom, which is overseeing Epic Fury and other American military efforts in the Middle East, announced in a press release Saturday that its forces had begun “setting conditions” for clearing the devices, stating that the guided missile destroyers USS Frank E. Peterson (DDG 121) and USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112) “transited the Strait of Hormuz and operated in the Arabian Gulf as part of a broader mission to ensure the strait is fully clear of sea mines previously laid by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The deadline for federal agencies to implement risk management practices for high-impact AI use cases — or terminate them — has come and gone, but a handful of departments are still working to complete their requirements. FedScoop reached out to 28 federal agencies to inquire about the steps they have taken to ensure compliance within the April 3 timeframe. Some agencies fulfilled the requirements, like the Labor Department, NASA, the VA, State, GSA, and the EPA, while others reclassified use cases or still have a couple boxes to check. A few appear to have missed the deadline entirely. As outlined by an Office of Management and Budget memorandum, uses considered high-impact are required to comply with minimum risk management practices, which include pre-deployment testing, impact assessments, adverse impact monitoring, adequate human training and assessments, appropriate fail-safes that minimize harm, consistent appeal processes, and options for end users to submit feedback.The Department of Justice is asking Congress for a major boost in fiscal 2027 to the fund it uses to support IT modernization and enterprise cybersecurity, with the entire increase going directly to the agency’s zero-trust cybersecurity architecture. DOJ has requested $149 million for its Justice Information Sharing Technology fund as part of the Trump administration’s fiscal 2027 budget request. Congress appropriated $38.5 million for the program in the past two fiscal years. The primary difference between this request and the funding enacted in the most recent years prior is the $110.3 million that DOJ says it needs to support its migration to a zero-trust architecture for its unclassified and national security systems. To put that into perspective, Justice requested a more meager $11.8 million increase to the JIST fund’s topline in fiscal 2026 for “cybersecurity posture enhancement,” which it did not get. In its congressional budget justification for 2027, Justice explains that despite an industrywide shift to zero trust as the cybersecurity model of choice in response to the SolarWinds attack on federal agencies in 2020, its funding for cyber was cut by $108 million in fiscal 2024 and remained essentially flat since then. “Enacted funding levels over the past three years are below the level required to cover DOJ’s over 275,000 endpoints and approximately 160,000 users,” the budget document states, adding that “the current funding levels impact the Department’s current defenses and constrain its ability to adapt to evolving threats.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement surpassed its arrest goals in fiscal 2025 thanks to technology additions and data-sharing partnerships across the agency and federal government, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s latest annual performance report and plan. ICE more than doubled its fiscal 2025 goal with 167,651 arrests of individuals with criminal convictions or with pending criminal charges, a 106% jump from the prior year, the agency said in the report published Friday. The DHS unit has since increased the future annual target to 400,000 arrests. “This increase was achieved by strengthening partnerships with other agencies, improving data and technology for identifying cases, and focusing enforcement efforts on public safety threats,” DHS said. The agency has ramped up its technology use, embedding tools closer to core law enforcement operations.The U.S. military launched more one-way attack drones Monday against Iran, U.S. Central Command announced Tuesday, adding that “hundreds” of unmanned platforms have been involved in Operation Epic Fury in various roles to date. Tuesday’s announcement comes several weeks after Centcom noted that it had employed long-range kamikaze drones in combat for the first time during the early days of the Iran war, which President Donald Trump commenced on Feb. 28. Those platforms, known as the Low-cost Uncrewed Combat Attack Systems (LUCAS), were reverse-engineered and are similar to Iran’s Shahed weapons. In early March, a Centcom spokesperson told DefenseScoop that “LUCAS drones remain ready for employment.” Centcom’s post on social media platform X on Tuesday did not disclose whether the one-way drone attacks launched last night included LUCAS platforms or other systems, or how many were deployed in the assault.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
After slashing IT spending across civilian federal agencies last year, the White House’s fiscal 2027 budget calls for a return to pre-Trump levels and then some. Though the proposal from President Donald Trump is just a starting point for haggling in Congress over what will ultimately be spent, the summary document released Friday projects $75.7 billion in federal civilian IT spending, up from $67.9 billion in fiscal 2026 and $75.1 billion in fiscal 2025. It doesn’t include the Department of Defense’s IT budget request, which in fiscal 2026 was a whopping $66.1 billion on its own. Despite the upward trend for overall spending on tech, OMB’s budget request calls for a small decrease in funding for cybersecurity across all civilian agencies — falling from about $12.5 billion this year to $12.2 billion for 2027. This trend tracks with the Trump administration’s decision to cut the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s budget by $707 million. The largest IT investments are slated for the Department of Veterans Affairs ($12.2 billion), the Department of Homeland Security ($11.7 billion) and the Department of Health and Human Services ($9.5 billion).The General Services Administration is lobbying once again to rely on the transfer of unobligated appropriations from other agencies to support projects under the Technology Modernization Fund.The Trump administration included a provision in its fiscal 2027 budget justification for GSA “to collect up to $100 million in funding that would otherwise be unavailable for obligation from other agencies and bring that funding into the TMF.” The proposed funding mechanism comes after GSA included similar but broader language in its fiscal 2026 justification, calling for “both currently available funding and unobligated balances of expired discretionary funds from other agencies [to] be transferred into the TMF.” Ultimately, the appropriations laws passed by Congress for 2026 included a pair of statutes that allowed for those transfers to happen with limits — though it’s unclear how or if GSA has used the authority. It also gave the TMF a $5 million plus-up and extended the fund’s authorization through the end of fiscal 2026.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Office of Management and Budget is asking federal IT leaders to provide more information about what they buy and collect more data about those purchases from the private sector. A Tuesday memo mandates certain agency chief information officers both provide OMB with monthly updates on contracts that they or their subordinates approve, as well as require vendors to provide details about pricing and agency use of those services. “It’s time to put all the cards on the table,” Federal CIO Greg Barbaccia said in a video about the memo posted to LinkedIn. “At the end of the day, this is about using taxpayer’s dollars responsibly, buying smarter, and making sure the government is actually getting value from the technology it depends on.” The Trump administration has already made moves to consolidate IT contracting under the General Services Administration and, more broadly, collect and share better data about federal acquisitions. The new memo appears to bring specific actions to achieve those policies directly to CIOs. The policy, which was signed by OMB Director Russell Vought, points to a statutory requirement that CIOs in Chief Financial Officers Act agencies — a cohort of roughly two dozen larger government departments and entities — must sign off on IT contracts and agreements.One of the House’s top voices on artificial intelligence wants to put an independent federal agency in charge of ensuring the data and algorithms behind foundation models are made public. Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., co-chair of the Congressional AI Caucus, is part of a bipartisan trio behind a bill introduced last week that would require the Federal Trade Commission to establish requirements for foundation model transparency. The bill, co-sponsored by Reps. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., and Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., calls on the FTC to work with the Commerce secretary, the Office of Science and Technology Policy director and the head of the National Institute of Standards and Technology on those requirements. The federal leaders would also seek input from standards bodies, academics, tech experts, civil rights advocates and consumers. Beyer, who has pursued graduate work in machine learning, said in a press release that consumers deserve more information about AI foundation models that are “commonly described as a ‘black box’” — meaning users aren’t privy to why a model may provide a particular response. Giving users more information, such as what the model bases it results on and how it was built, would go a long way toward changing that element of the unknown, the Virginia Democrat said.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Health and Human Services is reshuffling its top officials for data, artificial intelligence, and technology back under its chief information officer, undoing a 2024 reorganization of those roles under the Biden administration. In a Tuesday announcement, HHS said the department’s chief AI officer, chief technology officer, and chief data officer would move from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, known as ASTP/ONC, back to the Office of the Chief Information Officer. The department is also ending the dual title of ASTP/ONC and reverting it back to just ONC. According to the press release, the reversal is aimed at reinforcing “OCIO’s statutory responsibility for enterprise IT, cybersecurity, and data operations.” The move, the department said, also enables ONC to focus on its mission of health IT policy standards and certification. HHS CIO and acting CAIO Clark Minor said in a statement included in the release that the move allows the department to “move faster on shared platforms, protect our systems more effectively, and support ONC and the operating divisions with the technology capabilities they need to innovate for patients.” The Biden-era reorganization was first announced in July 2024 and generally moved functions away from the OCIO, with a goal of clarifying and consolidating those responsibilities. The Federal Communications Commission has tapped the Food and Drug Administration’s former chief digital officer as its new IT chief, the independent agency announced Monday. Farhan Khan, who left the FDA for a private-sector role in August 2025, takes over as the FCC’s chief information officer following the retirement of Allen Hill last October. Deputy CIO Don Tweedie had been serving in the role in an acting capacity since then. At the FDA, Khan oversaw digital transformation projects for the agency, managing a $200 million budget and team of more than 400 staffers, according to the FCC’s press release. Khan began his federal career as a team lead with the Department of Justice in 2009, per his LinkedIn profile. He later served as the Department of Transportation’s director of infrastructure, the FDA’s CTO, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s IT infrastructure operations chief, and the U.S. Army’s director of architecture and integration for the senior executive service. As the FCC’s CIO, Khan — who holds a master’s degree from George Washington in information systems — will be charged with overseeing the agency’s overarching technical priorities, leading modernization efforts and securing data.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Accenture Federal Services and Booz Allen Hamilton will take the lead on contracts to help the National Weather Service replace a legacy IT system and transition its weather data and resources to cloud-based technology. The two contracts, announced last week, are aimed at transferring the functions of the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) to two new tools in a move the agency says will improve availability of that data to forecasters across the nation. Among the anticipated benefits: access to the systems away from home offices and ability for forecasters to provide remote backup. As it stands, the AWIPS is an on-premises system and deployed at roughly 170 sites across the country, per a request for information the agency posted on the modernization effort last year. But that structure has drawbacks, Ken Graham, director of the National Weather Service, told FedScoop via email, pointing to the fact that the current operational system is physically installed and tied to each NWS office separately, limiting employees’ ability to easily work alongside decision-makers, like local emergency operational centers.The two new cloud-based systems will change that, allowing forecasters to conduct their work — including creating and distributing forecasts and warnings — “without being tied to a specific location,” Graham said.Three years after launching a dashboard to provide agencies with a governmentwide view of the federal cybersecurity workforce, the Office of Personnel Management has stopped using the tool for its own planning, a new report found. According to the Government Accountability Office, OPM and five of the six other agencies examined by the congressional watchdog are no longer using the Cyber Workforce Dashboard, which went live in April 2023. The agencies cited “limitations” with the product, “including communications with OPM, access, functionality, and use of data,” per a GAO press release. The dashboard, which came out of a working group co-chaired by the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of the National Cyber Director, was created to support agencies in cyber workforce planning, helping them make data-driven decisions for current and future requirements. Overseen by the Strategic Workforce Planning and Forecasting Methods team under OPM’s Workforce Policy and Innovation group, the dashboard tracked cyber workforce data for all 24 Chief Financial Officers Act agencies, as well as OMB, the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Archives and Records Administration, according to the GAO. In conducting its audit from January 2025 to March 2026, the watchdog was told by OPM officials that the human capital agency was not using the dashboard for its own cyber workforce planning purposes. The other agencies audited by the GAO were the Small Business Administration, the National Science Foundation, the General Services Administration, and the departments of Justice, State and Treasury. The GSA is the only one that still uses the tool.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
A federal judge in California granted Anthropic’s request for a preliminary injunction Thursday, preventing implementation of President Donald Trump’s governmentwide ban on its technology and the Pentagon’s designation of the company as a supply-chain risk. In her decision, San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Rita Lin said the government’s actions appeared to be “designed to punish Anthropic” rather than protect national security. Her order blocks the defendant agencies from carrying out the ban on Anthropic’s technology and halts any Department of Defense actions to implement, apply, or enforce the company’s supply chain risk designation pending the final result of the case or further notice from the court. The ruling, for now, is a win for Anthropic and its supporters. Given the potentially wide-ranging impacts of the litigation, the company has attracted a broad coalition of backers in its legal fight — including industry competitors, federal workers, as well as legal and policy analysts.The Department of Energy is getting ready to bring on technologists from the governmentwide hiring initiative known as Tech Force, according to an IT official at the agency. Tech Force launched in December as a program trying to fill gaps across federal agencies with workers serving two-year stints. A few agencies have already made selections, the Energy Department technology leader said during a panel at the EIE Summit on Thursday in Washington D.C. Bridget Carper Arnone, deputy CIO for architecture, engineering, technology and innovation with the DOE’s OCIO, said the department hasn’t “started the actual interviews, but they’ve gone through the first level where a crossagency panel has deemed them qualified.” The Energy Department had an initial wishlist of 10 developers, she said, but budget constraints are playing a role. DOE received more than 100 applicants for the software engineering role and around 175 for the data scientist position. The other hurdle for the Energy Department is compliance considerations. Only a certified classification specialist has the authority to approve a position description. Arnone said she used Joulix, the DOE’s generative AI tool suite, to speed up the process of writing the position description and is now waiting on the specialist to classify it.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
As the Trump administration makes a bid to hire more young people in the federal government via the Tech Force, the leader of the Office of Personnel Management told lawmakers he doesn’t believe stability is the biggest draw for the next generation. Director Scott Kupor told lawmakers on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government at a Wednesday oversight hearing that he doesn’t “think young people actually think about 40-year careers. I think they think about small increments.” Kupor said that’s why the Tech Force — the administration’s program to fill federal tech vacancies with early career workers — was designed to be two years. He later stated that he doesn’t “think stability for young people is the most compelling message.” The comments arose in an exchange between Kupor and Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the ranking member of the subcommittee, about the message that OPM is sending to attract younger people to the federal government.The technology industry is heavily represented in President Donald Trump’s first list of appointees to restock a White House science and tech advisory panel. Among the 13 appointees to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) were Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Google’s Sergey Brin, and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang. That panel will be co-chaired by David Sacks, Trump’s AI and crypto czar, and Michael Kratsios, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.The PCAST has been around for decades as a way for the White House to receive feedback from scientists, engineers, technologists, and representatives from the private sector. While Trump announced the re-establishment of the council via executive order in January 2025, there hadn’t yet been details on its membership. In addition to the Wednesday list, the White House said it expects to announce more appointees “in the near future along with information about the Council’s first meeting.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The General Services Administration has proposed draft contract language that would define the government’s relationship with AI service providers in a major federal acquisition program in the aftermath of the fallout between the Defense Department and Anthropic. The proposed language includes terms and conditions for government data use, defines what it means for AI to be unbiased, creates a requirement to use only “American AI,” and establishes a responsibility for contractors to enforce terms and conditions on the AI they deploy. Notably, it also includes language that echoes the very policy at issue in Anthropic’s ongoing battle with the Pentagon that led to the company’s governmentwide ban and designation as a “supply chain risk.” Under the draft, the government would be granted a “contract for any lawful Government purpose.” According to Anthropic’s legal challenge, its dispute with the Defense Department hinged on a policy that the military could make “all lawful use” of the technology. That change, Anthropic says, would have eliminated the company’s restrictions on use of its products for “lethal autonomous warfare” and mass-scale surveillance of Americans.A nonprofit advocacy group is suing the Social Security Administration to release records on an agreement DOGE made to share voter data with a non-government source, and other documents regarding the improper use of Americans’ data. In a lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Democracy Forward seeks to compel the SSA to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests linked to a “voter data agreement” revealed in a January court filing. That filing from the Department of Justice, which is part of a lawsuit by several labor groups over DOGE’s handling and exposure of personally identifiable information, detailed coordination between two members of Elon Musk’s tech collective embedded at SSA and an advocacy group seeking “evidence of voter fraud.” The DOJ said in that filing that in March 2025, a political advocacy group asked those DOGE representatives for Social Security data to analyze state voter rolls. Per the filing, the group’s “stated aim was to find evidence of voter fraud and to overturn election results in certain States.” One of those DOGE members signed a “Voter Data Agreement” in his capacity as an SSA employee and sent the document back to the group on March 24, 2025. Democracy Forward, which represents the federal unions at the center of that lawsuit, immediately filed a FOIA seeking a copy of the voter data agreement, plus all emails between the parties.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Amid ongoing conflicts and looming threats from peer adversaries like China, conversations around the American defense industrial base have shifted from capacity to resilience and speed. Meanwhile, software, AI and autonomy have emerged as key drivers for modern military operations, and with that, the DIB has evolved to incorporate new, non-traditional vendors that don’t see themselves as prime defense contractors. That transformation and fielding efforts to bolster it are the focus of the Pentagon’s Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy, led by Hon. Michael Cadenazzi. Cadenazzi joining the Daily Scoop to discuss the new and ongoing policy efforts of his office to wrap its arms around, support and grow the modern defense supply chain, the challenges it faces, how it can keep pace with commercial innovation, and what comes next.The cost to run Direct File for the 2025 tax filing season was tens of millions of dollars less than what the IRS estimated it would be, according to a new watchdog report. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that the IRS ended up spending $16.2 million on the since-cancelled free electronic filing service in fiscal 2025 — far shy of the $61.2 million projected by the IRS. That $45 million gap appears to undercut one of Direct File opponents’ main complaints about the customer-praised digital initiative: that it was supposedly an inefficient use of government resources. However, TIGTA noted some caveats to that finding: The IRS initially “overestimated” how many people would use Direct File and how many “assistors” would be needed to support them. Just 751,000 taxpayers registered with Direct File for its limited second season; the IRS estimated that 32 million taxpayers would be eligible to use the tool, according to the Treasury watchdog. Of those who registered, 59% did not ultimately submit a tax return through the system.The Federal Aviation Administration is collecting information about the evolving operational and infrastructure needs of airports, given the increasing integration of unmanned aircraft systems. The FAA aims to catalog and inventory best practices for airport design standards and standalone facilities, called droneports, as part of the request for comment published in the Federal Register on Monday. The Department of Transportation component wants to interview representatives from equipment manufacturers, unmanned aircraft system vendors, the military and other stakeholders. After the comment period closes next month, the FAA will use responses to inform a report that will then shape operational evaluations and standard-setting tied to the integration of drones. The information-gathering effort comes amid a heightened focus on drone and counter-drone technologies. The FAA laid out plans to create an office overseeing the integration of drones and other advanced aviation technologies as part of its broader organizational overhaul beginning in January. Just days later, the FAA reopened a request for information centered around the handling of UAS and proposed policies for location-tracking, data-sharing and detection technologies.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Defense Department and its federal partners issued a warning Friday to drone operators, threatening to impose massive fines, imprisonment and other measures on those who illegally fly unmanned aerial systems in restricted airspace. Drone incursions over stateside military bases and other restricted areas have been widespread in recent years as commercially available systems proliferate. Just this week, the head of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command revealed that American forces recently identified and defeated a small UAS threat over a “strategic” U.S. installation. Agencies operating near the southern border have also been using weapon systems, including high-energy lasers, against suspicious drones, raising safety concerns among agencies like the FAA. Two incidents in Texas last month led to temporary airspace closures. The federal government restricts who can fly UAS over certain areas, such as military facilities and civilian airports, to protect national security and public safety. In a press release issued Friday, the DOD, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security and the FAA touted the government’s detection capabilities, declaring that Uncle Sam has a “zero-tolerance policy” for illegal drone operations and threatening rule violators with “severe consequences,” including potential fines upwards of $100,000, criminal charges, incarceration, and the confiscation of their systems.The White House registered two new government domains last week: alien.gov and aliens.gov, according to publicly available federal records. Their appearance comes about one month after President Donald Trump announced plans to direct the long-anticipated release of U.S. government records about unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) and extraterrestrial beings. Those new domains were not connected to websites as of Wednesday morning. But public data managed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) reveals that both sites were registered Tuesday evening and are hosted on Cloudflare servers. Shortly after Trump’s disclosure order in February, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon was keen to comply and had started actively working on the initiative.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
A new Office of Personnel Management hub for shared human resources services is open for business, the agency announced Tuesday. In a memo to federal agency leaders, OPM Director Scott Kupor said the HR Shared Service Center aims to “reduce fragmentation” within the government and allow agency staff to focus on their mission rather than administrative work. Per the memo, that new center provides a “comprehensive” suite of functions, such as benefits management, payroll administration, performance management, recruitment, training, and workforce planning. Using those services is voluntary for agencies and is a fee-for-service model. At least eight federal entities have already indicated they will make the transition, per the memo. Those include the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Office of Government Ethics, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The announcement is the latest development in the Trump administration’s broader push to consolidate HR services across the government. That plan, called “Federal HR 2.0,” aims to create a single personnel management platform for the federal government as a way to save money and reduce duplicative systems.The Federal Aviation Administration is gathering information from potential private-sector partners to inform the buildout of its defenses against cyber and quantum threats, according to documents published this month. The cybersecurity-focused market survey and quantum-related request for information are targeting the systems at the core of the Department of Transportation component’s multiyear, multibillion dollar modernization initiative: the National Airspace System and Air Traffic Control. The FAA is looking for vendors that could improve its information security and operations, such as penetration testing, vulnerability evaluations and incident response coordination among other tasks. The scope of the project also includes assessing the current NAS cybersecurity posture to identify capability gaps, test emerging tech tools and recommend improvements. The DOT component is also planning to move its NAS, ATC and IT systems infrastructure to post-quantum cryptography, a concept centered around mitigating attacks from future quantum computers by adopting new encryption methods. “Without quantum‑resistant, crypto‑agile security, the NAS cannot achieve the reliability, performance, or international leadership required in the decades ahead,” the FAA said in its RFI published last week. “FAA therefore views PQC not as a compliance exercise, but as a foundational enabler of modernization — one that must be embedded into every vendor solution, every system upgrade, and every step of the Brand New Air Traffic Control System.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched a strategy and guidance for use of artificial intelligence on Thursday, setting a direction for the agency’s own work and providing resources for public health officials across the country. Those documents point to a desire to promote adoption of the technology, empower the workforce to use it, and ensure the tools are governed properly. But, more uniquely, the publications encourage the use of “agentic” or “deep research” AI uses — those that can autonomously carry out specific tasks — which CDC is already tapping into. Almost 10% of CDC’s roughly 100 AI use cases were agentic tools in 2025, according to the Department of Health and Human Services’ recently reported AI use case inventory. Its share of agentic uses makes up roughly a third of such deployments across the department. As a result, the CDC’s new strategy includes specific language to leverage that technology to support public health, strengthen research and data management, and improve access to data. And simultaneously, the agency released specific guidance for state, tribal, local and territorial (STLT) public health authorities on the use of AI agents for research based on experiences from its own exploration.The White House is launching a task force aimed at eliminating fraud in federally run programs — a goal that will be pursued largely through beefed-up data-sharing processes. The executive order signed Monday by President Donald Trump is framed through the lens of various fraud cases in Minnesota involving Medicaid, a Department of Agriculture child nutrition program and Small Business Administration loan programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Investigations into the alleged fraud began under the Biden administration’s Department of Justice, but the scandal has since been wielded by the Trump White House to freeze funds and strip away benefits from residents of the Gopher State. Under Trump’s new order, the task force will be charged with developing a national strategy to combat fraud in federal benefit programs. The EO calls specifically for new measures to improve eligibility verification processes and create controls to prevent the disbursal of improper payments. The task force will also be required to “promote the facilitation of information and data sharing and coordination between State, local, tribal, and territorial governments and the Federal Government, and benefit-providing agencies and law enforcement agencies,” per the order. Interagency data-sharing would additionally be prioritized as part of an overarching enforcement push aimed at disrupting and dismantling “fraud networks and facilitators,” the EO states.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Army has awarded a mega contract to Anduril Industries that the U.S. military hopes will boost its ability to defeat drone threats. The Pentagon unveiled the $20 billion firm fixed-price deal Friday evening as part of its daily list of contract announcements. That announcement addressed the types of technologies involved, but was scant on details about the mission areas the capabilities would be applied toward. Under the agreement, Anduril will “consolidate current and future commercial solutions — including the proprietary, open-architecture, AI-enabled Lattice suite, integrated hardware, data, computer infrastructure, and technical support services — into a unified, mission-ready capability supporting the Army’s evolving operational and business needs. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of March 12, 2036,” according to the contract announcement. A separate news release from the Army-led Joint Interagency Task Force 401 — which is focused on strengthening the U.S. government’s drone defenses overseas and stateside — about the contract stated that the organization has “championed a groundbreaking enterprise-level agreement to provide a cutting-edge command-and-control solution through a strategic action.”Defense contractors are in the throes of becoming compliant with Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification standards. And now, in response to findings from the Government Accountability Office, a senior Pentagon official said the department plans to evaluate and define outside variables that could hinder the defense industry’s ability to comply with new standards set by the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification 2.0 model. According to a study published by the GAO last Thursday, the Defense Department has done significant work to build a comprehensive strategy for implementing CMMC 2.0 cybersecurity standards. However, the report found that the department has yet to completely identify factors beyond its control that risk the program’s overall success. “CMMC planning documentation identifies processes that can help address external factors, including a program waiver process,” the report stated. “However, CMMC planning documentation does not systematically identify the external factors that could affect reaching each goal.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Staff in the upper chamber of Congress now have the go-ahead to use Senate data with three popular generative AI chatbots thanks to approval from an office that oversees the legislative body’s administrative operations. A recent notice from the Senate Sergeant at Arms’ chief information officer announced the approvals for Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Gemini, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, expanding on previous policies. That memo was previously reported by the New York Times and independently obtained by FedScoop. According to the document, Copilot is integrated into the Senate’s Microsoft 365 environment already, and more information about licenses for Gemini Chat and ChatGPT Enterprise will be coming within the next 30 days. Each Senate employee will be able to get one license for either Gemini or ChatGPT at no cost. Approval of the tools comes as entities across the federal government — including Congress, executive agencies, and the federal judiciary — have been navigating their own use of the growing technology to reduce administrative toil and assist staff. The Senate, for its part, previously allowed ChatGPT, Google Bard, and Microsoft’s Bing AI chat in 2023 at “moderate” risk levels, but they were only for research and evaluation or use with non-sensitive data. The new approvals are less restrictive on the type of data that can be ingested, opening the door to more widespread use.The architect of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ artificial intelligence program and digital modernization strategy is leaving the agency after nearly nine years. Charles Worthington, the VA’s chief AI officer and CTO, said in a LinkedIn post Thursday that “the time is right” for him to step down from his posts. A Harvard grad, Worthington joined the federal government in 2013 as a Presidential Innovation Fellow. He parlayed that experience into a role as senior advisor to the federal CTO, where he co-created the U.S. Digital Service following the disastrous rollout of HealthCare.gov. After nearly three years with USDS, including as the White House tech office’s acting deputy administrator, Worthington moved on to the VA in 2017. In addition to leading the agency’s digital modernization work, he also supported its adoption of commercial cloud infrastructure, oversaw the creation of vets.gov, rebuilt va.gov and launched VA Notify, per a congressional bio and his LinkedIn profile. In addition to boosting digital services for veterans, Worthington worked in recent years to spur AI adoption across the agency. Under his watch, the VA emerged as one of the most prolific AI users in the federal government, with an inventory that’s now 367 use cases strong. Included in that tally is the agency’s VA GPT chatbot.Worthington, who also served on the Technology Modernization Fund board for four years, didn’t reveal in his LinkedIn post where he’s headed next. But he said his time with the VA “has been the most important work” of his career.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
U.S. government agencies continued to have low compliance with a statute designed to ensure that federal websites, software, and other products are accessible for people with disabilities, according to a recent federal review. In a new report, the General Services Administration found that alignment with the accessibility statute known as Section 508 was a 1.96 on a 5-point scale, continuing a trend of lacking compliance. GSA reported that roughly half of agencies didn’t review accessibility for their most-used information and communication technology tools, and the majority of agencies don’t conduct usability testing with people who have disabilities before resources are deployed or published. The poor compliance showing follows similar findings from past GSA reviews and indicates that more work is needed to help agencies comply. As a result, GSA concluded its report with recommendations that Congress both update the statute to clarify requirements and strengthen enforcement and oversight of agency compliance. The annual report is required by statute and was prepared in consultation with the White House Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Access Board, an independent agency that establishes Section 508 standards. The report includes responses from 212 agencies, parent agencies, and other components. Its publication follows changes to the review process aimed at reducing the reporting burden on agencies.The top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is demanding a full, independent investigation into new reports of DOGE representatives improperly accessing and transferring Social Security Administration data. In a press release sent Tuesday, Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., said “new disclosures revealed DOGE personnel may have broken federal law and exposed Americans’ most sensitive personal information, including Social Security numbers.” The release came shortly after the Washington Post reported that an SSA whistleblower said a former DOGE engineer put sensitive information from two agency databases — Numident and the Master Death File — on a thumb drive and planned to share that data with his private-sector employer. Democracy Forward, which represents several labor groups in a lawsuit against SSA over DOGE’s “unprecedented data grab,” filed a notice of factual development Tuesday in response to the Post’s reporting. The new court filing said the revelations in the article “are consistent with the substantial issues … of disclosures beyond SSA and the federal government as a whole and the ongoing risk of further disclosures of such uncontrolled data.” Peters’ press release references the Post’s story, but also highlights a January court filing from the Department of Justice that disclosed the use of an unapproved third-party server and communication between DOGE and an advocacy group seeking “evidence of voter fraud.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Anthropic’s $50 billion commitment for data-center construction projects in New York and Texas still made it on a list of investments the Trump White House said it helped secure, despite an ongoing feud between the company and the U.S. government. That tally, which was posted in a release online Sunday and emailed Monday, listed Anthropic’s commitment among dozens of other private-sector investments related to American manufacturing, energy, and AI infrastructure projects that companies have announced during President Donald Trump’s second term. Other investments on that list include those from Apple, Meta, Nvidia and Amazon. Anthropic’s inclusion comes after a disagreement between the AI company and the Pentagon over guardrails for using its technology culminated in a governmentwide ban against the company and the DOD’s determination that it’s a “supply-chain risk.” Ironically, the White House release introduces the list with a statement that companies are moving to “strengthen domestic supply chains,” among other things. FedScoop contacted spokespeople at the White House and Anthropic, but neither provided comment before publication of this story. Anthropic’s partner on the project, Fluidstack, didn’t respond to a FedScoop request for comment.The Senate on Tuesday voted to confirm Army Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd as commander of U.S. Cyber Command and director of the NSA, ending nearly a year of leadership uncertainty at the agencies and putting a new chief at the helm amid an ongoing war with Iran. Rudd, who previously served as deputy commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and worked in the special operations community, was nominated in December by President Donald Trump for the dual-hat role of Cybercom and NSA boss, despite having a limited cyber background. In April 2025, the Trump administration fired Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh as head of those organizations without providing a public explanation. Since then, Cybercom and NSA have been led by Army Lt. Gen. William Hartman, who stepped in as acting director. Hartman was ultimately passed over to hold the roles on a Senate-confirmed basis. Rudd, who will pin on his fourth star following his confirmation, is entering the job as Cybercom supports U.S. military action against Iran during Operation Epic Fury. The command also played a support role in Operation Midnight Hammer against Iran last year and Operation Absolute Resolve in Venezuela in January, which included the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in Caracas. In addition to assisting other combatant commands and the joint force, the organization is tasked with conducting so-called “hunt forward” operations on overseas networks, defending the Department of Defense Information Network (DODIN), and bolstering America’s ability to resist and respond to cyberattacks.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Anthropic’s relationships with other federal contractors face irreparable harm following the Trump administration’s governmentwide ban on the company and determination that it’s a “supply-chain risk,” the Claude maker said in a lawsuit filed in a federal district court Monday. The legal challenge against the Pentagon, as well as multiple federal agencies and officials, seeks immediate and injunctive relief from President Donald Trump’s directive banning the company from government use and the Department of Defense’s designation of the company as a supply-chain risk. Among its arguments, Anthropic alleges the actions violate federal administrative procedure law, the company’s right to free speech, and are beyond existing legal authority. The lawsuit also provides new details about the ramifications for Anthropic’s work with other companies contracting with the federal government. At least one federal contractor that Anthropic has worked with to build custom applications has already “indicated that it may suspend that work or even remove Claude from existing deployments,” and others the company has worked with “are raising concerns, pausing collaborations, and considering terminating contracts,” according to the lawsuit. “Anthropic has no way to obtain redress from the government for those economic harms,” the company said. It estimated the actions by the Trump administration could jeopardize “hundreds of millions of dollars in the near term.”This one’s also related to the government’s ban of Anthropic, and the Secret Service can be added to the list of federal agencies or offices that said they won’t use the company’s Claude tool. The Department of Homeland Security component had used Anthropic’s Claude models for code generation, a focus area for many organizations, according to Secret Service CIO and Chief AI Officer Chris Kraft. “That application does have the ability to leverage Claude models … but they’re easy to change out,” Kraft said. “There’s a whole list of a bunch of different models that you can choose from, and we will follow the guidance and leverage other models.” The Secret Service joins a growing group of agencies that are phasing out Anthropic’s technology following the company’s clash with the Department of Defense in late February. Software developers at the Treasury Department had been using Claude Code, though Secretary Scott Bessent said last week that the agency is terminating use. The Office of Personnel Management, NASA, the Commerce Department, the General Services Administration and Department of Health and Human Services are untangling Anthropic from AI use cases, if they haven’t stopped using Claude already.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Office of Personnel Management removed Claude and added Grok and Codex in an update to its public disclosure of AI use cases dated Wednesday. Removal of Claude comes after a disagreement between its maker, Anthropic, and the Department of Defense over the technology’s guardrails culminated in President Donald Trump issuing a governmentwide ban on the company late last week. In the following days, numerous federal agencies have made moves to stop using Anthropic’s services, including OPM. While the changes to the disclosure were made at the same time, Grok and Codex were not added as the result of Claude’s removal, OPM spokeswoman McLaurine Pinover said in an emailed response to FedScoop. The human capital agency is “constantly working to provide the best tools to the OPM workforce. These initiatives were already underway,” Pinover said. According to the new inventory, the “first production use” for both tools is listed as the first quarter of 2026. Pinover confirmed that date references the calendar year rather than fiscal year. Grok, a product of Elon Musk’s xAI, is listed as in production, and Codex, a coding specific AI tool from OpenAI, is being deployed in a sandbox phase — which generally describes a kind of controlled environment. OPM also added several other systems that deploy AI to its public disclosure, including Wiz, Zendesk, Waze, Google Maps, and the Apple iPhone.James “Aaron” Bishop has been tapped to serve as the Pentagon’s chief information security officer and deputy CIO for cybersecurity, the department announced on social media Thursday. He assumed the role of CISO in an acting capacity on Feb. 27, according to a LinkedIn post from the Office of the Chief Information Officer. In his new position, he’ll work under DOD CIO Kirsten Davies and be responsible for providing policy, technical, program and oversight support to the CIO on all cybersecurity matters. Bishop previously served as CISO for the Department of the Air Force, which includes the Air and Space Forces. According to his Air Force bio, his prior jobs in the private sector included CEO and founder of the Quantum Security Alliance, CEO and founder of Eigenspace, vice president and CISO for Science Applications International Corporation, and general manager of Microsoft’s National Security Group, among other roles. David McKeown, who previously served as the department’s CISO, deputy CIO for cybersecurity and special assistant for cybersecurity innovation, plans to leave government service for the private sector, according to the announcement.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
A range of AI use cases — from coding assistance to workflow automation — face alteration or retirement as federal agencies work to comply with a Trump administration directive to remove Anthropic tools from their systems within the next six months. The recent clash between the Claude maker and President Donald Trump comes after federal officials have spent years building up AI capabilities in government, including tools from Anthropic. Now, a growing list of agencies are immediately dropping use of those services, and in some cases, replacing it with other providers. In recent days, the Department of Treasury, the Office of Personnel Management, NASA, and the International Trade Administration all indicated to FedScoop they have stopped or plan to stop using Anthropic technologies in the wake of the ban announced via Truth Social. That adds to previous statements and internal communications at the Department of Health and Human Services, the State Department, and the General Services Administration. Trump’s directive is the result of an escalated disagreement between Anthropic and the Department of Defense over how the technology should be used. While Trump accused Anthropic in his social media statement of attempting to “strong-arm” the DOD with its terms of service, CEO Dario Amodei said the company simply wanted to maintain safeguards to ensure that its technology would not be used in mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons.The Secret Service is gearing up to launch what CIO and Chief AI Officer Chris Kraft is calling a new AI Program, which will act as a working group that comes in and helps IT teams. Kraft told FedScoop at Secret Service headquarters Wednesday in Washington, D.C., that the group will consist of 10 members initially and will also be tasked with identifying areas of opportunity to implement AI and other emerging technologies. Kraft said that “having that internal expertise, I believe, will be really transformational for us.” The Secret Service already uses AI technologies for license plate identification, facial recognition and other threat analysis. The AI group will focus on iterating existing use cases, as well as others like expanding counterfeit currency identification.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
More than 70 Democrats in the House and Senate are pushing the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general to open a new investigation into the agency’s “warrantless purchases of Americans’ location data.” In a letter sent Tuesday, the lawmakers tasked IG Joseph Cuffari with investigating whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement is purchasing illegally obtained location data about Americans, how that data has been used, whether audits of employee access to uncover abuse are occurring and the policies governing data usage. “Location data is extremely sensitive, and can reveal someone’s religion, their political views, medical conditions, addictions, and with whom they spend time,” the Democrats said. “It is for that reason that ordinarily, the government must obtain a warrant from a judge in order to demand such data from phone or technology companies.” The letter comes nearly three years after an initial IG report found that Customs and Border Protection, the Secret Service and ICE violated federal law through warrantless purchase and use of location data. As part of that 2023 report, the watchdog office said the DHS components did not adhere to established privacy policies, nor did they develop sufficient guardrails before procurement and use.The chief information officer at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency announced his departure Tuesday, ending his nearly five-year run at CISA. Robert Costello, an 18-year veteran of the Department of Homeland Security, posted about the move on LinkedIn.nCostello’s tenure had recently grown turbulent, with conflicting accounts of whether the since-departed acting director of CISA, Madhu Gottumukkala, had tried to force him out. Costello last week received transfer orders for possible reassignment to another agency. “Serving as CIO at CISA has been one of the greatest privileges of my career,” he said. “Together, we strengthened our cybersecurity posture, modernized critical systems, and built capabilities that will endure. I am incredibly proud of what we accomplished as a team.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The high-stakes dispute between Anthropic and the U.S. military led to a sweeping decision Friday by President Donald Trump to remove the AI startup’s technology from all federal agencies. Already, several agencies are taking action. The General Services Administration, Department of State, and Department of Health and Human Services immediately indicated in public statements, comments, or internal emails that they were moving to boot Anthropic. The fallout is sure to continue as agencies untangle the Claude maker from their workflows. The clash centered on the Defense Department wanting Anthropic to remove stipulations that limited the military’s use of the startup’s technology in real-world operations, DefenseScoop previously reported. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said in a statement Thursday that the company could not accede to the request “in good conscience.Madhu Gottumukkala is out as acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, with current agency executive director for cybersecurity Nick Andersen replacing him as the interim leader. News of Gottumukkala’s departure breaks one day after CyberScoop reported on widespread dismay with the agency’s performance during the first year of the Trump administration, with significant criticism aimed at Gottumukkala’s leadership on both sides of the aisle after a number of unflattering stories about his stewardship. “Madhu Gottumukkala has done a remarkable job in a thankless task of helping reform CISA back to its core statutory mission,” a Department of Homeland Security official told CyberScoop Thursday. “He tackled the woke, weaponized, and bloated bureaucracy that existed at CISA, wrangling contracts to save American taxpayer dollars.” Gottumukkala, served as chief information officer under then-South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, now secretary of DHS, before he was picked as deputy director of the agency. Sean Plankey’s nomination to serve as full-time director of CISA has stalled, leaving Gottumukkala as the acting director in his place. Gottumukkala will take on a new role at DHS, as director of strategic implementation.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security is impacting the preparation of cities hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup, according to stakeholder testimony Tuesday. Beginning Sunday, Secretary Kristi Noem halted all non-disaster-related Federal Emergency Management Agency response efforts and scaled back FEMA operations to “bare-minimum, life-saving operations only.” Host city representatives said the agency has yet to send out the $625 million investment — referred to as the FIFA World Cup Grant Program — that Congress already appropriated as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The FIFA World Cup Grant Program is meant to support security activities, including training and readiness exercises, cybersecurity defense and operational requirements associated with increased information sharing and analysis needs. With just over 100 days before the World Cup festivities begin, officials advocated for the release of funding during a House Homeland Security hearing.The Department of State announced nearly 50 indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity awards under its Evolve program aimed at IT modernization last week. In a notice posted to SAM.gov, the department said 28 contractors had received awards spanning five function categories for services related to IT management, cloud and data centers, application development, network and telecommunications, and end user support. The contract has a ceiling of $10 billion and a base period of one year plus six one-year option periods. Of all the categories, cloud and data center services and application development had the most awardees, with 14 and 13 respectively. Leidos and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) had the highest number of awards across the categories, winning four contracts each.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Cybersecurity has been getting bigger recognition as an integrated enabler in key U.S. military operations in Iran and Venezuela. That comes on the heels of the Pentagon last year introducing a new cyber mission force generation model as part of the larger Cybercom 2.0 effort. So, who better to discuss the growing prominence of cyber in the defense space than the principal cyber advisors of the various branches overseeing cyber-kinentic integration. At CyberTalks, Daily Scoop host Billy Mitchell hosted a panel with those leaders and a representative from industry to hear the latest on this emerging space. Joining him on the panel were the PCAs from each service — Ann Marie Schumann of the Department of the Navy, Wanda Jones Heath of the Department of the Air Force and Brandon Pugh of the Army — as well as Dave Galoppo, senior director for full spectrum cyber at GDIT.The Department of Energy is rapidly building out multidisciplinary teams to support the Genesis Mission as it prepares to unveil a minimum viable product later this year, according to a senior agency official. The format for the demonstration is to be determined, but progress is palpable. “We’re going to show quite a lot of results this year,” Darío Gil, DOE’s under secretary for science and director of the Genesis Mission, said in an interview with FedScoop. “We’re going to show results on our progress of building AI supercomputers … the software and the agentic framework.” The agency also plans to showcase the efforts behind the data curation used to train “next generation” AI and the results tied to the application of AI in science and engineering, he added. The Genesis Mission launched in November 2025 by way of an executive order that tasked the Energy Department with leading a national, coordinated effort to accelerate innovation and discovery with the latest advancements in AI, quantum and high-performance computing. As part of the initiative, the agency is working to build an integrated platform that draws on federal scientific datasets and expertise from public and private sectors. A demonstration of the Genesis platform’s initial capabilities is required by mid-year, according to the deadlines outlined in the presidential directive.A pullback of educational requirements for federal contracting jobs, including in technology work, moved one step closer to reality Monday. The Skills-Based Federal Contracting Act (H.R. 5235) sailed through the House and now awaits Senate consideration. The bill from Reps. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., would ban minimum education requirements for personnel in some contracts. Introducing the bill on the House floor ahead of Monday’s vote, Rep. William Timmons, R-S.C., said the legislation ensures federal contractors can “hire who they want to hire without additional red tape.” Mace, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation, recounted January 2024 testimony from an IBM executive who said “federal contractors are rarely able to place an individual without a four-year degree on a technology services contract, regardless of their qualifications.” Mace said the issue goes “beyond technology and service contracts,” affecting work across the federal government. Eliminating four-year degree requirements would do away with “a paper ceiling” that blocks “talented Americans” from pursuing opportunities in the billion-dollar industry that “shapes the entire labor market,” she said.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
After a series of protests that led to a protracted evaluation period, the General Services Administration is moving forward with the Alliant 3 procurement, announcing Friday the first round of awards for the governmentwide IT services contract. GSA said in an online award notice that it received 133 proposals for the Alliant 3 Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) solicitation and selected 43 winners for the first phase. Those not chosen are still eligible for future award phases until the agency has selected all 76 recipients, per the notice. The announcement comes more than a year after the GSA issued the request for proposals for the next iteration of the GWAC award, which has no maximum dollar ceiling, due to unsuccessful bid protests from multiple vendors. The latest iteration of the vehicle is a multiple-award, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract for a variety of IT-based services that builds upon the GSA’s Alliant and Alliant 2 GWACs. With these awards, agencies can issue task orders for services including cybersecurity, data solutions, systems engineering and cloud services, the GSA said. Longtime government contractors like Maximus, Booz Allen Hamilton, General Dynamics Information Technology, and Leidos were among the 43 phase one winners.Democratic lawmakers are once again pushing back on the Department of Homeland Security’s expansive use of surveillance technology, with more than a dozen members of a House Oversight subcommittee expressing concern in a letter to Secretary Kristi Noem over the agency’s processes for collection and analysis of cellphone data.The representatives pointed to recent reports of the agency procuring tools from Penlink, which is said to collect cellphone location data and allow customers to search for devices, and Paragon, a vendor known to enable access to a mobile device without the owner’s knowledge or consent. Without guardrails, these tools introduce risks to data privacy and civil liberties, according to the signatories of the letter, which was led by Rep. Shontel Brown of Ohio, ranking member of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation. “Location data can reveal intimate details of a person’s life, including where they live, work, worship, go to school, or seek medical care,” the lawmakers said. “DHS could use these tools to identify individuals for targeting based solely on their presence in certain locations, without a warrant or probable cause and regardless of their citizenship or residency status.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Federal Chief Information Officer Greg Barbaccia will be adding two new titles — at least temporarily — to his work in government. The General Services Administration announced Thursday that Barbaccia will join the agency as the acting director of Technology Transformation Services. He’ll be replacing Thomas Shedd, one of the few officials left at the agency who helped carry out the so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s cost-cutting initiative last year. Shedd will remain at the agency as its senior advisor for fraud prevention, which the GSA said is “an area of increasing importance for the agency and the administration.” The federal CIO was also tapped as senior advisor to the GSA administrator, the agency said. In this role, advising former privacy equity executive Edward Forst, Barbaccia will focus on “emerging technologies, best practices in digital delivery, and cross-government collaboration.”The Pentagon will adhere to existing laws and regulations associated with surveillance, security and democratic processes as it fast-tracks the military’s frontier AI adoption, but it won’t permit companies supplying the technology to determine its rules for operation, Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael told DefenseScoop. His comments come as the Defense Department is locked in a high-stakes dispute with Anthropic about the U.S. military’s use of the startup’s Claude AI model in real-world operations. During a meeting with a small group of reporters on the sidelines of the annual Microelectronics Commons summit Thursday, Michael provided updates on the department’s GenAI.mil rollout and pushed for the ethics-related rift between the Pentagon and Anthropic to be resolved. “I believe and hope that they will ‘cross the Rubicon’ and say, ‘This is common sense. The military has certain use cases. There are laws and regulations that govern how those use cases can be done. We’re willing to comply with them,’” he said.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Inadequate information-sharing and deficient data practices across the Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Defense were to blame, in part, for the midair collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport last year, according to the National Transportation Safety Board’s final report. NTSB found that the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization was “made aware of and had multiple opportunities to identify the risk of a midair collision between airplanes and helicopters,” yet insufficient data analysis, safety assurance systems and risk assessment processes “failed to recognize and mitigate.” While the Army was “unaware” of certain risks tied to DCA due to a nonexistent flight safety data-monitoring program for its helicopters, NTSB also found the Army had a weak safety management system that failed to consistently detect hazards. “The limited access to and use of available objective and subjective proximity data hindered industry and government stakeholders’ ability to identify hazards and mitigate risk,” NTSB said in its report. As part of NTSB’s analysis, the watchdog had 50 to 60 staff members on the investigation, who gathered 19,000 pages of evidence, Jennifer Homendy, chairwoman of the NTSB, testified during a Senate hearing Thursday. The collision, ultimately, was preventable, she said.After successfully launching its own internal chatbot and normalizing the use of artificial intelligence tools for translation, summarization and other diplomatically beneficial uses, the State Department is eyeing the next step in its journey with the emerging technology. “We’re going to roll out agentic AI,” State Department CIO Kelly Fletcher said Thursday during the FedScoop-produced GDIT Emerge event in Washington, D.C. “We’re going to continue to embed AI in our systems.” The State Department has been a federal leader in AI adoption, reflected in robust use case inventories and a general embrace of the technology at its highest levels. Current tech leaders remain focused on trying to “democratize access to generative AI” throughout the agency, Fletcher said. That likely means that any shift toward agentic AI won’t come with a snap of the fingers. Still, the department is currently looking to “consolidate and standardize and simplify around commodities,” she said, which could cover everything from end-user devices to help desks. “It sounds really wonky,” Fletcher added, but “the more you can make it easy for people to do their job, to reduce administrative friction, the better off you’re going to be, right? Part of that is agents. Part of that is consolidation.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Customs and Border Protection has increased deployments of surveillance technology along the northern border over the past five years despite sluggish hiring levels of IT personnel needed to monitor the tech, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office published Thursday. The staffing rate for information systems specialists has remained below target levels for half a decade but the gap has widened since 2023. CBP officials pointed to low pay, a lengthy background investigation process, a limited local applicant pool, high cost of living and minimal career advancement opportunities as drivers of attrition and the inability to fill open positions. GAO conducted the audit over a nearly two-year period, starting in April 2024 and concluding this month. In examining CBP’s northern border facilities, the watchdog found that CBP did not have a strategy to address the critical staffing gap.The Department of Health and Human Services made several changes to its IT leadership recently, including the addition of a new acting deputy chief information officer and acting deputy chief AI officer. A webpage listing leadership within the Office of the Chief Information Officer currently has David Hong as acting deputy CIO and Arman Sharma as acting deputy chief AI officer. Meanwhile, Kevin Duvall, who was previously deputy CIO and acting deputy CAIO, is no longer on the page. The apparent change-up comes amid reports of a personnel shake-up at the health agency. On Friday, CNN reported that two top aides to Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were departing and new senior counselors would be installed. Those changes were related to preparations for midterm elections, per CNN. It is not clear if the IT leadership changes were for similar reasons. While there is no public indication of when Hong and Sharma began serving as acting deputies, the changes appear to have been made recently.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel — not American service members — shot down an object with a military laser earlier this week near El Paso, Texas, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation. Troops with Joint Task Force – Southern Border were not authorized to shoot down drones in the area. The task force — which works hand-in-hand with federal law enforcement and serves as the primary military entity for the U.S.-Mexico border mission — trained CBP personnel on the equipment who used it during the incursion. A source familiar told DefenseScoop that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved the transfer of a military counter-drone system to CBP. Sources did not identify the specific laser system that was used. U.S. Border Patrol falls under CBP. The operation reportedly caused interagency turmoil between the Pentagon and Federal Aviation Administration, prompting the latter to issue a 10-day flight restriction that lasted only hours into Wednesday.The Internal Revenue Service moved forward this week with plans to involuntarily move employees with no direct tax experience to perform customer service and analysis duties for this year’s filing season. According to email notices obtained by FedScoop, multiple IRS employees from the agency’s IT and human capital office were informed Monday that they were assigned to a 120-day involuntary detail to the agency’s Taxpayer Services division, as either a customer service representative or a tax examiner. The detail, effective Feb. 22, could be extended beyond the four-month period, per the notice. Joseph Ziegler, the agency’s chief of internal consulting, stated in the notice that neither position will require direct engagement with taxpayers or answering phones, adding that the tax filing season is the “most important time” of the year for the agency. It is unclear how many employees were affected by the temporary reorganization, but it follows a series of shakeups and losses for the agency.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s top official rejected claims from lawmakers Tuesday that the Department of Homeland Security component is building a database for protesters. The alleged detractor database has been referenced in several reports by think tanks, letters to DHS officials from lawmakers and in interviews with border czar Tom Homan. During Tuesday’s House Homeland Security Committee hearing, Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., cited a well-circulated clip of an ICE agent in Portland, Maine, telling a person videotaping that she would be added to a “nice little database.” “I can’t speak for that individual,” said Todd Lyons, who serves as acting director of ICE. “But I can assure you that there is no database that’s tracking United States citizens.” Despite Lyons’ pushback on the database claims, skepticism is persistent as stakeholders point to reports to the contrary. FedScoop reached out to DHS for clarification. Tricia McLaughlin, the agency’s assistant security for public affairs, reaffirmed that there is no database of domestic terrorists run by DHS. “We do of course monitor and investigate and refer all threats, assaults and obstruction of our officers to the appropriate law enforcement,” McLaughlin said in an email. “Obstructing and assaulting law enforcement is a felony and a federal crime.”A recent attempt at a destructive cyberattack on Poland’s power grid has prompted the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to publish a warning for U.S. critical infrastructure owners and operators. Tuesday’s alert follows a Jan. 30 report from Poland’s Computer Emergency Response Team concluded the December attack overlapped significantly with infrastructure used by a Russian government-linked hacking group, and that it targeted 30 wind and photovoltaic farms, among others. CISA said its warning was meant to “amplify” that Polish report. In particular, CISA said the attack highlighted the threats to operational technology and industrial control systems, most commonly used in the energy and manufacturing sectors. And CISA’s alert continues a recent agency focus on securing edge devices like routers or firewalls, after a binding operational directive last week to federal agencies to strip unsupported products from their systems. “The malicious cyber activity highlights the need for critical infrastructure entities with vulnerable edge devices to act now to strengthen their cybersecurity posture against cyber threat activities targeting OT and ICS,” the alert reads. CISA urged owners and operators to review the Polish report, as well as security guidance from other U.S. agencies.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Many Americans by now have received their W-2s or other important tax documents, which can only mean one thing: it’s officially tax filing season. You might be ready to submit your documents, but is the IRS itself ready? That’s a big question mark looming over the 2026 filing season after the tax agency unleashed seismic cuts to its workforce last year and has pumped the breaks on many of its efforts to modernize. Matt Bracken, editor in chief of FedScoop, has kept close watch of the IRS under the second Trump administration, chronicling the cuts made in 2025 and measuring the possible impact that could have on processing times and backlogs during this filing season. Matt joins the podcast to discuss the outlook for 2026 tax filing, how AI comes into play and much more about the tax agency’s ongoing efforts to modernize. The Defense Department announced Monday that it will incorporate OpenAI’s ChatGPT into the military’s generative AI platform that’s already being used by more than a million personnel. ChatGPT has been wildly popular in the commercial sector since it was widely released in 2022. Now the Pentagon plans to add the tech to its GenAI.mil system, which DOD leadership — including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — have been pushing hard for the department’s employees to use since it was launched in December. The Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force and Marine Corps have already adopted the system as their preferred generative AI platform.The Department of Energy is launching a Genesis Mission Consortium as its latest move to deepen the public-private partnerships fueling the AI platform. The initiative, announced Monday, will facilitate structured partnerships as well as working groups, which will focus on ensuring model validation and reliability, addressing data governance and compliance standards, enabling federated data sharing and accelerating research throughput via reduced operational bottlenecks. The consortium will act as a “collaborative hub” and a “single, coordinated access point” for members and resources, according to the agency. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Homeland Security’s watchdog office has launched an audit of the agency’s privacy practices amid allegations that DHS and its components have used facial recognition tools and other technologies to collect data broadly and violate civil liberties.
The Office of Personnel Management finalized a new classification Thursday for career federal workers in policy-related roles that will effectively make them easier to terminate. The new “Schedule Policy/Career” creates an administrative category for nonpolitical “career” federal employees who work in roles that are defined as influencing policy. Workers added to that classification will be converted to “at-will” employees and will no longer be eligible for adverse action procedures or the ability to appeal terminations. Roughly 50,000 employees will be subject to the change, per an estimate in the final rule. Despite the administration’s assertion that the new schedule is for “accountability” and will not be subject to political loyalty tests, federal employee advocates have long argued the policy is a thinly veiled attempt to strip career employees of safeguards in an effort to replace them with workers who are politically aligned with the president. The announcement from OPM on Thursday stated that the final rule explicitly does not allow discrimination based on politics, prohibits use of the new schedule to reshape the workforce or conduct mass layoffs, and would protect whistleblowers. OPM also stated that it would take on a role to review agency actions to ensure they are compliant.A Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency order published Thursday directs federal agencies to stop using “edge devices” like firewalls and routers that their manufacturers no longer support. It’s a stab at tackling one of the most persistent and difficult-to-manage avenues of attack for hackers, a vector that has factored into some of the most consequential and most common types of exploits in recent years. New edge-device vulnerabilities surface frequently. Under the binding operational directive CISA released Thursday, federal civilian executive branch (FCEB) agencies must inventory edge devices in their systems that vendors no longer support within three months, and replace those on a dedicated list with supported devices within one year. To aid agencies in following the directive, CISA is producing a list of end-of-service edge devices. CISA developed the directive in conjunction with the Office of Management and Budget, and puts a bit more muscle behind a decade-old OMB circular on agencies phasing out unsupported technologies. Despite being called “binding operational directives,” CISA has no authority to mandate that agencies carry out the orders — although agencies have demonstrated they usually seek to follow them, and there are ways that CISA can work to ensure compliance. The private sector pays attention to CISA’s directives even though they don’t apply to companies.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee advanced several tech-related bills Wednesday, including legislation to strengthen the Technology Modernization Fund, reform federal IT procurement and pare down educational requirements for agency cybersecurity roles. The TMF, which was created by law in 2017 to fund tech modernization projects across agencies, has been the subject of much hand-wringing in govtech circles after Congress let the funding vehicle expire late last year. The Modernizing Government Technology Reform Act (H.R. 2985), however, would get the TMF back on track, reauthorizing the TMF and its governing board through 2032. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who chairs House Oversight’s Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation Subcommittee, said it was her “privilege” to work with former Rep. Gerry Connolly on the bill before he died of cancer last May, calling the late Virginia Democrat one of TMF’s “strongest supporters” and a “good-faith partner” on the bill. Rep. Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, ranking member of the cybersecurity subcommittee and co-sponsor of the TMF bill, said extending the TMF “is critical to ensuring federal agencies, many of which still rely on outdated IT systems, can modernize their infrastructure and defend against growing cyber threats.” In addition to reauthorizing the TMF, the bill would require agencies to “fully reimburse the fund” at levels that ensure it remains operational through 2032, per the bill text. The legislation also requires agencies to pay back administrative fees and create inventories of their legacy IT. The bill also included an amendment from Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., Connolly’s longtime chief of staff, that would require the Government Accountability Office to issue biannual reports on how TMF funds have been used to address legacy IT projects the watchdog deems high-priority. Improving government IT systems is also top of mind in the Federal Improvement in Technology (FIT) Procurement Act (H.R. 4123), which advanced out the committee by a 42-0 margin. The legislation would streamline the federal procurement process for small businesses and push federal contracting officers to examine larger acquisitions “where the potential for waste, fraud and abuse is high,” said House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer. The Kentucky Republican noted that the bill would increase the micro-purchase threshold from $10,000 to $25,000 and raise the simplified-acquisition threshold from $250,000 to $500,000.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Education Department’s workers union is pushing back after more than 100 technology-related employees lost their collective bargaining protections last month under an executive order citing national security and cybersecurity risks tied to their roles. About 120 employees in the agency’s Office of the Chief Information Officer and Federal Student Aid’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer were told late last month they no longer had union protections due to the nature of their positions, according to AFGE Local 252, which represents Education Department employees. The notification came nearly nine months after President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending collective bargaining rights for labor unions at various federal agencies. The order included some agencies in their entirety, along with some positions across the government that have a determined “primary function” involving intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work. While the CTO and OCIO employees work with technology that could have cybersecurity ties, AFGE Local 252 argues this does not involve intelligence work that would warrant such a ban. “The Department of Education does not engage in any intelligence, counter-intelligence, investigative, or national security work,” AFGE 252 President Rachel Gittleman told FedScoop in an interview, suggesting the move is “just a way to strip labor rights of our federal workforce.” The FSA CTO office specifically does “work on technology” and products, but not information resources management, as the order states, Gittleman explained. FSA employees primarily focus on the office’s website, income-driven repayment applications, FAFSA, and public service loan forgiveness applications.An American stealth fighter jet shot down an Iranian one-way attack drone in the Arabian Sea Tuesday after it “aggressively approached” a U.S. aircraft carrier “with unclear intent,” according to a statement from U.S. Central Command. Just hours after the shootdown, two Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ships accompanied by another unmanned aerial system — this one an Iranian Mohajer drone — approached a U.S.-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to board and seize the vessel, the statement from Centcom spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins said. The dual incidents could spell increased tensions between Washington and Tehran after President Donald Trump threatened military action against Iran over its deadly suppression of protests last month and amid broader nuclear negotiations that could begin this week. The jet, an F-35C Lightning II, launched from the USS Abraham Lincoln, which was transiting the Arabian Sea roughly 500 miles from Iran’s southern coast, Centcom said. The Centcom statement did not identify the unit the jet belongs to, but Marine Fighter Attack Squadron-314, the Black Knights, were photographed by the military operating off the Lincoln several days ago. The long-range Iranian drone — a Shahed-139 UAS known for its use in the Russia-Ukraine war and being reverse-engineered into a U.S. military one-way attack drone — “continued to fly toward the ship despite de-escalatory measures taken by U.S. forces operating in international waters,” the command said. The F-35C shot it down “in self-defense” and to protect the Lincoln and her crew, according to the statement, which said that no service members were harmed and no American equipment was damaged.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
As part of its effort to root out the waste and abuse of government resources, the Trump administration has recently placed fraud squarely in its crosshairs. With that, senior government officials and other policymakers have pointed to the need for stronger and more prevalent identity verification to combat fraud. An expert in digital identity verification, Jordan Burris, former chief of staff to the federal CIO during the first Trump administration and part of President Biden’s term and now head of public sector at Socure, joins the Daily Scoop to discuss the ongoing issues around identity fraud, the U.S.’s journey to a national digital identity verification system and why Washington has struggled so much to get identity right. The Department of Energy is piloting Grok, the generative AI tool from Elon Musk’s xAI, within its Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, according to the agency’s AI use case inventory. The pilot began at the end of June 2025 and has been used to find general answers to questions, summarize information and create documents. The Grok pilot comes at a time when the Energy Department is pursuing ambitious AI goals as part of its role in leading the Trump administration’s Genesis Mission. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has repeatedly characterized the AI effort as “the Manhattan Project of our time.” Grok has been a controversial addition to the federal government’s workflows since the start, following its posting of racist and antisemitic comments last July. A group of more than 30 advocacy organizations called on the Office of Management and Budget to prohibit the use of Grok across the federal government just a month after xAI launched “Grok for Government” last summer. Grok has continued to dominate headlines in the months since. The chatbot has generated biased or misleading claims, garnering the attention of foreign governments and domestic watchdogs.The Department of Veterans Affairs has tapped former government technology leader Zack Schwartz to serve as the next principal deputy assistant secretary for the agency’s Office of Information and Technology. In this role, Schwartz will “oversee technology strategy, daily IT operations, cybersecurity, systems modernization, and service delivery across the department,” VA Deputy Secretary Paul Lawrence wrote in a LinkedIn post Monday. Schwartz will work under Lawrence, who also serves as the agency’s acting chief information officer and assistant secretary for OIT. Schwartz joins the VA with more than a decade of government IT experience, having previously served at the Department of Commerce and the Census Bureau. These roles involved work on modernization and agency-wide transformation initiatives, Lawrence said. Schwartz announced the move on LinkedIn Sunday evening, writing that he appreciates “the many colleagues across VA who supported my transition and welcomed me into the role.” Schwartz most recently served as the chief information and technology officer at Events DC, an events hosting company, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The U.S. government wants the rest of the world to adopt its artificial intelligence cybersecurity standards, a top official with the Office of the National Cyber Director said Thursday. As part of an effort to advance American AI, the administration will be “undertaking diplomacy efforts to promote American AI cybersecurity standards and norms, establishing industry best practices for secure AI deployment and harnessing the full potential of AI tools,” said Alexandra Seymour, principal deputy assistant national cyber director for policy. Seymour’s comments at the 2026 Identity, Authentication, and the Road Ahead Policy Forum in Washington, D.C. partially reflect the Trump administration’s AI Action Plan released last summer, which said the departments of Commerce and State would “vigorously advocate for international AI governance approaches that promote innovation, reflect American values, and counter authoritarian influence,” but doesn’t explicitly mention international promotion of cybersecurity standards. Some of that effort has already materialized, with internationally oriented guides released in both May and December. The United States also isn’t the only one looking to influence international standards for AI security. AI also figures into the yet-to-be-released national cybersecurity strategy that Seymour’s office has been developing. And it dovetails with a pillar of the strategy focused on defending federal networks. Seymour said: “While AI is already helping industries enhance security and address the challenge of escalating cyberattacks, this administration will promote the rapid implementation of AI-enabled cyber defensive tools to detect, divert and deceive threat actors who continue targeting our vital systems and sectors on our federal systems. We must get our house in order. They need rapid modernization, and we’re working on policies to harden our networks, update our technologies and ensure we’re prepared for a post-quantum future.”
The U.S. government has backed out of an organization it helped found that’s aimed at improving how governments can better serve their citizens. The Open Government Partnership announced Wednesday that the U.S. had formally withdrawn its membership, adding to a growing list of organizations the administration has departed. Despite the U.S. being one of the founding nations of the organization in 2011, the General Services Administration’s head, Edward Forst, wrote to the group’s leadership this month to notify them of the decision. Per a copy of that letter published by OGP, Forst said the country’s participation in the organization “has become at best ineffective and at worst detrimental to advancing” principles outlined in the nation’s founding documents, though he didn’t cite specific documents. Forst implied that the body “seeks to erode U.S. national sovereignty” and went on to blame its “embrace of divisive ideological agendas” as a reason the nation dropped its membership. Forst wrote: “Racial identity politics, anti-police bias, LGBTQ+ advocacy, feminism, and climate alarmism have increasingly dominated OGP’s policy agenda. These divisive agendas, driven by extreme ideological cliques, have destroyed the ability of OGP to credibly operate as a voice for transparency.” That rhetoric echoes the Trump administration’s controversial efforts to remove diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, from the federal government — whether through the termination of grants, positions, organizations, or data points.Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia are asking the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general to look into the agency’s broad data collection and analysis processes, according to a letter sent to the DHS IG on Thursday. The duo tasked Inspector General Joseph Cuffari with investigating the methods of data storage and use for personally identifying information, whether DHS immigration enforcement activities are based on data coming from other agencies or third parties, and where DHS collects data from, among other topics. The senators wrote in the letter: “We write to you to express our concern that the Department of Homeland Security is collecting sensitive personal data that can be used to circumvent civil liberty protections, including those guaranteed under the Fourth Amendment. This matter deserves your office’s immediate attention, and we request that your office audit DHS’ immigration procurement activities to determine whether they have led to violations of federal law and other regulations that maintain privacy and defend against unlawful searches.” Lawmakers have kept their eyes on the use of technology within the department, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement in particular. In recent months, DHS has aimed to broaden its authorities by amending rules around data use and collections. Lawmakers have warned of eroding privacy protections and public trust if safeguards aren’t established.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Homeland Security is actively working on 200-plus artificial intelligence use cases, a nearly 37% increase compared to July 2025, according to its latest AI inventory posted Wednesday. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a driving force behind the growth. ICE added 25 AI use cases since its disclosure last summer, including to process tips, review mobile device data relevant to investigations, confirm identities of individuals via biometric data and detect intentional misidentification. Of the newly added uses at ICE, three are products from Palantir, which has been a notable — and at times controversial — technology partner for the U.S. government under the Trump administration. Quinn Anex-Ries, a senior policy analyst focused on equity and civic tech at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit technology policy organization, told FedScoop: “This inventory is coming out at a moment where there are significant, widespread questions about the legality of actions being taken by DHS and their potential infringement on the civil liberties and privacy of millions of people across the country.” Anex-Ries added: “There are some initial indications that the inventory leaves us wanting for more.” The annual inventory process stems from a 2020 executive order during the first Trump administration that was later enshrined into federal statute.The Department of Transportation is reopening a request for information that centered around the Federal Aviation Administration’s handling of unmanned aircraft systems. In this extended, two-week comment period, the FAA is seeking additional insights on aircraft location-tracking devices, detection technologies and safety standards as it looks to finalize the drone-related rules. The FAA has already received around 3,100 comments and hosted two listening sessions with relevant stakeholders, according to the extension announcement scheduled to be published Wednesday on the Federal Register. Still, the FAA wants to “ensure that it fully understands” comments surrounding its proposed policies for location-tracking, data-sharing and detection technologies. The initial inquiry was set in motion by President Donald Trump’s June executive order, called “Unleashing American Drone Dominance.” The president directed the FAA to publish a final rule that would enable drone-based Beyond Visual Line of Sight operations for commercial and public safety purposes within 240 days, which would be Feb. 1. The original RFI had a broader scope and concluded in October despite receiving two requests for an extension.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Pentagon said it consolidated policies around protecting American military facilities from drone threats after unclear guidance that left base commanders scrambling on how to respond and years of increased unmanned aerial system sightings over key Defense Department assets. Drone incursions over American military bases jumped considerably over the last several years, alarming officials, and a Pentagon watchdog report released last week said the DOD’s confused policies meant some facilities in the U.S. couldn’t adequately protect themselves. Following the release of the Defense Department Inspector General report last Tuesday, which noted dire gaps in military counter-UAS policy that limited base responses to drone threats, the Pentagon said it had already adjusted its guidelines last month in an effort to give commanders “expanded authority and flexibility needed to dominate the airspace above their installations.” Countering drones in the U.S. is complex and has been a yearslong, thorny problem for the military, especially as the tech becomes ubiquitous for both hobbyists and adversaries. Stateside drone defense means navigating a delicate balance between protecting military installations while avoiding civilian harm or infrastructure damage. But the issue is only growing, top military officials have said, and the new guidance is the latest attempt by the Pentagon to manage it. The policies, which the release said was signed on Dec. 8 by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, expanded base commanders’ defensive area around facilities, explicitly identified any unauthorized drone surveillance over installations as a threat, allowed UAS sensor data sharing between other federal agencies and authorized top service leaders to designate facilities as “covered,” a special classification that allows for drone defense.With tax filing season officially gearing up, the Treasury Department’s watchdog is warning the IRS that its workforce reductions and delays to modernization projects have left the tax agency in a precarious position. In a memo sent Monday to the IRS commissioner, Diana M. Tengesdal, deputy inspector general for audit, wrote that the agency’s cuts have brought staffing back to October 2021 levels, prior to the Inflation Reduction Act funding infusion aimed at strengthening enforcement on wealthy individuals and corporations and modernizing antiquated IT systems. The loss of personnel has led to a backsliding on previous agency priorities, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration official noted, pointing specifically to a pandemic-created backlog of tax returns awaiting processing. The tax agency had made serious strides in addressing that backlog, TIGTA found in a September 2023 report, but Trump administration staff cuts combined with the recent government shutdown have led to inventory levels that are 129% higher than pre-pandemic figures. “Inventory that is not worked during the current processing year will be carried into the 2026 Filing Season and may affect the IRS’s ability to timely process tax returns during the filing season, especially with reduced staff,” Tengesdal wrote. “This could result in delays in taxpayers receiving refunds and could result in the IRS paying interest,” she continued.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The General Services Administration has leaned into its role as a central, shared services provider for the rest of the federal government during the second Trump administration. In particular, it has taken a leadership position centralizing most federal procurement under one roof and serving as a sort of clearinghouse for federal AI efforts. With so much transformation underway, the GSA during Trump 2.0 has taken on an even brighter spotlight, fueling federal operations. Miranda Nazzaro is the FedScoop reporter covering GSA during this pivotal time, and she joins the podcast to discuss some of the agency’s top priorities, from OneGov and the TMF to eliminating woke AI, among others.The Treasury Department said Monday that it would cancel all of its contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton, linking the decision to a former employee now serving prison time for leaking tax returns. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a three-paragraph press release that the agency’s 31 contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton — worth $21 million in total obligations and $4.8 million in annual spending — would be scrapped as part of President Donald Trump’s push to “root out waste, fraud and abuse.” “Canceling these contracts is an essential step to increasing Americans’ trust in government,” Bessent said. “Booz Allen failed to implement adequate safeguards to protect sensitive data, including the confidential taxpayer information it had access to through its contracts with the Internal Revenue Service.” A Booz spokesperson said in an email to FedScoop that the firm was “surprised by this announcement” — especially given Treasury’s reasoning regarding Charles Edward Littlejohn, who between 2018 and 2020 leaked the confidential tax returns and information of hundreds of thousands of taxpayers. “Booz Allen fully supported the U.S. government in its investigation, and the government expressed gratitude for our assistance, which led to Littlejohn’s prosecution,” the Booz spokesperson said. “We were surprised by this announcement and look forward to discussing this matter with Treasury.” Per the Treasury release, the IRS determined that the data breach affected roughly 406,000 taxpayers. Littlejohn, who was sentenced to five years in prison last January after pleading guilty to one count of disclosing tax return information without authorization, leaked the returns of Trump, Elon Musk and other wealthy individuals to a pair of news organizations.NASA has a new top official for artificial intelligence and data. Kevin Murphy began serving in an acting capacity in both roles Nov. 30, 2025, NASA spokesperson Jennifer Dooren confirmed to FedScoop in an email. He replaces David Salvagnini, who was the agency’s CDO for roughly two-and-a-half years, and CAIO for just over a year-and-a-half. Salvagnini was the agency’s first-ever CAIO. According to Murphy’s LinkedIn, he has been at NASA for over 17 years. He first served as a system architect at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and has held a series of data-related roles, including chief science data officer. As the agency’s lead for data science, Murphy has already worked to advance technologies — such as cloud computing, machine learning, and data platforms — for use with NASA’s scientific data, per an agency bio. He also oversees the agency’s high-end computing capability (HECC) portfolio, which deploys computing technologies to support large-scale modeling, simulation and analysis at the agency. Murphy’s designation as acting CAIO and CDO comes after Salvagnini announced his plans to leave the agency in a LinkedIn post roughly two months ago. In that post, Salvagnini said he opted into the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program. He said he began his transition Oct. 31 and would retire from federal service in the spring of 2026.
The General Services Administration is seeking input from the technology reseller community on how the agency can improve the federal procurement process, particularly regarding value-added resellers (VARs). The GSA issued a request for information Thursday, stating that it hopes to receive cost-reduction strategies for products resold to the government rather than those purchased directly from vendors. VARs, a type of government reseller, purchase infrastructure or software from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and enhance them with certain features or services before reselling to the government. An analysis of major VARs found significant differences in the services offered and markup percentages applied to the vendor pricing, according to the RFI. The market research will help determine whether the agency needs additional controls to ensure the government receives fair and reasonable pricing when markups exceed a specified percentage threshold, per the document. “The RFI seeks to gain a clearer understanding of the value added by resellers, and the resulting impact of these services on pricing and the ability to meet the government’s requirements,” GSA wrote in a press release Thursday.U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is “trying to automate as many of our business functions as possible,” the Department of Homeland Security component’s top IT official said at an event Thursday in Washington, D.C. Dustin Goetz, ICE’s chief information officer, said onstage during a Homeland Security and Defense Forum event that the agency is already tapping its automation toolset for compliance checks on applications, code review and identification of issues in infrastructure — but it’s now looking to beef up capabilities. Goetz pointed to lower-level roles in cybersecurity, the service desk and administrative functions as prime areas for automation, saying those things can be automated with the data the agency currently has, it just needs to train models. Additionally, ICE has started using an internal AI chatbot called Stella, a project led by the DHS division’s chief innovation and AI officer. The agency is open to bringing on industry partners to sharpen the tool and help ICE reach its automation goals.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
A new congressional spending bill could offer a lifeline to reauthorize the Technology Modernization Fund, which expired last month and froze nearly $200 million in unused funds. Congressional appropriators released the final slew of fiscal 2026 spending bills Tuesday, allocating more than $1 trillion to federal agencies and extending various laws or programs. Among the extensions is the reauthorization of the TMF through FY2026, or Sept. 30. It comes just over a month after authorization of the innovation funding vehicle expired Dec. 12. TMF was created in 2017 to fund technology projects across the government, but the bill that made it also set an expiration date that only Congress can extend. Lawmakers failed to move forward with standalone legislation to reauthorize the fund last month, and efforts to include it in larger spending packages also fell flat. Trade groups and IT industry experts were disappointed at the time, telling FedScoop in previous interviews that the expiration was not representative of the issue’s typical bipartisan support. Some pinned the blame on procedural hurdles in Congress, including the 43-day-long government shutdown that pushed various nonfunding priorities toward the end of the year. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced bills in the last three Congresses to reauthorize TMF beyond 2025, but they did not make it out of the Senate, where they have at times faced pushback from congressional appropriators.Members of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency embedded in the Social Security Administration potentially exposed personally identifiable information via a third-party server, the Department of Justice said in a court filing that also revealed coordination between DOGE and an advocacy group seeking “evidence of voter fraud.” A lawsuit filed last February by the AFL-CIO and other labor groups against the SSA sought to cut off DOGE’s access to sensitive data housed in agency systems. In March, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland issued a temporary restraining order to limit that access. But after an SSA records review of the agency’s “former DOGE Team for audit and litigation purposes,” the DOJ said in a filing dated Friday that “communications, use of data, and other actions” were found to be “potentially outside of SSA policy and/or noncompliant” with the court’s order. One of those instances involved DOGE’s sharing of data via a third-party Cloudflare server — a system that is “not approved for storing SSA data and when used in this manner is outside SSA’s security protocols,” the DOJ wrote.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Homeland Security would need to follow stricter guidelines when using mobile biometric applications under legislation introduced Thursday by the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee and other Democrats. The Realigning Mobile Phone Biometrics for American Privacy Protection Act seeks to prohibit the use of such technology except for identification at ports of entry, bars DHS from sharing the apps with non-law enforcement agencies, and implements a 12-hour storage limit on data in the apps. The legislation points to the DHS app Mobile Fortify, other mobile identification apps and potential successor apps as the prime targets. If the bill gains ground, DHS would need to remove the technology from any non-DHS IT systems and workflows outside the ports of entry. Mississippi’s Bennie Thompson, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, said in a press release accompanying the bill’s introduction: “DHS should not be conducting surveillance by experimenting with Americans’ faces and fingerprints in the field — especially with unproven and biased technology. We can secure the Homeland and respect the rights and privacy of Americans at the same time.” The bill’s other co-sponsors are Democratic Reps. Lou Correa of California, Shri Thanedar of Michigan, Yvette Clarke of New York, Grace Meng of New York, and Adriano Espaillat of New York. In written statements, members pointed to concerns around privacy, constitutional violations, civil liberties and the technology’s potential deficiencies.The Army’s top civilian leader said that the service will “kill NIPR” at multiple locations — likely starting next month — in an experiment to see if commercial internet solutions would be more effective. Speaking to soldiers at a town hall at Fort Drum, New York, on Monday, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said “we’re going to bring you down to the commercial internet and we think it will solve all sorts of problems.” If the evaluation is successful, the Army will scale it across the service, he added. NIPR, which stands for Non-classified Internet Protocol Router, is the military’s communication network for unclassified information. Defense Department personnel can access commercial browsers or email through NIPR, for example, but the network is owned and secured by the military. An Army spokesperson told DefenseScoop that the service is evaluating “a shift” from NIPR to a commercial solution that can handle data at Impact Level 5. IL5 includes Controlled Unclassified Information, according to the Defense Information Systems Agency, which is considered sensitive and necessary to protect, but does not meet criteria for classification.The spokesperson said that the evaluation is intended to “cut costs, boost performance and enhance cybersecurity.” They added that the effort was in coordination with the Pentagon’s Office of the Chief Information Officer, DISA and other military services.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
A pair of Democratic lawmakers are reviving a push to guarantee federal agencies that use artificial intelligence systems have a civil rights office dedicated to curbing “bias and discrimination” in AI. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., reintroduced the Eliminating Bias in Algorithmic Systems (BIAS) Act on Thursday. If enacted, federal agencies that use, fund, or oversee the development of AI algorithms would be required to establish civil rights offices staffed by experts and technologists. According to the bill text, these experts would focus primarily on bias, discrimination or other harms, including the impact on certain communities, groups or individuals, or bias against certain characteristics related to race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, disability and more. These offices would also be mandated to report their efforts to Congress. The bill comes as federal agencies race to adopt and integrate AI into their workflows. Government watchdogs found the use of generative AI in federal agencies “rapidly” jumped from 2023 and 2024, with that number expected to have increased over the past year. Markey’s office noted federal agencies often lack civil rights offices “whose principal mission is to protect vulnerable communities,” and the ones that exist often are not required to have staff familiar with algorithmic bias.The Department of Homeland Security is finalizing plans for a new body that would replace the functions of the Critical Infrastructure Partnership Advisory Council (CIPAC) and serve as a communications hub between industry and government to discuss ongoing threats to U.S. critical infrastructure, including from cyber attacks. Under previous administrations, CIPAC served as a nerve center for federal agencies, industry and other stakeholders. While industry widely praised its utility, the council was one of many DHS advisory bodies that were shuttered last year by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem when President Donald Trump returned to office. Now, according to multiple sources, a proposed regulation for a new replacement council is in the final stages of review and approval from Noem’s office. The new body will be called the Alliance of National Councils for Homeland Operational Resilience, or “ANCHOR,” and will also serve as an umbrella organization for other federal sector risk management agencies. Its goal is to restart conversations and planning around infrastructure security that took place under the previous CIPAC, according to a former DHS official.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
After leaving her role performing the duties of the chief information officer for the Department of Defense last month, Katie Arrington has taken a new position as CIO at quantum computing company IonQ. Arrington will step into the role Jan. 19, reporting to the company’s COO and CFO Inder Singh, IonQ announced Wednesday. Kirsten Davies was nominated by President Donald Trump in May 2025 to be the Defense Department CIO, and it took most of the remainder of 2025 for the Senate to confirm her into the role. She was sworn in just before the Christmas holiday, at which point Arrington stepped away from her service to the Pentagon. In joining IonQ, Arrington will serve on the company’s executive team. As CIO, Arrington will continue to support the U.S. military from a different vantage, leading modernization and security of IonQ’s enterprise systems in support of its mission to deliver quantum capabilities to American warfighters. Before rejoining the Pentagon a year ago, then as deputy CIO for cybersecurity, Arrington had a previous stint as CISO in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, where she was largely responsible for the development of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program.Now: President Donald Trump re-nominated Sean Plankey to lead the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Tuesday, after Plankey’s bid for the position ended last year stuck in the Senate. It’s not clear whether or how Plankey’s resubmitted nomination will overcome the hurdles that left many observers convinced his chance of becoming CISA director had likely ended, but it does definitively signal that the Trump administration still wants Plankey to have the job. Plankey’s nomination was included in a batch sent to the Senate announced on Tuesday. CISA spent all of 2025 under Trump without a permanent director. Trump nominated Plankey, who held a couple cybersecurity roles in the first Trump administration, to lead CISA in March. He got a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing in July, then won approval from that panel that same month. But Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., had placed a hold on Plankey’s nomination over a Coast Guard contract that the Homeland Security Department had canceled in part. While he awaited confirmation, Plankey had been serving as a senior adviser to the secretary for the Coast Guard. A spokesperson for Scott did not immediately respond to a request for comment. North Carolina’s GOP Senate delegation also had placed holds on DHS nominees related to disaster aid to their state. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said last week that the holds would remain until Secretary Kristi Noem appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee. A White House official had denied reports that Plankey’s nomination was all but over last year. “President Trump has been clear that he wants all of his nominees confirmed as quickly as possible, including Sean Plankey, who will play a key role in ensuring a strong cyber defense infrastructure,” the official told CyberScoop. Asked Wednesday at the Surface Navy Association national symposium about what he was doing to convince senators to lift their holds, Plankey answered, “The administration, the White House has to say that this is a priority of us.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared his team’s long-awaited new plans to outpace U.S. adversaries by rapidly advancing the military’s arsenal of AI, drones, hypersonics and other disruptive technologies — and drastically reshaping the Pentagon’s approaches for safely deploying them. Speaking onstage at SpaceX’s Starbase launch site in Texas, during a tour hosted by its billionaire CEO Elon Musk, Hegseth said: “In short, when it comes to our current threat environment, we are playing a dangerous game with potentially fatal consequences. We need innovation to come from anywhere and evolve with speed and purpose.” Hegseth’s speech and three accompanying memorandums released Monday reveal the Trump administration’s latest, fast-moving and multifaceted vision to overhaul the Defense Department’s technology enterprise and dismantle perpetual barriers that have historically slowed the military’s commercial capability adoption. Hegseth said that old era ends today, and that the department is done running what he called a peacetime science fair while our potential adversaries are running a wartime arms race. The revamped structure notably aims to anchor a “unified innovation ecosystem built around six execution organizations” that will now collectively operate under the purview of DOD Chief Technology Officer and Undersecretary for Research and Engineering Emil Michael. Those newer and more legacy entities include: the Pentagon’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO); Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); Defense Innovation Unit (DIU); Office of Strategic Capital (OSC); Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO); and Test Resource Management Center (TRMC).Senate and House appropriators are eyeing White House work on IT, artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure — and a continued presence for DOGE — as part of their fiscal year 2026 bill to fund Financial Services and General Government. On the executive branch funding released Sunday for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, lawmakers agreed on $124.3 million for salaries and expenses in the White House’s Office of Administration, with up to $12.8 million used for IT modernization. No more than $10 million of that IT pie should be spent for security and continuity of operations improvements. The Information Technology Oversight and Reform (ITOR) bucket, which historically has supported the Office of the Federal CIO and the now-defunct U.S. Digital Service, would receive $8 million under the new budget. House Appropriations Republicans said in their press release that that money would be used to fund the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which has replaced USDS as the U.S. DOGE Service. That $8 million figure is a fraction of the Trump administration’s initial ask. In its June 2025 budget proposal, the White House requested $45 million in funding for DOGE, the Elon Musk-created group that led the decimation of the federal workforce in the early days of the Trump administration under the auspices of rooting out waste, fraud and abuse of agencies, but ended up raising government spending. The White House also sought $19 million for the ITOR account.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Homeland Security is launching a new office focused on unmanned aircraft systems that will oversee strategic investments in drone and counter-drone technologies. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in the Monday press release: “We are entering a new era to defend our air superiority to protect our borders and the interior of the United States. This will help us continue to secure the border and cripple the cartels, protect our infrastructure, and keep Americans safe as they attend festivities and events during a historic year of America’s 250th birthday and FIFA 2026.” The creation of the dedicated office builds on preceding efforts to beef up drone and counter-drone technologies. In December, FEMA awarded $250 million in grants for counter-drone capabilities to the 11 states hosting FIFA World Cup 2026 matches and Washington, D.C. DHS also expanded authorization the same month to allow state and local law enforcement to combat drone threats, according to the announcement. The department is also fielding proposals from industry partners for a $1.5 billion contract that will facilitate the procurement of these technologies for Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The new Program Executive Office has “already begun its work,” according to DHS. The drone-focused entity is finalizing a $115 million investment in counter technologies that will support the two upcoming celebrations. The funding and focus come amid heightened risks regarding threat actors’ use of unmanned aircraft systems. DHS said Monday that the agency has conducted 1,500-plus missions to address illicit drone activities since 2018. Unauthorized drones have impeded sporting events, disrupted public gatherings and sparked concern among residents.Calls on Congress to put money into the Technology Modernization Fund may have been answered — albeit at much lower levels than what the General Services Administration-run funding vehicle for agency IT projects has been accustomed to. Senate and House Appropriations Committee lawmakers released a package of conferenced bills Sunday to fund several federal agencies through the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, including GSA. Tucked into the 488-page agreement was a note that $5 million would be provided to the TMF, “to remain available until expended.” The appropriations bills must still be passed by both chambers of Congress and signed by the president before the funding can take effect. The potential funding comes as the TMF expired last month for the first time since it was created in 2017, freezing nearly $200 million in funding for agency technology projects. The program has enjoyed bipartisan support since its launch nearly a decade ago: former Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., was a staunch advocate for the program until his death from cancer last year, while Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., has led a sustained push for TMF’s reauthorization. The fund has similarly strong backing from civic technologists and industry groups, and a spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee told FedScoop last month that its reauthorization was a “high priority” that the Office of Management and Budget also supported. Nevertheless, efforts to get TMF reauthorization through the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act didn’t pan out, leaving the program out in the cold.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Small Business Administration is enlisting Palantir’s help in its nationwide probe of suspected loan fraud, as yearslong fraud allegations in Minnesota draw national attention. According to federal spending records, the SBA signed a $300,000 contract with the data analytics and software giant last week. The contract’s description read “SBA Fraud Prevention Pilot and Bootcamp,” and has a projected end date of April 4. The contract, signed through the General Services Administration’s Multiple Award Schedule, was made public just days after SBA Secretary Kelly Loeffler announced that the agency had suspended 6,900 Minnesota borrowers for alleged fraud following its review of thousands of pandemic-era loans administered to the state. Loeffler said the borrowers were approved for 7,900 Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster (EIDL) loans totaling about $400 million. When asked about the Palantir contract, SBA spokesperson Maggie Clemmons pointed to the agency’s Minnesota probe, writing: “We’re now expanding our investigations nationwide as part of a broader zero-tolerance policy on fraud.” Clemmons added: “The agency has multiple audits underway, from pandemic-era programs to federal contracting, and will work with law enforcement to hold fraudsters accountable and put the criminals who have cheated American taxpayers behind bars.”The Office of Personnel Management launched a new workforce data website last week, replacing an antiquated interface and aiming to bring more transparency to federal employment figures. OPM officially announced the new Federal Workforce Data site last Thursday, with data up to November for most categories. That site includes accessible statistics of interest — such as a reduction of 220,000 workers under President Donald Trump — as well as multiple interactive charts that users can filter by agency, timeframe, or other factors. In a written statement, OPM Director Scott Kupor called the website “a major step forward for accountability and data-driven decision-making across government.” While federal workforce data has long been made publicly available online, the old interface, FedScope, was cumbersome and offered data updates on a quarterly basis that lagged by months. In addition to a more modern interface, the new website adds datasets for payroll and recruitment, and promises updates on a faster monthly interval. Per a note on the website, FedScope will no longer be available as of Jan. 28. Despite controversy over the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the workforce, publication of the website was immediately well received by federal data users and advocates. In comments to FedScoop, several sources both applauded the new website and noted that interest in improving the publication of federal workforce data began before the current administration.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
D efforts in the public and private sector.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Homeland Security’s plans for counter-drone efforts are coming into focus with the agency’s announcement last week of $250 million in funding allocations for 11 states and Washington, D.C. The push comes ahead of the district and states hosting the FIFA World Cup 2026 and America 250 national events. The two occasions are expected to bring unprecedented levels of spectators, and, in turn, bad actors, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Karen Evans, acting administrator at FEMA, said in a statement“We knew we needed to act quickly to keep the World Cup safe from the rising threat of unmanned aircraft systems and that’s exactly what we did. This is the fastest non-disaster grant program ever executed by FEMA with funds being awarded just 25 days after the application deadline.” California is set to receive the lion’s share of the funding, at just under $34.6 million. Texas and Washington, D.C., rounded out the top three highest allocations, surpassing $30 million and $28 million, respectively. The awarded investments will go toward boosting drone-tracking infrastructure and detection technologies, in response to hostile actors that have “intensified” their use of the technology, the agency said. There have been several drone-related incidents in past years that have given cause for pause. In 2023, an NFL matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and the Cincinnati Bengals was delayed due to a drone flying over the stadium. The 2024 AFC Championship was interrupted as well after a drone was identified in restricted airspace. Other sports events and gatherings, such as the Boston Marathon, have also been the target of unauthorized drones.Congressional appropriators mostly ignored the Trump administration’s requests to slash budgets at several science and data agencies in a package of fiscal year 2026 bills released this week. House and Senate lawmakers revealed a package of three bipartisan appropriations bills on Monday, including legislation to fund the Department of Commerce, Department of Justice, and science agencies — such as the National Science Foundation and NASA — as well as bills that cover the Department of Energy and Department of Interior. While the Trump administration sought deep cuts for Commerce and many science agencies in its budget for FY 2026, the final bill doesn’t adopt those requests. It instead opts for small decreases or increases at some agencies and maintains relatively similar funding to previous years at others. The three-bill “minibus” — a term used to describe a subset of appropriations bills that would make up an omnibus appropriations package for the entire government — signals important agreement as the government again nears a possible shutdown. However, lawmakers still have several more negotiated appropriations bills to release and must pass that legislation before the continuing resolution currently keeping the government open expires Jan. 30.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
E) would be directed to deliver a plan for “the expedient transition of MSS authorities, infrastructure, support activities, and responsibilities” from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to the EC2 Program Office. This new program office would essentially fuse multiple Pentagon elements that have come to fruition since the late 2010s, and are associated with digitizing command-and-control processes and deploying AI across the joint force.The Defense Department is soliciting ideas for how artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities can assist in the zero-trust assessment process as the deadline to reach target-level compliance approaches. According to a request for information posted Tuesday, the DOD’s Zero Trust Portfolio Management Office is interested in leveraging “automation, AI and ML to accelerate and scale [zero trust] assessments” across the entire department — specifically for “purple team assessments.” The technologies will help the Pentagon mitigate its limited capacity to validate initial compliance and conduct continuous assessments, the RFI noted. Zero trust is a cybersecurity concept that assumes IT networks and systems are constantly under attack by adversaries, requiring the Pentagon to continuously monitor and authenticate users and their devices as they move through the network. The department’s Zero Trust Strategy mandates all DOD components to achieve “target levels” of zero trust by the end of fiscal 2027. Validating compliance requires a combination of internal and third-party assessments. A key part of the Pentagon’s independent evaluation process is a method called purple teaming, which analyzes and tests both how “red team” adversaries and “blue force” cyber defenders move and interact in an IT network. However, officials have previously noted that conducting comprehensive purple teaming can be a time-consuming process that can take warfighters away from other important missions.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Defense and the unifromed military services are undertaking a massive acquisition overhaul prioritizing speed and rapid innovation. One of the services leading the way on that journey is the Department of the Navy. Last month at DefenseTalks, CTO Justin Fanelli delivered a dynamic keynote sharing how the sea service is going about its technology-enabling acquisition transformation.Kirsten Davies has been formally sworn in as chief information officer at the Defense Department where she’ll oversee a “broad portfolio” of important programs, the Pentagon announced. Davies took the reins shortly before the Christmas holiday, according to officials, less than a week after she was confirmed by the Senate. “She brings to the Department two decades of transforming organizations for the digital age, building cyber defenses, tackling tech debt, and innovating at scale,” officials wrote in a post on the Office of the CIO’s LinkedIn page, noting her private sector experience working in top leadership roles for major companies such as Unilever, Estee Lauder Companies, Barclays (Africa Group), Hewlett Packard Enterprises, and Siemens AG. Her extensive IT and cybersecurity background was previously touted by experts who wrote a letter to the Senate Armed Services Committee in support of her nomination for Pentagon CIO. In social media posts, DOD officials noted that Davies will be serving under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth while leading digital modernization efforts and “overseeing for him the information enterprise, cybersecurity, technology innovation, and a broad portfolio of national security programs.” Davies took the helm from Katie Arrington, who has launched and shepherded major initiatives while performing the duties of DOD CIO in a non-Senate-confirmed capacity.The Federal Aviation Administration is taking another step toward its goal of modernizing systems and processes by picking two partners to help replace more than 600 radars. The agency said Virginia-based RTX and Spanish firm Indra Sistemas will come onboard the FAA’s air traffic control overhaul, marked by high stakes, tight timelines and billions of dollars in funding. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in the Monday announcement.“Most of our radars date back to the 1980s. It’s unacceptable.” The radar replacement will kick off this quarter, with a finish line of June 2028 as the goal. The contracts will be paid for by the initial funds allocated in the One Big Beautiful Bill, which earmarked $12.5 billion for the air traffic control modernization project. The radar overhaul is much needed and critical to ensuring safety and efficiency, according to DOT officials. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said in a statement. “Many of the units have exceeded their intended service life, making them increasingly expensive to maintain and difficult to support. We are buying radar systems that will bring production back to the U.S. and provide a vital surveillance backbone to the National Airspace System.”Also in this episode, Salesforce EVP Paul Tatum joins SNG host Wyatt Kash in a sponsored podcast discussion on how Agentic AI is accelerating decision-making and enhancing readiness across the defense and intelligence communities. This segment was sponsored by Salesforce.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Marine Corps is gearing up to expand its first-person view drone capabilities in the New Year by purchasing 10,000 new platforms and increasing the number of troops who are trained on them, according to government contracting documents and service officials. Earlier this week, the Corps announced a standardized training program for small-sized unmanned aerial systems, which include several courses for attack drone operators, payload specialists and instructors. Several units, from III Marine Expeditionary Force in the Pacific to Marine Forces Special Operations Command are now authorized to immediately start these courses. Meanwhile, the service is also asking industry to make thousands of UAS for under $4,000 per unit, according to a request for information posted in December. The intent is for Marines to be able to modify these drones with “simple” third-party munitions and repair them on their own. The RFI also inquired about autonomy and machine learning integration for these systems. Over the next several months, the service will aim to certify hundreds of Marines to use FPV drones, according to the Pentagon, with the goal of having every infantry, reconnaissance and littoral combat team across the fleet equipped with these platforms by May. Officials said that these courses were shaped by recent certifications and the Drone Training Symposium in November, an event intended to solidify and scale training across the fleet. DefenseScoop also reported last week that the Marine Corps had certified forward-deployed Marines on FPV drones for the first time in November. More than two dozen troops with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed to the Caribbean trained for more than a month-and-a-half to qualify on various FPV drone capabilities, a significant milestone for the force after a year of navigating untrodden ground.The Army recently established an artificial intelligence career field that select officers can transfer into starting next month, DefenseScoop has learned. It is also considering the potential for warrant officers to join the new role. The service created the 49B “area of concentration” for AI and Machine Learning on Oct. 31, according to Maj. Travis Shaw, a spokesperson for the Army. Between Jan. 5 and Feb. 6, 2026. Army officers who already have a few years of service or more can apply for the role through the Voluntary Transfer Incentive Program (VTIP), which is meant to support the Army’s manning needs. It was unclear how many officers the Army hopes to transfer into the job, but those selected will reclassify by Oct. 1, 2026, Shaw said. The service expects those personnel to have completed their transition into the AI field by the following year. The effort comes as the Department of Defense continues to boost the use of large language model AI systems for military purposes. Earlier this month, the Pentagon launched GenAI.mil, a hub for commercial AI tools — one that DefenseScoop reported military personnel were meeting with mixed reviews and a bevy of questions about how to use it in their daily operations. The Army has also been embracing LLMs and AI, including through its Army Artificial Integration Center (AI2C), which was established in 2018 to integrate those systems into the service.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Medicaid Services has tapped ID.me to verify the identities of beneficiaries on Medicare.gov, according to a Tuesday announcement from the identity-proofing company. ID.me will be available as an option for identity verification and sign-in on Medicare.gov starting in early 2026, per the release. The deal adds to the growing number of federal programs opting to use the digital identity service that leverages facial recognition technology and has been the subject of some controversy in the past. Already, ID.me is used at 21 federal agencies, including the Social Security Administration and Department of Veterans Affairs, per the release. Opting in means an ID.me user could sign in with the same credentials at any of the other federal, state or private-sector entities that use the service, the company said in a statement to FedScoop.
The House on Monday passed a bill that would revamp how agencies purchase software, putting the legislation in the same place it was a year ago: waiting for the Senate to follow suit as the clock ticks down on the congressional calendar. The Strengthening Agency Management and Oversight of Software Assets (SAMOSA) Act would require agencies to examine their software licensing practices, with the aim of streamlining IT buying practices to avoid duplicative purchases. The bill is identical to legislation that passed the House last December but did not move forward in the Senate. The House bill, co-sponsored by Reps. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, Pat Fallon, R-Texas, and April McClain Delaney, D-Md., would press agencies to better manage their software without limiting procurement options. They would be required to submit IT assessments to the Office of Management and Budget, the General Services Administration and Congress, so better oversight could be conducted. On the House floor Monday, Brown credited her three co-sponsors as well as former Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who died of cancer in May after taking the lead on this bill in addition to his myriad other government IT efforts. Brown, ranking member of the House Oversight Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation subcommittee, said the SAMOSA Act is a “straightforward good government bill that has strong bipartisan support from members of the Oversight Committee.”A new bill from Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., and Ted Budd, R-N.C., would establish a national network of cloud laboratories led by the National Science Foundation and supported by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, with the goal of enhancing collaboration between institutions while improving research efficiency with AI. If passed, NSF will select up to six programmable cloud laboratories from a range of applicants, including academic institutions and private-sector research groups. NIST would be tasked with setting standards and reporting to Congress about the feasibility for expansion. The bill, introduced last week, aligns with provisions laid out by the Trump administration’s AI Action Plan and aims to codify existing NSF proposals, according to the sponsors. NSF earmarked $100 million for a similar AI-powered cloud network in August as it looked to expand access to emerging technologies. Researchers in the co-sponsors’ home states have developed methods to ease automated discoveries, which will serve as a blueprint for the national effort. NSF will judge applicants on the level of existing data integration and automated capability infrastructure and capacity to support multi-user cloud workflows, among other criteria. In addition to bipartisan backing, the legislation garnered support from officials at Carnegie Mellon University, the Accelerate Science Now coalition and the Allegheny Conference on Community Development.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Trump administration launched a new governmentwide hiring program Monday aimed at filling technology hiring gaps in federal agencies with workers who will serve in two-year stints. That program, dubbed the U.S. Tech Force, is being spearheaded by the Office of Personnel Management and has buy-in from private-sector tech companies that will serve as partners in the hiring initiative.The first cohort of recruits will be roughly 1,000 individuals who will range from early-career data scientists and engineers to engineering managers from the private sector. According to a release from OPM, their mission will be to accelerate AI adoption in government and fulfill a priority of the Trump administration. On a call with reporters Monday, OPM Director Scott Kupor said the goal of the program isn’t to get workers to commit to “a 40-year career in federal government.” While that’s welcome, he said, the aim is to “get the benefit of really smart people working on some of the world’s most complex and difficult problems” and provide them with an opportunity, if they so choose, to then go work in the private sector. More than two dozen technology companies have already agreed to Tech Force partnerships, including Amazon Web Services, Meta, Microsoft, xAI, Anduril, Nvidia, Oracle, Adobe and ServiceNow. Those companies have not made firm agreements to hire program alumni but can do so in line with their needs, Kupor said. The commitment that OPM has made to those partners, he said, is “to do a great job of recruiting fantastic people.”The White House and Office of Personnel Management shared more details last Wednesday about the effort to transition federal government HR platforms to a single system, outlining a timeline and expectations. In a memo to agency leaders, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought and OPM Director Scott Kupor said the transition portion of the administration’s “Federal HR 2.0” project will take place over the next two years, with some agencies coming online earlier than others. Agencies must also stop current projects related to their current systems unless they have an exception. Kupor said in an emailed statement with the memo: “For too long, taxpayers have footed the bill for duplicative HR systems that no modern organization would tolerate. Today’s announcement is a major win for efficiency, accountability, and good government.” The memo is the latest action in the Trump administration’s push to centralize HR systems as a way of saving money. Per the document, the government currently has more than 100 “core human capital management” systems, and the administration expects that consolidating those systems — as well as HR services — will save billions.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to limit states’ ability to regulate artificial intelligence and pave the way for a “minimally burdensome” national policy framework for the emerging technology. The move caps a monthslong saga among policymakers in Washington over how to regulate the rapidly evolving technology at the federal level, as states take matters into their own hands in the absence of any nationwide standards. The order is a significant win for several major AI developers that argue that a patchwork of state AI regulations hampers innovation and competitiveness on the global stage. Its provisions have the potential to impact the hundreds of state laws.The Office of Management and Budget released long-awaited guidance Thursday that outlined how federal agencies are expected to ensure that artificial intelligence models are “unbiased” when procured and deployed by the government. The memo from OMB Director Russell Vought addresses some questions that arose after President Donald Trump signed an executive order last July to prevent “woke AI” in the federal government. The order, signed alongside the release of the White House AI Action Plan, stated the federal government has an obligation not to procure models “that sacrificed truthfulness and accuracy to ideological agendas.” The order did not provide details on how agencies should evaluate models and directed OMB to issue guidance. The seven-page memo fulfills this directive by outlining how agencies must approach contractual requirements for new partnerships, modify existing contracts, and update their procurement policies.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Trump administration outlined management plans for implementing its priorities Monday in a brief agenda focused on downsizing the government, leveraging federal buying power, and implementing technology solutions. At just two pages, the President’s Management Agenda framework and memo from Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought is shorter than past versions. Nonetheless, the plan largely reflects the existing focuses of the administration. For example, the government will continue to “eliminate woke, weaponization, and waste,” specifically calling to “end discrimination” and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. It will also maintain cuts to the federal workforce. The president’s first year has already been characterized by his significant shrinking of the federal workforce and cuts to programs related to DEI. Continuing plans for technology use and contracting were mentioned in the agenda. Per the document, the government plans to “consolidate and standardize systems,” reduce the number of federal websites, “eliminate data silos” in government, and replace “wasteful processes” with AI. The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration is moving forward on several modernization and AI projects with help from the Technology Modernization Fund. The more than $28 million investment will go toward three main initiatives: implementing machine learning to track fire boundaries and enable data sharing between systems for NNSA’s FireGuard program; migrating its Turbo FRMAC radiological assessment tool to a cloud-based platform; and improving AI infrastructure to mitigate nuclear-security threats and enhance its cybersecurity posture. NNSA CIO James Wolff said in a LinkedIn post Tuesday, days before the funding vehicle is set to expire: “TMF has given us the chance to accelerate mission critical work while also improving the technology infrastructure for the Genesis Mission.” NNSA was quick to mobilize after a Trump administration executive order last month launched a national AI effort dubbed the Genesis Mission, which put the DOE at the helm of the majority of the efforts.
As 2025 and the first year of the second Trump administration come to a close, Federal CIO Greg Barbaccia sat down with FedScoop reporter Madison Alder for a wide-ranging interview on the state of federal IT, including critical initiatives like FedRAMP modernization, AI adoption, federal tech talent, the consolidation of federal tech and contracting, what’s ahead in 2026, and much more.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Peraton has emerged as the winner to overhaul the air traffic control system, securing a contract to oversee the multi-billion dollar project with the Federal Aviation Administration. In an announcement Thursday night, the FAA said the Virginia-based technology firm will be the integrator for the project. Initial funding includes a $12.8 billion infusion from Congress as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill earlier this year, but the agency is eyeing billions more to complete the project. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said an additional $20 billion will be needed to finish the modernization effort. Bedford said in a statement included in the release: “This is a long-term investment in the future of air travel, and we’re committed to getting it right.”. According to the agency, Peraton had capabilities that matched the needs of the project, including “integrating complex tech platforms and successful collaboration with federal government agencies.” The project is planned to take just three years. The FAA’s search for an integrator for the modernization effort began earlier this year and came amid concerns over its aging air traffic control systems. The issues with the existing infrastructure range from IT outages that cause travel delays to the continued use of antiquated technology, such as floppy disks. In a public appearance in September, Bedford said the current system is “failing every day.”The Education Department informed numerous Office of Civil Rights employees Friday that they are expected to return to work later this month while they await a court ruling on reduction-in-force orders that sidelined them nearly eight months ago. Multiple workers in Education’s OCR told FedScoop they received notices from the agency late Friday afternoon. Those notices stated that they are expected to return in person to their assigned-duty location on either Dec. 15 or 29. The notice, according to four copies obtained by FedScoop, said the following: “While RIF notices are tolled during litigation, it is important to refocus OCR’s work and utilize all OCR staff to prioritize OCR’s existing complaint caseload.” The notice stated: “In order for OCR to pursue its mission with all available resources, all those individuals currently being compensated by the Department need to meet their employee performance expectations and contribute to the enforcement of existing civil rights complaints.” The agency told workers this will boost enforcement activities in a way that “serves and benefits parents, students, and families.” Workers have until Monday to inform the agency if they do not plan on returning to their positions.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Trump administration is aiming to release its six-part national cybersecurity strategy in January, according to multiple sources familiar with the document. The document, which is a mere five pages long, will possibly be followed by an executive order to implement the new strategy. The administration has been soliciting feedback in recent days, which one source considered more of a “messaging” document than anything, with more important work to follow. According to sources familiar with the strategy, the six “pillars” focus on cyber offense and deterrence; aligning regulations to make them more uniform; bolstering the cyber workforce; federal procurement; critical infrastructure protection; and emerging technologies. An opening section of the draft offers a Trumpian call for a more muscular approach to cyberspace. Despite its short length — the Biden administration’s cybersecurity strategy was 35 pages long — it touches on a significant number of topics. Those subjects include cybercrime, China, artificial intelligence, post-quantum cryptography and more. A source told CyberScoop the administration appeared genuinely interested in soliciting feedback on the strategy to incorporate or change. The release date of the strategy is fluid. While the administration is targeting January, its publication might follow the broader national security strategy.In other news: Anthropic’s Claude for Government is now available across the Department of Health and Human Services, according to an internal announcement obtained by FedScoop. The launch was announced in an email to staff Wednesday from HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill, and comes two months after the department made ChatGPT available to all of its workers. O’Neill encouraged workers to use either ChatGPT or Claude for their queries or “ask both and compare the responses.” He said in his email: “HHS users can work confidently and securely, with minimal restrictions on the types of information entered, while maintaining full compliance with federal cybersecurity and privacy standards. With this release, we are ensuring that all divisions, programs, and employees have access to two secure cutting-edge AI capabilities.” The email doesn’t mention specific contracting details of how HHS is providing access to the tool, but ChatGPT at least was provided through the company’s nearly free OneGov deal with the General Services Administration. Anthropic similarly has such a deal with GSA to offer its services to government customers for a nominal fee of $1.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Communications Industry Association, the Alliance for Digital Innovation, NetChoice, OpenPolicy and the Software Information Industry Association. Congress has been trying to move forward with the SAMOSA Act since at least 2022. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., noted during Tuesday’s markup that the current iteration of the SAMOSA Act is “identical” to what passed the chamber last year.In other news: The Small Business Administration may soon be forced to confront the flawed rollout of an online certification platform it launched late in the Biden administration.The House on Monday passed a bill that would require the SBA to implement nearly a dozen recommendations made in a Government Accountability Office report about the agency’s Unified Certification Platform for small business contracting assistance. The lawmakers behind the SBA IT Modernization Reporting Act — Reps. Gil Cisneros, D-Calif., and Brian Jack, R-Ga. — believe the legislation will help the agency avoid various pitfalls that plagued the UCP, helping it better develop and manage digital projects going forward. The UCP project was launched in 2023 with the goal of easing small businesses’ interactions with the SBA’s contract assistance programs. But deployment of the platform was delayed and applications for certification were paused in August 2024. The UCP went live two months later, but according to the GAO, work to migrate data and secure the system was incomplete. House Small Business Committee Chair Roger Williams said before Monday’s vote that the “failed … portal rollout resulted in delays, errors and cybersecurity risks, shutting out small businesses from the vital government contracting opportunities.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Heath and Human Services has been leaning into the use of artificial intelligence to drive better health outcomes for the American public, highlighted by the rollout of ChatGPT across the agency early this fall. In particular, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been a leader in generative AI adoption since 2023. And Travis Hoppe, CDC’s chief AI officer, believes AI innovation can continue to move the needle on public health operations. Hoppe joined me recently onstage at FedTalks to share the latest on CDC’s AI journey, how the Trump administration’s AI Action Plan is guiding the agency’s implementation and what’s next.The National Nuclear Security Administration is looking for information on potential AI uses for its mission, following an executive order to establish an integrated AI platform that will fuel scientific discovery. In a request for information posted to SAM.gov on Monday, the Department of Energy subcomponent that oversees the nation’s nuclear stockpile said it’s exploring the use of the budding technology, and specifically requested information about its use in classified environments, best practices for data curation, and how to approach developing and enhancing AI models, among other things. The request comes just a week after the Trump administration launched the “Genesis Mission,” aimed at scientific discovery through AI. That effort will not only create an AI platform for such discovery, but it will also depend on the country’s existing research and development infrastructure, including DOE and its national labs. To further the Genesis program, NNSA said it’s proactively exploring the use of AI for its “critical operations to accelerate nuclear weapons development timelines, ensuring our deterrent remains responsive, effective, and state-of-the-art against evolving global threats.”Software company SAP inked a new agreement with the General Services Administration to offer federal agencies access to its services at significantly discounted rates, deepening its longstanding partnership with the federal government. The GSA announced the OneGov deal Tuesday, stating that the agreement offers up to 80 percent discounts on SAP’s database, cloud, and analytics services. The agency estimated this will lead to $165 million in savings for federal agencies. Specifically, agencies will be able to access products related to SAP’s database and data management services with an 80 percent discount. SAP’s cloud services, including SAP Business Technology Platform, SAP Analytics Cloud and HR Payroll, will be offered at a 35 percent discount, GSA said.Also in this episode: Databricks VP of Public Sector Todd Schroeder joins SNG host Wyatt Kash in a sponsored podcast discussion on why agencies are prioritizing the use of AI that works across existing data environments, saving time and infrastructure costs. This segment was sponsored by Databricks.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Defense Department’s Blue UAS program maintains an ever-expanding index of commercial drones that are meant to be devoid of components from adversary nations including China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea, and endorsed for speedier purchasing by U.S. military buyers. This list of compliant options is growing rapidly in late 2025 as the government moves to incentivize the adoption of more affordable U.S.-made drone products for modern military operations, and simultaneously reduce the nation’s reliance on foreign supply chains. Blue UAS also marks a key feature of the second Trump administration’s plan for “unleashing American drone dominance.” However, multiple sources told DefenseScoop this month that the majority of the unmanned aerial systems cleared through this effort have motors that are sourced in China. One former senior defense official who was granted anonymity to speak freely said: “It’s a big enough problem that we should do something. If you don’t have motors, you can’t fly a drone.” They added: “And I think if you had to pick the top three [Chinese components that are currently in Blue UAS-approved platforms], it would be the motors, the batteries and the electric speed controllers — if you want to call them, like, ‘dumb’ parts.”Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is asking the Trump administration to detail any plans it has to subsidize AI companies, alleging that OpenAI might be positioning itself for such relief, despite denials by its leadership. Warren’s Tuesday letter comes as the ChatGPT owner has faced questions in recent weeks about the health of its finances and whether it’s becoming so enmeshed in the U.S. economy that the federal government should or would prevent its failure — in other words, whether it’s become “too big to fail.” The speculation was enough to elicit a response from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who earlier this month pushed back on the theories in a social media post and said the company should not be bailed out in the event of failure. Yet, Warren is still seeking information about any potential plans by the government to “prop up” the company, arguing OpenAI’s decisions paint a different picture. Warrend wrote: “While Mr. Altman has claimed that the company is not looking for a ‘bail out,’ OpenAI’s actions suggest that it may be pursuing a deliberate strategy to entangle itself with the federal government and the broader economy so the government has no choice but to step in with public funds. We have seen this before: take on enough debt, make enough risky bets, and then demand a taxpayer bailout when those bets go south so the economy does not crash.” The letter was addressed to White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks and Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios, and asks for assurances that the administration will not bail out OpenAI or any of its competitors should they fail.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
President Donald Trump appears to be eyeing an executive order that would target individual state efforts to rein in artificial intelligence and initiate several actions aimed at preempting those laws. A draft order viewed by FedScoop includes plans to establish an AI litigation task force to challenge state AI statutes, restrict funding for states with AI laws that the administration views as “onerous,” and launch efforts to preempt state laws via the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and legislation. In response to a FedScoop inquiry about the six-page draft order, which was also marked “deliberative” and “predecisional,” a White House official said that until announced officially, “discussion about potential executive orders is speculation.” The document comes as long-discussed desires by the Trump administration and congressional Republicans to preempt state AI laws and clear the field for AI companies appear to be coming to a head. Republican lawmakers are again planning to include a state AI law moratorium in the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act, and Trump, in a Tuesday social media post, voiced clear support for a federal standard to be included in the NDAA or another bill.The Defense Department’s CTO has revised its list of critical technology areas — reducing the number of research-and-development priorities by more than half. The Pentagon announced on Monday that the 14 critical technology areas established during the Biden administration will be trimmed to just six categories. In a video shared on LinkedIn, Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael emphasized that the shortened list will steer the department’s efforts to efficiently deliver the emerging capabilities that warfighters need. Michael said Monday in a statement: “When I stepped into this role, our office had identified 14 critical technology areas. While each of these areas holds value, such a broad list dilutes focus and fails to highlight the most urgent needs of the warfighter. 14 priorities, in truth, means no priorities at all.” The focus areas in the updated catalog include applied artificial intelligence (AAI); biomanufacturing; contested logistics technologies (LOG); quantum and battlefield information dominance (Q-BID); scaled directed energy (SCADE); and scaled hypersonics (SHY). Since its creation, the Pentagon’s outline of critical technology areas has included the most pressing challenges and capabilities needed for modern warfare. The list serves as a guide for where the department should focus its investment, research and development efforts.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Perplexity AI, an AI-powered search engine, is ramping up its push for government use, inking a new deal with the General Services Administration to offer its product for just 25 cents per agency. GSA announced the deal with Perplexity on Wednesday, emphasizing that the product will be offered directly through the agency’s Multiple Award Schedule rather than through a government reseller, a first-of-its-kind agreement. The move aligns with GSA’s OneGov initiative, which aims to work directly with technology vendors to cut prices and streamline contracting. Under the deal, Perplexity’s Enterprise Pro for Government will be available on GSA’s MAS for a quarter to agencies over an 18-month term. In doing so, Perplexity also received prioritized authorization under FedRAMP, the government’s primary security review program that approves cloud-based technologies for federal use. Perplexity is only the second company to do so, joining OpenAI, which received prioritized authorization in September. According to GSA, Perplexity’s Enterprise platform was also streamlined through the FedRAMP 20x pilot, which is focused on simplifying the cloud services approval process and reducing the timeline from months to weeks. Perplexity’s platform uses large language models from other companies, such as Anthropic’s Claude or OpenAI’s ChatGPT, to conduct real-time internet searches and generate summaries for users. GSA noted Perplexity’s platform has optional connections to common agency systems like Microsoft’s OneDrive, Outlook or SharePoint.The Department of Health and Human Services is exploring how artificial intelligence can support caregivers with the launch of a new $2 million prize competition for AI caregiver tools. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the “Caregiver Artificial Intelligence Prize Competition” at an event Tuesday for National Family Caregivers Month, stating the agency is calling on engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs to use AI to “make caregiving smarter, simpler and more humane.” Kennedy said: “Many caregivers work around the clock, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, taking care of their loved ones with lifelong disabilities, dementia or chronic illness. Too many lose their income, their job, their aspirations and ambitions for themselves and even their own health in the process.” The HHS’s Administration for Community Living (ACL) emphasized that the direct care workforce is facing increased shortages, leaving family caregivers to fill the void. According to an AARP report published in July, nearly 1 in 4 adults provided ongoing care for an adult or child with a complex medical condition or disability. These caregivers spend, on average, about $7,200 a year in out-of-pocket caregiving expenses, the report found. The competition will seek tools that benefit the professional care workforce or personal caregivers. Developers could be awarded up to $2 million for the products.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
storically tumultuous year for federal employees didn’t dim the public’s pre-shutdown view of government services, according to a new survey that largely credited tech adoption for the positive perceptions. The 2025 American Customer Satisfaction Index Federal Government Study, released Tuesday, found citizen satisfaction with federal government services at a 19-year high with a score of 70.4 on a 0-to-100 scale, a 1% jump from 2024. The survey of 6,914 randomly chosen respondents was conducted before the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, but ACSI’s director of research emeritus emphasized that the results still “reflect real momentum in improving how citizens experience federal services.” Forrest Morgeson, an associate professor of marketing at Michigan State in addition to his role at ACSI, said that the introduction of AI is making a large impact, and such advancement “signal a future where government services can be more responsive and accessible to all.” Many of the highest-ranking federal agencies in customer satisfaction were lauded for their implementation of technologies, including USDA, the State Department and the Small Business Administration. The National Institutes of Health didn’t ensure that the entity housing personal health information of over 1 million people — including biosamples — implemented proper cybersecurity protocols, according to an internal watchdog. In a report publicly released Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General made five recommendations for the security of the All of Us program — a database of diverse health information from 1 million participants that’s meant to aid research — after finding weaknesses. According to the report, while the award recipient operating the program’s Data and Research Center implemented some cybersecurity measures, NIH failed to ensure other controls were addressed. The report found that NIH didn’t ensure that the awardee, which wasn’t identified, appropriately limited access to the program’s data and didn’t communicate national security concerns related to maintaining genomic data — or data relating to DNA. It also failed to ensure that weaknesses in security and privacy were fixed within a timeline outlined in federal requirements. The audit was initially conducted by the inspector general due to the threats that cyberattacks and the potential exposure of sensitive information can pose to the agency’s programs. The watchdog’s objective was to scrutinize the access, security and privacy controls of the program. Also in this episode: HPE Networking Chief AI Officer Bob Friday joins SNG host Wyatt Kash in a sponsored podcast discussion on how agencies can leverage cloud and AI to build more automated, secure and mission-ready networks. This segment was sponsored by HPE.
U.S. officials are moving to deputize state and local law enforcement partners for counter-drone activities ahead of the 2026 World Cup in an attempt to address a gap in legal authorities. While certain federal officials have been given the authority to counter unmanned aircraft that pose a credible threat to specified locations, that same authority has not yet been extended by Congress to state and local officials. So, as U.S. cities look to enhance the security of their skies ahead of the World Cup matches they’re slated to host, the federal government is moving to train and deputize law enforcement in those areas so they, too, can participate in counter-drone efforts. Details of those plans were shared at an event last week on drone mitigation co-hosted by the White House Task Force on the FIFA World Cup, Commercial Drone Alliance, and DroneResponders. former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, who represents the 11 U.S. cities hosting World Cup matches on behalf of Hogan Lovells, told reporters: “There are some technical issues about who has the capacity to do counter-drone technology — who can operate that equipment.” Working with the FBI, he said, the White House is requiring officials to be trained, and “in effect, they become deputized, they become federal agents for this limited purpose.” While Coleman said it “would be cleaner” and easier to do it via legislation, he told reporters “the public should understand that we have the capacity to ensure that the folks who need to operate the equipment will be able to do it.” Through a recently launched FBI training program known as the National Counter-UAS Training Center, state and local law enforcement officers will be educated and then granted authority by the Department of Justice for counter-drone work. That schoolhouse located in Alabama was ordered under President Donald Trump’s executive order on drone mitigation and graduated its first class in recent weeks.Days after deploying America’s newest and largest aircraft carrier to the Caribbean to target what the Trump administration alleges are drug-trafficking boats from Venezuela, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unveiled a large-scale military and surveillance operation in the region that will commence later this month. “Operation SOUTHERN SPEAR defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people. The Western Hemisphere is America’s neighborhood — and we will protect it,” Hegseth wrote in a social media post last Thursday night. Venezuela launched a major military mobilization campaign this week in response to the U.S.’ unusual surge of weapons and Navy assets to its Southern Command area of responsibility. Last Tuesday, Hegseth deployed America’s most advanced aircraft carrier — the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) — and its strike group to Southcom, following an order from President Donald Trump. Tension has risen between Trump and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro this year, continuing to escalate in recent months. The U.S. has conducted multiple deadly strikes in the region Southcom covers since early September against vessels Hegseth has accused online of smuggling drugs from Venezuela.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Army is initiating massive organizational reforms for how it buys new weapons and capabilities in an effort to drastically shorten procurement timelines and promote innovation, according to top service officials. Announced Friday, the Army’s acquisition portfolio overhaul will consolidate the service’s program executive offices (PEOs) responsible for buying new weapons into six new offices called “portfolio acquisition executives” (PAEs). The plan also creates a new office dedicated to rapidly injecting and scaling emerging technologies into Army formations. The transformation comes after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced his intent to revamp acquisition processes across the entire Pentagon on Nov. 7, as well as an April directive from Hegseth that called on the Army to consolidate many aspects of the service — including its procurement organizations. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told reporters Wednesday ahead of the announcement that the new structure aims to mimic best practices from private industry, creating a new system that accepts risk and streamlines capability delivery.The Defense Department’s civilian employees whose pay was impacted by the record-setting government shutdown and lapse in appropriations that ended this week are expecting to receive their missed paychecks retroactively. However, questions are swirling about the Pentagon’s plans as it reopened Thursday — including the timeline for that out-of-cycle backpay process, whether it will arrive in the form of lump sum payments, and more. According to a new policy memorandum from the White House Office of Personnel Management issued Wednesday after President Donald Trump signed legislation to fund the government: “Federal employees who did not receive pay because of the lapse in appropriations that began on October 1, 2025, must receive retroactive pay at the employee’s standard rate of pay for the lapse period as soon as possible after the lapse ends,” pursuant to the U.S. Code. That guidance applies explicitly to the department’s personnel affected by the lapse who were either furloughed or performed excepted work activities. Service members and some DOD civilians designated “essential” reported to work during the shutdown — but only military officials were paid. More than 1 million federal employees reportedly missed one partial and two full paychecks during this shutdown, which caused serious financial strain for public servants across the nation. Several reports surfaced this week regarding when the Pentagon might begin processing paychecks and how soon they could start to arrive. The DOD did not appear to publicly release final, comprehensive guidance with details on its workforce repayment schedule and plans.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
After 43 days, the longest federal government shutdown in history has ended. President Donald Trump signed the legislative spending package into law late Wednesday night after the House passed it 222-209. While the reopening of the government is certainly a step in a positive direction, it comes with lingering questions. First and foremost on that list is whether much of the government will be right back facing the threat of a second shutdown come the end of January, when the continuing resolution is set to expire for a large block of federal agencies. However some agencies, like the Department of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration, as well as the legislative branch, will receive full appropriations through fiscal 2026 as lawmakers on the subcommittees that oversee them were able to pass full funding bills as part of the package. On top of that, though the government’s doors are officially back open for business, there will be some lag in getting key services back online and returning workers to their posts. Issues that were key during the 43-day saga like air travel operations and SNAP benefits will take some time to return to normal. As will paying federal employees who were furloughed without pay during the shutdown. And, it’s not clear yet what the end of the shutdown could mean for federal employees who were removed from their jobs via reductions in force since Oct. 1.The congressional package that reopened the government placed a caveat on funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Electronic Health Record system, putting new pressure on the agency to resolve its yearslong challenges with the rollout. The bill to fund the VA through fiscal 2026 will dish out $3.4 billion for the EHR rollout, but the full amount is contingent on the agency updating Congress on the revised timeline and cost estimates. The provision, tucked into the 394-page spending package, would withhold 30% of the funding until July of next year and gives the agency secretary until June 1 to hand over the requested information. This information includes an updated life-cycle cost estimate for the EHR Modernization program, based on the VA’s announcement earlier this year to accelerate deployments in nine facilities. The Senate also requested a facility-by-facility deployment schedule for all facilities expected to receive the EHRM program, along with the projected federal VA staffing levels and required resources. The secretary is also expected to certify that all VA facilities using the EHR have exceeded or met health care performance metrics and certify that the department has at least four consecutive, successful site deployments without delays or patient harm. It comes after Senate staff was informed in 2023 that the rollout of the EHR system was linked to six cases of “catastrophic harm,” including four deaths. Later that year, the Biden administration paused the EHR rollout.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Senate Democrats are ratcheting up pressure on the White House over artificial intelligence data centers and the surging utility costs that have accompanied their nationwide buildout. In a letter sent Monday to Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, five senators blasted the Trump administration for the “sweetheart deals” it has made with Big Tech companies on data centers, and its “reckless abandonment” of consumers as their electricity bills soar. The letter, which was led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., states: “Since his second inauguration, President Trump has cozied up to Meta, Google, Oracle, OpenAI, and other Big Tech companies, fast-tracking and pushing for the buildout of power-hungry data centers across the country.” According to the letter — which was also signed by Democratic Sens. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Ron Wyden of Oregon, Ed Markey of Massachusetts and independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont — national power consumption from data centers could jump from 5% to 12% within three years, and even the White House noted in its AI Action Plan that “technological advancements of AI are increasing pressures on the grid.” At the same time, the second Trump administration has seemingly traded in the all-of-the-above approach to energy sources pursued during the president’s first term for a decidedly anti-renewables bent that the senators said has “supercharged this cost-of-living crisis by making it harder to increase and diversify sources of household electricity sources.”The Department of Veterans Affairs’ push to modernize decades-old systems faced a technical issue earlier this year, delaying education benefits payments for tens of thousands of students at the start of the school year. A group of veterans’ service organizations, including the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), highlighted the issue this week, telling reporters that the technical glitch occurred in August, when the VA began converting benefits claims from its legacy system to a new processing system for Chapter 35 Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance. The VA launched its initiative to modernize the GI Bill process in 2022, and the Digital GI Bill platform was set to be fully operational by April 2024 but faced its own delays last year. A part of the multi-billion-dollar initiative involves overhauling multiple legacy systems, including those related to the education benefits process. Ashlynne Haycock-Lohmann, the director of government and legislative affairs at TAPS, told FedScoop in an interview that the veterans’ service community welcomes the changes to decades-old systems, but the timing around the school year could present risks.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
U.S. service members transitioning out of the military will now be able to access ChatGPT Plus for a year under a new offer from OpenAI that’s aimed at helping them with their job hunt. The new offer, announced Monday ahead of Veterans Day, is available to service members who are within 12 months of separation or retirement, and any veteran within their first year of leaving service. Katrina Mulligan, OpenAI for Government’s head of national security partnerships, said on a call with reporters ahead of the announcement. “We know that nearly 70% of veterans say finding employment is their biggest challenge, and we want to make that transition a little bit easier by providing support that’s available anytime.” Mulligan said the idea for the offer started with OpenAI’s own veteran employees who used the platform for their own career navigation. “They urged us to make these tools available to others going through the same experience, and we were really glad to support it,” she said.Through the new offer, eligible service members and veterans are able to access ChatGPT Plus — which is typically a $20 per month subscription, and boasts faster response time as well as priority access to new features — as well as some personalized content for veterans. That includes a “getting started” video targeted toward veterans, and over 100 example chats that Mulligan said were developed by veterans based on real tasks during a transition. The offer is not a direct partnership with the U.S. government via the Department of Veterans Affairs or Department of Defense — which the Trump administration calls the Department of War — but such collaboration isn’t out of the question.The Department of Energy officially installed Dawn Zimmer as its chief information officer Friday, putting a pause — for now — on the revolving door at the agency’s IT leadership office. According to an internal email obtained by FedScoop, Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced that Zimmer had been named Energy’s permanent CIO. Her appointment comes after the installation — and subsequent departures — of two other permanent CIOs during the Trump administration. Zimmer joined Energy in 2024 as principal deputy CIO and has been serving as the acting IT chief between the appointments of permanent officials throughout this year. She was acting CIO before SpaceX engineer Ryan Riedel was named to the role and briefly took over in an acting capacity again when he left after one month. Days later, Google and Twitter alum Ross Graber was named CIO, but he left after less than two months in the role. That has left the agency without a permanent official since the end of April. Wright said in the email that “Dawn will continue her stellar oversight of the Department’s information technology and cybersecurity initiatives, ensuring that our systems are secure, efficient, and innovative.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
A federal agency that supplies budget and economic information to Congress has suffered a cybersecurity incident, reportedly at the hands of a suspected foreign party. A spokesperson for the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) acknowledged the incident Thursday after The Washington Post reported that the office was hacked, with the attackers potentially accessing communications between lawmakers and researchers at the agency. CBO spokeswoman Caitlin Emma said: “The Congressional Budget Office has identified the security incident, has taken immediate action to contain it, and has implemented additional monitoring and new security controls to further protect the agency’s systems going forward.” Congress established the office in 1974 to serve as a nonpartisan research organization for the legislative branch. Republicans took aim at the CBO this year when it assessed that a GOP tax and spending policy bill would add trillions to the national debt, prompting conservatives to criticize its conclusions. It’s not unprecedented for unauthorized parties to obtain access to sensitive information from congressional offices. Hackers who broke into the Library of Congress last year were able to read email correspondence with offices on Capitol Hill. And a breach of a health insurance marketplace two years ago exposed the data of House staffers. The Trump administration’s ongoing decimation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has rendered the agency’s overall information security program ineffective, a federal watchdog revealed Monday. In an audit of CFPB’s cybersecurity program, the Federal Reserve’s Office of Inspector General found that the agency is no longer keeping up with its authorizations to operate many systems, and is “using risk acceptance memorandums without a documented analysis of cybersecurity risks.” As a result of those floundering protocols, the Fed OIG said the CFPB’s overall information security program has declined to level-2 maturity (defined) in fiscal 2025, down from level-4 (managed and measurable), and overall is not effective. Backsliding on these security measures can be at least partially attributed to a loss of contractor support for continuous security monitoring and testing, per the audit, as well as the mass exodus under the Trump administration of CFPB staff. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
When a pair of high-profile internet outages took down large chunks of the internet last month, the events briefly brought hundreds of organizations to a near-halt and prevented millions of users from accessing core services for everyday business needs. From Starbucks to crypto exchanges to the messaging app Signal, the outages rippled across nearly every sector, shining a spotlight onto the country’s — and even the government’s — reliance on a mere handful of cloud service providers. In the wake of those incidents, watchdog groups are calling on federal regulators to scrutinize the role that massive cloud companies like Amazon and Microsoft play in owning and maintaining much of our collective backend IT infrastructure. Meanwhile, technology and cybersecurity experts point out that, because of financial and business realities, there are very few alternatives to the large companies that now dominate the market. The Amazon Web Services outage began Oct. 19 and lasted into Oct. 20. According to Amazon’s post-mortem, a single software bug in DynamoDB — the system that manages website addresses, along with efforts to repair it — caused all services in the Northern Virginia region that relied on the tool to go down for 15 hours. Just over a week later, Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform experienced an outage impacting several of its services. According to Microsoft, an “inadvertent tenant configuration change” occurred in Azure Front Door, the company’s content delivery network. The outages exposed just how fragile the country’s digital infrastructure is and showed the risks of letting a few companies hold so much power. As a result, some groups are urging federal regulators to address the issue.Federal agencies would be required to report artificial intelligence-related layoffs to the Department of Labor under a new bill from a bipartisan pair of senators. The AI-Related Job Impacts Clarity Act from Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., calls on agencies and major companies to deliver quarterly reports to DOL on the impact AI has on their workforces, detailing job cuts and displacements. Hawley said in a press release“Artificial intelligence is already replacing American workers, and experts project AI could drive unemployment up to 10-20% in the next five years. The American people need to have an accurate understanding of how AI is affecting our workforce, so we can ensure that AI works for the people, not the other way around.” The bill would also require agencies and companies to report hirings that can be “substantially” credited to AI, as well as the number of individuals they are retraining because of AI. There’s also a callout to keep track of open positions an agency or company decided not to fill because of automation.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
As the Office of Personnel Management makes progress toward a long-pursued goal to move the government’s paper-based retirement system into the 21st century, its director said a “fully automated” process is about six months away. OPM Director Scott Kupor said in an interview with FedScoop: “That’s not going to happen overnight.” But, Kupor said he believes the agency can get there within six months “for sure.” The human capital agency hit a milestone in May with the launch of its Online Retirement Application, operationalizing a yearslong development effort and marking the end of paper file submissions. Yet behind the scenes at OPM, there’s still much work to do to bring about a truly automated process. Though the application submissions are now online, humans still currently check the information coming in to make sure they’ve been completed properly and manually key in information into a calculator in “a significant number of cases,” Kupor said. That introduces “a huge amount of delay in the system” and is something the agency is working to fix. The aim is to ultimately have a system where the retiree, human resources, and the payroll provider all submit their information online and route that package electronically — not to a person in the agency’s retirement services division, but to a Digital File System that can fill in the application and do the calculations, Kupor said. Under that future process, he said, all individuals at OPM will be doing is reviewing and spot checking. The simple target of what OPM is trying to do with retirement services, Kupor said, is to go paperless “as quickly as possible.”The Department of Energy is refreshing its investment in five research centers focused on quantum information science after five years of operation. In a Tuesday announcement, DOE said it’s putting up $625 million to keep all of the existing National Quantum Information Science Research Centers (QIS) going for up to five more years, matching the same investment that launched those centers in 2020. Darío Gil, DOE undersecretary for science, said in a written statement: “President Trump positioned America to lead the world in quantum science and technology and today, a new frontier of scientific discovery lies before us. Breakthroughs in QIS have the potential to revolutionize the ways we sense, communicate, and compute, sparking entirely new technologies and industries.” The centers were authorized by Congress and signed into law in 2018 during the first Trump administration as part of the National Quantum Initiative Act. Since the first January 2020 investment from DOE — which envisioned “two to five multidisciplinary Quantum Initiatives” — centers led by its Brookhaven, Argonne, Lawrence Berkeley, Oak Ridge, and Fermi National Laboratories have been established. According to a DOE press release, the work of each center includes supporting science that has “disruptive potential across quantum computing, simulation, networking, and sensing,” as well as establishing “community resources, workforce opportunities, and industry partnerships.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Homeland Security’s non-federal government partners in communities across the U.S. can now apply for funding grants for certain counter-drone capabilities to address national security and safety threats posed by the illegal and nefarious use of unmanned aircraft systems. Officials wrote in a notice published online last week: “The funding enables state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, along with first responders and public safety entities, to acquire detection and tracking technologies designed to safeguard public spaces and critical infrastructure.” DHS estimates that $250 million will be obligated for the program in fiscal 2026 alone, and more money is expected to flow. Decisions about individual awards will happen between 30 and 60 days of the application submissions. The department expects to make 12 awards, with the financial assistance amounts to-be-decided and ranging across the winners. All projects will have a performance period of 36 months. Notably, the awardees will not be permitted to use the federal funding to purchase “Enhanced Detect, Track, Identification (DTI) systems,” including those that “capture, record, intercept, demodulate, decrypt, or decode signals” between UAS and ground control stations. Due to significant legal restrictions, privacy concerns and federal airspace regulations, SLTT entities don’t currently have official authorization to employ those types of technologies. Drone threats associated with surveillance, disruption, or attacks, have intensified across the nation in recent years. The U.S. military is significantly expanding work and investments to deploy defensive weapons, modernize electronic warfare capabilities, enhance sensor protection and other tools to protect its facilities in the United States and abroad. And with America hosting major, upcoming global events, agencies and officials have been calling for coordinated efforts to more aggressively confront the risks.Anduril’s prototype drone developed for the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program has taken its first live flight, the service announced Friday. The company conducted the flight of the unmanned fighter jet — known as the YFQ-44A — on Friday at a test location in California, the Air Force said in a press release. Beginning live flight tests of the CCA prototype “expands the program’s knowledge base on flight performance, autonomous behaviors and mission systems integration,” the service noted. The announcement that Anduril has moved into the flight test stage comes after General Atomics conducted the first flight of its CCA offering in August. Both companies are vying for Increment 1 of the CCA program, which is part of the Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) family of systems. General Atomics and Anduril received contracts for the first CCA increment in 2024, while the Air Force is also working with Shield AI and RTX to provide the drone’s mission autonomy. With both airframe vendors now in the next stage of the program, the Air Force is one step closer to making a final production decision for Increment 1 — expected in 2026.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Nearly two months after calling on the Office of Management and Budget to bar use of xAI’s Grok chatbot in government, a coalition of advocacy groups is pressing its case further after the General Services Administration struck a deal with Elon Musk’s AI company to deploy Grok across the federal government. In a letter sent Wednesday to OMB Director Russell Vought, the advocacy groups reiterated their concerns in the wake of the GSA OneGov deal, along with recent comments from Michael Kratsios, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “OMB is entrusted with ensuring that AI systems procured by the federal government meet the highest standards of truth-seeking, accuracy and neutrality,” the letter, led by Public Citizen, stated. “Grok has repeatedly demonstrated failures in these areas and Director Kratsios himself has confirmed that such behavior is the precise type that Executive Order 14319 was designed to prevent.” The letter refers to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in July that seeks to prevent “woke AI,” or ideological biases in models that are used by the federal government. The groups argued in their August letter to Vought that the use of Grok contradicts this order, given its past controversies with spewing antisemitic and pro-Hitler content. Weeks after the letter was sent, GSA inked a deal with xAI to offer Grok models to the government for a nominal cost. Under the deal, federal agencies can buy Grok 4 and Grok 4 Fast for 42 cents until March 2027.The White House appears to be moving forward with plans to redesign federal government websites, registering a new government domain — techforce.gov — this week. The new URL, which was first discovered Thursday by a bot tracking new government domains, leads to a sign-in page that states “National Design Studio” and “Tech Force” at the top. It includes a form for users to submit their email and receive a code to access the website. Records maintained by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency show the domain was registered Oct. 24 and last changed Wednesday. The domain registration comes more than two months after President Donald Trump signed an executive order launching an “America by Design” initiative focused on both digital and physical spaces. A new National Design Studio and chief design officer will lead the initiative and coordinate agency actions.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Army’s top acquisition official told DefenseScoop that he expects to see further growth in resources for the service’s FUZE initiative. FUZE, which was announced last month by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, combines elements of multiple technology innovation programs — including the xTech, Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR), ManTech, and Technology Maturation Initiative efforts — under a more integrated framework to accelerate the delivery of new capabilities to soldiers, according to the service. Driscoll has described it as the Army’s “new cradle-to-grave capital funding model.” Driscoll said at the recent AUSA event that the Army’s goal with FUZE is to contract with startups that have never, ever worked with the United States Army before in just 60 to 70 days. And for companies that the Army has worked with that have prototypes, the intent is to contract in 10 and start “soldier iterations in 30 to 45 days,” he said, adding, “We train like we fight. Acquisition should be no different.” The Army has already aligned $750 million to this model under FUZE, according to Driscoll. Next year, it plans to raise that slightly to $765 million. Brent Ingraham, the new assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, said he anticipates that funding levels for those efforts will be higher in subsequent years.The federal judiciary has distributed interim guidance on artificial intelligence that allows for use of the technology, while also addressing procurement and security of the tools, according to a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee leadership that was made public Thursday. In correspondence to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts Director Judge Robert J. Conrad said an AI task force formed earlier this year developed the guidance and it was distributed to federal courts across the country July 31. Although the policy is a temporary measure while the courts work on more permanent guidance, courts can explore the budding technology in the meantime. Disclosure of the guidance came as part of a response to Grassley’s inquiry about the use of AI in error-ridden orders from two federal judges. In addition to letters from the two judges admitting to clerks’ use of generative AI tools and assurances that they’d implemented measures to prevent future issues, Conrad provided detail on the broader efforts to address the technology within the third branch and the balance between use and risk management. A spokesperson for the judiciary declined to share a copy of the guidance with FedScoop. Conrad, however, provided a description of its scope to Grassley.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, ranking member Gary Peters, D-Mich., asked the GSA administrator nominee if he shared his concerns about Grok, pointing to the day the tool “produced racist and antisemitic content widely across [Elon] Musk’s social media platform.” Forst, a former private equity and financial services executive, told Peters that he had “not been a part of the decision” by the GSA to contract for the chatbot from the Musk-owned AI firm. With some additional pressing by Peters, Forst acknowledged that procuring a tool with a history of racist and antisemitic posting is “not, I think, the signal we would necessarily want to send to the country.” Peters attempted to get Forst to commit to pausing use of Grok until the committee received “documentation about the details of the procurement, including whether the GSA actually performed a comprehensive risk assessment.” Forst wouldn’t go that far on Grok, which once referred to itself as “MechaHitler.” But he did says his commitment to the lawmakers is that he will “meet with the team, and I’ll understand the process used in selecting them, and I’ll make sure that we have all the facts and if there was incompleteness to the process, that we’ll rectify it.”A pair of federal judges said staff use of generative artificial intelligence tools and premature docket entry were behind error-ridden orders they issued, according to letters made public by Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley on Thursday. Judges Henry T. Wingate and Julien Xavier Neals, who sit on the U.S. District Courts for the Southern District of Mississippi and District of New Jersey, respectively, both stated in letters that their law clerks had used AI tools to draft orders that were then entered into the dockets before they had been reviewed. Both judges also described measures to prevent repeat issues. The letters come after the orders from both judges were ridden with errors — including misquotes and references to parties not in the current cases — and later withdrawn. Speculation swirled as to whether those judges used AI, which is known to hallucinate, in their orders. Earlier this month, Grassley, R-Iowa, sent letters to both jurists asking for an explanation. The communications published Thursday are responsive to those inquiries. In his response, Neals indicated that previous reporting by Reuters that a “temporary assistant” had used ChatGPT was correct. “In doing so, the intern acted without authorization, without disclosure, and contrary to not only chambers policy but also the relevant law school policy.” Neals said he prohibits generative AI use in legal research and drafting of opinions and orders. While that policy was verbal in the past, he said it is now a “written unequivocal policy that applies to all law clerks and interns, pending definitive guidance from the AO through adoption of formal, universal policies and procedures for appropriate AI usage.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
An open letter released Wednesday has called for a ban on the development of artificial intelligence systems considered to be “superintelligent” until there is broad scientific consensus that such technologies can be created both safely and in a manner the public supports. The statement, issued by the nonprofit Future of Life Institute, has been signed by more than 700 individuals, including Nobel laureates, technology industry veterans, policymakers, artists, and public figures such as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The letter reflects deep and accelerating concerns over projects undertaken by technology giants like Google, OpenAI, and Meta Platforms that are seeking to build artificial intelligence capable of outperforming humans on virtually every cognitive task. According to the letter, such ambitions have raised fears about unemployment due to automation, loss of human control and dignity, national security risks, and the possibility of far-reaching social or existential harms. “We call for a prohibition on the development of superintelligence, not lifted before there is broad scientific consensus that it will be done safely and controllably, and strong public buy-in,” the statement reads. Signatories include AI pioneers Yoshua Bengio and Geoffrey Hinton, both recipients of the Turing Award, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, businessman Richard Branson, and actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt.Pentagon personnel could soon be told to participate in new training programs designed to prepare them for anticipated advancements in biotechnology and its convergence with other critical and emerging technologies, like quantum computing and AI. House lawmakers recently passed an amendment en bloc in their version of the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act that would mandate the secretary of defense to set up such trainings, no later than one year after the legislation’s enactment. Biotechnology refers to a multidisciplinary field that involves the application of biological systems or the use of living organisms, like yeast and bacteria, to produce products or solve complex problems. These technologies are expected to revolutionize defense, energy, manufacturing and other sectors globally in the not-so-distant future — particularly as they are increasingly paired with and powered by AI. And while the U.S. historically has demonstrated many underlying strengths in the field, recent research suggests the government may be falling behind China, where biotechnology research efforts and investments have surged since the early 2000s. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Trump administration should reverse cyber personnel and budget cuts, strengthen the Office of the National Cyber Director and expand federal workforce initiatives, the successor organization to the Cyberspace Solarium Commission recommended in a report published Wednesday. The annual implementation report from CSC 2.0 is the first of five iterations to actually determine that the nation has gone backward on enacting the agenda of the landmark bipartisan commission, whose suggestions led to the creation of major new federal organizations and policies, including the national cyber director’s office. In grading the degree to which its 2020 report had been enacted — whether they’re “implemented,” “nearing implementation,” “on track,” “progress limited” or facing “significant barriers” — the percentages dropped in every category, after years of rising or staying steady.President Donald Trump nominated Lt. Gen. Christopher LaNeve on Monday to serve as the next vice chief of staff of the Army and recommended his appointment to the grade of general. An official hearing date has not been made public, but if confirmed by the Senate, LaNeve will replace Gen. James Mingus, the long-time innovator who was sworn in as the Army’s No. 2 general officer and principal deputy to Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George in January 2024 under the Biden administration. The announcement follows an unusual gathering of hundreds of top U.S. military officials at Marine Corps Base Quantico last month, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated that he had already removed several high-ranking service members and suggested that more people would be pushed out if they did not conform to his vision for a “less woke” military that’s “fit not fat.” There’s not a fixed term or limit to the position of vice chief of staff, and former officials’ tenures in the capacity vary. A Pentagon spokesperson did not immediately answer questions from DefenseScoop about the timing for or reasoning behind this nomination, but confirmed LaNeve was selected by the president to serve in the post.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Medicaid Services appears to be quietly considering Palantir to support its yearslong efforts to build a national provider directory for health care providers and patients across the country. Federal spending records show Palantir to be one of four recipients to receive awards from the Department of Health and Human Services and CMS containing the phrase “national provider directory” and “proof of concept.” The four separate contracts, made public Sept. 30, award $1 to each company and are set to expire Nov. 13. Two sources familiar with the efforts told FedScoop these contracts are for a prototype product with CMS. One source confirmed the prototype is for the agency’s national provider directory, an effort the agency has been exploring for years. CMS has suggested the directory could serve as a centralized data hub for health care provider and facility information nationwide. The move marks the latest sign of civilian agencies’ growing interest in Palantir, which offers extensive data integration and analytics capabilities.The Department of Energy is requesting proposals for the buildout and maintenance of AI data centers and energy generation infrastructure in and around Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In an RFP published last week, the national lab’s site and environmental management offices said they are seeking proposals from entities interested in entering into long-term leases in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The work on those DOE sites would include “designing, financing, permitting, developing, constructing, installing, owning, maintaining, operating, and decommissioning AI data center and/or energy generation infrastructure,” per the posting. For those sites, Oak Ridge is specifically seeking construction of data center facilities with specialized computing equipment, cooling facilities, infrastructure for energy supply, transmission and storage, and other related equipment and facilities. The DOE said entities responding to the RFP could be private-sector companies with experience in the development and operation of AI data centers, advanced computing facilities or energy storage.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Federal cyber authorities issued an emergency directive last week requiring federal agencies to identify and apply security updates to F5 devices after the cybersecurity vendor said a nation-state attacker had long-term, persistent access to its systems. The order, which mandates federal civilian executive branch agencies take action by Wednesday, Oct. 22, marked the second emergency directive issued by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in three weeks. CISA issued both of the emergency directives months after impacted vendors were first made aware of attacks on their internal systems or products. F5 said it first learned of unauthorized access to its systems Aug. 9, resulting in data theft including segments of BIG-IP source code and details on vulnerabilities the company was addressing internally at the time. CISA declined to say when F5 first alerted the agency to the intrusion. CISA officials said they’re not currently aware of any federal agencies that have been compromised, but similar to the emergency directive issued following an attack spree involving zero-day vulnerabilities affecting Cisco firewalls, they expect the response and mitigation efforts to provide a better understanding of the scope of any potential compromise in federal networks. Many federal agencies and private organizations could be impacted. CISA said there are thousands of F5 product types in use across executive branch agencies.Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, moved to mandate comprehensive new safety reviews for all aircraft operations near DCA and at all major and mid-size U.S. airports, in a new bipartisan agreement that would also require fleets across the nation to be equipped with more precise situational awareness technology. Their proposal aims to resolve safety issues identified by the federal investigation into the tragic crash in January, where an Army UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter fatally collided with an American Airlines passenger plane over the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. All 67 people aboard both aircraft were killed in the collision. In a statement on Thursday, Tim and Sheri Lilley — whose son was the first officer onboard that AA Flight 5342 — called on Congress “to continue moving quickly and decisively to pass and fully implement these reforms, because every person who boards an aircraft depends on it.” The 42-page Cantwell-Cruz Bipartisan Aviation Safety Agreement combines elements of legislation the lawmakers previously put forward separately in the months after the fatal collision. It includes language that directs every military service with an aviation component to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Federal Aviation Administration to share appropriate safety information and expand coordination to prevent future accidents. Another safety failure that came to light in the wake of the crash was associated with the Army Black Hawk helicopter not transmitting via Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) technology, which essentially enables aircraft to receive data and information about other systems, weather and traffic — delivered directly in the cockpit. The senators’ proposal would set a clear 2031 deadline for aircraft operators to equip their fleets with the full package of ADS-B capabilities.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
D spending by roughly $44 billion.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Starting next year, the Army will be able to domestically mass-produce upwards of 10,000 small unmanned aerial systems each month, according to the service. Army Materiel Command is leading a new pilot program dubbed “SkyFoundry” that will allow the service to rapidly develop, test and produce small drones using innovative manufacturing methods. Officials are currently identifying multiple facilities where the platforms will be designed and produced. The department expects it can manufacture at least 10,000 UAS per month once the first site is up and running, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Mingus said Tuesday. He said during a fireside chat at the annual AUSA conference: “We’ll be at 10,000 a month by this time next year, if not more.” The effort comes as the Pentagon looks to ramp up production of small drones across the services following Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s “Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance” directive, issued in July. The memo requires low-cost, attritable drones to be fielded to every Army squad by the end of 2026 and calls on the military to partner closely with domestic industry to scale up manufacturing.Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., sent a letter Tuesday to acting CISA Director Madhu Gottumukkala raising concerns about staffing levels and the direction of the nation’s primary cybersecurity agency, writing that the “Trump Administration has undertaken multiple efforts to decimate CISA’s workforce, undermining our nation’s cybersecurity.” Swalwell, the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection, called out the agency for its reported shift of cybersecurity personnel to the Department of Homeland Security’s deportation efforts, on top of the approximately 760 people that have been let go from the agency since January. Swallwell wrote: “Amid reports that the Department of Homeland Security is now forcibly transferring CISA’s cybersecurity employees to other DHS components, it has become apparent that the Department’s exclusive focus on its mass deportation campaign is coming at the expense of our national security,” calling it “further evidence of the Administration’s failure to prioritize cybersecurity” how CISA is engaging in Reductions in Force that could threaten its capacity to prevent and respond to cybersecurity threats. In the letter, he demanded that DHS cease all efforts to cut CISA’s workforce, reinstate employees who were transferred or dismissed, and provide details on the impacts of the agency’s workforce reductions.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Trump administration pushed forward Friday with plans to fire federal employees amid the government shutdown, directing reductions-in-force at the Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, and Housing and Urban Development, among other agencies. Prior to and during the current shutdown, the White House repeatedly threatened to lay off additional federal workers in a bid to further its efforts to shrink the size of the government. The Trump administration maintains Democrats are to blame for the shutdown, though Democrats contend that a spending bill from Republicans — who control all levers of power — wouldn’t adequately fund health care. Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, posted on X early Friday afternoon that the “RIFs have begun,” without offering additional details. An OMB spokesperson told FedScoop the RIFs began and are “substantial.” In a preview of his discussions with Vought last week, President Donald Trump said in a post to his social media platform that they would target “Democrat Agencies,” calling them “a political SCAM.” According to a court filing from the Trump administration late Friday, at least 4,100 federal workers across eight federal agencies may have been sent RIF notices, with the bulk of the staff reductions at HHS, with 1,100 to 1,200 workers impacted, and the Department of Treasury, with 1,446 workers impacted. Deploying artificial intelligence requires taking on the right amount of risk to achieve a desired end result, a National Institute of Standards and Technology official who worked on its risk management framework for the technology said on a panel last week. While federal agencies, and particularly IT functions, are generally risk averse, risks can’t entirely be avoided with AI, Martin Stanley, an AI and cybersecurity researcher at the Commerce Department standards agency, said during a FedInsider panel on “Intelligent Government” last week. Stanley said: “You have to manage risks, number one,” adding that the benefits from the technology are compelling enough that “you have to go looking to achieve those.” Stanley’s comments came in response to a question about how the federal government compares to other sectors that have been doing risk management for longer, such as financial services. On that point specifically, he said the NIST AI Risk Management Framework “shares a lot of DNA” with Federal Reserve guidance on algorithmic models in financial services. He said NIST attempted to leverage those approaches and the same plain, simple language. “We talk about risks, we talk about likelihoods, and we talk about impacts, both positive and negative, so that you can build this trade space where you are taking on the right amount of risk to achieve a benefit,” Stanley said.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Federal agencies’ latest status updates on how they’re using artificial intelligence reveal persistent barriers and variability on where agencies stand with ”high-impact” use cases. The release of the 2025 AI compliance plans offers one of the first in-depth glimpses at how federal agencies are addressing issues of AI risk management, technical capacity and workforce readiness under the second Trump administration. Those documents, which were required under the Trump administration’s AI governance memo to agencies, were supposed to be released publicly by Sept. 30. As of publication time, FedScoop located roughly 20 plans and 14 strategies across 22 agencies. For nine of the roughly two dozen Chief Financial Officers Act agencies, FedScoop was unable to find either a plan or a strategy. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, meanwhile, produced only strategies. FedScoop and DefenseScoop attempted to contact the CFO Act agencies that didn’t produce both documents, but the agencies either didn’t respond or didn’t provide the documents. Two of those agencies, NASA and the Justice Department, noted the government shutdown in their responses, and both the DOJ and Department of Defense indicated they were working to post at a later date. Agencies were also required to submit AI strategies for the first time this year. Those documents contain some of the same information as the compliance documents, including plans to train the workforce, examples of use cases, and systems for governance. The compliance plans, meanwhile, which are in their second year, have changed only slightly from their previous iterations, with some agencies showing progress on their implementation of the technology and risk management practices.A top Senate Democrat introduced legislation Thursday to extend and rename an expired information-sharing law, and make it retroactive to cover the lapse that began Oct. 1. Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, introduced the Protecting America from Cyber Threats (PACT) Act, to replace the expired Cybersecurity and Information Sharing Act of 2015 (CISA 2015) that has provided liability protections for organizations that share cyber threat data with each other and the federal government. Industry groups and cyber professionals have called those protections vital, sometimes describing the 2015 law as the most successful cyber legislation ever passed. The 2015 law shares an acronym with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which some Republicans — including the chairman of Peters’ panel, Rand Paul of Kentucky — have accused of engaging in social media censorship. As CISA 2015 has lapsed and Peters has tried to renew it, “some people think that’s a reauthorization of the agency,” Peters told reporters Thursday in explaining the new bill name. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s pledge to “get out of the way” on chemical reviews to accelerate the buildout of artificial intelligence data centers doesn’t mean those reviews would be any less “robust,” a top EPA nominee told lawmakers Wednesday. Appearing before the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, Douglas Troutman — President Donald Trump’s pick for assistant administrator for toxic substances — was pressed by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., about comments made by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin last month following a White House roundtable with AI and data center leaders. In a Sept. 18 press release, Zeldin announced that the EPA would begin prioritizing the review of new chemicals — under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) — that would be used in data center projects. Markey asked Troutman, a former chemical industry lobbyist, what provisions in federal toxic safety laws indicate the EPA can “get out of the way of reviewing chemicals for safety.” Troutman responded that “nothing will change with regard to the robust review based on the risk-based statute enacted under Section Five of TSCA.” Markey appeared unconvinced, telling Troutman that if he’s confirmed, he will “be under orders from Administrator Zeldin to get out of the way.” The Massachusetts Democrat made the case that “big tech bosses” with ties to the administration could lean on the agency to bypass regular review protocols.Voting rights groups are asking a court to block an ongoing Trump administration effort to merge disparate federal and state voter data into a massive citizenship and voter fraud database. Last week, the League of Women Voters, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and five individuals sued the federal government in D.C. District Court, saying it was ignoring decades of federal privacy law to create enormous “national data banks” of personal information on Americans. On Tuesday, the coalition, represented by Democracy Forward Foundation, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and Fair Elections Center, asked the court for an emergency injunction to halt the Trump administration’s efforts to transform the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements into an immense technological tool to track potential noncitizens registered to vote. Until this year, SAVE was an incomplete and limited federal database meant to track immigrants seeking federal benefits. In an Oct. 7 court filing, the groups said an immediate injunction was needed to prevent permanent privacy harms due to the “illegal and secretive consolidation of millions of Americans’ sensitive personal data across government agencies into centralized data systems” through SAVE. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
A federal workers’ union is suing the Education Department after agency employees on furlough or administrative leave discovered that their automatic email replies had been changed to a message blaming Democratic lawmakers for the ongoing government shutdown. The complaint, filed by the American Federation of Government Employees, asks a court to prohibit the Education Department’s alleged efforts to “put political speech in federal employees’ mouths.” “Forcing civil servants to speak on behalf of the political leadership’s partisan agenda is a blatant violation of federal employees’ First Amendment rights,” the suit stated, adding that “employees are now forced to involuntarily parrot the Trump Administration’s talking points with emails sent out in their names.” The suit came one day after some furloughed workers discovered that their automatic out-of-office email replies were changed without their knowledge, from neutral language to partisan messaging that blamed Democrats for the shutdown, which began last Wednesday.Three House Democrats questioned the Department of Homeland Security on Monday over a reported Immigration and Customs Enforcement contract with a spyware provider that they warn potentially “threatens Americans’ freedom of movement and freedom of speech.” Their letter follows publication of a notice that ICE had lifted a stop-work order on a $2 million deal with Israeli spyware company Paragon Solutions, a contract that the Biden administration had frozen one year ago pending a review of its compliance with a spyware executive order. Paragon is the maker of Graphite, and advertises it as having more safeguards than competitors that have received more public and legal scrutiny, such as NSO Group’s Pegasus, a claim researchers have challenged. A report earlier this year found suspected deployments of Graphite in countries across the globe, with targets including journalists and activists. \The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a new edict last week to reduce the time personnel spend on cybersecurity training, among other reforms. The directive came in a Sept. 30 memo to senior Pentagon leadership and DOD agency and field activity directors, ordering the military departments, in coordination with the Pentagon’s chief information officer, to “Relax the mandatory frequency for Cybersecurity training.” Hegseth also called for narrowly tailoring records management training to service member roles and allowing flexibility in training delivery, as well as automating information management systems to eliminate training requirements. Additionally, Hegseth directed the military departments and other Pentagon leaders to “relax” the mandatory frequency for controlled unclassified information (CUI) training; remove Privacy Act Training from the Common Military Training (CMT) list; eliminate the mandatory frequency for “Combating Trafficking in Persons” refresher training after appropriate legislation is enacted; consolidate mandatory training topics, “as appropriate”; and develop an integrated CMT program plan. The changes are to be “implemented expeditiously,” per Hegseth’s directive.Federal courts are upgrading their cybersecurity on a number of fronts, but multifactor authentication for the system that gives the public access to court data poses “unique challenges,” the Administrative Office of the United States Courts told Sen. Ron Wyden in a letter last week. Wyden, D-Ore., wrote a scathing August letter to the Supreme Court in response to the latest major breach of the federal judiciary’s electronic case filing system. The director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts responded on behalf of the Supreme Court. It is “simply not the case” that the courts have, in the words of Wyden, “ignored” advice from experts on securing the Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) system, wrote Robert Conrad Jr., director of the office. Conrad wrote in the Sept. 30 letter: “Substantial planning for the modernization effort began in 2022, and we are now approaching the development and implementation phase of the project. We expect implementation will begin in the next two years in a modular and iterative manner.” In recent years, the office has been testing technical components on its modernization effort, and is centralizing the operation of data standards to enable security, Conrad said. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Former State Department employees whose roles were eliminated as part of a reduction-in-force still received information about whether they would be needed during the government shutdown — including some workers who were told their positions were “excepted.” While the full extent of the issue wasn’t immediately clear, three such employees shared those notifications with FedScoop on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Others were also aware of the problem even if they didn’t receive the messages themselves. In response to a FedScoop request for comment, a State spokesperson indicated the department was aware of the issue and had taken steps to address it, confirming there were “minor” discrepancies with data, saying that the department immediately worked to resolve any outstanding issues. Of the three State Department notices reviewed by FedScoop, one informed the RIF’d employee that their position was “excepted” and explained that those roles are defined as those needed for emergencies that threaten life and property or are essential for national security. It then ordered that worker to “report to work on your next regularly scheduled workday.” The other two already RIF’d employees were told that they would be furloughed during the shutdown but that it was “in no way a value judgement on the work you do for the Department.” Those employees were also instructed to review their department emails for updates despite not being able to access that information. Of the three RIF’d employees, only one — a foreign service officer — is still on the department’s payroll.As employees at the Education Department prepared for a looming government shutdown this week, several set an automatic email reply to inform others of their furloughed status. But by Thursday morning, some furloughed workers discovered that their automatic email replies had been altered, without their knowledge, to include a message blaming Democratic senators for the ongoing government shutdown. According to two furloughed Education Department employees, the agency sent workers suggested language to use for their out-of-office messages earlier this week, but the language was “neutral” regarding the shutdown. One of the employees, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told FedScoop they and other furloughed staff mostly cut and paste from the suggested language with little to no changes when setting their automatic replies. But when they checked their automatic email replies Thursday morning, the message changed and included partisan language mentioning Democrats, the employee said. The other furloughed worker said they set the generic text for their OOO email Wednesday morning and the message was changed by Wednesday night.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
It’s day two of the federal shutdown, and with the Senate on leave, there won’t be any sort of appropriations deal until Friday at the earliest — though many have doubts about that possibility. As federal agencies adjust to the new normal with hundreds of thousands of federal employees furloughed and the White House threatening more layoffs targeting those who’ve been sent home, FedScoop took the time to compile a near-complete look at how agency IT organizations are affected. An analysis of the nearly two dozen civilian Chief Financial Officer Act agencies found that some agencies explicitly outlined plans to scale back IT operations amid the shutdown, while others deemed several IT staff members essential for managing technology and cybersecurity infrastructure. For instance, at the Department of Commerce’s Office of the CIO, just one individual is tasked with taking responsibility for shutdown tasks and assurance that the office will continue to work on critical IT functions. If the lapse in funding continues for an extended period, there is also the potential for staff to be recalled on an intermittent or full-time basis for cybersecurity and maintenance work, and limited staff may be called for administrative functions. While at the Labor Department, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management has selected “a minimal IT staff” within the OCIO to oversee tech operations. Those employees are now tasked with managing Labor’s technology services, applications and website, in addition to having other IT security responsibilities that support the agency’s excepted and exempt staff.A nonprofit legal group is suing a handful of federal agencies, calling on the federal bodies to release documents related to the use of artificial intelligence to carry out the Trump administration’s “deregulation agenda.” The lawsuit, filed by Democracy Forward on Wednesday, asks a court to require the General Services Administration, Office of Personnel Management, Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to comply with public records laws amid concerns over how AI is being used to “weaken” existing federal regulations. Democracy Forward said it reviewed both public records and documents obtained through FOIA requests and found GSA plays a “central role” in the White House’s efforts to overhaul regulations. The nonprofit cited an apparent email trail, in which a GSA-affiliated email informs other agencies of “significant progress” in reviewing its internal and external policies to ensure consistency with President Donald Trump’s directives. The suit further pointed to reports of an AI tool called SweetREX developed by an affiliate of the Department of Government Efficiency.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
It’s Oct. 1 and Congress has failed to pass appropriations for fiscal year 2026. And you know what that means: the federal government has shut down. For the first time since 2019, also during a Trump administration, federal appropriations have lapsed, resulting in furloughs for hundreds of thousands of federal employees and contractors and the halting of many agency operations. Only “excepted employees” and federal workers who are “exempt” from furlough may perform work until the current lapse in appropriations is over. Though Washington has experienced a number of shutdowns and shutdown threats in recent memory, the politically combative climate surrounding this one is much more amplified. The Trump administration has already threatened to use the shutdown to permanently cut jobs that aren’t aligned with the president’s agenda. And so far, neither party seems willing to budge, with many pundits speculating the lapse could drag on long-term without an agreement between Republicans — who control both houses in Congress and the White House — and Democrats. But one thing is clear: Until that agreement is reached, many of the federal government’s most important missions will operate at less than full capacity, including in areas like cybersecurity. FedScoop will keep you informed as the battle around the shutdown continues.The Trump administration’s sweeping U.S. military shakeup is expected to gain momentum in the months to come — with more leadership changes, major acquisition updates and possible personnel cuts in the Pentagon’s pipeline, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested during an unusual gathering of military brass Tuesday. At the “key leaders all-call” meeting with hundreds of top generals and admirals summoned from around the world at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Hegseth and President Donald Trump unveiled a broad docket of new and forthcoming directives meant to reflect their overarching vision for “woke”-ending reforms. Trump said: “We will not be politically correct when it comes to defending American freedom. We will be a fighting and winning machine. We want to fight, we want to win, and we want to fight as little as possible.” Theories swirled about the intent behind this mass gathering after Hegseth hastily ordered it last week. In the portion that was publicly livestreamed, Hegseth outlined his plans for policy shifts — via 10 directives — around physical fitness and grooming standards, mandatory training, oversight processes, records retention rules and more.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
As the federal government races to adopt AI, many agencies are looking to buy and build the same exact solutions. Recognizing this, the General Services Administration earlier this year launched USAi, a platform that offers agencies access to leading commercial AI models that they can deploy in a streamlined manner, eliminating redundancy across government and leading to greater efficiencies at scale. Zach Whitman, chief data scientist and chief AI officer for the GSA, recently joined me for a discussion at the Agentic AI Government Summit and Jamfest in Washington, D.C., to highlight the USAi effort, how it’s progressing, the challenges GSA faces and what’s next.The Department of Health and Human Services has tapped DOGE affiliate Zachary Terrell to be its chief technology officer, sources told FedScoop. Terrell’s CTO title was confirmed by three officials, who were granted anonymity to be more candid. Taking on the role of CTO comes after his involvement in Department of Government Efficiency work at both HHS and the National Science Foundation, including the cancellation of grants at the science agency. One of those sources told FedScoop that Terrell has been in the technology chief role since the beginning of this month and is still at the NSF as well. While his leadership role is new, Terrell has previously been involved in work at HHS, including as a member of the department’s DOGE team, according to a recent legal filing by the government. Per that document, Terrell was listed as one of the 10 team members given access to at least one sensitive system as part of the DOGE work. Specifically, Terrell was one of five team members who weren’t directly employed by the U.S. DOGE Service — the White House home for the group.Congress is poised to make yet another run at legislation to reform agency software purchasing practices, with the reintroduction in the House last week of the Strengthening Agency Management and Oversight of Software Assets Act. The SAMOSA Act, which passed the House last December, would require federal agencies to comprehensively assess their software licensing practices, a move aimed at curbing duplicative tech, streamlining future purchases and reducing IT costs. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., chair of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation, said in a press release: “The GAO has found the federal government spends more than $100 billion annually on information technology and cybersecurity, including software licenses. Far too often, taxpayer dollars are wasted on these systems and licenses agencies fail to use.” The SAMOSA Act, Mace goes on to say, “requires agencies to account for existing software assets and consolidate purchases: reducing redundancy, increasing accountability, and saving potentially billions for American taxpayers.” Also in this episode: Salesforce Global Digital Transformation Executive Nadia Hansen joins SNG host Wyatt Kash in a sponsored podcast discussion on how Agentic AI is reshaping the way government teams work and why agencies need top-level sponsorship, transparent governance and workforce training to realize its potential. This segment was by sponsored by Salesforce.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The White House Office of Management and Budget is instructing agencies to consider reducing staff for programs that have a lapse in funding in the event of a government shutdown, as tensions rise ahead of the Sept. 30 end to the fiscal year. “With respect to those Federal programs whose funding would lapse and which are otherwise unfunded, such programs are no longer statutorily required to be carried out,” the undated message said. The guidance goes on to say that consistent with applicable law, including a federal reduction in force statute, agencies are directed to use this opportunity to consider RIF notices for employees working in projects, programs or activities that have a funding lapse on Oct.1, don’t have another source of funding, and are not consistent with President Donald Trump’s priorities. The project, program or activity must meet all three criteria, the message said. The message places blame for a possible shutdown squarely on congressional Democrats, calling their demands “insane.” The OMB message explains that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, legislation passed earlier this year that is at the heart of Trump’s second-term agenda, provided “ample resources to ensure that many core Trump Administration priorities will continue uninterrupted.”Federal cyber authorities sounded a rare alarm last week, issuing an emergency directive about an ongoing and widespread attack spree involving actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities affecting Cisco firewalls. Cisco said it began investigating attacks on multiple government agencies linked to the state-sponsored campaign in May. The vendor, which attributes the attacks to the same threat group behind an early 2024 campaign targeting Cisco devices it dubbed “ArcaneDoor,” said the new zero-days were exploited to “implant malware, execute commands, and potentially exfiltrate data from the compromised devices.” Cisco disclosed three vulnerabilities affecting its Adaptive Security Appliances — CVE-2025-20333, CVE-2025-20363 and CVE-2025-20362 — but said “evidence collected strongly indicates CVE-2025-20333 and CVE-2025-20362 were used by the attacker in the current attack campaign.” The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said those two zero-days pose an “unacceptable risk” to federal agencies and require immediate action.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Clearview AI, the facial recognition company that scraped the internet for images of people’s faces for its database, is building a tool to deal with an emerging problem: AI-generated faces. In comments to FedScoop, Hal Lambert, the company’s co-CEO, said Clearview AI is dealing with the problem by building a new tool for detecting these manipulated images for its customers, many of whom are federal law enforcement agencies. Lambert was named co-CEO of the company earlier this year, after the company board voted to replace its original top executive. Clearview AI has collected billions of images from the internet, including from social media accounts that are set to public, according to the company. Clearview AI has created a database of those images and made it available to a wide range of customers, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the government of Ukraine, and law enforcement officials that seek to identify victims of child pornography. Clearview AI has also sold the tool to police departments. The company touts its facial recognition efficacy scores from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. But deepfakes could make building tools like Clearview AI’s more complicated. Right now, deepfakes, or images that are edited or enhanced with artificial intelligence, haven’t been a major problem for the company, Lambert told FedScoop. Still, the company is developing a tool that is supposed to tag images that might be AI-generated, with the goal of having it ready for customers by the end of the year. Lambert did not share further details. The Trump administration is signaling to industry and allies that it is considering a broader set of actions related to quantum computing, both to improve the nation’s capacity to defend against future quantum-enabled hacks and ensure the United States promotes and maintains global dominance around a key national security technology. The discussions include potentially taking significant executive action, such as one or more executive orders, a national plan similar to the AI Action Plan issued earlier this year, and a possible mandate for federal agencies to move up their timelines for migrating to post-quantum protections, multiple sources told CyberScoop. None of the sources CyberScoop spoke with could provide a definitive timeline for an official rollout, but multiple executives in the quantum computing industry and former national security officials said the White House has signaled serious interest in taking bolder action to promote and shape the development of the technology. Some felt official announcements could come as soon as this week, while others cautioned the process could stretch into the coming months.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Office of Personnel Management is rolling out Microsoft Copilot and OpenAI’s ChatGPT to its workforce, following a similar move by the Department of Health and Human Services. According to internal emails obtained by FedScoop, OPM Director Scott Kupor told workers that Microsoft 365’s Copilot Chat became available last Monday and that ChatGPT-5 access would be available “over the next few days” to all workers. Kupor said the move “is part of our broader effort to equip you with AI tools that help you work faster, think bigger, and collaborate better,” calling for OPM to “lead the way in using AI thoughtfully and effectively — starting now.” OPM spokeswoman McLaurine Pinover confirmed one of the emails sent by Kupor about access to the two tools. She said both offerings were the result of deals the General Services Administration has inked with companies to provide services at deeply discounted rates as part of its OneGov initiative. OPM was also able to add Copilot to the agency’s existing subscription at no cost with Microsoft’s new GSA contract in place. Similar to the HHS rollout, Kupor cautioned workers using the tools to still use their best judgment and previewed training from the Office of the Chief Information Officer.Federal workers will soon have the ability to use Meta’s Llama artificial intelligence models at no cost for the agency under a new deal with the General Services Administration. GSA announced Monday it reached a deal with Meta, which will offer its open-source AI models and tools to federal agencies for free. The agency emphasized that the open-source nature of the Llama models allows agencies to “retain full control over data processing and storage.” Meta’s free offer to the government follows deals from a number of other technology companies selling their products, namely AI products, to agencies for a significantly cheaper price. The Trump administration has repeatedly encouraged agencies to adopt emerging tech to streamline workflows. Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Meta, said the company wants to ensure “all Americans see the benefit of AI through better, more efficient public services.”
A key technology leader at the Department of Veterans Affairs told lawmakers Monday that the agency intends to “capitalize” on artificial intelligence to help overcome its persistent difficulties in providing timely care and maintaining cost-effective operations. At the same time, a federal watchdog warned the same lawmakers that the VA could face challenges before the agency can effectively do so. Lawmakers on the House VA subcommittee on technology modernization pressed Charles Worthington, the VA’s chief data officer and chief technology officer, over the agency’s plans to deploy AI across its dozens of facilities as the federal government increasingly turns to automation technology. Worthington told the subcommittee that all VA employees now have access to a secure, generative AI tool to assist them with their work, claiming that it’s saving them over two hours per week. He also outlined how the agency is utilizing machine learning in agency workflows, as well as in clinical care for earlier disease detection and ambient listening tools that are expected to be rolled out at some facilities later this year. The technology can also be used to identify veterans who may be at high risk of overdose and suicide, Worthington added. A slew of cybersecurity experts from industry and other organizations sent a letter to lawmakers Monday urging them to move swiftly to confirm Kirsten Davies as Department of Defense chief information officer. The letter, addressed to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee and viewed by DefenseScoop, includes more than 100 signatories. President Donald Trump nominated Davies for the role back in May, but the SASC waited until this week to hold her confirmation hearing, which is scheduled for Thursday. The cybersecurity experts who penned the new letter expressed their “strongest support” for the nominee. In the letter they wrote: “Ms. Davies is a leader we know personally and professionally. Many of us have collaborated with her, witnessed her steady hand in high-stakes situations, and observed her ability to lead with both conviction and humility. She has built a reputation as a world-class cybersecurity executive who can earn trust, build teams, and navigate complexity.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Homeland Security failed to effectively implement a critical retention incentive program for cyber talent, according to a new report from the agency’s inspector general, which found that federal funds meant for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were used incorrectly. In 2015, the agency implemented the Cyber Incentive program. The goal, the inspector general said, was to provide extra incentives to employees that might otherwise leave the federal government. More than $100 million has been spent on the program in recent years. The program “was designed to help CISA retain mission-critical cybersecurity talent needed to execute its mission,” the report noted, and was meant to consider a series of qualifications to guide who received the retention benefit. The government hoped to keep in-demand technology experts in government. The watchdog wrote that “CISA’s implementation of the program wasted taxpayer funds and invites the risk of attrition of cyber talent, thereby leaving CISA unable to adequately protect the Nation from cyber threats.” Instead of being targeted toward valuable talent likely to transition to the private sector, the payments were disbursed generally, with many ineligible employees receiving tens of thousands of dollars in payment. The Pentagon’s chief information officer is undertaking yet another reform of the Defense Department’s IT enterprise — this time focusing on streamlining its classified networks to enhance data sharing and interoperability. Katie Arrington, who is performing the duties of CIO, plans to introduce a new program dubbed “Mission Network-as-a-Service” that aims to reduce the number of disparate data fabrics used by combatant commands into a single, unified network. Speaking last week during the Billington Cybersecurity Summit, Arrington said the program will be key to realizing the department’s vision for Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control, or CJADC2. Broadly speaking, CJADC2 seeks to connect the U.S. military’s sensors and weapons under a single network, enabling rapid data transfer between warfighting systems and domains. The Pentagon also wants to be able to quickly share relevant information with international partners and allies during conflicts, adding another layer of difficulty to realizing the construct.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., raised serious national security concerns this week about the Pentagon’s plans to integrate the controversial “Grok” chatbot into U.S. military operations via a recent high-dollar deal with tech billionaire Elon Musk’s company, xAI. Warner d wrote in her letter delivered to Hegseth Wednesday that “the department awarded a $200 million contract under questionable circumstances to incorporate an AI company with a product that provides misinformation and offensive, antisemitic responses into DOD’s operations.” In the correspondence, Warren asks the Pentagon chief to answer dozens of questions about the xAI contract, its full scope of work, ethics and accountability issues and more, by Sept. 24. The Defense Department announced in July that its Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO) partnered with xAI, Anthropic, Google and OpenAI — through four, separate $200 million agreements — to accelerate the department’s enterprise-wide adoption of some of the most sophisticated and still-emerging commercial algorithms and machine learning capabilities.Chris Kraft, the Department of Homeland Security’s deputy chief technology officer for artificial intelligence and emerging tech, is now serving as the acting chief information officer of the U.S. Secret Service. Kraft, who’s focused primarily on AI in his DHS role, replaces Kevin Nally, who recently left government for a position in the private sector. Kraft’s new position was not confirmed by spokespeople for the U.S. Secret Service, but he acknowledged the role on LinkedIn. Due to its mission, the Secret Service is quieter than other agencies on its technology portfolio, but the agency uses a variety of platforms and faces serious technology challenges. After the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania in July 2024, FedScoop documented a series of tools at the component’s disposal, including commercial telemetry data and Protective Threat Management System. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz said he would introduce legislation to establish AI sandboxes to allow companies “room to breathe” without running up against regulations. Cruz announced that proposal as well as a legislative framework for AI policy ahead of a Wednesday hearing before the Subcommittee on Science, Manufacturing, and Competitiveness on the administration’s recent AI Action Plan. The concept of regulatory sandboxes were among the more than 90 policy recommendations outlined in that document. Cruz said during the hearing: “Under the Sandbox Act, an AI user developer can identify obstructive regulations and request a waiver or a modification, which the government may grant for two years via a written agreement that must include a participant’s responsibility to mitigate health or consumer risks,” adding that “a regulatory sandbox is not a free pass. People creating or using AI still have to follow the same laws as everyone else.”Drew Myklegard is stepping down from his role as deputy federal CIO after nearly four years, FedScoop has learned. Two sources with knowledge of the matter said Myklegard told colleagues he’s taking a role in the private sector and that his last day will be Sept. 22. A holdover from the Biden administration, Myklegard was appointed to the deputy federal CIO role in early 2022, after a more than eight-year stint in supporting IT operations at the Department of Veterans Affairs. During his time in the Office of the Federal CIO, he championed a number of key governmentwide technology modernization initiatives, including rolling out a new policy reforming federal cloud security authorizations under FedRAMP and guidance on how agencies acquire and inventory AI tools, among others. On Monday, Myklegard was recognized with a FedScoop 50 award in the Golden Gov: Federal Executive of the Year category.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Health and Human Services has made ChatGPT available to all of its employees effective immediately, according to a Tuesday departmentwide email obtained by FedScoop. In that message, HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill said the rollout of the generative AI platform follows a directive from President Donald Trump’s AI Action Plan for agencies to ensure that workers who could benefit from the technology have access to it. “This tool can help us promote rigorous science, radical transparency, and robust good health,” O’Neill said. “As Secretary Kennedy said, ‘The AI revolution has arrived.’” O’Neill provided workers with instructions on how to log on to use the tool, as well as some warnings about how to treat outputs. He told workers to “be skeptical of everything you read, watch for potential bias, and treat answers as suggestions,” and directed them to weigh original sources and counterarguments prior to making a major decision. The General Services Administration has created a new office within the Federal Acquisition Service focused on streamlining the agency’s procurement of common goods and services, a GSA spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. Acting GSA Administrator Michael Rigas recently signed the order establishing the Office of Centralized Acquisition Services (OCAS), the spokesperson said, describing it as a “centralized, enterprise-wide approach.” “By leveraging one federal wallet, GSA will deliver significant savings to the taxpayer, greater efficiencies, and reduced duplication, enabling agencies to focus on their core missions,” the spokesperson said in a written statement. GSA senior executive Thomas Meiron will serve as the office’s assistant commissioner, the GSA said. Meiron has been with the GSA for over three decades, according to his LinkedIn profile. He most recently served as the acting assistant commissioner for the agency’s Office of Customer and Stakeholder Engagement. The move directly supports President Donald Trump’s executive order, signed in March, to consolidate federal procurement in the GSA. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Greg Hogan is out as the chief information officer of the Office of Personnel Management after roughly seven-and-a-half months on the job. Hogan was installed at the human capital agency on the first day of President Donald Trump’s second administration, replacing Melvin Brown II after roughly a week on the job. According to an OPM spokeswoman, Hogan departed the agency earlier this week and Perryn Ashmore, who is currently assistant director of enterprise learning at the agency, is currently serving as CIO in an acting capacity. Although not much was shared by the agency about Hogan’s background, a legal filing in a challenge brought by current and former federal employees over Department of Government Efficiency access to OPM data provided some details. According to that document, Hogan was the vice president of infrastructure at comma.ai — a self-driving car software company — before joining the Trump administration. He also told the court he had 20 years of experience in private sector IT and a computer engineering degree.Stephen Ehikian, the deputy administrator of the General Services Administration, has left the agency to take over as chief executive officer at the enterprise AI application software company C3 AI. Ehikian told GSA staff Tuesday in an email obtained by FedScoop that he would “transition out” of the agency’s deputy administrator role, but remain an adviser to the leadership team during the transition process. On Wednesday, C3 AI announced Ehikian’s hiring as CEO. He said in a statement he is “honored” to join the company “at such a pivotal time in the AI era.” He served as the GSA’s acting head for the first half of this year until July, when President Donald Trump tapped State Department leader Michael Rigas for the role and Ehikian moved into the deputy spot. “I want to thank Stephen Ehikian for his service and wish him well,” Rigas said in a statement shared by GSA. Edward Forst, a longtime financial services executive, was nominated by Trump in July to serve as the next administrator of the GSA. A nomination hearing date has not been scheduled, according to congressional records.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
OpenAI has cleared another critical hurdle to selling its ChatGPT tool directly to the federal government. As of Tuesday, ChatGPT is listed as “in process” on the FedRAMP Marketplace, an online repository that tracks where companies stand in the FedRAMP security review process. While federal agencies can issue their own approvals to use technology platforms, FedRAMP is the government’s primary security review program and is designed to clear widespread cloud-based technologies for use across federal agencies. OpenAI received prioritized authorization through 20x, a person familiar with the matter told FedScoop. It’s the first company to receive this prioritization, which, in effect, eliminates the need for companies to find federal agencies to sponsor them for review. At one point, OpenAI had engaged USAID, its first enterprise customer, about helping them with the process, FedScoop previously reported, but the agency was mostly shuttered in the early days of the second Trump administration. The General Services Administration created the prioritized review for AI cloud services just last month.Microsoft will offer a host of its cloud services at a discounted price to the federal government, the General Services Administration announced Tuesday, including its artificial intelligence assistant Copilot at no cost to some agencies. The OneGov deal makes Microsoft the latest technology firm to leverage steep discounts on its cloud products to expand adoption within the federal government. It comes on the heels of GSA’s deals with industry competitors like OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, which are separately offering their AI models to the government for a dollar or less. Under the new agreement, Microsoft will offer its subscription service, Microsoft 365, Azure Cloud Services, and Dynamics 365 — the company’s suite of business management apps — for a “discounted price” for up to 36 months.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy plans to sunset several outdated agency IT systems and consolidate technology management under a new program called 1DoT, according to a memo sent earlier this week. 1DoT, Duffy wrote, is meant to “unify” the department, whose components include the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Highway Administration, and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The 1DoT initiative is supposed to eliminate redundancies and focus on “efficiency, accountability, and operational excellence,” Duffy explained in the email, which was viewed by FedScoop. The memo lays into myriad problems with the Transportation Department’s $3.5 billion annual IT portfolio, calling its systems “outdated, expensive, and unsecure.” Duffy said: “This complicated web of technology is more than just a nuisance. Less efficiency means longer wait times for project completion, grants signed, or safety reviews conducted.Emil Michael, undersecretary of defense for researching and engineering and the Pentagon’s CTO, has taken on the role of acting director of the Silicon Valley-headquartered Defense Innovation Unit in the wake of Doug Beck’s resignation, DefenseScoop has learned. Beck unexpectedly resigned on Monday. The Defense Department has not provided an explanation for his sudden resignation. However, a defense official confirmed that Michael will fill the role and Michael Dodd has been appointed as the acting deputy director, saying they are “laser-focused on driving innovation and enhancing the Department’s ability to deliver groundbreaking commercial technologies to empower the American warfighter.” Dodd has been a principal at DIU since December 2022. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump nominated him to be assistant secretary of defense for critical technologies, which falls under the Pentagon’s R&E directorate.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Department of Government Efficiency members stored a copy of a massive Social Security Administration database in a “vulnerable” custom cloud environment, putting more than 300 million people’s personal information at risk, the agency’s chief data officer said in a new whistleblower complaint. The complaint, filed with Congress on Tuesday, revealed new concerns from CDO Charles Borges about “serious data security lapses” allegedly involving DOGE officials working at the SSA. According to the complaint, those officials, under the direction of SSA Chief Information Officer Aram Moghaddassi, granted themselves permission to copy Americans’ Social Security information onto a cloud server with no verified oversight, violating agency protocols. The Government Accountability Project wrote on behalf of Borges in the complaint that the “vulnerable cloud environment is effectively a live copy of the entire country’s Social Security information from the Numerical Identification System (NUMIDENT) database, that apparently lacks any security oversight from SSA or tracking to determine who is accessing or has accessed the copy of this data.” The NUMIDENT data includes all the information applicants use for a Social Security card, including their name, phone number, address, place and date of birth, parents’ names and Social Security numbers along with other personal information. The complaint warned: “Should bad actors gain access to this cloud environment, Americans may be susceptible to widespread identity theft, may lose vital healthcare and food benefits, and the government may be responsible for re-issuing every American a new Social Security Number at great cost.”Adele Merritt is out as the top IT official at the National Institutes of Health after roughly eight months in the role, again changing up the leadership in the position. Merritt was first announced as the new chief information officer in December after most recently serving as CIO of the intelligence community. At the time she took on the position, the role hadn’t had a permanent official in roughly two years. Merritt’s departure comes as the Trump administration has sought to reduce the federal workforce and reshape federal agencies, including HHS. In March, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy announced plans to cut 10,000 workers from the agency on top of 10,000 who had already left via incentivized resignation and retirement offers from the administration. A recent ProPublica analysis of HHS’s public directory found that the health agency has lost roughly 18% of its workforce since January. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Trump White House has tapped Tesla board member and Airbnb cofounder Joe Gebbia to take the lead on its initiative to redesign the federal government’s digital footprint. Gebbia announced that he was appointed as chief design officer in a Saturday post to X, formerly known as Twitter. That role was established by President Donald Trump via executive order last week along with a new National Design Studio and an initiative to improve digital and physical spaces called “America By Design.” Gebbia said in his X post that his directive “is to update today’s government services to be as satisfying to use as the Apple Store: beautifully designed, great user experience, run on modern software.” Gebbia thanked Trump for supporting the new initiative and asked people interested in joining the studio to reach out with a link to their work. Prior to his appointment as the design chief, Gebbia also worked with DOGE to modernize the Office of Personnel Management’s mostly paper-based retirement processing.Sen. Ron Wyden on Monday urged Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to seek an independent review of federal court cybersecurity following the latest major hack, accusing the judiciary of “incompetence” and “covering up” its “negligence” over digital defenses. Wyden, D-Ore., wrote his letter in response to news this month that hackers had reportedly breached and stolen sealed case data from federal district courts dating back to at least July, exploiting vulnerabilities left unfixed for five years. Alleged Russian hackers were behind both the attack and another past major intrusion, and may have lurked in the systems for years. Wyden wrote in his letter: “The courts have been entrusted with some of our nation’s most confidential and sensitive information, including national security documents that could reveal sources and methods to our adversaries, and sealed criminal charging and investigative documents that could enable suspects to flee from justice or target witnesses. Yet, you continue to refuse to require the federal courts to meet mandatory cybersecurity requirements and allow them to routinely ignore basic cybersecurity best practices.” That, Wyden said, means someone from the outside must conduct a review, naming the National Academy of Sciences as the organization Roberts should choose. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The top lawmakers on a key House cybersecurity panel are hoping to remove a barrier to entry for cyber jobs in the federal government. Introduced last week, the Cybersecurity Hiring Modernization Act from Reps. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, would prioritize skills-based hiring over educational requirements for cyber jobs at federal agencies. Mace and Brown — the chair and ranking member of the House Oversight Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation Subcommittee, respectively — said the legislation would ensure the federal government has access to a “broader pool of qualified applicants” as the country faces “urgent cybersecurity challenges.” Mace said in a press release Thursday: “As cyber threats against our government continue to grow, we need to make sure our federal agencies hire the most qualified candidates, not just those with traditional degrees. This bill cuts red tape, opens doors to skilled Americans without a four-year diploma but with the expertise to get the job done, and strengthens our nation’s cybersecurity workforce.” Brown said in a statement that expanding the cyber workforce is “imperative” to “meet our nation’s growing need for safe and secure systems.” The bill aims to “remove outdated hiring policies, expand workforce opportunities to a wider pool of talented applicants, and help agencies hire the staff that they need,” she added. The bill calls on the Office of Personnel Management to annually publish any education-related changes that are made to minimum qualification requirements for federal cyber roles. OPM would also be charged with aggregating data on educational backgrounds of new hires for those cyber positions.Texas-based defense startup Saronic Technologies will produce multiple batches of autonomous maritime drones for the U.S. Navy by mid-2031 under an other transaction agreement (OTA) worth more than $392 million, according to officials and public contracting documents viewed by DefenseScoop. Details are sparse regarding the specific features, types and quantities of unmanned vessels Saronic will deliver — but they’ll likely mark a major component of the Navy’s AI-enabled, hybrid fleet that’s being designed to counter security threats in and around the Pacific. OTA contract vehicles offer Defense Department buyers more flexibility and speed than traditional Federal Acquisition Regulation-based acquisitions. They’re a key element in the Navy’s broader plan to modernize and incentivize accelerated technology adoption to prepare for future fights. According to records posted on the Federal Procurement Data System, Naval Sea Systems Command and Saronic Technologies formalized this $392 million OTA — which has a completion date of May 30, 2031 — on May 16. Two months later, in July, NAVSEA made an award to Saronic worth nearly $197 million under the agreement, or about half of the total award ceiling. It’s unclear if more awards have been made to date.
President Donald Trump called for improvements to federal government websites in a Thursday executive order, arguing the U.S. government “has lagged behind in usability and aesthetics.” The new directive is focused on both digital and physical spaces and launches an initiative it calls “America by Design” to achieve the administration’s goals. That effort will be led by a new National Design Studio and chief design officer that will coordinate agency actions. Federal agencies, for their part, will be required to “produce initial results” by July 4, 2026. The executive order states that “the National Design Studio will advise agencies on how to reduce duplicative design costs, use standardized design to enhance the public’s trust in high-impact service providers, and dramatically improve the quality of experiences offered to the American public.”Specifically, agencies are required to prioritize improving websites and physical spaces “that have a major impact on Americans’ everyday lives.” The administrator of the General Services Administration is also instructed to consult with the new design official to update the U.S. Web Design System consistent with the order. The U.S. Web Design System is a community to help agencies with design and maintenance of their digital presence that was initially established by 18F, which the Trump administration eliminated, and the U.S. Digital Service, which was turned into the DOGE.Google will make its Gemini AI models and tools available to the federal government for less than 50 cents through a new General Services Administration deal, making the company the latest to offer its technology to agencies at just a marginal cost. Google, which announced the launch of “Gemini for Government” on Thursday, said the tool is a “complete AI platform” that will include high-profile Gemini models. The new government-focused product suite comes as other AI companies — including xAI, Anthropic, and OpenAI — begin to offer similar public sector versions of their enterprise AI products. Unlike those other companies, though, Google already has an extensive federal government cloud business. For now, the government Gemini product will be limited to Google’s cloud programs. The platform will include access to NotebookLM AI, a research and note taking tool, and AI agents for deep research and idea generation. The platform will cost 47 cents per agency for one year and the offer will stand through 2026, according to the GSA.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
As part of its ongoing work with the National Nuclear Security Administration, Anthropic is now working on a new tool designed to help detect when new AI systems output troubling discussions of nuclear weapons. Artificial intelligence systems have the potential to uncover all sorts of new chemical compounds. While many of those discoveries might be promising, and yield, for example, formulas to help propel nuclear energy sources, they might also risk outputting information that could make it easier to design a nuclear weapon. In a new blog post, the company said that along with the NNSA and the Energy Department’s national laboratories, it’s developed a classifier that’s able to automatically determine whether nuclear conversation with an AI chatbot is benign or concerning, with 96% accuracy. The system was developed based on an NNSA-curated list of nuclear risk indicators. Individuals will soon be able to verify their identities using their passports on the General Services Administration’s Login.gov platform, marking the agency’s latest efforts to boost user friendliness on the single-sign-on service. According to a GSA announcement published Wednesday, individuals will soon be able to submit a picture of their passport’s biographical page during Login.gov’s identity proofing process. Once Login.gov receives a passport photo, it will then check the photo against passport records managed by the State Department, the GSA said, noting State manages a “privacy-preserving” API for this. Login.gov gives the public the option to log into multiple federal, state and local government websites using just one account once a user’s identity is verified. Under its current format, users looking to create a Login.gov account are often required to take a picture of themselves and submit that with a photo of their state-issued ID or driver’s license for comparison. The move to accept passports is part of a new partnership between GSA’s Technology Transformation Services and the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, with the GSA describing it as a “first-of-its-kind partnership between federal agencies to use authoritative government records as a source for identity verification.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The China-based artificial intelligence model DeepSeek isn’t available for widespread use at the Department of Energy, but approval of some elements may be possible following a study by two of its national labs, an agency IT official said Tuesday. DeepSeek’s launch has prompted congressional proposals to rein in its use in government and proactive bans by several federal agencies, including DOE. But during a panel at a FedScoop-produced Salesforce event, Bridget Carper — the agency’s deputy CIO for architecture, engineering, technology and innovation — said the model has still been studied by two DOE national labs. Carper said the agency allowed two of its labs — which she didn’t identify — to look at the system “because there’s value in testing the open models. There’s value in understanding the performance. How does it actually compare?” The separate labs looked at the model to see if they could do comparisons with alternatives they had, Carper said. Those studies also took place with guardrails. They were controlled, sanctioned and fully documented, she said. And ultimately, they found some potential benefits.The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering is taking over the “authority, direction, and control” of the Pentagon’s Chief Digital and AI Office, according to new guidance issued last Thursday by Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg that presents an accelerated plan to disrupt and transform how the emerging technology is adopted across the Defense Department and military. Feinberg wrote in a memorandum to Pentagon leadership, combatant commanders, and defense agency and DOD field activity directors that “by aligning the CDAO under the USD(R&E), we create a powerful innovation engine that can deliver Al superiority from laboratory to battlefield.” The CDAO had previously been a direct report to the deputy SecDef. DefenseScoop obtained a copy of the directive from a source who requested anonymity to share it last Friday, after others alerted the publication of its creation. A defense official subsequently acknowledged the memo’s existence in an email — noting that the CDAO will continue to execute all current statutory responsibilities without interruption during this transition. The defense official said the realignment is “the next step in making a uniform, AI-first push for the [DOD],” adding that it won’t create additional review layers or bureaucratic processes.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
In a sweeping announcement about a forthcoming executive order, President Donald Trump argued Monday that states are ultimately subservient to the White House when it comes to setting election policy. Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform that states are “merely an agent for the federal government in counting and tabulating the votes. They must do what the federal government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do.” Trump also claimed the executive order would end mail-in voting, falsely claiming that other countries stopped the practice due to fraud, as well as “very expensive and SERIOUSLY CONTROVERSIAL voting machines.” It’s not clear which voting machines Trump was referencing. The president’s allies and friendly media outlets like Fox News and NewsMax were successfully sued by Smartmatic and Dominion for billions of dollars after the 2020 election for falsely claiming that their voting machines were rigged to elect Democratic President Joe Biden. Either way, Trump has lost dozens of lawsuits attempting to prove fraud, and reportedly nearly signed an executive order at the end of his last term ordering the Department of Defense to seize voting machines, purportedly to examine them for fraud. A previous executive order from Trump this year, purporting to compel the bipartisan Election Assistance Commission to alter voter registration request forms to include a proof of citizenship section and deny forms to states or voters who don’t provide the information, was struck down by a judge as unconstitutional in April. The judge in the ruling remarked that “no statutory delegation of authority to the Executive Branch permits the President to short-circuit Congress’s deliberative process” on regulating elections via executive order.A federal watchdog is urging the Office of Management and Budget to prioritize the governmentwide adoption of a federal IT spending framework, or end the efforts, after finding the multi-year initiative has stalled. In a report made public Monday, the Government Accountability Office recommended that the OMB director direct the federal chief information officer to either terminate the agency’s push for governmentwide adoption of the Technology Business Management framework or deem it an administration priority. Should it be made a priority, the GAO also suggested OMB quickly implement the watchdog’s previous recommendations and take “immediate action” to integrate the framework across government fully. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The General Services Administration rolled out a new governmentwide tool Thursday that gives federal agencies the ability to test major artificial intelligence models, a continuation of Trump administration efforts to ramp up government use of automation. The AI evaluation suite, titled USAi.gov, launched Thursday morning and allow federal agencies to test various AI models, including those from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Meta to start, two senior GSA officials told FedScoop. The launch of USAi underscores the Trump administration’s increasing appetite for AI integration into federal government workspaces. The GSA has described these tools as a way to help federal workers with time-consuming tasks, like document summaries, and give government officials access to some of the country’s leading AI firms. The GSA, according to one of the officials, will act as a “curator of sorts” for determining which models will be available for testing on USAi. The official noted that additional models are being considered for the platform, with input from GSA’s industry and federal partners, and that American-made models are the primary focus. Grok, the chatbot made by Elon Musk’s xAI firm, is notably not included on the platform for its launch Thursday.Anthropic and OpenAI, two of the country’s leading AI companies, recently announced that they’re offering their powerful models to federal agencies for $1 for the next year. But the new deals, which are both available through a General Services Administration OneGov contract vehicle, don’t on their own clear the way for widespread government adoption of artificial intelligence. Instead, the new financial incentive seems to be daring government officials to move quickly and approve the technology as soon as possible. Currently, no major AI provider is authorized under FedRAMP, a critical security program that allows agencies to use a company’s cloud services — including software or models offered on a cloud service — across government. While several companies — including Anthropic, xAI and OpenAI — have released government-focused product suites, they’re still somewhat dependent on cloud providers like Microsoft and Amazon that have already cleared the FedRAMP process. If AI companies want to sell much of their technology directly to the government, they need their own authorization-to-operate or ATO. What’s changed, though, is that federal officials now have a new reason to move through security review processes more quickly, a former GSA employee and another person familiar with the matter both told FedScoop. That strategy could involve going through an authorization-to-operate process through an agency’s authorizing official — typically, their chief information officer — as well as the security review process explicated by FedRAMP, both people said. GSA is now looking at strategies to speed up the process. An agency spokesperson confirmed that these companies still need to seek FedRAMP authorization if they want to offer their technology directly. But to make that happen faster, GSA is now consulting with the Chief Information Officers Council and the board that oversees FedRAMP about “prioritization for AI companies” that are added to GSA’s multiple award schedule. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Two-time Trump administration vet Lynne Parker has exited as principal deputy director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy following the release of the administration’s AI plan. In a LinkedIn post Tuesday, Parker said she was “passing the torch” and had fulfilled her mission of helping the Trump administration “hit the ground running,” citing the launch of AI innovation and education initiatives as well as drone-focused policy, and the administration’s “gold standard” science initiative. She said she plans to return to her retirement in Tennessee. Parker joined the administration in January, working alongside OSTP Director Michael Kratsios. In addition to her OSTP title, she was also named executive director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Science and Technology. Parker had returned to the current Trump administration after serving as deputy CTO and founding director of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Office. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on her departure. In addition to Parker, OSTP senior policy advisor Dean Ball also recently announced he was leaving the White House following the release of the administration’s anticipated AI Action Plan last month. Ball rejoined the Foundation for American Innovation, a technology-focused think tank formerly known as the Lincoln Network, as a fellow focused on AI policy and governance models for emerging technology.The cloud management company Box is the latest agency to strike a deal with the General Services Administration to offer its artificial intelligence services to the federal government at a fraction of the normal price. The GSA said in an announcement Wednesday that federal agencies can buy Box’s Enterprise Plus for Government software for up to 75% off and the company’s Enterprise for Advanced Government software discounted by up to 65% of the listed price for a year-long term. The announcement follows a series of other deals with major AI firms like OpenAI and Anthropic that aim to increase the use of AI across the federal government. Like the other OneGov collaborations, the GSA said Box’s AI platform will help boost productivity at agencies, automate workflows and assist with tasks like document generation, e-signatures and forms. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Federal agencies will now have access to Anthropic’s Claude model for $1, the General Services Administration announced Tuesday, continuing the agency’s push for artificial intelligence products across government. Under the OneGov deal, all three branches of government will be able to use Anthropic’s Claude for Enterprise and Claude for Government for a nominal $1 fee. Approval for members of Congress and the judiciary is pending, the GSA noted. It is the latest in a series of deals between private AI firms and the federal government to increase the use of automation in agency workflows and boost workers’ productivity and efficiency. Anthropic said in a release Tuesday: “We believe the U.S. public sector should have access to the most advanced AI capabilities to tackle complex challenges, from scientific research to constituent services. By combining broad accessibility with uncompromising security standards, we’re helping ensure AI serves the public interest.” Anthropic’s Claude for Government models have FedRAMP High certification and can be used by federal workers dealing with “sensitive unclassified work,” while Claude for Enterprise models have expanded features for data protection, Anthropic said. Anthropic said it will also offer technical support for agencies to implement its products into workflows. The Federal Risk Management and Authorization Program has already approved more than twice as many government cloud services in fiscal year 2025 as all of fiscal 2024, the General Services Administration announced Monday. FedRAMP reached 114 authorizations in July for fiscal 2025, along with four new cloud services through the FedRAMP 20x revamp program, according to a GSA statement. In fiscal 2024, FedRAMP authorized 49 cloud service providers, according to a GSA spokesperson. The reform program, unveiled in March, is focused on simplifying the authorization process and shaving the approval timeline from months to weeks. Eventually, agency sponsorship will no longer be needed to win authorization, a process that is often expensive and time-consuming. The new numbers come just over a year since the Office of Management and Budget published a memo calling for the modernization of the cloud authorization process. GSA said FedRAMP had a “significant backlog” at the time of the memo, with authorizations taking more than a year. A year later, FedRAMP’s increased use of automation and streamlined workflows cut the wait time to about five weeks, the GSA said.
The Army will be creating a marketplace to better match drones with units based on their requirements. With so many vendors providing a variety of unmanned aerial systems, it can be difficult for formations to determine if certain systems will in fact meet their needs. Col. Danielle Medaglia, project manager for UAS at program executive office for aviation, shared details about the new initiative during a recent teleconference, saying it is meant to ensure drones products do what they advertise they can do, along with confirming NDAA compliance and other specs. The forthcoming marketplace is part of the drone revolution occurring within the Pentagon. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued a directive last month on “Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance,” which sought to improve how the department develops and employs small UAS. That directive calls for every squad to be equipped with low-cost, expendable drones by the end of 2026. Army offiicals called the new marketplace and approach a “fundamental shift” in how traditional acquisition is conducted. The goal is to get systems into the hands of troops as quickly as possible. The Pentagon’s two-year public competition to spur the development of cyber-reasoning systems that use large language models to autonomously find and patch vulnerabilities in open-source software concluded Friday with $8.5 million awarded to three teams of security specialists at DEF CON. The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s AI Cyber Challenge seeks to address a persistent bottleneck in cybersecurity — patching vulnerabilities before they are discovered or exploited by would-be attackers. DARPA Director Stephen Winchell said: “We’re living in a world right now that has ancient digital scaffolding that’s holding everything up. A lot of the code bases, a lot of the languages, a lot of the ways we do business, and everything we’ve built on top of it has all incurred huge technical debt… It is a problem that is beyond human scale.” The seven semifinalists that earned their spot out of 90 teams convened at last year’s DEF CON were scored against their models’ ability to quickly, accurately and successfully identify and generate patches for synthetic vulnerabilities across 54 million lines of code. The models discovered 77% of the vulnerabilities presented in the final scoring round and patched 61% of those synthetic defects at an average speed of 45 minutes, the competition organizers said. The models also discovered 18 real zero-day vulnerabilities, including six in the C programming language and 12 in Java codebases. The teams’ models patched none of the C codebase zero-days, but automatically patched 11 of the Java zero-days, according to the final results shared Friday. Team Atlanta took the first-place prize of $4 million, Trail of Bits won second place and $3 million in prize money, and Theori ranked third, taking home $1.5 million. The competition’s organizers allocated an additional $1.4 million in prize money for participants who can demonstrate when their technology is deployed into critical infrastructure.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The U.S. judiciary announced plans to increase security for sensitive information on its case management system following what it described as “recent escalated cyberattacks of a sophisticated and persistent nature.” In a Thursday statement, the federal judiciary said it’s “taking additional steps to strengthen protections for” that information. It also said its “further enhancing security of the system and to block future attacks, and it is prioritizing working with courts to mitigate the impact on litigants.” The statement from the third branch comes one day after a Politico report revealed that its case filing system had recently been breached. That report cited unnamed sources who were concerned that the identities of confidential court informants may have been compromised. While the federal courts’ statement acknowledged a recent escalation in cyberattacks on its case management system, it didn’t confirm details of the reported breach. In response to a FedScoop request for additional information about the reported attack, a spokesman for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts declined to comment and pointed back to the statement. The reported hack and statement come after a cyberbreach of the same system in 2020. In early 2021, during a hack of SolarWinds’ Orion products, the federal courts disclosed that it found “apparent compromise” of the Case Management/Electronic Case Files system (CM/ECF) and was investigating the matter. Its statement after that breach similarly indicated that “federal courts are immediately adding new security procedures to protect highly sensitive confidential documents filed with the courts.”Jamie Holcombe is joining Maryland-based technology company US AI after wrapping up roughly six-and-a-half years as the chief information officer of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Holcombe, who served as both CIO and chief AI officer at USPTO, will be vice president of the AI firm, with a focus on scaling its technology throughout the federal government, according to a Thursday announcement from US AI shared with FedScoop. Holcombe’s last day at the agency was Wednesday, according to a USPTO spokeswoman. Deborah Stephens, deputy CIO for the agency, will serve as acting CIO. At USPTO, Holcombe oversaw “one of the federal government’s largest IT transformations,” per the announcement. That work included leading the agency’s transition to a cloud-first environment and the launch of its AI Lab, where USPTO can test use cases. As part of his new role, Holcombe will work to expand US AI’s Intelligent Computing Platform, which is aimed at accelerating the adoption of AI in sectors that are highly regulated, across government. He will also lead the company’s strategy to align its technology with its use in public sector and regulated areas, scaling codeless and zero-trust tools, and build on the company’s “values of clarity, security, and accessibility in AI deployment.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The General Services Administration has been on a roll lately, negotiating what it calls OneGov agreements with some of the federal government’s biggest IT vendors. On Thursday, GSA announced it has negotiated a governmentwide purchasing agreement with Amazon Web Services that could save agencies up to $1 billion through credits for AWS services. The deal is the latest in a flurry of OneGov agreements GSA has initiated under the Trump administration to consolidate and centralize IT purchasing at scale and unlock greater, consistent savings for civilian agencies, rather than agencies negotiating one-off contracts with vendors themselves. As part of the governmentwide package, AWS has come to the table offering direct incentive credits that could total up to $1 billion in value for cloud services, modernization support and training. The deal will run through Dec. 31, 2028. In addition to streamlining federal IT procurement by working as a single, unified federal entity, GSA’s OneGov initiative also aims to work directly with technology developers themselves, rather than intermediaries such as value-added resellers. As such, GSA touts the potential for additional savings by contracting directly with the cloud giant for its services.That deal comes just a day after GSA announced a similar one with OpenAI that will offer its ChatGPT tool to federal agencies for just $1. It marks the artificial intelligence firm’s latest effort to expand use of its generative AI chatbot across the federal government. Like the AWS deal, GSA said the agreement with OpenAI supports the White House’s AI Action Plan, which encourages widespread adoption of AI in the federal government. Through the partnership, OpenAI’s ChatGPT Enterprise product can be purchased by federal agencies for $1 per agency for one year. GSA called this a “deeply discounted rate.” Commenting on the deal, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement: “One of the best ways to make sure AI works for everyone is to put it in the hands of the people serving the country.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Senate voted to confirm Sean Cairncross as national cyber director Saturday, giving the Trump administration one of its top cyber officials after a more than five-month process. The vote was 59-35. President Donald Trump nominated Cairncross on Feb. 12. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing on his nomination in early June, then voted to advance him that same month. At his hearing, Cairncross said he’d be focused on policy coordination. He fielded questions from senators about his lack of cyber experience, the biggest cyber threats, cuts to federal cybersecurity personnel and more. Cairncross has held leadership positions inside and outside of government where there’s been a tenuous connection to cybersecurity. He served as CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a foreign aid agency, in the first Trump administration, along with roles in the White House. He’s also a former top official at the Republican National Committee. Despite that, Cairncross has the vocal support of a number cyber experts and past government cyber officials.A new commission has been established to chart a path toward developing an independent Cyber Force for the U.S. military. The commission was started by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in partnership with the Cyber Solarium Commission 2.0 project at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. While there have been calls historically to create a new dedicated, standalone cyber service, the effort has gained steam in recent years. Congress has sought to address these shortfalls, mostly through studies, previously. The fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act initially mandated a study for alternate organizational models for military cyber elements, to include a Cyber Force, which was considered a watered-down version from previous drafts. The new commission won’t be examining the efficacy of a Cyber Force — something congressional studies have already been tasked with doing — but rather, looking at the foundational issues of establishing that type of entity such as the organizational structure, core functions, roles and responsibilities, and necessary authorities.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Organizations and leaders representing the interests of statistical professionals and public data access strongly criticized President Donald Trump’s order to fire the leader of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after lower than expected jobs numbers Friday, saying his comments undermine public trust in that information. Their responses came after Trump posted on his social media site Friday afternoon with allegations that Commissioner Erika McEntarfer “faked” BLS statistics in an effort to help Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, pointing to instances of revisions — which are a standard part of the agency’s process. Trump’s comments and order to fire McEntarfer appeared to primarily be in response to a BLS jobs report that showed lower figures than anticipated, which sent shockwaves through the statistical community. Multiple leaders, including his own former BLS commissioner, spoke out against the action in no uncertain terms, saying the president’s comments politicize the data.President Donald Trump has nominated Edward Forst, a longtime financial services executive, to serve as the next administrator of the General Services Administration. The nomination was received in the Senate and referred to the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Thursday, congressional records show. According to his LinkedIn profile, Forst was most recently the chairman of Lion Capital, a private equity firm, and previously served as president and CEO of Cushman and Wakefield, a real estate services firm. Earlier in his career, Forst spent nearly 17 years at Goldman Sachs, and in 2008, he served as an adviser to the Treasury secretary for a year, per his LinkedIn. The nomination follows various staff shakeups at GSA and comes just weeks after Trump tapped State Department leader Michael Rigas to serve as GSA’s acting administrator. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The General Services Administration is looking into how it can implement its internal artificial intelligence chatbot across the federal government, the agency’s top AI and data official said Thursday, the latest indication that the Trump administration is planning on streamlining government access to AI. The new initiative marks the “next iteration” of the GSAi platform, Zach Whitman, the agency’s chief AI officer and data officer, said during a speech at the Digital Government Institute’s annual convention in Washington, D.C. The GSA rolled out GSAi internally in March after a lengthy research and development process, which involved an AI safety team that evaluated a number of major AI vendors. Like other AI chatbots available to the public, the tool was initially designed to respond to user prompts and assist in basic tasks. GSAi gives users access to a number of models, including ones from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, and aims to increase workflow efficiency at the agency. This next chapter, Whitman said, is “one where other agencies could use what we have, use it in an isolated environment, use it for their specific purposes and own it in a tenant-based model.” The Trump administration on Wednesday announced an initiative to improve the digital health ecosystem for patients and providers, leaning on the voluntary support of dozens of health and tech companies. More than 60 companies — including data networks, health systems and providers, and developers of AI and other applications — have committed to improving the flow of electronic health information, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That group of adopters includes tech leaders such as Amazon, Anthropic, Apple, Google, and OpenAI. The announcement comes after a May request for information that generated nearly 1,400 comments, which “were instrumental” in forming the initiative, according to CMS. It also appears to primarily be a collaborative effort between CMS and the Department of Government Efficiency. In addition to CMS’s announcement, the White House held an event Wednesday with remarks from CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, DOGE acting director Amy Gleason, President Donald Trump, and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In her remarks, Gleason spoke about her daughter’s experience navigating the health system as someone with a rare disease and the difficulty posed by transferring physical copies of her medical history from place to place.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The digital footprint left by DOGE in agency computer systems and IT networks would be thoroughly examined under legislation introduced Wednesday by a trio of Senate Democrats. The Pick Up After Your DOGE Act from Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts would require the administrator of the Elon Musk-created tech collective to provide a full accounting to the U.S. comptroller general of all the agencies and IT systems that DOGE accessed. Those systems would then be subject to comprehensive performance and security audits. “The DOGE-boys have weaseled their way into Americans’ most sensitive data systems, claiming to hunt ‘waste, fraud, and abuse,’ while actually creating waste, fraud, and abuse. They’re destroying Americans’ trust in once-reliable government systems and could be hawking your stolen data to their friends in Big Tech and AI,” Whitehouse said in a press release. He added that the Pick Up After Your DOGE Act protects seniors and all Americans by fixing any bugs or backdoors that DOGE may have purposefully or negligently created in Social Security, Medicare, and other highly sensitive government data systems. The audit would be conducted by the Government Accountability Office, which has been bombarded with congressional requests to probe DOGE’s agency IT dives since the beginning of the Trump administration.The United States Military Academy abruptly ended the appointment of Jen Easterly to a high-profile academic position in West Point’s Department of Social Sciences, according to a memorandum issued Wednesday by the Secretary of the Army. On Tuesday, the academy announced that Easterly was named as the next Robert F. McDermott Distinguished Chair, a department position created in 1943 to bring a leading scholar, practitioner, or expert in the fields of social sciences — such as economics, political science, or international relations — to West Point. In a since-deleted LinkedIn post, the academy welcomed the former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director and academy alumnus after “an extraordinary career of service in the public and private sectors,” adding that her “unique perspective — combining military experience, advanced academic training, private sector innovation, and senior government service — makes her ideally suited to guide discussions on the critical issues facing our nation and the world.” After the announcement, far-right activist Laura Loomer suggested on X that Easterly should not be named to the position, due to her work under the Biden administration, allegedly with Nina Jankowicz, who served as the executive director of the Disinformation Governance Board of the United States. (Jankowicz later Wednesday posted on BlueSky that she had never worked with Easterly.) On Wednesday, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll announced in a post on X that the position would be rescinded, and a full review of the academy’s hiring practices would be conducted. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
There’s a new position in the U.S. government: Federal chief artificial intelligence officer. Gregory Barbaccia has begun to refer to himself as the Federal CAIO, in addition to his current role as the federal government’s chief information officer. A recent interview with CNBC referred to him this way and a federal official focused on AI confirmed to FedScoop that Barbaccia had used that title in a recent meeting. In a social media post last week, Barbaccia also used both titles. The new title comes amid the Trump administration’s continued focus on federal adoption of artificial intelligence. It follows the White House AI Action Plan, which was released last week and endorsed “transformative use of AI [that] can help deliver the highly responsive government the American people expect and deserve.” Still, the AI Action Plan makes no mention of a new position of CAIO for the whole federal government. Neither does the executive order that established the council or subsequent Office of Management and Budget actions. There was no federal CAIO in the Biden administration, and it’s not clear any formal action has been taken to establish the position.Federal agencies are increasingly turning to generative artificial intelligence to further their missions, according to a new watchdog report that found use cases of the emerging technology jumping by ninefold in a selection of nearly a dozen agencies last year. In a report published Tuesday, the Government Accountability Office said generative AI use cases across a group of 11 federal agencies increased from 32 to 282 cases from 2023 to 2024, per an analysis of those agencies’ inventories. The GAO laid out several ways these agencies harnessed generative AI last year, stating the technology can “improve written communications, information access efficiency, and program status tracking.” Examples included the Department of Veterans Affairs using automation for medical imaging processing in veterans’ diagnostic services, along with the Department of Health and Human Services’ initiative to extract information from publications regarding the containment of the poliovirus. HHS reported the largest jump out of the 11 agencies, going from seven generative AI use cases in 2023 to 116 in 2024, according to the report. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to the General Services Administration on Friday demanding more information about how the agency is using Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot built by Elon Musk’s xAI. The correspondence comes after FedScoop reporting earlier this month revealed that government coders at GSA seemed to be looking at integrating Grok into their artificial intelligence work. Other sources told FedScoop that Grok had recently been approved for integration as an option into the GSAi app, a platform the agency has built to help federal workers access various generative AI models. Four days after the publication of FedScoop’s story, xAI officially announced a “Grok for Government” service and confirmed that the company had been working to make its product available through GSA. As a result, Grok said ”every federal government department, agency, or office” could now access the company’s tools. xAI also announced a $200 million Defense Department contract. The federal government’s interest in using Grok — which recently espoused antisemitic and pro-Hitler content — has received pushback from Democrats. A group of Jewish Democrats recently wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about their concerns with the tool. Democrats in the House AI Caucus have also raised issues with the use of Grok, as has Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who condemned the Pentagon contract on the chamber’s floor. But the latest letter, obtained by FedScoop, demands more information on the GSA’s work with Grok. The letter was addressed to Stephen Ehikian, the deputy GSA administrator who led the agency on an acting basis until earlier this week, and signed by Reps. Robert Garcia of California and Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, the current and former ranking members of the committee, respectively.An outage last week of Starlink, the satellite internet service run by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX, did have an impact on some services in the federal government. While several civilian federal agencies told FedScoop that the service interruption didn’t disrupt operations, the U.S. Space Force confirmed that Starshield, the military-focused communications service on the Starlink network, was taken offline during the outage. “The Space Systems Command Commercial SATCOM Communications Office procures Starshield Global Access services over the Starlink Satellites/network,” a spokesperson for Space Systems Command told FedScoop. The spokesperson continued: “As such, the global outage did affect CSCO customers for the entire duration of the outage (~2.5hrs for most users). Services had a partial restoration midway through the outage and a complete restoration by the stated end time.” Defense customers are currently able to access Starshield through the Space Force, among other procurement mechanisms, SpaceX’s website states. SpaceX says Starshield is for “national defense use cases” while Starlink “is not intended for any military end-uses or end-users.” Several branches of the U.S. military are currently testing or using Starshield, including the Air Force and the Navy. A spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard told FedScoop earlier this month that the agency began installing both Starlink and Starshield back in 2023. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The likely successor to the late Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., hopes to continue his former boss’s commitment to federal IT reform if elected to Congress, while also gearing up to build his own legacy in the era of DOGE. Democrat James Walkinshaw told FedScoop in an interview last week that carrying on Connolly’s federal IT advocacy is especially important to him as widespread workforce and program cuts present new challenges for the government’s IT staff and related initiatives. While issues like IT modernization and procurement might “become less and less sexy by the day” amid other controversies in Washington, Walkinshaw said he is a “believer” that Congress should keep its foot on the pedal in this space. Walkinshaw, who served as Connolly’s chief of staff for 11 years, is vying for Virginia’s 11th congressional seat this fall to succeed the late congressman following his death from cancer in May. He currently serves on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. During the interview with FedScoop, Walkinshaw shared his thoughts on the lasting impacts of DOGE, his concerns with agency adoption of AI and his policy goals, if elected. The IRS has lost a quarter of its workforce since the beginning of the Trump administration, including thousands from the tax agency’s IT business unit, according to newly released watchdog data. A snapshot report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that more than 25,000 IRS employees either took the deferred resignation offer, retired or were separated from the agency in another way, while nearly 300 staffers were terminated via reduction-in-force actions. Combined, those departures represent 25% of the agency’s workforce, which has downsized from roughly 103,000 staffers to 77,428 as of May. According to TIGTA, the IRS’s IT business unit has lost 25% of its staffers over the same period, leaving the division with just over 2,100 employees. The IT management job series across agency units is down 23%, per the report. TIGTA also confirmed previous FedScoop reporting on the IRS’s move in late March to place nearly 50 IT executives on administrative leave. Among those employees, 26 eventually departed via Treasury Department incentive offerings, while another 22 are still on admin leave, per the watchdog.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has made it a top priority to dismantle what it perceives as federal bureaucratic bloat. But it’s the belief of some that those cuts to the federal workforce and federal programs have gone too far, damaging the government’s capacity to meet its mission and serve the American public. Rob Shriver, former acting OPM director during the Biden administration, is one of those. And in his new role as Managing Director of Democracy Forward’s Civil Service Strong initiative, he’s helping launch a new Civil Service Defense and Innovation Fellowship Program that aims to rebuild that lost capacity by calling on former government officials to “produce research and analysis documenting the scope and consequences of cuts to federal agencies, and develop and incubate innovative work to inform future policymaking and to rebuild government capacity.” Shriver joins the podcast to discuss the state of the federal workforce, the new fellowship and what he sees ahead. Let’s go now to that interview.The Department of Defense’s No. 2 IT official for the past two years is leaving the role, the department announced Monday. Leslie Beavers, who also served as acting DOD CIO for a period at the end of the Biden administration and during the early days of the second Trump administration, will step down as DOD principal deputy CIO at the end of September. In a social media post, the DOD Office of the CIO congratulated Beavers who announced Monday that she will be stepping down from her position at the end of September after more than 30 years of uniformed and civilian service. Beavers played a key role in the Office of the CIO’s delivery of its Fulcrum IT strategy in 2024 with then-CIO John Sherman. When Sherman stepped down from the CIO role at the end of June 2024, Beavers filled it temporarily until Katie Arrington was appointed to perform the duties of CIO in March. Since then, Beavers retained her deputy role, supporting new efforts under Arrington’s leadership like the Software Fast Track initiative and “blowing up” the Risk Management Framework. It’s unclear what Beavers’ next role will be after her departure or who will take her place when she officially leaves.President Donald Trump has tapped State Department leader Michael Rigas to serve as the General Services Administration’s new acting chief, the agency announced Monday. It marks the third GSA appointment for Rigas, who has spent the past few months at the State Department as the deputy secretary for management and resources, according to a statement from Marianne Copenhaver, associate administrator for the GSA. Copenhaver wrote in a statement to FedScoop: “We’re thrilled to have his institutional knowledge, leadership, and decades of experience in the private and public sector. Under Mike’s leadership, GSA will continue to deliver effective and efficient government services in real estate, acquisition, and technology.” Stephen Ehikian, who has served since January as GSA’s acting administrator, will continue his role as deputy administrator, Copenhaver added. Ehikian is a former Salesforce vice president and self-proclaimed “serial entrepreneur.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Anduril has scored a nearly $100 million contract to continue experimentation on the Army’s Next Generation Command and Control program, the service said Friday. NGC2, one of the Army’s top priorities, is a clean-slate design for how the service communicates on the battlefield and passes data for operations, providing commanders and units a new approach to information sharing and C2 through agile and software-based architectures. The Army plans to spend almost $3 billion on the effort over the next fiscal year across procurement and research and development funds. The $99.6 million other transaction authority agreement will span 11 months and cover Anduril’s work to prototype a system for 4th Infantry Division, which will scale the capability all the way up to the division level.The notoriously slow federal permitting process would get a technological jumpstart under a bill introduced last week by a bipartisan pair of House lawmakers. The ePermit Act from Reps. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., and Scott Peters, D-Calif., calls for the digitization of federal permitting, pushing the government to improve environmental reviews and authorizations through the embrace of interactive, digital and cloud-based platforms. Aimed at reducing processing times for federally mandated National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews, the ePermit Act aligns with an April executive order from President Donald Trump to modernize permitting technology and the subsequent launch of a permitting technology action plan. The bill calls on the chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to consult with the Chief Information Officers Council, the Office of Management and Budget, the Permitting Improvement Steering Council and other relevant stakeholders and agencies on new data standards to inform environmental reviews and authorizations.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to establish a new classification of federal workers in policy-related roles who aren’t career civil servants called “Schedule G.” The schedule appears to create another avenue for political officials in the U.S. government and follows myriad efforts by the Trump administration to reshape the federal workforce, including reductions-in-force, terminations, and programs to incentivize worker departures. In a fact sheet accompanying the order, the White House described Schedule G as an effort to increase “the horsepower for agency implementation of Administration policy” and fill a gap in federal hiring classifications. Per the fact sheet, existing schedules don’t “provide for non-career appointments to policy-making or policy-advocating roles.”Federal workers at the General Services Administration are increasingly using the agency’s internal AI chatbot GSAi on an everyday basis, the agency’s acting head said Thursday. Stephen Ehikian, GSA’s acting administrator and deputy administrator, offered a glimpse into how the agency is utilizing AI for its day-to-day activities during an appearance at GovExec’s Government Efficiency Summit. “Fifty percent, on average, of GSA employees are using this tool every single day,” Ehikian said of GSAi. It is not clear how this percentage was determined. The agency revealed the tool in March, touting it as a way to boost efficiency and help automate repetitive tasks within the federal government. Like other AI chatbots available to the public, the GSAi tool was designed to respond to user prompts and assist in basic tasks. Nearly four months later, workers are now turning to GSAi for a range of activities, Ehikian said, “from writing descriptions of properties before we send them to markets, to contracting officers using it to review contracts or thinking of outcome-based pricing initiatives, to people learning how to code.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Veterans Affairs’ acting chief information officer doubled down on the agency’s reshaping of its IT workforce, telling lawmakers in a Monday hearing that change is “challenging” but “necessary.” Eddie Pool told members of the House VA’s subcommittee on technology modernization that the agency’s Office of Information and Technology (OIT) is pushing forward with workforce reductions as the division increasingly turns to automation and other technology modernization efforts. “This reorganization, reallocation of positions, is designed to cut bureaucratic overhead, accelerate decision making and focus every OIT position on delivering secure, reliable and modern IT solutions to improve veterans’ lives,” Pool said in opening remarks at the hearing. Subcommittee Chair Tom Barrett, R-Mich., lauded the VA OIT’s “smarter, not bigger” strategy in its fiscal 2026 budget request, asking Pool if technology improvements can alleviate the need for manual, human processes. “Absolutely,” Pool responded. “It is about automating what we can automate.” In its fiscal 2026 budget, the VA OIT requested funding to support approximately 7,000 full-time equivalent employees, marking an 11.7% decrease from its fiscal 2025 budget request, according to Carol Harris, the director of information technology and cybersecurity for the Government Accountability Office.Former White House national security adviser Mike Waltz brushed aside criticisms Tuesday that he put sensitive military operations at risk by holding discussions about military strikes in a Signal group chat, claiming the app’s use was authorized by the federal government’s top civilian cyber agency. In a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Waltz — who has been nominated to represent the U.S. at the United Nations — was pressed about his short tenure as President Donald Trump’s top national security official. In particular, he was grilled by Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., for his use of the end-to-end encrypted messaging application Signal to coordinate with other officials over airstrikes on Houthi rebels.While much of the initial attention was focused on Waltz adding journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to the chat, national security experts were also aghast by government officials at the highest levels coordinating highly sensitive military operations using a free application. The incident is widely viewed as contributing to Waltz’s departure just months after leaving Congress to take the role, and his subsequent shuffling to a new nomination at the U.N. “The use of Signal is not only … authorized; it was recommended in the Biden-era CISA guidance,” he said. Waltz was referencing a piece of 2024 guidance put out by CISA on mobile security. He later read from a portion of the guidance, which recommended using “only end-to-end encrypted communication” and to “adopt a free messaging application to secure communications that guarantees end to end encryption, particularly if you are a highly targeted individual, such as Signal or other apps.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
xAI, the artificial intelligence company led by Elon Musk, announced new efforts Monday to get its generative AI tool, Grok, into the hands of federal government officials. In a post to X, the company announced “Grok for Government,” which it described as a suite of products aimed at U.S. government customers. FedScoop reported on the General Services Administration’s interest in Grok last week. xAI disclosed two new government partnerships: a new contract with the Defense Department, which we’ll get to in a moment, and that the tool was available to purchase through GSA. “This allows every federal government department, agency, or office, to purchase xAI products,” the post added. “We’re hiring mission driven engineers who want to join the cause.” The new products from xAI follow the introduction of government-specific AI intelligence platforms from companies like Anthropic and OpenAI. The announcement was made just days after xAI’s formal apology for the chatbot’s recent antisemitic outputs. Last Thursday, FedScoop reported that government coders at GSA were discussing, on GitHub, incorporating Grok into a testing sandbox associated with a yet-to-launch tool called AI.gov and GSAi, a GSA-created AI platform. Anthropic, Google and xAI will join OpenAI on the CDAO’s nascent effort to partner with industry on pioneering artificial intelligence projects focused on national security applications. Under the individual contracts — each worth up to $200 million — the Pentagon will have access to some of the most advanced AI capabilities developed by the four companies, including large language models, agentic AI workflows, cloud-based infrastructure and more. Chief Digital and AI Officer Doug Matty said in a statement: “The adoption of AI is transforming the Department’s ability to support our warfighters and maintain strategic advantage over our adversaries. Leveraging commercially available solutions into an integrated capabilities approach will accelerate the use of advanced AI as part of our Joint mission essential tasks in our warfighting domain as well as intelligence, business, and enterprise information systems.” OpenAI received the first contract for the effort June 17 and will create prototypes of agentic workflows for national security missions. According to CDAO, work with all four vendors will expand the Pentagon’s experience with emerging AI capabilities, as well as give the companies better insights into how their technology can benefit the department. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Employees at the General Services Administration appear poised to test Grok 3, the artificial intelligence tool built by Elon Musk’s company xAI, according to a GitHub page referencing the agency’s work. The GitHub page operated by GSA and its digital government group Technology Transformation Services references the Grok AI model as one it is testing and that the team is actively discussing as part of its 10x AI Sandbox. A GSA spokesperson told FedScoop in a response to an inquiry about the agency’s work with Grok “GSA is evaluating the use of several top-tier AI solutions to empower agencies and our public servants to best achieve their goals. We welcome all American companies and models who abide by our terms and conditions.”A post from Tuesday shows what appears to be one GSA employee trying to access Grok 3 for testing, but struggling to do so. Several names of the people active on the GitHub page match those of workers affiliated with GSA. The 10x AI Sandbox project is described on GitHub as “a venture studio in collaboration with the General Services Administration (GSA). Its primary goal is to enable federal agencies to experiment with artificial intelligence (AI) in a secure, FedRAMP-compliant environment.” It continues: “By providing access to base models from leading AI companies and offering advanced UI features, the sandbox empowers agencies to test and validate new AI use cases efficiently.” The public version of the 10x AI Sandbox project page on GitHub was taken down after the publication of this story, redirecting now to a 404 error page. Interest in testing Grok comes as GSA continues to work on GSAi, an artificial intelligence tool built by the agency and meant to help employees access multiple AI models. At launch, the GSAi tool included access to several systems, including tools from Anthropic and Meta. Notably, Grok came under fire last week after promoting various antisemitic statements on the Musk-owned social media platform X.A top digital rights group is pushing back on the IRS’s data-sharing agreement with the Department of Homeland Security, writing in a new court filing that the pact violates federal tax code and fails to take into account the real-world consequences of bulk data disclosure. In an amicus brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the Electronic Frontier Foundation argued that the “historical context” of the tax code section that ensures confidentiality of returns and return information “favors a narrow interpretation of disclosure provisions.” EFF also made the case for why the bulk disclosure of taxpayer information — in this case to Immigration and Customs Enforcement — is especially harmful due to “record linkage errors” that set the stage for “an increase in mistaken and dangerous ICE enforcement actions against taxpayers.” Nonprofit groups sued the Trump administration in March, shortly after the data-sharing deal between the IRS and ICE was announced. Soon after, the tax agency’s then-acting commissioner resigned, reportedly in protest. In May, a Trump-appointed federal judge refused to block the agreement, allowing the IRS to continue delivering taxpayer data to ICE. The ruling, DHS said in a statement, was “a victory for the American people and for common sense.” As the D.C. Circuit Court considers the appeal, the Electronic Frontier Foundation wants to make sure that the “historical context” of tax and privacy law is taken into account.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Nand Mulchandani’s time as chief technologist for the CIA has come to an end. In an email to FedScoop, Mulchandani announced that his last day with the intelligence agency was June 21, exactly three years to the day that he was sworn in as its first CTO in 2022. Though he’s stepping down from the CTO role and as a full-time agency employee, Mulchandani said he will retain a role as an adviser to the CIA. Separately, in a public post on LinkedIn, he said he’s “planning to return to my roots in the tech industry as an entrepreneur, board member and advisor, and to spend time in academia.” Playfully, he now lists his latest role on his LinkedIn profile as the founder of an entity called “Sharks with Lasers,” a comical reference to the concept brought to life by Dr. Evil in the film “Austin Powers in Goldmember.” Mulchandani wrote: “I’ll deeply miss the Agency, its mission, and my friends and colleagues there, and will always be grateful for an experience that was, in every way, life changing.” Mulchandani also spent three years in the Department of Defense as chief technology officer for the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, a predecessor organization for what is now the Chief Digital and AI Office. There, he played an important role in institutionalizing the Pentagon’s centralized AI capacity.After nearly three decades of federal service, Winston Beauchamp announced on July 4 that he’s departing from his role within the Department of the Air Force. Beauchamp began working for the department in 2015, and most recently served as the director of security, special program oversight and information protection within the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force. In that role, he oversaw the Air and Space Forces’ highly-classified special access programs (SAP) and worked on insider threat mitigation. But Beauchamp’s 29-year career spans across multiple positions at the Department of the Air Force, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). By and large, he either led or was involved in several critical events within the national security space — so much so that someone once described him as “the Forrest Gump of the national security world.” In an exclusive interview with DefenseScoop, Beauchamp shard more about his decadeslong career and what’s on the horizon with his departure.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday lifted a district court order that prevented multiple federal agencies from carrying out reductions-in-force, clearing the way for those actions to resume. In an unsigned opinion, a majority of the justices granted the government’s request for a stay of the lower court ruling, concluding that it will likely be successful on its argument that President Donald Trump’s executive order directing agencies to make plans for RIFs and corresponding guidance from the White House were lawful. The justices, however, also emphasized that their ruling doesn’t express a view on the legality of RIF or reorganization plans under that order and memo. The district court’s preliminary injunction hinged on that court’s view that Trump’s order and the Office of Management and Budget’s memo were unlawful and not on any of the plans specifically. Under the injunction from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, a wide array of federal agencies were required to halt their RIF plans — which included the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of State, Department of Commerce, and many more. It also prompted OMB to pause reviewing or discussing those plans with agencies, per FedScoop reporting. While other legal challenges are moving forward on agency RIFs, the Supreme Court’s ruling, at least for now, means they can begin those actions again.Anthropic is making the enterprise version of its chatbot Claude available to the entire staff of the Lawrence Livermore National Lab, the artificial intelligence company announced Wednesday. The expansion comes as generative AI companies look to deepen their relationship with the federal government’s national lab system — and amid growing interest in agencies’ use of the technology. Anthropic said the expansion comes after a pilot, as well as an event in March that allowed thousands of scientists based at the California lab to learn about the technology. The company said the program, which involves its Claude for Enterprise product, constitutes one of the most significant lab deployments of AI at the Energy Department. As many as ten thousand national lab employees will now be able to use generative AI for their work. Lawrence Livermore will eventually have access to a forthcoming FedRAMP High service, once it’s approved and accredited, meaning lab scientists will be able to use Claude on unclassified data that requires that level of accreditation. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Alan Sim, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s chief data officer, announced his departure from the agency after nearly five years in the position, per a post he wrote on social media Monday. Sim took on the role of chief data officer in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic and over the years has been a leader on initiatives such as the agency’s generative AI projects. Reflecting on his time, Sim pointed to several “firsts” the agency achieved, including launching its enterprise data catalog and using data and cloud technologies to improve emergency response. “It is with mixed emotions that I announce my departure from the CDC,” Sim wrote in a post to LinkedIn. His time as CDC’s data leader was his second run at the agency. Sim, who has a PhD in epidemiology, had also been a graduate fellow and then a health informatics scientist at CDC early on in his career in the late 90s to the early 2000s. In his post, Sim said that period was “defined by concerns like bioterrorism, Anthrax, and SARS.” “Returning in 2020 as CDC’s Chief Data Officer during the worst pandemic in our nation’s history was both a significant challenge and a profound opportunity,” Sim said. Sim didn’t include details about his next steps but said he would be sharing more soon. It is unclear who the acting CDO is in his absence.The General Services Administration struck a deal with Oracle as part of its OneGov strategy to provide a variety of cheaper services to federal agencies, including a 75% discount for license-based Oracle Technology Programs. Under OneGov, GSA wants to work directly with original equipment manufacturers like Oracle to negotiate better governmentwide terms for commercial technology. On top of the 75% discount for licensed technology such as database, integration, security, and analytics services, Oracle will also offer “substantial base discounts” for its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure services, GSA announced Monday. Oracle is now the latest of several technology vendors, including Adobe, Google, Salesforce and others, to negotiate a OneGov deal with GSA. This deal, however, comes with some additional terms beyond discounts that stand to benefit federal agencies as they modernize their IT infrastructures. In particular, Oracle won’t charge data egress fees when agencies move their “existing workloads from Oracle Government Clouds to another cloud service provider’s FedRAMP Moderate, High or DOD IL 4, 5 Cloud,” GSA said in its release. The company will also promote pricing parity with other competing commercial cloud providers, “with no additional security or government uplifts ever charged in the Oracle cloud.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Chinese hackers behind the massive telecommunications sector breach are “largely contained” and “dormant” in the networks, “locked into the location they’re in” and “not actively infiltrating information,” the top FBI cyber official told CyberScoop. But Brett Leatherman, new leader of the FBI Cyber division, said in a recent interview that doesn’t mean the hackers, known as Salt Typhoon, no longer pose a threat. While there’s been some debate about whether Salt Typhoon should be getting more attention than fellow Chinese hackers Volt Typhoon — whom federal officials have said are prepositioned in U.S. critical infrastructure, poised for destructive action in the event of a conflict with the United States — Leatherman said the groups aren’t as different as some think. The number of telecommunications companies victimized in the United States stands at nine, according to Leatherman.The Pentagon’s artificial intelligence acceleration hub recently moved to terminate its chief technology officer role and directorate after reviews associated with the Trump administration’s spending and staff reductions campaign revealed inefficiencies, budget materials for fiscal 2026 reveal. Details on the decision are sparse in the documents, but officials wrote that the Chief Digital and AI Office’s CTO “no longer exists or manages resources.” President Donald Trump directed federal agencies at the start of his second term to drastically reduce their workforces and assess existing contracts, with aims to ultimately cut back on what his team views as wasteful spending and inefficiencies. The efforts have included initiatives overseen by Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, teams. While AI is a major priority for the U.S. government under Trump, since then, the Pentagon’s CDAO has seen an exodus of senior leaders and other technical employees.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
President Donald Trump submitted a nomination Tuesday for Ryan Cote to serve as assistant secretary of information and technology and CIO of the Department of Veterans Affairs. If confirmed by Senate vote, it would be Cote’s second run as a CIO under Trump. He served in the IT chief role at the Department of Transportation during the first Trump administration. Cote started his career as a U.S. Marine but went on to hold jobs in technology at firms like HP, Northrop Grumman, Gartner and IBM, before he entered federal service in 2019 at Transportation. Since leaving government at the end of Trump’s first term, Cote has served as a board adviser for a company called Nubeva and as a so-called “private” global CIO, according to his LinkedIn profile. The VA has been without a Senate-confirmed CIO since the Trump administration took office. Kurt DelBene held the role during the previous administration. Eddie Pool, the agency’s deputy CIO for connectivity and collaboration services, has been serving as the acting CIO.The Department of Defense is standing up a joint interagency task force to tackle drone threats, according to a senior officer. “We recently did a session with the secretary of defense and we are going to stand up a joint interagency task force” focused on thwarting drones, Gen. James Mingus, vice chief of staff of the Army, said during an event Wednesday co-hosted by AUSA and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Counter-unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS), as it is known in DOD parlance, is a key challenge for the military. Commercial technology has evolved in recent years such that drones on the civilian market are extremely cheap to buy and simple to operate. It has also become less challenging to 3D print parts and devices that can fly. This has made it significantly easier for nation-states and terrorist groups to procure these types of systems and strap bombs to them, allowing adversaries to level the playing field against higher-tech combatants such as the U.S. military.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Office of Management and Budget has issued its version of guidance on annual artificial intelligence use case reporting within agencies, outlining a similar process to the previous administration, albeit slimmer. That guidance obtained by FedScoop is dated June 27 and has been shared internally in the federal government but hasn’t been made public. It’s accompanied by a document breaking down the questions in the various fields. The move suggests that despite the Trump White House’s markedly different tone on AI, some details may not look so different. Despite President Donald Trump’s criticism of President Joe Biden’s handling of AI, including the immediate rescission of his AI executive order, the updated process will ask agencies to provide much of the same information, including the stage of development, whether it was developed in-house or purchased, and whether the use case involves personally identifiable information maintained by the agency, among other categories. Ultimately, it sets a compilation deadline of Nov. 4 and a publication deadline of Dec. 2, maintaining a similar schedule to the previous year. The General Services Administration mandated in June that all multiple award schedule contract holders will be required to report transactional data beginning in fiscal 2026, expanding a pilot that the agency launched nearly a decade ago. However, GSA’s Office of the Inspector General takes objection to that decision to institutionalize the transactional data reporting (TDR) pilot because it says the agency “has never effectively implemented TDR and has never made it functional,” according to a new report. GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service launched the TDR pilot in 2016, asking contractors in select product lines to share data on government purchases with the intent of driving better buying decisions. In fiscal 2024, the agency expanded the TDR pilot program to encompass 67 categories of products — what GSA refers to as special item numbers (SINs). But along the way, the program has struggled with data quality issues, limited usage in pricing decisions and a lack of competitive pricing actions, the IG points out in the new report. “Ultimately, the TDR pilot has been in effect within the MAS program for 9 years and has yet to accomplish its intended purpose,” it states.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
When you talk about operations at the edge, the State Department is up there among federal agencies with largest forward-deployed mission sets. With more than 270 posts that diplomats work out of in foreign territories, the State Department has a massive footprint at the edge. And according to Gharun Lacy, State’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Cyber & Technology Security, each of those posts comes with its own unique challenges in securing their digital operations. Earlier this month, I hosted Lacy for a fireside chat at the GDIT Emerge: Edge Forward event, during which we discussed how State is innovating at the edge to boost security of consulates and embassies, how the department incentivizes innovation, the adoption of emerging technologies at the edge, and much more.U.S. authorities unsealed indictments, seized financial accounts and made an arrest in the latest attempt to crack down on North Korean remote IT workers as part of a coordinated action that the Justice Department announced Monday. The workers obtained employment at more than 100 U.S. companies using stolen and fake identities, costing them millions in damages and losses. The crackdown also included the seizure of websites and searches of 29 known or suspected “laptop farms” across 16 states that hosted victim company-provided laptops used to deceive companies. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts and the DOJ’s National Security Division arrested Zhenxing “Danny” Wang of New Jersey on Monday pursuant to a five-count indictment of Wang and eight alleged co-conspirators, all Chinese and Taiwanese nationals. A second five-count indictment from the Northern District of Georgia charged four North Korean nationals. The Department of Homeland Security is canceling a $10 billion IT and software contract, a move that comes amid the Trump administration’s push to route all deals through the General Services Administration. In a posting Friday, DHS said the decision to scrap all existing IT value-added reseller deals under its FirstSource III contract aligns with recent executive orders and was made following “a thorough analysis of active contract awards and solicitations to assess mission-criticality and continued needs.” The cancellation also includes solicitations and evaluations of proposals submitted via a second category for software, per the posting, and no additional awards will be made. Also in this episode: Deloitte's Ed Van Buren and Google Public Sector's Amina Al Sherif join SNG host Wyatt Kash in a sponsored podcast discussion on why agentic AI is essential for agencies striving to scale operations, lower costs and enhance efficiency. This segment was sponsored by Deloitte.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Social Security Administration has moved on to its third chief information officer of the Trump administration, tapping yet another individual with Department of Government Efficiency affiliations. According to an update to CIO.gov, a federal page that features IT leaders in the government, Aram Moghaddassi has taken over as SSA’s top IT official after previously working at the agency in a different role. Moghaddassi, who has also worked at the Labor Department, was at one point given access to IT systems at United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, FedScoop previously reported. Per his LinkedIn profile, Moghaddassi previously worked for two Elon Musk-owned companies: the social media platform X and Neuralink. Moghaddassi is at least the third DOGE associate to be named CIO at SSA since President Donald Trump took office in January. By and large, people don’t seem to be trying to access technology created by DeepSeek — the Chinese AI firm that’s rattled leading U.S. AI companies and lawmakers — on government systems. But it has happened at least once at a federal civilian agency. Since January, there’s been one attempt to access DeepSeek at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a spokesperson for the agency confirmed to FedScoop. The USDA successfully prevented access to the technology and has blocked DeepSeek through Microsoft’s Defender for Cloud Application service since Jan. 28, the spokesperson added. DeepSeek is banned along with other public AI sites “based on risk levels that Microsoft provides in their Defender applications,” the person said. The agency did not say whether there were attempts to access the technology before the block was implemented. Lawmakers are increasingly concerned about DeepSeek, a China-based large language model developer that threatens the dominance of American AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. In the view of many federal officials, the company’s technology raises serious security concerns. Last Wednesday, lawmakers proposed the No Adversarial Al Act, which would ban the use of DeepSeek on government devices, create a registry of foreign adversary AI systems and establish a method for these technologies to be delisted.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Defense Department’s Office of the Chief Information Officer has officially kicked off its effort to improve how the Pentagon manages cybersecurity risks with advanced automation and continuous monitoring capabilities. The DOD CIO published a request for information Wednesday on Sam.gov calling for industry’s input on emerging technologies, solutions and business practices that can support the department’s attempt to revamp the Risk Management Framework (RMF). The initiative largely seeks to replace the legacy framework with a multi-phased construct that will be demanding for cyber and acquisition professionals. Officials are hoping to speed up capability delivery to warfighters. The RFI states: “Although RMF enhances security through continuous monitoring and risk-based decision-making, it’s often seen as slow and cumbersome. To meet the urgent demands of modern cyber threats and accelerate innovation, the DoD is working to streamline the RMF process — aiming for greater efficiency without compromising on security.”Federal agencies would be barred from using artificial intelligence linked to the Chinese government under legislation introduced Wednesday by a bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers. The No Adversarial Al Act proposal from Reps. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., the chair and ranking member of the House Select Committee on China, respectively, is a companion to legislation from Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Gary Peters, D-Mich. The bill is the latest in a series of other congressional proposals focused on DeepSeek, a Chinese startup whose low-cost AI model has stirred panic in U.S. tech and AI companies.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins attempted to assuage lawmakers’ concerns Tuesday over how the agency plans to deliver critical health tech services amid drastic cuts to its workforce. Appearing before the Senate Appropriations Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, Collins said the VA is full steam ahead on planned deployments of its oft-troubled electronic health record at additional facilities, and is also pushing forward on the rollout of its External Provider Scheduling tool. The VA said in February that it had dismissed 1,000 employees, while the Associated Press reported in March that it planned to cut 80,000 staffers. The Oracle EHR system, meanwhile — plagued by technical problems since its launch during the first Trump administration — is scheduled to be deployed at 13 medical facilities by 2026.A suite of Elastic products will be discounted for agencies by up to 60% under a new deal announced Tuesday by the General Services Administration. The agreement, part of the GSA’s OneGov strategy to modernize how the government purchases goods and services, will give agencies access to discounts of Elastic’s self-managed solution starting at 27.5%, climbing to higher savings based on governmentwide annual spending. Stephen Ehikian, GSA’s acting administrator, said in a press release that the pact “represents a significant step in our efforts to drive cost efficiencies and modernize IT infrastructure across the federal government.” Additionally, discounts start at 15% for FedRAMP Moderate cloud deployments via GovCloud, jumping to 32% at the top volume tier. The pricing options are locked in for orders made prior to Sept. 30, 2027.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The CIA, like other agencines in the intelligence community, is exploring how AI can boost its mission on both the human and open-source intelligence domains. As head of the open source enterprise for the CIA’s Directorate of Digital Innovation, Kevin Carlson is helping usher in AI for the OSINT mission set. During a recent interview on the sidelines of the Special Competitive Studies Project’s AI+ Expo, Carlson shared the potential for AI in open-source intelligence, how the CIA is looking to operationalize AI, the impact of the technology on the CIA workforce, and much more.U.S. Cyber Command played a role in American military’s operation against Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend, according to top Pentagon officials. Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in a briefing at the Pentagon Sunday morning that, “The strike package was supported by U.S. Strategic Command, U.S. Transportation Command, U.S. Cyber Command, U.S. Space Command, U.S. Space Force and U.S. European command,” later thanking the cyber operators, among others, who made the mission possible. However, no further details about Cybercom’s efforts were disclosed. The command referred DefenseScoop to the Pentagon for comment, where a spokesperson said they had nothing further to provide at this time beyond the transcript from Sunday’s press conference. Although details about Cybercom’s assistance for Operation Midnight Hammer, the code name for the strikes, remain murky, experts — most of whom spoke to DefenseScoop on condition of anonymity — outlined a number of possibilities for how the organization may have contributed to the effort. As the Army seeks to continue its transformation effort to become more efficient, the department’s chief information officer is looking to streamline systems and processes. And no longer will “that’s the way it’s always been done” be an acceptable justification for maintaining the status quo. There have been directives from top levels of Army leadership to cut down on business systems and automate capabilities where possible. CIO Leonel Garciga said last week at an industry event that there’s a big push right now from the secretary and the chief of staff to question: “do we need all of these systems, why do we have them?” calling some of it really old. Unveiled at the end of April, the Army Transformation Initiative is a top-down effort to improve how the service operates by shrinking headquarters elements, becoming leaner, slashing programs that aren’t efficient and changing how money is spent. The goal is to cut obsolete programs and systems that don’t contribute to success on the modern battlefield. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is looking to hire a company to help it mine through data sources including social media, international trade data, blockchain information, property records, and the dark web — the latest example of the agency looking to beef up the tools and platforms it uses in its enforcement operations. In a government procurement posting published late last month, ICE said it was interested in deploying a service that can continuously monitor a million people or entities of interest — and analyze trends for the purpose of “identifying potentially criminal and fraudulent behavior before crime and fraud can materialize,” among other goals. In a request for information for “Data Analytics” shared by ICE’s investigations and operations support office in suburban Dallas, the government component outlined a range of requirements that it might seek from a contractor, like staff support, data analytics, and access to proprietary data.As the General Services Administration looks to form direct relationships with IT manufacturers to bring better value to agencies through governmentwide deals under its OneGov strategy, it’s going to disrupt a staple of the federal IT acquisition ecosystem: value-added resellers. A significant portion of federal IT contracting traditionally goes through resellers that provide software services on behalf of original equipment manufacturers that often don’t have the experience navigating or selling to the federal government. Those resellers, like Carahsoft, CDW-G and Iron Bow, however, specialize in that and provide additional services like integration, customization and support for commercial IT products. Lawrence Hale, assistant commissioner of the Information Technology Category in GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, said Wednesday during a webinar hosted by George Mason University’s Baroni Center for Government Contracting that what GSA is trying to do by working directly with the manufacturers is flip that relationship. In going straight to OEMs for IT contracts — as GSA has done now with several vendors like Microsoft, Google, Adobe and Salesforce under its OneGov strategy announced in April — resellers won’t be eliminated. Instead, they can still serve as authorized partners or subcontractors to those IT manufacturers, Hale explained, whereas the opposite is often true today. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Defense’s Office of the Chief Information Officer is considering reducing the number of Pentagon employees who have Microsoft 365 E5 licenses, as it works with the Trump administration to rein in federal spending. The DOD currently maintains more than 2 million Microsoft 365 E5 licenses across two separate programs — the Defense Enterprise Office Solution (DEOS) and the Enterprise Software Initiative (DOD ESI). Through the established contracts, Pentagon components can purchase software licenses for commercial Microsoft products, including Office 365 applications and other collaboration tools. But ongoing efforts spearheaded by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have prompted the Defense Department to review how many of those licenses it actually needs, Katie Arrington, who is performing the duties of Pentagon CIO, told DefenseScoop. Arrington said June 6 in an exclusive interview: “Our Microsoft 365 contract [is a] very big contract here in the Department of Defense. Does every individual in the Department of Defense need an [E5] license? Absolutely not.” With the department’s Deputy CIO for the Information Enterprise Bill Dunlap, Arrington has been working alongside her DOGE representative to review individual position descriptions and multi-level securities to determine what level of Microsoft 365 E5 license that person needs, she said. Other criteria being considered include user and mission requirements for office productivity software, as well as collaboration capabilities, a DOD CIO spokesperson told DefenseScoop.Ten congressional Democrats are demanding answers from Palantir about reports that it is aiding the IRS in building a searchable, governmentwide “mega-database” to house Americans’ sensitive information. In a letter sent Tuesday to Palantir CEO Alex Karp, the lawmakers argued that the creation of a database of that kind likely violates several federal laws, including the Privacy Act. The Democrats wrote: “The unprecedented possibility of a searchable, ‘mega-database’ of tax returns and other data that will potentially be shared with or accessed by other federal agencies is a surveillance nightmare that raises a host of legal concerns, not least that it will make it significantly easier for Donald Trump’s Administration to spy on and target his growing list of enemies and other Americans.” The letter, led by Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., follows New York Times reporting last month that detailed the expansion of Palantir’s federal government work under the Trump administration, noting that the data-mining giant has received $113 million since the president’s January inauguration plus another $795 million award from the Defense Department. According to the Times, Palantir has spoken to IRS and Social Security Administration representatives about buying its tech. The Democrats’ letter said Foundry — a Palantir data analysis and organization product — has been deployed at the departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, as well as the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
OpenAI has made massive strides in recent months to position itself as a leading provider of foundational AI to the federal government. In fact, just Monday, the company launched what it’s calling OpenAI for Government, a new initiative focused on bringing its most advanced AI tools to public servants across the United States. A key driver of that work has been Katrina Mulligan, the head of the company’s national security policy and partnerships, who joined the Daily Scoop from the sidelines of the Special Competitive Studies Project’s AI+Expo in Washignton, D.C. During the conversation, Mulligan shared details about new work OpenAI is exploring with the U.S. national labs as well as how the company is navigating the complex federal business landscape.The Department of the Interior is evaluating the use of artificial intelligence as a potential tool to alleviate the backlog of probate cases it manages in tribal communities, per comments from Secretary Doug Burgum and an agency spokesperson. An Interior spokeswoman told FedScoop: “AI technology is being explored to further streamline the probate workflow especially in the realm of data entry and the ability to search multiple databases to find individuals. This is an ongoing internal process.”Michael Boyce, the inaugural leader of the Department of Homeland Security’s AI Corps, has left the position and joined U.S. Digital Response, a nonprofit that works with government agencies on technical projects on a pro-bono basis. Boyce, who stepped down from DHS in April, said in an interview with FedScoop that he’ll be an AI lead and generative AI technologist in residence at USDR focused on helping state and local governments deploy artificial intelligence, drawing on lessons learned from his time at DHS. Boyce’s exit comes amid an exodus of tech talent throughout the Trump administration, which has focused on reducing the workforce and pivoting from the top priorities of the Biden administration.Also in this episode: Mia Jordan, Industry Advisor for Public Sector Transformation at Salesforce, joins SNG host Wyatt Kash in a sponsored podcast discussion about how unified platforms help agencies modernize constituent engagement. This segment was sponsored by Salesforce.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is doubling down on its investment in blockchain intelligence technology, along with other investigative platforms. According to a notice of intent on a government procurement website, the Department of Homeland Security component aims to buy more technology from TRM Labs, which focuses on crypto risk management but also offers a bevy of forensics services for government clients. ICE this week also posted an intent to sole source similar technology from Chainalysis, which comes amid a series of planned purchases for other digital forensics tools. Both Chainalysis and TRM Labs have myriad contracts with federal agencies, including the FBI, the State Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Internal Revenue Service. In posting its intent to single source both TRM and Chainalysis technology, ICE is indicating there is no other provider that could reasonably provide the same services. Executives from high-tech firms Meta, OpenAI and Palantir are joining the Army Reserve at the rank of lieutenant colonel to serve in Detachment 201, a new “Executive Innovation Corps,” the service announced Friday. The move is the latest push by the department to tap into capabilities and know-how from Silicon Valley and the commercial sector. The new corps “brings top tech talent into the Army Reserve to bridge the commercial-military tech gap” and is “designed to fuse cutting-edge tech expertise with military innovation,” the Army stated in a press release. On Friday, the service is set to swear-in Meta’s chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth, OpenAI’s chief product officer Kevin Weil, Palantir’s CTO Shyam Sankar and Bob McGrew, an advisor at Thinking Machines Lab who was previously OpenAI’s chief research officer.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
After an informative 45-day trial run, the Department of the Navy is getting set to expand its rollout of emerging AI capabilities for sailors, Marines and civilians to speedily adopt in support of their daily operations — via its new DoN GPT tool. Jacob Glassman, who serves as senior technical advisor to the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, told DefenseScoop Thursday that this is a new way for the Navy to rapidly innovate and rapidly prototype. GenAI encompasses the field of still-maturing technologies that can process huge volumes of data and perform increasingly “intelligent” tasks — like recognizing speech or producing human-like media and code based on human prompts. These capabilities are pushing the boundaries of what existing tech can achieve. Still, according to Glassman, the Navy has historically “struggled with AI adoption.”Amazon has received federal authorizations that allow Anthropic’s Claude and Meta’s Llama AI models to be used within high-sensitivity government computing environments, the company’s cloud computing division announced Wednesday. The company has achieved FedRAMP “High” authorization as well as at the Defense Department’s Impact Levels 4 and 5 for use of the two foundation models in AWS GovCloud, its government cloud environment, according to a blog post by Liz Martin, Department of Defense director at Amazon Web Services. That means it’s met the security requirements needed for the AI models to be used with some of the government’s most sensitive civilian and military information, and per Martin, it’s the first cloud provider to receive that level of authorization for Claude and Llama.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Daily Scoop listeners and readers of FedScoop will recall the shocking news earlier this year when 18F, a decade-old digital services consultancy in the General Services Administration, was shuttered by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency. Members of the team have banded together since their termination to keep an active presence online through 18F.org in the wake of their dismantling. But the group isn’t going out without a fight. Several senior members of 18F in late May filed a class action appeal to the Merit System Protection Board claiming that GSA lacked a “valid reason” for firing them and targeted them as an act of “retaliation” for their political beliefs. In the appeal, they call for a hearing and to have their removal reversed. Lindsay Young is the former executive director of 18F and one of the name appellants representing the class in the appeal. She joins the podcast for a conversation about how the “deletion” of 18F went down, what she and her team have been doing since, and what they hope to accomplish with the appeal.U.S. officials violated federal privacy law and flouted cybersecurity protocol in sharing Office of Personnel Management records with DOGE affiliates, a federal district court judge in New York ruled Monday, granting a request for a preliminary injunction against the administration. In a 99-page order, Judge Denise Cote of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York concluded that federal worker and union plaintiffs had shown that the government defendants in the challenge shared OPM records with “individuals who had no legal right of access to those records” in violation of the Privacy Act of 1974 and cybersecurity standards. “This was a breach of law and of trust,” Cote said in the order. “Tens of millions of Americans depend on the Government to safeguard records that reveal their most private and sensitive affairs.” The ruling is the latest in a challenge to DOGE’s data access at OPM brought by a coalition of federal unions and current and former government employees or contractors.A new executive order from President Donald Trump aims to boost drone manufacturing in the United States, an effort the administration hopes will spur productivity and technological development and secure the country’s industrial base. Meanwhile, a second executive order aims to combat the risk that, as drone usage proliferates, the technology could also be used to threaten public safety and endanger critical infrastructure. The “Unleashing American Drone Dominance” and “Restoring American Airspace Sovereignty” executive orders, both signed last Friday, come amid growing concerns about the operation of the National Airspace System, the airspace the Federal Aviation Administration monitors for commercial flights, space launches, and other aerial activity. Drones, sometimes called unmanned aerial systems, are also used to smuggle drugs and assist in criminal activity. Unauthorized UASs have increasingly shown up near some nuclear facilities, military bases, and commercial airports, raising concerns, too. The new executive order on airspace sovereignty aims to combat the problem, broadly charging federal agencies to detect drone activity, which will require the use of tracking and identification technology. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Supreme Court handed a win to President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency on Friday, granting the efficiency unit access to records at the Social Security Administration. The unsigned opinion provides the Elon Musk-associated DOGE with even more access to sensitive government information to fulfill its mission of making government more efficient. Just last month, the team also gained access to payment systems at the Department of Treasury. The ruling also comes at an awkward time for the DOGE, as Musk — its creator — and Trump are in the midst of an apparent falling out on social media. Per the decision, a majority of the justices voted to grant the administration’s request to stay a lower court decision and concluded that “SSA may proceed to afford members of the SSA DOGE Team access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work.” Justices voted on political lines, with liberals Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor saying they would have denied the government’s application for a stay. Simultaneously on Friday, the Supreme Court handed a second win to the DOGE, shielding it from producing documents as part of a discovery process in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. More federal workers would have access to artificial intelligence training under a bill reintroduced in the House on Thursday by Rep. Nancy Mace. The AI Training Extension Act of 2025 aims to expand the Artificial Intelligence Training for the Acquisition Workforce Act, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022, by offering available AI training to more pools of federal employees beyond the acquisition workforce, including “supervisors, managers, and frontline staff in data and technology roles,” according to a release from the South Carolina Republican’s office. Chair of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation, Mace previously introduced the bill in 2023 during the 118th Congress with Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who passed away last month. Rep. Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, is a co-sponsor of the reintroduced bill.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Anthropic announced Thursday that it is releasing Claude Gov to U.S. national security customers, an exclusive set of artificial intelligence models that is already in the hands of some government agencies. The new government AI product, which Anthropic detailed in a blog post, comes as several companies compete to sell emerging technology tools to federal agencies. At stake is new business — and the prestige of working on serious government missions. Earlier this year, OpenAI released ChatGPT Gov, a specialized version of its chatbot. The company recently announced that the Space Force and the Air Force Research Lab were the product’s first customers. Meanwhile, Department of Government Efficiency representatives have reportedly been advocating for the use of Grok — the chatbot produced by Elon Musk’s firm xAI — within the Department of Homeland Security.Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced plans this week to “reform” the department’s AI Safety Institute into a new body called the Center for AI Standards and Innovation.The new name signals a shift away from the term “safety” and toward a desire for rapid development of the technology, though the primary role of the renamed body appears to be more or less the same. The center, like the AISI, will continue to evaluate the capabilities and vulnerabilities of the growing technology and serve as the primary point of contact for industry in the government. “For far too long, censorship and regulations have been used under the guise of national security. Innovators will no longer be limited by these standards,” Lutnick said in a written statement. “CAISI will evaluate and enhance U.S. innovation of these rapidly developing commercial AI systems while ensuring they remain secure to our national security standards.”
The federal Technology Modernization Fund has had a bumpy relationship with congressional appropriators since its creation in 2017, and now the Trump administration wants to sidestep the appropriations process entirely to replenish the fund on an annual basis with unused money transferred from agencies. The White House on Friday quietly issued an in-depth appendix of its budget request for fiscal 2026, and executive agencies followed suit, publishing their annual budget justification documents. The General Services Administration, which houses the TMF program and disburses its funds, revealed in its 2026 justification that the Trump administration did not request any “new discretionary appropriated funding for the TMF” in 2026, instead proposing a new model for how it could pull money from other agencies, up to $100 million, to re-up the fund each fiscal year. “President’s FY 2026 budget request includes a governmentwide general provision that will allow GSA, with approval of OMB, to collect unobligated balances of expired discretionary funds from other agencies and bring that funding into the TMF,” the justification explains. “To further strengthen the TMF’s ability to help agencies kickstart or accelerate their urgent modernization efforts, GSA and OMB are committed to exploring alternative funding mechanisms.” Historically, the sitting administration has called on Congress to fund the TMF on an annual basis, with varying degrees of success. Pentagon procurement officials who are looking to up their expertise in buying cutting-edge tech for the U.S. military can now apply to join the 2026 Immersive Commercial Acquisition Program fellowship cohort, Defense Innovation Unit officials announced Tuesday. Next year will mark the fourth iteration of the educational ICAP initiative, which DIU runs in partnership with the Defense Acquisition University. This fellowship is designed to provide DOD’s leading procurement professionals with hands-on experience and virtual training to help them more effectively buy in-demand commercial technologies from non-traditional military contractors. DIU’s Deputy Director for Commercial Operations Liz Young McNally told DefenseScoop during a panel at the Special Competitive Studies Project’s AI+ Expo. “We have other acquisition officers from across the department who can apply to the year-long fellowship with DIU — to learn our process, how we work with industry, and then bring that back to wherever they’re going. And [the next ICAP application] just opened today.”If tapped for the fellowship, personnel will get a chance to work on a variety of real-world, military service-aligned projects alongside a DIU contracting officer, project team and commercial solution providers. The fellows will also gain in-depth instruction on a flexible contracting mechanism designed for rapid prototyping and acquisition of commercial tech, known as other transaction (OT) authority.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is implementing an AI chatbot called “chatCBP” for its workforce, following in the footsteps of similar federal government creations like DHSChat and StateChat. “CBP’s chatCBP is an AI-powered chatbot designed to improve efficiency and access to information for CBP personnel while meeting CBP’s security standards,” a CBP spokesperson told FedScoop in an emailed statement. The tool uses a large language model and gives workers responses and guidance in a conversational format “quickly and securely.” According to the spokesperson: “chatCBP offers features like document summarization, compilation, information extraction, and multi-file analysis, reducing the time spent searching for and interpreting documents.” News of the chatbot comes after other agencies within the federal government have launched their own internal chatbots in an attempt to more securely provide the type of generative AI assistance made popular by ChatGPT. That includes the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security, CBP’s parent agency. DHSChat, for its part, was announced last year and is similarly aimed at aiding workers with routine tasks. But, per the spokesperson, chatCBP is different in that it’s designed to meet unique operational needs that the subagency has, such as requiring more control over LLM development, monitoring, data management and security.Four senators asked Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to reestablish the Cyber Safety Review Board, citing the need to investigate a landmark breach of telecommunications networks by Chinese hackers known as Salt Typhoon. In a letter last Thursday, the senators also said the board has conducted important oversight of other incidents before DHS removed its members in January, such as its report on a breach of Microsoft by other Chinese hackers. Democratic Sens. Mark Warner of Virginia, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote in the letter: “The CSRB played a vital role in U.S. national security carrying out post-incident reviews and providing information and making recommendations to improve public and private sector cyber security. Therefore, we urge you to swiftly reconstitute the Board with qualified leaders to shape our nation’s cyber response.” Warner is the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence panel, and the four members sit on either the Intelligence Committee or the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. DHS purged all members from its advisory boards and committees in January. While the later disbanding of other boards has drawn some concern, the removal of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency-led Cyber Safety Review Board’s members has drawn the most negative reaction from the cybersecurity community. It halted a Salt Typhoon investigation that had only just begun.
Billionaire tech titan Elon Musk’s time as a “special government employee” is coming to an end, but the DOGE team at the Defense Department will soon have greater influence on Pentagon contracting. Since President Donald Trump began his second term in January, Musk has spearheaded the Department of Government Efficiency’s push across the federal government to find “waste, fraud and abuse,” slash certain types of spending and cut the workforce. A DOGE team was set up at the Pentagon — as well as other federal agencies — to implement those efforts.Musk wrote Wednesday night in a post on X that his time as a special government employee was coming to an end but: “The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.” In a sign that DOGE’s influence will continue at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued a new directive this week giving those personnel more oversight of contracting efforts. Hegseth wrote in a May 27 memo to senior Pentagon leadership, combatant commanders, and DOD agency and field activity directors that:“The Department of Defense (DoD) Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team will have the opportunity to provide input on all unclassified contracts. The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (USD(A&S)), or its designee, will coordinate with DOGE to ensure that the opportunity for review of the Performance Work Statement/Statement of Work, accompanying estimates, deliverable descriptions, and requirements approval/validation documents, occurs when the requirements package is provided to a DoD contracting office to initiate a procurement or prior to the package being provided to a non-DoD assisting agency (e.g., General Services Administration).” In a video released Wednesday on X, Hegseth said the Pentagon had already saved more than $10 billion working with DOGE on previous efforts to review spending, including from a “line-by-line audit of over 50 contract vehicles.”Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced Thursday that the government would build a new supercomputer powered by NVIDIA chips and based at a department user facility at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Officials said the supercomputer will be named Doudna after UC Berkeley scientist Jennifer Doudna, who co-invented CRISPR gene editing technology and won the Nobel Prize back in 2020. The Doudna supercomputer, which is geared toward high-performance computing and training artificial intelligence technology, will be based at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center. It is only the latest Energy Department project designed for the AI age: El Capitan, a supercomputer based at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and currently the world’s fastest, is also designed with machine learning in mind, as is Frontier, a DOE supercomputer housed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. A spokesperson would not comment further on how the Doudna supercomputer’s speeds might compare to other systems. Government supercomputing projects, including those focused on AI, are now supported by the same national laboratory system that incubated the Manhattan Project, which produced the world’s first atomic weapons.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Former employees of the General Services Administration’s 18F digital tech consultancy team filed an appeal Wednesday challenging their alleged wrongful termination and the “targeted” shuttering of the program by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency earlier this year. The employees, represented by the law firm Mehri & Skalet, submitted a class-action appeal with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board to request a hearing and have their removal reversed. Former 18F leaders Lindsay Young, Miatta Myers, Christian Crumlish, James Tranovich and Kate Fisher are named as appellants, representing that larger class of about 80 terminated permanent and term employees from the team who served for more than a year. The group claims that GSA — along with the Office of Personnel Management, DOGE and the Office of Management and Budget — lacked a “valid reason … for the [reduction in force] targeting 18F” that took place Feb. 28, and claimed the action was a result of “retaliation.”Fannie Mae, the government-sponsored enterprise overseen by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, is enlisting data analytics giant Palantir in a new partnership aimed at cracking down on mortgage fraud. Under the agreement, Palantir’s technology will be deployed to uncover fraud in mortgage packages before they reach Fannie Mae. Priscilla Almodovar, president and chief executive officer of Fannie Mae, said the tech will allow the organization “to see patterns quicker.” “We’re going to be able to identify fraud more proactively, as opposed to reactively,” Almodovar said during a press conference Wednesday in Washington, D.C. “We’re going to be able to understand the fraud and stop it in its tracks. And I think over time, this really becomes a deterrent for bad actors, because we’re creating friction in the system when they do bad things.” FHFA Director Bill Pulte, who also serves as chairman of the Fannie Mae board, said the financial crimes division that monitors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac “is only able to root out crime that it gets made aware of.” Palantir’s red-flag approach, meanwhile, tips off those investigators to conduct probes they otherwise might not have known to launch.Almodovar recalled an exercise where Palantir’s technology was given four actual loan files to assess. The tech, she said, scoured the “reams of paper” and identified instances of fraud in 10 seconds. The same exercise could take human investigators roughly two months.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Supreme Court temporarily stayed two lower court orders Friday that mandated the production of documents and other information from the Department of Government Efficiency. In a brief order from Chief Justice John Roberts, the high court stayed the discovery process in the public records lawsuit against DOGE pending another order by the court. The now-stayed orders from Judge Christopher Cooper of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia had granted an expedited discovery schedule that required DOGE to turn over information about its inner workings and have its administrator, Amy Gleason, give a deposition. The decision, for now, allows the Trump administration to withhold information about the Elon Musk-associated efficiency arm while the justices review the government’s appeal. On Wednesday, Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the high court for emergency relief in the case, arguing that Cooper’s decision turned the Freedom of Information Act “on its head.” At the heart of the case, which was brought by the government watchdog nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, is the question of whether DOGE constitutes an “agency” for the purposes of FOIA. While the administration says that DOGE is exempt from public records laws as a presidential advisory body, the nonprofit argues that the efficiency team has wielded “substantial independent authority” and as such is subject to FOIA and the Federal Records Act, which requires preservation of records.Staff at the Department of Homeland Security are no longer allowed to use commercial generative artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT and Claude, according to a memo sent to employees this month. The move is a reversal of a previous policy — which had conditionally allowed the use of commercial systems — and a pivot toward technology developed in-house. Earlier this month, DHS’s chief information officer, Antoine McCord, sent a memo directing component tech offices to begin “restricting” the use of generative AI systems and pointing employees to internal tools. Older guidance, which the CIO described as “outdated” and “too narrowly” focused on commercial generative AI, was also removed from an online list of IT management directives. The decision comes as federal agencies weigh various pathways toward integrating generative AI into their workflows, a priority of both the Biden and Trump administrations. While some government agencies initially blocked generative AI systems, CIOs have slowly started to develop usage policies. Some agencies, like DHS and the General Services Administration, have now built their own platforms based on commercial technologies, while others have opted to use products like ChatGPT Gov through government cloud systems.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Gerry Connolly, the longtime Virginia Democratic congressman responsible for some of the most influential federal IT reform legislation of the past two decades, died Wednesday after a battle with cancer. He was 75. Connolly’s family shared in a public message that the Northern Virginia congressman “passed away peacefully at his home this morning surrounded by family.” “Gerry lived his life to give back to others and make our community better. He looked out for the disadvantaged and voiceless,” they wrote. “He always stood up for what is right and just. He was a skilled statesman on the international stage, an accomplished legislator in Congress, a visionary executive on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, a fierce defender of democracy, an environmental champion, and a mentor to so many. But more important than his accomplishments in elected office, Gerry lived by the ethos of ‘bloom where you are planted.’” While Connolly served on a variety of committees during his 16-year career in the House of Representatives, including an assignment on the Committee on Foreign Relations that spanned the entirety of his service, he was most known in the federal technology community for his leadership on the Oversight and Reform Committee, during which he made agency accountability for modernization and cybersecurity a staple issue. A White House group helmed by national security adviser Stephen Miller and other homeland security-focused leaders has taken up a new focus: evaluating the federal government’s powerful biometrics program. The Homeland Security Council is now working with federal agencies and departments to review “all biometrics programs to ensure they perform as efficiently and effectively as possible,” Abigail Jackson, a spokesperson for the White House, told FedScoop on Tuesday. “The Safety and Security of the American People is the President’s highest priority,” Jackson said. “Biometric screening and vetting programs are a vital part of the Administration’s efforts to protect U.S. Citizens.” The review comes amid recent FedScoop reporting that the Department of Government Efficiency has extended its operations to the Office of Biometric Identity Management, a small but influential office within DHS that helps oversee one of the world’s largest biometric databases. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
As the United States, led by the Trump administration, charts its course as a world power in AI, the nation’s adversaries, particularly China, are taking major strides as well. And the decisions made today in this race to AI will define the character of competition and conflict for years to come. Ylli Bajraktari, president and CEO of the Special Competitive Studies Project, joins the podcast to characterize this global competition from a defense and national security perspective ahead of his organization’s massive AI + Expo June 2-4 at the Washington Convention Center.Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios criticized diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in federally funded research, calling them “close-minded” in a speech Monday. During remarks before the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, Kratsios called for a reduction of “red tape” in scientific research and fostering what the Trump administration is labeling “gold standard science.” Under that standard, there would be a “suspicion of blind consensus,” he said, arguing that there is a “crisis of confidence in scientists” that comes from fears that political biases are impacting research. Kratsios specifically pointed to DEI as antithetical to that mission, echoing a common refrain for the Trump administration, which has sought to rid the federal government of such programs, positions, offices and research. “DEI initiatives, in particular, degrade our scientific enterprise,” Kratsios said. “DEI represents an existential threat to the real diversity of thought that forms the foundation of the scientific community.” The remarks at the National Academy of Sciences — a nongovernmental membership organization aimed at promoting good scientific principles — come as the Trump administration’s efforts to reshape the federal government have impacted federally funded research.The General Services Administration has entered a governmentwide buying agreement with Salesforce, the parent company of Slack, to reduce the price of the enterprise version of the workplace productivity and collaboration tool by 90% per user for federal agencies. GSA said in a press release Monday that it renegotiated “lower, fragmented discounts from individual agency deals” for a deal based on “total government purchasing volume” for Slack Enterprise Grid, resulting in a steep discount for agencies that will expire Nov. 30. The two parties also reached an agreement that will lower the price of Slack AI for Enterprise for agencies by “almost 70% off per user.” Salesforce, which acquired Slack in 2021 for $27.7 billion, is the latest commercial software vendor to reach a governmentwide purchasing agreement with GSA this year, resulting in lower costs for agencies. Google and Adobe also entered into agreements with the Trump administration since its inauguration. GSA and Microsoft arranged a similar deal that came just days before the Trump administration entered office.Also in this episode: Salesforce Executive Vice President for Global Public Sector Paul Tatum joins SNG host Wyatt Kash in a sponsored podcast discussion on how AI agents can help government agencies improve service delivery and internal workflows. This segment was sponsored by Salesforce.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Government Accountability Office blocked an attempt by Elon Musk’s DOGE to install a team at the congressional watchdog, according to a spokesperson for the independent, nonpartisan agency and an email shared with FedScoop. The spokesperson said that DOGE staffers who attempted to establish a team at the watchdog cited President Donald Trump’s executive order creating the efficiency-driven group within the White House. The spokesperson further confirmed that the agency had “declined any requests to have a DOGE team assigned to GAO.” The watchdog also sent an email to its staff Friday about the attempt and its response, a GAO source confirmed. According to the text of that email shared with FedScoop, GAO said it sent a letter to DOGE’s acting administrator “stating that GAO is a legislative branch agency that conducts work for Congress. As such, we are not subject to DOGE or Executive Orders.”A top Senate Intelligence Democrat is warning the Office of Personnel Management against cancelling identity protection services that have been provided to current and former federal employees since their data was exposed in the massive 2015 OPM data breach. In a letter sent Friday to OPM acting Director Charles Ezell, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., expressed concerns about Department of Government Efficiency-instituted cuts to the personnel agency and plans that it may have to “curtail identity theft monitoring for millions of public servants and their families whose information was compromised in 2015.” The breach of OPM servers by Chinese-backed hackers rocked Washington and the federal workforce a decade ago, as the Social Security numbers, birthdates, addresses and other personal information of more than 21 million individuals were exposed. At the time, Warner, his Virginia Senate colleague Tim Kaine and then-Sens. Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski of Maryland co-sponsored the RECOVER Act to provide identity protection services to those impacted by the OPM breach. Congress appropriated funds for those services “for a period of not less than 10 years.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The National Labor Relations Board’s inspector general is conducting an investigation into the Department of Government Efficiency’s work at the agency. In April, an IT staffer named Daniel Berulis filed an official whistleblower disclosure with Congress highlighting concerns over DOGE’s practices at the NLRB and data that may have been removed from the agency. In response to the disclosure, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, requested an investigation in a letter to Luiz A. Santos, acting inspector general of the Labor Department, and Ruth Blevins, inspector general at the NLRB. Timothy Bearese, an attorney at the NLRB currently serving as its acting director of congressional and public affairs, told FedScoop that the agency has no comment but “can confirm that the OIG is conducting an investigation, as requested by Ranking Member Connolly.” Back In April, Bearese told NPR that the NLRB had not granted DOGE access to agency systems. At that time, he also said that there had been a past investigation based on Berulis’ concerns that “determined that no breach of agency systems occurred.” A spokesperson for House Oversight Committee Democrats told FedScoop on Thursday that “there are multiple investigations into Elon Musk’s violations of sensitive investigatory information at the NLRB.”House Oversight Democrats are asking a Treasury Department watchdog to open an investigation into DOGE’s data and IT modernization dealings at the IRS following reports of an internal “hackathon” at the tax agency that may have involved Palantir. In a letter sent Thursday to Heather Hill, acting head of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, House Oversight ranking member Gerry Connolly, D-Va., cited “deep concern” over reporting in Wired last month that revealed plans for a 30-day sprint where DOGE engineers and a third-party vendor — potentially the data analytics giant Palantir — would create a new application programming interface connected to taxpayer data. That API, Wired reported, would essentially serve as a storage center for all IRS data and enable agency systems to interact with unknown cloud services. Building a “mega API” is likely connected to plans for a “master database” that also pulls in data from the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration, according to Wired, part of a Trump administration effort to track and surveil immigrants. “The reported data centralization and integration effort could undermine intentional compartmentalization of IRS systems,” which raises “serious privacy questions,” Connolly wrote.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is set to withdraw a Biden-era rule aimed at cracking down on data brokers and their selling of Americans’ personal and financial information. In a notice in the Federal Register, the CFPB said legislative rulemaking on the data broker industry “is not necessary or appropriate at this time,” and the agency does not plan to “take any further action” on the proposal. The notice was issued by Russell Vought, acting director of the agency, head of the Office of Management and Budget and a Project 2025 architect. The withdrawal of the rule, which was first reported by Wired, comes after President Donald Trump’s initial nominee to lead the CFPB signaled to Congress in February an openness to continuing Biden administration data-broker rules. Jonathan McKernan, a former Treasury Department and Federal Housing Finance Agency staffer, told the Senate Banking Committee that Rohit Chopra — President Joe Biden’s CFPB director — “was onto something” with his policies targeting data brokers and data aggregators. The CFPB’s withdrawal notice took particular issue with the rule’s focus on the Fair Credit Reporting Act, saying that the proposal was “not aligned with the Bureau’s current interpretation of the FCRA, which it is in the process of revising.” The Senate on Wednesday voted 54-43 to confirm businessman Emil Michael as undersecretary of defense for research and engineering and the Pentagon’s chief technology officer. In that position, Michael will serve as the primary advisor to the secretary of defense and other Defense Department leaders on tech development and transition, prototyping, experimentation, and management of testing ranges and activities. He’ll also be in charge of synchronizing science and technology efforts across the DOD. Michael comes to the job from the private sector, where he’s been a business executive, advisor and investor. He told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that he’s been involved with more than 50 different tech companies during his career. Perhaps most notable, from 2013 to 2017, he was chief business officer at Uber. In government, he previously served as special assistant to the secretary of defense when Robert Gates was Pentagon chief. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Amid a governmentwide effort to bring federal employees back to the office, a small but powerful biometrics office based in the Department of Homeland Security is now so packed that employees were briefly asked to bring their own chairs to work. An email viewed by FedScoop shows that employees of the Office of Biometric Identity Management (OBIM) were at one point guided to bring their own chairs to work. That advice was quickly rescinded, with the email saying that despite the initial guidance, staff should not bring their own chairs to the office while thanking employees for their patience as they worked through logistical challenges. OBIM, which was established more than a decade ago to manage the biometric information used to make border security decisions, is based at the Transportation Security Administration’s offices. Another email, also viewed by FedScoop, highlights the severe space constraints at OBIM. Employees were sent lists of conference rooms that could be used for seating options for work. The email said: “With these space limitations, we encourage staff to please be accommodating and share offices and workspaces to the extent it is possible. Please connect directly with your supervisor and division leadership to discuss creative seating solutions. Please remember that we are all in this together and are working to find viable solutions. Thank you again for your patience as we work through these logistical challenges.” Because there isn’t enough office or cubicle space, it’s possible that staffers could unintentionally expose information to those that don’t need to know it, given their proximity to other people, one former OBIM employee said.As DOGE continues its decimation of the federal workforce, grinds various operations to a halt and touts dubious cost-savings claims, the congressional agency with deep experience rooting out fraud, waste and abuse in government released a litany of recommendations Tuesday that it says could save the public tens of billions of dollars. The Government Accountability Office’s 15th annual report on federal programs that have “fragmented, overlapping, or duplicative goals or actions” identified 148 cost-cutting measures across 43 topic areas, delivering a playbook to Congress and federal agencies aimed at lowering costs, improving programs and increasing revenues. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro said in a press release that the GAO’s updated report details “new and meaningful opportunities to save federal funds across a wide range of programs.” “By addressing this year’s updated list, as well as open recommendations to both agencies and Congress from GAO’s past work, the federal government could potentially save an additional” $100 billion, he added.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Since regaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Estonia has been intentional about harnessing technology to build a transparent and efficient government. And today, thanks to the country’s digital-first approach and the E-Estonia initiative for government services, 100 percent of its government services are provided digitally. At last month’s AITalks, Estonian Ambaassador to the U.S. Kristjan Prikk touched on his nation’s digital foundation, how that has set Estonia up for successful adoption of AI and what lessons the U.S. can learn from the world leader in digital government.As the internet becomes overrun with AI slop and public trust in artificial intelligence plummets, a bipartisan group of senators want to enlist the Commerce Department in an education operation about the emerging technology. The Artificial Intelligence Public Awareness and Education Campaign Act would require the Commerce secretary to oversee an initiative to provide Americans with information about the benefits of AI in their daily lives, as well as the risks the technology presents. Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., a co-sponsor of the bill, said in a statement that “With the rapid increase of AI in our society, it is important that individuals can both clearly recognize the technology and understand how to maximize the use of it in their daily lives.” The campaign would detail the ubiquity of AI in everyday life and highlight its benefits, including for small business owners and in workforce opportunities with the federal government. It would also note the different ways in which various regions, economies and subpopulations may interact with the technology, while making clear “the rights of an individual under law with respect” to AI.The Office of Personnel Management abruptly canceled a sole-source contract for HR services from Workday on Friday, roughly a week after it was awarded. Despite its initial justification describing the agency’s urgent need for services only Workday could provide, OPM clawed back the justification and terminated the $342,200 award “for convenience.” The agency didn’t respond to FedScoop’s request for comment for further information about why the contract was canceled, including whether it planned to hold a competition for the award or whether not having the services quickly would impact the agency’s upcoming modernization deadlines. In its original justification, OPM said that the sole-source award — those made to a single company without a bidding process — was needed “due to an urgent confluence of operational failures and binding federal mandates that require immediate action.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The National Science Foundation is taking steps to slash its workforce, including reducing the number of senior executive service roles as well as temporary and non-federal roles, according to an internal memo to staff obtained by FedScoop. The memo was emailed to staff Friday afternoon by Chief Management Officer Micah Cheatham. It also included plans to require in-person work starting June 16 and the elimination of the Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM in the next two months, which it announced publicly Friday as well. Details of the agency’s workforce reduction plans come after its termination of hundreds of grants that don’t align with President Donald Trump’s policies, such as those that included diversity, equity and inclusion activities. Amid those actions, Sethuraman Panchanathan resigned his position as NSF’s director. Panchanathan had been appointed by Trump during the president’s first term. Per the memo, NSF began on Thursday a reduction-in-force of its senior executive service workforce, which is a designation for federal senior leadership and management officials. Of the 143 total SES roles — including vacant positions — that NSF had on Jan. 20, just 59 are needed under the agency’s “new organizational structure and proposed future year budgets.”A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation last week that would scale back the Transportation Security Administration’s facial recognition program, giving travelers the right to not have their faces scanned when passing through airports. The lawmakers say their push for the Traveler Privacy Protection Act comes as the Department of Homeland Security component seeks to expand the use of facial recognition at hundreds of airports. Specifically, the bill would require the TSA to clearly inform passengers of their right to not participate in the DHS facial recognition program and bar the agency from providing worse treatment to passengers that choose not to participate. The legislation would also forbid the TSA from storing traveler facial recognition data indefinitely and from using the technology to target people or conduct mass surveillance. Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., John Kennedy, R-La., Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan., are co-sponsors of the bill. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Government Efficiency has arrived at the Office of Biometric Identity Management, a quiet but powerful component of the Department of Homeland Security that handles a critical database of fingerprint, facial, and iris data used throughout the federal government. Three people, including one person within DHS and two more familiar with the matter, confirmed that DOGE now has a presence at the agency. Two of those sources added that DOGE seems to have restarted conversations about the future of the Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology (HART) program, which DHS has long hoped would replace the agency’s current biometrics database — the Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT), one of the world’s largest known systems of that kind. OBIM was created more than a decade ago to manage the biometric information used to make border security decisions. As a relatively small office, OBIM provides assistance to DHS and federal agencies, including the State Department. OBIM also sometimes exchanges biometrics with other countries. OBIM’s biometric database stores hundreds of millions of biometric data points. A DHS website notes that a single query of the system “can retrieve data for an individual tied to a Department of State visa application, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection log of an entry into the United States, and an immigration status change logged by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.”The Trump administration has launched an effort to overhaul the Federal Acquisition Regulation with a focus on delivering a quicker, more efficient and less burdensome procurement process for federal agencies. To provide details on the progress of the so-called “Revolutionary FAR Overhaul,” the General Services Administration — one of the federal government’s lead procurement agencies and a member of the FAR Council — launched a new website Tuesday for the initiative. Federal acquisition stakeholders can expect to find a streamlined version of the FAR, buying guides — the first of which will be focused on software-as-a-service — and opportunities to share their feedback about acquisition policy on the new website, according to a release from GSA. The Trump administration’s overhaul of the FAR was spurred by an executive order in April that called on the Office of Federal Procurement Policy in the Office of Management and Budget to lead the effort with FAR Council members GSA, NASA and the Defense Department. Within 180 days of that order, the group is expected to “amend the FAR to ensure that it contains only provisions that are required by statute or that are otherwise necessary to support simplicity and usability, strengthen the efficacy of the procurement system, or protect economic or national security interests.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
As generative AI increasingly takes hold across the federal government, a class of that greater tech discipline called agentic AI is also gaining momentum. Think of it like an AI sidekick. Agentic AI moves beyond rules-based AI assistants of the past to act autonomously to accomplish something without the need for constant human intervention. According to Jonathan Alboum, federal CTO of ServiceNow and a former federal CIO at USDA, agentic AI holds massive potential for the future of the federal government, particularly amid the Trump administration’s slashing of the federal workforce and placing a premium on efficiency. Alboum joins the podcast to discuss that, some exciting news from ServiceNow’s Knowledge conference this week in Las Vegas and his thoughts on how federal CIOs are managing ongoing consolidation of federal IT programs.President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal would slash $491 million from the budget of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, according to a summary released Friday. That would amount to a nearly 17% reduction to the agency’s approximately $3 billion budget. The administration did not release a detailed itemization of the cuts, only an outline. “The Budget refocuses CISA on its core mission — Federal network defense and enhancing the security and resilience of critical infrastructure — while eliminating weaponization and waste,” a summary reads. In broad strokes, if approved by Congress, the budget would target for reduction what it identified as “so-called” disinformation and misinformation programs and offices; “duplicative” programs of other programs at the state and federal level; “external engagement offices such as international affairs”; and consolidate “redundant security advisors and programs.” A startup founder and Department of Government Efficiency associate named Sam Corcos is the new chief information officer of the Treasury Department, according to a person within the agency. Corcos was introduced with that title at a recent meeting for Treasury bureau chief information officers, the person added. Corcos, who most recently helped create a health company called Levels, had been representing DOGE in the Treasury Department, with the official title of special advisor. Corcos, who has appeared on Fox News with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, has said his top priority is looking at the operations and maintenance budget, as well as modernization, at the IRS. He’s also sought access to government data and, according to Wired, was involved in an effort to organize an IRS hackathon.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Trump administration issued its first major budget document Friday, slashing non-defense discretionary spending by $163 billion — a 23% reduction from 2025 levels — and boosting defense spending by 13%. A fact sheet released by OMB references the administration’s targeting of “woke” programs and “weaponized” government. One area that would see a significant boost under the budget is the Department of Veterans Affairs’ electronic health record modernization program. The EHRM, whose perpetually plagued rollout has been chronicled in congressional testimony and in various watchdog reports, would be provided with a $2.17 billion funding increase in President Donald Trump’s budget, per a summary document released Friday. The VA announced in March that it will have implemented the EHR in 13 facilities by 2026, with the possibility of deployment at all VA health systems as early as 2031. That followed a decision in 2023 to pause the system’s implementation to renegotiate the contract with its developer Oracle Cerner and account for safety concerns. Friday’s budget summary claimed the VA’s EHRM rollout “had stalled under the Biden administration” but is a “top priority effort” for Secretary Doug Collins. The Technology Modernization Fund is shifting its funding model to prioritize the full repayment of new “high-impact” investments across the federal government, the General Services Administration said Friday. GSA’s press release said the “strategic” change would provide a “streamlined path to modernization” for agencies by “combining upfront capital with specialized advisory services.” The agency said this “enhanced payment model” was pursued with strengthened longevity for projects in mind. Acting GSA Administrator Stephen Ehikian said in a release that “By ensuring full repayment of our investments, the TMF sends a clear message to federal agencies: focus on high-impact, high-return modernization efforts. These investments not only replace outdated systems but also streamline critical operations ultimately improving services for government employees and delivering greater value to taxpayers.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Treasury Department is losing two of its top technology officials, according to agency sources. Brian Peretti, Treasury’s chief technology officer, is leaving the position and taking the federal government’s early retirement option, two people within the agency said. Peretti helped organize the department’s planning process for information technology and also served in the role of chief artificial intelligence officer. Rick Therrien, Treasury’s chief information security officer, is also retiring, the two agency sources said. Therrien had served in the position since July 2024, and, before then, held a series of roles at the Internal Revenue Service. The moves come amid tensions in the Treasury Department over the influence of the Department of Government Efficiency and the departures of IT officials across the federal government.The Defense Department’s chief information officer said this week she’s kicking off a new program that aims to overhaul cumbersome bureaucratic mechanisms and streamline its ability to rapidly approve new software capabilities for warfighters. Under the Software Fast Track (SWIFT) program, the Pentagon will use artificial intelligence to replace legacy authority to operate (ATO) and Risk Management Framework (RMF) processes when buying new software. Acting DOD CIO Katie Arrington signed a memo authorizing the new effort said and it would officially launch May 1. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Government Accountability Office auditors are examining the “digital footprint” left by DOGE in Treasury Department, Social Security Administration and Office of Personnel Management IT systems, the watchdog’s leader told Congress on Tuesday. Testifying before the Senate Appropriations Legislative Branch Subcommittee, Comptroller General Gene Dodaro said GAO auditors are looking into what data was accessed by the Elon Musk underlings during their forays into agency IT systems, and determining if any changes were made. “We’re looking at the digital footprint within each of these major systems across government,” Dodaro said, naming OPM, SSA and Treasury specifically. “So we’ll have a better idea about what impact DOGE’s access has had on the data systems, and whether there’s been any information input into the system or taken out of the system.” The General Services Administration unveiled a new initiative Tuesday that it says is aimed at helping agencies gain easier access to IT tools and shifting how the federal government approaches procurement. The OneGov Strategy is meant to modernize how the government buys goods and services and calls for more direct engagement with Original Equipment Manufacturers. The GSA said in a press release that OEMs “will benefit from a more direct and predictable engagement model.” Taxpayers, meanwhile, will benefit from a “smarter, more secure federal IT enterprise” under the strategy, the GSA said. While agencies have, in the past, bought software through resellers, the GSA believes this approach prioritizes direct relationships for enhanced outcomes. Stephen Ehikian, the agency’s acting administrator, called the OneGov Strategy “a bold step forward” in GSA’s “mission to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars. It’s about acting as one — aligning to our scale, standards and security to meet the needs of today’s government while prepping for the future.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
A memo sent to U.S. Agency for International Development employees Thursday announced that the now-hobbled agency will no longer try to salvage government devices for staff based domestically. The move is notable, given that USAID had previously initiated some work to transfer technical assets to the State Department. It is not uncommon for the agency to remotely wipe devices abroad, but doing so domestically — and then trashing the equipment — is unusual. Federal agencies often auction office equipment, including computers, they no longer need. In the letter, which was viewed by FedScoop, employees were told that U.S.-based direct hires, personal service contractors, and institutional support contractors must complete “various exit tasks,” including the return of government equipment. To “simplify the process and reduce burden,” the agency says it isn’t requiring employees to return iPhones, iPads, and laptops. The memo stated: “The IT equipment will be remotely wiped and marked as disposed from USAID IT asset inventories on or around the employee Reduction in Force (RIF) date, and the employee can then dispose of the assets. Further details and updates regarding the remote wiping/sanitization process for the devices and what to anticipate will be communicated closer to the RIF dates.”Secretary of the Navy John Phelan on Thursday ordered the termination of hundreds of millions of dollars in IT contracts and unrelated grants as part of a broader push at the Defense Department to slash spending that the Trump administration deems wasteful. The moves — outlined in a pair of memos issued to the chief of naval operations, Marine Corps commandant, Navy assistant secretaries and general counsel — are pursuant to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “commitment to strategically rebuild our military, restore accountability to the Department of Defense, cut wasteful spending, and implement the President’s orders,” Phelan wrote. The IT contracts axed by the SECNAV include those for the Naval Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (NMRO) program. Phelan also directed the Navy’s chief information officer to prepare a new acquisition strategy by July 31, along with management review of the program.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The director of the National Science Foundation announced his departure Thursday after five years at the agency. In a brief public statement, Sethuraman Panchanathan said he was stepping down effective Thursday and called it “an honor and privilege to serve as the Director of NSF.” He also informed employees at NSF in an internal memorandum viewed by FedScoop. “I believe I have done all I can to advance the critical mission of the agency and feel that it is time for me to pass the baton to new leadership,” Panchanathan said in the public statement. Panchanathan assumed the role as NSF director during the first administration of President Donald Trump and carried on under Joe Biden. Under his leadership, the department launched its 27 AI institutes, began its Technology, Innovation, and Partnership Directorate, which has funded regional hubs for innovation across the U.S., and started the National AI Research Resource pilot project. His departure comes soon after the agency began terminating grants that didn’t comply with the priorities of the current administration, including items related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and misinformation and disinformation.A bipartisan pair of House lawmakers are pushing for the reauthorization of the law that launched the Technology Modernization Fund. Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., on Thursday reintroduced the Modernizing Government Technology Act, which largely mimics legislation introduced during the last Congress, just with an updated sunset date of 2032 instead of 2031. The bill revises and adds some additional requirements to the original Modernizing Government Technology Act, which passed in 2017. Connolly said in a press release that the reauthorization bill is a “welcome show of support for the [TMF] and the critical goal that drove its creation — bringing federal IT into the 21st century.” The bill looks to increase the TMF’s effectiveness by creating new reporting requirements for the federal chief information officer and agency CIOs, requiring a list of high-risk legacy IT systems that are used, operated or maintained by the agency, according to the bill’s text.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Members of the Department of Government Efficiency have made their way into the National Science Foundation, as grants throughout the agency are being terminated. Three DOGE affiliates are currently listed as working in the Office of the Director at NSF, according to multiple sources within the agency: Luke Farritor, a former SpaceX intern and AI engineer who has shown up at other agencies DOGE has entered; Rachel Riley, a former McKinsey consultant who has also appeared at the Department of Health and Human Services; and Zachary Terrell. As part of the arrangement, Farritor has a “Budget, Finance, and Administration” clearance, which a source said allows him to view and modify the agency’s funding opportunity system. Farritor and Terrell are listed in an agency directory as consultants. On April 18, NSF published a statement that it was terminating grants and awards that don’t align with the administration’s priorities, including those related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and misinformation and disinformation.Alexis Bonnell has stepped down from her positions at the Air Force Research Laboratory and transitioned to a new job at OpenAI, the company responsible for the development of ChatGPT. In 2023, Bonnell was tapped to serve as AFRL’s first-ever chief information officer and director of the laboratory’s Digital Capabilities Directorate, where she led the lab’s information technology strategy and overall modernization efforts. According to a Tuesday post on LinkedIn, Bonnell is now working at OpenAI as a partnership manager, a position she took on in March.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Labor Department employees can now access two OpenAI models through the company’s partnership with Microsoft Azure, making the agency the latest to integrate generative AI into its workflow. The two OpenAI models now available to Labor staff are GPT-4o and GPT-4o mini, according to documents viewed by FedScoop. The agency’s platform for the OpenAI tech suggests that staff use the technology for specific applications, including a language translator, a “pros and cons analyzer,” and a memo writer. A large document analyzer and document comparison tool are also available in the interface. Along with that, the department has published a guide on the appropriate use of AI systems and cautions agency users that their role in properly using the generative AI tools is “crucial.” Staff are flagged with a warning before using the tool and are instructed to review outputs for accuracy. Previously, these kinds of generative AI tools had not been approved for Labor Department use and employees were warned not to enter federal information into the systems, a source within the agency told FedScoop.Two top officials at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency who worked with the private sector to manufacture secure products and technology are leaving the agency. Bob Lord, senior technical adviser and Lauren Zabierek, senior advisor at CISA, were two of the chief architects behind CISA’s Secure by Design initiative, which garnered voluntary commitments from major vendors and manufacturers to build cybersecurity protections into their products at the design stage. On Monday in separate posts on LinkedIn, Lord and Zabierek both said they are departing the agency. Neither offered a rationale or motivation for the decision, with Lord simply calling it a “difficult decision” and Zabierek saying it was “not an easy choice.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Dozens of Democrats wrote a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought on Wednesday demanding information on the Department of Government Efficiency’s unauthorized use of artificial intelligence systems. The letter, which was led by Reps. Don Beyer, D-Va., Mike Levin, D-Calif., and Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M. and signed by 45 other lawmakers, expressed concerns about privacy and security risks associated with the group’s use of federal data in unapproved AI systems, as well as potential conflicts of interest involving Elon Musk, who leads an AI firm called xAI. Specifically, the lawmakers flagged reports of DOGE affiliates inputting data into unapproved AI systems and the risk that sensitive federal data could be used to train future commercial models.Douglas Matty assumed the role of the Pentagon’s Chief Digital and AI Officer on Monday, according to an internal unclassified email viewed by DefenseScoop. The principal deputy who has been temporarily leading the AI hub ahead of the Trump administration’s selection for the new chief, Margie Palmieri, sent the announcement to several senior officials Friday morning. In the email, she indicated that more communications on the team’s path ahead would soon follow, once Matty takes the reins. Matty previously founded the Army AI Integration Center under Army Futures Command, which he led between 2020 and 2022. Palmieri wrote: “We are excited to get appointed leadership at the helm of CDAO so early in the administration. The prioritization on filling the top Al and data related leadership position in DoD will enable the Department to better accelerate and scale the adoption of data, analytics, and Al in line with the Secretary’s priorities.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The General Services Administration is not happy with the top-10 consulting firms it asked back in February to self-identify contracts that could be terminated to save the federal government money, going as far as to call their efforts under the initiative “insulting.” Josh Gruenbaum, commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, wrote in a letter to those 10 firms, viewed by FedScoop, that GSA and its contracting partners are “unanimously unimpressed” with the cost savings those contractors identified in the so-called “scorecards” they submitted after the agency called for the termination of government contracts with those top consultants. As a result, the agency is calling on those firms to submit a second “waste review” by 5 p.m. ET on Friday with their proposals demonstrating how they can “lean into developing taxpayer friendly pricing” with “dramatic price reductions.” “In good faith, and with high expectation, we offered firms the opportunity to join us in reducing wasteful spending and do their part in addressing the twin issues of the federal debt and deficit,” Gruenbaum wrote. “The efforts to propose meaningful cost savings were wholly insufficient, to the point of being insulting.” The Labor Department’s new chief information officer is looking to reduce staff in the Office of the CIO by about 30%, according to a source within the agency. Hundreds of people currently work in Labor’s CIO office, but leadership is hoping many workers will voluntarily leave the team. Thomas Shedd, who was appointed to Labor’s CIO role last month, is optimistic that the goal will be achieved through the federal government’s deferred resignation programs and reduction-in-force efforts, the source said. Going forward, Labor’s Office of the CIO plans to focus on systems used to disburse benefits, as well as programs required by law that need business systems and software to work, according to documents viewed by FedScoop. There will also be an emphasis on efficiency and consolidating systems while providing value, the documents said. The department told employees that they’re not “tracking” staff, despite media reports, and that the agency is only interested in measuring results.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Trump administration has decided to terminate the IRS’s Direct File program, according to a source familiar with the situation, putting an end to the free electronic filing system that congressional Republicans and the tax preparation industry have had in their crosshairs since its creation. Work on Direct File began during Joe Biden’s presidency, bringing together some of the administration’s top technical and product minds and tapping into funds from the Inflation Reduction Act. Providing all U.S. taxpayers with a free filing tool would have put the country in line with most developed nations. But despite what the IRS considered to be a successful launch last year, Direct File’s future was murky after President Donald Trump’s election and the administration’s welcoming of Elon Musk’s DOGE into the government tech world. The pending elimination of the free filing tool was celebrated Wednesday by the makers of TurboTax. Derrick Plummer, an Intuit spokesman, called Direct File “a solution in search of a problem, a drain on critical IRS resources and a waste of taxpayer dollars.” Consumer advocate groups panned the Trump administration’s decision. Susan Harley, managing director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division, said in a statement that scrapping Direct File “is almost literally taking money out of our pockets.”Dean Ball, a policy scholar with a focus on the intersection of history, political theory, policy and technology, is joining the Trump administration as a senior policy advisor on artificial intelligence and emerging technology, he announced Tuesday on the social media platform X. Ball said in his post of joining the Office of Science and Technology Policy: “It is a thrill and honor to serve my country in this role and work alongside the tremendous team [OSTP Director Michael Kratsios] has built.” He comes to OSTP from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where he has served as a research fellow for the past year. Ball is also the author of an AI-focused blog called Hyperdimensional, in which he has defended the AI Safety Institute and commented on the Trump administration’s terminations of probationary employees, saying the move had unintended consequences. Ball also wrote recently that he is interested in AI being built at the same time that the Trump administration and Republicans “seek to advance theories of a ‘unitary executive’ — the notion that the president exercises the powers granted to him by the Constitution and Congress absolutely.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Internal Revenue Service’s chief information officer is leaving the tax agency this month, the latest in an increasingly long line of veteran IT leaders exiting the government amid President Donald Trump’s gutting of the federal workforce. Rajiv Uppal told IT staffers in a Monday email, obtained by FedScoop, that he had “decided to depart” the tax agency, and that his last day will be April 28. Kaschit Pandya, the agency’s chief technology officer, will take over as acting CIO “while leadership finalizes long-term plans for the role,” Uppal wrote.President Donald Trump signed a pair of executive orders Tuesday to revamp the federal procurement and contracting processes, part of the administration’s sweeping takedown of government regulations. The procurement order takes aim at the Federal Acquisition Regulation, which the White House says has evolved “into an excessive and overcomplicated regulatory framework and resulting in an onerous bureaucracy.” To “create the most agile, effective, and efficient procurement system possible,” Trump’s EO calls for the removal of “undue barriers” and “unnecessary regulations” in procurement.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The CODY bot, a tool used to streamline procurement processes at the General Services Administration, is now ready for use across the federal landscape after three years of buildout. CODY aggregates prerequisite data into a checklist, according to GSA officials familiar with the tool, enabling staffers to see if a vendor has met all representation requirements — ensuring there is no active federal debt against a vendor, and no exclusionary or responsibility cautions to trigger notifications. The agency primarily tracks how many hours the bot saves in a year rather than the costs saved, according to one of the officials. GSA Administrator Stephen Ehikian posted on X that the bot’s completion resulted in the cancellation of a $423,000 contract. “President Trump’s GSA is at the forefront of leveraging technology for government to produce tools that boost productivity and our employee’s potential,” Ehikian said in a statement to FedScoop.A pair of House Democrats are sounding the alarm about the U.S. Secret Service’s use of counter-drone technology, which recently triggered air traffic control system alerts at the Washington National Airport. Democratic Reps. Rick Larsen of Washington and Bennie Thompson of Mississippi are demanding more information about the use of the technology and raising concerns about whether the Department of Homeland Security component is following proper procedures. In a Monday letter sent to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the lawmakers pointed to alerts produced by the Traffic Collision Avoidance System last month. These alerts made erroneous recommendations to several commercial and Coast Guard aircraft, Larsen and Thompson say. And according to analysis conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration, the alerts were produced by Secret Service anti-drone technology at a nearby Defense Department location. The confusion comes after the deadly crash between a commercial airline and an Army helicopter at DCA airport earlier this year, which resulted in dozens of deaths. While DHS has launched an investigation, the Democratic congressmen say the counter-drone technology deployed by the DOD was operating outside existing notifications — and that the Secret Service did not share required notifications with the FAA.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Information Technology says it’s reviewing the loss of three physical servers, a public records request shows. According to a document produced by CBP’s Cybersecurity Directorate, about 200 government devices have been stolen or gone missing in recent years. Of these devices, 140 were cell phones, and just under 40 were laptops. No items were reported to be lost abroad, according to the document. That federal employees would have lost phones and tablets isn’t surprising. FedScoop has reported on lost electronics at the U.S. Agency for International Development and NASA, and agencies often review inventories of employee devices. Still, the loss of government-furnished equipment can raise concerns about the security of sensitive data. Some federal employees have even been caught stealing government IT equipment in order to sell it. The loss of three servers is somewhat unusual. The agency did not answer a series of questions about the lost servers, including what data they might have held or whether the losses were ever reported to law enforcement. In response to FedScoop questions, an agency spokesperson said, “CBP is currently reviewing this issue.”The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency must brief Congress on proposed deep cuts to agency personnel, a top Democrat said in a letter to its acting director. California Rep. Eric Swalwell, ranking member of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection, wrote in the letter to acting Director Bridget Bean on Thursday that CISA is obligated to notify Congress of its plans. CISA reportedly plans to cut agency staff by nearly 40%, or 1,300 people. Swallwell wrote in his letter that “upending an agency that plays such an important role in defending the homeland while keeping Congress in the dark is wholly unacceptable,” adding that CISA hasn’t provided the subcommittee any justification for the cuts or explained how it will execute its congressionally mandated mission with a fraction of the workforce and resources. CISA had already cut 130 probationary staffers, a move blocked in court before being overturned in an appeal.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth signed a memo Thursday ordering the termination of several IT services contracts and directing the Pentagon’s chief information officer to draw up plans for in-sourcing, among other measures. The aim is to “cut wasteful spending” and “support the continued rationalization” of the Defense Department’s IT enterprise, Hegseth wrote. The move comes amid a broader push by the Trump administration to implement Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiatives across federal agencies. Hegseth’s new memo to senior Pentagon leadership ordered the termination of contracts affecting a variety of DOD components, including a Defense Health Agency contract for consulting services; an Air Force contract to re-sell third party enterprise cloud IT services; a Navy contract for business process consulting services; and a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract for IT helpdesk services. In a video released on social media touting these DOGE-related efforts, Hegseth estimated that those contract terminations would save the Pentagon approximately $1.8 billion, $1.4 billion, $500 million and $500 million, respectively. Another round of General Services Administration workforce cuts is hitting Technology Transformation Services, specifically within its Integrated Award Environment (IAE), Solutions, and Office of Regulatory and Oversight Systems (OROS) programs, sources confirmed to FedScoop. Under TTS, the Solutions platforms and services, front office, public experience and accelerators teams were all affected by the reductions, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. However, programs that are safe from the current — and widespread — reductions in force include FedRAMP, Login.gov and Cloud.gov, sources said. Additionally, TTS consulting, fellowships and front office are untouched as well.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Internal Revenue Service’s acting commissioner is set to leave the tax agency, according to a source familiar with the situation, a move that comes after the Treasury Department signed an agreement to share taxpayers’ information with the Department of Homeland Security. Melanie Krause, who joined the IRS in October 2021 as the agency’s chief data and analytics officer, is taking the federal government’s deferred resignation offer and was not pushed to resign, according to the source. A Government Accountability Office and Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General alum, Krause was elevated to acting commissioner from chief operating officer in late February, taking over for Doug O’Donnell, who retired after manning the interim post following Danny Werfel’s January departure. Krause decided to resign after Treasury officials struck a deal with Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the accessing of taxpayer information. Krause was largely excluded from those conversations, per the Washington Post. A Treasury spokesperson said in a statement to FedScoop that she will continue to serve as acting commissioner “until at least May 15th.”President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that could lead to the cancellation of major defense acquisition programs, boost the procurement of commercial technologies and shake up the workforce. The directive states that “after years of misplaced priorities and poor management, our defense acquisition system does not provide the speed and flexibility our Armed Forces need to have decisive advantages in the future. In order to strengthen our military edge, America must deliver state‐of‐the‐art capabilities at speed and scale through a comprehensive overhaul of this system.” The EO on “Modernizing Defense Acquisition and Spurring Innovation in the Defense Industrial Base,” directs Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Pentagon leadership to complete a comprehensive review of all major defense acquisition programs (MDAPs) within 90 days.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Just days into his latest run as president, Donald Trump fired 17 inspectors general acoss the federal government. The move not only set off alarms in the government oversight and accountability community, but it also set an early precedent for how the Trump administration would deal with any entities he saw as threatening to his agenda as president. Diana Shaw has spent much of her career in the shoes of federal inspectors general, having served as acting IG of the State Department and a variety of roles in DHS’s Office of the IG, before retiring from government in 2024. So she knows as good as anyone, through her continued connections and deep experience, how IGs in the Trump administration are navigating the current dynamic, what’s at play as they maneuver around the work of the DOGE and how things wil continue to unfold. Now a partner at DC law firm Wiley Rein LLP, Shaw joins the Daily Scoop to discuss all that as well as her thoughts on one of the biggest IG cases: the Pentagon’s probe into the secretary of defense’s use of commercial messaging applications like Signal to conduct official business.The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency team is examining the Navy’s software enterprise, the service’s chief information officer said Tuesday. The review comes as the administration is undertaking a broad look at the Defense Department’s and other federal agencies’ contracts and workforce in search of what it considers wasteful spending and opportunities for savings.After accessing data at the Department of Homeland Security, including systems operated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency now appears to be behind a new effort to shrink the agency’s staff. On Monday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem sent a message to employees encouraging them to leave the agency, according to an email viewed by FedScoop. The message explained details of deferred resignation, voluntary early retirement, and voluntary separation incentive payment programs. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The U.S. Agency for International Development is taking its final steps toward shuttering, sending a memo last Thursday to bureau heads focused on recruiting workers on administrative leave to assist with final steps required to decommission the agency. The memo states that the “default position” is that all staff are reporting to work — except those who have been requested and approved to go on administrative leave — and that USAID employees may be asked to work beyond their typical subject areas and to help with other projects. Those based in a bureau or independent office are supposed to have a space allotment, though managers are instructed to minimize the need for people to be shifted in and out of work. Teams that do not have an onsite presence will need to return to the office for “closeout procedures,” the email adds.Democrats on the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to White House officials Monday expressing serious concerns about the recent installation of Starlink internet service in the executive branch complex. The letter, which was signed by Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Shontel Brown, D-Ohio and shared exclusively with FedScoop, comes amid reports that Starlink — provided by Elon Musk’s SpaceX — is now integrated into the White House property’s IT systems. The members of Congress are also flagging the use of the internet service at the General Services Administration. A physical Starlink terminal connects to the low-Earth orbit satellite constellation that provides the internet service. But the White House has gone further than simply purchasing that equipment — the service has now been connected and routed into an administration data center.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The White House Office of Management and Budget released a pair of memos to provide agencies with guardrails for how they use and purchase artificial intelligence in the government, replacing Biden administration guidance but maintaining some of the same structures. Both memos, which are dated April 3, represent some of the first major policy actions President Donald Trump has taken on the government’s use of AI. Trump began his administration by rolling back former President Joe Biden’s AI executive order and later issuing one of his own that called for an AI action plan and a review of the previous administration’s work on the technology. Specifically, the order included directions to revise the Biden OMB’s AI governance and acquisition guidance. The first new memo (M-25-21) provides guardrails for use and replaces Biden’s directive on the same topic (M-24-10). That document states agencies are to focus on three priorities when accelerating the federal use of AI — innovation, governance and public trust — which align with an executive order on the technology from the first Trump administration. But that directive also maintains things that were established under the Biden administration, like chief AI officers and their council and a special management process for potentially risky AI uses it now calls “high-impact.” Similarly, the second memo on AI acquisition (M-25-22) replaces the Biden OMB’s guidance on government purchasing of the tech (M-24-18).A bipartisan pair of senators is taking another shot at their bill to expand the U.S. Secret Service’s investigative powers for financial cybercrime probes. The Combatting Money Laundering in Cyber Crime Act from Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, would update federal law to strengthen the Secret Service’s authority, enabling the agency to look into criminal activity tied to digital assets. Cortez Masto said in a statement: “Dangerous criminals are constantly changing their tactics and using new technology to avoid detection. Our law enforcement agencies need to adapt to keep communities safe. I will continue to fight to pass this bipartisan legislation that would help the Secret Service more effectively combat cybercrime.” Under current law, the Secret Service is empowered to investigate cybercrimes that threaten national security, but those that are conducted via unlicensed money transmitting businesses fall outside the agency’s purview. The legislation from Cortez Masto and Grassley, both members of the Senate Finance Committee, addresses that gap by allowing Secret Service members to probe digital asset transactions tied to transnational cyber criminal activity.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Gen. Timothy Haugh, the commander of U.S. Cyber Command and the director of NSA, was fired Thursday, according to press reports and lawmakers. It was not immediately clear why Haugh was fired. However, his dismissal comes amid a purge of other national security officials at the National Security Council and NSA. It happened following a visit to the Oval Office of political activist Laura Loomer, who has urged President Donald Trump to fire certain officials due to their perceived disloyalty to him and his agenda. She posted a message last night on X saying Haugh and NSA Deputy Director Wendy Noble has been fired for being “disloyal” to Trump. Cybercom’s deputy commander, Army Lt. Gen. William Hartman, is in line to lead the command on an acting basis.The Defense Department’s top watchdog announced Thursday it will initiate a formal investigation into Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s participation in discussing impending military operations on unclassified networks. On March 24, Atlantic magazine’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg published a story revealing he was accidentally added to a group chat on Signal, an encrypted but unclassified commercial messaging app, where some of the Trump administration’s top national security officials discussed upcoming strikes against Houthi militants in Yemen — including Hegseth. “The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DoD personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business,” Steve Stebbins, acting inspector general at the Pentagon, wrote in a memo published Thursday. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Members of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency now have access to technical systems maintained by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, according to a recent memorandum viewed by FedScoop. The memo, which was sent from and digitally signed by USCIS Chief Information Officer William McElhaney, states that Kyle Shutt, Edward Coristine, Aram Mogahaddassi and Payton Rehling were granted access to USCIS systems and data repositories, and that a Department of Homeland Security review was required to determine whether that access should continue. Coristine, 19, is one of the more polarizing members of DOGE. He previously provided assistance to a cybercrime ring through a company he operated while he was in high school, according to other news outlets. Coristine worked for a short period at Neuralink, Musk’s brain implant company, and was previously stationed by DOGE at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The memo, dated March 28, asks DHS Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar to have his office review and provide direction for the four DOGE men regarding their access to the agency’s “data lake” — called USCIS Data Business Intelligence Services — as well as two associated enabling technologies, Databricks and Github. The document says DHS CIO Antoine McCord and Michael Weissman, the agency’s chief data officer, asked USCIS to enable Shutt and Coristine’s access to the USCIS data lake in mid-March, and Mogahaddassi requested similar access days later.A bipartisan bill to fully establish a National Science Foundation-based resource aimed at providing essential tools for AI research to academics, nonprofits, small businesses and others was reintroduced in the House last week. Under the Creating Resources for Every American To Experiment with Artificial Intelligence (CREATE AI) Act of 2025 (H.R. 2385), a full-scale National AI Research Resource would be codified at NSF. While that resource currently exists in pilot form, legislation authorizing the NAIRR is needed to continue that work. Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., who sponsors the bill, said in a written statement announcing the reintroduction: “By empowering students, universities, startups, and small businesses to participate in the future of AI, we can drive innovation, strengthen our workforce, and ensure that American leadership in this critical field is broad-based and secure.” The NAIRR pilot, as it stands, is a collection of resources from the public and private sectors — such as computing power, storage, AI models, and data — that are made available to those researching AI to make the process of accessing those types of tools easier.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
More details have emerged on the Department of Defense’s Deferred Resignation Program. According to a new memo, the DOD will offer the program to eligible DOD civilian employees for a week between April 7 and 14. Voluntary early retirement authority will also be offered. The initiatives, ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, come as the Pentagon is looking to reduce its reduce civilian workforce and implement the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts. Jules Hurst III, acting undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, wrote in an April 1 memo that the DRP provides a “generous opportunity for employees to enter a paid leave status for several months, prior to resigning or retiring,” adding that employees pending approval or approved for the program will not be subject to return to in-person work requirements.A bipartisan bill that would establish a nonprofit foundation aimed at boosting private-sector partnerships at the National Institute of Standards and Technology was reintroduced in the House and the Senate on Tuesday. The Expanding Partnerships for Innovation and Competitiveness (EPIC) Act would create a Foundation for Standards and Metrology at the Department of Commerce, which would be focused on fostering collaborations with academia, industry, and other organizations. That new foundation would ultimately help supplement NIST’s funding and — according to a release shared with FedScoop in advance of the Wednesday announcement — make the path to commercializing technologies developed by the agency easier. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Internal Revenue Service on Friday placed around 50 IT executives on administrative leave, according to five sources familiar with the situation, the latest in the Trump administration’s gutting of the tax agency during the heart of filing season. The decision to cut the IT executives was made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, according to one of the sources, and was carried out by acting IRS Commissioner Melanie Krause. Rajiv Uppal, the IRS’s chief information officer, and Kaschit Pandya, the agency’s chief technology officer, were not among the 50 dismissed staffers, a different source said. The 50 people were at the senior executive service level, two sources said, and most were associate chief information officers. One of the sources, an IT executive who left the IRS earlier this month, said the 50 staffers include experts working on cybersecurity, modernization, applications, development, contracts, networks, mainframe and data center operations, among other IT-related areas. An email sent to one of the affected employees Friday and viewed by FedScoop said they were being put on leave “effective immediately” and they were directed “not to perform any work-related tasks during this period.” They would continue to receive full pay and benefits during their administrative leave, per the email.Jeffrey King is now the acting chief information officer of the Treasury Department, according to an update to the CIO Council webpage. Tony Arcadi, who has served the position since 2021, told FedScoop on Saturday that he took the administration’s deferred resignation offer and was placed on administrative leave as of last Monday. Nick Totten is the deputy CIO for the agency. Another source within the agency confirmed King, who was previously deputy CIO, is now acting in the chief IT position. King had been deputy CIO since 2022. He also briefly served as acting CIO of the Internal Revenue Service, where he helped push forward modernization initiatives. The Trump administration has been cycling through CIOs somewhat rapidly. The Energy Department, the Small Business Administration, and the Social Security Administration have all already moved on from their first appointees to the position.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of State is continuing to expand its artificial intelligence chatbot known as StateChat, including working toward a mobile version and the ability to query internal messages called cables. That’s what John Silson, director of analytics in the State Department’s Center for Analytics, recently told FedScoop reporter Madison Alder during an SNG Live event on AI and Automation. During the conversation, they touched on how State is continuing to iterate on StateChat, how the department is working to maxmize adoption, the importance of context in prompting and what comes next.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is reopening the deferred resignation program and also offering early retirement to eligible civilian workers as he seeks to “maximize participation.” Hegseth signed a memo on Friday, “Initiating the Workforce Acceleration and Recapitalization Initiative,” that was directed to senior Pentagon leadership, combatant commands, and defense agency and field activity directors. The move comes as department leaders are looking to shed civilian employees and reinvest the savings elsewhere as part of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency efforts. Hegseth said DOD is offering the deferred resignation opportunity, as well as Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, to all eligible civilian employees, noting that exemptions wil be rare. He wrote in a March 28 memo: “My intent is to maximize participation so that we can minimize the number of involuntary actions that may be required to achieve the strategic objectives.”Karen Evans, a longtime government IT official who previously held the role that preceded the creation of the federal chief information officer, was nominated last week to serve as undersecretary for management at the Department of Homeland Security. Evans, whose nomination has been referred to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, joined the Trump administration earlier this year as executive assistant director for cybersecurity at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Evans’ role at CISA was one of the most prominent cyber jobs in the federal government, leading the agency’s “mission to protect and strengthen federal civilian agencies and the nation’s critical infrastructure against cyber threats,” per an official description of the position. Before joining CISA, Evans spent the previous three-plus years working as the managing director of the Cyber Readiness Institute, a nonprofit geared toward educating and creating free cyber tools for small- and medium-sized businesses. For much of George W. Bush’s administration, Evans served as administrator of the Office of Electronic Government and Information Technology. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
A bipartisan group of House Oversight and Government Reform Committee members reintroduced a bill Thursday that aims to overhaul federal software purchasing for better efficiency and reduced costs. The Strengthening Agency Management and Oversight of Software Assets (SAMOSA) Act would make agencies conduct “comprehensive” software inventories and undergo independent assessments of management practices and contracts.The legislation, which is backed by several leading software trade groups, would also require agency chief information officers to create a plan to adopt enterprise licensing agreements in order to improve costs and negotiating power against vendors. Additionally, the Office of Management and Budget would have to publish a governmentwide strategy for software modernization based on audits and plans. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who introduced the bill with Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., April McClain Delaney, D-Md., and Pat Fallon, R-Texas, said in a statement that the government spends money on software that “it doesn’t need, doesn’t use or already has.” The Trump administration’s council of federal CIOs has so far been much like a carousel at some agencies, with officials who frequently associated with DOGE coming in and out of the top tech role. The Social Security Administraiton is the latest such agency to trade out one DOGE staffer for another. The Social Security Administration has tapped a DOGE associate named Scott Coulter as its new chief information officer, replacing another member of the Elon Musk-led group who spent a little more than a month in the role. Coulter, a Harvard graduate with a background in investment management, was added to SSA’s org chart this week as CIO. Mike Russo, who started as the agency’s top IT official Feb. 3, according to an SSA spokesperson, is now listed as senior advisor to the commissioner.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Newly installed Federal CIO Greg Barbaccia has called for agency CIOs to inventory licenses with the five software vendors that earn the most from federal contracts by April 2 as part of a larger software accounting initiative. Barbaccia sent an email, obtained by FedScoop, to all federal CIOs on Monday requesting that agencies “complete a software license inventory to account for the full universe of software licenses at your agency.” To start, Barbaccia called for CIOs to identify licenses with the five software vendors who do the most business with the federal government: Microsoft, Adobe, Salesforce, Oracle and ServiceNow, per a 2024 report from the Government Accountability Office.The information technology staff of the now-hobbled U.S. Agency for International Development is down to a skeleton crew capable of providing only limited support, FedScoop has learned. The group is what remains of a once-large team as the Trump administration massively scales down American foreign aid and questions emerge about the future of USAID assets and the security of government data. Only three information technology operations employees, a project manager and a contracting officer are currently working on the agency’s IT staff, according to someone within USAID. That’s a tiny fraction of the approximately 100 or so staffers devoted to IT before the Trump administration started in January. Jason Gray, the chief information officer who briefly served as acting administrator of the agency, is now assisting the front office with their plans for USAID, the agency source said. He’s also helping to manage account activation, another USAID source said. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The federal government will shift from paper-based payments to electronic methods, part of what the White House said in a Tuesday executive order is an attempt to cut costs and reduce fraud. President Donald Trump’s EO on “modernizing payments to and from America’s bank account” requires the Treasury Department to phase out paper check disbursements and receipts by Sept. 30. That includes intergovernmental payments, benefits payments, vendor payments and tax refunds. Federal agencies will be expected to transition to electronic funds transfer (EFT) methods, including direct deposit, prepaid card accounts and other digital options. “The continued use of paper-based payments by the Federal Government, including checks and money orders, flowing into and out of the United States General Fund, which might be thought of as America’s bank account, imposes unnecessary costs; delays; and risks of fraud, lost payments, theft, and inefficiencies,” the order states.A Republican-backed bill to reorganize the federal government and grant the executive branch more power passed out of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Tuesday, while a Democratic effort to protect sensitive data was blocked. The Reorganizing Government Act of 2025 (H.R. 1295) from Chairman James Comer, R-Ky. seeks to give the president reorganizational authorities that would include the ability to amend rules, regulations and requirements to decrease cost and eliminate operations that do not serve the public. Rep. Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, offered an amendment that would have required the president’s reorganization plan to include a list of executive databases that “contain personal and private information of American citizens that DOGE has accessed” and prohibit employees of the Elon Musk-led group and its partners from accessing this information. The amendment was struck down in a vote. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
After serving for nearly 18 months as the Department of Defense’s first-ever customer experience officer in the Office of the CIO, Savan Kong earlier this month parted ways with the Pentagon. Previously a member of the Defense Digital Service during his first tour of duty with the DOD, Kong helped build the department’s CXO office from scratch, fostering a culture that prioritizes the needs of service members, civilians, and mission partners and striving to streamline governance processes, improve transparency, and ensure that IT solutions meet operational needs. Kong joins the Daily Scoop for a conversation to share the progress his office ushered in to improve customer experience for DOD’s personnel, where things are headed under this administration and how AI will impact the CX space. FedRAMP is getting another overhaul, one that will involve far more automation and a greater role for the private sector, the program’s chief announced Monday. Through FedRAMP 20x, the General Services Administration-based team focused on the program aims to simplify the authorization process and reduce the amount of time needed to approve a service from months to weeks, Director Pete Waterman said during an Alliance for Digital Innovation event. The private sector will also have increased responsibility over monitoring of their systems, he noted. In a critical change, agency sponsorship will — eventually — no longer be necessary to win authorization. As a first step, FedRAMP has launched four community working groups, which give the public a chance to share feedback, and focus on creating “innovative solutions” to formalize the program’s standards. But in the meantime, Waterman said existing baselines will remain in place and there are no immediate changes to the program.The Office of Personnel Management and the departments of Treasury and Education are now barred from sharing individuals’ personally identifiable information with DOGE representatives, a federal judge ruled Monday. Judge Deborah L. Boardman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland said in her decision that in granting associates with Elon Musk’s so-called government efficiency initiative access to systems containing plaintiffs’ PII, the agencies “likely violated” the Privacy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act. The lawsuit was filed by the American Federation of Teachers, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, the National Federation of Federal Employees, and six military veterans. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Federal agencies must now allow any officials designated by the president or agency leadership to have complete access to unclassified records, data, software systems and IT systems, President Donald Trump declared in an executive order late Thursday night. Trump’s directive aims to stop waste, fraud and abuse by eliminating information silos, requiring agency heads to “ensure Federal officials designated by the President or Agency Heads (or their designees) have full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, data, software systems, and information technology systems — or their equivalents if providing access to an equivalent dataset does not delay access — for purposes of pursuing Administration priorities related to the identification and elimination of waste, fraud, and abuse.” “This includes authorizing and facilitating both the intra- and inter-agency sharing and consolidation of unclassified agency records,” the executive order states. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order last Thursday blocking Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from further access to any Social Security Administration systems that contain personally identifiable information. Judge Ellen Hollander of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland also ordered that all DOGE team members associated with the organization’s work at SSA, including Elon Musk and U.S. DOGE Service leader Amy Gleason, must disgorge and delete all non-anonymized personal information they obtained from the agency’s systems. The decision is an initial victory in the case where Democracy Forward led a group of unions and an advocacy organization in suing the Social Security Administration and its acting Commissioner Leland Dudek for giving DOGE access to “some of the nation’s most sensitive data, including the financial data, employment information, medical data, and personal addresses of millions of Americans,” according to the initial complaint.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to consolidate the contracting of common goods and services, including information technology, under the General Services Administration. Within 30 days of the order’s issuance, GSA will take over as the executive agent of all governmentwide acquisition contracts (GWACs) for IT, as designated by the Office of Management and Budget. “Consolidating domestic Federal procurement in the General Services Administration — the agency designed to conduct procurement — will eliminate waste and duplication, while enabling agencies to focus on their core mission of delivering the best possible services for the American people,” the order says. As part of GSA’s new role, the administrator will be able to “defer or decline” being the executive agent of IT governmentwide contracts “when necessary to ensure continuity of service or as otherwise appropriate.” Other major GWACs for technology across the federal government include the National Institutes of Health Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center’s vehicles like its CIO-SP3 and embattled CIO-SP4, as well as NASA’s Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) contracts. The General Services Administration on Thursday revealed a new generative AI tool designed to boost efficiency and help automate repetitive tasks. The platform, now available to GSA staff, comes amid anxiety that the Department of Government Efficiency might use artificial intelligence to surveil or replace federal workers, who are being laid off in large swaths across the government. The GSA chatbot can access a series of large language models, including technology from Anthropic and Meta. The system resembles other AI chatbots, and it’s designed to respond to user prompts and help staff with basic tasks, like writing. Earlier this month, Wired first reported that the DOGE had deployed a chatbot called GSAi for 1,500 workers. According to Wired, the tool had been in development for several months, but DOGE accelerated the rollout of the platform and eventually wants to use it for data analysis of contracts and procurements. GSA said in a Thursday statement it is encouraging all of its staff to test the tool.
The Pentagon is currently placing more than 20,000 employees on administrative leave and a path to full termination, following staff approval for voluntary participation in the Trump administration’s Elon Musk-inspired “fork in the road” initiative, according to top officials involved in the major workforce reduction plans. In an off-camera press briefing Tuesday, two senior defense officials provided new information (on the condition of anonymity) regarding the Defense Department’s unfolding effort to shrink its massive civilian employee pool using three main mechanisms. An official stressed to DefenseScoop that this is a very active process and things are fluid as the department’s leadership engages with services and components. At the start of his second administration, President Donald Trump immediately directed federal agencies to drastically reduce their workforces and review existing contracts as part of a broader move to ultimately cut back on what his team views as wasteful spending and inefficiencies. Inside the DOD, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a “strategic reduction” of 5-8% of civilian personnel — with a sharp focus on “promoting the department’s lethality, readiness and warfighting ability” while meeting Trump’s mandate, a senior defense official noted.As the Defense Department anticipates the wireless networks of the future for warfighting missions, it has shifted its focus for research and development primarily to 6G wireless technologies, Marlan Macklin, deputy principal director for the Pentagon’s FutureG Office, said Wednesday. The DOD is looking to the next-generation wireless tech to further build on the improved speeds, latency and capacity it gained with 5G and support the U.S. military’s use of new capabilities at the edge. With that, Macklin said the Pentagon is beginning to experiment with 6G in a variety of ways. As an example, the FutureG Office has been experimenting with a concept called Integrated Sensing and Communication, which uses radio frequencies of all objects — including those not actively transmitting data — connected to a network to create situational awareness of the surrounding environment, according to Macklin. One way in which the U.S. military could apply this emerging concept is to improve awareness and management of drones in a given environment, Macklin said.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Several federal agencies responsible for terminating nearly 25,000 federal probationary status workers told a federal court Monday evening that they’re complying with an order to reinstate those employees, giving thousands of people their jobs back for the time being. According to a status report and corresponding declarations filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, 18 federal agencies and their subcomponents said they were working to reinstate their fired probationary employees following the court order. Most of those agencies said those workers would be placed on administrative leave. While the court order doesn’t cover all fired probationary workers, the declarations in the case offer one of the first clear windows into the breadth of firings under President Donald Trump. Per figures in those declarations, the agencies initially terminated 24,813 probationary workers. Of that total, 15,499 were offered reinstatement as a direct result of the court’s order. An additional 5,925 employees, at least, were previously offered reinstatement by those respective agencies before the court’s order. That includes the 5,714 terminated employees in the U.S. Department of Agriculture who got their jobs back for 45 days as the result of a ruling by a quasi-judicial body within the executive branch known as the Merit Systems Protection Board.As litigation plays out on DOGE access to individuals’ sensitive data, a House lawmaker is asking civil society groups, privacy experts, government technologists and others to inform legislation seeking to modernize the Privacy Act of 1974. Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., said in a press release that she is beginning an effort to reform the Privacy Act, which has been cited in various lawsuits against agencies over allegedly allowing unauthorized DOGE staffers to access data that could contain personally identifiable information. “Unaccountable billionaires, inexperienced programmers and unvetted political appointees are perpetrating the biggest government privacy scandal since Watergate,” Trahan said in the release. In order to begin this effort, Trahan is asking the public to respond to a series of questions, including the federal government’s need to balance privacy with other priorities like reducing waste, how the government can effectively leverage privacy-enhancing technologies, the privacy risks associated with artificial intelligence and more.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
A lawyer who’s said to have played a central role in the Department of Government Efficiency’s attempted takeover of at least one federal organization is now defending in court the DOGE email system used to send email blasts to the entire U.S. government workforce. During a Feb. 6 hearing, Jacob Altik joined the defense in the ongoing lawsuit where pseudonymous federal workers have accused the Office of Personnel Management of standing up its new governmentwide email system with inadequate privacy and security protections in place. While the defense introduced him at the time as being “from OPM,” counsel for the plaintiffs filed a new notice early Monday essentially connecting the dots that Altik, through other lawsuits and public reports, has played a hands-on role in supporting the DOGE. Altik was first identified as a DOGE lawyer with an official DOGE email address hosted by the Executive Office of the President in a ProPublica article from early February, the Monday legal notice notes. Then, Altik was identified in a separate ongoing lawsuit as working hand-in-hand with DOGE associates in the organization’s attempt to dismantle the U.S. African Development Foundation. The DOGE is also in the spotlight in another case where state attorneys general have sued President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent challenging DOGE access to Treasury records. In the latest development in that litigation, DOGE staffer Marko Elez, who resigned in February after racist social media posts surfaced, is said to have shared personally identifiable information in a spreadsheet with two General Services Administration officials, according to the filing from a witness in the case. The testiomony explains that Elez shared names in the spreadsheet that are considered low risk PII because the names are not accompanied by more specific identifiers, such as social security numbers or birth dates. Still, the distribution of this spreadsheet was contrary to BFS policies, in that it was not sent encrypted, and he did not obtain prior approval of the transmission as required.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Homeland Security has selected Antoine McCord as its new chief information officer, a spokesperson with the agency’s Management Directorate confirmed Friday.As CIO, McCord will be tasked with overseeing DHS’s roughly $11 billion IT budget, the largest of any federal agency in fiscal 2025. A bio for McCord on the DHS website said he “emphasizes mission-driven leadership, focusing on operations to neutralize threats against the Department.” Details about McCord’s background are scarce, beyond what’s contained in that DHS bio page. According to the agency, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps, specializing in cyber and intelligence operations and “gaining hands-on experience in threat detection and technology integration.” After his time with the Marines, McCord joined the U.S. Intelligence Community, according to DHS, in roles that saw him oversee cyber operations against advanced threats and serve as an adviser on national security issues. McCord will be stepping into a CIO role that was filled during the Biden administration by Eric Hysen, who also led the department’s artificial intelligence efforts. Hysen, a Google alum and a founding member of the White House’s U.S. Digital Service, oversaw the creation of DHS’s AI Corps, the publication of an AI roadmap and the release of commercial generative AI guidance.Firings at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have former workers, lawmakers, and advocates concerned about impact on the agency’s efforts to produce climate and weather information critical to public safety. NOAA is one of many federal agencies in the U.S. that has cut probationary workers in recent weeks as part of President Donald Trump’s plan to reduce the size of the federal government. While critics of the Trump administration have argued the rapid and widespread staffing reductions could have adverse consequences across the government, the picture they paint with respect to NOAA’s terminations is particularly grim. That’s because the agency’s mission impacts every American, former NOAA workers told FedScoop. The recent cuts to staff put that work at risk, particularly for areas at the agency where staffing levels were already an issue, they said. What’s more, there are areas outside of staffing cuts where efficiencies could have been achieved through consolidating work and technology advancements.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
All non-critical and non-statutorily required work will cease at the General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Services as part of a 50% reduction of the office, according to Director Thomas Shedd. In his prepared remarks for a Thursday afternoon town hall, which were obtained by FedScoop, Shedd said that to deliver technology at GSA in a “more focused and streamlined way,” moving forward TTS will support only work that is required by statute and policy, fits into the Trump administration’s definition of critical, and is prioritized by the leadership at GSA “in accordance with the priorities of the administration.” Everything else will be eliminated, per Shedd, who said in his remarks that TTS will be smaller in size – at least 50% smaller. Additionally, any contracts that support the work that falls outside of the established bounds “will be terminated” and any job functions that are deemed non-essential will be cut. The prioritized and remaining TTS programs include Login.gov, FedRAMP, Cloud.gov, statutorily required websites, the Integrated Award Environment, the Office of Regulatory Oversight, the Centers of Excellence, the Presidential Innovation Fellowship Program, the U.S. Digital Corps, operations and other “special projects.”Australian-based software company Atlassian has tapped Matthew Graviss to be its first public sector chief technology officer following his recent departure as the State Department’s top data and AI official. Although the role starts a new private sector chapter in Graviss’s career, being the first person to establish a newly created position is familiar ground. During his time in the federal government, Graviss was the first-ever chief data officer at both the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. In an interview with FedScoop, Graviss said his role at Atlassian is an extension of that experience in that he’ll again be codifying the responsibilities of the job, showing value and solving customer problems. Regardless of whether his role is in or out of the government, Graviss said “the delivery of better goods and services to citizens is contingent upon … an ecosystem of government employees, service providers, and solution providers.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Ethan Klein, an emerging technology policy adviser during the first Trump administration, has been nominated to be the White House’s chief technology officer, the Office of Science and Technology Policy confirmed Tuesday. After serving in the first Trump White House, Klein completed a PhD in nuclear science and engineering at MIT, where he worked to develop nuclear tech for arms control and nonproliferation with funds from a fellowship through the National Nuclear Security Administration. Klein also spent time at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which is operated for the NNSA and focuses on weapons development, stewardship and national security.Klein has been pursuing an MBA at Stanford, while working as a summer associate for the Aerospace and Defense group within Lazard, a financial advisory and asset management firm. If confirmed as CTO, Klein would fill the same role that Michael Kratsios did during the first Trump administration, which went unfilled for the entirety of the Biden administration.The Department of Government Efficiency’s increasingly vast power across the government likely makes it subject to U.S. records law, a federal judge said Monday in a ruling that ordered the Elon Musk-led group to begin processing requests on an expedited timeline. In a 37-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper concluded that DOGE — the rebranded U.S. Digital Service — “is likely exercising substantial independent authority much greater than” other components within the Executive Office of the President that are covered by the Freedom of Information Act, subjecting it to the same rules. Cooper noted as examples that the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Council on Environmental Quality are both covered by FOIA due to the substantial independent authority they wield when it comes to the evaluation of federal programs.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Early in the morning on March 1, without notice, the General Services Administration eliminated its 18F program, what was an internal team of tech consultants and engineers that developed open-source tools to improve digital services across the federal government. Just short of its 11th birthday, 18F had grown to be a staple in the federal government’s digital services development and acquisition space. Now when you type in "18F.gov" to visit its website, you’re met with an error message. The team has been completely wiped from the face of the federal government. GSA hasn’t given much reasoning for the termination. Thomas Shedd, head of the agency’s Technology Transformation Services organization that housed 18F, said during a town hall last week that the decision was based purely on its reported cashflow struggles and that it hadn’t been cost-recoverable. Dan Tangherlini, former GSA administrator when 18F was founded, joins the Daily Scoop to share his thoughts on what 18F meant to good government, the legacy of the organization, and how GSA will continue to serve as the federal government’s center of tech excellence without this key team moving forward.Roughly a month after being replaced as acting CIO of the Department of Energy, Principal Deputy CIO Dawn Zimmer is now back serving in the department’s top IT role, multiple sources familiar with the change confirmed to FedScoop. Zimmer is filling the CIO position for the second time since Inauguration Day after Ryan Riedel briefly took on the role overseeing the department’s $4.3 billion IT portfolio in early February. As FedScoop first reported, Zimmer returned to her primary role as principal deputy CIO at Energy when Riedel, previously a network engineer at Elon Musk-owned SpaceX, was appointed to the CIO role. She took over the acting CIO role after Biden administration Energy CIO Ann Dunkin stepped down at the change of administrations. It’s unclear why Riedel departed the role after just over a month. The Energy Department did not return questions about his short tenure.President Donald Trump nominated Sean Plankey to head the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Tuesday, the last major piece to fall into place for cybersecurity leadership in his administration. Plankey served in the first Trump administration, holding a few posts with cyber responsibilities. He was the principal deputy assistant secretary for the Energy Department’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response in 2019 and 2020. Before that he was director of cyber policy at the National Security Council, starting in 2018. He has most recently been at the global cybersecurity advisory company WTW. Plankey was briefly under consideration in 2020 to lead the agency he’s now nominated to be director of after Trump forced Chris Krebs out of the role. He had long been thought to be Trump’s pick this time around, too.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
When the Trump administration began sidelining and laying off personnel at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, it started by targeting employees who worked on election security and disinformation. At the same time, the Department Homeland Security announced it would conduct a comprehensive review of CISA’s election security mission. Last week, the agency confirmed that it has completed the review, but said that its findings won’t be released to the public. A spokesperson for the agency said: “The assessment that CISA has undertaken is internal and will help inform how the agency moves forward to best support critical infrastructure. This is an internal document that is not planned to be released publicly.” A DHS spokesperson told CyberScoop in an email that the department had nothing else to share at this time.Secretary Pete Hegseth is directing all Defense Department components to embrace a rapid software acquisition pathway and use commercial solutions opening and Other Transaction authority to speed up the procurement of digital tools for warfighters. The department’s Software Acquisition Pathway was set up during the first Trump administration under then Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord as part of a broader push for a so-called Adaptive Acquisition Framework that enables the department to procure software differently than it buys hardware. Programs on that pathway are not subject to some of the encumbrances associated with the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System and major defense acquisition program designations. Now, Hegseth wants to make sure all DOD components are taking advantage of the pathway.
The NSA’s former top cybersecurity official told Congress on Wednesday that the Trump administration’s attempts to mass fire probationary federal employees will be “devastating” for U.S. cybersecurity operations. In testimony to the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, Rob Joyce, the former NSA cybersecurity director who retired from government service last year, warned lawmakers that countering Chinese hacking campaigns against critical infrastructure will require top-level cybersecurity talent at the NSA and other government agencies. Joyce said that part of that is having expertise and capacity in the government, raising “grave concerns that the aggressive threats to cut U.S. government probationary employees will have a devastating impact on the cybersecurity and our national security.” Joyce, who spent 34 years at the NSA, emphasized how important those employees are in sustaining an aggressive stance against China in cyberspace.A federal appeals body within the executive branch issued an order Wednesday to temporarily reinstate thousands of fired probationary workers in the U.S. Department of Agriculture in what advocates hailed as an important win for fired employees. The decision from the Merit Systems Protection Board, a quasi-judicial body within the government, grants a Friday request from the Office of Special Council, an independent government investigator, to stay the termination of an unnamed former employee and over 5,000 others who were similarly situated. The decision from MSPB also comes on the heels of another win for fired probationary workers in federal district court in San Francisco. U.S. District Judge William Alsup granted temporary, limited relief to pause and rescind those firings at several agencies, finding that OPM likely unlawfully directed the firing of those agency workers. That order has similarly prompted reinstatements. Since the court decision, the National Science Foundation moved to reinstate its fired federal probationary workers, citing the federal courts and updated guidance from the Office of Personnel Management. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Weeks after being named the chief information security officer for the Defense Department, Katie Arrington was announced Monday as the Pentagon’s official “Performing the Duties of the Department of Defense Chief Information Officer.” The DOD Office of the CIO announced the move by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to place Arrington as the acting CIO in a post on LinkedIn. The post also confirmed that Leslie Beavers, who had been acting CIO since John Sherman left the role last June, will return to her primary role as principal deputy CIO. A defense official confirmed Arrington started in the role Monday.An organization that’s filed multiple legal challenges against the Trump administration is focusing its attention on the potential use of artificial intelligence in personnel decisions. Democracy Forward, a social welfare organization, said Monday it “launched a public records investigation” into the administration’s AI use, including filing requests under the Freedom of Information Act. Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a written statement that the American people deserve to know what is going on — including if and how artificial intelligence is being used to reshape the departments and agencies people rely on daily. The organization’s requests come after reporting by NBC that Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency planned to use AI to review employee responses to the Office of Personnel Management’s “five bullets” email.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Since the Trump administration took office Jan. 20, federal technology has become an essential element in the national news cycle. Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency have burrowed within agencies to gain access to key federal IT systems as part of their work to drive efficiency and cut waste and abuse. And as part of that, the Trump administration has fired huge swaths of the federal workforce. For the FedScoop news team, this has meant some major changes to the way they cover and deliver the news to the federal IT community. On this episode, the team gets together for a conversation about how they’re approaching this new normal, the stories they’re following, what’s ahead and how readers can get in touch to share their stories.The Office of Personnel Management said in a Tuesday revision to existing guidance that it’s not instructing other federal agencies to take personnel actions with respect to probationary employees. “Please note that, by this memorandum, OPM is not directing agencies to take any specific performance-based actions regarding probationary employees,” the new language in the revised memo reads. “Agencies have ultimate decisionmaking authority over, and responsibility for, such personnel actions.” The update follows a decision last week from a federal judge in San Francisco granting temporary, limited relief to pause and rescind those firings at several agencies. In making that ruling, U.S. District Judge William Alsup found that OPM’s original Jan. 20 memo on federal probationary workers and its other related efforts likely unlawfully directed the firing of those agency workers. OPM “does not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe to hire and fire employees within another agency,” Alsup said during a hearing Feb. 27.As Salt Typhoon and other hacking groups continue targeting U.S. telecoms, a bipartisan bill that cleared a key House panel Tuesday aims to formalize a more cyber-focused role for the federal agency focused on those wireless networks. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration Organization Act would establish an Office of Policy Development and Cybersecurity within the Commerce Department’s NTIA under legislation from Reps. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., and Jennifer McClellan, D-Va. The bill, which advanced out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, was passed by the chamber last year but stalled out in the Senate. The NTIA advises the president on telecommunications and information policy issues, with a specific focus on the expansion of broadband internet and spectrum. Obernolte, who chairs the House Science, Space and Technology subcommittee on research and technology, said the bill “addresses a critical gap” by formalizing NTIA’s cybersecurity role to better “safeguard our communication networks.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The General Services Administration has eliminated its 18F program, an internal team of tech consultants and engineers that develops open-source tools to improve digital services across the federal government. The announcement, which came over the weekend, is the latest in the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to slash the federal workforce. The move was foreshadowed weeks ago when Elon Musk, who’s become become the figurehead for the Trump administration’s slashing of government programs and the federal workforce, tweeted that the decade-old program had been “deleted.” Early Saturday morning, Thomas Shedd — a mechanical engineer and former Tesla employee recently appointed as the director of GSA’s Technology Transformation Services, which houses 18F — announced the program had been eliminated as part of the ongoing reduction-in-force effort, according to an email viewed by FedScoop. A GSA spokesperson also confirmed the terminations to FedScoop on Saturday, writing in an email that members of the 18F office were notified that they had been identified as part of GSA’s Reduction in Force and reorganization plan and were being separated from federal service.The top-10 highest-paid consulting firms contracting with the federal government are set to make “$65 billion in fees” in 2025 and beyond, the General Services Administration says. But according to the agency’s acting leader, that “needs to, and must, change.” GSA acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian issued last week a memo, obtained by FedScoop, calling for the termination of contracts with those top-contracted consultants: Deloitte Consulting LLP, Accenture Federal Services LLC, General Dynamics IT, Booz Allen Hamilton, Leidos, Guidehouse, Hill Mission Technologies Corp., Science Applications International Corp., CGI Federal and IBM. Ehikian wrote in the memo dated Feb. 26 sent to senior procurement officers: “Consistent with the goals and directives of the Trump administration to eliminate waste, reduce spending, and increase efficiency, the U.S. General Services Administration has taken the first steps in a Government-wide initiative to eliminate non-essential consulting contracts.” By March 7, agencies are asked to provide a list of contracts with the 10 firms that they intend to terminate as well as those they will maintain. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Customs and Border Protection has issued internal paperwork to authorize an evaluation of Starlink, the satellite internet service provided by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, according to documents identified by FedScoop and a spokesperson for the agency. CBP has created a privacy threshold analysis — an internal document used to analyze potential privacy risks associated with a new technology and whether a privacy impact assessment is necessary — for Starlink internet, a step from agency officials that indicates that the SpaceX service is under serious consideration. It also continues a trend of federal agencies expressing interest in working with one of Musk’s companies as the richest man in the world further embeds himself within the Trump administration and leads efforts to cut federal programs and shrink the federal workforce.Newly installed Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell on Thursday issued a memo calling for all Defense Department components to scrub any diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) content from their websites and social media platforms. By March 5 — next Wednesday — DOD components must take down all “news and feature articles, photos, and videos that promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)” from the web, according to the directive, calling the effort a “digital content refresh.” That media must be archived and retained following Pentagon records management policies, states the memo from Parnell, the assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Federal agencies will be required to build centralized systems to track every payment they issue for contracts, grants and other expenditures under an executive order issued Wednesday. President Donald Trump’s order calls for each agency head to team with that agency’s assigned DOGE team lead in building the new IT system. Each payment would be submitted to the system and include “a brief, written justification” from the agency staffer who signed off on the expenditure. The systems would include a built-in mechanism to allow the agency head to pause and quickly review payments that are submitted without a written justification. As part of the buildout of the new system, agency heads and DOGE team leads will be required to review “all existing covered contracts and grants,” with the option to “terminate or modify” those agreements “where appropriate and consistent with applicable law,” the order states.The Trump administration is asking federal agencies to submit reductions in force and reorganization plans by March 13, setting the stage for more workforce terminations. A memo from the Office of Personnel Management sent Wednesday tells agency heads that their plans to reduce the workforce and reorganize departments are required to comply with the executive order to implement the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency and its mission to optimize the federal workforce. Agencies have to seek reductions in non-critical agency components and enable staff to focus on “higher-value activities,” the memo states. The department heads are encouraged to collaborate with agency-assigned DOGE counterparts on the agency RIF and reorganization plans, identifying specific competitive areas where positions are not typically designated as essential during appropriation lapses.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
A group of 21 engineers, data scientists, designers, project managers and other tech experts resigned from their positions at the U.S. Digital Service on Tuesday, writing in a letter to the White House that they would not “carry out or legitimize” the actions of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. The technologists said in their letter that they all left senior tech positions in the private sector to “pursue nonpartisan public service” and “stood ready to partner with incoming officials” as the Trump transition unfolded. But over the course of the past month, the staffers said it became clear that they could “no longer honor those commitments” at USDS, rebranded in January as the United States DOGE Service.Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., a top federal IT advocate on Capitol Hill, has called for the Office of Personnel Management to rescind its recent guidance pushing for federal agencies to redesignate chief information officer roles in a way that could make them more political. In a letter sent to acting OPM Director Charles Ezell on Tuesday, Connolly requested that the federal HR agency rescind its Feb. 4 memo “Guidance Regarding Redesignating SES CIO Positions,” which recommends that federal agencies with senior executive service CIO positions designated as “career reserved” should redesignate those roles to be “general.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
If you missed last week’s Zero Trust Summit at the Spy Museum in downtown D.C., you’re in luck. We have a replay of what was one of the best panels of the day focused on U.S. military cybersecurity and the adoption of zero trust across the services. FedScoop's Billy Mitchell was joined by Wanda Jones-Heath of the Air Force and Ann Marie Schummann of the Navy, principal cyber advisors for their respectives services, as well as Imran Umar, Booz Allen’s vice president of zero trust, for a panel that explored the progress made in zero-trust adoption and what comes next as the Pentagon targets zero-trust readiness by the end of 2027, including embracing the framework for operational technology systems and weapons platforms.In the news: Government agencies responded with caution to the Office of Personnel Management’s request that federal workers provide five bullet points about what they accomplished last week by the end of the day Monday. The Securities and Exchange Commission gave workers a template to follow; the General Services Administration and Department of Commerce told employees not to send classified information, links or attachments; and the Department of Defense told employees to pause responses for the time being, according to emails obtained by FedScoop and agency statements. At least some agencies ultimately told employees participation wasn’t required. Technical systems housed within USAID may be transferred to the State Department, including those related to global health, a source familiar with the matter told FedScoop, with about 40 systems potentially impacted by the transition. The USAID.gov website has now been updated to note the long-anticipated reduction in force at the agency, noting that approximately 1,600 personnel are now on administrative leave. A small group within the agency seems to be involved in discussions related to transferring technical assets to the State Department, the source said. Some of those systems might end up on OpenNet, a global network State uses for data applications. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Pentagon is set to begin its termination of thousands of select probationary employees in the coming days as part of the Trump administration’s unfolding campaign to “maximize efficiency” by rapidly reducing the size of the federal workforce. Darin Selnick, who is performing the duties of undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, announced the plans in an email to reporters on Friday afternoon. “We expect approximately 5,400 probationary workers will be released beginning next week as part of this initial effort, after which we will implement a hiring freeze while we conduct a further analysis of our personnel needs, complying as always with all applicable laws,” Selnick wrote. He confirmed that the DOD is anticipating at this time to shrink its civilian workforce by 5% to 8% in an effort to “produce efficiencies and refocus” the department’s priorities to match those of President Donald Trump’s new administration.The United States is falling “increasingly behind” its adversaries in cyberspace, the former head of the Cyber Command and National Security Agency said Saturday. Speaking at the DistrictCon cybersecurity conference in Washington, D.C., retired Gen. Paul Nakasone said that the nation’s adversaries are continuing to be able to broaden the spectrum of what they’re able to do to us. Nakasone said incidents like Chinese government-backed breaches of U.S. telecommunications companies and other critical infrastructure — as well as a steady drumbeat of ransomware attacks against U.S. targets — illustrate “the fact that we’re unable to secure our networks, the fact that we’re unable to leverage the software that’s being provided today, the fact that we have adversaries that continue to maintain this capability.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
A federal judge in Washington on Thursday denied a request by federal worker unions to halt the firing of probationary workers in the U.S. government, saying the court likely lacks the authority to hear the claims. Instead, the claims brought by the National Treasury Employees Union and others must be brought before the Federal Labor Relations Authority, Judge Christopher Cooper of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said in his opinion. The ruling is a blow to efforts by unions to protect their members from the mass probationary employee firings taking place across the government, as well as from further efforts by the Trump administration to reduce the size of the federal workforce.The Department of Transportation has tapped the chief technology officer of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to be its new chief information officer, according to an update to the agency’s site. Pavan Pidugu started as DOT’s new CIO this week, replacing Cordell Schachter, who left the role last month. Pidugu spent nearly five years as CTO at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which focuses on preventing injuries and deaths in the trucking industry. Prior to his work in the federal government, Pidugu held several digital project management roles at Walmart and Target.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Katie Arrington has been named the deputy chief information officer for cybersecurity and chief information security officer at the Department of Defense, a department spokesperson confirmed. She assumed the role effective Feb. 18. A familiar face, Arrington comes back to the Pentagon where she was the chief information security officer for the department’s acquisition and sustainment organization during the first Trump administration. She was best known for starting the Pentagon’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program over six years ago, which aims to improve the cybersecurity posture of the defense industrial base and contractors by requiring minimum cyber standards to bid on contracts.As the Department of Government Efficiency sets its sights on accessing sensitive taxpayer data, a coalition of union groups and advocates is suing the federal government to block the Elon Musk associates from entering Internal Revenue Service systems. In a lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Center for Taxpayer Rights, Main Street Alliance, the National Federation of Federal Employees and the Communications Workers of America allege that DOGE’s access to IRS systems has harmed their constituents’ privacy interests and exposed their private information to heightened risks.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The National Science Foundation fired 168 probationary employees Tuesday as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the size of the federal workforce, the agency confirmed. In a written statement, NSF spokesman Mike England pointed to President Donald Trump’s executive order last week that included plans to reduce the size of the federal workforce as part of the work of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. “To ensure compliance with this E.O. the National Science Foundation has released 168 employees from Federal service effective today,” England said. “We thank these employees for their service to NSF and their contributions to advance the agency mission.” He confirmed that all of the terminated employees were probationary. A federal judge Tuesday denied a request from Democratic attorneys general to temporarily cut off Department of Government Efficiency access to U.S. government IT systems, delivering a blow to states aiming to sideline the ongoing Elon Musk-led data expedition at agencies. Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the states did not show that they would “suffer imminent, irreparable harm absent a temporary restraining order.” The state AGs had argued that Musk’s actions in deploying DOGE surrogates to root around in federal computer systems violated the Constitution’s appointments clause due to the fact that he has not been nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Though no one has been more closely associated with DOGE than Musk, a Trump administration official said in a court filing Monday that the world’s richest man is merely a senior advisor to the president and not a DOGE employee or the DOGE administrator.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley said the federal worker union would fight mass firings of government employees, calling the Trump administration’s actions a politically driven abuse of the probationary period. His statement comes after reports that probationary employees were fired from agencies across the federal government. In his statement, Kelley refuted claims that employees were fired for poor performance, saying “there is no evidence these employees were anything but dedicated public servants.” In response to a request for comment, a spokeswoman for OPM said “the probationary period is a continuation of the job application process, not an entitlement for permanent employment. The Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General said it has opened an audit into the agency’s payments system after Department of Government Efficiency liaisons accessed the personal and financial information of Americans stored by the Bureau of Fiscal Service. In letters to Democrats in the Senate and House, Loren Sciurba, Treasury’s deputy inspector general, said the OIG initiated the audit into Bureau of Fiscal Service systems before the lawmakers made the request last week. The audit will examine applicable payment system controls that have been in place since Oct. 1, 2024, in addition to the two most recent fiscal years “as it relates to alleged fraudulent payments.”
A source familiar with the inner workings of the U.S. Digital Corps, a two-year fellowship for early-career technologists to show coding work and work through interagency agreements across the federal government that is managed by TTS, said that DOGE representatives asked them and others to show coding work. The source said that the DOGE representatives asked them and others to show coding work that held sensitive information. A GSA spokesperson told FedScoop that Shedd initiated these meetings, and that “getting a sense of the technical work being performed by the organization is an essential part of understanding what the team is doing and what they are capable of.”Unions are challenging the Trump administration’s ‘deferred resignation’ offer to government workers, but lack the standing to do so, according to a federal judge in Massachusetts. This decision eliminated the temporary pause on the previously decided deadline for workers to accept the resignation offer and denied the unions’ attempt to seek a long-term hold on the deadline through a preliminary injunction.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The General Services Administration is following suit with a memo from the Office of Personnel guidance that came out in January, giving agencies the authority to terminate employees who: “have served less than a year in a competitive service appointment, or who have served less than two years in an excepted service appointment.” Employees who fit this description, as well as temporary employees on appointments that are not meant to exceed a certain date, can be terminated without triggering MSPB rights." USAID employees reported being shut out of the Global Acquisition and Assistance System (GLAAS) and the related Phoenix system, which assist in agency procurment, according to two sources familiar with the matter. GLAAS is an adapted version of PRISM, a procurement tool that’s used throughout the federal government. The platform is connected to Phoenix, the agency’s financial management system, and highlights how much an agency’s operations depend on accessing just a handful of information technology systems.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
President Donald Trump accelerated his reduction of the federal workforce Tuesday with an executive order that minimizes agency hiring allowances, requiring four workers to depart for every one hire to be made. The order to implement Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency ”workforce optimization initiative” calls on the Office of Management and Budget director to submit a plan to reduce the federal workforce through those hiring limitations once the administration-mandated hiring freeze ends. Matthew Graviss, the Department of State’s first chief data and artificial intelligence officer, has left the agency, a spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. Graviss began as the department’s chief data officer in 2020 as the first person to hold the full-time role at the agency, in addition to serving as the agency’s top AI official. In a LinkedIn post about his move, Graviss called his time at the department an “incredible journey” and said he was proud of the work to modernize the agency. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Federal employees would be banned from using the Chinese artificial intelligence platform DeepSeek on their government-issued devices under new legislation from a bipartisan group of House lawmakers. The No DeepSeek on Government Devices Act, introduced by Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., Darin LaHood, R-Ill., and 16 of their House colleagues Friday, comes after weeks of panic in Silicon Valley following the revelation that the Chinese startup’s AI models were comparable if not more advanced than offerings from U.S. companies. DeepSeek, a low-cost, open-source AI model, has since reported difficulties in registering new users thanks to “large-scale malicious attacks” on its services. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency placed several members of its election security group on administrative leave last week, multiple sources familiar with the situation told CyberScoop. According to one source, the moves happened Thursday and Friday of last week and were targeted at employees focused on CISA’s mis-, dis- and malinformation teams. The moves include four employees currently working on or assigned to the team, two more that left the team in the past four years but still hold positions at the Department of Homeland Security, and another two that work on elections misinformation or disinformation at DHS. A second source confirmed that some, but not all members of CISA’s election security team, were placed on leave last week. The extent of the teams impacted by the decree is unclear.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Energy on Friday replaced its chief information officer with a network engineer from Elon Musk’s SpaceX, FedScoop has learned. Dawn Zimmer — who’d been serving as Energy CIO since Ann Dunkin resigned from the role as the Biden administration left office — has been removed from the role by the department’s leadership, two sources with direct knowledge of the move told FedScoop. Zimmer was hired as Energy’s principal deputy CIO in November, and she has returned to that role. With Zimmer removed as acting CIO, Energy leadership has appointed Ryan Riedel to the role, according to one of the sources, who also shared a screenshot of Riedel listed as CIO in the department’s email directory. Riedel lists his current employment as a lead network security engineer at SpaceX on his LinkedIn. He joined the company in 2020 after previously serving at U.S. Army Cyber Command and in the U.S. Navy as an IT specialist, his profile shows. The change comes amid reports that members of the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency have entered the Department of Energy and at least one is accessing its IT systems. The U.S. AI Safety Institute has selected Scale AI as the first third-party evaluator authorized to assess AI models on its behalf, opening a new channel for testing. That agreement will allow a broader range of model builders to access voluntary evaluation, according to a Scale AI release shared with FedScoop ahead of the Monday announcement. Participating companies will be able to test their models once and, if they choose, share those results with AI safety institutes around the world. Criteria for those evaluations will be developed jointly by the AI data labeling company and the AISI. For Scale’s part, that work will be led by its research arm, the Safety, Evaluation, and Alignment Lab, or SEAL. Per the announcement, the evaluations will look at performance in areas such as math, reasoning, and AI coding. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
A federal judge Thursday limited access to a Treasury Department payments system that various Department of Government Efficiency surrogates had burrowed into at the behest of Elon Musk. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in response to a lawsuit from a coalition of labor unions against the Treasury Department and Secretary Scott Bessent, wrote in her ruling that the defendants cannot “provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained by or within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service.” Tom Krause and Marko Elez, two DOGE-connected “special government employees” of the Treasury Department, were granted “read-only” access to Bureau of Fiscal Service systems “as needed for the performance” of their respective duties, the judge ruled. The Office of Personnel Management released multiple memos this week that continue the Trump administration’s push to shift agencies away from career employees and toward more political positions across the government. OPM asked agencies in a Wednesday memo to identify all Senior Executive Service (SES) positions and make requests to keep those people in career roles if the agency head believes the “President’s goals and priorities would be better served by keeping” the status quo. OPM said the Trump administration received reports that agencies near the end of the Biden administration redesignated SES positions that are traditionally held by noncareer employees, labeling them as positions that can only be held by career employees under the titles “general” or “career reserved.” That comes after another OPM memo released this week pushed to classify chief information officers as general employees.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
House Republicans on Wednesday temporarily blocked Democratic efforts to subpoena Elon Musk, turning back an attempt to bring the tech billionaire before Congress to answer questions about what his Department of Government Efficiency delegates are doing in federal agency computer systems. During a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the size of the federal government, ranking member Gerry Connolly, D-Va., moved to subpoena Musk to face the committee as a witness at the “earliest possible moment.” Connolly’s Democratic colleagues supported the motion, but lost out to Republicans, tabling the motion. Democratic calls to hear from Musk follow the ongoing DOGE-led shutdown of USAID, the alleged sidestepping of federal law at the Office of Personnel Management via an email server, and the granting of systems access at the Treasury Department to DOGE workers.The Trump administration has requested input from the public as it seeks to develop its own path forward on artificial intelligence policy. A Federal Register post for public inspection Wednesday requests feedback on the AI “action plan” that President Donald Trump directed under his Jan. 23 executive order on the technology. That order directed agencies to review AI actions taken under Joe Biden’s executive order on AI, which Trump rescinded on his first day in office, and said the country’s policy on the technology is “to sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security.” It also set a 180-day timeline for a new action plan that’s in line with that policy to be delivered to the president.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
A new memo from the Office of Personnel Management has recommended that federal agencies reclassify the position of chief information officer, in what appears to be an attempt to make the technical position far more political than it’s previously been. Specifically, the new designation would have the chief information officer serve as a “general” employee rather than a “career reserved” employee. General employees, according to OPM, can be filled by a range of people, including “career, noncareer, limited term or limited emergency” senior executive branch appointees. Career reserved positions, meanwhile, are supposed to be impartial and can only be filled by career appointees. The memo argues that CIOs have served increasingly policy-based positions, given their focus on issues including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and machine learning. The document argues that reclassifying the position could also help increase the potential talent pool for CIOs.A coalition of labor unions is suing the Treasury Department and Secretary Scott Bessent over the disclosure of Americans’ personal and financial information to Elon Musk and the tech billionaire’s Department of Government Efficiency surrogates. In a lawsuit filed Monday to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Alliance for Retired Americans, the American Federation of Government Employees and the Service Employees International Union allege that the Treasury Department under Bessent allowed Musk and his DOGE associates to access the personal information of millions of individuals who have transacted with the federal government. That personal information includes names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, birth places, home addresses and telephone numbers, email addresses, and bank account information, according to the lawsuit. A Treasury employee initially prevented DOGE workers from accessing those records, the department’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service. But according to the lawsuit, once Bessent was confirmed, he placed that employee on leave and provided the DOGE crew with “full access to the Bureau’s data and the computer systems that house them.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Last month, the Harvard National Security Journal published what’s thought to be the first legal scholarship on the subject matter of unidentified anomalous phenomena, the modern term for UFOs. Dillon Guthrie — a D.C.-based attorney who has served as a counsel at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, an advisor on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and a legislative aide to Senator John Kerry — is the author of that article. In it, he attempts to analyze legislation and other government efforts to keep pace with UAP research and to continue to bring awareness to the topic. Pentagon correspondent Brandi Vincent, who regularly covers the Defense Department’s growing investigations into UAP reports for DefenseScoop, recently sat down with Guthrie to discuss his new article and his thoughts on the federal government’s work — from Congress to the DOD — around UAP.The Trump administration’s broad efforts to remake the U.S. government have been met with widespread criticism from federal workers. On Tuesday, dozens of federal workers and their supporters gathered outside the Office of Personnel Management in Washington to push back on Musk’s apparent leadership on the Trump administration's efforts to reshape the workforce. They also carried signs with phrases like “arrest Elon,” “stop the coup” and “fork Musk.” Some even held forks in reference to OPM’s “Fork in the Road” email about deferred resignation. That offer echoed a message Musk sent to Twitter employees after he bought the company and was also the title of an art piece Musk said he commissioned. The protests come after reports that Musk and his DOGE team entered OPM and stood up an unauthorized, insecure commercial server connected to other agency systems to support the sending of mass email blasts to the entirety of the federal workforce, to include the aforementioned Fork in the Road email. USAID is turning off government devices for employees tending to the agency’s missions around the world, several sources told FedScoop. As the future of the agency remains unclear — Secretary of State Marco Rubio is now reportedly its acting administrator — the disconnections risk the safety of U.S. government workers based in dangerous and hard-to-access regions. Several people familiar with the matter confirmed that USAID workers are having their phones disconnected. Those whose devices have been deactivated can assume they’ve been placed on leave, one person said, since those deactivations are outpacing formal human resources notifications. A second person familiar said that the phones of USAID workers who are currently abroad have also been disconnected. A third USAID employee confirmed earlier Monday that agency employees in the West Africa region lost access to their computers and phones, and that some Washington, D.C. offices — like the Office of Transition Initiatives — had experienced the same. The same employee later told FedScoop that they had also lost access to their email address with no warning. Thousands of USAID email accounts had been deactivated, one source said, following widespread reports that the Trump administration plans to shut down the agency and possibly integrate it with the State Department. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Army UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter that fatally collided with an American Airlines passenger plane Wednesday night over the Potomac River was not equipped with experimental autonomous flight capabilities, defense officials familiar with the ongoing federal investigation told DefenseScoop. There’s said to be no survivors in the aftermath of the tragic crash, which happened around 9:00 p.m. local time on a notoriously highly-congested flight path in the National Capital Region. The Army is closely supporting the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board-led investigation into the incident, officials said. In statements, press briefings and one-on-one conversations Thursday, several defense officials shed new light on the mid-air collision. Their comments confirm that — despite the Army’s unfolding experimentation with AI and autonomous software — the helicopter involved was not equipped with or deploying any such systems.More than 200 state and local governments are using a new, nonpartisan talent program called Civic Match that’s connecting outgoing federal workers and campaign staff with new government jobs. The Civic Match program, which was launched in November by the workforce nonprofit Work for America, is a talent matching platform designed to help federal employees remain in public service, but at the state and local level. More than 1,200 outgoing federal workers and campaign staffers from both Democratic and Republican campaigns have signed up to use the platform, and 220 state and local government hiring managers are reviewing those candidates for placement in government, according to program organizers. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The main website for USAID went offline this weekend and thousands of staffers may have lost access to their email accounts amid rumors that the Trump administration intends to eliminate the agency. The website went dark after staffers associated with the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency gained access to the domain and then blocked USAID employees, a person familiar with the matter told FedScoop. The source said around 2,000 email accounts associated with USAID workers have since been deactivated. USAID did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. The news follows a massive and sudden pause on American international aid that’s shaken global development groups charged with disbursing critical and life-saving resources. An all-staff email distribution list at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was bombarded with crude emails last Thursday night, prompting a review by its top IT official. The emails included an “Important Weather Alert” about a “99% chance of shit showers” over the next four years, a subscription confirmation for Scientology Today, and crude and inflammatory messages critical of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Some of those emails were obtained by FedScoop and others were posted online to X and Reddit. The incident has sparked a review by NOAA’s Office of the Chief Information Officer, according to an email shared by a spokesperson for the weather and climate agency. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order Monday night tasking the Pentagon to build a plan for a multilayered missile defense system underpinned by both space-based sensors and interceptors. Under the directive, titled “Iron Dome for America,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is required to develop “a reference architecture, capabilities-based requirements and an implementation plan” to address emerging aerial threats against the U.S. homeland. The strategy, due to the president in the next 60 days, must focus on defense against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles and other aerial platforms.An artificial intelligence advisory panel created during the first Trump administration is delivering the president a list of 10 actionable AI priorities to pursue as he begins his second term. The National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee, established under section 5104 of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act and signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2020, voted Tuesday in favor of a 10-priority draft document of “timely AI policy issues and proposed solutions.” The recommendations laid out in that document, NAIAC said, should “provide an opportunity for the administration to achieve its goals to advance the United States’ continued AI leadership and competitiveness.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
A lawsuit filed in federal court Monday alleges that the Office of Personnel Management set up an on-premise server to conduct last week’s mass email blast to federal employees and store information it received in response without doing a privacy impact assessment on the system as required by law. Filed by two anonymous federal employees in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the class-action lawsuit calls for OPM to stop the use of the system until the agency can show that it’s lawfully conducted a privacy assessment. The two employees accuse OPM officials of deploying the new server — which is said to be “retaining information about every employee of the U.S. Executive Branch” or potentially doing so through systems linked to it — in a “rapid” manner without building proper security measures into it or assessing the privacy impacts as required by the E-Government Act of 2002. The Trump administration said it is offering “deferred resignation” options to federal employees who agree to leave their positions within seven business days, the latest in a series of actions aimed at slashing the government’s workforce. In an email that the Office of Personnel Management said was sent to federal employees Tuesday, the White House presented government workers with a “deferred resignation offer.” Federal workers who accept that offer by Feb. 6 “will retain all pay and benefits regardless of your daily workload and will be exempted from all applicable in-person work requirements until September 30, 2025 (or earlier if you choose to accelerate your resignation for any reason),” the message posted on OPM’s website said.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Defense houses one of — if not the biggest — workforces in the world. It is a Fortune 1 company, if you think about it that way. And managing a workforce that large and complex doesn’t come easy. However, the department believes that modern technology can play a role in making workforce management more effective. To discuss that, Wyatt Kash recently spoke with Mark Gorak, principal Director for resources & analysis in the office of the DOD CIO, about the digital tools and resource the department is leaning on to modernize it workforce management and the challenges such a large enterprise faces in managing its workforce.The Trump administration has made its pick for federal CIO, FedScoop has learned. Two sources familiar with the matter confirmed that Greg Barbaccia has been hired for the federal CIO role within the Office of Management and Budget. He replaces Clare Martorana, who served in the role for nearly the entirety of the Biden administration. In the short time the role has been vacant since Martorana stepped down Jan. 20, Deputy Federal CIO Drew Myklegard has filled it in an acting capacity. Barbaccia comes to the role with a background of mostly private-sector experience, though he started his career in the U.S. Army, according to a public bio. He then went on to build a resume as a technology leader at Palantir, where he spent a decade in roles including head of intelligence and investigations; blockchain company Elementus; and San Francisco-based credit underwriting technology company Theorem, where he was most recently CISO before taking the federal CIO role. OpenAI has announced a new more tailored version of ChatGPT called ChatGPT Gov, a service that the company said is meant to accelerate government use of the tool for non-public sensitive data. In an announcement Tuesday, the company said that ChatGPT Gov, which can run in the Microsoft Azure commercial cloud or Azure Government cloud, will give federal agencies increased ability to use OpenAI frontier models. The product is also supposed to make it easier for agencies to follow certain cybersecurity and compliance requirements, while exploring potential applications of the technology, the announcement said. Through ChatGPT Gov, federal agencies can use GPT-4o, along with a series of other OpenAI tools, and build custom search and chat systems developed by agencies.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The FedRAMP Emerging Technology Prioritization Framework, which was established last year to accelerate the use of systems like artificial intelligence in the federal cloud, has been eliminated as part of President Donald Trump’s rescission of the Biden administration’s AI executive order. A person with direct knowledge of the matter confirmed the program no longer existed. The Emerging Technology Prioritization Framework, which recently switched to a rolling application process, aimed to allow cloud service providers to request prioritization of cloud services associated with emerging technology in the FedRAMP authorization process. The framework’s final draft was issued last summer, requiring interested cloud providers to apply for prioritization by the end of August 2024. The General Services Administration, which operates the FedRAMP program, said initial determinations would be announced the following month.Pete Hegseth, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, was confirmed as the next secretary of defense after Vice President JD Vance cast the tiebreaking vote in the Senate Friday night. Senators voted 50-50 before Vance had to be called in to tip the balance. Hegseth will take the helm at the Defense Department as the DOD gears up for potential wars against high-tech adversaries such as China. During his confirmation process, Hegseth pledged that as defense secretary he would prioritize investments in AI, drones and counter-drone systems, among other technologies that he considers key to military modernization. Soon after his confirmation, Hegseth issued a message to the military on Saturday that expressed his intent to quickly field emerging capabilities to deter China and others.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
An executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Thursday mandates a review of agency activities stemming from the Biden administration’s now-revoked EO on artificial intelligence and calls for the creation of a new plan of action. The brief order establishes that it is the policy of the U.S. “to sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security.” It sets in motion steps for the new administration as it looks to craft its own approach to the growing technology. President Joe Biden’s order (EO 14110), which was among the first items Trump revoked after returning to the White House, had been focused on using the technology while also managing its safety and security risks. But Trump and Republicans took issue with it, saying it would hinder AI development. The Republican party platform called it “dangerous.”Defense leaders are weighing their options to deploy various types of military drones on the U.S.-Mexico border for information-collecting and surveillance operations in support of the Trump administration’s move to rapidly expand troop presence there, a senior military official told reporters Wednesday. “A lot of the ground units now have tactical [unmanned aerial systems, or UAS] that they might bring in,” the official said during an off-camera briefing at the Pentagon. On the condition of anonymity, they and another top defense official took questions from the media regarding the Defense Department’s first official statement about how its components plan to rapidly respond to President Donald Trump’s executive mandates to tighten security at America’s southern border with the support of the U.S. military.
The Office of Personnel Management has created a new email account meant to collect reports of suspected diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, one of a series of moves the Trump administration has taken to slash DEI efforts across the federal workforce. According to a Jan. 21 memo available online, OPM directed agencies — which are now engaged in the process of shutting down diversity initiatives — to collect reports of any efforts to disguise such initiatives. The memo states that the administration is aware of efforts by some in government to disguise DEI programs by using coded or imprecise language, calling for anyone aware of a change in any contract description or personnel position description since November 5, 2024 to obscure the connection between the contract and DEI or similar ideologies to report all “facts and circumstances” to the email account DEIAtruth@opm.gov within 10 days. Failure to report such activities could result in “adverse consequences,” the memo notes.The White House sent Michael Kratsios’s nomination to direct the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to the Senate on Wednesday, formally beginning his confirmation process. Kratsios was chief technology officer during the first Trump administration and was most recently managing director at Scale AI, a technology company and defense contractor focused on AI model training data. Sending his nomination to the Senate officially starts the confirmation process and puts him among the first of Trump’s selections officially transmitted to the chamber.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
President Donald Trump on Monday officially shut down the Customs and Border Protection-run app designed to help schedule appointments for people seeking eligibility for asylum, closing off a pathway for migrants at the Southern border hoping to enter the United States. Supporters of the CBP One app had said that the system made the jobs of border agents easier, despite technical difficulties and data privacy questions raised by critics of the platform. It’s estimated that around a million people used the app to enter the country. The app shutdown came amid a series of other executive orders focused on immigration. Before the election, Trump frequently criticized the app, saying that it was being used for “smuggling” migrants.The Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security unveiled a list of artificial intelligence uses that are prohibited for agency missions as part of a new directive quietly introduced last week. The directive, which is DHS’s latest effort to create a guiding policy for the use and acquisition of AI, also sets governance requirements for how the department and its components should approach the technology — including how it should buy, test and operate it, and report any incidents involving its use. While DHS has briefly addressed in previous policy that it’s prohibited for department personnel to use AI for discriminatory purposes, the latest policy expands upon and adds to that, more thoroughly detailing uses of AI and associated data that are forbidden.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Details are starting to trickle in about how the Trump administration and its new DOGE will look to use tech modernization as a driver of efficiency in the federal government. But there’s still uncertainty about how the new administration will address some key topics, like AI, cybersecurity, the tech workforce and more. Last month, the Alliance for Digital Innovation issued a set of tech priority recommendations for the Trump White House and sent an open letter to the DOGE, offering guidance on how to best approach the federal tech landscape. Ross Nodurft, the executive director of that coalition and former head of the Office of Management and Budget’s cybersecurity team, joins me to discuss what those suggested priorities are, how Congress could play a role and how the DOGE, regardless of politics, could shine a welcome spotlight on improving the state of federal technology.Also: Just hours after the Trump administration took office Monday, the president signed a flurry of executive orders, many of which are likely to have significant impact on federal technology operations. Most notably, Donald Trump signed orders to claw back Joe Biden’s executive order on artificial intelligence and called for a return to office for federal employees. Trump’s repeal of the AI EO didn’t come with any policy replacing the Biden administration’s, which established a roadmap for the federal government to address the growing technology while managing risks. Meanwhile, Trump’s new order for a return to in-person work called for agency leaders to “take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis.” Trump also issued an order establishing the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The order renames the U.S. Digital Service as “the United States DOGE Service” and charges it with “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”Also in this episode: Cloudera Government Solutions President Rob Carey joins SNG host Wyatt Kash in a sponsored podcast discussion on how best to ensure the trustworthiness — as well as the security and privacy — of the data agencies rely upon to drive AI solutions and, ultimately, mission success. This segment was sponsored by Cloudera.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Troy Meink, a senior leader at the National Reconnaissance Office, is President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to serve as secretary of the Air Force. The former and future commander-in-chief announced his pick Thursday on Truth Social. As the civilian head of the Department of the Air Force — which also includes the Space Force — Meink would be responsible for leading the service during a period of wide-ranging modernization. If confirmed by the Senate, he’d be expected to play a key role in deciding the future of the Next-Generation Air Dominance program. The department is also pursuing Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the B-21 stealth bomber, a Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, AI capabilities, modernized cyber and IT tools, and the DAF Battle Network, among other technologies. Meink has been serving as principal deputy director of NRO, a position he was appointed to during the first Trump administration in 2020. In that role, he was tasked with “overall day-to-day management of the NRO, with decision responsibility as delegated by the Director.”Federal agencies with top-secret workloads can now use OpenAI’s GPT-4o through Microsoft’s Azure for U.S. Government Top Secret cloud. Microsoft announced Thursday it received authorization for 26 additional products in its top-secret cloud environment, meeting Intelligence Community Directive (ICD) 503 standards and allowing agencies — particularly those in the intelligence community and Defense Department — to use them for the government’s most classified information. Those added tools include Azure OpenAI Service — which provides Azure customers access to OpenAI’s generative AI large language models — and Azure Machine Learning, among others.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Biden administration released anticipated guidance Wednesday for federal agencies to implement the OPEN Government Data Act and reupped the Chief Data Officers Council after it lapsed last month, completing two key actions for federal data pol icy. Under the Office of Management and Budget memo (M-25-05), commonly known as “Phase II” guidance, agencies have long-awaited marching orders on how to create and maintain comprehensive data inventories and make their data open by default. That includes requirements to create a data inventory that is interoperable with the Federal Data Catalog, conform to the metadata schema approved by the White House, and publish that inventory on the agency’s website. The memo reestablishing the CDO Council (M-25-06), meanwhile, gives the panel the ability to start exactly how it left off when its authorization lapsed Dec. 15 with the same membership and leadership. That will be important for carrying out the work under the Phase II guidance as the CDO Council is partly responsible for one of the first actions. That cybersecurity executive order we mentioned earlier in the week is officially here. President Biden on Thursday issued the EO on Strengthening and Promoting Innovation in the Nation’s Cybersecurity, ordering additional actions to improve the nation’s cybersecurity, focusing on defending digital infrastructure, securing the services and capabilities most vital to the digital domain, and building capability to address key threats, including those from the People’s Republic of China. The order constitutes one big last stab at cybersecurity in the Biden administration’s 11th hour and is a follow-up to an order published in the first year of his presidency. It gives agencies 53 deadlines, stretching in length from 30 days to three years.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Days before the Biden administration is set to leave the White House, it issued Tuesday an executive order aimed at shoring up the nation’s AI infrastructure, including through the operation of data centers, in an effort to ensure that the growing technology will be built and operated in the U.S. Specifically, the order outlines requirements for federal agencies — including the departments of Defense and Energy — to identify sites that the government could lease to the private sector for the construction and operation of frontier AI data centers, as well as clean energy facilities to serve those centers. The order instructs those organizations to review competitive proposals to construct AI infrastructure on those sites. The order appears to be a direct response to AI companies, such as OpenAI and Microsoft, which have emphasized the importance of investment in data center infrastructure to meet AI’s massive data processing and training needs.The Office of Personnel Management has a new top IT official: Melvin Brown II is now the agency’s chief information officer following Guy Cavallo’s retirement from federal service. Before his promotion, Brown was the deputy CIO at the agency and served in that role since January 2021. In a written statement, an OPM spokesperson said Brown “has been an integral leader in delivering many of OPM’s accomplishments in modernizing IT.” That includes the agency achieving an “A” score on its Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act, or FITARA, scorecard, which tracks agency progress in multiple IT areas. Prior to joining OPM, Brown directed enterprise business management within the Small Business Administration’s Office of the CIO and was a senior adviser to the Department of Homeland Security’s Presidential Transition Office.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
As mentioned last Tuesday, Mina Hsiang, administrator of the U.S. Digital Service, is one of the many technology officials who will depart federal service with the forthcoming change in administrations later this month. Hsiang, a longtime government digital services leader, was tapped to lead USDS at the beginning of the Biden administration and has now seen that role through to the term’s end. In the second part of a two-part exit interview with FedScoop reporter Caroline Nihill, Hsiang gives her closing thoughts as she wraps up her time at the helm of the government’s technology tiger team.In the headlines today: A draft cybersecurity executive order would tackle cyber defenses in locations ranging from outer space to the U.S. federal bureaucracy to its contractors, and address security risks embedded in subjects like cybercrime, artificial intelligence and quantum computers. The draft, a copy of which CyberScoop obtained, constitutes one big last stab at cybersecurity in the Biden administration’s eleventh hour. The order is follow-up to an order published in the first year of his presidency, The new order gives agencies 53 deadlines, stretching in length from 30 days to three years. Also: The Department of Health and Human Services has three new officials to lead its artificial intelligence, technology and data work. According to biographies posted HHS, Alicia Rouault is the department’s new associate deputy assistant secretary for technology policy and chief technology officer, Kristen Honey is the department’s chief data officer, and Meghan Dierks is the chief artificial intelligence officer. The three new officials join the department after it announced a reorganization of its health, data, AI and cyber portfolios in July. As part of those changes, the chief technology, data and AI roles moved from the department’s Assistant Secretary for Administration, where the Office of the Chief Information Officer is housed, to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Federal agencies would be required to track and report computer usage for teleworking employees under new legislation from a Senate Republican. The Requiring Effective Management and Oversight of Teleworking Employees (REMOTE) Act, from Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, would charge executive department heads with enacting policies that record the login activity and network traffic of teleworkers’ government computers. Managers of teleworking staffers would be required to “periodically review” the traffic generated by those workers and collect a variety of relevant data, including average number of daily logins and average daily duration of the connection to the applicable computer network. Ernst said in a statement: “While DOGE stands ready to clean house, I will be leading the fight in the Senate to disrupt the business-as-usual bureaucrats who spent the last four years out of office.” Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks is poised to complete her tenure at the Pentagon under the Biden administration — and she’s been in direct contact with officials on President-elect Donald Trump’s Agency Review Team preparing for the upcoming transition, according to her top public affairs advisor Eric Pahon. In responses to questions from DefenseScoop last week, Pahon discussed Hicks’ plans and priorities for her final days helping steer the Defense Department’s major technology programs. He shared that QUOTE “her priorities today remain the same as they have been since her first day in office: Foremost, in support of the secretary and president, she is maintaining her focus on ensuring that DOD can outpace strategic competitors like the [People’s Republic of China] by fielding more combat-credible capabilities at greater speed and scale, continually iterating on novel operational concepts, distributing and hardening our force posture, and leveraging our unparalleled ability to generate innovation with and through America’s private sector."The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The White House announced Tuesday the official launch of the U.S. Cyber Trust Mark, a cybersecurity labeling initiative aimed at enhancing the security of internet-connected devices. The initiative tackles rising consumer concerns about the security vulnerabilities of “smart” devices essential to modern homes. As households become more dependent on interconnected gadgets — with a 2023 Deloitte study revealing that the average U.S. household has 21 connected devices — the threat of cyberattacks becomes increasingly significant. These threats include hackers gaining unauthorized access to home security systems and illicit recordings through unsecured cameras. The Cyber Trust Mark aims to reassure users by offering clear security evaluations of the products they use every day. Anne Neuberger, the White House’s deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, told reporters Tuesday that consumers don’t have the confidence that they can connect a device at home and know that their private pictures and communications will be secure and the new program takes on that problem in a bipartisan and voluntary way.President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law the Government Service Delivery Improvement Act, legislation that targets improving customer service interactions with the government. The bill was first introduced by Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., Byron Donalds, R-Fla., Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., and William Timmons, R-S.C., in October 2023. Now as law, it requires the Office of Management and Budget to choose a senior official as a “Federal Government Service Delivery Lead” to coordinate government service delivery improvement within agencies. That service delivery lead would also work with new agency-appointed senior officials, who must be named within a year of the bill’s enactment, to oversee their organizations’ delivery improvements.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Guy Cavallo, the chief information officer of the Office of Personnel Management since July 2021, will retire from federal service on Jan. 13, he confirmed to FedScoop. Cavallo leaves federal service having held several top technology roles over the past decade, including as deputy CIO of the Small Business Administration and executive director of IT operations at the Transportation Security Administration. He also served as OPM’s principal deputy CIO and acting CIO before being named permanent CIO. As the longest-tenured CIO of OPM in recent memory, Cavallo led that charge on a two-year sprint replacing or migrating over 50 applications from legacy on-premises data centers to the cloud and the launch of the new Postal Health Benefits System last year for more than 1.7 million postal workers and retirees. He touted the system as fully operational 100% of the time with no unscheduled downtime throughout the Open Season. The Pentagon’s Chief Digital and AI Office recently completed a pilot exercise with tech nonprofit Humane Intelligence that analyzed three well-known large language models in two real-world use cases aimed at improving modern military medicine, officials confirmed Thursday. In its aftermath, the partners revealed they uncovered hundreds of possible vulnerabilities that defense personnel can account for moving forward when considering LLMs for these purposes. A Defense Department spokesperson told DefenseScoop the findings revealed biases that could impact the military’s healthcare system, such as bias related to demographics. They wouldn’t share much more about what was exposed, but the official provided new details about the design and implementation of this CDAO-led pilot, the team’s follow-up plans and the steps they took to protect service members’ privacy while using applicable clinical records. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Mina Hsiang, administrator of the U.S. Digital Service, is one of the many technology officials who will depart federal service with the forthcoming change in administrations later this month. Hsiang, a longtime government digital services leader, was tapped to lead USDS as the beginning of the Biden administration and has now seen that role through to the term’s end. In a two-part exit interview with FedScoop report Caroline Nihill, Hsiang shares some of the highlights from the past four years — including a partnership with the Social Security Administraiton and the success of digital initiatives supporting COVID-19 vaccines and test kits — as well as her parting thoughts on her role, the need for technical leaders inside government agencies, and much more.The Defense Department has tapped Kratos to develop a testbed for hypersonic vehicles under the Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed 2.0 program, the company announced Monday. The other transaction authority agreement is for Task Area 1 of MACH-TB 2.0, an initiative that broadly aims to expand options for the Pentagon to demonstrate and validate hypersonic weapons and related technologies. If all options are exercised, the deal has a performance period of five years and a total value of $1.45 billion — the single largest contract ever awarded to the contractor. Former Defense Department Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy is now working at Boeing as the organization’s chief information digital officer and senior vice president for information technology and data analytics, the company announced Jan.3. Deasy served as the Pentagon CIO during the first Trump administration starting in May 2018 and oversaw a variety of high-profile modernization initiatives. He was at the helm when the department moved to large-scale telework as employees adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic, helped stand up the Joint AI Center and led the charge to enterprise cloud through the JEDI contract. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency unveiled a detailed set of guidelines Wednesday to safeguard the mobile communications of high-value government targets in the wake of the ongoing Salt Typhoon telecom breach. The guide aims to help both political and federal leadership harden their communications and avoid any data interception by the Chinese-linked espionage group. As of earlier this month, government agencies were still grappling with the attack’s full scope, federal officials told reporters. Among the targets were officials from both presidential campaigns, including the phone of President-elect Donald Trump. The advisory details several key practices intended to mitigate risks associated with cyber threats and raise awareness on techniques that can thwart any type of malicious actor.The FBI’s ability to fully embrace artificial intelligence has been hamstrung by funding constraints and various workforce and technical challenges, according to a new watchdog report. The Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General said the FBI has “demonstrated initiative” and taken steps to “integrate AI capabilities in a manner consistent” with guidance from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. But substantial progress has been difficult to come by due to barriers that have “impeded” more “accelerated adoption” of AI.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
A consolidated list of federal artificial intelligence use cases released by the White House on Wednesday shows agencies more than doubled the amount of uses reported last year. Per the 2024 consolidated inventory, which is available on the Office of Management and Budget’s GitHub, 37 federal agencies have reported 1,757 public AI uses. A consolidated list released by the White House last year documented 710 use cases. The top three categories of uses, per a Chief Information Officer Council post Wednesday, were “mission-enabling (internal agency support), health and medical, and government services (includes benefits and service delivery).” The consolidated inventory is the product of an annual AI inventory process that was initially established in December 2020 and has continued to evolve. It gives the latest snapshot of how the federal government is handling the rapidly growing technology and reflects the Biden administration’s safety-based approach to AI.Federal civilian agencies have a new list of cyber-related requirements to address after the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Tuesday issued guidance regarding the implementation of secure practices for cloud services. CISA’s Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 25-01 instructs agencies to identify all of its cloud instances and implement assessment tools, while also making sure that their cloud environments are aligned with the cyber agency’s Secure Cloud Business Applications (SCuBA) configuration baselines.CISA Director Jen Easterly said in a statement that the actions laid out in the directive are “an important step” toward reducing risk across the federal civilian enterprise, though threats loom in “every sector.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
House AI task force members on Tuesday touted the long-awaited release of their report outlining recommendations to Congress on the federal government’s adoption of AI, while confirming that lawmakers are in conversation with the incoming administration about the very same topics. The nearly 300-page report digs into a plethora of areas that the emerging technology touches, including the government’s own use of AI, along with recommendations concerning AI governance and the AI workforce. Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., co-chairman of the task force, said during a press conference Tuesday that legislators and the incoming Trump administration are discussing what could be done to the executive order that the Biden White House released last fall, what items need legislative action and how efforts might be “harmonized” between the legislative and executive branches.Adele Merritt has been named the top IT official for the National Institutes of Health, giving the agency a permanent chief information officer for the first time in roughly two years. Merritt, who was most recently the CIO of the intelligence community, began her roles as CIO and director of the agency’s Office of the Chief Information Officer on Monday, NIH Director Monica M. Bertagnolli said in a written announcement. According to Bertagnolli, Merritt comes to NIH with more than 20 years experience in cyber and national security operations and has held positions across the government intelligence community.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
As the federal government journeys into uncharted territory with the adoption of AI, it’s no surprise that the nation’s space exploration agency is one of the most innovative among the bunch. Krista Kinnard is NASA’s Digital Transformation, Culture and Communications Lead and was recently promoted to that agency's deputy chief AI officer, where she'll continue to play a key role shepherding the cultural push behind the agency’s AI revolution. The Daily Scoop recently caught up with Kinnard at ACT-IAC’s Imagine Nation ELC event in Hershey, Pa. During our conversation, we touched on her role at the agency and how it relates to AI, the progress the agency has made in adopting AI, and what’s ahead. The Department of Homeland Security has built an artificial intelligence-based chatbot it’s calling DHSChat, the latest in a string of agency experimentations with generative AI. DHSChat is designed as a chatbot meant for internal use within the agency, according to a press release shared Tuesday. The tool was developed by DHS’s AI Corps and its director, Michael Boyce, after employees experimented with commercial generative AI tools, including Claude and ChatGPT. In a statement, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that the “cutting-edge tool” would help workers across DHS “draft vital reports, summarize critical information, develop new software, streamline administrative tasks, and much more."The Department of Health and Human Services was among the first federal agencies to release its 2024 AI use case inventory Monday, reporting a roughly 66% increase in uses from the previous year. In a post accompanying the inventory, Steven Posnack, HHS’s principal deputy assistant secretary for technology policy and principal deputy national coordinator for health IT, highlighted the health agency’s increase from 163 to 271 use cases and noted the varying stages of development. The new figure, for example, includes uses for operation and maintenance and in acquisition and development, as well as 16 uses that are retired. The inventory comes as agencies across the federal government are expected to release new and expanded lists of AI use cases for 2024.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Defense Department doesn’t know who has been flying drones recently near its military installations in New Jersey, and the Pentagon is “frustrated” by this type of activity, according to a senior official. In recent days and weeks, there have been thousands of reports and tips about drone sightings in New Jersey as well as other states. Law enforcement agencies have been investigating the reports. In many cases officials believe that manned aircraft were misidentified as unmanned aerial systems. However, there have been instances of mysterious drone activity over New Jersey, including recently at two U.S. military facilities, federal officials told reporters during a background call Saturday afternoon. A Defense Department official said on condition of anonymity that the Pentagon has had confirmed sightings at Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle. NASA is researching options to replace an existing electronic health record system that supports some unique patients: astronauts. In a request for information, the agency said it’s looking to replace a system that currently holds roughly 30,000 records for NASA employees that date back to the founding of the U.S. Space Program. The request, which is purely information-seeking and may be used to finalize a request for quotes, was initially posted in November and responses were due Friday. While that current system, which is installed primarily at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, is understood well and configured for the agency’s current workflows, it’s limited in its “patched together work arounds,” “manual processes and procedures,” and “single points of failure in both system and human terms,” NASA said in response to questions on the request posted to SAM.gov Thursday.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security disclosed Thursday that they are supporting New Jersey law enforcement with “numerous detection methods” as part of the response to recent mysterious aircraft sightings in the state’s skies. Thus far, however, the federal agencies “have not corroborated any of the reported visual sightings with electronic detection,” according to a joint statement shared with FedScoop and DefenseScoop. “To the contrary, upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft, operating lawfully. There are no reported or confirmed drone sightings in any restricted air space,” the FBI and DHS statement said. The Department of Energy has to invest in and establish enterprise-wide data analytics to mitigate risk better and take action to begin implementing artificial intelligence capabilities in its Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, two Office of Inspector General reports this week recommended. In a report made public Monday, the OIG reported that DOE does not use an enterprise-wide approach for examining risks, and instead looks at risks in a “fragmented fashion” through aggregating risks identified by each “element,” which comprises field and headquarters organizations.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
As members of the Biden administration wrap up their duties ahead of next month’s transition, the Office of Management and Budget’s IT office is touting the “innovative” technological progress it’s made over the past four years in the face of “unprecedented challenges.” In an impact report shared exclusively with FedScoop, OMB’s Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer highlighted several of its tech-focused accomplishments throughout President Joe Biden’s time in office, pointing specifically to work in artificial intelligence, open data, cybersecurity and quantum, all in service of further modernizing the federal government. Lawmakers in the House and Senate introduced a bipartisan bill Wednesday that would create an advisory panel aimed at developing a national strategy for technologies such as virtual and augmented reality. Under the United States Leadership in Immersive Technology Act, the Department of Commerce would be directed to establish such a panel that would advise the president on how to use those technologies, known collectively as immersive technologies or XR, for commerce, trade and economic competitiveness. That panel would also study XR and its impact on national security, according to a release from sponsor Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., announcing the bill. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
In this episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Sunny Wescott, CISA ISD Chief Meteorologist at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, provides an in-depth look at her critical role managing extreme weather impacts on national infrastructure. She blends her expertise in meteorology, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence (AI) to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. Wescott discusses the growing intensity of extreme weather events and their direct impact on critical infrastructure, including supply chains, energy grids, and data centers. She also explores the role of AI in enhancing weather forecasting while tackling challenges like misinformation and computational demands, as well as sustainable solutions to balance the environmental toll of data centers and AI facilities with operational needs. Additionally, she highlights CISA’s collaborative efforts with public and private sectors to bolster resilience and preparedness. Throughout the episode, Wescott emphasizes her work in integrating advanced climate data into actionable strategies, ensuring stakeholders are equipped to navigate the evolving challenges of a warming world.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Pentagon announced Saturday that it selected five small, non-traditional defense contractors to receive funding to help move their emerging technologies into production. Each company will receive $10 million under the Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies (APFIT) pilot program overseen by Heidi Shyu, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering. The awards mark the first batch of APFIT funding distributed in fiscal 2025 and they’re being bankrolled through continuing resolution appropriations. Shyu said in a statement: “With the backing of APFIT, these companies have an opportunity to push their innovations over the finish line. We look forward to supporting additional projects important to warfighters as more funding is appropriated.” APFIT is intended to steer existing innovation projects across the so-called “valley of death” — a phenomenon in which emerging technologies that have successful research-and-development efforts with the Defense Department fail to receive additional funding for production.
A package of bills introduced by Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., last week would freeze federal hiring and salaries for one year and reintroduce a merit-based compensation structure for federal employees, among other provisions. Blackburn on Thursday announced a single bill as part of her DOGE Act, but a spokesperson from her office clarified in an email to FedScoop that she plans to introduce seven bills under that umbrella. The package would establish a pilot program for civilian employees in the federal government, codifying what President-elect Donald Trump attempted to establish during his first term with Schedule F. The House and Senate Armed Services Committees moved forward a provision paving the way for an independent study assessing the potential creation of a sixth U.S. military service focused on cyber. Both houses of Congress passed nearly identical provisions in their respective versions of the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act earlier this year, and they were incorporated into the final conferenced bill that was reconciled between both chambers and released Saturday evening. The House passed a similar provision last year that was axed during this conference process for the annual defense policy bill, effectively killing it until it was revived this year. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
David Sacks, a venture capitalist, former CEO of enterprise social network firm Yammer and podcaster, will join the incoming administration in a new role President-elect Donald Trump referred to in a Thursday night announcement as the “White House AI & Crypto Czar.” In a series of posts on Trump’s own Truth Social platform, he said Sacks “will guide policy for the Administration in Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency, two areas critical to the future of American competitiveness.” Trump said that Sacks will “focus on making America the clear global leader in both areas” while safeguarding free speech online and steering the nation away from what he referred to as Big Tech bias and censorship. Another key priority for Sack will be working on a legal framework so the crypto industry has “the clarity it has been asking for, and can thrive in the U.S.A handful of federal agencies missed deadlines to complete Internet of Things cybersecurity requirements called out in a 2020 law, a new congressional watchdog report found. The IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2020 required the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Office of Management and Budget to develop guidance for securely procuring IoT — networked technology and devices typically connected to physical objects like buildings, vehicles and other infrastructure. The law also required 23 civilian federal agencies to implement IoT cybersecurity requirements, though a waiver process was to be established by OMB.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Legislation to improve federal agency oversight and management of software purchases passed the House on Wednesday, keeping top IT and software trade groups’ hopes alive that the bill will get through the Senate and become law before this congressional term is up. The Strengthening Agency Management and Oversight of Software Assets Act (H.R.1695) – better known as the SAMOSA Act — was introduced by Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., last year and co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of 20 House lawmakers. Calling the rooting out of waste, fraud and abuse a “signal mission” of the House Oversight Committee, Cartwight said the bill would ensure that federal agencies are required to conduct a “comprehensive assessment of their current software assets and restructure their operations to reduce unnecessary costs.”A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation to reauthorize and refocus the National Quantum Initiative after certain research and development activities in its initial five-year run lapsed in September. The National Quantum Initiative Reauthorization Act would authorize $2.7 billion for quantum R&D at federal agencies for the next five years and shift the initiative’s focus “from basic research to practical applications.” It would also expand the initiative to include agencies like the National Institutes of Health, the State Department and the Small Business Administration, according to a news release. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
David Shive is one of the longest-tenured CIOs in all of the federal government and serves as vice chair of the Federal CIO Council. He also helms the IT portfolio of one of the most innovative and forward-leaning agencies across the executive branch. As such, he’s an insightful leader with a strong read on the state of technology transformation across the federal government. FedScoop recently caught up with Shive on the sidelines of ACT-IAC’s Imagine Nation ELC event in Hershey, Pa. During our conversation, we touched on a variety of things, including trends in digital transformation that GSA and other agencies experienced over the past year, AI adoption and what’s next – as well as an interesting insight he picked up recently on where the U.S. stands compared to its allies in digital service delivery.Top lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee are using the stretch run of this congressional term to address the impact artificial intelligence has on the finance and housing sectors. Reps. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., and Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the chair and ranking member of the committee, respectively, announced Monday the introduction of a resolution to acknowledge the rising use of AI in financial services and in the housing industry, as well as a bill that calls on financial regulatory agencies to study the benefits of the technology within the sector. The resolution and bill are the culmination of nearly a year of work from the committee’s bipartisan AI working group and come just days before a hearing that will explore how the technology is framing the future of finance.In an era where personal data is increasingly commodified, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is attempting to regulate the sprawling industry of data brokers. A newly proposed rule released Tuesday aims to put data brokers in line with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), ensuring accountability and consumer privacy amid widespread security issues. Initially established in 1970, the FCRA was one of the first pieces of legislation aimed at protecting consumer privacy. The proposed changes by the CFPB intend to broaden the law to include data brokers, holding them to the same standards as traditional consumer reporting agencies such as Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. The CFPB’s proposed rule redefines consumer reports to encompass any broker that obtains personal data related to credit and financial assessment.
The Trump-Vance transition team and the Biden administration signed a memorandum of understanding last week formally kicking off the process to hand over executive power — though the Trump team has decided not to accept some of the government’s available resources, including tech and information security provided by the General Services Administration. The transition team will reportedly run as a “self-sufficient organization” with existing security and information protections already built-in, utilizing private funding, according to the press release from the Trump transition team. That includes not using technology or buildings provided by the General Services Administration as part of the transition resources the agency is authorized and appropriated to provide. The Trump team said it “already has existing security and information protections built in, which means we will not require additional government and bureaucratic oversight.”The Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General called out the agency’s lack of an updated public strategy for artificial intelligence and underscored the need to be proactive in a report on its management and performance challenges last week. The comments came as part of the OIG’s determination that maintaining cybersecurity and keeping up with emerging technologies, such as AI, were among the top challenges for the DOJ. For AI specifically, the report underscored how long ago the department’s public AI strategy was released. The OIG’s office said in the report: “While the Department has made efforts to adapt to the change in the technological landscape, such as hiring the Department’s first Chief Science and Technology Advisor and Chief AI Officer, the most recent publicly issued strategy on AI from the Department—which outlines an AI adoption and coordination strategy with DOJ component responsibilities—is from 2020.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Telework programs in the federal government should benefit mission, operations and work-life balance at agencies, according to the Government Accountability Office. Yet some agencies are not fully aligned with key practices to ensure successful telework implementation, the watchdog found in a new report. The Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency all told the GAO that they have not yet fully evaluated the effects of telework on agency performance, it explains in the report. Similarly, the Department of Veterans Affairs cannot do so for the Veterans Benefits Administration because it does not have a system in place that provides telework agreement information in an accessible manner. U.S. Naval Forces Central Command is steaming ahead with experimental efforts to launch unmanned aerial vehicles from uncrewed surface vessels. The latest Digital Talon exercise, conducted earlier this month in the Middle East region, included a variety of robotic capabilities that could play a significant role in future conflicts. In a release, NAVCENT said: “Digital Talon 3.0 … tested the electronic and mechanical effectiveness of robotics and autonomous systems (RAS), the capabilities of over-the-horizon communications between unmanned systems, and testing aerial autonomous launch and recovery of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) off a unmanned surface vessel (USV).” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Last week during a summit with Asian military leaders and their international partners, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin unveiled a first-of-its-kind vision statement outlining the United States’ near-term plans for deepening cooperation and accelerating modernization with allies in the region. The secretary and his delegation presented their U.S. Department of Defense Vision Statement for a Prosperous and Secure Southeast Asia on Thursday at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus). DefenseScoop, which was traveling with Secretary Austin last week, reported that multiple inclusions in that new roadmap prioritize joint military technology-centered initiatives intended to advance the individual and collective capacity of the nations involved.The Energy Department has a new deputy chief information officer. Dawn Zimmer, who previously directed business partnership services and focused on information technology at the Federal Aviation Administration, announced that she was filling the principal deputy chief information officer position. Brian Epley, who recently became the chief information officer at the Commerce Department, previously held the position. He left earlier this year.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Sheena Burrell, the chief information officer of the National Archives and Records Administration, has taken a new job as chief innovation officer at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Burrell will join FDIC to lead its Office of Innovation — known also as the FDIC Tech Lab or FDiTech — on Dec. 2, an agency spokesperson confirmed to FedScoop. Her last day at NARA will be Nov. 30, a National Archives spokesperson said. In her absence, Gulam Shakir will serve as acting CIO “while we continue to plan for NARA’s digital transformation and future,” the NARA spokesperson said.Twelve senators on Wednesday signed a letter addressed to the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, urging investigation into the Transportation Security Administration’s facial recognition technology “regime” as it looks to expand to more airports. Leading the bipartisan group was Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon. Their call for investigation follows TSA plans to introduce credential authentication technologies, or CAT units equipped with facial recognition and deployed at airport security checkpoints, at more than 430 airports.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Veterans Affairs’ top IT official told House lawmakers on Wednesday that a larger budget and the ability to pay certain government workers more would improve the agency’s cybersecurity posture. Kurt DelBene, the VA’s assistant for information and technology and chief information officer, called during a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee hearing for the entire federal government to “take steps to increase the salaries” of tech workers who are classified as GS-2210 under the Office of Personnel Management. The CIO said existing salaries are “too low to be competitive,” even with incentives and benefits, and that the VA continues to face challenges in recruiting and retaining professionals with cyber expertise.The State Department on Wednesday announced a new, government-wide task force focused on content authentication. The group, which includes more than 20 federal agencies, is supposed to streamline the government’s international outreach on content authentication, which could help combat technology like deepfakes. The task force is charged with working with foreign governments and partners on developing the technical standards and capacities to detect this category of content, according to a statement shared with FedScoop ahead of the announcement.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The leader of the Defense Department organization charged with investigating reports of “unidentified anomalous phenomena” laid out findings related to two high-profile incidents and another that he said hasn’t received as much attention from the public. The presentation by Jon Kosloski, director of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), came during a congressional hearing Tuesday with members of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities. Lawmakers have been urging the Pentagon to be more transparent about its work on UAP issues and have raised national security concerns about these types of incidents. UAP, an acronym that refers to unidentified anomalous phenomena, is a modern term for UFOs and mysterious transmedium objects. During the hearing Kosloski walked the subommittee through the findings the AARO delivered on a trio of UAP cases referred to as the Go Fast, Puerto Rico and Mt. Etna incidents, the latter of which he said hasn’t received as much attention from the public.Congressional efforts to extend the Chief Data Officer Council past the end of the year got a boost Monday when a bipartisan House bill was introduced as the companion to earlier Senate legislation. The Modernizing Data Practices to Improve Government Act (H.R. 10151), introduced by Reps. Summer Lee, D-Pa., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., calls for an extension to the council’s lifespan until 2031, while also requiring the CDO Council to report to Congress about data governance challenges that prevent the adoption of emerging tech across the federal landscape. Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Todd Young, R-Ind., introduced the Senate version of this bill in September.
After serving as the head of the Technology Transformation Services at GSA for the past two years, Ann Lewis announced recently she is stepping down from the role. Lewis led the TTS organization during a time of major AI adoption across government, workforce transformation and a greater focus on spreading use of the agency’s Login.gov single sign on platform. In a final interview with FedScoop, Lewis discusses those priorities for TTS going forward, as well as her journey into government, now that she’s stepping away.The new director of the Defense Department’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) is scheduled to meet with lawmakers in closed-door and open sessions Tuesday to discuss his organization’s activities investigating “unidentified anomalous phenomena” that have raised national security concerns. The hearing with the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities comes on the heels of the release of the Pentagon’s fiscal 2024 consolidated annual report on UAP — the modern term for UFOs and mysterious Restrictive software licensing practices are impacting multiple federal agencies in the form of cost increases and limited choices of cloud service providers (CSP) or cloud architecture, according to the Government Accountability Office. The Department of Justice, NASA, Department of Transportation and Department of Veterans all told the GAO that as result of restrictive practices in software licensing, the agencies either experienced or expected cost increases in acquisition, infrastructure and licensing. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
As the White House gets ready to “pass the baton” to the incoming Trump administration, Federal CIO Clare Martorana said she is focused on cybersecurity issues and making sure her team does everything it can for their replacements to be set up for success. Over the remaining two months of the Biden administration, Martorana said in an interview with FedScoop on the sidelines of the ACT-IAC CX Summit on Friday that cyber is her top area of focus because “you need security, engineering, [and] competencies when you are contemplating the problem set in the solution you’re trying to design.” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin departed early Friday morning on his twelfth and final trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where he will engage in a series of bilateral and multilateral meetings with some of his closest colleagues across Australia, the Philippines, Laos and Fiji. “During this trip, we will deliver results to advance cooperation, strengthen our relationships, and build an enduring network of allies and partners. I am proud of the historic progress we’ve made over the last four years and the depth of continuing U.S. commitment to the region,” Austin said in a statement ahead of takeoff.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
As they continue to investigate and resolve a growing caseload of hundreds of reports from current and former government officials about encounters with unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), personnel in the Pentagon’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) are also launching new projects and resources to declassify materials, promote transparency and enhance collection capabilities. The office’s new director Jon Kosloski detailed those and other updates during an off-camera press briefing at the Pentagon on Thursday, marking his first open engagement with reporters in this capacity since he assumed the role in August. Kosloski told reporters the office has has taken meaningful steps to improve data collection and retention, bolster sensor development, effectively triage UAP reports and reduce the stigma of reporting a UAP event.Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday that he hopes the Trump administration would maintain the agency’s AI Safety and Security Board, which was formed in April and includes corporate and civil society leaders focused on artificial intelligence. The board’s roster currently includes OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario , leading AI researcher Fei-Fei Li, and Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Arati Prabhakar, among many others. DHS and the board on Thursday released what the department is calling a groundbreaking new framework focused on technology and critical infrastructure. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Ann Lewis, the director of Technology Transformation Services and deputy commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, is leaving the General Services Administration after almost two years. Lewis will leave the agency on Nov. 22, according to a Tuesday press release. Mukunda Penugonde, who currently serves as deputy director of TTS, will step in as acting director and deputy commissioner. Lewis was tapped by the Biden administration in December 2022 to serve at GSA after a lengthy career in the private sector.President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Kristi Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security may bode poorly for the agency’s cybersecurity grants to state and local governments, given her opposition to the program while serving as chief executive of her state. Trump will nominate the South Dakota governor to serve as secretary of DHS, numerous news outlets reported Tuesday. Her administration in 2022 called the combined $1 billion grant program “wasteful spending” by the federal government when her state was one of only two in the nation not to seek any funding from it. In 2023, South Dakota was the lone holdout.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Soon after Robin Carnahan was appointed and confirmed as administrator of the General Services Administration, she made it one of her top priorities to “make the damn websites work.” By that, she meant it was GSA’s role as the federal government’s digital center of excellence to ensure that agencies were following through on the imperative to deliver moden digital services and experiences to the American public. Carnahan’s time as GSA administrator will soon come to an end with the shiting to another Trump administration come January. And with that, it begs the question: Are the damn websites any better? The Daily Scoop recently caught up with Administrator Carnahan at ACT-IAC’s Imagine Nation ELC conference in Hershey, Pennsylvania to ask her that, how GSA plans to sustain progress ahead of an administration change, what the biggest obstacles are impeding digital transformation, and much more.As Washington prepares for a new administration — and a potentially dramatic reduction of the federal workforce — a new survey shows that the public is more satisfied now with U.S. government services than it’s been in years. The American Customer Satisfaction Index study found that citizen satisfaction with federal government services ticked up 2.2% in 2024 to a score of 69.Over the last year, the Defense Department has reduced its civilian cyber vacancy rate to 16 percent, a decrease of 4.8 percent from last year, according to an official.Those efforts are part of the execution of the DOD’s cyber workforce strategy and implementation plan. In a global fight to attract and keep cyber professionals, the Pentagon was facing a shortfall of 24 percent, and it’s been looking to take bold action to change the tide. Officials have said the efforts undertaken since the strategy was unveiled in March 2023 and the implementation plan was released in August 2023, have been working, but more effort is needed.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
If President-elect Donald Trump follows through on his pledge to reinstate an executive order that eases the president’s ability to fire federal workers, the government’s ability to recruit top talent for tech, IT, cyber and artificial intelligence positions will be harmed, according to a senior Biden administration official. The 2020 executive order concerning the creation of Schedule F in the excepted service was issued just 13 days before the 2020 election and was overturned by an executive order from President Joe Biden to enshrine protections for the federal workforce in 2021. The Office of Personnel Management announced a final rule this April that aimed to reinforce protections and merit system principles for career civil servants. The Biden administration official told FedScoop that if current or prospective federal employees QUOTE “believe they’ll be constrained from offering their honest, informed professional input, and that they or their colleagues could be removed following a presidential transition based on their personal beliefs and not on their performance, this will reduce their desire to work for the government.” They added that “Attracting top talent, including the best tech talent, to serve the American people means respecting and protecting their expertise and service, not undermining it.”President-elect Trump has maintained that he will immediately reissue that 2020 executive order restoring the president’s authority to remove what he calls rogue bureaucrats, adding that it would be the first point of his plan to “dismantle the deep state.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
An organization for Justice Department employees is asking leadership to step up protections for workers facing online threats, such as doxxing, especially as the U.S. election could make those issues worse. The DOJ Gender Equality Network, a gender equity and equality organization that represents nearly 2,000 employees and contractors at the department, sent a letter on Oct. 31 asking Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco and Assistant Attorney General Jolene Lauria to strengthen action on the threats. The letter states: “We make this request at a pivotal juncture: There has been an uptick in [doxxing] against government officials since January 6, 2021, and experts believe the election could exacerbate the problem exponentially. The time to act is now.” Credentialed U.S. military and national security officials are experimenting and engaging in multiple classified environments with Defense Llama — a powerful new large language model that Scale AI configured and fine-tuned over the last year from Meta’s Llama 3 LLM — to adopt generative AI for their distinctive missions, like combat planning and intelligence operations. Dan Tadross, Scale AI’s head of federal delivery and a Marine Corps reservist, briefed DefenseScoop on the making and envisioned impacts of this new custom-for-the-military model in an exclusive interview and technology demonstration on Monday. He explained that there are already some users from combatant commands and other military groups that are able to leverage the tool on certain networks. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Retired Navy Rear Adm. Timothy Gallaudet is one of multiple witnesses set to testify at a congressional hearing next week about government transparency concerns and reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) that could endanger U.S. national security. Two sources familiar with the plans, who requested anonymity to discuss the hearing before it’s held, told DefenseScoop on Wednesday that it will be led by Republicans on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Nov. 13. Without sharing more information about who is testifying and why the hearing is being hosted now, a spokesperson from that committee separately confirmed in an email that it is scheduled for next Wednesday. Cyber Subcommittee Chairwoman Nancy Mace and National Security Subcommittee Chairman Glenn Grothman will co-chair the hearing. They said the lawmakers hope to provide more information to the public “in the coming days.” The upcoming hearing will follow several that lawmakers have convened in recent years, which came largely in response to mounting public pressure and alerts raised by former defense officials about seemingly unexplainable objects increasingly threatening America’s military assets and personnel in the modern era. One of the officials DefenseScoop spoke to suggested that some of the topics that will be raised in this next meeting will likely include transparency issues associated with the Pentagon’s and Intelligence Community’s handling of UAP reports and ongoing investigations; calls for more congressional oversight of the executive branch on UAP; and examples of how such phenomena have presented challenges to flight safety in real-world military operations.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Days before a deadline for federal agencies to submit to the White House their updated zero-trust implementation plans, a coalition of government IT leaders released a guide intended to strengthen data security practices. The 42-page Federal Zero Trust Data Security Guide, spearheaded by the Federal Chief Data Officers and Federal Chief Information Security Officers councils, zeroes in on “securing the data itself, rather than the perimeter protecting it,” part of what a Thursday press release termed “a foundational pillar of effective” zero-trust implementation. By Nov. 7, federal agencies must provide their updated plans for zero-trust implementation to the Office of the National Cyber Director and the Office of Management and Budget. The Federal Acquisition Institute, a career development resource housed within the General Services Administration, recently released a credential focused on artificial intelligence prompt engineering. The credential is more evidence that federal interest in purchasing AI technology continues to grow. The tool is specifically designed to help government acquisition staff evaluate large language models, the type of technology built by OpenAI and Anthropic.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Scoop News Group last week hosted its annual CyberTalks event at the Andrew Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C., featuring the top cybersecurity officials in the public sector space. Much of the conversation throughout the day focused on the progress the Biden-Harris administration has made in cybersecurity modernization, how the White House is looking to sustain that, and what comes next. Federal CIO Clare Martorana and acting Federal CISO Michael Duffy joined me for a pair of fireside chats at CyberTalks to discuss that and more. If you missed the event, you’re in luck, because today we’re revisiting those conversations in their entirety on the Daily Scoop Podcast.Meanwhile, it’s election day. And while that will bring to a close the pre-election period that was busy for foreign and domestic actors looking to undermine confidence in U.S. elections, the post-election period could be an even bumpier ride, according to some observers. As reported on CyberScoop, federal agencies, state and local election officials, and experts say they are preparing for a chaotic, disruptive and messy period between election day and inauguration where foreign nations, domestic political groups and other bad actors will attempt to take advantage of a deeply divided electorate during a uniquely vulnerable time in America’s electoral cycle.And, the federal government is continuing to invest in generative AI technology produced by OpenAI, with a handful of agencies like the Defense Department, the Department of the Treasury, NASA, and the National Gallery of Art recently inking deals to use the enterprise version of the firm’s ChatGPT platform. The increased activity comes as policymakers weigh potential concerns with the technology, while also trying to exploit its potential benefits. It also shows how OpenAI is developing as an early frontrunner in providing the government with generative AI technologies on both the defense and civilian sides.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Host Billy Mitchell continues his conversation with Andrea Fletcher, Chief Digital Services Officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), discussing CMS’s approach to open-source technology and AI adoption.Fletcher highlights CMS’s pioneering open-source program office, the first of its kind in the federal government, which enhances cybersecurity and promotes collaborative, cost-effective development. She explains CMS’s partnership with the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) to address technology talent gaps, streamline processes, and navigate regulatory challenges. Fletcher also shares CMS’s strategy for AI, focusing on workforce upskilling, fraud detection, and policy innovation to improve healthcare accessibility across diverse provider needs, from small clinics to large healthcare organizations.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
In remarks on the new AI national security memo delivered Thursday at National Defense University, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan highlighted the potential AI has for the country’s national security advantage but spoke in dire terms about taking action. Sullivan said simply: “The stakes are high” and if the nation doesn’t act more intentionally to seize advantages and to deploy AI more quickly and more comprehensively for national security, the U.S. risks “squandering our hard-earned lead” with the technology. Meanwhile, the Pentagon is bracing for what’s ahead in the shift to focus on post-quantum encryption and the arrival of quantum computers. Among all of the cybersecurity modernization efforts underway at the Defense Department, cryptography has recently moved to the top of Deputy CIO for Cybersecurity David McKeown’s list of priorities. Speaking at AFCEA DC’s annual Tech Summit on Thursday, McKeown said the effort will likely be a big lift for the department given its timeline and scale.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
President Joe Biden will issue a memo and framework on the use of AI in the context of national security Thursday, with the aim of providing steps for U.S. leadership and guardrails for governance of the technology. Under the memo, agencies will be directed to access “the most powerful AI systems and put them to use,” senior administration officials who briefed reporters on the memo ahead of its release said. The memo will also bolster the role of the AI Safety Institute and provide direction to agencies for AI use for national security.The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, known as ARPA-H, is seeking information about how autonomous artificial intelligence systems, known as agentic AI, might be used in the health care space. A recent request for information posted by the Department of Health and Human Services agency specifically asks for information on implementations of agentic AI, how multiple agentic AI systems work together, scalability, risks, and how autonomy is decided, among other things.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Office of Management and Budget is getting close to finalizing long-awaited data guidance required by a 2019 law that mandates the machine-readability of federal information, two White House officials with direct knowledge of that work confirmed to FedScoop. According to the sources, who were granted anonymity to speak more candidly, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and the Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer are currently working on completing the guidance with a goal to get it out by the end of November. And, the Technology Modernization Fund on Tuesday announced four new investments, totaling $50.2 million, aimed at meeting user needs for housing and enhancing Social Security Administration operations. This round of TMF investments will enable the Department of Housing and Urban Development to modernize the agency’s digital infrastructure and keep up with cybersecurity needs, and allow the Social Security Administration to digitize documents and forms, update beneficiary notifications and use artificial intelligence to support disability claims processing.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Since the creation of the U.S. Digital Service in 2014, several federal agencies have chartered associated offshoots, like the VA, the DOD, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, injecting modern, digital principles into the mission work at those agencies. At CMS in particular, the digital service team plays an integral role working to transform how the federal government delivers healthcare to the American people. Andrea Fletcher is the head of that team, and she joins me in part one of a two-part episode for a wide-ranging discussion on the history of Digital Service at CMS, the major themes and challenges the team faces, and what’s next.The Federal Bureau of Investigation is using artificial intelligence to mine tips about potential threats but is revealing little about how the system actually works. Specifically, the bureau is using a system it calls the “Complaint Lead Value Probability” to prioritize tips by conducting algorithm scores and triaging, according to two versions of an agency AI disclosure. The technology, which is meant to help sort through the tips the FBI receives, is one of several AI tools employed by a bureau that also uses Amazon’s Rekognition software and drug signature algorithms. The Department of Labor is spelling out how artificial intelligence can boost job quality without harming the rights of workers, releasing a roadmap last week that aims to empower workforces in underserved communities as use of the emerging technology proliferates. The 17-page document, titled “Artificial Intelligence and Worker Well-Being: Principles and Best Practices for Developers and Employers,” details eight key priorities for AI companies and management to follow that are intended to keep the focus on “centering worker empowerment and well-being.”
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not use any legacy IT, having either decommissioned or modernized all of its systems, according to the independent agency’s chief information officer. In an interview with FedScoop last week, NRC CIO Scott Flanders said that even though the agency has turned the page on systems defined by the Government Accountability Office as “outdated or obsolete,” there is still work to be done for modernization and evaluation of the agency’s technology stack. One of the country’s leading generative AI startups is urging congressional leadership to take action on a trio of safety, data and definitional priorities for the emerging technology before the end of the year. In a letter sent Thursday from Alexandr Wang to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the Scale AI founder and chief executive officer applauded the lawmakers for bipartisan AI regulatory work this Congress while “strongly” pressing the quartet to include in a potential year-end legislative package three “key AI priorities that will better position the United States to become a global leader in AI development and deployment.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Ahead of the Google Public Sector Summit on Wednesday, Oct. 16, Karen Dahut, the CEO of the organization, joined the Daily Scoop Podcast to preview this year’s event and share her thoughts on some of the top trends in the public sector technology space. Of course, artificial intelligence adoption was a key topic of our discussion, but she also detailed the remaining need for agencies to prioritize continued cloud adoption and security.
Login.gov, the single sign-on platform provided by the General Services Administration, will begin offering a new identity verification option to its partners. GSA’s new option will verify identity with facial recognition technology through the independently certified NIST 800-63 Identity Assurance Level 2 (IAL2), a standard that introduces the need for either remote or physically present identity proofing, according to a Wednesday press release.A final rule announced by the White House on Thursday will further codify and clarify responsibilities for U.S. agencies when it comes to accurate and trusted federal statistics. Specifically, the regulation will outline how federal statistical agencies should carry out responsibilities to produce information that’s relevant and timely, credible and accurate, objective, and protects the trust of respondents and those providing the information by ensuring confidentiality of responses. That final rule, also known as the “Trust Regulation,” was posted for public inspection Thursday and will officially be published in the Federal Register on Friday.
The Department of Health and Human Services is working on a new strategic plan for the use of artificial intelligence across the entire breadth of its mission, the department’s top AI official said Tuesday. Micky Tripathi — HHS’s acting chief AI officer and its assistant secretary for technology policy — said at the NVIDIA AI Summit in Washington, D.C., that the AI strategic plan should arrive sometime in January and that it will span “the entire, you know, sort of breadth of what the department covers.Budget constraints on research and development are limiting science and technology efforts across the federal landscape, according to a quadrennial White House report released this week and a top Biden administration official.The Quadrennial Science and Technology Review Report, unveiled Monday, noted that federal agencies are working to manage current funding for federally funded R&D, but the administration is in a position where it must “continue advocating for robust” levels.
Scoop News Group is thrilled to announce the winners of the FedScoop 50 awards for 2024! Now in their 13th year, the FedScoop 50 awards honor the most impactful leaders in the federal government who strive each day to leverage technology to transform government. Scoop News Group once again experienced record voting for the FedScoop 50 in 2024, receiving more than 1 million votes across five categories. As the Biden administration comes to a close, and the federal government prepares for a period of transition, it’s an apt time to reflect on the transformation ushered in over the past year at the hands of selfless government officials and industry partners dedicated to bringing progress to our nation and the American people.The Energy Department could be a key force in counteracting the “profit motive” driving America’s leading artificial intelligence companies, the agency’s second-in-command said in an interview. DOE Deputy Secretary David Turk told FedScoop that top AI firms aren’t motivated to pursue all the use cases most likely to benefit the public, leaving the U.S. government — which maintains a powerful network of national labs now developing artificial intelligence infrastructure of their own — to play an especially critical role. Turk’s comments come as the Energy Department pushes forward with a series of AI initiatives. One key program is the Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence for Science, Security, and Technology, or FASST effort, which is meant to advance the use of powerful datasets maintained by the agency in order to develop science-forward AI models. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
If you missed FedTalks last month, you missed a fantastic panel on how federal agencies are preparing for the age of quantum. Fresh off of NIST’s release of new post-quantum cryptography standards, Nick Polk, Branch Director for Federal Cybersecurity, Executive Office of the President; Ann Dunkin, CIO of the Department of Energy; and Michael Hayduk, Deputy Director, Information Directorate, Quantum, Air Force Research Laboratory discussed what’s ahead as they look to secure federal systems and information from attacks powered by quantum computers.The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute is seeking information on the development of chemical and biology-focused artificial intelligence models. In a Federal Register posting, the AISI said it is specifically interested in potential benchmarks and evaluation tools for understanding these models, as well as guidance on mitigating the kind of security risks they might raise.As the Department of Defense experiments with biometric devices to better track the health and wellness of personnel, it issued a $96 million award last week to Finnish health technology company Oura to put its smart rings and services in the hands of service members. While the department didn’t specify in the award announcement how many rings would be purchased under the firm-fixed-price contract — the rings retail for $299-$349 — it explains that the contract will also provide a suite of data analytics services the Pentagon’s health arm can use to take action on the biometric information generated by the devices.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Agencies’ reporting required on various website and digital services benchmarks required by the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act is often incomplete and inconsistent, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. The congressional watchdog found that full compliance with the 2018 law — which mandates annual reports from the 24 Chief Financial Officers Act agencies on federal website standards and eight modernization requirements — is lacking, resulting in submitted reports with “varying levels of content and detail.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
New federal guidance for acquiring artificial intelligence solutions directs U.S. agencies to take steps to manage risks, promote competition and share information within the executive branch. The White House Office of Management and Budget on Thursday publicly released its anticipated memorandum on responsible AI acquisition in government (M-24-18), charting an initial path forward for agencies to buy products that use the booming technology in a safe and responsible way and placing new criteria on those contracts.The federal government is in a “great place” following an agencywide deadline on zero-trust architecture implementation and now looking ahead to more challenging aspects of the cybersecurity model, according to a White House official. Mike Duffy, the acting federal chief information security officer, said in an interview with FedScoop that the next phase of zero-trust architecture implementation will focus largely on operations, taking near-term technical controls and leveraging those into a “longer-term technology transformation effort” and more defensible architectures.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The General Services Administration is conducting market research through the agency’s eBuy program for the CIO Modernization and Enterprise Transformation II (COMET II), which is anticipated to be worth up to $1 billion. The request for quotes, which was shared in an email with FedScoop, aims to provide industry with the draft COMET II Performance Work Statement (PWS) as well as gain feedback on the initial task orders and the PWS. Also: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is pushing forward on its oversight of federal post-quantum cryptography migration, unveiling a strategy document last week that details how the agency intends to monitor and assess governmentwide progress on the transition. The public release of CISA’s guidance on Friday, required by a 2022 Office of Management and Budget memorandum on migrating to post-quantum cryptography, lays out plans for the deployment of automated cryptography discovery and inventory (ACDI) tools to aid agencies as they work to inventory any IT systems or assets that may contain vulnerable cryptography.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Customs and Border Protection CTO Sunil Madhugiri joins the podcast for a wide-ranging interview. During the discussion, he highlights CBP’s developing AI portfolio, how the emerging technology landscape is evolving, what else is top of mind for the agency heading into 2025, and much more.With ransomware gangs proving capable of quickly reconstituting after government takedown operations, an international alliance wants to ramp up those offensive measures even more. Anne Neuberger, deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology, told reporters in a call Monday that the U.S. has observed that there is no one operation that’s going to disrupt ransomware permanently and instead, the nation must increase the frequency and increase the breadth of operations combating ransomware, such as targeting the exchanges that are facilitating money laundering and ransomware activity. A service created by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to spur the sharing of cyber threat indicators and defensive measures is floundering due to a lack of outreach, according to a new watchdog report. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General found that the use of CISA’s Automated Indicator Sharing (AIS) system has fallen to its lowest level since 2017, with a 93% decline in the sharing of cyber threat indicators from 2020 to 2022.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Pentagon leadership will accelerate high-volume production of technologies designed to detect, track and destroy enemy drones via “Replicator 2.0,” DefenseScoop has learned. This development marks the first public report of the second capability focus area under the Replicator initiative — a high-profile effort that underpins the Defense Department’s multifaceted plan to deter China. According to a memorandum signed by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Sept. 27 and viewed by DefenseScoop ahead of publication Monday, the Pentagon “will tackle the warfighter priority of countering the threat posed by small uncrewed aerial systems (C-sUAS) to our most critical installations and force concentrations” under Replicator 2.0. The Department of Veterans Affairs is making tele-emergency care available nationwide following a pilot that the agency credited with helping over 60,000 callers. In a Thursday announcement, the VA announced that tele-EC, which aims to increase “timely access to virtual emergency care options” for veterans enrolled in VA health care, will be available across the nation to assist those who are unsure if what they’re experiencing is a minor emergency or not.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The General Services Administration has tapped the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ chief information officer and chief data officer to serve as its new deputy CIO, the agency confirmed Thursday. Dovarius Peoples will join GSA on Oct. 6, an agency spokesperson told FedScoop. Peoples also has held leadership positions at the Office of Personnel Management and the National Security Agency.Also: The Department of Health and Human Services would be required to implement a pandemic preparedness and response program that leverages artificial intelligence under new bipartisan Senate legislation. That bill, which was introduced Wednesday and announced Thursday, would call on the secretary of HHS to establish a new program called “MedShield” that would protect against future pandemics by aiding collaboration between government and the private sector and use AI in several areas, including detecting pathogens and developing vaccines.
Federal agencies across the government have posted their plans to comply with an Office of Management and Budget memo on artificial intelligence governance, providing a window into what risk management and reporting practices will look like in the executive branch. The compliance plans, which were due 180 days following the finalization of OMB’s M-24-10 memo, outline steps each covered agency plans to take when it comes to updating their internal policies, collecting information for their AI use case inventories, removing barriers to responsible use of AI tools, and determining whether a use is rights- or safety-impacting, among other things.Also, delays and errors were among the “troubling” issues identified with the Department of Education’s new system for its Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form, the Government Accountability Office said this week. In a report and congressional testimony released Tuesday, the GAO said the education agency’s Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) pinpointed and addressed defects in the FAFSA Processing System (FPS) before deployment, but continued to find “numerous defects” after its launch.
Government IT contractor Carahsoft had its Reston, Va., headquarters searched by the FBI Tuesday morning, three sources familiar with the matter told FedScoop. In response to an inquiry about the raid, the FBI confirmed via email that it had “conducted court-authorized law enforcement activity” but declined to comment further.Meanwhile, the Department of Veterans Affairs is once again facing criticism from its inspector general related to its modernized electronic health record program in a pair of new reports published this week. According to one of those, the VA has neglected to put in place the proper controls for its Oracle Cerner electronic health record system to adequately prevent and respond to major incidents.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Biden administration is coming to a close. As the president’s term nears its end, what better way to take stock of the last four years than to reflect on some of the top goals from the President’s Management Agenda and what’s been accomplished. Loren DeJonge Schulman, associate director for performance and personnel management at the Office of Management and Budget, joins the podcast to talk PMA progress in areas like customer experience, hiring and cybersecurity, and how the White House hopes to sustain that progress as a new administration is set to take over next January. Also: A bipartisan bill would extend the life of a council of the government’s top data officials and require that body to look at improving data management practices for artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. The Modernizing Data Practices to Improve Government Act (S.5109) was introduced last week by Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Todd Young, R-Ind., and announced on Monday. That legislation would specifically renew the Chief Data Officers Council — which is set to expire in 2025 — for seven years, and add new requirements for several AI-related actions. And, federal agency direct hire authorities for STEM, cybersecurity and acquisition positions have been extended through the end of 2028, the Office of Personnel Management said in a memo released Monday. OPM had previously signed off on direct hire authorities for those positions on Oct. 11, 2018, and again on Sept. 29, 2023. In the Monday memo, OPM acting Director Rob Shriver said the new DHA window will be open through Dec. 31, 2028 or until the personnel agency “terminates this authority, whichever occurs first.”
A dozen federal agencies received an A on the most recent FITARA Scorecard, with 18 agencies improving their grades since January. In a Friday roundtable hosted by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., ranking member of the House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation, officials from USAID, NASA, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Energy and the Governmental Accountability Office shared the overwhelmingly positive FITARA grades for most of the 24 CFO Act agencies. Meeting procurement requirements laid out in 2019 Office of Management and Budget guidance on cloud strategy has been a mixed bag for federal agencies, a new congressional watchdog report found. As of this July, all 24 Chief Financial Officers Act agencies completed an OMB requirement in its Cloud Smart strategy to ensure that CIOs oversee modernization efforts, according to the Government Accountability Office. And all but one agency — the Small Business Administration — addressed the OMB mandate to “iteratively improve agency policies and guidance.” But there is plenty of work to do on the remaining three OMB callouts, the GAO said in its June 2022-September 2024 performance audit.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The annual Congressional Hackathon is Thursday, and ahead of it, FedScoop is reporting that two of the five top recommendations from last year’s event have been implemented and others are on their way to being realized. Steve Dwyer, senior director for innovation at the House Office of the Chief Administrative Officer, told FedScoop that the two completed and now implemented projects are an internal unified House calendar that was launched in July and an internal social media tracking tool that was announced in recent weeks by the CAO to compare lawmakers’ social media statistics.A bipartisan House bill aimed at improving customer service interactions with government technology breezed through a key Senate panel Wednesday, putting it one step closer to becoming law. The Government Service Delivery Improvement Act passed the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee by an 11-0 tally, setting it up for a vote before the full chamber. The bill, first introduced by Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., Byron Donalds, R-Fla., Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., and William Timmons, R-S.C. in the House last October, passed that chamber in May. The legislation tasks agency heads with designating a senior official to oversee service delivery improvements and charges the Office of Management and Budget with choosing a senior official to coordinate governmentwide efforts on the issue.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the General Services Administration are partnering for an artificial intelligence maturity assessment as a foundational step in the nuclear agency’s path to finalizing a strategic plan. Over the next nine months, the NRC will welcome a GSA provided-project manager to work directly with staff to consult on what the agency needs to solidify an enterprise strategic plan, Basia Sall, the chief data officer and director of the NRC’s Data, Information Management and Enterprise Governance division, told FedScoop during an AI workshop at agency headquarters Tuesday.A federal grand jury in Atlanta has indicted a Chinese national on charges stemming from his alleged efforts to use spearphishing to target U.S. entities, including NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, and several military branches.The indictment, which was filed Sept. 10 and unsealed Monday by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, charges Song Wu, 39, with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft related to those efforts.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
From the impact of the Crowdstrike outage to IT issues with the Thrift Savings Plan’s modernized benefits and recordkeeping system, Jennifer Franks has her pulse on the federal cybersecurity space and the biggest challenges agencies face. Franks joins the Daily Scoop to discuss her journey to this role, what it’s like to work with federal agencies who may not be excited about her poking holes in their work, the biggest reports she’s issued recently — as well as those that are forthcoming — and much more. Also: The Department of Housing and Urban Development has funded a project that will use 3D-printing technology to construct an affordable housing unit in Nome, the culmination of a yearslong effort from federal, state and local governments, private industry and academia. The $600,000 HUD project is part of a $1.6 million matching grant program to fund the development and testing of a mobile 3D printer built specifically for use in the unforgiving Alaskan clime.And, all federal agencies using artificial intelligence for “consequential decisions” should be required to have a civil rights office to prevent things like algorithmic discrimination, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said Monday in a letter to the White House. In the letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young, the lawmakers noted that President Joe Biden had taken steps when it comes to addressing AI bias — including his Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights and October 2023 executive order on the technology — but said that more oversight is needed.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The White House is pursuing several new efforts meant to advance U.S. leadership on artificial intelligence, announcing Thursday the creation of a new task force on data center infrastructure and related measures following a meeting with several executives of leading AI and tech companies. The meeting centered on key aspects of the physical infrastructure required to build AI infrastructure in the U.S., including clean energy permitting and workforce requirements — priorities that seemingly echo policymakers’ discussions about boosting semiconductor manufacturing. Meanwhile, an end-of-life version of Ivanti’s cloud IT service management software has a recently released vulnerability that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency says is being exploited. CISA warned that organizations outfitted with Ivanti’s Cloud Service Appliance version 4.6 and below are being targeted by hackers and the bug has been added to the known exploited vulnerabilities (KEV) list. The Utah-based company said on Friday that a “limited number of customers” have confirmed exploitation but did not provide further details.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is asking organizations to provide information about artificial intelligence technologies for use in health care outcomes and service delivery as it plans demonstration events. In a request for information announced earlier this week, CMS said it wants to gather information about AI products and services from health care companies, providers, payers, start-ups and others, and plans to eventually select organizations to provide demos of those technologies at “CMS AI Demo Days” starting in October. The demo days will be held quarterly and are intended “to educate and inspire the CMS workforce on AI capabilities and provide information to inform potential future agency action."The Office of Management and Budget is set to soon issue a new memo to help guide agencies’ acquisition of artificial intelligence technologies. Deputy Federal CIO Drew Myklegard said Tuesday at FedTalks, produced by FedScoop, that on top of all the milestones the Biden administration has met since issuing its landmark AI executive order last fall, OMB has been developing guidance to ensure federal agencies are following best practices when acquiring AI technologies. The forthcoming memo will follow the release of more wide-ranging OMB guidance issued March 28 on federal adoption of AI with a focus on governance, risk and transparency. Myklegard didn’t give a specific timeline for the release of that guidance, but the executive order called for OMB to produce “an initial means to ensure that agency contracts for the acquisition of AI systems and services align with” OMB’s earlier AI guidance within 180 days of its issuance — so, by Sept 24.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
A new assessment standard to guide how Pentagon components evaluate and approve zero-trust cybersecurity solutions for responsible use will soon be finalized and ready for release, according to a senior official overseeing its making. During FedTalks 2024, hosted by Scoop News Group on Tuesday, Les Call — director of the DOD’s Zero Trust Portfolio Management Office — provided the latest update on his team’s unfolding pursuits to drive this implementation, and to continue “progressing at a fast rate.” Call said Pentagon officials are working closely with a range of industry partners and representatives, including the Cloud Security Alliance, to pinpoint compliant capabilities that can accelerate DOD components’ paths to fully achieving zero trust.A key component of the landmark executive order on artificial intelligence issued by President Joe Biden last year was to meet a handful of requirements aimed at bolstering the AI talent pool throughout the federal government. And according to a new Government Accountability Office report, those benchmarks have been cleared. The congressional watchdog said Monday that 13 AI management and talent requirements in Biden’s order were fully implemented by the March 2024 deadline, checking off boxes that the GAO said would effectively lay the groundwork for governmentwide AI efforts.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Intelligence community officials said Friday they expect Russia, Iran and China to increase the cadence of influence operations targeting U.S. voters over the final two months of the 2024 election cycle. The assessment comes after a whirlwind month where U.S. officials accused Iran of engaging in a hack-and-leak operation targeting the presidential campaign of Donald Trump and JD Vance, and this week imposed indictments, seizures and economic sanctions on Russian government officials and members of state media organ RT for a $10 million scheme to covertly launder pro-Russian propaganda through the right-wing media outfit Tenet Media and popular conservative influencers. But officials at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told reporters Friday that they continue to view these activities as forms of election “influence” as opposed to direct attempts to interfere with or disrupt voting and election infrastructure . The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate plans to award a contract to the nonprofit OpenMined for research and development-related services meant to curb online content related to violent extremism, according to a government posting. The agreement comes as part of the U.S. government’s work in response to the Christchurch Call, which the Biden administration joined in 2021. That initiative, which brings together technology platforms and government leaders, was formed following the 2019 mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 51 people.
The federal government is closing in on total zero-trust implementation across agencies as the Sept. 30 deadline to do so approaches quickly. During a panel at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit in Washington, D.C., Federal CIO Clare Martorana announced that the 24 Chief Financial Officers Act agencies are all in the “high 90% range” for implementing the basic elements of a zero-trust architecture, which they are required to do by the end of the fiscal year. Additionally, Martorana said that metrics have shown, broadly, that federal entities have moved from 81% to 87% in completion rates. The National Labor Relations Board is the latest beneficiary of the Technology Modernization Fund, receiving $23 million from the fund to modernize its case management system.The investment will help the NLRB replace its “outdated system” with a newer cloud-based solution, “dramatically improving the agency’s ability to protect workers’ rights and process labor disputes efficiently,” according to an announcement Thursday from the General Services Administration, which oversees the TMF program.
The U.S. government formally accused Russia of attempting to interfere in the 2024 elections, as the Department of Justice unveiled charges Wednesday against multiple individuals and seized dozens of domains they say were part of a wide-ranging campaign to influence American voters. During a press conference, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the operations “make clear the ends to which the Russian government, including at its highest levels, is willing to go to undermine our democratic process.” Two employees of Russia Today were indicted in the Southern District of New York on charges that they used foreign shell companies to direct $10 million to an unnamed Tennessee-based company to disseminate Russian disinformation on social media. They also allegedly invented a fictitious private investor to engage U.S.-based social media influencers with large followings to spread similar content. Meanwhile, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is moving away from petitioning social media platforms to take down false or inaccurate posts about elections. CISA leadership continues to express confidence that the nation’s election infrastructure is well-protected for the 2024 elections, citing a litany of improvements to election security made since 2016. In past election cycles, CISA’s work included sharing information and flagging specific accounts and posts spreading false information for removal or content moderation. However, Director Jen Easterly made it clear that work would not be part of CISA’s election security mission this time around, saying that CISA’s role is to work with partners on overall threats to election infrastructure.
More than 140 groups, including immigrant and civil rights organizations, are raising concerns about the Department of Homeland Security’s use of artificial intelligence, arguing in a letter sent to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday that the agency is violating federal rules on the technology. The letter calls on DHS and many of its components to suspend several AI use cases, including systems deployed by Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.Meanwhile, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Digital GI Bill platform that was set to be fully operational by April 2024 is now “severely” delayed and will cost double the original amount, according to the department’s Office of Inspector General. Insufficient planning on the part of the Veterans Benefits Administration is to blame for delays and $479 million in additional costs for the Digital GI Bill Platform, which aims to modernize access to relevant services while reducing costs and setbacks from legacy systems.
In 2018, a secure communications app known as Anom was released and quickly gained popularity with organized criminals who saw it as a new tool to conduct operations out of the view of law enforcement. But little did they know, the very app they believed gave them a place to hide was secretly being run by the FBI. In his new book Dark Wire: The Incredible True Story of the Largest Sting Operation, journalist Joseph Cox explores the story of Anom and how it gave U.S. law enforcement and their global counterparts a front-row seat to the underworld. FedScoop’s Madison Alder and Rebecca Heilweil recently spoke with Cox about Dark Wire, how the FBI was able to pull the operation off, if there’s a chance for something like this to happen again, the unconventional ways government can access encrypted messaging today, and much more.Also: The National Labor Relations Board is one of the latest federal agencies to name an AI chief. David Gaston, NLRB’s assistant general counsel, will serve as the agency’s new chief artificial intelligence officer.And, two of the biggest artificial intelligence providers have signed agreements to formally collaborate with the U.S. AI Safety Institute on research, testing and evaluation of their models. The agreements, known as memorandums of understanding, were announced last week by the AI Safety Institute, which called them “first-of-their-kind” government and industry partnerships. Under those agreements, the institute, which is housed at the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, will “receive access to major new models from each company prior to and following their public release” and collaborate with the companies on evaluation and risk mitigation.
Pete Waterman, a former Technology Modernization Fund adviser and U.S. Digital Services engineer, has been tapped as the new FedRAMP director, the General Services Administration announced in an internal email Monday. His appointment comes after he served at GSA as a senior technical adviser for TMF until earlier this year. Waterman, who officially started Monday, will report to Lauren Bracey Scheidt, assistant commissioner of the agency’s Technology and Transformation Services Office of Solutions, and work to “build on the FedRAMP team’s considerable transformation momentum, and guide program strategy for 2025 and beyond.” The Biden administration is reporting major progress in its quest to deploy half a million public chargers by the end of the decade. The Energy Department on Tuesday said that there were now more than 192,000 public charging ports available throughout the country and that since the start of President Joe Biden’s term, the number of public EV chargers has doubled. The announcement of those milestones came as the government announced more than half a billion dollars to nearly 30 states, two tribes and Washington, D.C. to build even more charging infrastructure.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Longtime Department of Labor CIO Gundeep Ahluwalia recently stepped away from government after more than 8 years with DOL and another four with the FDA. Leaving behind a legacy of wholesale digital transformation across Labor, Ahluwalia now takes on a role as executive vice president and chief innovation officer for government technology contractor NuAxis Innovations. Ahluwalia joins the podcast for an exit interview to recount his journey and accomplishments as Labor CIO, the keys to his success, what’s ahead for the agency now that he’s moved on and much more.Also in the news: Jon Kosloski, a longtime national security expert in quantum optics and other novel technology areas, has officially entered the Pentagon as the next permanent director of its All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), the Defense Department announced Monday. And, the Defense Innovation Unit is on the hunt for generative artificial intelligence tools to help the U.S. military with joint planning and wargaming.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Biden administration has finalized guidance for federal agencies’ 2024 artificial intelligence use case inventories. While much of the document remains the same as the draft, the final version includes several changes, such as narrowing the scope of excluded use cases and adding a section on deadline extension requests for compliance with risk management practices. The guidance also establishes a clear deadline for inventories to be submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget: Dec. 16, 2024.Meanwhile, five leading software and tech advocacy organizations are urging Senate and House leadership to pass bipartisan, bicameral legislation aimed at improving federal agency oversight and management of software purchases before this congressional term comes to a close. In a letter shared exclusively with FedScoop, the tech groups urged Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., to take action on the Strengthening Agency Management and Oversight of Software Assets Act by the end of this session, referring to the bill to bolster transparency and communication in IT spending across federal agencies as “must-pass legislation.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Democratic National Committee delegates approved a party platform on Monday that scarcely mentions cybersecurity, reversing a trend from the 2020 version and mirroring the Republican party document. There were just two explicit mentions of cyber in the 2024 Democratic platform, both fairly vague. “We will remove barriers to legal access, combat hate crimes, and counter cyber threats,” the platform vows in one section. And in another it says that the party “will continue to address cyber threats by bolstering the capacity of our intelligence communities and leading the development of rules of the road for technologies like artificial intelligence.”Meanwhile, the FAA on Wednesday published a proposed rulemaking that will add new cybersecurity requirements to the “airworthiness” of a newly built plane. The Biden administration has made cyber mandates for critical infrastructure sectors a priority through the national cybersecurity strategy, which served as an acknowledgment that relying on voluntary measures did not lead to increased security. The new proposal is aimed at standardizing “the FAA’s criteria for addressing cybersecurity threats, reducing certification costs and time while maintaining the same level of safety,” according to the document.
With the long-awaited release of NIST’s post-quantum cryptographic standards last week, there’s work ahead for federal agencies to make sure they’re ready for the age of quantum. Nick Polk, senior adviser on cybersecurity in the Office of the Federal CIO, joins the podcast to break down the significance of the new standards, how the White House is coordinating government and industry to take next steps, and what else agencies should be thinking about regarding their cybersecurity in the future.U.S. intelligence agencies have accused Iran of being behind attempts to infiltrate the Trump presidential campaign and said Tehran has also tried to spy on the Biden campaign, according to a statement released Monday. The statement comes after several cybersecurity companies released reports that detailed Iran-linked operations, including fake news campaigns and attempts to phish a high-ranking presidential campaign official.And, Bill Streilein, the Pentagon Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office’s first technology chief who helped set the foundation for that nascent defense tech hub, is departing the Pentagon to return to academia. In a statement shared exclusively with DefenseScoop by a spokesperson Monday morning ahead of the official announcement, CDAO leadership thanked Streilein for “his immense technical leadership over the last two years as he prepares to transition back to MIT Lincoln Labs at the end of the summer.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
As OpenAI looks to make inroads with the federal government, it has struck a deal with the U.S. Agency for International Development as the first agency partner to use its ChatGPT Enterprise platform. Anna Makanju, OpenAI’s vice president of global affairs, told FedScoop that USAID plans to use the technology to help reduce administrative burden and “make it easier for new and local organizations” to partner with the agency.Meanwhile, multiple sources told DefenseScoop that Pentagon leadership selected Anduril’s Dive-LD autonomous underwater vehicles as part of the second tranche of capabilities to be quickly mass-produced via the high-profile modernization effort known as Replicator. This news marks the first public report of technologies that made the Defense Department’s cut for Replicator 1.2 — and it also follows the company’s recently revealed plans to launch a new factory in Rhode Island to speed up the manufacturing of these advanced uncrewed platforms.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Pentagon cleared a major milestone Thursday on the path to instituting its cybersecurity standards program for contractors known as the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification 2.0. The Department of Defense submitted a proposed rule that, once approved, would incorporate new cyber requirements into all contracts for vendors who want to do business with the U.S. military that involves sensitive but unclassified information. Under the CMMC 2.0 program, any contractor or subcontractor that does work with the DOD involving what’s referred to as controlled unclassified information or federal contract information must obtain — or in some cases self-attest to — one of three levels of CMMC compliance, depending on the sensitivity of the information involved in the work.Over the past three years, NASA has investigated more than 200 reports of either space agency devices or systems being accessed outside the country without prior authorization, which would violate internal policy regarding where mobile technology units may be brought abroad. The reports of unauthorized foreign access investigations, obtained by FedScoop through a public records request, occur when a NASA device is detected overseas without a clear prior record of a planned trip.
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management issued a new memo on Wednesday calling on federal agencies to to improve the hiring experience for job seekers and officials who hire them. Among the various calls to action in the memo, the guidance orders agencies to develop hiring objectives that are informed by data-driven workforce planning, promote collection and use of data on the time it takes to hire people, and ensure that systems used in hiring are being effectively used to measure and track the priorities in the memo.Last weekend at DEF CON, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency convened 90 teams and asked them to build autonomous agents to probe open-source code bases, find vulnerabilities and automatically fix them as part of its Artificial Intelligence Cyber Challenge. In the end, the 90 competitors were able to find 22 unique vulnerabilities in major open-source programs like the Linux kernel, automatically patching 15.
One of the longest-tenured CIOs in the government announced this week he is stepping away from federal service. Gundeep Ahluwalia sent a letter to staff stating that Friday will be his last day after more than eight years with the Department of Labor. In his note, Ahluwalia called the department’s biggest accomplishment during his time its “ability to attract talent and create leaders,” saying that Labor’s Office of the CIO is “a formidable leadership factory.”The White House issued a report Monday calling for more funding and interagency coordination for the advancement of international cooperation in quantum information science and technology. The document, released by the Office of Science and Technology Policy, details a series of QIST-related recommendations from a subcommittee within the National Science and Technology Council, including that the U.S. government create long-term funding mechanisms for QIST collaboration and cooperation and “establish and track” global metrics for QIST and the competitiveness of “enabling technologies.”The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence earlier this summer released an information technology roadmap for the intelligence community. The roadmap is meant to provide technological foresight to guide the Intelligence Community to make transformative decisions about the cloud environment, cybersecurity, advanced computing, data analysis, and artificial intelligence among an array of other information technology issues. Dr. Adele Merritt, CIO for the intelligence community, is the official responsible for seeing that intelligence agencies embrace the new roadmap and vision laid out within it. In an interview, Merritt discusses the near-term and long-term goals from the roadmap, her office’s priorities, how the intelligence community is thinking about AI adoption, and more.Also: The National Institute of Standards and Technology has officially released three new encryption standards that are designed to fortify cryptographic protections against future cyberattacks by quantum computers. The finalized standards are meant to prepare for a not-so-far-off future where quantum computing capabilities can crack current methods of encryption, jeopardizing crucial and sensitive information held by organizations and governments worldwide.And, nearly two years after launching its bureau chief data officer program, the Department of State is seeing success and aiming to almost quadruple the size of its current cohort, Farakh Khan, director of communications, culture and training at the agency’s Center for Analytics, told FedScoop in a recent interview. In total, the department wants 52 bureau CDOs in place, one for each bureau or major offices across State.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Federal agencies with highly sensitive workloads now have the opportunity to use OpenAI GPT-4o. Microsoft announced that it received FedRAMP High accreditation to offer the OpenAI generative AI platform through its Azure Government cloud. The FedRAMP High designation denotes that the OpenAI services have met a higher security threshold to work with sensitive civilian datasets, including those in the fields of health care, law enforcement, finance and emergency response, among others.The General Services Administration has a health robotic process automation program, but in some cases, those bots are putting data and systems at risk, the agency’s inspector general found in a recent audit. In a new report, GSA’s Office of the Inspector General stated that the agency’s RPA program did not comply with IT security requirements to “ensure bots are operating securely and properly.” The watchdog found a slew of security issues with the bots ranging from the agency not establishing a process for removing access to decommissioned bots to a lack of monitoring and reporting bot-related activity.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Palantir and Microsoft on Thursday announced an expanded partnership giving national security leaders the ability to leverage a “first-of-its-kind, integrated suite of technology” to operationalize their missions. In Microsoft’s government and classified cloud environments, intelligence and defense officials will be able to utilize the company’s large language models through the Azure OpenAI Service within Palantir’s AI Platform. On top of that, Palantir’s Gotham and Apollo products — a data-driven enterprise mission-planning platform and an operational software deployment control center, respectively — will be installed in Microsoft Azure Government, as well as in the Azure Government Secret (Defense Department Impact Level 6) and Top Secret clouds.Meanwhile, the annual Black Hat conference kicked off this week in Las Vegas, and CISA Director Jen Easterly spoke about how she views the recent CrowdStrike outage that caused millions of computers around the world to malfunction as “a useful exercise” for understanding what Chinese-linked cyber operations focused on sensitive U.S. networks could accomplish. If tensions were to escalate in the Pacific, the U.S. could see Beijing take action via the malicious campaign known as the Volt Typhoon to disrupt critical infrastructure similar to what the CrowdStrike outage caused, but at a more significant and perious scale. “A war in Asia will be accompanied by very serious threats to Americans — the explosion of pipelines, the pollution of water systems, the derailing of our transportation systems, the severing of our communications,” Easterly said.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on Tuesday announced Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, to be her running mate for vice president. As Walz steps into the spotlight, he brings with him a deep record on cybersecurity issues, including spearheading a 2022 letter urging the Biden administration not to complicate state cybersecurity measures with federal ones and publishing his own executive order on cybersecurity, directing state agencies to upgrade their defenses and use the powers they had to protect critical infrastructure from cyberattacks.And, amid wildfire season, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wants to better use satellite data to help federal agencies improve how they detect and track wildfires. A new collaborative agreement between NOAA, the Department of the Interior, and the Department of Agriculture’s U.S. Forest Service was announced last month and serves as a step toward developing specific fire-tracking tools with the needs of those agencies in mind. The partnership will maximize the exploitation of NOAA satellites for detecting fires as early as possible and tracking them better over time to make better decisions, according to a NOAA official.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Ransomware attacks have prompted legislative action to classify such cyber offenses alongside terrorism. A provision authored by Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., included in the annual intelligence authorization act, seeks to combat the surge in ransomware by naming specific gangs and designating host nations as 'state sponsors of ransomware,' subjecting them to potential U.S. sanctions. Although the U.S. Justice Department has previously prioritized ransomware investigations similarly to terrorism, this proposal would be the first law to formally link ransomware to terrorism. However, its effectiveness is debated among experts due to the complex ties between ransomware actors and their host states.In other news, the Department of State is conducting market research on customizable large language models (LLMs) that could enhance its handling of classified and unclassified data. This initiative is part of an effort to identify available AI tools that meet stringent security requirements, including the Defense Department’s Impact Level 6 and moderate-level FedRAMP authorization. This reflects the department's strategic approach to augmenting its diplomatic missions with advanced technology.The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is restructuring its technological and AI responsibilities, transferring these from the Assistant Secretary for Administration to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), now also designated as the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy. FedScoop’s Madison Alder sits down with Micky Tripathi, head of ONC and the new Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy, to discuss the reorganization’s goals to enhance departmental AI and tech strategies and improve integration across HHS’s diverse agencies.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has introduced a series of amendments aimed at scaling back the Biden administration's efforts to regulate artificial intelligence (AI). His proposals, discussed at a recent Senate Commerce Committee markup, include repealing the AI executive order and preventing environmental impact assessments on AI systems. While some of Cruz's proposals failed to pass, an amendment to reduce federal actions preventing bias and discrimination in AI advanced. This amendment, part of a bipartisan bill to codify the AI Safety Institute, has sparked controversy and debate, with committee Democrats indicating plans to address its concerns in future legislative fixes.In other news, legislation to reform the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) is making headway in the Senate after passing the House earlier this year. The Modernizing Government Technology Reform Act recently advanced out of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee with strong support. This bill aims to address funding challenges and ensure the TMF can continue supporting essential IT projects across the government. With backing from federal CIO Clare Martorana and GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan, the bill is poised for further debate on the Senate floor.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Lisa Einstein, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s senior adviser for artificial intelligence, has been named the agency’s first chief AI officer. Einstein, a Stanford and Princeton graduate, joined CISA in 2022 as executive director of its Cybersecurity Advisory Committee. CISA Director Jen Easterly highlighted Einstein's role in the agency's AI advancements, calling her an inspirational leader. Einstein will continue to build AI expertise within CISA and leverage AI technology to support critical infrastructure. The agency uses AI for various applications, including the Automated Indicator Sharing program, which processes cyber threat indicators and defensive measures.In other news, the General Services Administration hosted an AI hackathon across three cities: Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and New York City. Participants from both the public and private sectors worked on solutions for federal agency websites. GSA leaders, including Administrator Robin Carnahan, CIO David Shive, and Chief Data and AI Officer Zach Whitman, discussed the importance of collaboration and access to AI tools. Whitman noted the agency's efforts to unblock AI tools and ensure data and privacy protection within a controlled environment. Following President Biden’s AI executive order, GSA has allowed staff to apply for AI tool use for non-sensitive applications, enhancing innovation while managing risks.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
Amid concerns about U.S. competitiveness in artificial intelligence, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Technology Committee advanced several AI-focused bipartisan bills on Wednesday. However, fault lines emerged, signaling potential growing tension between the parties. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who chairs the committee, highlighted the global stakes for AI development, noting that the technology could increase U.S. GDP growth by $1.2 trillion to $3.8 trillion per decade, while China and other countries invest heavily to gain economic and national security advantages. Cantwell emphasized the importance of public-private partnerships to drive innovation. The committee advanced nine AI bills, including the Future of AI Innovation Act, the CREATE AI Act, the NSF AI Education Act, the VET AI Act, and the TEST AI Act. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, criticized the bills, arguing they would over-regulate the U.S. AI industry and stifle innovation, enabling other countries, namely China, to take the lead. Cruz's amendment to eliminate President Joe Biden’s executive order on AI was voted down, but he stressed that repealing it is a part of the Republican platform.In other news, the Pentagon’s Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO) has introduced a new role focused on management and business operations. Julie Cruz, a longtime strategic planner and military workforce expert, has been selected as the CDAO’s new director of business operations, making her the first to hold this title. A CDAO spokesperson explained that this position is a maturation of the previous “resource management” role and is part of a broader effort to institutionalize good governance processes. Promoted to the Senior Executive Service in June, Cruz’s responsibilities include overseeing HR, internal contracting, resourcing, and key mission support functions such as space planning, IT, and records management.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
An artificial intelligence hub led by the Department of the Air Force and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is now including Marine Corps members. Previously, only airmen and guardians participated in the DAF-MIT AI Accelerator. Two Marines will join the next cohort of “Phantoms” to conduct research and produce a “publishable impact paper” over five months. Lt. Gen. Matthew Glavy highlighted this as an opportunity for Marines to demonstrate their innovative capabilities and support AI adoption.In other news, a bipartisan Senate bill aims to expand the U.S. Secret Service’s investigative powers to combat cybercrime related to digital assets. The legislation, introduced by Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, Chuck Grassley, and Amy Klobuchar, would enhance the agency’s ability to tackle transnational cybercriminal activity and financial crimes involving digital assets. The Combating Money Laundering in Cyber Crime Act of 2024 also calls for a Government Accountability Report to evaluate law enforcement’s effectiveness in detecting and deterring money laundering.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Department of Defense’s inspector general has launched a new evaluation of the Replicator program, which aims to field and deploy thousands of autonomous drones by 2025 to contend with China. A memorandum issued Monday solidifies plans for the review. An OIG spokesperson stated that the evaluation will determine the effectiveness of the Services and Defense Innovation Unit in selecting capabilities for the Replicator Initiative to meet U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s operational needs. Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks launched Replicator last summer to accelerate the adoption of “attritable autonomous systems” within 18 to 24 months. The Pentagon has secured $500 million for fiscal 2024 and is requesting an additional $500 million for fiscal 2025. Initial systems include kamikaze drones, unmanned surface vessels, and counter-drone systems. The OIG may revise or expand the objective as the assessment proceeds, and a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed full cooperation to ensure accountability.In other news, the Department of Commerce and its National Telecommunications and Information Administration issued a new report recommending that the U.S. government monitor risks from open AI foundation models and be prepared to act if those risks intensify. The report, shared with FedScoop ahead of its official publication, analyzes the risks and benefits of dual-use foundation models with widely available model weights. While NTIA highlighted benefits such as diversifying AI research and decentralizing control of the AI market, it also noted potential risks to national security, privacy, and civil rights. The report concludes that there is not enough evidence to warrant restrictions on open-weight models at this time but recommends collecting and evaluating evidence to inform future actions. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo emphasized that the report provides a roadmap for responsible AI innovation and American leadership. The report suggests that the government may need to develop benchmarks, maintain federal expert capabilities, and potentially restrict access to models if necessary, but stresses that monitoring and evaluation should come first.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The White House marked nine months since the signing of President Biden’s executive order on artificial intelligence with a new voluntary safety commitment from Apple and several new completed actions on the technology across the government. Apple’s agreement to safety, testing, and transparency measures outlined by the Biden administration brings the total number of AI companies that have signed on to the commitments to 16. These commitments were initially announced last year and include companies such as Meta, OpenAI, IBM, and Adobe. Federal agencies have completed a number of actions required within 270 days of the executive order’s issuance, including the first technical guidelines from the AI Safety Institute, initial guidance for agencies on AI training data, and a national security memo on AI. The national security memo was sent to the president, with non-classified portions to be made available later. Another expected report from the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration will address the risks and benefits of dual-use foundation models. Previous actions under the order included using the Defense Production Act for safety measures, setting up a National AI Research Resource, and launching an AI Talent Surge initiative.In other news, USAID has released a 10-year digital policy aimed at guiding the international development agency’s approach to emerging technologies in partner countries, from boosting internet access to embracing artificial intelligence. Administrator Samantha Power emphasized the need for U.S. leadership in promoting global internet connectivity and countering the misuse of technology by authoritarian governments. USAID plans to double its investment in its technology team and is promoting its new site, digitaldevelopment.org, which features ongoing work on digital ecosystem assessments.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The White House will issue final FedRAMP modernization guidance on Friday, addressing changes in the cloud market and agency needs for diverse mission delivery. The guidance aims to reform the cloud security authorization program by focusing on strategic goals, including rigorous reviews and swift mitigation of security weaknesses by cloud service providers. The memo emphasizes an automated process for security assessments to reduce participant burden and speed up cloud solution implementation. Agencies and the General Services Administration (GSA) have deadlines ranging from 180 days to two years to align with the new requirements, ensuring continuous monitoring and the use of Open Secure Control Assessment Language (OSCAL).In other news, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a major reorganization of its technology policy functions. The chief technology, data, and AI officer roles will move from the Assistant Secretary for Administration to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), now also titled Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy (ASTP/ONC). The 405(d) Program will transfer to the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra stated the reorganization aims to clarify and consolidate critical functions, preparing the department for future challenges. The new ASTP/ONC office will also seek to fill permanent roles for chief technology, AI, and data officers.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
A North Korean hacking group, newly designated as APT45 by the FBI and Mandiant, has broadened its ransomware operations to target healthcare providers, financial institutions, and energy companies. Previously known as Andariel or UNC614, the group has been active since at least 2009 and supports the interests of the North Korean government. Mandiant, a subsidiary of Google Cloud, emphasizes the group’s rising sophistication and expanding target range, which now includes advanced technologies and critical infrastructure. The FBI is expected to release an advisory following Mandiant’s report, detailing the group’s tactics and historical focus on intelligence gathering from defense and research sectors.Additionally, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) reports over 1,300 electronic devices, including iPhones, iPads, and computers, missing over the past three years. With two-thirds of its workforce based overseas, device security remains a critical challenge for the agency, reflecting a broader issue of mobile device management across federal agencies. Despite the losses, USAID remains committed to responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars and rigorous digital asset security, particularly in challenging global environments.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The Technology Modernization Fund has allocated $13.8 million to enhance nuclear emergency response capabilities at the Department of Energy and establish safety standards for artificial intelligence at the Department of Commerce. The Energy Department will receive $3.8 million to upgrade its radiological response data portal, aiding the operations of the Nuclear Emergency Support Team. The Commerce Department is granted $10 million to support the growth of its AI Safety Institute at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which was established to evaluate AI risks and formulate safety guidelines.In other news, the White House announced measures to protect children’s privacy and safety online, including efforts by multiple federal agencies to address image-based sexual abuse and other threats exacerbated by artificial intelligence. The National Institute of Standards and Technology is working on new methods to estimate and verify ages online, and the Department of Education has released guidelines to ensure nondiscriminatory use of AI in educational technologies.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
In today’s episode of the Daily Scoop Podcast, we delve into the ongoing impacts of the CrowdStrike IT failure. Last week’s outage has left several federal agencies scrambling to restore services. At the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, over 5,000 workstations were affected, though the agency's primary systems remain operational. The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network also experienced disruptions but resolved issues within an hour. Further impacts were reported at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.In legislative responses, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green and Rep. Andrew Garbarino have requested CrowdStrike’s CEO to testify regarding the outage’s effects on federal operations.Additionally, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is spearheading a new initiative to integrate artificial intelligence into manufacturing to enhance resilience. NIST plans to invest up to $70 million over five years in a new institute under Manufacturing USA, aiming to advance technology development, workforce education, and shared infrastructure.Wrapping up the episode, we revisit a panel discussion from the recent event, AWS Innovate Day, featuring Charles Worthington and Vinay Singh, the first chief AI officers at the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, respectively. They shared insights on the adoption of generative AI within federal agencies, emphasizing governance, risk management, and transparency.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
The U.S. global development agency, USAID, is intensifying its focus on artificial intelligence, exploring both its potential benefits and challenges. Following the recent announcement of a new policy on democracy, human rights, and governance, USAID Administrator Samantha Power underscored the importance of leveraging technology to bolster democracy. However, she also cautioned about the potential misuse of these tools by authoritarian regimes to suppress dissent. In her remarks, Power said, “This policy expands our toolbox so that we can keep up with fast-moving technology that can be weaponized against citizens, it codifies our intent to counter the rise of digital repression at its source.” She noted ongoing efforts to increase transparency and raise awareness about how new technologies and data are used. Power's comments followed her meeting with Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, discussing AI applications in global development, including successful deployments in Mexico and India.In cybersecurity news, National Cyber Director Harry Coker emphasized the goal of achieving federal coherence across government efforts in cybersecurity. In a CyberScoop interview, Coker, who took office seven months ago, highlighted the importance of collaboration over hierarchy within federal cybersecurity initiatives. He stated, “We lead by collaboration,” noting that the Office of the National Cyber Director prioritizes cooperative relationships over leading or dominating discussions. Coker discussed his regular interactions with Anne Neuberger and Jen Easterly, indicating robust ongoing dialogues among key cybersecurity leaders. He also mentioned collaboration with the Office of Management and Budget and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, focusing on setting cyber priorities for the fiscal year 2026 budget and promoting advancements like memory-safe computing languages.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.
A Microsoft outage linked to CrowdStrike has disrupted several federal agencies. CISA and DHS are collaborating with CrowdStrike, Microsoft, and others to address the outages. President Biden has been briefed and is in contact with affected entities.The Social Security Administration (SSA) has closed all offices, warning of longer wait times and unavailable online services. The Justice Department and Department of Veterans Affairs are also affected, with some DHS staff facing login issues. The FAA is monitoring airline IT issues but reports no impact on operations. The Energy Department’s website is offline, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission reports normal operations.In other news, the White House has announced nearly $100 million in commitments to enhance access to emerging tech talent. OSTP revealed pledges from the National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. Digital Response, and several universities.The NSF will provide at least $48 million, with $32 million for its Emerging and Novel Technologies program and $16 million for the Responsible Design, Development, and Deployment of Technologies program. U.S. Digital Response aims to double its support for under-resourced state and local governments. Academic institutions like San José State University, Spelman College, Georgetown University, the University of Michigan, and New York University have committed to various tech initiatives.Stay tuned to the Daily Scoop Podcast for more insights and updates on these stories and other developments in the federal tech space.
Just days after it was revealed that the FBI used software from Israeli firm Cellebrite to break into the phone of the man who shot former President Donald Trump, the company announced a strategic acquisition to expand its U.S. government work. Cellebrite purchased Cyber Technology Services Inc. and is establishing Cellebrite Federal Solutions, aiming to boost U.S. operations and engage more federal departments. The company is close to announcing a federal agency sponsorship for a FedRAMP cloud accreditation, expected in 2025. Cellebrite already holds contracts with several federal agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Secret Service, and the Defense Department. In other news, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is transitioning online users to Login.gov or ID.me sign-ins to access benefits and health care service accounts. This change will impact three million veterans and beneficiaries, who will no longer use usernames or passwords for My HealtheVet after January 2025. The VA aims to enhance security and provide a more user-friendly experience. Kurt DelBene, the VA’s assistant secretary for IT and chief information officer, emphasized that the transition is about empowering veterans with a modernized online experience. This move aligns with the Biden administration’s efforts to safeguard veteran data and improve federal customer service.
In today's episode, significant updates from federal agencies are highlighted, shaping the future of aviation and artificial intelligence. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has established a backup system for the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system following a major outage in January 2023. This critical step addresses one of the most severe disruptions to air traffic since the September 11 attacks and includes the formation of a NOTAM Task Force and revised maintenance protocols. These measures aim to prevent future outages and enhance the communication of flight-related information.Additionally, the Department of Energy's (DOE) new roadmap for its Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence for Science, Security, and Technology (FASST) program was released. This strategic plan outlines the DOE’s commitment to integrating AI into national security and energy innovation. It highlights efforts to expand AI-capable infrastructure and develop reliable AI technologies across its network of national laboratories.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is pushing forward with its artificial intelligence initiatives by awarding sole-source contracts to Abridge AI, Inc. and Nuance Communications, Inc. These contracts aim to develop AI-driven healthcare dictation tools. The pilot program will employ ambient AI technology to transcribe clinical encounters and seamlessly generate medical notes. This initiative is part of the VA’s broader strategy to enhance healthcare delivery by integrating these tools with its electronic health record system, thereby improving efficiency and reducing manual data entry.Additionally, the Social Security Administration (SSA) is transitioning its long-time online account users to Login.gov, a centralized identity verification service managed by the General Services Administration (GSA). This transition affects users who created accounts before September 2021. SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley emphasized that this move aims to enhance security and streamline access to SSA services. Over five million users have already made the switch, reflecting a broader federal effort to standardize authentication processes across agencies.Hear more on today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast.
As federal agencies patiently await final modernization guidance from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) finds itself navigating through a transitional period. Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), a staunch advocate for federal IT modernization and the author of the FedRAMP Authorization Act, voiced his concerns about the program's current limbo, attributed to the absence of OMB's final guidance and exacerbated by factors like agency backlogs and the unfilled directorial role at FedRAMP. Despite these hurdles, Connolly highlighted several positive strides, noting that the situation has evolved from 'the inferno' to a more stable 'limbo.' He remains hopeful about FedRAMP's trajectory and ongoing reforms, such as the Emerging Technology Prioritization Framework spearheaded by the General Services Administration.Simultaneously, the White House is advocating for a substantial increase in cybersecurity budgets across federal agencies to fortify the nation’s defenses, aligning with the broader goals of the Biden administration's national cyber strategy. In a pivotal memo, OMB Director Shalanda Young and National Cyber Director Harry Coker Jr. called for agency budget requests to include significant enhancements to cyber defenses, including the adoption of zero-trust architectures and the bolstering of open-source software security. The memo underscores the critical need for investments in department-wide, enterprise solutions to unify cybersecurity efforts across various mission areas, facilitating better information sharing and bolstering the nation’s resilience against burgeoning cyber threats.
Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Gary Peters (D-Michigan) have introduced the Securing America's Federal Equipment (SAFE) in Supply Chains Act. This bipartisan legislation aims to safeguard federal cybersecurity by mandating that electronic purchases be limited to original manufacturers or authorized resellers, addressing the increased risks of counterfeit products from unverified vendors.In another legislative move, Senators Joe Manchin (I-West Virginia) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) are spearheading the Department of Energy AI Act. The bill proposes to bolster the Department of Energy's science and security missions by integrating advanced artificial intelligence technologies. It calls for the establishment of several AI research and development centers across the national labs to foster cutting-edge AI research and secure deployment of AI technologies.
The IRS has successfully piloted its free Direct File online tax-filing system in 12 select states, despite facing numerous technical challenges. At a President’s Management Agenda event, IRS officials Merici Vinton and Chris Given discussed how over 1,000 fixes were made after the launch. Commissioner Danny Werfel's cautious approach was crucial to the program’s success. More than 140,000 taxpayers used Direct File, resulting in over $90 million in refunds and $35 million in balances due. The IRS is now working to expand the program to all 50 states for the next filing season, focusing on tax situations impacting working families. However, a House Republican effort in the appropriations process aims to zero out Direct File, presenting a potential challenge. In other news, the Senate Armed Services Committee's version of the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act includes several cybersecurity provisions related to zero trust. This concept assumes an adversary has already accessed the network, requiring constant monitoring and authentication of users and devices. The Act directs the DOD chief information officer to tailor the zero-trust framework to include human-wearable devices, sensors, and other smart technology within the military internet of things (IoT) within 180 days of the law’s passage. These interconnected, data-rich devices enhance military operations but also increase vulnerability to cyberattacks. The DOD aims to meet specific zero-trust capability outcomes by September 30, 2027.
In today's episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, host Billy Mitchell examines the implications of the Supreme Court's recent decision to overturn Chevron deference and its impact on federal AI regulation. The 6-3 ruling removes the requirement for courts to defer to federal agencies' interpretations of ambiguous statutes, complicating the Biden administration's efforts to regulate artificial intelligence. Legal experts, including Ellen Goodman from Rutgers Law School, caution that this decision will lead to increased legal challenges and highlight the need for clear legislative directives from Congress. This development underscores the potential need for establishing a new AI-focused regulatory agency.The episode also highlights new bipartisan legislation aimed at streamlining the fragmented cybersecurity regulations in the United States. Senators Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) have introduced the Streamlining Federal Cybersecurity Regulations Act, which proposes the creation of an interagency committee led by the national cyber director. This committee would identify and address inconsistent or contradictory cybersecurity requirements across federal agencies. The bill responds to concerns raised during recent Senate hearings about regulatory fragmentation and aims to establish consistent cybersecurity standards.
Today's Daily Scoop Podcast delves into the transformative impact of user-focused technology on government missions, with a special emphasis on the Department of Defense's UX overhaul. The discussion opens with an in-depth analysis of the NATO summit in Washington D.C., a pivotal event involving expanding support for Ukraine and launching new cybersecurity collaborations with Indo-Pacific partners. This historic meeting, marking NATO's 75th anniversary, features insights from President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.Another significant development discussed is the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Chevron doctrine. This ruling could impact the administration's capacity to enforce stringent cybersecurity regulations, potentially affecting a broad spectrum of sectors.The Department of Defense’s efforts to improve digital experiences for service members emphasizes strategic updates and leadership initiatives that enhance technological usability, crucial for effective mission outcomes. At DefenseTalks 2024, DefenseScoop reporter Brandi Vincent facilitated a panel discussion on these transformations with Savan Kong, Customer Experience Officer (CXO) at the OCIO, DOD; Scarlett Swerdlow, Sr. Technical Strategist at DISA; and Kevin Carter, Head of Customer Success, Public Sector at Slack. Hear the full conversation on today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast.
The GSA has announced an AI-themed hackathon, inviting the public to reimagine federal websites using artificial intelligence and cloud tools. Co-sponsored by OpenAI and Microsoft, the event will provide participants with access to large language models, coding technologies, and AI response consistency features. Scheduled for July 31 in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and New York City, the hackathon aims to prepare federal websites for a future where Americans rely on generative AI tools for information and services. A $10,000 prize pool will be awarded to winning participants and teams. Additionally, GSA has named Larry Bafundo as the executive director of the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF). Bafundo, who previously served as TMF's deputy executive director, has extensive experience in leading complex digital initiatives in both the public and private sectors. His appointment comes amidst calls from federal IT leaders and lawmakers to revitalize the TMF program, which is nearing the end of its America Rescue Plan funding.
The Department of Commerce’s Tech Hubs program, a key initiative supported by the CHIPS and Science Act, aims to bolster federal research and innovation in emerging technologies, especially in areas outside major cities. Senior Biden administration officials discussed the program's impact during a call announcing 12 new initiatives that will receive funding. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo emphasized the need to decentralize the tech ecosystem, noting that 90% of new tech jobs have been concentrated in just five cities over the past two decades. Key focus areas for these Tech Hubs include uncrewed aerial systems, IT, semiconductors, high-performance materials, and grid resilience systems. Among the recent grant recipients are the Elevate Quantum TechFund in Colorado and the Wisconsin Biohealth TechHub.In other news, the General Services Administration (GSA) has announced a request for proposals for the Alliant 3 Governmentwide Acquisition Contract, notable for its unprecedented no-ceiling dollar amount. This contract seeks to cover a broad range of IT services, including AI, biometrics, quantum computing, and more, with a focus on emerging technologies. Greg Godbout and Noah Kunin, former leaders of the GSA’s 18F digital team, join The Daily Scoop Podcast host Billy Mitchell to discuss their new initiative, info2insight. This open-source community aims to foster data-driven decision-making in government and accelerate the adoption of data analytics. They highlight the progress in government digital services and the need to pivot towards data analytics to manage the increasing information from AI and ML technologies. They share their vision for info2insight as a collaborative platform for civil servants, private-sector technologists, and academics to drive better governance through data insights.
The General Services Administration (GSA) has launched a new initiative to prioritize generative AI technologies in the FedRAMP cloud authorization process, aligning with a 2023 executive order. This effort focuses on accelerating the approval of AI capabilities such as chat interfaces, code generation, and image generators to enhance their integration into government systems. Additionally, the Chief Data Officers (CDO) Council is facing significant challenges due to the absence of essential Phase Two guidance from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which is necessary for implementing effective data governance practices. Despite these hurdles, the CDO Council continues to support federal agencies in managing and disseminating data effectively, underscoring ongoing efforts to incorporate advanced technologies and robust data management within the federal government.
In this episode of the Daily Scoop Podcast, host Billy Mitchell discusses the Department of Defense's evolving strategy towards artificial intelligence. The Joint Staff, under the guidance of Lieutenant General Todd Isaacson, has initiated an AI task force, which recently completed a crucial 90-day review to identify viable AI applications and necessary organizational structures to support AI-enabled capabilities. This initiative aims to establish a dedicated Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, reflecting a broader trend within the Pentagon towards integrating AI for various military and administrative uses.Additionally, the podcast covers the Department of Commerce’s ongoing efforts to standardize data for AI applications. Oliver Wise, the Chief Data Officer, speaking at the Gov AI Summit, emphasized the need for defining what constitutes AI-ready data. A working group within the Department is actively seeking public input to shape guidelines for government data that meets AI usability standards, aiming to publish their findings by year's end.
On today's Daily Scoop Podcast, we explore the Department of Energy's (DOE) newly issued reference guide for the use of generative AI tools by its employees and contractors. Released on the DOE's internal network on June 14, this 61-page document outlines best practices and mentions that tools like ChatGPT are available by request. While it isn't considered formal policy, the guide acts as a foundational resource for exploring AI capabilities within the agency. Helena Fu, the Director of DOE's Office of Critical and Emerging Technologies, highlighted at the Scale AI's gov AI summit that the guide aims to educate staff on the expansive opportunities AI offers and its responsible utilization.In other news, the U.S. Supreme Court recently dismissed an attempt by several Republican states to limit federal interactions with social media platforms. These states argued that such interactions led to the suppression of conservative viewpoints. The court's 6-3 ruling clarified that the plaintiffs lacked the necessary standing to sue, marking a significant victory for the Biden administration in its efforts to combat misinformation.For more in-depth coverage, you can read about the DOE’s AI guide on FedScoop and the Supreme Court decision on CyberScoop.
Chris DeRusha, former Federal Chief Information Security Officer and Deputy National Cyber Director, has joined Google Cloud to lead its global public sector compliance initiatives. DeRusha's new role will involve expanding Google Cloud's offerings in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and security across public sector entities globally. He will report to Jeanette Manfra, Google Cloud’s Global Director of Security and Compliance. DeRusha’s significant experience in security and infrastructure, from both his public and private sector roles, is expected to significantly enhance Google Cloud's services to its public sector clientele.Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security has introduced the initial cohort of its AI Corps, which consists of ten technology experts with diverse backgrounds in fields like artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. This move is part of a broader effort by the federal government to enhance its AI capabilities, following a presidential executive order aiming to recruit 500 AI experts across various federal agencies. The AI Corps, led by Michael Boyce, aims to grow to 50 members and is part of DHS's strategy to strengthen its technological expertise.
In this episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Eric Mill, GSA’s Executive Director for Cloud Strategy, shares comprehensive updates on the modernization of the FedRAMP program, including strategic hires and a new partnership approach aligned with the Department of Defense to enhance cloud authorizations. Additionally, the episode delves into a recent DHS report that discusses the imperative of mitigating AI's potential threats in chemical and biological security. It also features insights from a Cisco Talos report on a Chinese cyberespionage group targeting international ministries and embassies, showcasing the evolving landscape of global cybersecurity threats.
Today on the Daily Scoop Podcast from the Scoop News Group,The White House launches a new procurement copilot tool and Arpa-H Awards Palantir a $19 million contract for AI and data software.
Today on The Daily Scoop Podcast, Capt. Brian Erickson was appointed as the U.S. Coast Guard’s first ever chief data officer in 2021. Not long after that, the service added artificial intelligence to his portfolio, making him also the first chief data and AI officer for the Coast Guard. Now Erickson has been called on by the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency for the Coast Guard, to serve as deputy director for the department’s presidential transition office.As he makes the switch to that new role, Erickson recently sat down for an exit interview of sorts to share what he accomplished during his time as CDAO for the Coast Guard, his nontraditional path to a career in technology, what’s ahead as he pivots to focus on the 2024 presidential transition, and much more.
CISA leads its first tabletop exercise for AI cybersecurityAnd, lawmakers question Microsoft president over China ties, repeated breaches
The VA extends its EHR contract with Oracle Cerner for another 11 months. And, a scathing Senate report on regulating hedge funds’ use of AI.
There’s a pair of new bipartisan Senate bills out this week that looks to foster responsible AI adoption in two key areas: federal acquisition and small businesses.
GSA takes new steps to secure the software acquisition process And, the White House goes against the idea of an Army Drone Corps
The Department of Veterans Affairs, like many federal agencies, is facing a tightening budget landscape. Because of that, resources to support modernization and emerging tech adoption can be hard to come by. FedScoop reporter Caroline Nihill spoke recently with Charles Worthington, the dual-hatted chief technology officer and chief AI officer for the VA. During their wide-ranging discussion, they touch on the VA’s AI adoption, the constrained budget environment, infrastructure challenges, and much more.
Today on The Daily Scoop Podcast… from The Scoop News Group.Pentagon CIO John Sherman is leaving government And, Microsoft rolls back a highly criticized AI security tool.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify.
IRS’s Direct File is on the chopping block in a 2025 appropriations bill and the FBI obtains 7,000 LockBit ransomware decryption keys.
House Republicans want to slash funds for election security. And, the Army is in line to get a new network chief.
Today on the Daily Scoop Podcast from the Scoop News Group, How the VA is wrestling with digital transformation amid an austere budget environment. And the DIU looks to get another big funding boost in 2025.
As federal agencies move full-scale to adopt artificial intelligence technologies in coordination with the 2023 Biden administration AI executive order, it might seem that more secretive intelligence agencies like the CIA would be less forthcoming about their work in the space. Sure, there are some things the agency can’t share and certain requirements that must be met to work with commercial products due to classification restrictions. But the CIA is doing quite a lot in AI, and Lakshmi Raman, the director of AI for the agency, was willing to give a wide-ranging interview looking at the CIA’s journey to adopt AI — from the use cases the CIA is most excited about for AI to the workforce concerns and unique governance challenges the agency faces, and much more. Let’s shift now to that interview with Lakshmi Raman, CIA’s director of AI.
Senator Joni Ernst seeks information about SBA'sS artificial intelligence use cases and IT work and a House Republican sounds the alarm on cyber threats to the food and agriculture sector.
IRS makes direct file permanent and union workers say a commerce department agency is on the brink of collapse amid a telework dispute.
The Army has awarded Palantir a $480 million deal to support its Maven Smart System prototype, the Pentagon announced Wednesday. The U.S. military has recently been using this type of artificial intelligence technology in the Central Command area of responsibility in the Middle East. The Maven Smart System uses AI generated algorithms and memory learning capabilities to scan and identify enemy systems in the Area of Responsibility, fusing data from various Intelligence Surveillance & Reconnaissance (ISR) systems to identify areas of interest. The Pentagon wants to use artificial intelligence tools like Maven to enable its Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control warfighting construct, which aims to better connect the platforms, sensors and data streams of the U.S. military and key international partners under a more unified network. Defense officials intend to leverage AI to help commanders and other personnel make faster and better decisions and improve operational effectiveness and efficiency. The company was recently awarded another AI-related deal by the Army for the next phase of the service’s TITAN ground station program, which aims to provide soldiers with next-generation data fusion and deep-sensing capabilities via artificial intelligence and other tools. That other transaction agreement was worth $178 million.
Today on the Daily Scoop podcast from the Scoop News group, OPM's chief pushes for telework flexibilities for the cyber workforce and inside the army tool used to support Biden's AI executive order.
GSA teases a new open source tool for federal CX efforts and the FCC pushes new disclosure requirements for A I in political ads.
Gen. Jim Mattis, the former secretary of defense during the start of the Trump administration, made a special appearance Wednesday at DefenseTalks. And while he touched on a number of things, from leadership to politics and the military’s adoption of emerging technology, he made some pretty critical comments about the state of the nation amid the upcoming election and its vulnerability to influence operations from key adversaries like Russia and China. Mattis said that while election systems and voting infrastructure are perhaps the most secure they’ve ever been against cyberattacks, the bigger problem is influence operations, calling the U.S. the most vulnerable he’s ever seen it in his lifetime to foreign influence and a lucrative target. During the on-stage interview, Mattis also touched on the nation’s cyber defenses, throwing water on the idea from some to form an independent U.S. military cyber service for foreign operations. However, he did call for a new model to protect the homeland’s critical infrastructure from cyber attacks, namely by sharing some of the resources housed within the U.S. military and NSA with DHS in emergency scenarios. But, Mattis said because the military doesn’t have authority to issue orders over matters happening within the U.S. and its infrastructure, there would need to be a civilian law enforcement leader — he proposed the FBI — who would step in to lead response to a major cyberattack on the homeland.
The house passes a bill in support of the TMF and GSA appoints tech experts for a new fed ramp advisory group.
Earlier this month, the RSA Conference in San Francisco drew crowds of tens of thousands of cybersecurity experts and practitioners, including a huge cohort of cyber officials from the federal government. One of those was Bailey Bickley, the chief of defense industrial base cybersecurity at the NSA.I caught up with Bickley during some of her downtime at RSA to discuss the big takeaways from this year’s conference, as well as all of the work the NSA is doing to help bolster the security of defense contractors, particularly smaller ones that can’t always afford to secure themselves. From CMMC and the new DIB cyber strategy to the free services the NSA is providing to members of the DIB community, we cover it all. Now, let’s go to my conversation with Bailey Bickley.
NSF Funding Cuts Present a National Security Issue and new TMF investments boost agency projects and generative A I digital service delivery and accessibility.
Just recently, federal agencies met some of the key requirements set forth in the Biden administration’s AI executive order that were to be completed within the first 180 days, signaling strong momentum for the federal government establishing a strong foundation of AI development and responsible use.Nick Sinai, former U.S. deputy CTO during the Obama administration and now a senior adviser for the venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners, which focuses on investing in software firms, joins the Daily Scoop to discuss the momentum of the AI EO, a trip he took last year to U.S. Central Command in the Middle East and what he learned there, what federal officials should be thinking about with the election coming up, and much more.
The Pentagon launches new initiatives for a to reciprocity and digital modernization and the USDS touts its impact over the past year.
More than 60 companies join CISA’s pledge to be Secure by Design And, Chuck Schumer says an AI roadmap is coming soon from the Senate AI working group.
Today on the Daily Scoop podcast from the Scoop News group, a supercomputer sandbox for testing federal AI and evaluating the nation's cyber security posture.
With all of the critical cyberattacks executed through the software supply chain in recent years, you’re sure to have heard about SBOMs, or software bills of materials, which are essentially ingredients lists of the components that make up a piece of software. The Biden administration in its 2021 cybersecurity executive order introduced new guidance for how federal agencies should request SBOMs from vendors when purchasing software so they can better understand what it’s made of and protect against attacks down the supply chain.The Department of Homeland Security, through its Science and Technology Directorate, is advancing federal work on SBOMs, namely through a program led by its Silicon Valley Innovation Program. In partnership with CISA, the Silicon Valley Innovation Program in 2023 awarded funding to a cohort of startups to broadly promote the use of SBOMs by developing two core software modules—a multi-format SBOM translator and a software component identifier translator—to be delivered as open-source libraries which, in turn, will be integrated with their SBOM enabled commercial products. Just recently, that cohort delivered the first of those two tools. Joining the Daily Scoop to discuss the need for SBOMs broadly, the cohort’s progress and what’s next are Melissa Oh, managing director of DHS’s Silicon Valley Innovation Program, and Anil John, SVIP technical manager.
The IRS says it could run out of money to support modernization And, U.S. Cyber Command adds to its top brassThe Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
NASA Pushes Back on Gao’s Cyber Recommendations for Spacecraft and trade groups say CISA's incident reporting requirements go too far.
Today on the Daily Scoop podcast from the scoop news group data stolen in the change health care attack likely included us service members and the White House encourages agencies to turn towards skilled based hiring for cyber and tech jobs.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.
President Biden’s executive order on AI, issued last October, set federal agencies on path to consider the adoption of generative AI in a safe and secure manner. While some agencies have expressed caution in using genAI, the EO discourages agencies from imposing broad general bans or blocks on agency use of generative AI and instead encourages them, with appropriate safeguards in place, to provide their personnel and programs with access to secure and reliable generative AI capabilities for the purposes of experimentation and routine tasks that carry a low risk of impacting Americans’ rights.Still, the hype around generative AI, inside and outside government, is high, and there’s a propensity to see it as a panacea to fix all problems. But that’s not the case, according to Alison Smith, director of generative AI for Booz Allen Hamilton. Smith joins the Daily Scoop Podcast to explain how agencies should weigh whether generative AI is a good fit for a problem and what the federal generative AI landscape looks like today.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify.
By the end of the year, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency plans to launch an automated vulnerability warning program to alert organizations that are running software with vulnerabilities being exploited by ransomware gangs, the agency’s director, Jen Easterly, said this week. Currently running in a pilot phase, the program is mandated by the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of 2022 and aims to reduce the number of ransomware attacks by getting the owners and operators of vulnerable systems to patch them before they can be infiltrated. Speaking at an event hosted by the Institute for Security and Technology, Easterly said the pilot is focused on reducing the prevalence of ransomware by using vulnerability scanning tools to let businesses know if they have vulnerabilities that need to be patched. CISA has issued 2,049 warnings since the pilot was launched last January. It has since expanded to include CISA’s database of known exploited vulnerabilities and common misconfigurations that can be linked to ransomware attacks.
If you were unable to make it to last week’s AITalks, you truly missed out on a special day. The first-ever event featured the top leaders in AI from across the public sector. However, we have a special treat today if you didn’t make it.I hosted a dynamic panel on the role of the federal chief AI officer with two of the first federal CAIOs appointed in the role, as well as a top industry AI executive who’s working with federal agencies as they appoint and institute the CAIO role. It was my pleasure to be joined by Zach Whitman, CAIO and chief data scientist for GSA; Vinay Singh, chief financial officer and CAIO for HUD, and Dave Vennergrund, VP of AI & data Insights for GDIT.Let’s go now to that conversation at the first-ever AITalks.
Scientists Must Be Empowered, Not Replaced by A I and the US charges Iranian hackers who targeted the Treasury and State Departments.
If you were unable to make it to last week’s AITalks, you truly missed out on a special day. The first-ever event featured the top leaders in AI from across the public sector. However, we have a special treat today if you didn’t make it.I hosted a dynamic panel on the role of the federal chief AI officer with two of the first federal CAIOs appointed in the role, as well as a top industry AI executive who’s working with federal agencies as they appoint and institute the CAIO role. It was my pleasure to be joined by Zach Whitman, CAIO and chief data scientist for GSA; Vinay Singh, chief financial officer and CAIO for HUD, and Dave Vennergrund, VP of AI & data Insights for GDIT.Let’s go now to that conversation at the first-ever AITalks.
AITalks, the premier event where top government leaders, tech innovators, and industry experts converge to explore the transformative potential of artificial intelligence in the public sector space. During the daylong event, you heard about cutting-edge AI applications revolutionizing government operations — from cybersecurity to citizen services — practical insights on building a culture of AI adoption and overcoming implementation challenges, and how government agencies are mitigating unfolding risks associated with the nascent technology.
Yesterday, Scoop News Group produced the U I Path on tour public sector event at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington DC.IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel kicked off the event talking about how automation has enhanced his agency's operations.
Today… on The Daily Scoop Podcast… from The Scoop News Group.OPM’s tech-friendly director steps downAnd, inside the debate on banning ransomware payments
Today we have a special interview recorded from the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, which last week was home of Google Cloud Next 2024. While there, I had the tremendous opportunity to speak at length with Karen Dahut, Google Public Sector CEO.During our conversation, we covered a lot of ground, taking in all of the announcements from Next, reflecting on the upcoming two-year birthday of Google Public Sector and what’s been accomplished in that time, how generative AI is permeating the public sector, and what’s ahead.This is one of many interviews captured at Google Next, so make sure to tune into the others released throughout this week.
Google's Leigh Palmer on the need for transparency in public sector AI by The Daily Scoop Podcast
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available on all the podcast platforms. If you’ve already rated the podcast on your platform of choice… thanks! High ratings and good reviews of the show… help more people find it.The Daily Scoop Podcast is a production of the Scoop News Group in Washington D-C. Adam Butler and Carlin Fisher help put this show together… and the entire Scoop News Group team contributes.We’ll be back tomorrow with more top headlines. Until then, I’m your host Billy Mitchell. Thanks for listening.
It’s been 13 years since FedRAMP was created as the federal government’s cloud security compliance program. And like any federal technology program that’s been around that long, its mission and the services it set out to provide in 2011 are very different from what agencies need today. In particular, the FedRAMP program office recently wrote in a new roadmap for the prgram that it is critical that it be well-positioned to make sure federal agencies get the full benefit of software-as-a-service (SaaS) cloud offerings, acknowledging that while FedRAMP does have some SaaS offerinfs its marketplace, it’s not nearly enough and it’s not working the way that it should.As the General Services Administration explores the future of FedRAMP, including seeking out its next leader, the agency’s executive director for cloud strategy, Eric Mill, joins the podcast to discuss how GSA is approaching this next chapter for FedRAMP.
Kiersten Todt has worked on just about every hot-button cybersecurity issue you can imagine. Currently the CEO of Liberty Group Ventures, her most recent role in government was as the chief of staff at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. As a Senate staffer, she drafted key parts of the legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security, and during the Obama years, she was the executive director of the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity. She sits down with CyberScoop’s Elias Groll for a wide-ranging conversation about the evolving cybersecurity policy landscape.
Since 2016, the Department of Defense and other national security agencies have partnered with the Hacking 4 Defense program allowing students at universities across the U.S. and the globe to address critical problems facing the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community. Launched as a pilot out of Stanford, the program has expanded to more than 63 universities and enlisted more than 3,000 students for the course. And more recently, participating universities have partnered with our allies and universities in the U.K. and Australia to work on common problems.This week, the latest Hacking 4 Defense cohort is beginning, and it’s the largest ever, with 37 universities teaching 39 H4 courses, supporting 120 student teams with over 500 students between the U.S. and U.K. Joining the podcast to discuss the evolution of Hacking 4 Defense and what to expect from the latest cohort is Pete Newell, co-founder and CEO of BMNT, the defense innovation firm that runs the Hacking 4 Defense program.
The FedScoop news team is growing … sort of. We recently promoted our editorial fellow Caroline Nihill to a permanent member of the reporting team. You’ve likely seen Caroline’s work since joining the team last summer, covering developments in AI, shift in the Technology Modernization Fund and opening FedScoop’s aperture wider on Capitol Hill.But now that she’s a full-time member of the team, we wanted to invite her on so DailyScoop listeners and readers of FedScoop.com could get to know her better. Caroline Joins the podcast to discuss how she came to be a reporter with FedScoop, what she’s most passionate about covering at the intersection of the federal government and technology, and what you can come to expect from her coverage going forward.
Since 2019, Deloitte’s Center for Government Insights has issued annual reports on the top trends transforming government. Tuesday, Deloitte issued its latest report for 2024, in which it presents the eight trends propelling the 10x government of the future.Bill Eggers is the executive director of Deloitte’s Center for Government Insights and the author of the Top Trends in Government 2024 report. He joins me to discuss the top takeaways from this year’s exploration into what’s driving transformation in government and what those who are lagging behind can stand to learn from the model use cases showcased in the report.
The Air Force Research Lab last March established its Digital Capabilities Directorate to speed up its modernization pursuits and enable its scientists and engineers to explore and more efficiently collaborate via a growing suite of emerging technologies. The directorate fuses together former AFRL’s elements, like its Research Collaboration and Computing Directorate, as well as the lab’s former Business Process Reengineering Division and others. It also has roots that trace back to a temporary digital “war room” that was stood up to help drive innovation. Alexis Bonnell is Air Force Research Lab CIO and director of the Digital Capabilities Directorate, appointed to those roles last July. She joins the podcast to discuss her journey to the role, her priorities nearly a year in and how things are shifting as AI becomes an increasingly important part of AFRL’s enterprise IT.
Last December, the Office of Management and Budget released a memorandum with new guidance on Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, which requires agencies to offer equal access to electronic information and data for individuals with disabilities. Per the new memorandum, all agencies must deliver an accessible digital experience, establish programs and policies for digital accessibility, procure products and services that are fully accessible, monitor and remediate issues that arise with creating an accessible customer experience and cultivate a “positive culture” of online accessibility.Federal CIO Clare Martorana and her office’s head of digital experience, Jonathan Finch, join the Daily Scoop to discuss the purpose of the new guidance, how federal digital experience leaders are taking charge to make changes, and what role AI can play in improving citizens’ experiences with the federal government.
The Transportation Security Administration recently announced the launch of its IT Lift Cell Innovation Lab, a space through which TSA’s network of innovative thinkers can put their ideas to work. The lab is meant to be a “Apple Genius Bar meets TSA IT,” according to the agency, and a place where the department’s IT office can host workshops, open hours and meetings for employee brainstorming sessions.TSA CIO Yemi Oshinnaiye joins the Daily Scoop Podcast to discuss the new lab, the concept behind Lift Cells and his top priorities now two years into his role leading the agency’s IT portfolio.
Agency adoption of zero trust architecture was mandated by the Biden administration’s Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity and OMB memo M-22-09, which created a strategy for its adoption. By the end of this fiscal year, agencies are required to meet some level of zero trust adoption. But the federal government is just one part of the larger U.S. public sector, and with vast amounts of data and information being shared regularly across levels of government, it’s critical that other entities, like states, secure their enterprises as well.Rodd Nodurft is a former chief of the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Cyber Team in the White House and the Executive Director of the Alliance for Digital Innovation, which recently issued a white paper focused on zero trust in the public sector. He joins the podcast to discuss that new paper, the evolution of zero trust and the top takeaways from the White House’s fiscal 2025 budget.
Federal agencies, as well as other entities across the private sector, are at a major disadvantage when it comes to protecting their sensitive information and systems from bad actors. Hackers are getting more sophisticated, and cyberattacks are increasing in quantity and severity. And, the vast majority of the time, humans are the weakest link in cyberattack vectors.A new program out of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency wants to turn that notion on its head, shifting the asymmetric nature of cyber defense to benefit defenders by building cyberpsychology-informed defenses and influencing and manipulating a cyberattacker’s decision-making throughout an attack.Dr. Kimberly Ferguson-Walter leads ReSCIND — the project which stands for Reimagining Security with Cyberpsychology-Informed Network Defenses — and she joins me now to discuss the idea behind the project, the field of cyberpsychology and the end goal of the novel initiative.
For nearly a year now, the adoption of artificial intelligence has been all the rage in the government space. But still, as you’ve seen in FedScoop’s reporting, there has been hesitation by some agencies to fully embrace the emerging technology because of unknown risks and fear of issues with safety, security and privacy.Meagan Metzger, the founder and CEO of Dcode, joins me now to discuss the status of AI adoption across the federal government, how people are key to it adoption and how things are progressing for agencies and commercial firms that don’t see eye to eye on sharing what’s going on inside an AI algorithm.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
The Department of Justice works with highly sensitive sets of information and because of that, the bar to secure it is much higher than other civilian agencies. As CIO, Melinda Rogers is highly focused on delivering a zero-trust security architecture across the department to better secure its national security systems and the information within them. Rogers recently spoke with my colleague Wyatt Kash at the Zero Trust Security Summit about that journey and how the DOJ is thinking about modernizing its cybersecurity. Let’s tune into that now.
Last week, House leaders formally announced the creation of a new bipartisan task force on artificial intelligence — an effort that marks a major step forward in efforts to legislate with representation from both parties. Rep. Yvette Clarke — a Democrat from New York who was one of the first members of Congress to call out the potential harms of artificial intelligence — is one of 24 members on that task force. In an interview with FedScoop’s Rebecca Heilweil, Clarke discusses her expectations for serving on the bipartisan task force, what concerns her most about the technology and the prospects for regulatory and legislative action.
For several years now, the Department of Veterans Affairs has been exploring how AI can lead to better outcomes for the veterans it serves. The National AI Institute has been an essential part of that, most recently leading tech sprints in conjunction with last year’s AI executive order aiming to reduce healthcare worker burnout.Joining me to discuss that and much more is Dr. Gil Alterovitz, the director of VA’s National AI Institute and chief AI officer for the Veterans Health Administration. He was also previously the first chief AI officer for the larger Department of Veterans Affairs.
CISA has launched a new Zero Trust Initiative Office, showcasing its dedication to supporting federal agencies on the implementation journey for the security framework. But what does that mean for some of CISA’s more legacy security initiatives, like the Trusted Internet Connections program? CISA’s TIC lead Sean Connelly recently joined me for a fireside chat at the Zero Trust Summit to discuss the future of TIC 3.0 as zero trust takes priority and how the two will continue to evolve as more federal agencies modernize their cybersecurity.
With 2024 in full swing, cybersecurity remains a top priority in the federal technology space and beyond. In a special interview, the NSA’s Rob Joyce and Morgan Adamski sit down with CyberScoop’s Elias Groll to examine the major cybersecurity trends from last year that will continue on in 2024, the evolution of Russian hacking operations, how China is targeting U.S. critical infrastructure and how AI is changing the cybersecurity business, and more.
Daily Scoop listeners are going to be very familiar with the body of work of this episode’s guest. She’s a former deputy federal CIO, CIO of the Small Business Administration and CTO of the Transportation Department, among the many other roles she held during her vast career in federal IT before retiring in 2022. I’m of course speaking of the one and only Maria Roat. Now serving in several board roles, Roat is still fairly active advising in the federal IT space. In our conversation, we discuss what she’s focused on since departing federal service, how she sees the government going about adoption of artificial intelligence, how agency IT leaders must be thoughtful in balancing AI, security and user experience, and much, much more.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
We’re back with part two of a two-part interview with Egon Rinderer, chief technologist for Shift 5 and a former operator for the U.S. Navy. In part one we discussed a new round of bonuses the Air Force authorized worth up to $600,000 to retain existing manned aircraft and drone pilots, combat systems operators and air battle managers — and how the challenges the service is facing in keeping airmen on board go beyond money.For the second half of our conversation, we get deeper into the role tech plays in the U.S. military’s shifting competitive landscape to focus on great power competitors and the new threats services face like GPS spoofing and small-scale drones. Let’s pick up the conversation where the first episode left off.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
The Air Force in December approved a new round of bonuses worth up to $600,000 that are designed to retain existing manned aircraft and drone pilots, combat systems operators and air battle managers. The move showcases the challenges the service is facing in keeping airmen on board. But according to my guest, despite the major financial incentive, that may not be enough.Egon Rinderer, chief technologist for Shift 5 and a former operator for the U.S. Navy, joins me to discuss the Air Force’s retention challenge and how the tech airmen work with everyday plays into that.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
When it comes to federal cybersecurity efforts — particularly the adoption of zero-trust security architectures — CISA’s Sean Connelly is a top voice within the community related to the strides agencies are making to enhance their cyber protections. Connelly joins the Daily Scoop podcast to discuss the latest on federal zero trust progress, how the Trusted Internet Connections program has evolved, why IT modernization is so imperative for improved cybersecurity outcomes, and much more.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
Last week, Scoop News Group partnered with Google Public Sector to host the Google Defense Forum. The tremendous lineup of defense officials representing the Pentagon, a variety of military services and other defense agencies kicked off with a fireside chat between myself and retired four-star Gen. Dave Goldfein, who served as the chief of staff of the Department of the Air Force. Now the chairman of the board for Google Public Sector, Goldfein shared during our conversation why he decided to join Google, how the defense technology landscape is changing and the technologies he’s most excited about transforming the Department of Defense.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
Over the past year, FedScoop has led coverage of the flurry of AI developments coming out of the federal government and the supprounding legislative and commercial space. In particular, the team’s reporters have kept a close watch on how agencies are adopting AI technologies in a responsible and transparent manner Joining the podcast to discuss that and more are FedScoop reporters Madison Alder and Rebecca Heilweil.
The federal government has made large strides in setting guardrails for AI development, adoption and use in recent months, driven by the Biden administration’s executive order on AI. Despite the momentum and buzz that’s engulfed the AI adoption landscape, the federal government and agencies must be measured and responsible in their approach to leveraging AI.That’s according to MK Palmore, director of the Office of the CISO for Google Cloud. In a recent conversation, Palmore discussed the need for more rigorous testing and standards for AI, the intersection of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, and how important it is to ensure diversity is a part of the larger conversation.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
Following the issuance of the Biden administration’s executive order on AI, OMB guidance has called for all federal CFO Act agencies to appoint chief AI officers to coordinate their agency’s use of AI, promote AI innovation and manage AI risks, while also serving as vice chairs of their agency’s AI governance boards.GSA was one of the first agencies to name a CAIO, giving its chief data officer Zach Whitman a dual hat as its AI officer. Whitman, also a former CDO for the Census Bureau, spoke with FedScoop’s Madison Alder and Rebecca Heilweil about the new role, how he’s managing both jobs, what he hopes to get done as GSA’s first chief AI officer, and much more.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
The U.S. national security apparatus in 2021 signed on to a trilateral partnership with the United Kingdom and Australia that has come to be known as AUKUS. The partnership, as the Pentagon explains, is intended to strengthen the ability of each government to support security and defense interests, particularly in the Indo-Pacific, building on longstanding and ongoing bilateral ties. And it will promote deeper information sharing and technology sharing; and foster deeper integration of security and defense-related science, technology, industrial bases and supply chains.Back in December, a group led by private sector defense innovation firm BMNT launched the AUKUS Defense Investors Network — a network of leading private capital investors from 300+ institutional venture capital firms, corporate venture capital (CVC) groups and family offices from the three nations. d military capabilities in cyber, AI, quantum, undersea capabilities, hypersonics, counter-hypersonics, EW and information sharing – areas where private sector investment can accelerate government investment in developing solutions to critical security challenges.Heather Jo Richman is the founder and co-chair of the AUKUS DIN. For much of her career, Richman has served in roles serving alongside the U.S. DOD and the Intelligence Community to create ecosystems of innovators and investors to engage in national security-focused problem solving on all levels. I recently spoke with Heather from her home in the Silicon Valley area in California to learn more about the new AUKUS DIN.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
The State Department has one of the most global missions in the federal government, providing IT services at facilities in 190 nations across the world. With that, though, comes decades of tech debt that CIO Kelly Fletcher and her team at State’s Bureau of Information Resource Management are working to modernize. Fletcher spoke recently with my colleague Wyatt Kash about that modernization journey, her top priorities in 2024 including things like Zero Trust and AI, and much more.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
Last month, FedScoop reported exclusive news from an interview with Congressman Ro Khanna, the Democratic representative from the Sillicon Valley area in California. In those stories, reporter Nihal Krishan highlighted Khanna’s new legislation that looks to hold federal agencies accountable for digital service delivery and how the congressman hopes to see workers better represented on the boards of AI companies and rank-and-file employees be sufficiently consulted when AI tools are rolled out within the government and beyond. Now we wanted to share the entirety of that interview to highlight everything Khanna is focused on going forward in 2024. I’ll turn it over now to Nihal for his interview with Congressman Ro Khanna.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
Artificial Intelligence is playing an increasingly important role in constituent engagement for both Federal and state and local levels.Gretchen Brainard, Principal at Deloitte Digital joins the Daily Scoop Podcast to discuss how AI is helping government agencies improve constituent engagement and improve the human experience.
While AI stole the show in 2023 in terms of top federal IT trends and themes, cybersecurity — particularly adoption of zero trust — remained an essential focus across the federal government. While agencies are taking varied paths to modernizing their cybersecurity with zero-trust architectures, the Department of Commerce has taken perhaps the most aggressive and streamlined approach in moving to zero trust as one department, rather than letting bureaus and sub-agencies plot their own course.Andre Mendes, the outgoing CIO of the Commerce Department, spoke recently at CyberTalks giving an exclusive, deep-dive into the department’s zero trust transformation. Mendes was joined by Blair Heiserman, CISO & Network Director at NIST, and Ron Ringgold, Commerce’s Director of the Office of CyberSecurity Architecture Services, to share the department’s journey.
The White House issued an executive order on artificial intelligence at the end of October that set in place the foundation for how the U.S. hopes to lead on the development and adoption of the technology. The Office of Science and Technology Policy and its director, Arati Prabhakar, played a key role in shaping the creation of that order.FedScoop editorial fellow Caroline Nihill spoke with Prabhakar about the E-O, OSTP’s role in it and how the U.S. government is looking to staff up to support its vision.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
Based on the draft guidance OMB published recently to modernize the FedRAMP cloud security authorization program, it appears the practice of enlisting vendors to build government-specific cloud enclaves could be a thing of the past. As it stands, the policy would push federal agencies to use the commercial public cloud services that vendors provide most any of their other customers rather than these Gov Clouds.Joining The Daily Scoop Podcast to discuss that change, other details from the new FedRAMP guidance and much more is Jeanette Manfra, Global Director, Risk and Compliance at Google Cloud and former Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity and Communications at the Department of Homeland Security.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
The Biden administration has issued a flurry of new IT mandates and policies in recent months, from the landmark AI executive order and guidance for agencies to new directives on digital experience and modernizing FedRAMP. While it may be a lot to digest for federal CIOs and IT professionals, there’s an obvious crossover among the mandates that makes their close timing seem like more of a feature than a bug. Here to talk about that is Jonathan Alboum, federal CTO for ServiceNow and former CIO of the Agriculture Department.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
The White House and the Biden administration have issued several cybersecurity modernization initiatives in recent years, from supply chain security to implementing zero trust architecture across the federal government. Federal CISO Chris DeRusha recently delivered the opening keynote address at CyberTalks detailing the latest developments in the White House’s push to improve the government’s and the nation’s cybersecurity — noting that the administration is working on version 2.0 of its National Cybersecurity Strategy implementation plan.
Back in September, before the Biden administration’s executive order on artificial intelligence, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas tapped CIO Eric Hysen to also be the department’s chief AI officer. But long before that appointment, DHS and Hysen have been steadfastly focused on building out the department’s use of AI technologies and, more importantly, ensuring they are used in a safe, responsible, ethical and unbiased manner. Hysen joins the DailyScoop Podcast now to discuss the role and how DHS wants to lead in this space.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
The Biden administration recently issued draft guidance to modernize the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, better known as FedRAMP. With that policy in draft form, the Office of Management and Budget, led by the Office of the Federal CIO, has been engaging the public to solicit feedback on the proposed guidance. And already, that effort has been quite fruitful, Drew Mkylegard, deputy federal CIO, told FedScoop recently at CyberTalks. We’ll go now to that interview for more on the direction of the FedRAMP guidance and what comes next.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
On todays episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, we have a special interview between two of our own here at Scoop News Group. CyberScoop senior editor Elias Groll is joined by FedScoop tech reporter Rebecca Heilweil for an in-depth conversation on the Biden administration’s recent artificial intelligence executive order and how it will shape the way the government uses AI. We’ll take you now to that conversation.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: The federal government is once again facing the potential of a shutdown as the current continuing resolution is set to expire at midnight Nov. 17. And while partisan politics drive the conversation around whether Congress will reach another short-term spending bill in time, it’s ultimately the American public and federal workers who will feel the impact if a stopgap measure isn’t passed.Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, joins the Daily Scoop Podcast to discuss the latest on the potential shutdown, what a lapse in funding or even a CR does to innovation in government, and what you should know if you want to be a part of the solution.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
The recently assembled, latest iteration of the Defense Innovation Board has a new executive director in Marina Theodotou, who comes to the board after leading workforce innovation readiness efforts for the Defense Acquisition University. Now in full swing, the DIB 3.0, as Theodotou calls it, is in the middle of conducting two studies — one on Lowering Barriers to Innovation and another on Building a DoD Data Economy. The Daily Scoop Podcast recently caught up with Theodotou to discuss the vision of this board, those two studies and what else is ahead — including a public meeting next week on Nov. 14.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
With the recent signing of the executive order on artificial intelligence, it will be incumbent upon the federal government to lead by example in adopting and deploying AI technologies. While that will be a whole of government effort, the General Services Administration and its Technology Transformation Services will be counted on as a central hub of tech expertise to assist other federal agencies, sharing best practices, driving recruitment of talented AI professionals, and more.To discuss that, as well as how TTS is continuing to scale and what she’s learned in her first year leading the organization is Ann Lewis, Director of Technology Transformation Services at GSA, who I spoke with at ACT-IAC’s Executive LEadership Conference in Hershey, Pa last week.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
DISA’s Hosting and Compute Center was opened in 2021 to empower the warfighter to execute at the speed of mission with cloud computing and other hosting and computing services. Now two years later, the HaCC, as it's called, is smashing its strategic goals out of the park while leading the administration of one of the largest and highest profile cloud computing contracts in all of government.Sharon Woods, the director of the HaCC, joins the Daily Scoop podcast to discuss the latest on the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability, what the center has in store next, and much more.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
Last month, the Office of Management and Budget issued guidance for federal agencies digital experience management — a policy that’s been five years in the making as set out by the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act. In her role as federal CIO, Clare Martorana is championing for progress in how agencies interact with the public online to make it easier for citizens to get the information, services or benefits they need in ways they expect. Martorana and Andy Lewandowski — senior adviser to the Federal CIO and director of the digital experience practice within the Office of the Federal CIO — join The Daily Scoop Podcast now to discuss the new policy and how they will oversee its roll out across government.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
Darren Ash was hired as CIO of the Department of the Interior last September. And during his first year, the longtime federal IT official, who’s served also as CIO of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the USDA Farm Service Agency among others, has been focused on delivering an IT strategic plan to guide the vision for Interior’s IT operations.Ash joins The Daily Scoop Podcast now to discuss that strategic plan, how the agency is considering emerging technologies like AI and cloud, and much more.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
More and more agencies are turning to as-a-service, cloud-based applications rather than hosting services in house. While there are many benefits to that model, there are challenges too.Scoop News Group's Wyatt Kash spoke recently with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission CIO Mittal Desai about the challenges and benefits of adopting an as-a-Service model, the cultural shifts required within IT teams to support adoption and other training needs. Desai also highlights significant impacts of as-a-service on operations, including reduced outages, faster feature deployment and improved security. Listen into that conversation now.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
Artificial intelligence continues to be all anyone in the government technology space can talk about. But AI is not exactly new. It’s been a topic federal IT officials have discussed and explored for decades now. So what makes this point in the AI development and adoption cycle different? Rob Carey, President of Cloudera Government Solutions and the former Navy CIO and Pentagon Deputy CIO, joins The Daily Scoop Podcast to discuss that and what federal CIOs should be thinking about as they look to adopt AI.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
We’re all set for Tuesday’s Google Public Sector Summit at the Reagan Building in Washington, D.C., where the amazing lineup of speakers are set to discuss how agency and industry experts are approaching the widening intersection of AI and security.Ahead of Tuesday’s event, I spoke with Google Public Sector CEO Karen Dahut on what she hopes attendees walk away with from the event, as well as how generative AI is imparting the public sector, the continued importance of security for government technology, and why government agencies should look to commercial technology in times of crisis.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent federal government agency primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. As such, the ability to leverage cloud services has played a pivotal role in helping USAID support several key mission objectives, including efforts to foster global health, climate sustainability, and supply chain initiatives, according to USAID Chief Information Officer Jason Gray.Gray recently joined my colleague Wyatt KAsh, and Jamie Baker, director of federal civilian health science policy at Amazon Web Services, for a conversation about how leveraging the cloud can reduce administrative overhead, free up resources to support more meaningful work, and accelerate automation and speed up security patching and development.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
As a member of Congress, Will Hurd made a name for himself in the federal technology space as one of the largest advocates for agency cybersecurity and technology modernization. The former CIA operations officer helped penned legislation that created the Technology Modernization Fund, and regularly conducted oversight hearings around the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act, better known as FITARA.Hurd, who left Congress in 2021 and until recently was vying to be president, spoke with my colleague Elias Groll about his campaign and why he wants to convince his party to focus on what he sees as a series of generational technological threats.
Climate change and defense – two topics that you don’t often think about together. But in recent years, the Defense Department has made sustainability, climate and energy resiliency top priorities related to national security. And it makes sense – not only is the DOD one of the largest energy consumers in the world, but in the digital age, emerging threats put the department’s access to energy at risk in novel and new ways.Joining The Daily Scoop Podcast to discuss the DOD’s focus on the climate and energy, how innovative technology plays a role in that and what’s coming next is Brendan Owens, assistant secretary of defense for energy, installation and environment.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
After bringing the government shutdown clock to the very brink of a closure over the weekend, Congress was able to reach a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government funded through Nov. 17. While that’s a better-than-worst-case-scenario outcome, it still has some impacts for the way agencies must operate without full appropriations. And there’s a strong possibility we may be right back in a race against the clock just before Thanksgiving as Congress must reach a funding agreement prior to that Nov. 17 deadline. Meagan Metzger, CEO of Dcode, joins The Daily Scoop Podcast now to discuss the impact.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
The Special Competitive Studies Project, which has continued the work of the now dissolved National Security Commission on AI, issued its latest report this week on generative AI and its impact on the global competitive landscape. That report states, among other things, that recent advancements in AI come as transformations in geopolitical structuring resemble that of the days leading up to World War I. And because of that, “This moment provides the United States government with a unique opportunity to lead with conviction as humanity enters a new era.“Ylli Bajraktari is the CEO and President of the Special Competitive Studies Project, and he joins The Daily Scoop Podcast to discuss the major takeaways from SCSP’s new report and the stakes at play for the U.S. as it looks to embrace AI for defense, national security and more.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify
The General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service is in the midst of a major reorganization. Led by Commissioner Sonny Hashmi, the reorganization will be implemented beginning next month at the start of fiscal year 2024 to better meet the needs of federal customers and simplify interactions with GSA. Hashmi, a longtime federal servant and former CIO of GSA, joins me now to discuss the reorg, how FAS is looking to make government work for everyone with the results of a new equity survey and how good acquisition is essential to the administration’s tech modernization agenda.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify
FedScoop hosted its annual FedTalks Sept. 6 in Washington D.C. In its 14th year, the event is the largest annual gathering of C-level executives, leaders and innovators from the government and tech community. Dr. Kelly Fletcher, the CIO of the State Department, took the stage during the day’s event to detail how her office is working to support democracy and diplomacy across the globe using modern technology. From antiquated networks to outdated communication devices, Fletcher described some areas she has been targeting with modernization since taking the role last fall.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
FedScoop hosted its annual FedTalks Sept. 6 in Washington D.C. In its 14th year, the event is the largest annual gathering of C-level executives, leaders and innovators from the government and tech community. One of those leaders was Ann Dunkin, CIO of the Energy Department, who delivered a keynote on DOE’s ongoing modernization efforts. During the FedTalk, Dunkin shared progress of her IT enterprise’s top ongoing initiatives and what’s coming next.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher.
FedScoop hosted its annual FedTalks Sept. 6 in Washington D.C. In its 14th year, the event is the largest annual gathering of C-level executives, leaders and innovators from the government and tech community. A sure highlight of the day came in a FedTalk from Commerce CIO Andre Mendes. During his energy-filled keynote Mendes explored what the future of digital services in government could look like and shared advice for how CIOs should approach modernization to get to that point.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
FedScoop hosted its annual FedTalks Sept. 6 in Washington D.C. In its 14th year, the event is the largest annual gathering of C-level executives, leaders and innovators from the government and tech community. And to kick off the packed-house event, Deputy Federal CIO Drew Myklegard spoke with me during a rapid fire session focused primarily on the evolution of cloud in the federal government and how the Biden administration is looking to transform FedRAMP to better serve agencies and cloud service providers.
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Allen Hill has been on the job as the CIO of the Federal Communications Commission for roughly a year now. And during that time, he’s made it a priority to move as many systems and applications as possible within the agency’s portfolio to as-a-service models.
To discuss that, what he’s learned and accomplished in this first year, and how he’s thinking about cybersecurity as part of that journey, Hill joins the Daily Scoop Podcast.
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Each year, the National Security Agency hosts the Codebreaker Challenge – an annual cryptanalysis and reverse engineering event that gives U.S. students a hands-on experience working with an NSA mission-centric scenario that showcases the type of work the agency does every day. The challenge for 2023 will launch in late September and NSA will soon begin accepting registrations for the event.
To discuss more about the Codebreaker Challenge and the push to attract more students to computer science, engineering and other tech and cyber fields, Rita Doerr, academic outreach lead at the NSA's cybersecurity directorate, joins my CyberScoop colleague Elia Groll for a conversation.
In late 2021, the Biden administration issued landmark citizen and customer experience focused policy items in the President's Management Agenda and an Executive Order on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government. And to further bolster those efforts, the administration in this year’s budget request called for more than $500 million to support CX efforts across federal agencies, including standing up news customer service offices at agencies like Agriculture, Homeland Security, Interior, Labor, Treasury and Veterans Affairs and more than a 100 employees to staff them.
While it remains to be seen if that request gets funded in fiscal 2024, the message is loud and clear: improving the government’s customer service delivery, largely through digital services, is a top priority.
Joining the podcast to discuss the progress made since 2021 and why CX has become such an important theme in the Biden administration in recent years is Martha Dorris, founder and CEO of Dorris Consulting International, through which she runs the Service to the Citizen Awards. Dorris also worked hands-on with federal CX, IT and acquisition at the General Services Administration for more than three decades.
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Earlier this week , I told you about a story exclusive to FedScoop in which a number of current and former federal officials claim a significant lack of prioritization and strategic vision from key technology leaders at the White House’s U.S. Digital Service, Office of Management and Budget and the General Services Administration has caused massive delays in critical improvements to government websites that millions of Americans use every day.
To dig deeper into that story, what’s at the root of it and what those sources had to say, joining me now is FedScoop Tech Reporter and author of that story Nihal Kishan.
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The Department of Veterans Affairs holds one of the largest IT budgets across the federal government. From major programs like its EHR modernization effort to the digital implementation of various benefits programs, the VA has one of the most important technology portfolios in the federal space.
As CIO of the VA, Kurt DelBene is responsible for leading that IT mission space, managing nearly 16,000 government and contractor staff who support health care and benefits delivery to the nation’s millions of veterans. DelBene joins the Daily Scoop to discuss what the VA has accomplished in digital transformation during his tenure, news around the department’s new special pay authority for IT and cybersecurity personnel, his confidence in the future of the EHR modernization program, and how he’s thinking about AI across the VA enterprise.
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Chief innovation officer – it’s a title you don’t often see across the federal government. But at the Transporation Security Administration, it’s become a critical role for building and sustaining a culture of innovation and creating an environment that incentivizes anyone across the agency to innovate.
Dan McCoy served as chief innovation officer at TSA from May 2020 to Oct. 2022. Now the head of business development for BMNT, McCoy joins me on the Daily Scoop Podcast to discuss what he learned during his time as chief innovator at TSA and how other federal agencies can take that blueprint to create of culture of innovation, whether they have a chief innovation officer or not.
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Small pieces of space debris or space junk have become a massive issue across the space industry, threatening the nation’s future space operations. As commercial space flight grows in popularity, and some of the U.S.’s greatest threats bolster their anti-satellite military operations, the more than 100 million debris objects greater than 1 mm in size orbiting the earth have become a matter of national security that has caught the attention of the Intelligence community’s research arm.
The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency recently issued four awards to prime contractors to support its Space Debris Identification and Tracking program. SINTRA, as it’s called, aims to investigate the interaction of orbital debris with the surrounding space environment and drive the state of the art to detect, track, and characterize lethal non-trackable orbital space debris, which poses a risk to all space missions, including those of the Intelligence Community. Program Manager Dr. Alexis Truitt, a former NASA Hubble researcher turned IARPA PM, talks joins the Daily Scoop podcast to discuss the ambitions of the SINTRA Program.
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Earlier this week, I told you about FedScoop’s investigation into federal agencies’ efforts to inventory their artificial intelligence use cases. These inventories are required by a 2020 Trump administration executive order, which also introduced nine principles and a policy process for implementing AI the public can trust.
But, across CFO Act agencies results vary. Inventories for civilian agencies are inconsistent, creating a patchwork understanding of the government’s use of the budding technology.
To discuss their findings reporting on the AI use case inventories across the federal government for FedScoop, joining me are the authors of the story “The government is struggling to track its AI. And that’s a problem” Rebecca Heilweil and Madi Alder.
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As federal agencies progress toward IT modernization, cybersecurity is a hallmark of those journeys, one that must be baked in from the start. David Shive, CIO of the General Services Administration, spoke with the Daily Scoop about how his office is going about building out a zero-trust security architecture across the agency via a new cybersecurity solicitation that’s on the street. During our conversation, he also emphasized the importance of upskilling the workforce for the ongoing digital transformation across the federal government, and how GSA is supporting the Biden administration’s major tech initiatives, like those in the President’s Management Agenda, by leading by example.
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In 2020, The secretary of the U.S. Navy signed out an Information Superiority Vision, naming information superiority as a key strategic focus for the department,as well as restructuring and empowering the role of the Navy CIO, and charting a course for the sea service to take action on its most pressing needs in IT and cybersecurity.
Now more than three years later, the Navy is continuing to execute on that strategy, with some new technology leadership in place. One of those leaders is Justin Fanelli, technical director for Navy’s PEO Digital and newly appointed acting CTO for the service. In a conversation with the Daily Scoop podcast, Fanelli touches on how the department has made progress executing the Information Superiority Vision, how the department is approaching AI and what the service is doing to better bridge the valley of death to scale innovation.
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The Office of the Director of National Intelligence recently released a data strategy for Intelligence community agencies. The strategy, which runs from 2023 through 2025, provides focus areas and actions for all 18 IC agencies to accelerate adoption of common services and efforts to make data more interoperable, discoverable, and artificial intelligence-ready for both people and machines, according to ODNI.
This isn’t ODNI’s first data strategy. The office released one back in 2017. But since then, the I-C has taken steps to mature its data environment and usage, and this latest document looks to usher in a new era of data-driven decisionmaking. To discuss that evolution, now joining the Daily Scoop Podcast is I-C Chief Data Officer Lori Wade.
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While most federal IT news typically comes out of CIO offices and agency headquarters, lately, Capitol Hill has been the driving force behind developments in our community. From funding decisions in recent appropriations proposals to landmark legislation and discourse on how to best approach regulation of AI, lawmakers have had their plates full with matters that will impact the greater federal technology landscape.
Matt Cornelius, a former congressional staffer under Chairman Gary C. Peters on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, joins the Daily Scoop to discuss the full slate of federal IT issues being addressed in Congress. Cornelius also previously served as Senior Technology and Cybersecurity Advisor in the Office of Management and Budget and Senior Advisor to the Administrator at the General Services Administration.
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With the federal government on large scale journey to zero trust, many large departments and agencies are taking federated approaches in modernizing their cybersecurity. But the Department of Commerce is bucking that trend and instead adopting zero trust in a unified way across its 13 bureaus and many offices.
Department of Commerce CIO Andre Mendes is leading that effort and spoke with me about why he chose a department wide construct for zero trust instead of letting each bureau agency chart its own course. And, he explained how Commerce is measuring success and discussed what comes next.
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In an effort to advance FedScoop’s coverage of federal technology and our commitment to driving better outcomes for the American public, we’ve recently invested heavily in our world-class editorial team. In recent months, the team added a pair of expert reporters to expand focus on the federal civilian executive branch agencies and their efforts to modernize and advance technology to deliver better services and mission outcomes.
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It’s no secret that the Department of Defense has struggled to scale innovation. Known as the Valley of Death, the challenge is that the department often fails to expand and build innovative pilots into larger production contracts.
A new program operated by the Defense Aquisition University wants to attempt to solve that by wrapping its arms around the department’s innovation worfkorce readiness. Called Innovate to Win, the initiative is intended to help the DoD codify and measure the innovation readiness of the Defense Acquisition Workforce and, by extension, that of the whole DoD workforce.
Dr. Marina Theodotou, the head of workforce innovation readiness for the Defense Acquisition University, and Christen Goulding, Director of Communications at DAU, join me now to discuss the program, its goals and how they hope to create a metric to measure innovation readiness.
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There’s a new book captivating audiences across the federal technology space and getting rave reviews. "Recoding America – Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better".
Former U.S. Deputy CTO and founder of Code for America Jen Pahlka wrote the book based on her intimate firsthand knowledge of working in and with government agencies for most of the last two decades to improve digital service delivery. And in it, she concludes that there are much deeper issues that are leading to the failure of the U.S. government in the digital age …Or as the book’s synopsis puts it: “we must stop trying to move the government we have today onto new technology and instead consider what it would mean to truly recode American government.”
In web application security, compromised credentials are responsible for 80% of breaches. This has highlighted the need to replace passwords with more effective security methods. Passwordless authentication methods offer a faster, more secure, hassle free way to protect our digital lives. In a new interview, Sean Frazier, federal chief security officer at Okta, discusses the advances and their use cases.
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The Department of Defense is undertaking a massive effort to adopt a zero trust security architecture across its enterprise by 2027. As ambitious as that effort is, it’s not going to happen without the support of automation driving it, according to DOD chief informations security officer Dave McKeown.
McKeown spoke recently at the UiPath Together Public Sector summit about the role of automation in cybersecurity and how it also likely could’ve prevented recent leaks of classified information within the DOD.
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Experts are fearful that passage of appropriations for fiscal 2024 may be an ugly process that results in a hefty continuing resolution. While the CR would keep the government running, it would forbid federal agencies from spending money to start new programs or new activities. a continuing resolution could severely hamstring federal innovation, particularly on the defense side as the Pentagon and military services look to accelerat adoption of emerging tech in anticipation of a potential conflict with peer competiors like China or Russia. That’s according to Meagan Metzger, CEO of Dcode and a general partner with Dcode Capital, both of which focus on helping make the government better through innovative acquisition practices.
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The Department of the Air Force is leveraging automation as a strategic imperative to support the service’s warfighting and defense mission. Particularly as the U.S. military is in the midst of a talent war, robotic process automation enables the Air Force to do more with less and to create work for airmen that is exciting and innovative.
The U.S. Army is undertaking a massive transformation to establish a unified network. The Global Enterprise Network Modernization – OCONUS program office, known as GENM-O, is responsible for providing network and infrastructure modernization to global stakeholders in the Europe, Pacific and Southwest Asia theaters. Tom Dunaway is product manager of GENM-O, leading the OCONUS effort as part of the Army’s larger network modernization in support of the service’s goal of establishing data-centric, multi-domain operations by 2028.
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Halfway through calendar year 2023, the Pentagon’s Office of the Chief Information Officer has accomplished quite a lot in a short amount of time, from early work implementing zero trust to first task order awards under the department’s Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract, according to CIO John Sherman. And there’s much more to come through the rest of the year, Sherman said during a keynote recently at DefenseTalks 2023. Listen in to Sherman’s progress update for his office so far in 2023 and what he sees as the way ahead.
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Army CISO Jan Norris has almost been on the job for a year. During that time, the Army has been on a whirlwind of a cybersecurity journey, modernizing its systems and adopting a zero trust security architecture while facing, as Norris put it, weekly breaches and Threat activity, data leaks, and the new discoveries on an ever expanding cyber attack surface.
Norris recently shared about this journey and his first year as CISO during a keynote at Swish Data’s GIST 23 conference.
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Capt. Erickson took the stage recently at the SWISH Data GIST23 conference to share more about what his nascent office isdoing to elevate data for transformation within the Coast Guard.Listen to what he had to say.Agencies across the federal government are looking to the cloudto elevate their next-gen computing capabilities.In this interview with Scoop News group’s Wyatt Kash, Christian Hoff of AWS,highlights how NOAA, Customs and Border Protection and otheragencies are using the cloud to advance their high-performancecomputing, data management and AI efforts — and what to lookfor at the upcoming AWS Summit in Washington, D.C.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher.And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The Department of Agriculture has a vast array of customers, from farmers to families. USDA is working to personalize content and experiences across multiple channels. Simchah Suvekye-Bogin, chief customer experience officer in USDA’s Office of Customer Experience, explains how her organization is improving customer experience and best practices they’ve learned along the way.The Internal Revenue Service is another agency looking to modernize the digital front door for citizens. David Aten, human capital officer at IRS, tells Wyatt Kash how his agency is modernizing their website and giving American citizens a more “consumer-grade” experience.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
Agencies across government are moving to become more data-driven. At GIST 23 last week, Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash spoke with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Chief Information Security Officer Shane Barney, to discuss how USCIS is using data to bolster its cybersecurity strategy.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
Kelly Fletcher has been with the Department of State for more than half a year now. The agency’s newest chief information officer has been tasked with leading the strategic direction of IT for the department, with oversight of over $2.5 billion worth of programs.Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash spoke with Fletcher about how her organization is building a broader IT modernization strategy.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The U.S. government has issued a number of initiatives to make government data more widely accessible and useful — including the Federal Data Strategy, the Evidence Act and the Open Government Data Act.Federal technology officers are now making concerted efforts to implement policies to transform data into more valuable assets for their constituents and stakeholders.Justin Marsico, chief data officer at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, and Michael Holck, vice president of software engineering at ICF, tell Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash how government is making data more accessible.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The Government Accountability Office is highlighting 37 areas in this year's High Risk List. GAO says progress has been made in 16 of those areas, the most since the watchdog began rating high-risk areas eight years ago.Michelle Sager, managing director for strategic issues at the Government Accountability Office, explains what’s new to the list this year and the progress that has been made on cybersecurity and IT issues areas across government.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
Jeff Rothblum is a senior professional staff member for the U.S. Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee and Cara Mumford is the Majority Subcommittee Director for the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee on the House Homeland Security Committee.In a highlight from the CrowdStrike Government Summit, Mumford and Rothblum explain how their organizations are monitoring national cybersecurity defense.As you’ve heard on The Daily Scoop Podcast, April is National Supply Chain Integrity Month. It’s a partnership between the National Counterintelligence and Security Center and partners across government and industry to raise awareness on the issue.At the CrowdStrike Government Summit, Camille Stewart Gloster, deputy national cyber director for technology and ecosystem security at the White House, tells CrowdStrike’s Drew Bagley her organization’s mission.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The National Security Agency’s Cybersecurity Directorate is tasked with preventing and eradicating threats to U.S. national security systems, focusing mainly on the defense industrial base and the country’s weapons security. At the CrowdStrike Government Summit, Director of NSA’s Cybersecurity Directorate Rob Joyce breaks down the current threat landscape his organization is tracking.There’s a new Zero Trust Maturity Model from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The latest version of the guidance updates implementation guidelines for agencies across key pillars like identity, networks and workloads of data.CISA Director Jen Easterly spoke with CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz at last week’s summit. In a highlight from their conversation, Easterly explains how this guidance is different than previous versionsThe Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The Office of Management and Budget is celebrating the five-year anniversary of the Technology Modernization Fund. First established in 2018, the TMF is currently managing nearly $700 million for 38 investments across 22 federal agencies.Federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana and TMF Executive Director Raylene Yung discuss some of the milestones from the first half-decade of the fund, the unique opportunity it provides federal agencies to undertake digital modernization projects and how TMF will continue to support government IT efforts. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
Federal employee engagement and satisfaction was slightly down overall across the federal workforce in 2022, according to the latest Best Places to Work in the Federal Government rankings from the Partnership for Public Service and Boston Consulting Group. Partnership for Public Service President and CEO Max Stier discusses the 2022 rankings and explains what might be the cause for a decline in engagement and satisfaction for the second straight year.The Department of the Navy is working to translate data into successful outcomes for its IT modernization journey.Justin Fanelli, technical director of Program Executive Office Digital and Enterprise Services at the Department of the Navy, tells Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash how his team is delivering those outcomes.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
April is the sixth annual National Supply Chain Integrity Month, featuring a partnership between the National Counterintelligence and Security Center and partners across government and industry.Director of Supply Chain and Technology Security in the Office of the National Cyber Director Devin Lynch discusses why those types of partnerships are important and where else his office is assisting with the Biden Administration’s National Cybersecurity Strategy. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
Government agencies are undertaking an unprecedented period of IT and application modernization.Barbara Cooper-Jones, senior vice president and chief information officer at the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Ginnie Mae, tells Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash the biggest challenges her agency faces in managing the rising volume of data. IT modernization and digital transformation efforts across the Department of the Air Force are moving the department towards a multi-cloud environment.Air Force Chief Information Security Officer Aaron Bishop explains the landscape of his organization’s cyber defense.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The Pentagon has a new Cyber Workforce Strategy, with the goal of providing a roadmap for how the Department of Defense will maintain and grow its cyber workforce.Mark Gorak, principal director for resources and analysis in the Department of Defense Office of the Chief Information Officer, discusses the new strategy and what the department hopes to accomplish.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. Listen more here.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The National Artificial Intelligence Institute is responsible for AI research, implementation, policy and collaboration at the Department of Veterans Affairs. NAII was founded in 2019 and places experienced AI staff in medical centers and VA offices nationwide.Gil Alterovitz, NAII director and responsible AI official at the Department of Veterans Affairs, explains where his organization has made the most progress in the past year.The Department of Navy is responsible for securing network access for over 700,000 sailors across the globe. Tony Plater, chief information security officer at the Department of the Navy, tells Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash how his organization is making that happen.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
One of the main goals of the Biden Administration’s new National Cybersecurity Strategy is to favor long-term investments by protecting against urgent threats now and building a resilient cybersecurity posture for the future.Cody Cornell, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Swimlane who has worked in IT and security roles at the Defense Information Systems Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, explains how the U.S. can defend against supply chain attacks and emphasize community-driven threat detection.With the FedRAMP Authorization Act now codified into law, the FedRAMP program is now the federal government’s security assessment and authorization approach for working with cloud providers. Matt Goodrich, head of transformation at Schellman and former FedRAMP director at the General Services Administration, discusses the evolution of the FedRAMP program.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The Government National Mortgage Association, or Ginnie Mae, is responsible for working with other government agencies to provide low-cost financing for federal housing programs. As part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Ginnie Mae works to make affordable housing attainable for millions of Americans. In a highlight from ITModTalks, Ginnie Mae Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer Barbara Cooper-Jones tells Deloitte’s Alexandra Colmenares what she’s learned since being at Ginnie Mae for more than a decade. The Office of Personnel Management recently launched a new digital services team to help move along IT modernization initiatives at the agency. OPM is hoping that this group of technology talent will continue to build momentum started by its existing group of developers. OPM CIO Guy Cavallo explains how his agency is managing all the data created by IT modernization projects.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The Department of State is using robotic process automation to cut the processing time for its monthly financial statement from two months to two days. Speaking at FedScoop’s ITModTalks last week, State Department Chief Information Officer Kelly Fletcher explains how her organization is using artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency of back-office operations.Last month you heard on The Daily Scoop Podcast how the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is supporting one of the first federal civilian agency software factories. That software factory is supporting a remote workforce of nearly 500 thousand employees and has shortened the development of programs from years to weeks.At ITModTalks, USPTO CIO Jamie Holcombe closed out the event by explaining the approach his organization takes to IT Modernization.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
Ron Thompson spent over 20 years in federal government IT roles, most recently serving as chief data officer and deputy digital transformation officer at NASA. In a highlight from ITModTalks, presented by FedScoop, Thompson tells Veritas’ Ted Gumer about his journey through government. The Department of Commerce has 13 bureaus underneath its umbrella, making any modernization movement a dynamic effort for the agency’s chief information officer Andre Mendes.In another highlight from ITModTalks, Mendes and DataDog’s Steve Mikkelsen discuss how organizations can take a whole of agency approach to modernization.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
Network modernization is a critical step for digital transformation at government agencies. Colten O’Malley, deputy commander at U.S. Army’s Command and Control Support Agency, explains how his agency is leveraging cloud technology and securing their network. As the White House recently rolled out its new National Cybersecurity Strategy, Department of Energy Chief Information Officer Ann Dunkin was in Croatia for a meeting of the Partnership for Transatlantic Energy and Climate Cooperation. A key pillar of the cyber strategy is to forge international partnerships to pursue shared goals.Dunkin, while overseas, explains her biggest takeaways from the National Cybersecurity Strategy. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
Agencies across government are all navigating various IT modernization and application modernization journeys. Technology leaders are looking for ways to collect, manage, and analyze vast amounts of data generated during this process. Department of Labor Chief Information Officer Gundeep Ahluwalia joined Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash to discuss how he is doing this at his organization, as well as making sure it’s done securely. Sean Connelly is senior cybersecurity architect and TIC program manager at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. In this highlight from the Zero Trust Summit presented by CyberScoop, Connelly explains how various federal cyber guidance documents play a role in shaping government cybersecurity.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will be leveraging machine learning to make decisions on trusted users and devices for a more real-time zero trust model. USCIS Chief Information Security Officer Shane Barney said at a recent FedScoop event that his agency is going to be developing a more fluid and adaptive cybersecurity model.At the Zero Trust Summit produced by CyberScoop, Barney joined a panel with CGI’s Chris Lavergne moderated by Scoop News Group’s Mike Farrell to discuss the evolution of zero trust architecture across government.Executive Order 14028 turns two years old this May. The Biden Administration EO on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity has been a spark plug for federal agencies to develop formal zero trust architecture implementation plans and to prioritize the adoption of cloud technologies. Also at Zero Trust Summit, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services CISO Robert Wood explains how the EO helped shape his organization’s cybersecurity strategy. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The Biden Administration is rolling out its long-awaited national cybersecurity strategy. CyberScoop Senior Editor Elias Groll joins the podcast to discuss his three biggest takeaways from the new White House initiative.At last week’s Zero Trust Summit, Donald Coulter, senior science advisor for cybersecurity and zero trust in the office of the undersecretary in the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate, and Terry Halvorsen, vice president of client development for U.S. Federal Market at IBM and former Chief Information Officer at the Department of Defense, discuss zero trust adoption across government. The Department of Justice is moving along on its Information Technology Strategic Plan. The plan for fiscal years 2022 through 2024 lays out five goals. One of those goals is elevating cybersecurity and implementing zero trust principles.Also Zero Trust Summit, Department of Justice CIO Melinda Rogers explains the cyber landscape her agency is following.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
As government workloads continue to move to the cloud, agencies are looking for security solutions from that cloud environment to the edge. Rick Wagner, president of Microsoft Federal, tells Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash how agencies are securing the mission in today’s multicloud world. This interview is underwritten by Microsoft. A new White House cybersecurity strategy is on the way, according to Deputy National Cyber Director for Technology and Ecosystem Security Camille Stewart Gloster.At last week’s Zero Trust Summit, presented by CyberScoop, Stewart Gloster previewed the strategy with CyberScoop’s Tonya Reilly, and explained the role her office plays in shaping it.The federal government is continuing to focus on cyber collaboration between government agencies. Sharing systems data and log management is key to that relationship.In the closing keynote from the Zero Trust Summit, Federal Chief Information Security Officer Chris DeRusha details how his team helps coordinate this collaboration across agencies.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The Department of the Air Force will conduct its next “BRAVO” hackathon March 20 to 24, at HurlBurt Field in Florida. Prior BRAVO hackathons have resulted in prototypes and innovations that influence major Department of Defense programs.Stuart Wagner, chief digital transformation officer of the Air Force and Space Force, and Jimmy “Rev” Jones, lead program manager of the Air Force’s “STITCHES” warfighter application team, explain what their organization hopes to learn from these hackathons. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The Internal Revenue Service still relies on legacy IT for critical day-to-day operations. According to the Government Accountability Office, over 30% of applications, 23% of software instances in use and 8% of hardware assets are considered legacy systems.Dave Hinchman, director with GAO's Information Technology and Cybersecurity team, explains what his team found at IRS and next steps the organization can take to continue their IT modernization journey.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The Internal Revenue Service is undergoing a modernization plan to dispose of outdated IT systems which the agency relies on for day-to-day operations. Like all federal agencies, the IRS is moving in alignment with the Office of Management and Budget’s Cloud Smart strategy.Jonathan Benett, digital government solutions technical director at Adobe and former chief enterprise architect at the Department of Agriculture, explains how agencies should define legacy IT and how organizations can successfully move to modern systems.Agencies across government are working to make data more accessible internally and to the public. Laura Biven, data science technical lead in the Office of Data Science Strategy at the National Institutes of Health and John Auerbach, senior vice president for public health at ICF and former director of intergovernmental and strategic affairs at CDC, discuss best practices for making more data available and usable. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has one of the first civilian software factories. USPTO uses the software factory to support a remote workforce of nearly 500 thousand employees and has shortened the development of programs from years to weeksJamie Holcombe, chief information officer at U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and Bob Stevens, vice president of public sector at GitLab, discuss the effort and how the DevSecOps approach is accelerating innovation across government.The Department of Health and Human Services has a nationwide network of regional and field offices across the country. The agency says more than 70% of its employees work outside the Washington, D.C. area. Gerald Caron, chief information officer at the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, explains how his organization is leveraging a hybrid cloud architecture and securing their expanded perimeter. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The Army is currently executing its unified network plan with the goal of becoming a multi-domain capable force by 2028. The Army will support that network with a multi-cloud, multi-vendor hybrid approach.Lt. Gen. Bill Bender (USAF, ret.), senior vice president for customer excellence & government relations at Leidos and former chief information officer at the Air Force, explains how this approach will help Army get data to the edge and ensure their cloud environment is secure.The Defense Information Systems Agency has a new Data Strategy Implementation Plan which calls for DISA to leverage data as a center of gravity. The I-Plan places a key focus on data management. Rob Carey, president at Cloudera Government Solutions and former principal deputy chief information officer at the Department of Defense, discusses the organizational alignment needed to execute this type of strategy.The CIA has a new online hiring portal with the goal of modernizing and streamlining the agency’s hiring process. The web-based platform is called “MyLINK” and launched at the beginning of the new year.Theresa Randall, talent acquisition office deputy chief at CIA, discusses how MyLINK will help the agency attract new talent.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
Federal cybersecurity spending is getting a big boost in fiscal year 2023, including a $230 million budget increase for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s cyber programs. This comes as a new report from FedScoop shows about half of respondents have faced network or system outages or a network or data breach at their agency. Norman St. Laurent, federal public sector marketing manager at Cisco, explains the right steps agencies are taking to reduce these outages. This interview is underwritten by Cisco.The Government Accountability Office has made over 350 public recommendations for securing federal IT systems and America’s critical infrastructure since 2010. GAO says more than half of those recommendations have not been implemented as of December 2022.Marisol Cruz Cain, director for information technology and cybersecurity at the Government Accountability Officer, discusses how government can execute a more comprehensive cybersecurity strategy. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
Federal agencies are continuing to leverage data as a critical asset, as laid out in the Federal Data Strategy and its subsequent action plans. Chris Radich, vice president of solution engineering at Celonis, discusses the progress government has made using data since the strategy was released. This interview is underwritten by Celonis.Government agencies are working hard to secure increasingly-dynamic and highly-distributed IT environments. Robert Wood, chief information security officer at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, explains how his organization is shifting their view of firewalls and perimeter defense.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The four vendors who were awarded the Department of Defense’s Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract are beginning to test the implementation of DOD’s zero-trust principles in a commercial cloud environment. The tests will see if achieving the Pentagon’s “target level” of zero trust is possible in the cloud. Andrew D’Ippolito, global enterprise modernization software and support program director at Iron Bow and former Air Force chief information officer, discusses how the Pentagon’s zero trust strategy ties into the National Defense Strategy.Federal agencies are continuing to capitalize on cloud computing capabilities. While progress has been made, many organizations need more resources to accomplish their complex missions.Kevin Aylward, partner at IBM Consulting and former enterprise architect at the Air National Guard and Hiram Perez, senior partner development manager at AWS, discuss what practices help agencies move to the cloud more productively. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The Department of Defense aims to fully implement zero trust by 2027. The Pentagon will be tracking agencies’ budgets to make sure they’re spending enough money to meet that deadline.Randy Resnick, DOD’s Zero Trust Portfolio Management Office chief, tells Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash where the Pentagon is at in their zero trust journey.Federal agencies are still in the early stages of developing and implementing their zero trust strategies according to new research from FedScoop. The survey shows 55% of respondents acknowledge their agency is still assessing zero trust gaps or only have a baseline of capabilities implemented.Gerald Caron, chief information officer at the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, tells SNG’s Wyatt Kash the progress his organization has made implementing zero trust.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The Department of Defense is readying to release a new cybersecurity workforce strategy early this year. DOD CIO John Sherman says the Pentagon needs to think differently about how cyber talent comes in and out of government. Jonathan Reiber, vice president of cybersecurity strategy and policy at AttackIQ and former chief strategy officer for cyber policy in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, discusses what that plan should look like and discusses the broader threat landscape the Pentagon is facing.The U.S. Agency for International Development has a new chief information officer. Jason Gray has been CIO at USAID now for about six months, after six years as Department of Education CIO.In an interview with Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash and KPMG’s Daniel Gruber, Gray explains how e’s prioritizing digital transformation and service delivery.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The White House Executive Order aiming to transform federal customer experience and service delivery is now over a year old. The Department of Veterans Affairs is one of the many agencies using modernization as a key driver to execute on that EO.Chris Johnston, deputy chief technology officer for digital experience at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Saqib Sheikh, head of strategy and growth for federal and non-profits at Amazon Web Services, tell Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash how they’re making this transformation happen.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The National Archives and Records Administration recently celebrated a significant milestone in its effort to digitize government records. NARA has now digitized over 200 million pages of records.NARA Chief Innovation Officer Pamela Wright the effort taken to get to that milestone and all the stakeholders involved making it happen.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The Federal Data Strategy turns four years old this June. The strategy is leading a transformation across government making data more accessible and actionable to more users.U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Chief Data Officer Beth Puchek and ICF Digital Modernization Chief Data Officer Joshua Phillips join Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash to discuss how they’re enabling data-sharing across their organizations. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
Today on The Daily Scoop Podcast, a preview of what to watch for in 2023. CyberScoop Editor In Chief Mike Farrell and DefenseScoop Managing Editor Jon Harper join host and FedScoop Editor In Chief Billy Mitchell to discuss what stories their teams are following in the new year.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
Proposals for the Department of State’s $10 billion EVOLVE IT services procurement have a new due date of January 25. EVOLVE will be the largest indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract issued by the department.State Department Chief Information Officer Kelly Fletcher discusses the goals her department has for the new IT contract, the cyber risk landscape across State and what else is on her radar for 2023.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
As organizations across government continue to leverage multi-cloud computing, they are tasked with ensuring the entire enterprise remains secure. At the Security Transformation Summit produced by FedScoop, hear how these three government cybersecurity leaders are handling that transformation:Dave Lago, IT cybersecurity specialist in DISA’s Cloud Computing Program OfficeVu Nguyen, chief information security officer at the Department of JusticeTate Jerussi, associate deputy chief information officer at the Department of EnergyDepartment of Defense Chief Information Officer John Sherman says a new cybersecurity workforce strategy is on the way in 2023. That cyber workforce will be key in implementing the Pentagon’s new zero trust strategy.At the Security Transformation Summit, Army Director of Cybersecurity and CISO Major General Jan Norris explains the cyber landscape his organization is managing.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
Organizations across government are continuing to converge their cybersecurity posture and networking capabilities. At the Security Transformation Summit produced by FedScoop, hear how these three government cybersecurity leaders are handling that transformation:Chezian Sivagnanam, chief architect at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Brian Miller, acting chief information security officer of the Intelligence Community; Shane Barney, CISO at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.The Marine Corps is continuing to implement the personnel strategy laid out by Commandant Gen. David Berger in Talent Management 2030. USMC’s Assistant Director of IC4 Renata Spinks tells Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash how her organization is working to strengthen its cybersecurity workforce. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
An estimated one-third of federal employees will be reaching retirement age within the next two years, according to the Partnership for Public Service.Jonathan Alboum, federal chief technology officer at ServiceNow and former chief information officer at the Department of Agriculture, discusses ways the federal government can better retain Gen X and Gen Z employees.At last week’s Security Transformation Summit produced by FedScoop, Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General CIO Gerald Caron and Director of the Zero Trust Portfolio Management Office at the Department of Defense Randy Resnick give an update on the progress their organizations have made on zero trust. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
Network-as-a-service capabilities are quickly becoming a route many organizations are taking to modernize. Verizon Director of Domain Specialists Ray Bauer tells Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash how organizations can build the foundation for NaaS to help government meet its modernization goals. This interview is underwritten by Verizon.President Biden’s National Security Council staff is reviewing and updating policy directives on critical infrastructure security and resilience. At last week’s Security Transformation Summit, Steve Kelly, senior director for cybersecurity and emerging technology on the National Security Council in the Executive Office of the President, discusses the latest supply chain security initiatives from the Biden Administration.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
A new player is offering financial management services through the Financial Management Quality Service Management Office at the Department of Treasury. Four QSMOs continue to provide services to agencies.Michele Singer, CEO of Mindful Advance and former director of the Interior Business Center, discusses her takeaways from this development.As you heard on yesterday’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast with NAPA’s Terry Gerton, the President’s Management Agenda is entering year two.Dave Mader, civilian sector strategy officer at Deloitte and former controller at the Office of Management and Budget, explains the progress and the approach the government has taken implementing the PMA.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The President’s Management Agenda is just over a year old today. The Office of Management and Budget released it November 18, 2021.Terry Gerton, president and CEO of the National Academy of Public Administration, discusses the progress government has made implementing the agenda and what’s next.The Department of Defense has set a target for FY2027 to implement its new Zero Trust Strategy and Roadmap. The plan outlines four high-level strategic goals for the department.Andy Stewart, national security and government senior strategist for cybersecurity at Cisco, gives some key recommendations for cybersecurity leaders in the Pentagon. This interview is underwritten by Cisco. Federal agencies have a 2027 deadline to move to zero-emission light-duty vehicles, according to an executive order from the Biden administration. The Government Accountability Office sees some roadblocks to making that deadline.Catina Latham, acting director for physical infrastructure at GAO, breaks down her team’s findings.The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
A new framework for mental health resilience is out from the Office of the Surgeon General. Mika Cross, federal workplace expert, breaks down five essentials from the framework and discusses the initiatives agencies are taking for the mental health of their workforce.
Congress is back at work this week for the first time following the midterm elections. One of the first things the Senate will take on is new legislation for FedRAMP.
Karen Evans, partner at KE&T Partners and former chief information officer at the Department of Homeland Security, explains the potential impact of this legislation and the coming 20-year anniversary of the E-Gov Act.
The Internal Revenue Service is in good shape with their financial management, but the Government Accountability Office finds some room for improvement in internal controls.
Dawn Simpson, director of financial management and assurance issues at the Government Accountability Office, discusses her team’s findings from the IRS.
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The Department of Defense says it will hold organizations inside the department responsible for hitting the deadlines in its new zero trust strategy and roadmap.
Gordon Bitko, senior vice president at Information Technology Industry Council and former chief information officer at the FBI, discusses the recommendations ITIC made for agencies implementing zero trust strategies.
A big anniversary is coming for one of the foundational documents in federal technology. The E-Gov Act turns 20 years old on December 17.
Mark Forman, executive vice president at Dynamic Integrated Services and former E-Gov Administrator, discusses the impact the E-Gov Act has had on the federal government and what he sees on the horizon.
The Thrift Savings Plan is also celebrating an anniversary. It’s been two years since its full-matching, auto-enrollment program for new federal employees began.
Kim Weaver, director of external affairs for the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, provides the latest updates from the TSP.
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There are now over 115 protests to the CIO-SP4 contact from the National Institutes of Health’s Acquisition and Assessment Center. NITAAC has been working on the vehicle for over a year.
Keith Nakasone, federal strategist at VMware and former deputy assistant commissioner for acquisition for the Office of IT Category at GSA's Federal Acquisition Service, explains how government and industry can work together to get future GWACs right.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has its first chief people officer. Elizabeth Kolmstetter will join CISA from NASA.
Jeff Neal, member of the board of Hyre Road and former chief human capital officer at the Department of Homeland Security, discusses what he hopes to see across the organization to support the new position.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has graduated thousands of veterans from its Veterans Employment through Technology Education Courses (VET TEC) pilot program.
Dawn Locke, acting director for education, workforce and income security at the Government Accountability Office, explains what the VET TEC program is and what her office recommends to help the program improve.
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The war in Ukraine is forcing the Department of Defense to rethink the future of war. The Pentagon is especially concerned with kinetic warfare and cybersecurity.
Dan Sitterly, president and CEO of Sitterly Alliance Solutions and former principal deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs, discusses the workforce strategy to help DOD’s future fight.
The Secret Service needs a better plan for implementing guidance from the Office of Management and Budget, according to the Government Accountability Office.
Dan Chenok, executive director of the IBM Center for The Business of Government and former branch chief for information policy and technology at the Office of Management and Budget, discusses how organizations can avoid stumbling blocks while implementing zero trust architecture.
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The federal workforce is more engaged this year than last year, according to data from the new Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. That data includes several new metrics that connect with the president’s management agenda.
Angela Bailey, founder and CEO of AnandaLife, LLC and former chief human capital officer at the Department of Homeland Security, discusses the new data from the Office of Personnel Management.
The inspector general community has a roadmap now for advancing diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in its offices. The roadmap was released by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE).
Department of Education Inspector General and Chair of the CIGIE DEIA Work Group Sandra Bruce and FDIC Inspector General and Vice Chair of the CIGIE DEIA Work Group Jay Lerner explain how the council evaluated ways to improve DEIA in the IG community and what the roadmap hopes to achieve.
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Agencies across government are taking on technical debt to modernize their organizations. The Department of Labor is just one agency looking to move money away from legacy technology to modernization.
Department of Labor Chief Information Officer Gundeep Ahluwalia joins Francis Rose to discuss how he defines technical debt and what he is doing to reduce it at his agency.
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Today, more of Francis’ conversation with Deputy to the Inspector General of the Army MG Mitchell Kilgo at AFCEA DC’s lunch event this week. MG Kilgo discusses the resources he’s used to keep a dialogue about diversity, equity and inclusion issues moving forward at the Army.
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Today, a special program on diversity, equity and inclusion, a primary item on the Biden administration’s agenda. At an event hosted by AFCEA DC, Deputy to the Inspector General of the Army MG Mitchell Kilgo tells Francis Rose discusses where the military is today and the progress it has made on DE&I issues.
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The Department of Defense’s zero trust strategy is in the public review process now and should be reviewed soon, according to DOD Chief Information Officer John Sherman.
Jeremy Grant, managing director of technology business strategy at Venable LLC and coordinator of the Better Identity Coalition, discusses the progress agencies across government are making in identity management and achieving their zero trust goals.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has new guidance for “Transforming the Vulnerability Management Landscape.”
Matt Coose, founder and CEO of Qmulos and former director of Federal Network Security for the National Cyber Security Division at the Department of Homeland Security, breaks down the new guidance from CISA Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity Eric Goldstein.
The Defense Logistics Agency will use 5G technology to get materials into the hands of warfighters faster. Manny Casas, research & development program manager at DLA, tells Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash about the scope of his agency’s work.
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The current continuing resolution expires on December 16, setting a deadline for Congress to try and solve the funding problem for federal agencies. Robert Shea, partner at Guidehouse and former associate director at the Office of Management and Budget, discusses how the continuing resolution impacts federal leaders.
The Department of Defense is pushing the use of data to help it make better buying decisions. Mark Krzysko, principal deputy director for acquisition policy and analytics and enterprise data DOD, explains the evolution of using data in acquisition at the Pentagon.
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Roger Waldron, president of The Coalition for Government Procurement and former acting deputy chief acquisition officer at the General Services Administration, discusses why he thinks transactional data reporting is a logical next step for the multiple award schedules program.
Department of Defense Chief Information Officer John Sherman says the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) contract is on track to be awarded next month. Jack Wilmer, CEO of Core4ce and former chief information security officer at DOD, explains what happens next after this cloud capability comes into the department.
Government cyber leaders say agencies should tailor their zero trust strategies to their missions. Stephen Haselhorst, zero trust program lead at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, tells Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash the complexity of the cybersecurity portfolio at FDIC.
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The next deadline Congress faces now that the midterm elections are over is December 16, when the current continuing resolution funding the government runs out.
Roman Schweizer, managing director of the Washington Research Group for Cowen, explains the impact of the midterm elections on defense spending.
The Department of Defense is putting its new zero trust strategy through a classification review now. A version for the public to view could be out soon.
Kate Ledesma, senior director of public policy and government affairs at SecurityScorecard and former senior advisor at CISA, discusses the planning going on behind the scenes at the Pentagon as they put together their new strategy.
A new contract for ISR operations is one of the most recent awards from the General Services Administration’s Office of Assisted Acquisition Services.
Chris Bennethum, assistant commissioner for the Office of Assisted Acquisition Services at GSA, breaks down the mission of his office and who it serves
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The Department of Defense has a Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) problem. It’s a money problem, but it’s not just a bottom line money problem.
Todd Harrison, managing director at Metrea Strategic Insights, explains what he says is DOD’s “Three-FYDP Challenge.”
The General Services Administration has big milestones coming in several of their big contract vehicles. Two leaders of those vehicles detailed their progress at ELC 2022.
Tiffany Hixson, assistant commissioner of the Office of Professional Services and Human Capital Categories at GSA, and Laura Stanton, assistant commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service’s Office of Information Technology Category, discuss their priority lists for those contract vehicles.
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Agencies are finally starting to make progress on their transitions to the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract, according to the latest FITARA scorecard.
Perryn Ashmore, industry executive director for federal government at Oracle and former chief information officer at the Department of Health and Human Services, discusses the obstacles of change management in government and how to overcome it.
The Department of Defense and the Department of Commerce are delaying an agreement again that would codify data-sharing between the two agencies. Mike Peckham, managing director for advisory at KPMG U.S. and former executive director of financial management at HHS, explains the progress federal agencies have made sharing data.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate will take a three-step approach to bring new technology into the department and to market. The department’s new partnership guide lays out the journey for potential partners.
Megan Mahle, director of industry partnerships at DHS’ Science and Technology Directorate, explains the purpose of the guide and how it will look to help develop homeland security solutions.
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Today, a conversation around cyber defense and resilience. AFCEA Bethesda hosted its Energy, Infrastructure and Environment Summit last week.
On this episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, you’ll hear Francis moderate a panel featuring:
Venice Goodwine, director of enterprise information technology within the Office of the Chief Information Officer for the Department of the Air Force Mittal Desai, chief information officer at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Brian Epley, principal deputy chief information officer at the Department of Energy
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On Friday’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, you heard five former leaders in federal IT discuss the past, present and future of technology in government. Maria Roat, former deputy federal chief information officer, discusses the big picture for government IT.
Bill McVay, chief growth officer at Logical Technology and Research and former senior policy analyst at the Office of Management and Budget, explains the formulation of the E-Gov Act during his time at OMB and why it still works today when technology has changed so much.
The General Services Administration says it’s building the marketplace of the future. Sonny Hashmi, commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at GSA, breaks down what that marketplace of the future looks like to him.
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A conversation around cyber risk and defense at the Department of Energy at the Energy, Infrastructure and Environment Summit hosted by AFCEA Bethesda.
DOE Chief Information Officer Ann Dunkin and Puesh Kumar, the department’s director of the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response, discuss how they’re navigating the evolving threat landscape.
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Agencies across government are working on plans for the future of work in the federal government. The Office of Personnel Management is coordinating those plans and offering resources for building them.
At ACT-IAC’s ELC 2022, OPM Director Kiran Ahuja explains how the customer experience concept should apply to the future of work and managing the federal workforce.
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The Office of the Secretary of Defense has a new technology directorate. Dave Wennergren, CEO at ACT-IAC and former chief information officer at the Navy, discusses the challenges this new directorate will have to tackle at the Pentagon.
The General Services Administration is rolling out a number of new contracting vehicles in the coming months. Janet Clement, CEO at Jefferson Consulting and former director of strategic planning and organization development at the U.S. Mint, explains what questions industry are asking about working with government and dealing with these new vehicles.
Acquisition experts say the Internal Revenue Service is implementing innovation solutions for acquisition. Guy Torres, deputy chief procurement officer at IRS, breaks down how he used his industry background to make buying better for his agency.
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The State Department’s new award on the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract could be worth up to $1.6 billion, but not every agency has made the commitment to EIS that State has. Kay Ely, principal at Deep Water Point and former director of IT schedule programs at the General Services Administration, discusses what gets EIS to the finish line.
The Thrift Savings Plan says it’s improving its customer experience for federal employees after its transition to a new record-keeping system. Kim Weaver, director of external affairs for the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, explains how TSP is making progress in customer service.
Federal agencies have a FY2024 deadline to hit marks for the Biden administration’s requirements on zero trust. Amy Hamilton, senior cybersecurity advisor for policy and programs at the Department of Energy, tells Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash about the nuance behind the cyber portfolio at her agency.
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A special edition of The Daily Scoop Podcast from the ACT-IAC Executive Leadership Conference in Hershey, PA. The conference opened Sunday night with a conversation about the 20th anniversary of the E-Government Act.
A group of former government technology leaders discuss the progress the federal government has made, and where it is headed in the technology field.
On this episode, you’ll hear from: - Suzette Kent, CEO at Kent Advisory Services and former federal chief information officer (panel moderator) - Essye Miller, CEO of Executive Business Management, LLC and former Dept. of Defense principal deputy chief information officer - Margie Graves, senior fellow at the IBM Center for The Business of Government and former deputy federal chief information officer - Renee Wynn, former NASA chief information officer - Maria Roat, former deputy federal chief information officer
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Federal agencies have four main challenges to deal with in their transitions to cloud computing. Those challenges are keeping agencies from realizing the cloud's maximum potential.
Jennifer Franks, director of information technology and cybersecurity issues at the Government Accountability Office, discusses the four challenges and how agencies can overcome them.
The General Services Administration sees a huge opportunity to use the government’s buying power to influence sustainability and supply chain efforts. At ACT-IAC’s Executive Leadership Conference, Commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at GSA Sonny Hashmi explains how he’d like to leverage that power.
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Drew Myklegard’s new job as permanent deputy chief information officer of the United States includes implementation of Clare Martorana’s agenda as Federal CIO. Those tasks include the Federal Data Strategy and the Technology Modernization Fund.
Suzette Kent, CEO at Kent Advisory Services and former federal chief information officer, discusses the continuity across administrations as the government modernizes its IT structure.
Three new awards from the Technology Modernization Fund will address legacy IT problems. The Army, the Office of Personnel Management and Housing and Urban Development will get a total of $36 million.
Sandra Lopez, chief technology officer of Leidos’ Enterprise & Cyber Solutions Operation, explains how agencies can successfully migrate from legacy systems to modern platforms. This interview is underwritten by Leidos.
The zero trust initiative across government includes securing the insider threat at agencies. At CyberTalks, Department of Commerce CIO Andre Mendes describes the phishing threats his organization faces and why cyber reality isn’t what people think it is.
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The Department of Justice’s collaboration with foreign law enforcement organizations has resulted in the disruption of a Russian malware operation. At CyberTalks, DOJ’s Deputy Attorney General for National Security and Cyber Adam Hickey discusses how the partnership was able to disrupt this botnet.
National Cybersecurity Awareness Month is about two-thirds over now. Eric Goldstein, executive assistant director for cybersecurity at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, explains at CyberTalks what his agency is emphasizing this month.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is missing data it needs to gauge the health of its acquisition workforce. That data would help the agency understand who does what, and how.
Shelby Oakley, director of contracting and national security acquisitions at the Government Accountability Office, explains what we now know about VA’s acquisition workforce.
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The Office of the Secretary of Defense has a new Chief Information officer and a new execution structure for technology. Michael Donley will lead the office and Danielle Metz will direct it.
David Berteau, president and CEO of the Professional Services Council and former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Logistics and Materiel Readiness, discusses the new office at the Pentagon.
The Army is more than a year into its digital transformation strategy execution plan now. Virtually every agency is making progress on moving to digital infrastructure.
Scott Anderson, distinguished enterprise architect at Verizon Federal Solutions, breaks down the security challenges organizations are wrangling during these transformations. This interview is underwritten by Verizon.
A new front end is speeding the clearance process for applicants and agencies. More than 60 agencies are using The e-App system now. Jeff Smith, executive program manager of the National Background Investigations Services at the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, explains the transition to e-App and how it’s improving NBIS system operations.
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At CyberTalks, Section Chief of the Cyber Technical Analytics & Operations Sections in the FBI’s Cyber Division Philip Frigm Jr. outlines his agency’s mission in cybersecurity.
Two leaders with experience in hacking bureaucracy are writing about their experience. Nick Sinai, senior advisor at Insight Partners and former deputy chief technology officer of the United States, and Marina Nitze, partner at Layer Aleph and former chief technology officer & senior advisor to the secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs, discuss their new book “Hack Your Bureaucracy: Get Things Done No Matter What Your Role on Any Team” and their experience improving organizations.
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More top cybersecurity leaders across government are on today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast. Hear highlights from Wednesday’s Trellix Cybersecurity Summit and Thursday’s CyberTalks, presented by FedScoop and CyberScoop.
David Stern, Analytic Cell, Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative, CISA; Chris Cleary, Principal Cyber Advisor, Dept. of Navy; Chris DeRusha, Federal CISO.
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Top cybersecurity leaders across government are on today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast. Hear highlights from Wednesday’s Trellix Cybersecurity Summit, presented by FedScoop and CyberScoop.
On this episode, you’ll hear from: Rob Joyce, director of cybersecurity at the National Security Agency; Brian Miller, chief information officer of the Intelligence Community and cybersecurity group director at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; Aaron Bishop, chief information security officer at the Dept. of Air Force.
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The General Services Administration should cancel the Transactional Data Reporting pilot because of pricing problems according to GSA’s Office of Inspector General. The IG says the pilot doesn’t result in a viable pricing methodology after a six-year test run.
Barbara Bouldin, deputy assistant inspector general for acquisition audits at General Services Administration Office of Inspector General, and Thomas Tripple, regional inspector general for auditing at GSA OIG’s Mid-Atlantic Region Audit Office, explain what they saw from the pilot program and what they recommend the Federal Acquisition Service should do moving forward.
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Three new projects are getting money from the Technology Modernization Fund. The Office of Personnel Management, the Federal Housing Administration and the U.S. Army are the recipients of the new awards.
Tony Scott, CEO of Intrusion and former federal chief information officer, discusses what stands out about the three new awards.
A new request for information from the Census Bureau lays out the next steps they plan to take in the cloud. Kenneth Harrison, division chief of the telecommunications office at the Census Bureau, explains how the cloud is laying the groundwork for network improvement.
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A request for information from the Treasury Department asks for input on whether the federal government should offer cyber insurance for catastrophic cyber events. Jim Richberg, public sector field chief information security officer and vice president of information security at Fortinet and former National Intelligence Member for Cyber at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, explains the potential pitfalls of cyber insurance.
The Innovation Team at Customs and Border Protection has started 73 pilot projects to test new technologies. Marie Mak, director of contracting and national security acquisitions at the Government Accountability Office, discusses the opportunities CBP has to push its performance results further.
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The General Services Administration should cancel the Transactional Data Reporting pilot because of pricing problems, according to GSA’s Office of Inspector General. Alan Thomas, chief operating officer at IntelliBridge and former commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at GSA, discusses the IG’s recommendations to FAS and how GSA can continue creating a viable pricing methodology.
Leaders of every military service list computing at the edge as one of their leading capabilities requirements. The next level of data transfer is edge device to edge device. David Hoon, chief technology officer at Norseman Defense Technologies, explains how military services can make that transformation possible. This interview is underwritten by Norseman Defense Technologies.
Federal agencies have aggressive deadlines to meet to fulfill the Biden Administration’s zero trust executive order. Beau Houser, chief information security officer at the Census Bureau, tells Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash about his long list of cybersecurity tasks.
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Department of Defense components aren’t reporting insider threat information consistently, according to the Pentagon’s Inspector General. Renee Wynn, former NASA chief information officer, breaks down how real the insider threat is and how at risk are other federal agencies.
The Navy is putting the finishing touches on its new cyber strategy. The Acting Chief Information Security Officer of the Navy Tony Plater says artificial intelligence and automation will be two key pieces. Rob Carey, president at Cloudera Government Solutions and former Navy chief information officer, discusses the connection between cybersecurity and data. This interview is underwritten by Cloudera.
The Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer has a new Federal Director of Cybersecurity. In an interview with Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash, Mitchel Herckis explains the comprehensive approach behind executing the vision of the White House’s zero trust executive order.
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The Department of Homeland Security is delineating its cyber responsibilities in a new fact sheet. The fact sheet spells out the jobs of each of the organizations inside DHS that touches cyber.
Bob Kolasky, senior vice president at Exiger and former director of DHS' National Risk Management Center, discusses the significance of the fact sheet.
The Defense Innovation Unit is asking commercial industry to help it test and evaluate hypersonics. DIU believes commercial companies can help the Pentagon move faster on cutting edge technologies.
Brian MacCarthy, vice president of the chief technology office at Booz Allen Hamilton, explains how commercial vendors can help infuse innovation in the Department of Defense. This interview is underwritten by Booz Allen Hamilton.
The Defense Logistics Agency is working through its first major technology transformation in 25 years, and data is a key part of the transformation. In an interview with Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash, DLA Chief Information Officer George Duchak gives an update on the ongoing transition.
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More than 80 percent of federal government IT spending goes to legacy infrastructure and applications. Gundeep Ahluwalia, the CIO at the Labor Department, writes about progress against that technical debt in a blog post on the Labor Department web site. Joe Klimavicz, former CIO at Justice and now Managing Director at KPMG, discusses ways CIOs can fight technical debt - and win.
The General Services Administration should cancel the Transactional Data Reporting pilot because of pricing problems, according to GSA’s Office of Inspector General. An IG report says the pilot “still has not resulted in a viable pricing methodology that ensures…the lowest overall cost alternative to meet the government’s needs” after a six-year test run. Joe Jordan, President and CEO of Actuparo, and former Administrator of Federal Procurement Policy, explains what the report means, and the implications for FAS, the government, and industry if GSA cancels the pilot.
The Labor Department’s IT shared service effort is in its fourth year now. Agency leaders say it’s providing a foundation for zero trust. Paul Blahusch, the Chief Information Security Officer at the Labor Department, tells Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash how the shared services effort supports the agency’s zero trust journey.
The Coast Guard, the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service all have cyber struggles according to overseers. Their challenges are representative of the issues every agency faces.
Ron Marks, president of ZPN Cyber and National Security Strategies and visiting professor at George Mason University's Schar School of Policy and Government, discusses the overarching theme of these cyber challenges and what organizations can do moving forward.
A Department of Veterans Affairs facility in Harlingen, Texas is struggling with some basic blocking and tackling for technology security. That’s despite an agency-wide effort to improve security. John Zangardi, president and CEO of Redhorse Corporation and former Department of Homeland Security chief information officer, explains the issues large enterprises face and how it can be prevented.
The cloud is the driver behind U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ digital transformation. USCIS Chief Information Security Officer Shane Barney tells Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash about his organization’s move from paper to digital, and the work it takes to keep that transformation secure. This interview is part of FedScoop’s “Federal Zero Trust: Moving from Aspiration to Transformation” video campaign, underwritten by Forcepoint.
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Federal agencies would have to consolidate software licenses and share more information about software purchases under a bill that’s advancing through the Senate. Angela Styles, partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and former administrator for federal procurement policy, discusses the impact this would have on the federal contracting community.
At DefenseTalks, Acting Director of the Defense Innovation Unit Mike Madsen tells DefenseScoop’s Brandi Vincent about how events around the world are impacting DIU’s mission.
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The Department of Defense is moving its tests of 5G technology to the next phase, as the technology is a key component to digital transformation in the service. Lt. Gen. Bill Bender (USAF, ret.), senior vice president for strategic accounts and government relations at Leidos and former chief information officer at the Air Force, discusses the potential 5G has across DOD.
The Thrift Savings Plan is into month four of its transition to the Converge record keeping system. The TSP says more than two million participants have made the switch to the new system. Kim Weaver, director of external affairs for the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, gives an update on the transition.
At DefenseTalks, Executive Director of U.S. Cyber Command David Frederick explains the three main warfighting missions of the command.
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The Defense Information Systems Agency’s new Data Strategy Implementation Plan maps how the agency will use data as a strategic asset.
At DefenseTalks, Roger Greenwell, director of the Enterprise Integration and Innovation Center and chief information officer at DISA and Josh Marcuse, head of strategy and innovation for public sector at Google Cloud, discuss DISA’s approach to digital modernization and innovation.
A five-year zero trust strategy is coming from the Department of Defense and will include more than 90 capabilities. David McKeown, senior information security officer and deputy chief information officer for cybersecurity at DOD, explains the Department’s cybersecurity strategy.
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Fewer than 10% of federal employees are under 30 years old and at some agencies more than half of employees are eligible to retire. Shane Canfield, CEO at WAEPA, discusses the changing composition of the workforce and how agencies are hiring and retaining young talent. This interview is underwritten by WAEPA.
The Space Development Agency says supply chain challenges will delay its first launch. At DefenseTalks, Derek Tournear, director of the Space Development Agency, tells DefenseScoop’s Jon Harper why he’s confident that his agency will get the satellites up by the end of the year.
The Army’s Digital Transformation Strategy is a little over a year old now. Raj Iyer, chief information officer of the Army, gives an update on where the strategy stands after a year.
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Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks says data is the core of warfighting and back-office functions for the Department of Defense. At DefenseTalks, Rob Carey, president at Cloudera Government Solutions and former Navy chief information officer, explains how data has evolved in the Pentagon.
The Navy is finishing up its cybersecurity strategy, including three tenets at its core. Chris Cleary, principal cyber advisor at the Dept. of the Navy and Juliana Vida, group vice president and chief strategy advisor at Splunk and former Navy deputy chief information officer, discuss what the department’s cybersecurity strategy looks like and how it will be implemented.
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Krista Kinnard, chief of emerging technology at the Department of Labor, is the 2022 winner of the Service to America medal from the Partnership for Public Service in the emerging leader category. She tells FedScoop’s John Hewitt Jones the story behind her medal.
The winner of this year’s Service to America medal for management excellence is Barbara Morton, deputy chief veterans experience officer at the Department of Veterans Affairs. She tells FedScoop’s Nihal Krishan how she got into the customer experience sphere.
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The Department of Veterans Affairs has an employee experience journey map that takes its people from hiring and onboarding through their careers to separation from the agency.
Jonathan Benett, technical director of digital government solutions at Adobe and former chief enterprise architect at the Department of Agriculture, discusses how employee experience and customer experience are tied together.
At DefenseTalks, Chief Technology Officer at Air Force District of Washington A1 and Chief Cloud Architect at the Dept. of Air Force at Jason Howe explains how his organization is working to create a workforce and digital infrastructure to improve decision-making.
Co-Chair of the Congressional Cyber Caucasus and member of the House Armed Services Committee Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., will leave Congress at the end of his term. At DefenseTalks, Langevin tells DefenseScoop’s Mark Pomerleau about his cyber journey on Capitol Hill.
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The FITARA Scorecard is up for a makeover. The new House IT Caucus will look at ways to change the scorecard. Richard Spires, principal at Richard A. Spires Consulting and former CIO at the Department of Homeland Security, discusses recommendations on evolving the scorecard.
The Technology Modernization Fund is just one of the priorities of Federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana. In a recent Capitol Hill testimony, Martorana talks about her list of priorities as Federal CIO.
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The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has a new order for federal agencies to patch their systems. At DefenseTalks, CISA Chief Information Officer Robert Costello tells FedScoop and DefenseScoop’s Billy Mitchell how his defense background informs his work at CISA.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has a new learning program for vets and their families. Mike Nolan, senior manager of the military recruiting program at Salesforce, discusses the partnership with VA and the new mental health module Salesforce is launching on the platform. This interview is underwritten by Salesforce.
The Biden Administration is promoting $1 billion available to state, local and tribal governments for cybersecurity through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Also at DefenseTalks, Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber & Emerging Technology Anne Neuberger details the White House’s approach to cybersecurity.
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Changes are coming to one of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification’s key documents. Eric Crusius, partner at Holland & Knight LLP, says what changes he thinks could benefit industry and what could benefit the Department of Defense.
Federal government law enforcement agencies have clawed back more than 30 million dollars in crypto currency North Korean hackers stole earlier this year. Brian Capra, director of strategic applications for Chainalysis, explains the threat landscape presented by cryptocurrency and how the federal government can defend against it. This interview is underwritten by Chainalysis.
The end of the fiscal year is about two weeks away now and the White House is prepping agencies to get ready for another continuing resolution. Gerard Badorrek, former chief financial officer at the General Services Administration and founder of the Federal RPA Community of Practice, discusses how agencies can get ready for a CR and how CFOs can help other parts of the organization prepare.
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Most agencies don’t think they’ll have the resources to fulfill the Biden Administration's executive orders on zero trust. Jeff Phillips, vice president of public sector for Yubico, discusses the cyber talent problem causing trouble across government.
The Chief Data Scientist of the United States Denice Ross says she is pursuing equitable outcomes for citizens. In an interview with FedScoop’s Dave Nyczepir, Ross says her mission and her priority are clear.
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One big source of cyber talent for federal agencies is other federal agencies. Simon Szykman, senior vice president for client growth at Maximus and former chief information officer at NIST and Dept. of Commerce, discusses the current state of the federal cyber workforce.
The new U.S. Chief Data Scientist, Denice Rose, says disaggregated data is “the next generation of data.” Donna Roy, strategic advisor for the national security sector at Guidehouse and former executive director of the Information Sharing and Services Office (IS2O) at the Department of Homeland Security, explains why disaggregated data is useful to federal agencies.
The House IT Modernization Caucus will kick off its work next Wednesday. Dave Powner, executive director of the Center for Data-Driven Policy at MITRE and former Director of IT Issues at Government Accountability Office, previews what he expects to see from the caucus.
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The Office of the National Cyber Director is developing a talent strategy for the whole federal government and the whole cyber industry. Margie Graves, senior fellow at the IBM Center for The Business of Government and former deputy federal chief information officer, discusses what the strategy should include and any potential trouble implementing it.
The federal government’s overall contract spending is down, according to new numbers from the Government Accountability Office. Tim DiNapoli, managing director for contracting and national security acquisition issues at the Government Accountability Office, explains the dip in spending and the impact COVID-19-related spending has had.
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The National Security Agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence have a new best-practices playbook for software developers. Hillary Benson, director of product management at GitLab and former Navy information warfare officer, discusses her takeaways from the new guidance.
Chezian Sivagnanam, chief enterprise architect at the National Science Foundation, explains the two-pronged approach NSF is taking to implementing zero trust. This interview is part of the “Federal Zero Trust: Moving from Aspiration to Transformation” video campaign, underwritten by Forcepoint.
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A new advance notice of proposed rulemaking from the General Services Administration seeks to reduce single-use plastics in packaging.
Larry Allen, president of Allen Federal Business Partners, discusses the impact that may have on federal contractors, plus some do’s and don’ts as the end of the fiscal year nears.
Agency leaders say it could take up to three years to get all the tools they need to execute the Biden Administration’s vision for zero trust, according to the results from a recent FedScoop survey.
Department of Education Chief Information Security Officer Steven Hernandez tells Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash the impact zero trust will have on all leaders across government.
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The Department of Veterans Affairs is celebrating its ranking on the top five large agencies list for Best Places to Work in the Federal Government. It’s the first time the agency has ever placed in the top five.
VA’s Assistant Secretary for Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security and Preparedness Lt. Gen Gina Grosso (USAF, ret.) discusses her agency’s approach to increasing employee satisfaction.
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The Department of Energy is home of the “Scaling IT Modernization Playbook.” At FedTalks, DOE CIO Ann Dunkin and Fearless Chief Growth Officer and former Environmental Protection Agency Chief Technology Officer Greg Godbout discuss how the playbook came about and what’s in it.
At FedTalks, CIA CIO and Director of Information Technology La’Naia Jones explains what’s different about IT and cybersecurity in the Intelligence Community.
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The Office of the National Cyber Director will help the Office of Management and Budget review FY2024 budget submissions from agencies for cyber. Irving Dennis, former chief financial officer at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, explains how chief information officers can help chief financial officers with budget requests.
At last week’s FedTalks event, Department of Commerce Chief Information Officer Andre Mendes discusses how innovation at some of the department’s bureaus came from leadership, not just the technology offices.
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The General Services Administration Alliant 2 contract is about to get bigger. Julie Dunne, principal at Monument Advocacy and former commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at the General Services Administration, explains what’s next as GSA also works on Alliant 3.
The Department of Homeland Security will launch a hiring initiative on customer experience. At FedTalks, DHS Chief Information Officer Eric Hysen explains the three areas the new hires will focus on.
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The Department of Homeland Security will launch a hiring spree for customer experience and product management expertise. Ed DeSeve, coordinator of the Agile Government Center at the National Academy of Public Administration and former deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, discusses the potential benefits and pitfalls managers should be preparing for during a hiring surge.
The Office of Personnel Management is up to about 15% of the spend it can make on its zero trust Technology Modernization Fund money. At FedTalks, OPM Chief Information Officer Guy Cavallo, explains how the people are driving the modernization at his agency.
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Paul Tatum, executive vice president of global public sector at Salesforce, discusses how agencies can maintain momentum for delivering better customer experiences. This interview is underwritten by Salesforce.
Nick Dahl, deputy assistant inspector general for audits and evaluations at the Dept. of Veterans Affairs Office of the Inspector General, explains the three steps VA can take to strengthen it’s cybersecurity posture.
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National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Chief Information Officer Zach Goldstein joins FedScoop reporter Dave Nyczepir to discuss how NOAA is leveraging technology to protect lives and livelihoods, plus how they’re using the cloud to help protect the environment.
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Rafael Borras, president and CEO at Homeland Security & Defense Business Council and former Department of Homeland Security undersecretary for management, discusses the best practices for, and challenges of, building a risk management framework.
Roger Waldron, president of The Coalition for Government Procurement, breaks down the new ceiling for the Alliant 2 contract from $50 billion to $75 billion.
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A shakeup could be coming for how the Department of Defense manages its Joint All-Domain Command and Control efforts. The Pentagon is also starting to turn to academia to help boost its research, development, test and evaluation efforts.
Todd Harrison, senior vice president and head of research at Meta Aerospace, discusses the current state of DOD’s research and engineering efforts and greater uncertainty throughout the industrial base.
Mark Kitz, program executive officer for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors (IEW&S) at the U.S. Army, gives DefenseScoop reporter Mark Pomerleau some insight into what is in IEW&S’ portfolio.
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The General Services Administration has seven potential challenges in using the money it will get for real estate through the infrastructure bill, according to the agency’s inspector general. Dan Mathews, head of federal sales for WeWork and former commissioner of the Public Buildings Service at the General Services Administration, discusses how these challenges could potentially be opportunities for managing the federal government’s real estate portfolio.
Karen Evans, partner at KE&T Partners and former Department of Homeland Security chief information officer, discusses the landscape of cybersecurity oversight, management and leadership across the federal government.
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Amanda Eamich, senior director of business development at Publicis Sapient and former director of web communications at the Department of Agriculture, discusses the importance of technologists being part of the customer experience modernization process.
Greg Giddens, partner at Potomac Ridge Consulting LLC and former executive director of acquisition, logistics and construction at the Department of Veterans Affairs, explains where the federal government can suspend or disbar contractors.
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David Santiago, head of industry for public sector Document Cloud at Adobe and former deputy assistant administrator for grants systems and policy integration at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, explains why technologists' input will help government agencies better deliver customer experience.
Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan (USAF-ret.), former director of Department of Defense’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, breaks down the current landscape of edge computing and fog computing at DOD.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Brig. Gen. Gregory Touhill (USAF, ret.), director of the CERT Division at the Software Engineering Institute and former federal chief information security officer, discusses the coordinated government response to cyber attacks.
Gordon Bitko, senior vice president at Information Technology Industry Council and former FBI chief information officer, discusses the funding challenges for zero trust initiatives across government.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Government Accountability Office plans to investigate the Thrift Savings Plan’s recent move to a new online platform.
The Air Force has a new name for its cyber people, the cyberspace and information technology career field. Wanda Jones-Heath, principal cyber advisor at the Dept. of the Air Force, discusses the duties of her role.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Jonathan Alboum, federal chief technology officer and principal digital strategist at ServiceNow and former chief information officer at the Department of Agriculture, discusses the ongoing budget planning at government agencies and how the future of workplaces is impacting that planning.
In a recent FedScoop video panel, Health Resources and Services Administration Chief Information Security Officer Nick Lewis discusses how his organization is closing cybersecurity gaps in web applications.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Tim Cooke, president and CEO of ASI Government and former Senior Economist at the Center for Naval Analysis, discusses the current state of cloud acquisition across government.
Thomas Sasala, chief data officer of the Dept. of the Navy, tells Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash in a new FedScoop video panel how his organization is processing and moving large data sets globally.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Jeff Neal, principal at ChiefHRO, LLC and former chief human capital officer at the Department of Homeland Security, discusses his takeaways from the recent data on workforce attrition in the federal government.
The Internal Revenue Service could hire as many as 87,000 employees in the next decade if the Inflation Reduction Act becomes law, though The National Taxpayer Advocate says the agency isn’t equipped to hire the quantity of people the agency needs. Michele Singer, CEO of Mindful Advance and former director of the Interior Business Center, explains the potential change management issues an agency could experience from that much growth.
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On today's episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Department of Veterans Affairs has a new official in its Electronic Health Records program. Dr. David Massaro is functional champion of the EHR program. Mark Forman, Executive Vice President at Dynamic Integrated Services and E-Gov Administrator at the Office of Management and Budget, explains the need for end-user representation in the development of high-end, high-risk IT systems.
The current Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey is in the compilation phase now. The last survey finished just a few months ago; the pandemic delayed its completion and release. Federal workplace expert Mika Cross lists the problems the last FEVS revealed, and what agency leaders must do now to ease the potential damage. She also addressed the “agency hopping” problem OPM Director Kiran Ahuja warned Congress about recently.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Chris Mihm, adjunct professor of public administration at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and former managing director for strategic issues at the Government Accountability Office, discusses agencies' recent updates to performance.gov.
The federal government is not in crisis, according to new research about the federal workforce attrition rate from the Partnership for Public Service. Angela Bailey, founder and CEO of AnandaLife, LLC and former chief human capital officer at the Department of Homeland Security, breaks down attrition in the federal workforce and how CHCO’s can manage it.
The Silicon Valley Innovation Program in the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate is reviewing results from an industry day on addressing software vulnerabilities. Melissa Oh, managing director of the Silicon Valley Innovation Program at the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate, explains DHS’ goal for collaborating with industry for these industry days.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Jill Leyden, government industry advisor at Qualtrics and former customer experience administrator at U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, discusses the recent six-month update on the customer experience executive order.
The Cyber AB — formerly known as the CMMC Accreditation Body — has given defense contractors the green light to begin voluntary CMMC assessments as they await a final rule from the Department of Defense. Matthew Travis, CEO of the Cyber AB, tells DefenseScoop reporter Mark Pomerleau why the time is right for CMMC self-assessments.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Dave Wennergren, CEO at ACT-IAC and former chief information officer at the Navy, discusses FITARA 14 and the importance of outcome-based measures in technology modernization efforts.
Terry Gerton, president and CEO of the National Academy of Public Administration, explains how the federal government can better compete with private industry for talent.
The Thrift Savings Plan projects another several weeks of high call volume at its call centers before it gets back to normal. The high call volume is because of the transition to a new recording-keeping backbone for its system. Kim Weaver, director of external affairs for the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, talks about the ongoing transition.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Dan Chenok, executive director of the IBM Center for The Business of Government and former branch chief for information policy and technology at the Office of Management and Budget, discusses a new bill on Capitol Hill that would make it easier for agencies to buy commercial technology.
Changes to the FITARA grading system push grades down across government, according to the new scorecard. Carol Harris, director of information technology and cybersecurity at the Government Accountability Office, explains what’s different in this scorecard and its results.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Jeremy Grant, managing director of technology business strategy at Venable and former senior executive advisor for National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace at NIST, discusses the latest attempt to allow state and local governments to adopt identity management platforms already in use by the federal government.
Dave Mader, civilian sector strategy officer, Deloitte, former controller at the Office of Management and Budget and former Internal Revenue Service chief financial officer, explains the contributions CFOs can make as agencies map out their future real estate plans.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Core4ce CEO and former Department of Defense Chief Information Security Officer Jack Wilmer discusses where the Department of Defense is headed with its compute power and data capabilities.
MG Peter Gallagher (USA, ret.), senior vice president for technology and solutions at CACI and former director of the Army Futures Command Network Cross-Functional Team, explains the intersection between cloud and artificial intelligence applications DOD is looking to implement.
Department of Labor Chief Technology Officer Sanjay Koyani explains in a new FedScoop executive video panel how his agency is harnessing AI to improve services.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Keith Nakasone, federal senior strategist at VMware and former deputy assistant commissioner for acquisition in the Office of IT Category at the Federal Acquisition Service, discusses how government can make smoother transitions in the acquisition process.
Juliana Vida, group vice president and chief strategy advisor at Splunk and former Navy deputy chief information officer, explains how the Department of Defense can continue developing its edge computing capabilities.
Suzette Kent, CEO at Kent Advisory Services and former federal chief information officer, talks about the race for cyber talent across government.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Chris Radich, vice president of solution engineering for public sector at Celonis, explains how leaders across government are using data to determine if their agency is achieving management success. This interview is underwritten by Celonis.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is in the middle of a huge cloud transition. The agency has a goal to move about 350 applications to the cloud in the next two years. Dave Catanoso, acting director for Application Hosting, Cloud, and Edge Solutions (ACES) Infrastructure Operations in the Office of Information and Technology at the Department of Veterans Affairs, discusses the cloud modernization effort underway at VA.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Lt. Gen. Bill Bender (USAF, ret.), senior vice president for strategic accounts and government relations at Leidos and former chief information officer at the Air Force explains how the Department of Defense can improve edge-computing for its space systems.
A new round of updates is out for the President’s Management Agenda. The Office of Management and Budget says the priority area teams are hitting some of their goals already. Robert Shea, national managing principal for public policy at Grant Thornton and former associate director of OMB, discusses the progress agencies have made implementing the PMA and what lies ahead.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, more issues were found in the rollout of the Department of Veterans Affairs electronic health records system.
The White House is pushing agencies on its small business contracting goals as quarter four begins for FY2022. Alan Thomas, chief operating officer at IntelliBridge and former commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at the General Services Administration, discusses the impact these goals have on the federal contracting base.
The Department of Defense is committed to its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program, but the defense industrial base still has questions about how that will work in practice. David Berteau, president and CEO of the Professional Services Council, explains what some of those questions are.
The Office of Personnel Management is undertaking a new data strategy and making fixes in its technology infrastructure. Michelle Sager, managing director for strategic issues at the Government Accountability Office, talks about the priority open recommendations GAO made to OPM.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, one of the Department of Defense’s newest job postings is for the leader of the Defense Innovation Unit. Current DIU Director Michael Brown will leave at the end of September.
Stan Soloway, president and CEO of Celero Strategies LLC and former deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisition reform, talks about the future of innovation in DOD.
Federal employees are less satisfied with their jobs than previous years, according to the Partnership for Public Service. Loren DeJonge Schulman, vice president for research and evaluation at the Partnership for Public Service, discusses the results of the 2021 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government Rankings.
Military services are reporting they’re struggling to meet their recruiting goals for this year. Dan Sitterly, president and CEO of Sitterly Alliance Solutions and former principal deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs, explains the difficulties the U.S. military is having finding recruits.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Technology Modernization Fund will earmark a $100 million for customer experience projects. The window to submit proposals for that money opens August 1 and stays open through September 30.
Federal Chief Information Officer and Chair of the TMF Board Clare Martorana and Executive Director of the Technology Modernization Fund Program Management Office Raylene Yung discuss some of the recent awards made by the board, where these awards intersect with the president’s management agenda and what goes into making a good proposal.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a Department of Defense industry day is coming for the new rapid defense experimentation initiative.
The government is already seeing results from the first group of U.S. Digital Corps. Tony Scott, CEO of Intrusion and former federal chief information officer, discusses the technology and workforce benefits programs like this bring to government agencies.
The Army’s data strategy is driving change throughout the force. The service is using data at the tactical edge and in the back office. Lori Mongold, division chief for Global Force Information Management for the Army, explains how she’s bridging the gap between expectation and reality for the Army’s data and digital transformation strategies.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a new Government Accountability Office report on the quality of spending data from government agencies.
Agencies have less than three months to spend their money as the end of the fiscal year approaches. Joe Jordan, president and CEO of Actuparo LLC and former U.S. chief acquisition officer, explains what government agencies should be thinking about now to prepare to spend their appropriated money wisely for the rest of the fiscal year.
The new version of the State Department’s EVOLVE contract could be worth up to $10 billion. It’s the largest indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract the State Department has ever issued. Joe Klimavicz, managing director at KPMG and former chief information officer at the Department of Justice and NOAA, discusses how CIO’s can manage a large contract coming through their IT shop.
The Department of Homeland Security’s newest prize challenge takes on cooling solutions. It’s part of an effort by the department to find solutions to a number of aspects of climate change. Kathleen Kenyon, program lead for prize challenges at DHS’ Science and Technology Directorate, talks about how her organization decides when prize challenges are the right fit for a certain problem set.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the federal zero trust effort is underway but it needs time and money. Scoop News Group’s senior vice president for content strategy Wyatt Kash discusses the findings from a recent FedScoop report on The Quest for Zero Trust.
The goal of the Department of Defense’s new Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office is to keep the United States ahead of peer competitors like China in digital and AI technology. Bob Work, president and owner of TeamWork, LLC and former deputy undersecretary of defense, explains how microchip production is playing a key role in this competition for digital superiority.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a new chief information officer comes to the Federal Communications Commission.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology has selected the first four encryption tools to guard against a cyber attack from a quantum computer. Jim Richberg, public sector field chief information security officer and vice president of information security at Fortinet and former National Intelligence Member for Cyber at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, discusses the value of public-private partnerships in advancing federal cybersecurity.
The White House is expanding its diversity, equity, inclusion and equity work to federal acquisition. Angela Styles, partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and former administrator for federal procurement policy, explains the impact this will have on the businesses the government looks for and buys from.
Security leaders across government say identity management is one of the most important components of zero trust. Shane Barney, chief information security officer at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, tells FedScoop’s Billy Mitchell how USCIS is managing its zero trust journey.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Terry Halvorsen, general manager for IBM's federal market organization and former chief information officer at the Department of Defense and Navy, discusses how hybrid cloud could be the right path forward for the Department of Defense’s transformation.
Chris Cummiskey, CEO at Cummiskey Strategic Solutions and former acting undersecretary for management at the Department of Homeland Security, explains the impact of having its own procurement authority will be for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. Listen more here. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, only two Department of Justice components have followed supply chain risk management requirements over the last six years.
DOJ is boosting its cyber technological capabilities as part of a new strategic plan. Grant Schneider, senior director for cybersecurity services at Venable LLP and former federal chief information security officer, discusses the department’s cybersecurity mission delivery initiative.
U.S. Cyber Command is asking companies to share more cyber intelligence they collect to help improve defensive digital operations. Ron Marks, president of ZPN Cyber and National Security Strategies and visiting professor at George Mason University's Schar School of Policy and Government, explains what that relationship between the combatant command and industry looks like and possible issues in coordinating that communication.
The Department of Defense expects to award its Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract later this year. Air Force Chief Information Officer Lauren Knausenberger tells Billy Mitchell on the latest episode of Let’s Talk About IT discusses the progress her organization has already made building a cloud environment.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Commissioner of the Public Buildings Service at the General Services Administration Nina Albert joins Francis Rose on her one year anniversary as commissioner.
The two discuss the impact return-to-office and remote work planning is having on federal workplace strategy, where PBS and GSA are reconfiguring office spaces and how employee wellness is the focal point of this entire transition.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the General Services Administration has unpaused Polaris and is extending the proposal due date to Aug. 10.
A new governing body will oversee the development of artificial intelligence projects in the Department of Defense. John Zangardi, president and CEO of Redhorse Corporation and former Department of Homeland Security chief information officer, discusses how the governing body will impact mission execution.
The Thrift Savings Plan is still sorting through some challenges from its transition to a new recordkeeping system, but more participants than ever are setting up accounts and getting through to the call center when they need help. Kim Weaver, director of external affairs for the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, explains where the board is in getting people the information and access they need.
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On the 200th episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Bob Kolasky, senior vice president at Exiger and former director of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Risk Management Center, breaks down the newest version of secure cloud migration guidance for government agencies.
Jeri Buchholz, strategic advisor at the Bolden Group and former chief human capital officer at NASA, discusses ways to expedite the onboarding process of new employees across government.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Office of Personnel Management violated appropriations law during its 2020 restructuring.
The General Services Administration plans to restart its Polaris contract today. Roger Waldron, president of The Coalition for Government Procurement and former acting deputy chief acquisition officer at GSA, discusses some of the difficulties GSA is facing during these solicitations and what issues business face when trying to contract with government.
The President’s Management Agenda includes rebuilding the federal workforce and improving customer experience as two of its primary pillars. Sean Kennedy, vice president and general manager of health and life sciences at Salesforce, explains how organizations are improving their workforce through internal customer experience methods. This interview is underwritten by Salesforce.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is taking its automation efforts to its insurance operation. Executive Director of the VA Insurance Service Dan Keenaghan talks about how his organization is using automation to improve insurance claims processes for veterans and their beneficiaries.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a new doctrine on information from the Marine Corps.
The Department of Labor is in its second month of allowing full occupancy at its headquarters, but it’s one of many agencies that isn’t requiring employees to come to the office everyday. Dan Mathews, head of federal sales for WeWork and former commissioner of the Public Buildings Service at the General Services Administration, discusses the impact agencies' return to office planning will have on the future of federal real estate.
New guidance for secure cloud migrations is out from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Former NASA Chief Information Officer Renee Wynn explains how this type of guidance helps assist federal technology leaders in their agency’s cloud journey.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, six government agencies have established a research consortium to link quantum computers.
Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Information Technology Category at the General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service Laura Stanton discusses the third round of awards for STARS III, the market research phase of Alliant 3 and what’s next for the paused Polaris solicitation.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, new guidance from the Cybersecruity and Infrastructure Security Agency on secure cloud migrations.
The Social Security Administration will save $80 million per year because of its transition to the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract from the General Services Administration. Larry Allen, president of Allen Federal Business Partners, discusses the issues other agencies are having transitioning to EIS and what the future looks like for federal telecom contracts.
Two components of the Department of Homeland Security are among the agencies that are using automation tools. At UiPath Together Public Sector 2022 produced by FedScoop, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Chief Technology Officer Rob Brown and Customs and Border Protection CTO Sunil Madughiri describe their strategies to cut backlogs using automation.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, two experts in the federal government community select the three most important news stories of the week.
Dave Powner, executive director of the Center for Data-Driven Policy at MITRE and former Director of IT Issues at Government Accountability Office and Karen Evans, partner at KE&T Partners, LLC and former E-Gov Administrator and chief information officer at the Department of Homeland Security, discuss their top three stories of the week.
Dave’s list: 3. FedScoop’s Best Bosses in Federal IT 2022 2. Three new TMF awards for network security projects 1. GAO says the Department of Defense should emphasize IT cybersecurity and supply chain risks
Karen’s list: 3. Doubts on the idea of a major data privacy bill from Capitol Hill 2. VA’s Electronic Health Records rollout harmed at least 148 veterans, according to an agency watchdog draft report 1. Creation of a federal cybersecurity rotational program
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, former Federal Chief Information Officer and CEO at Kent Advisory Services Suzette Kent explains where automation has assisted government in citizen services and what is on the horizon for federal automation.
Air Force Deputy CIO Winston Beauchamp discusses where automation has made a meaningful difference for USAF and where automation can help the workforce do their jobs more efficiently.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, three new awards from the Technology Modernization Fund Board for network security projects.
Gerard Badorrek, former chief financial officer at the General Services Administration, discusses the essential pieces for a TMF proposal and how government agencies can continue to leverage automation.
One of the core policies in the Department of Defense artificial intelligence realm is up for review. Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan (USAF-ret.), former director of the DOD’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, explains what DOD Directive 3000.09, Autonomy in Weapon Systems is and what is important about the coming update to it.
Automation is saving money and time at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO Chief Information Officer Jamie Holcombe tells Francis at the UiPath Together Summit produced by FedScoop his top three priorities as CIO.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a draft watchdog report says at least 148 veterans were harmed during the Department of Veterans Affairs rollout of its electronic health records system.
The Senate Armed Services Committee completed their version of the National Defense Authorization Act Thursday. Todd Harrison, senior vice president and head of research at Meta Aerospace, discusses the takeaways from the SASC’s version, which passed by a 23-3 vote.
The National Science Foundation’s cloud transition has reached its website. Bill Daus, chief of the Research Directorate Systems Branch at the National Science Foundation, tells Scoop News Group’s SVP for Content Strategy Wyatt Kash about NSF’s cloud journey. This interview is part of FedScoop’s “Cloud-Driven Innovation in Federal Government” video campaign, underwritten by AWS.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Technology Modernization Fund will allocate $100 million for high-impact customer experience projects across government.
The cyber accreditation body working with the Department of Defense has a new brand. Eric Crusius, partner at Holland & Knight LLP, discusses the progress the Cyber AB has made in communicating with industry about expectations and responsibilities to receive accreditation.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has a new website it hopes will facilitate innovation in contracting. Greg Giddens, partner at Potomac Ridge Consulting LLC and former principal executive director of the Office of Acquisition, Logistics, and Construction at the Department of Veterans Affairs, explains how this website provides a “front door” for doing business with the VA and fuses acquisition and innovation.
Justin Hodges, director & integrated product team lead for the cybersecurity service provider at Naval Information Warfare Center, Atlantic, joins Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash to discuss how NIWC Atlantic is using data as a strategic asset. This interview is part of Scoop News Group’s “Getting Ahead of the Adversaries” video campaign, underwritten by Trellix.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Department of Labor is working through over 200 pitches to its innovation incubator program.
The new U.S. Digital Corps fellows will begin their assignments at 13 agencies later this June. Karen Britton, vice president of communications and marketing and chief digital officer at LMI and former White House chief information officer, discusses how agencies can best leverage the impact of these fellows.
The executive director of the Technology Modernization Fund says the TMF Board will award all the money in the fund by the end of the fiscal year. Irving Dennis, former chief financial officer at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, explains a CFO’s role in developing proposals for things like the TMF.
Federal agencies may be taking more risk in contracting than they need to. Tim DiNapoli, managing director for contracting and national security acquisition issues at the Government Accountability Office, breaks down GAO’s findings from a recent report on time-and-material contracts and how agencies can use contracts more cost-effectively.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the General Services Administration plans to release Alliant 3 request for proposals early.
Julie Dunne, principal at Monument Advocacy and former commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at GSA, discusses the steps GSA can take to ensure supply chain security for other federal agencies following the removal of 75,000 products and services offered on its online shopping system.
Simon Szykman, senior vice president for client growth at Maximus and former chief information officer at NIST and Dept. of Commerce, explains the collaboration between IT leaders and financial managers in government when putting together proposals for funds like the Technology Modernization Fund.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the National Initiative on Cybersecurity Education has a list of 52 different defined cybersecurity roles. Richard Spires, principal at Richard A. Spires Consulting and former chief information officer at the Department of Homeland Security, discusses how this organized approach can help address the federal cybersecurity skills shortage.
Ed DeSeve, coordinator of the Agile Government Center at the National Academy of Public Administration and former deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, discusses what data is and should be available to government in order to define success and cost savings during the shift to telework and remote work.
Dave Peters, associate chief information officer, Digital Infrastructure Services Center, Department of Agriculture, discusses how his organization is using the cloud to drive innovation. This interview is part of FedScoop’s “Cloud-Driven Innovation in Federal Government” video campaign, underwritten by AWS.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Office of Management and Budget plans to coordinate two key IT funds to improve shared services.
The Technology Modernization Fund could be empty by the end of this fiscal year, according to the executive director of the TMF Raylene Yung. Gordon Bitko, senior vice president at Information Technology Industry Council and former FBI chief information officer, discusses the hurdles that could be in the way as TMF continues to award the more than $750 remaining in the fund.
The CMMC Accreditation Body has a new name. The board is calling itself the Cyber AB now. Cyber AB CEO Matthew Travis explains the reason for the name switch and what’s on the horizon for the accreditation body.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the U.S. Digital Corps inaugural fellows will begin work later this month.
Two-thirds of federal IT leaders say they’re using the cloud for mission-critical applications now. Donna Roy, strategic advisor for the national security sector at Guidehouse and former executive director of the Information Sharing and Services Office (IS2O) at the Department of Homeland Security, discusses what’s next in the federal government’s cloud journey.
The technical piece of the Thrift Savings Plan’s digital transformation is complete. Kim Weaver, director of external affairs for the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, gives an update on the TSP’s modernization project of their 401k record-keeping system.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Pentagon hopes to see clear progress from the new Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office within the next year.
The annual authorization for the money the Department of Defense can spend is underway. Bill Greenwalt, nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and founder of the Silicon Valley Defense Group, discusses what to expect as NDAA markups get underway and how the industrial base is rapidly changing for DOD.
The Department of Homeland Security has one fewer opening among its political appointee cohort today. Rafael Borras, president and CEO at Homeland Security & Defense Business Council and former Department of Homeland Security undersecretary for management, explains the impact of unfilled roles on agency management.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is missing key metrics in its rollout of its electronic health records system, according to the VA Office of Inspector General. Dr. Julie Kroviak, deputy assistant inspector general for healthcare inspections at the Department of Veterans Affairs, discusses her team’s findings from the Mann-Grandstaff health center in Spokane, Washington.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the General Services Administration is planning to remove 75,000 products from its online shopping system.
GSA’s new ASCEND acquisition vehicle will be for agencies to buy cloud computing capabilities. Noell Rebelez, cloud services program director at the Department of Labor, discusses how cloud gives his organization a “speed” advantage. This interview is part of FedScoop’s “Cloud-Driven Innovation in Federal Government” video campaign, underwritten by AWS.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Department of Energy is ready to use a supercomputer to tackle 24 initial science and engineering problems.
The Department of Defense will investigate a shared service model for security for contractors. Brig. Gen. Gregory Touhill (USAF, ret.), director of the CERT Division at the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and former federal chief information security officer, discusses how this will impact the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC).
Dwayne Spriggs, service delivery director at the Department of Justice, tells Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash how cloud capabilities provides DOJ with flexibility and responsiveness. This interview is part of FedScoop’s “Cloud-Driven Innovation in Federal Government” video campaign.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a follow-on report to the Cyberspace Solarium Commission calls for a revamp of federal cyber hiring authorities.
Federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana says a key element to providing better customer experience is meeting people where they are. Amanda Eamich, senior director of business development at Publicis Sapient and former director of web communications at the Department of Agriculture, says customer experience work at an agency is done across the entire organization.
The General Services Administration and the Defense Innovation Unit will work together to speed up the introduction of new capabilities through non-traditional contractors. Tim Cooke, president and CEO of ASI Government and former senior economist with the Center for Naval Analyses, discusses speeding up the acquisition process across government.
State Department Chief Information Security Officer Donna Bennett tells Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash that data and security goes together while her agency builds out its zero-trust architecture. This interview is part of Scoop News Group’s “Getting Ahead of the Adversaries” video campaign, underwritten by Trellix.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Department of Defense is looking at requirements for contractors that outsource their IT and cybersecurity to managed service providers.
Two senators from each party are asking officials from the Office of Personnel Management and the Biden administration for details on agency back-to-office plans. Margie Graves, senior fellow at the IBM Center for The Business of Government and former deputy federal chief information officer, says agencies should look at workflows and disciplines when they make decisions about remote work.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology is one of the government’s leading organizations on cybersecurity standards, but is also staking out territory in other cutting-edge technology territories. At ACT-IAC’s Emerging Technology and Innovation Conference, NIST Director Laurie Locasio says artificial intelligence, quantum computing and advanced communications are three technologies vital to the U.S. economy.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a new Navy operation is underway to mitigate vulnerabilities on its network.
Agencies across government are asking Congress for FY2023 funding to support the Biden administration’s executive order on customer experience. Kelly O'Connor, associate director at Boston Consulting Group and former product manager at U.S. Digital Service, explains three things organizations can do now to improve CX without additional funding.
Michele Singer, chief executive officer of Mindful Advance, LLC and former director of the Interior Business Center at the Department of the Interior, discusses why some system modernization projects struggle for internal attention and how agency leaders can prioritize these efforts.
Agency back-to-office plans all list implicit or explicit technology elements. At ACT-IAC’s Emerging Technology and Innovation Conference, Sonny Hashmi, commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at the General Services Administration, says in a hybrid work environment, technology is going to be more important than ever.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Department of the Interior is prepping a cloud contract worth up to $1 billion.
The latest financial management strategy from the Under Secretary of Defense Comptroller's Office at DOD says financial readiness accelerates mission readiness. Michael Parker, vice president of business development executive at Salesforce and former senior executive at the Department of Defense, breaks down how fiscal decision-making can improve mission outcomes in DOD. This interview is underwritten by Salesforce.
The Department of Homeland Security is exploring a range of technologies like 5G, artificial intelligence and more across its components and in headquarters. At ACT-IAC’s Emerging Technology and Innovation Conference, David Larrimore, chief technology officer at DHS, explains the difference between what CTO’s at DHS components do versus his CTO role-department wide.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a new internal data-sharing platform at the CDC.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency will drive a four-pronged agenda in its approach to federal cybersecurity. Suzanne Spaulding, senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former Department of Homeland Security undersecretary for cyber and infrastructure, discusses the progress government has made on cybersecurity.
Computing at the edge is one of the most important capabilities the Defense Department says it needs from its Joint All-Domain Command and Control effort. Army Chief Information Officer Raj Iyer says at ACT-IAC’s Emerging Technology and Innovation Conference that computing at the edge is happening now, thanks in part to Army’s Project Convergence effort.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, two experts in the federal government community select the three most important news stories of the week.
Mark Forman, executive vice president, Dynamic Integrated Services and former E-Gov Administrator and Dan Chenok, executive director of the IBM Center for The Business of Government and former branch chief for information policy and technology at the Office of Management and Budget countdown their top three stories of the week impacting the business of government.
Mark’s list: 3. Local police say they have implemented most reforms from the Biden executive order on policing 2. Technology Modernization Fund Board plans to spend remaining $750 million by years’ end 1. FDA’s role in the baby formula shortage
Dan’s list: 3. U.S. Special Operations Command chief data officer says digital transformation depends on AI 2. 2022 Federal Workforce Priorities Report 1. Interim report on equity efforts from the American Rescue Plan
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a new chief of responsible artificial intelligence at the Department of Defense.
Federal agencies are building action plans to hit the priority goals the administration has set for them. Chris Mihm, adjunct professor of public administration at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and former managing director for strategic issues at the Government Accountability Office, discusses the progress agencies have made through the first quarter of the year.
The first ever bug bounty program at the Department of Homeland Security is complete. Kenneth Bible, chief information security officer at the Department of Homeland Security, explains his takeaways from “Hack DHS” and what the agency learned as a whole.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Technology Modernization Fund Board plans to award its remaining $750 million by the end of the year.
The White House executive order on customer experience includes 35 high-impact service providers that deliver benefits, services and programs to citizens. Jonathan Benett, technical director of digital government solutions at Adobe and former enterprise architect at the Department of Agriculture, discusses what’s on the horizon for CX in government.
The emphasis on customer experience in government is leading to new questions. Darryl Peek, head of federal strategic partnerships at Google and former director of digital innovation and solutions at the Department of Homeland Security, breaks down the CX question all agencies should be asking themselves.
At the ACT-IAC Emerging Innovation and Technology Conference 2022, Director of Defense Research and Engineering for Research and Technology at the Department of Defense Barbara McQuiston breaks down how biotechnology is a gamechanger for the DOD.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, new tools for federal agencies to improve skill-based hiring processes.
The Office of Personnel Management’s new Federal Workforce Priorities Report includes four primary priorities and four enabling priorities. Mika Cross, federal workplace expert, outlines the holistic approach OPM is taking to thinking strategically about empowering the federal workforce.
The Navy is building an unmanned fleet to complement its crewed fleet. Janice Haith, strategic client director for Department of the Navy at Oracle and former deputy chief information officer of the Navy, discusses the technologies and planning behind the hybrid fleet.
The Army’s contribution to Joint All-Domain Command and Control Project Convergence will include a “wolfpack.” Col. Chad Chasteen, director of operations for Future Vertical Lift at Army Futures Command, explains what the “wolfpack” is and what else the Army learned from EDGE22.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Technology Modernization Fund awards $13.5 million combined to the Department of Agriculture and National Archives.
A robotics process automation experiment at Customs and Border Protection began with questions about how to close out contracts and obligate money in a pandemic environment. ACT-IAC CEO and former Navy Chief Information Officer Dave Wennergren joins Francis Rose at ACT-IAC’s Emerging Technology and Innovation Conference to discuss the need for experimentation in government.
The new awards from the TMF Fund are the latest examples of projects that will require collaboration between mission owners and technology personnel. Kelly Morrison, senior vice president at HumanTouch, LLC and former performance analyst at the Office of Management and Budget, explains the two things that will help bridge that gap.
The Coast Guard has a wave of new ships coming into its fleet, and the Navy is doing the same. At ACT-IAC’s Emerging Technology and Innovation Conference Brian Campo, deputy chief technology officer at the Department of Homeland Security discusses with former DHS Chief Procurement Officer Soraya Correa the scale of the military services in the Department of Defense to the ones in DHS.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, two experts in the federal government community select the three most important news stories of the week.
Jeff Neal, principal at ChiefHRO, LLC and former chief human capital officer at the Department of Homeland Security and Angela Bailey, founder and CEO of AnandaLife, LLC and former CHCO at DHS recap their top stories of the week on the FedScoop News Countdown.
Jeff’s list: 3. Army secretary looks to hiring flexibilities to boost cyber talent recruitment 2. House advances bill to give TSA screeners a pay raise 1. End of telework creating workforce problems for EEOC and OPM
Angela’s list: 3. TSA screeners could be receiving 30% pay raises on average 2. Army looking for ways to attract cyber talent 1. Progress made one year after President Biden’s cybersecurity executive order, but lawmakers would like to see more
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, CMMC requirements could be coming to contracts within the next year; and Medicare.gov gets a makeover.
The State department lists edge computing as one of its highest priorities, technologically. It has more than 200 outposts around the world. Brian Merrick, Director of Cloud Programs at the State Department, explains why he calls cloud his agency’s “Swiss Army Knife” for edge computing.
Identity management is one of the key elements of the zero trust shift the federal government is undertaking, according to the Office of Management and Budget. Andre Mendes, the Chief Information Officer at the Commerce Department, describes what he found regarding ID management when he got to the department, and what he did about it.
The Defense Information Systems Agency will run the Defense Department’s huge Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability Program. The Department expects to make its award in December. Sharon Woods, the Executive Director for the Cloud Computing Program Office at the Defense Information Systems Agency, explains why cloud computing isn’t a one-size-fits-all model.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Army is looking to bring on more civilian cyber talent.
The Department of Veterans Affairs will add the Login.gov identity management tool to its website. Jeremy Grant, managing director of technology business strategy at Venable and former senior executive advisor for National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace at NIST, discusses the integration of identity management tools across government.
CFO Act agencies will choose two workforce priorities to support over the next four years. Terry Gerton, president and CEO of the National Academy of Public Administration, explains how human capital leaders will start implementing these priorities.
Federal agencies are almost four months in on the work they have under the Office of Management and Budget’s memo on implementing zero trust. Leo Taddeo, CISO and president of Appgate Federal Division and former special agent in charge of special operations cyber office of the New York office of the FBI, breaks down where agencies are today on their zero trust journeys. This interview is underwritten by Appgate.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a federal judge dismisses a $2 billion USPTO IT services contract dispute.
The new Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey was released in late April. Sydney Heimbrock, chief industry advisor for government at Qualtrics and former executive director of the Innovation Lab at the Office of Personnel Management, discusses her takeaways from the survey and indicators she sees.
A multi-cloud environment is the vehicle of choice at the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services. Gerald Caron, chief information officer of HHS OIG, explains why he calls the cloud environment “the ecosystem.”
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a new chief information officer will be coming to the State Department.
Federal CIO Clare Martorana wants to build success metrics for government customer experience. Former Department of Health and Human Services CIO Janet Vogel discusses the role of the chief information officer in helping agencies meet customer experience goals.
President Biden’s executive order on cybersecurity is officially a year old. Mark Ralls, president and COO of Invicti Security, explains the progress government has made on cybersecurity since then. This interview is underwritten by Invicti Security.
The Air Force’s new technology roadmap is in development now. Air Force Military Deputy in the Office of the Chief Software Officer Maj. Christopher Olsen tells FedScoop’s Billy Mitchell the modernization efforts going on at USAF.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, two experts in the federal government community select the three most important news stories of the week.
Stan Soloway, president and CEO of Celero Strategies LLC and former deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisition reform and Robert Shea, national managing principal for public policy at Grant Thornton and former associate director for the Office of Management and Budget list their top three stories of the week on the FedScoop News Countdown.
Stan’s list: 3. The Biden administration is willing to increase its defense budget request for FY23 2. 20 senators want to fully fund unemployment insurance in FY23 1. Federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana says government is working with industry to improve how it measures product and service delivery
Robert’s list: 3. The White House is looking to improve infrastructure permitting processes 2. GAO says government has made progress on duplicative programs but there is still more work to do 1. Apple TV+ docuseries recounts the Social Security scam of Kentucky attorney Eric C. Conn
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a rotational program coming for the federal cybersecurity workforce.
The Government Accountability Office will decide by sometime in August the fate of the latest protest to the CIO-SP4 contract from NITAAC. Keith Nakasone, federal senior strategist at VMware and former deputy assistant commissioner for acquisition in the Office of IT Category at the Federal Acquisition Service, discusses how government can better build acquisition vehicles that allow for innovation and makes it easy for industry to interact with government.
The next generation of the Pentagon’s cyber supply chain risk management will get a test soon. Govini CEO Tara Murphy Dougherty explains how the Department of Defense may need more than just CMMC to secure its cybersecurity supply chain.
Deputy Chief Information Officer for the Intelligence Community Michael Waschull tells FedScoop’s Billy Mitchell how the 18 organizations in the IC think about the cloud.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, government is working with industry to improve how it measures product and service delivery.
The Small Business Administration is requesting a FY23 budget boost to help small companies learn how to sell to the government. Angela Styles, partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and former administrator for federal procurement policy, discusses the landscape of getting new companies into the federal contracting space.
The Air Force is reviewing the results from the BRAVO 0 hackathon earlier this year. On the latest episode of Let’s Talk About IT, Air Force Chief Digital Transformation Officer Stuart Wagner joins FedScoop’s Billy Mitchell to discuss how USAF is looking to spark innovation and change across the service.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Marine Corps will create a new information command to support Force Design 2030.
The administrator of the Small Business Administration Isabel Guzman says government contracting to small businesses is off by 40%. Joe Jordan, president and CEO of Actuparo LLC and former U.S. chief acquisition officer, discusses why it’s important for SBA and government to increase contracting with small businesses, particularly small disadvantaged businesses and veteran-owned businesses.
A back to office plan is in place for the Department of Commerce. Jessica Palatka, director of human resources management and chief human capital officer at the Department of Commerce, discusses the agency’s back to office plan and how to engage the correct stakeholders while creating and implementing that plan.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, federal agencies have new guidance from the National Institute of Standards and Technology on supply chain risk management.
The one-year anniversary of President Biden’s executive order on cybersecurity is coming later this week. Dan Prieto, head of public sector cybersecurity strategy for Google Cloud, discusses the progress agencies have made implementing the executive order and what are the next steps organizations can take to bolster their cybersecurity. This interview is underwritten by Google Cloud.
Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology and Chief Information Officer at the Department of Veterans Affairs Kurt DelBene discusses the VA’s Digital Transformation Vision, the future of electronic health records systems and how the agency is leveraging data.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, two experts in the federal government community select the three most important news stories of the week.
Ron Marks, president of ZPN Cyber and National Security Strategies and visiting professor at George Mason University's Schar School of Policy, and Government and Larry Allen, president of Allen Federal Business Partners, list their top three stories of the week on the first FedScoop News Countdown.
Ron’s list: 3. CISA, FBI, NSA and international partners lay out the top 15 cyber vulnerabilities 2. The General Services Administration is looking into facial recognition technology 1. U.S. intel coordination with the Ukrainian military to defend against the Russian invasion
Larry’s list: 3. NITAAC hit with another CIO-SP4 bid protest 2. The Small Business Administration looking to invest in equity initiatives with its 2023 budget request 1. Ellen Lord tells the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Department of Defense isn’t fully taking advantage of acquisition authorities
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the chief information officer of the National Archives is retiring this summer.
The defense acquisition process needs more attention when it gets things right, according to President and CEO of the Professional Services Council David Berteau. Berteau, former assistant secretary of defense for logistics and materiel readiness, discusses his recent testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The Navy will test a concept called “Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations” as a deterrent to future conflict. Rear Adm. Jamie Barnett (USN, ret.), vice president for global communications solutions at Viasat Inc. and former deputy commander of the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, explains the concept and why it’s drawing attention in the Pentagon.
The Defense Department’s biggest cloud acquisitions will come from more than one vendor. Sharon Woods, executive director for the Cloud Computing Program Office at the Defense Information Systems Agency, tells FedScoop’s Billy Mitchell how DOD is benefitting from a multi-cloud environment.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a new leader takes over at Army Cyber Command.
The National Institutes of Health’s CIO-SP4 Contract is on hold again. Alan Thomas, chief operating officer at IntelliBridge and former commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, discusses the problems government is running into with government-wide acquisition contracts.
A change is coming at the top of the Coast Guard’s IT operation. Assistant Commandant of the Coast Guard for C4IT (CG-6) Rear Admiral David Dermanelian, joins the podcast ahead of his retirement on May 13 to discuss the technology changes he’s seen over his 34 years in the guard.
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Almost a year after President Biden signed an Executive Order on “Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity,” federal agencies are beginning their zero-trust journeys. According to one cybersecurity expert, the time is now for action.
“This is something that's more akin to transformation,” says Steve Faehl, security chief technology officer for Microsoft Federal. “Zero trust is that security transformation, and it's based on lessons learned. We can't wait to implement lessons learned… and so as a result, we need to be agile.”
This podcast was produced by Scoop News Group for The Daily Scoop Podcast and underwritten by Microsoft.
Guest: Steve Faehl, security chief technology officer, Microsoft Federal
Host: Francis Rose, The Daily Scoop Podcast, Scoop News Group
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the CIA hires its first-ever chief technology officer.
The Department of Homeland Security is sorting through about 122 cyber vulnerabilities found during the “Hack DHS” program. Chris Cummiskey, CEO at Cummiskey Strategic Solutions and former acting undersecretary for management at the Department of Homeland Security, explains why these bug bounty programs are important for government organizations.
The CIO-SP4 contract from the National Institutes of Health can move forward now. Terry Halvorsen, general manager for IBM's federal market organization and former chief information officer at the Department of Defense and Navy, discusses the hurdles in the contracting process that slows down transformation efforts across government.
The Department of Defense has its first chief digital and artificial intelligence officer. Former Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work gives his takeaways at the start of the CDAO effort in the Pentagon.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Department of Energy launches the Artificial Intelligence Advancement Council to coordinate funding and development of algorithms.
The latest update of the president’s management agenda includes five life experiences the Office of Management and Budget believes the government can improve on. Suzette Kent, CEO at Kent Advisory Services and former federal chief information officer, discusses OMB’s approach to how citizens interact with government.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency will take over Project Maven over the course of this fiscal year. Rear Admiral Danelle Barrett (USN, ret.), former deputy chief information officer of the Navy and former director of current operations at U.S. Cyber Command, explains the importance of the program and what a success transition would look like.
The Army is about seven years into its cloud journey now. Colten O’Malley, deputy commander of U.S. Army Command & Control Support Agency, tells FedScoop’s Billy Mitchell how important cloud has been to the service.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, CXO’s across government have another job to add to their responsibilities. And OPM’s new quality services management office portfolio.
The Office of Personnel Management is in its first week of in-person work. A memo from OPM Director Kiran Ahuja told employees the agency would start having them back in the office this past Monday. Dan Mathews, head of federal sales for WeWork and former commissioner of the Public Buildings Service at the General Services Administration, analyzes where back-to-office could take employees and agency leaders.
OPM’s FY 2022-26 Strategic Plan includes four main goals, each with concrete metrics. Jeri Buchholz, strategic advisor at the Bolden Group and former chief human capital officer at NASA, outlines how the Strategic Plan will help agencies and OPM itself.
The Defense Department’s award for its enterprise-wide cloud contract is on hold now. But that’s not stopping organizations all over the department from moving applications and data to the cloud. Renata Spinks, assistant director and deputy chief information officer, DCI IC4 & U.S. Marine Corps chief information security officer, tells FedScoop’s Billy Mitchell about the Marine Corps move to the cloud.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the National Security Agency re-awards the $10 billion WildandStormy cloud computing contract to Amazon Web Services.
The General Services Administration and the Federal CIO Council will publish six zero trust playbooks in the coming months. Steve Faehl, Security CTO for Microsoft Federal, discusses where agencies are in their zero trust journey. This interview is underwritten by Microsoft.
The president’s management agenda has new strategy leads now to execute each of the pillars of the PMA’s priorities. Pam Coleman, associate director for performance and personnel management at the Office of Management and Budget, discusses where government stands in implementing the PMA so far.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Department of Veterans Affairs is investigating another outage of its electronic health records system.
The Department of Defense’s new acquisition leader is finally in place. Maj. Gen. Arnold Punaro (USMC-ret.), CEO of The Punaro Group and chair of the National Defense Industrial Association, discusses the confirmation of Bill LaPlante and what it means for the Pentagon.
The Thrift Savings Plan is headed for a May 16 deadline. Kim Weaver, director of external affairs for the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, explains the next marker for the TSP’s technology upgrade.
At CyberScoop’s Zero Trust Summit, Department of Labor Deputy Chief Information Security Officer Karl Hellmann explains how his agency is making zero trust work.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Pentagon has its first chief digital and artificial intelligence officer.
Federal agencies are spreading data literacy beyond the data and technology workforce. At last week’s Cloudera Government Forum 2022, Paul Puckett, director of Enterprise Cloud Management Agency for the U.S. Army, and Ann Dunkin, chief information officer of the Department of Energy, discuss why making data available and usable is one of government’s biggest challenges.
The Digital Innovation Directorate at the CIA is in its seventh year now. At the VMware Public Sector Innovation Summit, Jennifer Ewbank, deputy director for digital innovation at the CIA, lays out today’s cyber challenges for the Intelligence Community.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has new guidelines for its software builders.
The Department of Defense’s new Office of the Defense Innovation Unit is open for business in Chicago. Chris Smith, director of engineering at Applied Insight, and Chad Beaudin, chief engineer for DevSecOps at Boeing, discuss the benefits of “pre-made” solutions for federal technology transformation efforts. This interview is underwritten by AWS in collaboration with Applied Insight and Boeing.
The Defense Logistics Agency is six months into its Digital-Business Transformation. Adarryl Roberts, program executive officer for DLA Information Operations, discusses what the agency has accomplished so far, how it’s creating a culture for transformation and what’s on the horizon for the effort.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service says funding uncertainty and continuing resolutions from Congress makes IT modernization “virtually impossible.”
The Army will use commercial cloud to push computing to its edge, according to its chief information officer. At the VMware Public Sector Innovation Summit, hosted by Scoop News Group, Army CIO Raj Iyer says the competitive landscape in the world dictates innovation and flexibility.
Satellite technology is the latest area the National Institute of Standards and Technology is providing cybersecurity guidance for. At the same summit, Kevin Stine, chief of the applied cybersecurity division at NIST, says providing trust is one of the core elements of their cyber mission.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the JAIC director says the Department of Defense is getting better at contracting.
The General Services Administration is prepping its spring release for the Federal Marketplace. Roger Waldron, president of The Coalition for Government Procurement, discusses everything behind the effort.
All federal agencies would get hiring authorities and flexibility some agencies have now under a new bill in the Senate. Dan Sitterly, president and CEO of Sitterly Alliance Solutions and former principal deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs, explains what agencies need to help improve their hiring processes.
The Department of the Navy is on a cybersecurity evolution. At this week’s Cloudera Government Forum presented by FedScoop, Navy Chief Information Officer Aaron Weis says his organization is taking a different approach to cybersecurity.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Department of Veterans Affairs receives $10.5 million from the Technology Modernization Fund to support the agency’s transition to Login.gov.
The Air Force will look at restructuring the 16 software factories it has now. Lt. Gen. Bill Bender (USAF, ret.), senior vice president for strategic accounts and government relations at Leidos and former chief information officer at the Air Force, explains what the collaboration across the organization should look like to sort out what’s next.
Dave Wennergren, CEO at ACT-IAC and former chief information officer at the Navy, discusses what else could be on the way from the TMF Board as the Biden administration requests an additional $300 million for the fund in fiscal year 2023.
Less than a third of CFO Act agencies have effective security programs as of FY20. Jennifer Franks, director of information technology and cybersecurity issues at the Government Accountability Office, breaks down agencies struggles with implementing required safety programs.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon.
If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, new FedScoop research shows government clouds handle more IT work than federal data centers. Former NASA Chief Information Officer Renee Wynn discusses the groundwork to make these transitions successful.
A new information technology strategic plan vision is coming from the Department of Agriculture. USDA CIO Gary Washington breaks down what the plan will consist of and how it will support the mission areas of the department.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon.
If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Department of Labor Chief Information Officer Gundeep Ahluwalia discusses the relationship between human capital organizations and technology organizations at the agency. Hear why Ahluwalia calls the workforce “the people who make it happen.”
Ahluwalia also gives an update on the Technology Modernization Fund projects underway at the Department of Labor.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon.
If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Air Force is considering reorganizing its software factories.
The General Services Administration will introduce a new Cloud Blanket Purchase Agreement. Larry Allen, president of Allen Federal Business Partners, explains what customer agencies will be able to do on this new program, called “ASCEND.”
The Navy’s new 2023 budget request includes spending increased on uncrewed ships. Shelby Oakley, director of contracting and national security acquisition issues at the Government Accountability Office, discusses the Navy’s approach to uncrewed maritime systems.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, you’ll hear how some of the top tech leaders in government are tackling zero trust.
Acting Cyber Technology Officer for U.S. Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command Clarice Kent, Army Corps of Engineers Chief Information Officer Dovarius Peoples and Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General Chief Information Officer Gerald Caron discuss the best practices for and challenges to implementing zero trust and creating a more robust cybersecurity architecture at their organizations.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the fifth generation of a key military cyber training program is under development.
The Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) operation will get a new leader at the Department of Defense, Lt. Gen. Mary O’Brien. Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan (USAF-ret.), former director of DOD’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) and former leader of Project Maven, discusses the role of the JADC2 leader in coordinating all the pieces of the operation across the department.
Okta Federal Chief Security Officer Sean Frazier discusses how organizations need to keep their cybersecurity posture flexible and agile even as employees begin returning to the office. This interview is underwritten by Okta.
Rear Adm. Michael Ryan, commander of Coast Guard Cyber Command, discusses the threat landscape facing USCG today, explains how they are reducing cyber risk and outlines the three lines of effort in the Coast Guard Cyber Strategic Outlook.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a new tool for cyber hiring is released by the Office of Personnel Management.
A new model may be coming for spectrum. John Zangardi, president and CEO of Redhorse Corporation and former Department of Homeland Security chief information officer, explains the importance of dynamic spectrum sharing and what the future of spectrum looks like for DHS and the Pentagon.
The Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) effort at the Department of Defense has a new implementation plan and it will get a new leader. MG Peter Gallagher (USA, ret.)/SVP of technology & solutions at CACI and former director of the Army Futures Command Network Cross-Functional Team, discusses the most important next steps for JADC2.
The Department of State says it’s using the cloud to move capabilities closer to users. Brian Merrick, director of cloud programs at the State Department, tells Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash that moving to the cloud has been a big step in aligning technology to mission. This interview is part of FedScoop’s Cloud-Driven Innovation in Federal Government video campaign, underwritten by AWS.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the White House is declaring the Year of Evidence for Action to create strategies for using research-based evidence to address national challenges.
The new White House budget request includes $300 million for the Technology Modernization Fund. Matt Goodrich, principal solutions engineer at Salesforce and former director of FedRAMP at the General Services Administration, discusses the intersection between IT modernization projects and cybersecurity. This interview is underwritten by Salesforce.
One office in the Department of Defense is moving beyond the concept of cybersecurity. Director of Operational Test and Evaluation at DOD Nickolas Guertin explains the idea of “cyber survivability” for warfighting and other systems.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, some highlights from CyberScoop’s Zero Trust Summit this week.
Department of Commerce Chief Information Officer Andre Mendes leads off the summit with a keynote on the challenges and opportunities presented by zero trust.
Agencies already have components of what they need to implement zero trust. Department of Agriculture Chief Information Security Officer Ja’Nelle DeVore and Paul Kurtz of Splunk discuss implementing zero trust mandates on a panel moderated by CyberScoop’s Tim Starks.
To close out the summit, CISA’s TIC Program Management & Senior Cybersecurity Architect Sean Connelly breaks down the state of adoption of zero trust across the federal government.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the General Services Administration will temporarily pause the solicitation of the Polaris contract.
The Treasury Department is the latest agency to develop a working capital fund for IT investments. Tony Scott, CEO of Intrusion and former federal chief information officer, explains why working capital funds are important to government agencies in addition to the Technology Modernization Fund.
Agencies have a new toolkit to use to assess cyber risk from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Bob Kolasky, senior vice president at Exiger and former director of National Risk Management Center at the Department of Homeland Security, discusses how agencies can leverage these toolkits.
Eileen Vidrine, U.S. Air Force chief data officer, discusses her new detail as senior strategic advisor for data to the Federal CIO on the latest episode of Let’s Talk About IT Podcast
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Francis moderates a panel at Navy League’s Sea Air Space 2022 featuring Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday, Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. David Berger and Commandant of the Coast Guard Karl Schultz.
The four discuss what it takes to command and lead maritime forces, the challenges coming in a post-pandemic world and the myriad of opportunities and obstacles our commanders face while operating on land, sea, air and space.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a new data and cyber official at the FBI.
Department of Education Chief Information Officer Jason Gray discusses the challenges agency leaders are up against finding the “connective tissue” in the hybrid workplace. This comes as the department begins returning employees to the office.
The Department of Homeland Security is moving forward with its new Cyber Talent Management System. Eric Irizarry, solutions architect at MFGS, Inc., discusses how government agencies can better fill the knowledge gap left behind as senior cybersecurity professionals leave the workforce. This interview is underwritten by MFGS, Inc.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the State Department’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy has officially launched.
The Office of Management and Budget is close to releasing the results from the second of its Pulse Surveys to get a sense of employee sentiment faster than it can from the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey.
At a recent event from the Senior Executives Association and Qualtrics, General Services Administration Chief Human Capital Officer Traci DiMartini, Small Business Administration CHCO Elias Hernandez and Air Force’s Chief Experience Officer Colt Whittal discuss the employee pulse approach, how agencies will use the results to improve workforce satisfaction and what the future workplace will look like to make employees feel safe.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the General Services Administration is prioritizing digital government in its new five-year plan.
President Biden’s budget request includes big increases for technology and cybersecurity, but that request comes out only a couple weeks after agencies received appropriations for this fiscal year. Dave Mader, civilian sector strategy officer at Deloitte and former controller at the Office of Management and Budget, discusses what agency leaders can expect for the coming months.
One protest is already in on the new Polaris solicitation from the General Services Administration. BD Squared’s protest alleges the solicitation may violate Small Business Administration regulations. Stephanie Mitchell, co-owner of BD Squared LLC and former program manager at Defense Information Systems Agency, discusses the difficulties small businesses are facing with the Polaris solicitation.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the General Services Administration is taking down SAM.gov this weekend to complete its transition to a new unique entity identifier.
The new Polaris contract from GSA already has a protest. Michael Wooten, vice president for strategic direction at the National Industries for the Blind and former administrator for Federal Procurement Policy, discusses implementing a process of frictionless acquisition.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency will get half a billion dollars more next fiscal year than it did this fiscal year if Congress approves the White House’s budget request. Grant Schneider, senior director for cybersecurity services at Venable LLP and former federal chief information security officer, explains what impact he sees the increase of funding potentially having on federal agencies.
The Commerce Department and its components are pushing their cloud migrations hard. Nagesh Rao, chief information officer at the Bureau of Industry and Security, explains how cloud transformations have helped his agency. This interview is part of FedScoop’s “Cloud-Driven Innovation in Federal Government” video campaign, sponsored by AWS.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Pentagon is pressing pause on Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability awards until at least December.
Every federal agency would have to inventory its legacy technology under a bill Sens. Hassan and Cornyn have introduced. Jonathan Alboum, federal CTO and principal digital strategist at ServiceNow and former chief information officer at the Department of Agriculture, discusses the difficulty of establishing a comprehensive definition of what legacy technology is.
Advice on using data for evidence-based policymaking is coming for data practitioners across government. Donna Roy, strategic advisor for the national security sector at Guidehouse and former executive director of the Information Sharing and Services Office (IS2O) at the Department of Homeland Security, explains how data and the people who manage it are becoming more integrated into government operations.
Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI) spoke yesterday at StateScoop and EdScoop’s Cybersecurity Modernization Summit. In a highlight from his keynote address, Langevin says legacy IT is only one factor that is changing the cyber threat surface for government.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, FedScoop’s Dave Nyczepir breaks down what he sees in the new White House budget request.
The new Federal IT Dashboard from the General Services Administration is up and running. Dave Powner, executive director of the Center for Data-Driven Policy at MITRE and former director of IT Issues at the Government Accountability Office, discusses what’s important about the newest iteration of the dashboard.
Federal employees would get a 4.6% pay raise in the budget proposal the White House released Monday. Tony Reardon, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, discusses why he thinks the 4.6% number is a good starting point but expresses his desire for a higher average pay raise for federal employees. He also touches on return to office plans across government and the future workplace.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the White House budget proposal includes an 11% boost in federal IT spending.
The Thrift Savings Plan is another step closer to rolling out its new record-keeper. It’s still on target for a summer release. Kim Weaver, director of external affairs for the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, discusses the new features coming to track your TSP.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Deputy Federal Chief Information Officer Maria Roat will retire this coming Thursday. She spoke with Francis at an AFCEA Bethesda event earlier this week to discuss her more than 40 years in government, her data-centered vision for the future of government and what makes people so important to the mission.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the General Services Administration is aiming for a new target to increase the volume of contracts awarded to small, disadvantaged businesses.
The State Department has more than $55 million in new investments in information technology thanks to COVID relief funding. Richard Spires, principal at Richard A. Spires Consulting, former chief information officer at DHS and IRS and author of "Success in the Technology Field – A Guide for Advancing Your Career,” discusses how important IT is becoming in mission delivery for government agencies.
The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) still has more than $700 million to give out after the latest awards to the Postal Regulatory Commission and the Selective Service. Dan Chenok, executive director of the IBM Center for The Business of Government and former branch chief for information policy and technology for the Office of Management and Budget, explains how the TMF Board can expedite the awards process.
Federal Election Commission Deputy Chief Information Officer Wei Luo discusses how the FEC is using cloud technology to drive innovation and secure elections. This interview is part of FedScoop’s “Cloud-Driven Innovation in Federal Government” video campaign, sponsored by AWS.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Department of Veterans Affairs and Cerner are investigating the cause of an electronic health records outage in Spokane.
The new Federal IT Dashboard from the General Services Administration is up and running. Karen Evans, partner at KE&T Partners, LLC, former Department of Homeland Security chief information officer and E-Gov Administrator, discusses what she sees with the revamp and what makes the update useful to agencies.
The White House’ budget request for fiscal year 2023 is coming next week. Danny Werfel, managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group and former acting commissioner at IRS, explains the significance for government agencies as a new budget request releases.
Army Futures Command will collaborate with research universities in Texas to drive innovation across the service. Patrick Badar, university technology development division director with AFC, discusses the technologies that are being developed as part of the partnership with universities across Texas.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Defense Department’s chief software officer is leaving the Pentagon.
The Chief Human Capital Officers Act is the next piece of legislation Congress will update that affects the federal workforce. Angela Bailey, founder and CEO of AnandaLife, LLC and former chief human capital officer at the Department of Homeland Security, explains how Congress can better support CHCOs in government.
Nine government leaders will manage the three pillars of the president’s management agenda. Ed DeSeve, coordinator of the Agile Government Center at the National Academy of Public Administration and former deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, explains the intersection of agile government and implementing the PMA.
Navy Chief Information Security Officer Tony Plater and former deputy chief information officer of the Navy, Juliana Vida of Splunk, discuss with Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash how DOD organizations are delivering cyber readiness in disconnected environments.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the soon-to-be-released fiscal 2023 budget request will align defense funding towards Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2).
Federal Chief Information Officer and Chair of the Technology Modernization Fund Board Clare Martorana joins the podcast to discuss the latest round of TMF awards to the Postal Regulatory Commission and the Selective Service System, changes underway at the Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer and what she’s seen after one year as Federal CIO.
Arlette Hart, master solution architect at Leidos and former chief information security officer at the FBI, breaks down the challenges government agencies face with implementing the customer experience and cybersecurity pieces of the president’s management agenda. This interview is underwritten by Leidos.
If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Department of Defense will give employees at least 30 days notice before it requires them to come back to their offices.
Vimesh Patel, chief technology advisor, World Wide Technology and former NSA senior executive and technical leader, discusses how the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office at the Pentagon can give DOD a digital advantage.
Bill Marion, managing director at Accenture Federal Services and former Air Force Deputy chief information officer, explains how the Air Force can begin training all airmen to be multi-domain warfare experts.
Gen. Gustave "Gus" Perna (USA, Ret.), former commanding general at Army Materiel Command, former chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed and now a leader of executive roundtables for Keppler Speakers, explains where civilian agencies can learn supply chain security from military agencies
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, an $11 billion cloud contract at DISA is on hold. General Dynamics is protesting the Defense Enclave Services contract DISA awarded to Leidos. Alan Chvotkin, Partner at Nichols Liu, explains why big contracts get protested, and how challenges with big contract like DES parallel challenges with GWACs like GSA’s Polaris.
The Defense Department’s zero trust journey is under way. The Chief Information Officer at the Pentagon, John Sherman, told me Tuesday the Department’s system isn’t the only priority. Jack Wilmer, CEO of Core4ce and former Chief Information Security Officer at the Defense Department, details the people, process, and technology to execute on a zero trust strategy for the Department and the defense industrial base.
The Internal Revenue Service will get a budget increase of almost 6% in the omnibus budget Congress just passed and President Biden signed. Some of that increase will go to modernizing the agency’s technology. Kaschit Pandya, Deputy Chief Information Officer for IT Operations at the IRS, talks with my colleague Wyatt Kash about the implications of the cloud computing deployments the agency has already made. Click here to watch the video of this conversation.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. Listen more here. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Priority Area Leads for each of the three pillars of the BIden-Harris President Management Agenda Vision are announced.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency will revise its Zero Trust Maturity Model it’s creating in intersection with the Continuing Diagnostics and Mitigation Program. Brig. Gen. Gregory Touhill (USAF, ret.), director of CERT Division at Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute and former federal chief information security officer, discusses how a zero trust model can help lead to less complexity for cybersecurity solutions.
The FY2022 defense budget is in place now and it’s setting a marker for 2023. Roman Schweizer, managing director of the Washington Research Group for Cowen, breaks down the biggest increases in the FY22 budget and what to watch for in the FY23 defense budget.
At ITModTalks, Office of Personnel Management Chief Information Officer Guy Cavallo joins FedScoop’s Dave Nyczepir to discuss how OPM is using the Technology Modernization Fund to transform the agency’s zero trust posture.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the National Institute of Standards and Technology has new guidance on protecting unclassified information.
Department of Defense Chief Information Officer John Sherman joins Francis for a two-part interview to discuss the DOD zero trust journey, securing the defense industrial base and the newly formed Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office at the Pentagon.
Alexis Bonnell, emerging technology evangelist at Google Cloud and former chief innovation officer at USAID, discusses flexible solutions for IT modernization and digital transformation and why living systems leadership is important across government. This interview is underwritten by Google Cloud.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a $340 million solicitation from Immigration and Customs Enforcement for agile development.
The new omnibus spending bill Congress passed includes new cyber requirements impacting industry and government. Ari Schwartz, managing director for cybersecurity at Venable and former special assistant to the President and White House senior director for cybersecurity, discusses the impact of these requirements in the bill and the increased spending on cybersecurity from the federal government.
A successful project completion with money from the Technology Modernization Fund is just one step in the Labor Departments’ IT modernization journey. At ITModTalks, Gundeep Ahluwalia, chief information officer the the Department of Labor, highlights the almost thirty mission areas of the Department of Labor.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the House of Representatives passes an omnibus bill to fund the government for the remainder of the fiscal year.
Two bills to change acquisition at the Department of Homeland Security are on their way to the floor of the House of Representatives. Former Chief Procurement Officer at the Department of Homeland Security Soraya Correa discusses the impact these two bills would have on DHS acquisition processes.
Agencies will comply with a Secure Software Development Framework from the National Institute of Standards and Technology starting immediately. Mark Forman, executive vice president at Dynamic Integrated Services and former E-Gov Administrator, explains his takeaways from the framework and the progress in setting standards for secure software in commercial industry working with government.
The Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System will be that service’s piece of the Joint All Domain Command and Control system that supports warfighters in every environment with data. At ITModTalks, Air Force Chief Data and Artificial Intelligence Officer Brig. Gen. John Olson explains his role in supporting these initiatives.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Pentagon’s chief data officer is departing.
The General Services Administration says it will release the first two requests for proposals on the new Polaris contract soon. Julie Dunne, president of Dunne Strategic Solutions, former commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at GSA and counsel at Impresa Legal Group, explains what happens behind the scenes that causes a contract vehicle like this to be delayed.
The Internal Revenue Service is opening a taxpayer experience office to focus on all aspects of taxpayer transactions. Chris Mihm, adjunct professor of public administration at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and former managing director for strategic issues at the Government Accountability Office, discusses his takeaways from the IRS’ plan.
The Secure Software Development Framework from the National Institute of Standards and Technology is the gold standard now for software development in government. Chris Chilbert, chief information officer at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, joins Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash to talk about the cybersecurity efforts going on at CFPB. This interview is part of FedScoop’s “Zero Trust Begins With Smarter Password Protection” video campaign, sponsored by Keeper Security.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, data center optimization still has room to improve across government, according to the Government Accountability Office.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is starting up a modernization effort for its entire supply chain. Greg Giddens, partner at Potomac Ridge Consulting LLC and former principal executive director in the Office of Acquisition, Logistics and Construction at VA, explains the new concepts the department is deploying and what makes them different from previous efforts.
Almost half of the political appointee jobs the Biden administration needs to staff the Department of Defense are still vacant. Bill Greenwalt, nonresident senior fellow at American Enterprise Institute, discusses the connection between unfilled positions in government and lack of ability to achieve policy and strategic goals.
The Technology Modernization Fund’s new awards this week still leave the fund with plenty of money for other programs. At FedScoop’s ITModTalks Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), chairman of the Government Operations subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee, talks about his cybersecurity modernization priorities for government agencies.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a new permanent chief information officer for the Intelligence Community.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is the latest federal government organization to lay out its return to office plan. Former Director of the Office of Personnel Management Jeff Pon explains what he sees as agencies begin bringing employees back to the office.
Budget passback guidance from the Office of Management and Budget for FY2023 includes a request of more than $770 billion for the Department of Defense, according to Reuters. Todd Harrison, director of defense budget analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, discusses how inflation and the ongoing situation in Ukraine can impact that FY23 number while Congress moves to pass a FY22 budget.
The Defense Department is waiting like the rest of government on its appropriation for this fiscal year. A big part of that number will go to technology. DOD Principal Deputy Chief Information Officer Kelly Fletcher tells FedScoop Editor-in-Chief Billy Mitchell at ITModTalks what she’s focused on for the future fight.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency plans to revise its Zero Trust Maturity Model.
The General Services Administration has a final small business acquisition strategy for its Services Multi-Agency Contract (MAC). Angela Styles, partner at Akin Gump and former administrator of Federal Procurement Policy, explains the impact this will have on small businesses working with the government.
The federal IT dashboard is getting a makeover. One reason is the availability of more data about federal IT and getting that data faster than ever. Nima Negahban, chief executive officer of Kinetica, describes the tools agencies are using to quickly parse through troves of data. This interview is underwritten by Kinetica in collaboration with Amazon Web Services.
21 federal agencies have clean audit opinions for fiscal year 2021, but the Government Accountability Office’s review of financial statements for the year finds some of the same problems that keep popping up. GAO’s Director of Financial Management and Assurance Issues Dawn Simpson discusses the improvements agencies have made and the problems that still persist for some.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Department of Health and Human Services first chief artificial intelligence officer is departing after one year.
The next round of awards from the Technology Modernization Fund will likely include modernization projects for agencies that focus on cybersecurity and customer experience. Juliana Vida of Splunk, former deputy chief information officer of the Navy, tells FedScoop Editor-in-Chief Billy Mitchell during ITModTalks that modernization has created a ton of opportunities for agencies.
The Office of Personnel Management is working on milestone four of its huge financial management system modernization. The milestones left have big potential problems in store for OPM. Kevin Walsh, director of information technology and cybersecurity at the Government Accountability Office, explains where OPM is at in the modernization process and what lies ahead for the organization.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a new chief information officer at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Loren DeJonge Schulman, vice president for research and evaluation Partnership for Public Service, discusses the importance of employee engagement and the impact organizational leadership has on employee engagement.
Department of Energy Chief Information Officer Ann Dunkin joins FedScoop Editor-in-Chief Billy Mitchell during ITModTalks to discuss the projects DOE has going on leveraging the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF).
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Office of Personnel Management is using the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) to speed up zero-trust implementation.
The Federal Zero Trust Strategy could become an “incomplete experiment” according to the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee. Margaret Graves, senior fellow at the IBM Center for the Business of Government and Chair of the Industry Advisory Council, explains her takeaways from NSTAC’s report and how government agencies can improve zero-trust implementation.
The one year anniversary of the American Rescue Plan Act signing comes next week. That bill put $1 billion into the TMF. General Services Administration Administrator Robin Carnahan joins FedScoop Editor-in-Chief Billy Mitchell during ITModWeek to discuss implementation of modernization efforts across government.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the 2022 cohort of President Innovation Fellows has been selected.
The Air Force will reassign all of its multi-domain warfare officers. Deborah Lee James, chairwoman of the Defense Business Board and 23rd Secretary of the Air Force, explains what this change means for where the Air Force is going and gives an update on what the DBB is working on.
The Internal Revenue Service says it will move to the Login.gov identity solution from the General Services Administration at the end of this tax year. It’s the latest example of agencies using government-grown tools to meet the customer experience goals of the Biden Administration. Acting Assistant Commissioner of GSA’s Technology Transformation Services Ashley Mahan discusses the modernization efforts going on across government.
Salesforce Digital Transformation Executive and former Federal Student Aid Chief Information Officer Mia Jordan joins Francis to discuss the intersection of IT modernization and digital transformation across government agencies. This interview is underwritten by Salesforce.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Defense Department is creating regional innovation hubs for microelectronics.
Federal government organizations that career employees lead fare better than organizations that political appointees lead, according to broad findings from the Partnership for Public Service. Ron Sanders, staff director at the Florida Center for Cybersecurity at the University of South Florida and former chief human capital officer at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, explains the differences between the two leadership situations.
The Zero Trust Strategy from the Office of Management and Budget includes specific timelines and deadlines for agencies. Mittal Desai, chief information officer at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, tells Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash how FERC got a head start on their zero trust journey. This interview is part of FedScoop’s “Zero Trust Begins With Smarter Password Protection” video campaign, sponsored by Keeper Security.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, research and development contractors are spotty in securing Defense Department controlled unclassified information, according to the Pentagon’s Inspector General office.
Voluntary cyber assessments are coming for vendors in the defense industrial base. Ron Marks, president of ZPN Cyber and National Security Strategies and visiting professor at George Mason University's Schar School of Policy and Government, discusses what’s next for the DIB as CMMC 2.0 rolls out.
The Department of the Navy is outlining its transition to a zero trust strategy. Navy officials say one of their pain points during the transition will be the culture shift. Terry Halvorsen, general manager of federal market for IBM and former DOD and Navy CIO, explains how organizations can solve the culture shift during these transformations.
Director of External Affairs for the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board Kim Weaver discusses the FRTIB’s new app that is coming this summer and will allow you to manage your TSP account from your phone. Plus, an update on the organization’s financial system modernization efforts.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the U.S. Transportation Command is migrating its cloud applications to the Air Force’s Cloud One platform.
A Marine Corps financial management transition to a system at the Defense Logistics Agency is complete. Former Deputy Chief Financial Officer at the Department of Defense Mark Easton discusses how transitions like this help organizations audit themselves and help external auditors audit them better.
Agencies have another year to move contracts to the new Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) vehicle. 15 agencies got failing grades in the recent FITARA scorecard for their transition to EIS. Jim Williams, principal at Schambach and Williams Consulting and former deputy administrator and acting administrator of the General Services Administration, explains the challenges agencies are having in moving to EIS and how they can be resolved.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is fusing commercial solutions and unclassified information in the cloud. Chris Johnson, deputy chief technology officer at NGA, tells Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash explains how NGA is using cloud technology to support its mission. This interview is part of FedScoop’s “Cloud-Driven Innovation in Federal Government” video campaign, sponsored by AWS.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Army’s cyber chief and chief information security officer is moving to the Office of the Secretary for Defense.
The Department of Homeland Security is calling on the scientific and technical communities for solutions in 17 research and development areas. Chris Cummiskey, CEO at Cummiskey Strategic Solutions and former acting under secretary for management at DHS, explains the importance of a clear and consistent strategy for R&D at the department.
The F-35 program has new hardware that will make the aircraft easier to fly and easier to maintain. Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula (Ret., USAF), dean at The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, discusses the difference new hardware makes for Air Force pilots.
At a reporters roundtable call this week, Department of Veterans Affairs Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology and Chief Information Officer Kurt DelBene says he is aiming to make VA a leader in digital transformation in government.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Internal Revenue Service will start using Login.gov as a user authentication tool.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks says American small businesses and the U.S. industrial base must expand. Meagan Metzger, founder and CEO of Dcode, explains the progress the government has made on making the process easier for companies to join the defense industrial base.
COVID-19 tests are arriving in mailboxes all over the country after a partnership between the U.S. Digital Service and U.S. Postal Service. Natalie Kates, product manager and USDS COVID lead, and USPS Chief Information Officer Pritha Mehra discuss the creation of COVIDtests.gov and how it can serve as a model for government programs in the future.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a “deep interlock” to promote better outcomes between the Department of Veterans Affairs and its vendors.
The new head of acquisition for the Army says he doesn’t need any new authorities or processes to buy technology. Joe Jordan, president and CEO of Actuparo LLC and former administrator of federal procurement policy, explains how agencies across government can better use existing acquisition processes.
Terry Gerton, president and CEO of the National Academy of Public Administration, discusses the impact of open positions across government and ways the confirmation process can be slimmed down.
The Chief Data Officers Council is out with a playbook now to guide the CDO community in a number of ways. Ted Kaouk, deputy director for human capital data management and modernization and chief data officer at the Office of Personnel Management, discusses his new role.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a new interim director for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
New data from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission shows the federal workforce leads the civilian labor force in some areas, but lags in other areas. Jeffrey Neal, former chief human capital officer at the Department of Homeland Security, explains his takeaways from the data.
The Senate will vote on a continuing resolution this week that will keep the government open through the middle of March. Robert Shea, national managing principal for public policy at Grant Thornton and former associate director for the Office of Management and Budget, discusses the impact on government operations six months into the current fiscal year without an approved budget and without a budget proposal for the next fiscal year.
Eight new commercial solutions are in use across the Defense Department thanks to the Defense Innovation Unit. DIU has now facilitated 35 commercial solutions across DOD. DIU Director Michael Brown tells Francis what is most significant from FY2021.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the General Services Administration is extending the transition deadline for the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract to September 2023.
Bob Osborn, chief technology officer for global governments at ServiceNow and former chief information officer at the National Nuclear Security Administration, explains the challenges for agencies trying to transition to the contract while constantly operating under continuing resolutions.
The Defense Department will go back to basics to shore up its acquisition workforce. Stan Soloway, president and CEO at Celero Strategies LLC and former deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisition reform, discusses his takeaways from the back to basics strategy.
The Defense Information Systems Agency is moving ahead with its Thunderdome program. Rob Carey, president at Cloudera Government Solutions and former chief information officer at the Navy, breaks down the importance of speed to deployment for the massive DOD network infrastructure while keeping the current network up and running.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, pilot programs for artificial intelligence education are underway at the Department of Defense.
The Biden administration’s customer experience executive order is driving collaboration at the tops of federal agencies. Sanjay Sardar, SVP for digital transformation and IT modernization at SAIC and former chief information officer at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, explains how important the results are when agency leaders collaborate.
The new Post Hybrid Work Environment Guidance from the Office of Personnel Management includes four pillars on what the future workplace will look like for the federal government. Mika Cross, federal workplace expert, discusses her takeaways from the new OPM guidance.
The Pentagon’s new Software Modernization Strategy is centered around the cloud. Nicolas Chaillan, chief technology officer at Prevent Breach and former Air Force chief software officer, discusses the new strategy and the “Fix Our Computers” situation at Air Force and across DOD.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the General Services Administration is still conducting market research for its Governmentwide Cloud Blanket Purchase Agreement.
More than 500 businesses across the United States have been selected for the second round of awards on the 8(a) STARS III governmentwide acquisition contract. Alan Thomas, chief operating officer at IntelliBridge and former commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at GSA, discusses what stands out for government and the vendor community.
Meeting the principles of the customer experience executive order is one potential new category for the FITARA Scorecard. Simon Szykman, senior vice president for client growth at Maximus and former chief information officer at the Department of Commerce, discusses the role of federal chief information officers in implementing the EO.
The new chief information officer at the Department of Veterans Affairs says he’s getting the lay of the land before he makes big decisions about the agency’s technology posture. Kurt DelBene, assistant secretary for information and technology and chief information officer at the Department of Veterans Affairs, testified about the agency’s IT projects at the House Veterans Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Technology Modernization and Oversight & Investigations.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Department of Defense Chief Information Officer John Sherman says DOD must take space into consideration when developing a department-wide zero-trust framework.
New analysis from the Office of Management and Budget shows the federal government’s improper payment rate went up last fiscal year. Mallory Barg Bulman, research director at Gartner and former senior analyst at the Government Accountability Office, explains how government organizations use data to pursue action on improper payments.
A new 5G network could enable smart warehouses for the Navy. It’s trying the concept at its 120-thousand square foot warehouse in Naval Base Coronado. Rear Adm. Danelle Barrett (USN., ret.), former deputy chief information officer of the Navy and former director of current operations at U.S. Cyber Command, discusses the challenges with implementing emerging technology quickly and securely in DOD.
Nine agencies have almost all their employees working remotely as a result of the pandemic but those agencies will need better data to make decisions about remote work post-pandemic. Acting Director for Strategic Issues at GAO Alissa Czyz discusses how agencies need more reliable data to support teleworking decisions.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been nominated to lead the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Board.
As you heard yesterday, new cyber legislation in Congress combines aspects of FISMA, FedRAMP and cybersecurity reporting. John Zangardi, president and CEO of Redhorse Corporation and former chief information officer at the Department of Homeland Security, explains the impact this legislation would have on federal CIOs.
The Army calls its new climate strategy “a roadmap of actions that will enhance unit and installation readiness and resilience in the face of climate-related threats.” John Conger, director emeritus of the Center for Climate and Security and senior advisor to the Council on Strategic Risk, discusses the significance of the new strategy.
Federal agency back to office plans so far include a mix of in-office time and remote work time for lots of employees. Dan Mathews, head of federal sales at WeWork and former commissioner of the Public Buildings Service at the General Services Administration, discusses how the government will need to adjust office spaces to fit the workplace of the future.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, new legislation in the Senate would combine elements of network security, cybersecurity and cloud bills already under consideration.
The Defense Department is in the middle of a two year effort to examine and shore up its supply chain. Adm. James Foggo (USN, ret.), dean of the Navy League’s Center for Maritime Strategy and former commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe/Africa, explains the biggest problems he sees right now with the supply chain and logistics planning.
NASA Chief Data Officer Ron Thompson joins Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash to discuss his organization’s cloud journey, which Thompson says is already more than a decade old. This interview is part of FedScoop’s “Cloud-Driven Innovation in Federal Government” video campaign, sponsored by AWS.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On the 100th episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a rallying cry to “fix our computers” is catching the attention of chief information officers across the military.
The Defense Department says it’s making protecting the defense industrial base from cyber threats a top priority. David Berteau, president and CEO of the Professional Services Council, explains the impact these threats have on the DIB and the supply chain.
Dave Wennergren, ACT-IAC CEO and former chief information officer at the Navy and deputy CIO at DOD, discusses technology modernization efforts at the Pentagon, fixing persistent hardware problems and transitioning to a “culture of outcomes.”
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Pentagon publishes a new software modernization strategy and memos on code.
March 11 appears to be the day a new continuing resolution would expire. Tom Harker, president of the Harker Group and former chief financial officer, acting secretary of the U.S. Navy, discusses the lack of flexibility for financial managers and program managers under the series of continuing resolutions.
Roger Waldron, president of the Coalition for Government Procurement, explains the impact inflation is having on government contracts, including the General Services Administration’s Multiple Award Schedule program.
The new zero trust strategy includes a series of deadlines agencies have to meet. The metrics those deadlines are attached to will force agencies to show the progress they’re making on implementing the Biden Administration’s cybersecurity executive order. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chief Information Security Officer Jonathan Feibus describes how collaboration is key in meeting the EO.This interview is part of FedScoop’s “Zero Trust Begins With Smarter Password Protection” series, sponsored by Keeper Security.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the CMMC program has been moved to the Pentagon’s office of chief information officer.
The Defense Department will connect more with small companies to help them fight the “Valley of Death.” Nick Sinai, senior advisor and venture partner at Insight Partners and former U.S. deputy chief technology officer, discusses the IT procurement relationship between industry and government.
The next iteration of the FITARA Scorecard will likely look different in its next iteration. The Government Accountability Office says the scorecard is an effective tool for monitoring important IT issues. Carol Harris, director of information technology and cybersecurity at GAO, explains what might change in the next scorecard and how legacy IT might get a different look.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Navy’s largest unmanned systems exercise ever is underway in the Middle East.
Wes Hallman, senior vice president for strategy and policy at the National Defense Industrial Association, discusses NDIA’s assessment of the health and readiness of the defense industrial base.
Agencies can hire 4,000 employees to implement the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The Office of Personnel Management will create a special hiring authority to do it. Jeri Buchholz, strategic advisor at the Bolden Group and former chief human capital officer at NASA, discusses the impact this might have on fixing the hiring and retention process in the federal government.
The Technology Modernization Fund has $1 billion to award to agencies that have IT upgrades to do. One of the criteria the TMF Board will use is how projects improve customer experience according to the White House executive order on CX. Raylene Yung, executive director of the TMF Board and Dave Zvenyach, director of the Technology Transformation Services at the General Services Administration, tell FedScoop Editor-in-Chief Billy Mitchell how the executive order is impacting their missions.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Department of Defense Chief Information Officer John Sherman has been given the additional role of acting chief digital and AI officer.
An open letter on LinkedIn titled “Fix Our Computers” has garnered the attention of Air Force leaders. Lt. Gen. Bill Bender (USAF, ret.), senior vice president for strategic accounts and government relations at Leidos and former chief information officer at the Air Force, discusses the speed of modernization at DOD components.
The national security and intelligence community have special cybersecurity directives from the White House in an executive order aimed just at their operations. Maj. Gen. George Franz (USA, ret.), managing director for DOD and IC cyber at Accenture Federal Services and former director of operations for U.S. Cyber Command, explains how the EO organizes the whole-of-government approach to cybersecurity defense.
The National Science Foundation will support scholarships for cyber talent at eight more institutions across the country, bringing the total number of schools NSF is supporting to 90. NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan tells Francis how this will expand and improve cyber talent for the federal workforce and other research partnerships underway across the government.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Army is planning to add 3D printing provisions into contracts over the next five to seven years.
Two of the most important landmarks in federal IT are also markers for the contractors that want to sell to the government. Larry Allen, president of Allen Federal Business Partners, discusses some agencies’ failing grade on the FITARA Scorecard for transitioning to the General Services Administration’s Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract.
The Department of Defense’s new Office of the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer is opening up shop today. Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan (USAF-ret.), former director of DOD’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), explains what the structure of the new CDAO Office will look like and how it will work.
The chief information officer at the Department of Energy has several big tasks to continue building her agency’s IT investments. On the latest episode of Let’s Talk About IT, Department of Energy CIO Ann Dunkin tells FedScoop Editor-in-Chief Billy Mitchell the modernization efforts underway at her agency.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Assistant to the Director of the Defense Information Systems Agency is retiring at the end of April.
Chief information officers across government will get new measures on the next edition of the FITARA Scorecard. Richard Spires, principal at Richard A. Spires Consulting and former CIO at the Department of Homeland Security, explains what the new measures for IT modernization in government should be.
The new Zero Trust Strategy from the Office of Management and Budget drives collaboration among some offices that may not have worked together before like they should. Donna Roy, strategic advisor for the national security sector at Guidehouse and former executive director of the Information Sharing and Services Office (IS2O) at DHS, explains how collaboration between Federal CDO Council and Federal CISO Council will be important in implementing the strategy.
Diana Epstein, evidence team lead at OMB and Nichelle Johnson Billips, fellow at the White House Leadership Development Program, spoke at a recent National Academy of Public Administration event about how OMB will use their learning agenda to identify research that will support the president’s management agenda.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, agencies should start asking employees about their booster status, according to the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force.
The State Department says a “technical explanation” is behind an email problem it suffered Thursday. Dave Nyczepir explains what that means.
The Federal Chief Information Security Officer would get new budget authority under new FISMA legislation in the House. Former Federal CISO Grant Schneider testified about it in the House, and tells you what he told Congress about what he thinks about the idea.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency will be one of the pivot points of this week’s Zero Trust Strategy for the federal government. The agency is working its own zero trust items too. Robert Costello is Chief Information Officer of CISA. He talked about it with Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Department of Defense adds 19,000 users to GENESIS health records system.
Monday is the deadline for comments on the Office of Management and Budget’s draft learning agenda. Angela Bailey, founder and CEO of AnandaLife, LLC and former chief human capital officer at the Department of Homeland Security, discusses the initiative to strengthen the federal workforce.
Agencies have big marks and deadlines to hit in the new Zero Trust Strategy from OMB. The first deadline is only two months away. Karen Evans, partner at KE&T Partners and former DHS chief information officer, explains how agencies should approach implementing the new strategy.
The White House executive order on customer experience requires agencies to improve the digital experience citizens have with those agencies. The Administrator of the General Services Administration Robin Carnahan tells FedScoop Editor-in-Chief Billy Mitchell on the latest episode of Let’s Talk About IT why she thinks this initiative is so important.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the final edition of guidance from the Office of Management and Budget on zero trust is out today.
Pat Tamburrino, vice president for logistics at LMI and former assistant deputy chief of naval operations for fleet readiness and logistics at the U.S. Navy explains how the supply chain is integral factor for readiness in the Department of Defense and civilian agencies.
Veterans Benefits Administration Chief Financial Officer Charles Tapp II discusses how VBA oversees the delivery of $150 billion worth of benefits to veterans every year and modernization efforts underway at his organization.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
The potential of RPA in government; Future of FITARA; U.S. military posture in the Indo-Pacific by The Daily Scoop Podcast
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Internal Revenue Service is piloting a procurement program to “buy like a venture capitalist.”
Three new IT systems are in place at the Thrift Savings Plan, replacing four legacy systems. Kim Weaver, director of external affairs at the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, explains the financial system modernization process going on at the TSP.
One of the Defense Department’s most important tools to fight the Log4j vulnerability is a contract, and that contract vehicle could be a tool other agencies use against other vulnerabilities. Acting Director of the Defense Digital Service Katie Olson discusses the first ever bug bounty program deployed by DDS.
Alexander Romero, director of strategy of the Chief Technologist Office at VMware End User Computing, lays out the steps organizations can take to get started on their zero trust journey. This interview is underwritten by VMware.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a new IT modernization caucus in the House of Representatives.
Dan Chenok, executive director at the IBM Center for The Business of Government and former branch chief for information policy and technology for the Office of Management and Budget, explains how integrating automation can help improve government’s delivery of the recent customer experience executive order.
Gordon Bitko, senior vice president at Information Technology Industry Council and former FBI chief information officer, discusses his recommendations to Congress for modernizing FISMA.
Dave Powner, executive director of the Center for Data-Driven Policy at MITRE and former director for IT Issues at GAO, talks with Francis about his takeaways from the new FITARA scorecard and what to look for in FITARA 14.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the new FITARA scorecard is out.
Congress is moving to reform the Federal Information Security Management Act. Former NASA Chief Information Officer Renee Wynn explains her recommendations to the House Oversight and Reform Committee.
FISMA reform in Congress could change several things about how agencies do the business of cybersecurity and how they show their work. Jennifer Franks, director of information technology and cybersecurity issues at the Government Accountability Office, gives an update on the implementation of FISMA requirements across government.
Kristina Balaam, senior threat researcher for threat intelligence at Lookout, explains steps organizations can take to make sure their employees avoid cyberattacks. This interview is sponsored by Lookout.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Deputy Federal Chief Information Officer Maria Roat announced she will retire at the end of March.
The Office of Personnel Management is directing agencies to create job classifications for data scientists. Nick Hart, president of the Data Foundation, explains why this is important for the government in their efforts towards attracting data talent into the federal workforce.
Steven Hernandez, chief information security officer at the Department of Education, joins Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash and Splunk’s Bill Wright on a panel to explain how his agency is harnessing and utilizing data.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Department of Veterans Affairs is delaying the rollout of its new electronic health record system.
Congress is getting back to work today on the next vehicle to fund federal agencies after February 18. The current continuing resolution expires a month from today. Bill Greenwalt, nonresident senior fellow at American Enterprise Institute, explains what he means by a return to “regular order” on Capitol Hill.
The Defense Intelligence Agency will become the Pentagon’s manager of open-source data. Ramesh Menon, chief technology officer at DIA, joins Francis on a recent panel to discuss some of the reasons why data is so important at his agency.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a “next G” lead for the Defense Department is on the way to oversee the future of telecommunications technology.
Roman Schweizer, managing director of the Washington Research Group, Aerospace & Defense for Cowen and Company, LLC, discusses the continuing debate on Capitol Hill over the FY2022 budget and explains the impact inflation may be having on the DOD budget.
The federal government’s improper payments rate is up over FY2020 but the Office of Management and Budget points out not every improper payment is an improper payment. Danny Werfel, managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group and former controller at OMB, explains the difficulties in processing payment data during the pandemic.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a new federal website for requesting COVID-19 rapid tests should be online this weekend.
Ari Schwartz, managing director for cybersecurity at Venable and former special assistant to the President and White House senior director for cybersecurity, joins Francis to discuss legislation on Capitol Hill to modernize the Federal Information Security Management Act and improve federal responses to cyber breaches.
The Cyberspace Solarium Commission transitioned to a non-profit organization at the start of the new year. Chris Cummiskey,CEO at Cummiskey Strategic Solutions and former acting under secretary for management at the Department of Homeland Security, explains the legacy of the commission and the continued push from the federal government for a unified cybersecurity infrastructure.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, new Federal Information Security Management Act draft legislation on Capitol Hill would codify the federal chief information security officer role.
Jordan LaPier, senior communications manager at the Partnership for Public Service, highlights the importance of the federal workforce heading into the new year and sets the stage for the 2022 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals. For more information on the 2022 Sammies, and to nominate somebody, go to servicetoamericamedals.org/
Greg Giddens, partner at Potomac Ridge Consulting LLC and former executive director of the Acquisition, Logistics at the Department of Veterans Affairs, explains what hurdles could be in the way for federal agencies implementing President Biden’s executive order on Transforming Federal Customer Experience.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Department of Health and Human Services has launched its new artificial intelligence website, listing out priorities for 2022.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act allocates $550 billion in federal spending towards new investments in areas like transportation, energy and broadband. Much of this money will be awarded as grants. Angela Styles, partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld LLP and former administrator of Federal Procurement Policy at the Office of Management and Budget tells Francis how businesses should think differently about federal grants versus contracts.
President and CEO at Intrusion and former Federal Chief Information Officer Tony Scott explains how federal CIO’s and chief information security officers should be putting people first when undertaking modernization efforts at their agencies.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a new position at the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center for AI Assurance.
Core4ce CEO and former Department of Defense Chief Information Security Officer Jack Wilmer explains what’s next for the defense industrial base in the new year as Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Accreditation Body CEO Matthew Travis encourages companies to get certified for CMMC 2.0.
National Cancer Institute Chief Information Officer Jeff Shilling joins Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash to explain how cloud migrations at NCI are enabling researchers to quickly access, analyze and share large datasets to accelerate cancer research. This interview is part of Scoop News Group’s “Accelerate Innovation with Data and Analytics” series, sponsored by AWS.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Suzanne Spaulding, senior advisor at CSIS and former undersecretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security, discusses the cyber threats posed by Russia, China and other adversaries.
The Department of Defense will stand-up a zero trust program office to lead the Pentagon’s deployment of the cybersecurity model. Defense Logistics Agency Chief Information Officer George Duchak explains the three key components to DLA’s zero trust implementation. This interview is part of FedScoop’s “Zero Trust Begins With Smarter Password Protection” series, sponsored by Keeper Security.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command has its first permanent chief technology officer.
Comments are open now for the draft of the first ever learning agenda from the Office of Management and Budget. Chris Mihm, adjunct professor of public administration at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and former managing director for strategic issues at the Government Accountability Office, explains what’s important about the learning agenda and the process of taking in comments on it.
The Department of Homeland Security says it will bring in hundreds of cyber professionals through its new Cybersecurity Talent Management System, but DHS and other agencies have thousands of cyber openings. Brig. Gen. Gregory Touhill (USAF, ret.), director of the CERT Division at the Software Engineering Institute and former federal chief information security officer, explains the two challenges he sees the government facing while filling these cyber vacancies.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a Department of Defense platform created to help track financial and management data is now being used as a platform to pass critical information to the battlefield.
The Office of Personnel Management is taking comments on policies it’s proposing to change the way agencies can discipline or get rid of employees. The agency says the changes align with the president’s management agenda pillar to rebuild the federal workforce. Former Office of Personnel Management Director Jeff Pon explains what the idea of rebuilding the federal workforce looks like in action.
One of the Commerce Department’s key components is moving away from its legacy IT stack. Bureau of Industry and Security Chief Information Officer G. Nagesh Rao details what the process looks like from start to finish.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the White House sends its nomination for a new head of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to the Senate.
Todd Harrison, senior fellow of the International Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies, describes why he thinks geographic combatant commands in the U.S. military should be updated to be more in line with the current National Defense Strategy.
Another round of changes is coming to the CIO-SP4 contract from the National Institutes of Health’s NIH Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC). Companies are also standing by for the new request for procurement for the General Services Administration’s Polaris contract. Former GSA Administrator Emily Murphy explains what’s on the landscape for federal procurement leaders and federal contractors.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Pentagon is returning to maximum telework as COVID-19 cases rise in the Washington, D.C. area.
FedScoop Editor-in Chief Billy Mitchell and CyberScoop Editor-in-Chief Jeff Stone join Francis to preview their top stories to watch in 2022 including cybersecurity challenges, cross-agency collaboration and the Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability (JWCC).
The Department of Homeland Security is bringing together its component agencies and headquarters to collaborate on deploying cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence and robotic process automation. DHS Chief Technology Officer David Larrimore explains what makes that collaboration successful at a recent Association For Federal Information Resources Management event.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the final day of the “Top Two for 2022,” as some of the most experienced practitioners in government highlight the top two stories to watch in the new year.
Mark Forman, executive vice president at Dynamic Integrated Services and former E-Gov Administrator at the Office of Management and Budget, says customer experience and managing the business of government will drive the federal government in 2022.
Ronald Marks, president at ZPN Cyber and National Security Strategies, forecasts what’s on the horizon for the federal cyber policy as key roles the U.S. government are now filled.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, day three of the “Top Two for 2022,” as some of the most experienced practitioners in government highlight the top two stories to watch in the new year.
Suzette Kent, CEO of Kent Advisory Services and former federal chief information officer, discusses how the increasingly digital service delivery of the federal government and the massive growth in automation across government will impact 2022.
Ron Sanders, staff director at the Florida Center for Cybersecurity at the University of South Florida and former chief human capital officer at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, explains what reforms could be on the way for the federal civil service system.
Coming tomorrow, day four of “Top Two for 2022” with former E-Gov Administrator Mark Forman and Ronald Marks, president of ZPN Cyber and National Security Strategies.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, day two of the “Top Two for 2022,” as some of the most experienced practitioners in government highlight the top two stories to watch in the new year.
Soraya Correa, former chief procurement officer at the Department of Homeland Security, discusses what to watch for in the talent recruitment, hiring and development processes across the federal government.
Bryan Clark, senior fellow and director of the Center for Defense Concepts and Technology at Hudson Institute, says the United States is in an era of “constant confrontation” and explains how the strategy of persistent engagement will impact 2022.
Coming tomorrow, day three of “Top Two for 2022” with former Federal Chief Information Officer Suzette Kent and Ron Sanders, staff director at the Florida Center for Cybersecurity at the University of South Florida and former chair of the Federal Salary Council.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a look ahead at what’s coming in the new year. Some of the most experienced practitioners in government give you their “Top Two for 2022,” highlighting the top two stories to watch.
Margie Graves, senior fellow at the IBM Center for The Business of Government and former deputy chief information officer of the United States, explains how the customer experience executive order and the federal cybersecurity push (plus two more stories) will drive 2022.
Jonathan Alboum, federal chief technology officer and principal digital strategist at ServiceNow and former chief information officer at the Department of Agriculture, continues the conversation on return to office planning and the future of work for the federal workforce.
Coming tomorrow, day two of “Top Two for 2022” with former Department of Homeland Security Chief Procurement Officer Soraya Correa and Bryan Clark, senior fellow & director, Center for Defense Concepts and Technology at Hudson Institute.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a new set of tools from the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency to improve the security of algorithms.
Three-quarters of national security professionals that are eligible for the Continuous Evaluation security vetting program are in it, as of March 2021. Charles Phalen, principal at C.S. Phalen & Associates, LLC and former acting director of the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, discusses the future of personnel vetting in the federal government.
The National Archives won’t accept paper records from agencies after next Friday. Gulam Shakir, NARA chief technology officer, joins Scoop News Group SVP for Content Strategy Wyatt Kash to explain how his agency is becoming more data-driven. This interview is part of FedScoop’s “Building Data Driven Government” series, sponsored by Dell Technologies and Intel.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a former Obama administration tech policy leader joins the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Artificial intelligence will be a key component of the military’s Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) according to Brig. Gen. John Olson. Bill Marion, managing director at Accenture Federal Services and former Air Force deputy chief information officer, explains why the success of JADC2 depends on a “living systems approach.”
“Trusting the elephant” will be an important element of success for the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, according to Col. Samuel Glover. Col. Glover explains what he means to Francis at a recent Association For Federal Information Resources Management event.
The Department of Justice says its biggest IT transformation project in 2022 will be implementing zero trust architecture. DOJ CIO Melinda Rogers says the cybersecurity executive order from the Biden Administration is jumpstarting that implementation. This interview is part of FedScoop’s “Zero Trust Begins With Smarter Password Protection” series, sponsored by Keeper Security.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, an IG report says IRS cyber deficiencies leave taxpayer data at risk.
Eleven vendors that serve the Thrift Savings Plan have a thumbs up for the services they provide. Kim Weaver, director of external affairs at the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, explains how FRTIB analyzes those eleven vendors and assess risk.
National Cyber Director Chris Inglis says President Biden will delineate cyber jurisdictions and reporting structures in a coming executive order. Jean Schaffer, federal chief technology officer at Corelight and former chief information security officer at Defense Intelligence Agency, discusses what to look for in the EO and what the federal cyber structure should look like.
The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Accreditation Body has a new chairman. Former chairman Karlton Johnson joins the podcast following the announcement to talk about some of the accomplishments during his time at CMMC-AB.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a new chairman for the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Accreditation Body, a new CIO at the Department of Veterans Affairs and a new vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana and U.S. Digital Service Administrator Mina Hsiang are teaming up to execute the White House executive order on customer experience and the Biden-Harris president’s management agenda. Martorana and Hsiang explain how the partnership will work and what they hope to accomplish.
Martorana also discusses digital transformation across government, empowering the federal workforce and other projects going on at the Office of Management and Budget.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, federal agencies will be able to draw on support from the U.S. Digital Service and the General Services Administration to implement the White House EO on customer experience.
Loren DeJonge Schulman, vice president for research and evaluation at the Partnership for Public Service, explains why she thinks the executive order is one of the most exciting pieces of policy to come out of the Biden Administration.
The latest continuing resolution funds the federal government through February 18. Bob Hale, senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former DOD Comptroller and CFO, explains why starting the fiscal year on October 1 and the series of CRs that follows is bad for the Pentagon.
The Army will update its data plan and its cloud plan to sync with its new Digital Transformation Strategy. Army Chief Information Officer Raj Iyer says those updates will happen this coming fiscal year. Iyer also breaks down lessons learned from Project Convergence 2021.
Sam Curry, chief security officer at Cybereason, explains how elevating the role of cybersecurity teams can help organizations improve their cyber posture. This interview is underwritten by Cybereason.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a bill codifying FedRAMP finally makes it to the Senate floor.
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., joins Francis for a two-part discussion on the latest FedRAMP legislation, Office of Personnel Management’s role as the lead agency for federal civilian agency human resources systems and a special guest chimes in.
The new National Defense Authorization Act let’s the Pentagon spend $770 billion this fiscal year, $25 billion more than the Biden Administration asked for. Cynthia Cook, Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group Director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, highlights the topline DOD trends her and her team are seeing.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act has passed in the Senate and is headed to the White House.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall says his service should stop doing things that don’t threaten China. Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula (USAF, ret.), dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, discusses modernization efforts as the Air Force fleet ages.
The Office of Personnel Management will offer cyber professionals more money to sign on to government service. Karen Evans, managing director of the Cyber Readiness Institute, former E-Gov administrator and Department of Homeland Security chief information officer, explains the significance of this push from OPM.
The Defense Business Board will take on three huge tasks for senior leaders of the Defense Department. The first big deadline the board has is this coming March 31. Defense Business Board Chair Debbie Lee James, 23rd Secretary of the Air Force, talks more about how the board is supporting leaders in the Pentagon.
Polyverse Chief Technology Officer Archis Gore joins Francis to discuss the convergence of security compliance and actual cybersecurity measures across the federal government. This interview is underwritten by Polyverse in collaboration with AWS.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a new acting chief information officer at the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Department of Defense is scheduled to open its “zero trust office” this month. Vimesh Patel, chief technology advisor at World Wide Technology and former deputy director for data strategy and innovation at the National Counter Terrorism Center, says this is an important signal that there’s a lot more that can be done in cybersecurity across the Pentagon.
The Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin says a continuing resolution to fund the DOD for the rest of the fiscal year would “offer comfort to our enemies.” Gen. Hawk Carlisle (USAF, ret.), President and CEO at the National Defense Industrial Association, explains the impact CRs are having on both the department and the defense industrial base.
Efforts are underway across government to fulfill the Biden Administration’s executive order on cybersecurity, with an emphasis on zero-trust. National Science Foundation Chief Information Officer Dorothy Aronson and former U.S. Navy Deputy CIO Juliana Vida of Splunk joined FedScoop’s Billy Mitchell at last week’s SNG Live Cloud event to discuss the current state of federal cybersecurity.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a new White House executive order on enhancing customer experience across government.
The Social Security Administration will start its back to office plan January 3, that back to office plan includes employees returning to locations where they’ll deal with customers face-to-face. Bob Osborn, chief technology officer for global governments at ServiceNow and former chief information officer of the National Nuclear Security Administration, explains how organizations should approach the future workplace and return to office planning.
Another Biden Administration executive order directs federal agencies to increase spending with underserved businesses. Joe Jordan, president and CEO of Actuparo LLC and former U.S. chief acquisition officer, discusses how federal procurement leaders should approach the new reforms.
The Government Accountability Office’s Director of Defense Capabilities Brian Mazanec provides an update on the government's security clearance process, which has been on GAO’s High-Risk List since 2018.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Department of Defense will create a new position to oversee the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, the Defense Digital Service and the DOD’s chief data officer.
Andre Mendes, chief information officer at the Department of Commerce, discusses how the White House executive order on cybersecurity is reshaping his agency’s cyber strategy. This interview is part of FedScoop’s “Zero Trust Begins With Smarter Password Protection” series, sponsored by Keeper Security.
The Office of Personnel Management is starting now on recommendations the National Academy of Public Administration made to fix the agency. OPM Director Kiran Ahuja explains how the organization is implementing those recommendations at a recent NAPA event.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a big modernization push is coming for the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System.
Agencies have new guidelines for cooperating with their inspectors general, emphasizing transparency and accessibility. Robert Shea, national managing principal for public policy at Grant Thornton, explains the new guidance from the Office of Management and Budget.
The State Department will keep cutting data centers and move more data to the cloud. Keith Jones, the department’s chief information officer, says cybersecurity and diplomacy goes hand in hand.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon.
If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the vaccine mandate for federal contractors is on hold for now.
The General Services Administration is pressing pause on its Polaris contract, and will hold off on issuing its request for proposals until January. Alan Thomas, chief operating officer at IntelliBridge and former commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at GSA, explains the logistics behind the decision and what’s next for Polaris.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has a new timeline for deploying its electronic health records system. The VA’s Deputy Assistant Inspector General for Audits and Evaluations Leigh Ann Searight explains the concerns behind the system’s patient scheduling process as the department expands its implementation.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. Listen more here. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the General Services Administration delays final solicitation for the Polaris IT contract vehicle.
Terry Gerton, president and CEO at the National Academy of Public Administration, discusses the three main priorities in the president’s management agenda vision and how federal agencies can strengthen the federal workforce.
The Defense Department’s intellectual property efforts may only be getting part of the job done. The Government Accountability Office’s Tim DiNapoli says the DOD can take steps to improve how it acquires and licenses IP.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. Listen more here. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
OPM CIO Guy Cavallo and making the most of data and AI at DOD by The Daily Scoop Podcast
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the new National Defense Strategy the DoD is working on could include a larger cyber component than it ever has before, OPM’s new Talent Surge Executive Playbook will give agencies tools to hire and keep the employees they need, & a reorganization at DISA is turning out to be a shot in the arm for that agency’s cloud office.
The new National Defense Strategy the Defense Department is working on could include a larger cyber component than it ever has before. The Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for cyber policy, Mieke Eoyang, said recently the next NDS will include cyber as a tool. Senior Vice President for Defense Programs at Owl Cyber Defense and former USMC Deputy Commandant for Information, Dan O'Donohue explains what “cyber as a tool” means, and what he’ll look for, cyber-wise, in the next NDS.
The Office of Personnel Management’s new Talent Surge Executive Playbook will give agencies tools to hire and keep the employees they need. It’s out just a short time after the Biden administration listed “strengthening the federal workforce” as its number one priority in the President’s Management Agenda Vision. Host of Chief HRO.com and former Chief Human Capital Officer at the Department of Homeland Security, Jeff Neal tells The Daily Scoop Podcast how agency leaders can make the most of the new (and old) concepts in the Playbook.
A reorganization at the Defense Information Systems Agency is turning out to be a shot in the arm for that agency’s cloud office. The Director of DISA, Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner, says one goal of the reorg is to simplify its structure. In this highlight from the new episode of the Let’s Talk About I-T podcast, Director of the Hosting and Compute Center at DISA, Sharon Woods tells Billy Mitchell in her portfolio, the reorg has done some interesting things.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, DoD is reviewing results from its fourth annual audit and the NSF is celebrating a show of force.
The Defense Department is reviewing results from its fourth annual audit. Those results included some progress; but the department still has a long way to go. Former Deputy Chief Financial Officer at the Pentagon Mark Easton discusses the results from this year, and what they mean for future years.
The National Science Foundation is celebrating a show of force. The NSF is a winner for a technology innovation it demonstrated recently. Deputy Chief Financial Officer at NSF Michael Wetklow explains the story behind FORCE. He also previewed some blockchain work the agency is doing, and some workforce efforts from the Chief Financial Officers Council.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, DISA has a new chief of staff, the Biden Administration’s choice to take the Pentagon’s top acquisition job is an experienced hand, and the new telework policy at USDA will let eligible employees work out of the office up to eight days every pay period.
The Defense Information Systems Agency has a new chief of staff. Jackson Barnett is writing about Teresa Pitts for Fedscoop.com.
The Biden Administration’s choice to take the Pentagon’s top acquisition job is an experienced hand. Bill LaPlante will take the Undersecretary for Acquisition and Sustainment job if the Senate confirms him. President and CEO of Celero Strategies, Stan Soloway lists several reasons why LaPlante is a good fit for the job, and how he might collaborate with other leaders across the department.
The new telework policy at the Agriculture Department will let eligible employees work out of the office up to eight days every pay period. The Assistant Secretary for Administration at USDA, Oscar Gonzales, says details for employees will be “based on the duties of the position.” Former CIO at the Commerce Department, Simon Szykman explains why agencies are already in good shape for a more permanent telework posture.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is looking for a protective email service to secure the .gov domain.
Debate begins today on the Senate’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act, as Congress looks to pass another continuing resolution this week. Bill Greenwalt, nonsenior resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a founder of the Silicon Valley Defense Group, discusses the hurdles in the way as Congress debates the defense bill without a budget passed for the new fiscal year.
Sanjay Sardar, senior vice president for digital transformation and IT modernization at SAIC and former chief information officer at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, explains how agency leaders can look to implement the new president’s management agenda vision while still delivering on-mission daily.
The Bureau of the Fiscal Service is modernizing its data sets to make fiscal information more accessible to the public. The Bureau of the Fiscal Service’s Chief Data Officer and Deputy Assistant Commissioner Justin Marsico joins Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash to discuss what that process looks like. This interview is part of Scoop News Group’s “Accelerate Innovation with Data and Analytics” series, sponsored by AWS.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a selection for the top acquisition job in the Pentagon, pre-pandemic staffing levels may be impossible in open-office spaces, and no punishment - yet - for Feds who won’t vaccinate.
The new President’s Management Agenda Vision includes three main priorities with strategies under each for agencies to execute. The first priority is strengthening the federal workforce. Rafael Borras, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Homeland Security and Defense Business Council, explains how agencies should respond.
The new USDA telework and remote work policy lets eligible employees work away from the office up to eight out of ten days each pay period. It’s the latest sign things won’t go back to how they were before the pandemic. Former NASA CIO Renee Wynn has ideas to ease the transition to what’s coming next, and how to prepare for it.
The Department of Homeland Security has new power to hire cyber professionals, and more money to pay them. The framework is called the Cybersecurity Talent Management System. The Chief Human Capital Officer at DHS, Angela Bailey, describes how the system works, and how leaders should gauge its success.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a new working group for the Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) Cross-Functional Team (CFT).
Karen Britton, vice president for communications and marketing and chief digital officer at LMI and former Executive Office of the President chief information officer, discusses how the federal government could benefit from creating a digital services academy.
Chris Mihm, adjunct professor of public administration at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and former managing director for strategic issues at GAO, explains the difference between the president’s management agenda vision released last week by the Biden-Harris Administration and what will eventually be in the final PMA.
Programming Note: The next episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast will be released Monday, November 29. Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a digital services academy may be needed to fill federal workforce gaps in data science, cybersecurity, application development and artificial intelligence.
Adm. Jamie Foggo (USN, ret.), dean of Navy League’s new Center for Maritime Strategy, discusses how the new think tank will contribute to the dialogue on issues facing the Navy and other U.S. maritime services.
As another continuing resolution from Congress approaches, Larry Allen, president of Allen Federal Business Partners, explains what three things federal contractors should be doing to prepare for another CR.
Defense Digital Service Cybersecurity Expert Daniel Bardenstein joins FedScoop Editor-in-Chief Billy Mitchell on the latest episode of the Let’s Talk About IT podcast to talk about the federal push towards modernizing cybersecurity and building out a zero trust model across the Department of Defense.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a draft of the Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) new implementation plan is awaiting approval from Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks.
Maj. Gen. John Ferrari (USA, ret.), nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, explains how the proposed pay raise for members of the military in the 2022 defense budget may turn out to be a pay cut.
U.S. Navy Chief Data Officer Thomas Sasala and Juliana Vida, group vice president at Splunk and former Navy deputy chief information officer joins Scoop News Group Senior Vice President for Content Strategy Wyatt Kash to discuss the advances made to data sharing at the Department of Defense.
David Mussington, executive assistant director for infrastructure security at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, talks about the intersection of physical security and cybersecurity across the federal government.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Department of Defense has invited Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft and Oracle to bid on the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract.
Lt. Gen. Bill Bender (USAF-ret.), former Air Force chief information officer and senior vice president for strategic accounts and government relations at Leidos, talks about the progress and transformations he’s seen at the Air Force since he retired from the military.
Defense Logistics Agency Chief Data and Analytics Officer Lindsey Saul discusses her new role at DLA, the strategic plan her and her team are currently working on and data challenges the agency is addressing.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, proposals for the Technology Modernization Fund Board have totaled more than $2 billion, twice the amount appropriated by the American Rescue Plan Act.
The Biden-Harris administration’s president’s management agenda was published Thursday morning. Former Office of Personnel Management Director Jeff Pon and federal workplace expert Mika Cross discuss how federal human capital leaders should adjust to meet the needs of the hybrid workforce and continue delivering on-mission.
Alaleh Jenkins, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Financial Management and Comptroller, joins the podcast to discuss the Navy’s takeaways from the Pentagon’s fourth annual department wide audit.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Technology Modernization Fund Board is considering three projects from the Department of Energy, according to DOE Deputy Chief Information Officer Emery Csulak.
Former Department of Defense Principal Deputy Chief Information Officer Essye Miller explains how the department’s persistent engagement strategy is strengthening cyber defenses for the United States and its allies.
Donna Roy, strategic advisor at Guidehouse and former chief operating officer at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, discusses the steps agencies should be taking to begin implementing and leveraging robotic process automation and increase productivity.
Robert Roser, chief information security officer and chief data officer at the Idaho National Laboratory, sat down with Scoop News Group’s Wyatt Kash to discuss how INL is building a robust cybersecurity culture amongst its workforce. This interview is part of FedScoop’s “Zero Trust Begins With Smarter Password Protection” series, sponsored by Keeper Security.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, new ethical guidelines for companies that provide artificial intelligence technology to the Defense Innovation Unit.
Chris Cummiskey, former acting undersecretary for management at the Department of Homeland Security and CEO at Cummiskey Strategic Solutions, explains how an executive order that clearly defines the roles of the top cybersecurity officials in government can benefit the national cyber response.
Army Chief Information Officer Raj Iyer says that nobody in the department will go without email services after buying 1.2 million Microsoft Office 365 licenses for the roughly 1.4 million people who work for the Army. Iyer says the move could save the branch $150 million.
CEO of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Accreditation Body (CMMC-AB) Matthew Travis joins the podcast to give an update where CMMC 2.0 stands and the number of companies he thinks will need a CMMC assessment.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the General Services Administration is dividing up $150 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding between 14 different citizen-facing digital service projects.
Diversity of vendors is key when it comes to providing services to the government, says John Zangardi, president at Redhorse Corporation and former Department of Homeland Security Chief Information Officer. Multiple providers creates competition and helps with risk management, according to Zangardi.
Kathy Conrad of Accenture Federal Services discusses what federal C-level leaders should focus on when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion and where this initiative may fit into the coming President’s Management Agenda.
Federal agency managers say they are using data to make decisions more than ever. Alissa Czyz, acting director for strategic issues at the Government Accountability Office, says 16 of 24 agencies are reporting statistically significant increases in performance data use.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Google Cloud is prepping a bid for the Department of Defense’s Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability (JWCC), if invited by the Pentagon.
Mallory Barg Bulman, research director at Gartner and former senior analyst at the Government Accountability Office, explains what federal agencies can learn from private sector digitization efforts.
As the threat landscape between foreign adversaries and organized ransomware groups continues to shift, Dave Powner of MITRE explains his eight recommendations for Congress to improve federal cybersecurity.
Allison Lerner, Inspector General at the National Science Foundation and Chairperson, Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), joins the podcast to talk more about her recent testimony to Congress about ensuring independence of federal IG’s as they conduct their work.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Department of Agriculture’s Robotic Process Automation Branch is looking to grow its number of automations in FY2022.
Dan Chenok from the IBM Center for The Business of Government says comments from Federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana and General Services Administration Administrator Robin Carnahan shows the process of delivering citizen services is changing across federal government.
Creating a joint program executive office or a lead combatant command may be key to the success of Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2), according to Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Maj. Gen. Garrett Yee, assistant to the director at the Defense Information Systems Agency, joins the podcast to discuss the new reorganization going on a DISA to create a more “flat” organization.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Francis Rose is live from the final day of ACT-IAC’s “Imagine Nation: ELC 2021” in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Listen to the highlights of his panel with Chief Information Officers Gundeep Ahluwalia (Dept. of Labor) and Guy Cavallo (Office of Personnel Management).
Darryl Peek from Google continues yesterday’s conversation on the future of work, and planning for the hybrid work environment.
Rob Carey, former Navy CIO and President of Cloudera Government Solutions, discusses the future of cybersecurity across government and moving to zero-trust architecture and beyond.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Francis Rose is live from ACT-IAC’s “Imagine Nation: ELC 2021” in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Dave Wennergren, ACT-IAC CEO, talks about the organization’s first in-person conference since the start of the pandemic and lessons learned from hybrid event planning.
FedScoop Editor-in-Chief Billy Mitchell breaks down government-wide collaboration efforts underway in the virtual environment and a new program management office being stood up by the Federal CIO Council.
Former Deputy Federal CIO Margie Graves discusses what’s next for agencies as they continue to plan what the future workplace looks like.
Federal CIO Clare Martorana’s keynote speech at Imagine Nation: ELC 2021, highlighting the importance of the partnership between government and industry in improving customer experience for citizens.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a new Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) is on the way. Eric Crusius, Partner at Holland & Knight, explains what impact the new model will have on defense contractors.
The Army is on the hunt for a new log-in solution. Dean Hullings, Global Defense Solutions Strategist, Forescout and former Chief, Cyber Requirements Division, Air Force Space Command, explains what a new ICAM solution could look like.
Rob Hankinson, Acting Director of the State Department’s Office of Information Technology, talks about the push to zero trust architecture going on at the agency. This interview is part of FedScoop’s “Zero Trust Begins With Smarter Password Protection” series, sponsored by Keeper Security.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the deadline for federal contractors to be fully vaccinated is pushed to January 2022.
The acceptance of continuing resolutions from Capitol Hill poses a significant efficiency within the Department of Defense and, just as importantly, the defense industrial base, according to Mackenzie Eaglen of the American Enterprise Institute.
Former Federal Chief Information Officer Suzette Kent says the Federal Data Strategy second action plan is another encouraging step in the right direction for data-driven governance, and notes that the plan for workforce development is crucial to progress.
Andrea Brandon from the Department of Interior explains how the agency is starting to use robotic process automation to improve the acquisition closeout process.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, an “Office of the Chief Data Officer” is coming to the Defense Information Systems Agency.
A two-part interview with Air Force Chief Data Officer Eileen Vidrine, who explains how the Air Force is standing up a data innovation lab and how the force is growing data skills for airmen.
More discussion on RFI’s for Blanket Purchase Agreements on cloud from the General Services Administration with Larry Allen from Allen Federal Business Partners.
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Recommendations for cloud contracts at the General Services Administration from Roger Waldron, president at The Coalition for Government Procurement, who says GSA is currently creating “vertical contract duplication” that creates more costs for government and industry.
While Congress mandates federal agencies to implement evidence-based decision making, the lawmaking body itself has no obligation for using data to make policy. Capitol Hill lawmakers are now looking to executive branch agencies for strategies to apply data to complicated decisions and policies.
Former Housing and Urban Development Chief Financial Officer Irving Dennis details how federal CFO’s and other agencies leaders can use the data available to them to help modernize processes in their organizations.
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President Biden’s $1.75 trillion social spending plan sets aside $500 billion for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, as well as another $100 million for federal cyber defenses.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is hiring more than 2,000 new employees to assist in processing the uptick in claims at the VA since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Former VA Undersecretary for Benefits Paul Lawrence joins the podcast to explain how VA and other government organizations can relieve backlogs.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Deputy Chief Data Officer Courtney Winship joins the podcast to talk about the robotic process automation projects underway at USCIS and how the agency is determining where to leverage the developing technology.
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The second action plan to the Federal Data Strategy is out, continuing the push to digitize government and use data as a strategic asset.
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office CISO Don Watson sits down with Scoop News Group’s SVP for Content Strategy, Wyatt Kash to break down the zero-trust training strategy USPTO is deploying. This interview is part of FedScoop’s “Zero Trust Begins With Smarter Password Protection” series, sponsored by Keeper Security.
A new app is on the way for Thrift Savings Plan investors, allowing them to manage their retirement assets at the touch of a button.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a second action plan to the Federal Data Strategy is released.
Roman Schweizer, Managing Director, Washington Research Group- Aerospace & Defense, Cowen, discusses the ongoing budget process on Capitol Hill and why he thinks Congress will continue to negotiate the same way it has in recent memory.
Casey Coleman, SVP, Global Government Solutions, Salesforce, and former chief information officer at the General Services Administration, explains how government agencies can be ready for the next major emergency and what they can do to remain agile during modernization efforts.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Department of Defense’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center is looking for a new AI Ethics leader following the recent departure of Alka Patel.
Jerry McGinn, Executive Director, Center for Government Contracting, George Mason University, discusses the ongoing efforts in the Pentagon and in the defense industrial base to increase supply chain resiliency.
Loren DeJonge Schulman, VP for Research and Evaluation, Partnership for Public Service, updates the current state of the confirmation process for the Biden Administration's political appointees.
Michelle Rosenberg, Director of Strategic Issues, Government Accountability Office, details the GAO’s latest findings on federal agencies’ initial office reopening efforts and safety measures in the workplace.
Bill Burnham, Chief Technology Officer, US Public Sector, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, joins the podcast to analyze what hybrid cloud transformation should like for organizations today and how government can adopt practices from private industry in this area. This interview is underwritten by Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a new agency authorization playbook from FedRAMP and expanded offerings of COVID-19 vaccine booster shots from the VA.
Angela Styles, Partner, Akin Gump, gives an update on the implementation of the federal contractor vaccine mandate.
Francisco Salguero, former Chief Information Officer, FCC, joins Francis Rose to recount his time in government following his announcement that he is exiting government after 16 years of federal service.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, legislation on Capitol Hill is aiming to address software supply chain risk at the Department of Homeland Security.
Jeri Buchholz, strategic advisor, The Bolden Group and former NASA chief human capital officer, explains how the new DHS hiring system for cyber professionals could be a game-changer for CHCO’s across government.
Jim Williams, principal, Schambach and Williams Consulting and former General Services Administration Acting Administrator, covers the latest on the Polaris governmentwide acquisition contract as GSA plans to issue solicitation on the GWAC by December 21.
Bob Work, former Deputy Secretary of Defense, joins Francis Rose for part two of their conversation about the ongoing artificial intelligence race between China and the U.S., and the implications for the future.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the State Department is prepping a series of multi-award contracts to modernize its IT services.
Greg Grant, Adjunct Senior Fellow, Defense Program, Center for a New American Security, discusses recent recommendations from him and his CNAS colleague Paul Benfield for improving joint operational concept development within the Department of Defense.
Bob Work, former Deputy Secretary of Defense, joins the podcast to analyze the ongoing artificial intelligence race between China and the U.S., and the implications for the future. Be sure to check out Monday’s podcast for part two of Work’s discussion with Francis Rose.
Greg Sisson, Chief Information Security Officer, Department of Energy and Merritt Baer, Principal, AWS Office of the CISO and former senior cybersecurity council at DHS, join CyberScoop Editor-in-Chief Jeff Stone during SNG Live: Modernizing Federal Cybersecurity, to chat about the future of federal cybersecurity.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Department of Homeland Security is overhauling how it hires cybersecurity professionals.
Richard Spires, Principal, Richard A. Spires Consulting, former Chief Information Officer, DHS and IRS, discusses the coming update to the Federal Information Security Management Act as Congress a potential overhaul to FISMA.
David Berteau, President and CEO, Professional Services Council, breaks down the logistical complications as the deadline approaches for federal contractors to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Alvin “Tony” Plater, Acting Chief Information Security Officer, Dept. of Navy and Rear Adm. Bob Day (USCG, ret.), former Chief Information Officer, U.S. Coast Guard and President, BlackBerry Government Solutions, join FedScoop Editor-in-Chief Billy Mitchell during SNG Live: Modernizing Federal Cybersecurity, to chat about securing the Navy’s weapons systems.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, General Dynamics has filed a bid to protest a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) cloud contract award.
Nick Sinai, Senior Advisor and Venture Partner, Insight Partners and former U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer, explains how the U.S. Digital Corps is working to increase diversity and inclusion in the federal IT workforce.
Natalia Martin, Acting Director, National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, joins CyberScoop Editor-in-Chief Jeff Stone during CyberWeek to discuss priorities at NIST’s Information Technology Laboratory.
Matthew Travis, CEO, CMMC Accreditation Body, joins FedScoop reporter Jackson Barnett during CyberWeek to break down what the defense industrial base should know about Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC).
Peter Romness, Cybersecurity Programs Lead, U.S. Public Sector, Cisco Systems, shares insight on the recent cybersecurity push from the federal government and how agencies can leverage zero trust and dual-factor authentication. This interview was underwritten by Cisco Systems.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Army says despite the delay in Integrated Virtual Augmentation System (IVAS) program, it still plans to be rolled-out six to 10 years ahead of the traditional acquisition timeline.
Jack Wilmer, CEO, Core4ce and former DOD Chief Information Security Officer, discusses how the relationship between the vendor community and government should be no different than the relationship between vendors and private companies when it comes to cybersecurity transparency.
Mari Galloway, CEO & Founding Board Member, Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu, sits down with CyberScoop Editor-in-Chief during CyberWeek to explain how hiring managers can improve efforts for diversity and inclusion for cyber jobs across government and industry.
David McKeown, Deputy CIO for Cybersecurity, Department of Defense, joins FedScoop reporter Jackson Barnett during CyberWeek to talk about the zero trust push across DOD.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, Scoop News Group kicks off Cyberweek and CyberScoop Editor-in-Chief Jeff Stone joins the podcast to discuss what to look out for, preview some of the big names speaking and cover the major themes for the week.
Suzanne Spaulding, Senior Advisor, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and former Undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security, discusses how the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program is continuing to evolve across government in detecting and flagging cyber vulnerabilities.
Brandon Wales, Executive Director, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, explains during his Cyberweek remarks how CISA’s mission is continuing to evolve as the cyber response agency for the federal government and the national coordinator for critical infrastructure’s cyber resilience.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Federal Chief Data Officers Council is seeking public input on ways to improve the government's efforts to better generate, use, protect and share data.
John Conger, Senior Advisor, Council on Strategic Risks and former Acting Secretary of Defense (Energy, Installations & Environment), breaks down the Department of Defense’s Climate Adaptation Plans and next steps for the Pentagon in dealing with climate change.
Jessica Klement, Staff Vice President, Policy and Programs, National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE), gives updates on the numbers for the federal employee pay raise and the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment for retirees.
Thomas Harker, Principal, Harker Group and former Acting Secretary of the Navy, sits down with Francis for another installment of the Leaders Lunch Series to discuss where DOD is in its ongoing audit cycle.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is working towards broader data-sharing agreements with other agencies to help facilitate the naturalization process.
Margie Graves, Senior Fellow, IBM Center for The Business of Government and former Deputy Federal Chief Information Officer, discusses the recent round of awards from the Technology Modernization Fund Board and how they will assist cyber efforts across government.
Nicolas Chaillan, former Chief Software Officer, U.S. Air Force, joins the podcast to explain his comments on the artificial intelligence race between China and the U.S., and what the Department of Defense can do to improve software development across the Pentagon.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a senior Department of Defense (DOD) official is suing the DOD and National Security Agency in federal court over her five-month suspension.
Greg Giddens, Partner, Potomac Consulting LLP, continues the forecasting for the President’s Management Agenda, and explains why he thinks acquisition needs to be a key part of the new PMA.
Soraya Correa, Former Chief Procurement Officer, Department of Homeland Security, to discuss DHS’ financial system software consolidation efforts and what the strategic planning for an effort like that looks like.
Katherine Dawes, Acting Evaluation Officer, Environmental Protection Agency, sits down with Francis to explain how EPA is finding the right infrastructure to support data transparency as part of the “Building Data Driven Government” series, underwritten by Dell Technologies.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Office of Management and Budget is looking to hire a federal chief statistician, a position that has been vacant for almost two years.
Steven Grundman, Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council, discusses how the defense industry should be evaluating their solutions to better fit problems the Department of Defense is trying to solve.
Lt. Gen Jack Shanahan (USAF-ret.), former Director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), Department of Defense, explains the significance of speed in artificial intelligence projects at the Pentagon and lessons learned from his experiences at the JAIC and standing up Project Maven.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Department of Veterans Affairs will have an independent body assess the costs of its electronic health record modernization program.
Chris Mihm, Adjunct Professor of Public Administration, Maxwell School at Syracuse University and former Managing Director for Strategic Issues, Government Accountability Office, forecasts what cross-agency collaboration efforts could look like in The President’s Management Agenda, which has yet to be released.
Ari Schwartz, Managing Director, Cybersecurity, Venable LLP, assesses the latest cybersecurity measures being implemented across government, and how using the False Claims Act will impact government contractors reporting cyber breaches.
Emily Murphy, former Administrator, General Services Administration, explores what makes a contract vehicle effective for both government agencies and industry.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, new initiatives to increase transparency for data breaches of federal contractors.
Danny Werfel, Managing Director & Partner, Boston Consulting Group and former Acting Internal Revenue Service Commissioner, discusses wait times for IRS call centers and a recent Los Angeles Times report on one company’s money-making scheme to hold places “on line” for people trying to call the IRS.
Tony Scott, Chairman, The TonyScottGroup, breaks down what could be on the way for the Technology Modernization Fund Board funds remaining after TMF awarded seven contracts to federal agencies last week.
Michael Horowitz, Chair, Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, talks about how the PRAC is leveraging the Pandemic Analytics Center of Excellence to analyze risks and fight waste, fraud and abuse of coronavirus relief funds.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a top official working on artificial intelligence ethics in the Defense Department is leaving the Pentagon.
Kathy Conrad, Director, Digital Government, Accenture Federal Services, discusses the continued customer experience effort by the federal government.
Ronald Sanders, Staff Director, The Florida Center for Cybersecurity, University of South Florida, joins the podcast to talk about how the federal government can improve hiring practices, and where the Office of Personnel Management can assist.
Michael Peckham, Chief Financial Officer, Program Support Center, Department of Health and Human Services, breaks down modernization efforts underway at HHS to facilitate debt collection processes.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, new legislation on Capitol Hill would require government agency leaders to brief Congress within seven days of a cyber breach in their organization.
Goldy Kamali, Founder & CEO, Scoop News Group, sits down with Francis as the winners of the 2021 FedScoop 50 Awards are announced. Scoop News Group received more than 700,000 votes across eight categories this year.
Hellion Flowers, Deputy Chief of Staff, Defense Logistics Agency, joins the podcast as DLA celebrates its 60th anniversary. Flowers reflects on his more than 30 years at the agency, and the modernization efforts that he’s seen take place over the last three decades.
Ann Dunkin, Chief Information Officer, Department of Energy, speaks with Scoop News Group’s Senior Vice President for Content Strategy, Wyatt Kash, about how the shift to remote work has led to an influx of data at the department.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Supreme Court denies Oracle’s petition to keep their Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract lawsuit against the Department of Defense alive.
Allen Hill, Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Category Management, Office of Information Technology Category, Federal Acquisition Service, GSA, spoke with FedScoop Editor-in-Chief Billy Mitchell on the latest episode of Let’s Talk About IT to cover how GSA is helping other federal agencies transition their telecommunications and network infrastructure services to the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract.
Sheena Burrell, Deputy Chief Information Officer, National Archives and Records Administration joins the podcast to discuss the upcoming deadline where NARA is planning to longer accept paper records and transitioning to an all-digital platform by the end of 2022. Burrell also explains the impact the pandemic has had on the National Archives’ efforts.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, President Biden signs Congress’ continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown and fund the government through December 3.
Carol Harris, Director, Information Technology and Cybersecurity, Government Accountability Office, discusses the latest GAO report on the progress made by the Department of Defense in implementing its new electronic health record system.
Debbie Lee James, Former Secretary of the Air Force and Chair of the Defense Business Board, joins the podcast to take a look at relationship between industry and the Department of Defense, and how that applies to modernization efforts at the Pentagon.
Michael Waschull, Acting Chief Information Officer, Intelligence Community, gives an update on the IC’s Commercial Cloud Enterprise contract, plus how to get competing cloud providers to work collaboratively with the IC on cloud solutions.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Department of Defense is looking to develop augmented reality and virtual reality technology that works in low-bandwidth environments.
Dave Wennergren, CEO, ACT-IAC and Mark Forman, Executive Vice President, Enterprise Optimization and Transformation, Dynamic Integrated Services, join the podcast to talk about seven proposals to the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) that are heading to Capitol Hill and business process reforms going on across government.
Joanne Woytek, Program Director, Solution for Enterprise-Wide Procurement, NASA discusses what she’s seeing at NASA SEWP as the fiscal year comes to a close and supply chain risk management efforts.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Technology Modernization Fund Board awards a total of more than $300 million to seven new federal agency IT projects.
Dave Mader, Chief Strategy Officer, Civilian, Deloitte, explains what he and his colleagues define as “program integrity” with regards to major response efforts from the federal government over the past few decades.
Bill Greenwalt, Nonresident Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute and Co-Founder, Silicon Valley Defense Group, discusses the latest developments from the National Defense Authorization Act as the Senate Armed Services Committee submitted their final version of the defense policy bill last week.
Sonny Hashmi, Commissioner, Federal Acquisition Service, General Services Administration, recaps the latest awards from the TMF Board and how the fund will continue to drive modernization across government.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Department of Labor is planning to modernize all of its legacy telecommunications and IT services through five new Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) task orders.
David Hawkings, Senior Editor, American Leader, joins the podcast to give a breakdown of the latest developments from Capitol Hill as a government shutdown approaches.
Max Stier, President and CEO, Partnership for Public Service, explains challenges to the return to office for federal workers and highlights some of the achievements by the federal government during the shift to remote work during the pandemic.
Tony Reardon, National President, National Treasury Employees Union, shares some of the worries federal workers have about returning to the office, more than just the office itself. You can read the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force’s guidance about vaccines here.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a December 8 deadline for federal contractors to be fully-vaccinated against COVID-19.
Todd Harrison, Director, Defense Budget Analysis, and Aerospace Security Project, Center for Strategic and International Studies, explains how the defense industry agreeing to open standards will help the Department of Defense in implementing Joint All-Domain and Control (JADC2).
Stephanie Kostro, Executive Vice President for Policy, Professional Services Council, rounds out the team of industry groups writing to DOD about the new Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification. Listen to our interviews with the National Defense Industrial Association and Information Technology Industry Council.
Ron Thompson, Chief Data Officer, NASA sat down with Scoop News Group’s Senior Vice President for Content Strategy, Wyatt Kash to talk about how NASA is using data to transform the workplace of the future. The video is part of FedScoop's “Building Data Driven Government” series, underwritten by Dell Technologies.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available everyday at 4 p.m. ET. Listen more here. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On Today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, new draft guidance from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency aligning Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) 3.0 with IPv6.
Harlan Ullman, Senior Advisor, Atlantic Council discusses the recently-announced Unmanned Systems Task Force by Chief of Naval Operations Michael Gilday and important goals for the task force to accomplish.
Eric Crusius, Partner, Holland & Knight LLP breaks down the impact of Oracle’s petition to the Supreme Court to keep its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud contract lawsuit alive, and what potential problems that could spell out for the Department of Defense and industry.
Karen Evans, Partner, KE&T Partners and Former Chief Information Officer, Department of Homeland Security previews what could be the largest year-end spending period for the federal government in history, and how agency leaders should prepare for the coming days.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available everyday at 4 p.m. ET. Listen more here.
If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, what’s in the Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act.
Ronald Marks, President, ZPN Cyber and National Security Strategies, discusses what more funding and responsibility for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency could spell out for the federal government’s response to cyber attacks in the U.S.
Robert Shea, National Managing Principal, Public Policy, Grant Thornton, explains how agencies like CISA and the Small Business Administration have more money on hand than they normally do, and how the agencies should approach the end of the fiscal year.
Dr. Ryan Vega, Chief Officer, Office of Healthcare Innovation and Learning, Veterans Health Administration, joins the podcast to give an inside look at how VHA is working with industry to improve health outcomes for veterans, and how VHA is working to establish a culture of innovation across the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available everyday at 4 p.m. ET. Listen more here.
If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, one company is petitioning to keep alive their lawsuit against the Department of Defense surrounding the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract.
David Hawkings, Senior Editor, American Leader analyzes the latest developments from Capitol Hill as budget negotiations continue and Joe Jordan, President and CEO, Actuparo LLC and former U.S. Chief Acquisition Officer talks about how agency leaders should prepare for a potential government shutdown and recounts his time at OMB during the 2013 government shutdown.
Kshemendra Paul, Chief Data Officer, Department of Veterans Affairs joins the podcast to give an update on the VA’s Enterprise Data Strategy as it reaches the nine-month mark.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available everyday at 4 p.m. ET. Listen more here.
If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, a push on Capitol Hill to send more funding and more responsibilities to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security agency, including making it a hub for all American companies to report their cyber breaches.
Larry Allen, President, Allen Federal Business Partners, forecasts what’s down the pike for the federal procurement and contracting community as the end of the fiscal year comes to a close next week.
Jonathan Alboum, Former Chief Information Officer, USDA and Federal CTO & Principal Data Strategist, ServiceNow, discusses current USDA Chief Data Officer Ted Kaouk’s coming move to the Office of Personnel Management and how personnel data can help organization leaders more effectively manage their workforce.
Sanjay Gupta, Chief Technology Officer, Small Business Administration and Member of the Technology Modernization Board, gives his insights on the projects the TMF Board receives well from agencies and the definition of “high-value” systems.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available everyday at 4 p.m. ET.
If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.
On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Office of Personnel Management taps a Department of Agriculture leader to become its next chief data officer.
Gordon Bitko, Senior Vice President of Policy, Information Technology Industry Council, continues the conversation where the Pentagon needs to continue collaboration with industry while implementing the new Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification. Read the letter co-authored by ITI here.
Terry Gerton, President and CEO, National Academy of Public Administration, recaps NAPA’s recommendations to OPM ahead of the agency’s push for IT modernization efforts.
Thomas Osborne, Director, VA’s National Center for Collaborative Healthcare Innovation (NCCHI), chats with FedScoop Editor-in-Chief Billy Mitchell about how NCCHI is integrating new ways to use 5G technology in healthcare.
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Air Force and Navy sign on to a supercomputing deal, giving them one of the more powerful computers in the U.S. government.
Corbin Evans, Principal Director, Strategic Programs, National Defense Industrial Association joins the podcast to explain how the lack of information from the Pentagon about the new Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification can have serious consequences to companies in the defense-industrial base.
Jeffrey Neal, Former Chief Human Capital Officer, Department of Homeland Security discusses how agencies are continuing to adjust their remote work policies in the wake of the delta variant, and how human capital officers across government should adjust to the situation.
Mike Brown, Director, Defense Innovation Unit recaps the new venture funding pool at DIU for startups looking to supply hardware to the Department of Defense. The National Security Innovation Capital (NSIC) program was announced earlier this week.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available everyday at 4 p.m. ET. Listen more here: https://www.fedscoop.com/the-daily-scoop-podcast/
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop,
Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula (Ret., USAF), Dean, The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, discusses the current problems the Air Force faces with IT modernization, and some possible remedies to those problems.
Nick Hart, President, Data Foundation, joins The Daily Scoop Podcast following the four-year anniversary of the release of the findings from the U.S. Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking, which would eventually lead to the Evidence-Based Policymaking Act.
Elizabeth Field, Director, Defense Capabilities and Management, Government Accountability Office, explains how the Department of Defense has adapted to manage while operating under a continuing resolution from Congress.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available everyday at 4 p.m. ET. Listen more here: https://www.fedscoop.com/the-daily-scoop-podcast/
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Air Force’s software development platform faces cybersecurity hurdles.
Chris Cummiskey, CEO, Cummiskey Strategic Solutions, breaks down the latest zero-trust draft strategy released by the Office of Management and Budget.
Bryan Clark, Sr. Fellow, Hudson Institute and Former Director, CNO Strategic Actions Group, U.S. Navy explains the challenges the Department of Defense faces in modernizing to address strategic competitors.
Dorothy Aronson, Chief Information Officer, National Science Foundation, shares how IT modernization efforts, like robotic processing automation, at NSF are benefitting the agency’s workforce.
The Daily Scoop Podcast is available everyday at 4 p.m. ET. Listen to yesterday’s episode on https://www.fedscoop.com/the-daily-scoop-podcast/
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On today’s episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency has a new chief of staff. Kiersten Todt, former executive director of President Barack Obama’s Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity, has spent over 20 years in the cybersecurity field.
Rear Adm. Danelle Barrett (USN-ret.), Former Deputy Chief Information Officer, U.S. Navy, joins the podcast to discuss the markups of the National Defense Authorization Act by the House Armed Services Committee, including a more than $4 billion increase in cyber and innovation funding.
Alan Thomas, Chief Operating Officer, Intellibridge and former Commissioner, Federal Acquisition Service, GSA, talks about what’s to come for the Technology Modernization Fund as the current fiscal year comes to a close.
Katie Olson, Acting Director, Defense Digital Service, explains DDS’ latest decision to transfer counter-drone capabilities to the Air Force Research Lab. Olson also shares how DDS used this drone technology to secure the Navy’s COVID-19 floating hospitals at the onset of the pandemic.
Traci Walker, Executive Director, Digital Services Coalition, explains how the government can improve its ability to buy digital services, and how the acquisition community can adjust their procurement processes to create more “antifragile” contracts.
Suzette Kent, Former Federal Chief Information Officer, discusses the opportunities for federal technology leaders with the significant growth in funding for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF). Kent says agencies can start leveraging the TMF to meet recent cybersecurity directives from the Biden Administration.
Sonny Bhagowalia, Assistant Commissioner, Office of Information & Technology and Chief Information Officer, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, talks about CBP’s application migration efforts and how the organization is ahead of schedule moving apps to the cloud. He also explains how CBP is unveiling a new AI Center of Innovation and what goals the agency hopes to achieve.
Stephen Ellis, Government Solutions Lead, Zoom Video Communications, joins Francis to explain how government agencies will continue to leverage hybrid workplace solutions with a focus on “human-centered” IT modernization.