Tag: Federal

July 28, 2017

At 10 p.m. Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released text of a “skinny” repeal of Obamacare—the third version of the GOP’s various health care bills to be unleashed in as many days—likely expecting victory. By 1:30 a.m. Friday, his […]

July 27, 2017

Legislation that would bring the Department of Homeland Security’s cyber and critical infrastructure protection operations closer together easily won approval by a key congressional committee on July 26. Draft bill H.R. 3359, introduced July 24 by House Homeland Security Committee […]

July 26, 2017

Although the number of federal workers enrolled in the government’s phased retirement program remains minuscule, analysts say it could be a valuable tool for agencies to preserve institutional knowledge and plan for the future. As of Tuesday, 259 federal employees […]

July 24, 2017

Local government IT leaders rely heavily on conferences and webinars to hone their professional skill sets, according to an infographic from the Public Technology Institute. In a “quick poll” of local government IT officials, PTI found that 63 percent of […]

July 24, 2017

Mobile security continues to be top priority for the Department of Homeland Security, and new initiatives are underway to address threats to federal mobile devices. In August, DHS will announce a new Science & Technology Directorate research program for mobile […]

July 20, 2017

A U.S. House subcommittee approved by voice vote Wednesday a sweeping proposal on self-driving vehicles that represents the first major piece of federal legislation for governing the emerging technology and advancing its adoption nationwide. The as-yet-unnumbered House bill — called […]

July 19, 2017

The Trump administration has prioritized hiring at the Homeland Security Department, but at one DHS component administration officials and Republican lawmakers are looking to roll back the ambitious goals previously laid out by President Obama. The House Appropriations Committee on […]

July 17, 2017

Does telework help or hurt productivity among federal workers? The short answer is, “it depends,” if an audit report by the Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General of the agency’s telework program is any indication. At the behest of […]

July 17, 2017

The ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee wants answers on a DHS plan to restart the troubled Electronic Immigration System, after months out of service. “It’s a threat to our national security if we’re sending […]

July 17, 2017

On Friday, an administrative law judge handed Google a victory, ruling that it does not need to hand over all the data requested by the Department of Labor as part of an audit of the company’s compliance with equal pay […]

July 14, 2017

Officials with the Office of Personnel Management have drafted new rules that aim to limit the use of paid administrative leave while an employee is under investigation for misconduct. The proposed regulation, posted to the Federal Register Thursday, implements the […]

July 13, 2017

I have never been a fan of contractor bashing. I believe there is nothing wrong with making a profit. I do not believe that contractors typically spend their days dreaming up ways to cheat the government. Indeed, I even believe […]

July 10, 2017

The Homeland Security Department did such a poor job of monitoring a contractor’s implementation of new performance management software the DHS inspector general found that the “failure literally meets [the Government Accountability Office]’s textbook definition of ‘waste.’” The Performance and […]

July 7, 2017

A federal judge in California has decided to allow Twitter’s lawsuit against the attorney general’s office to go forward. She rejected arguments that the social media giant should not be allowed to be precise in its transparency reports when describing […]

July 7, 2017

As he continues to visit key space facilities around the country, Vice President Mike Pence spent a few hours at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday. During the visit, Pence spoke to the NASA workforce inside the iconic Vertical […]

July 6, 2017

The House and Senate Armed Services Committees have completed their markups of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, and the Senate version lays out major reforms to cyber, innovation, IT management and information operations. The two versions differ somewhat on […]

July 4, 2017

In June, the Department of Defense ended the school year with an “F+” on the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act’s Scorecard 4.0 – a mark the DOD’s CIO says the department is taking steps to boost. Lawmakers chided the […]

July 4, 2017

The White House Office of Management and Budget turned some heads on Capitol Hill when it requested a spending boost for itself while demanding cuts throughout the rest of the federal government. OMB Director Mick Mulvaney told an appropriations subcommittee […]

July 3, 2017

The expression “public-private partnership” in cybersecurity has reached the point of being a meaningless cliché and needs to be replaced with a new focus on government collaborating with and facilitating industry, say agency officials and industry leaders. Whether the topic […]

July 3, 2017

The standardized language for federal data established to meet Digital Accountability and Transparency Act requirements will have broader benefits, according to federal agency experts at the July 29 Data Act Summit in Washington, D.C. The Data Act Information Model Schema, […]