Federal CIO Suzette Kent celebrated the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) release of its new TIC (Trusted Internet Connections) 3.0 policy today as a major milestone in the Trump administration’s efforts to complete meaningful updates of Federal IT policies that are more than five years old. […]

The Senate voted today 54-38 to approve the nomination of Dale Cabaniss as Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for a four-year term. […]

The General Services Administration (GSA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced today their three grand prize winners of the Government Effectiveness Advanced Research (GEAR) Center challenge, with each of the winners receiving an award of $300,000. […]

Federal CISO Grant Schneider said today he is hopeful that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will release the official version of its long-awaited Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) 3.0 policy within the next two weeks. […]

On August 22, President Trump signed into law the Creating Advanced Streamlined Electronic Services for Constituents Act (CASES Act) which will modernize the inquiry process for constituents by creating electronic forms to improve access and efficiency to Federal services and agencies. […]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced on Aug. 16 that it will delay action on several cybersecurity-related standards. […]

The Federal government saw a 12 percent reduction in cybersecurity incidents in fiscal year 2018, and no “major” cybersecurity incidents for the year, according to the Office of Management and Budget’s annual report on the Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA). […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) needs to do more to help Federal agencies with FISMA (Federal Information Security Modernization Act) compliance, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. […]

Most government agencies have met Federal mandates to establish cyber risk executives and establish policies to make risk-based decisions on cybersecurity, but many agencies still need to establish cyber risk strategies, conduct risk assessments, and address gaps in existing risk management policies, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released July 26. […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a memo on implementing the first phase of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, including deadlines for naming agency chief data officers (CDO), creating data governance bodies, and developing learning agendas. […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) wants feedback on which Federal datasets would be most helpful to the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, which datasets are difficult to access, and areas with gaps in data and model availability. […]

A new memo from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), issued June 28, directs agencies to make all Federal records electronic by the end of 2022, and pushes them to close paper storage facilities in support of “the transition to a fully electronic government.” […]

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

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) finalized the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) policy on June 25, largely keeping the draft policy in place despite criticisms from Congress and industry. […]

The release of the Cloud Smart policy yesterday has given agencies a “North Star” of guidance on how to accelerate cloud adoption, Federal Deputy CIO for the Office of Management and Budget Margie Graves said today. […]

Federal agencies are unprepared to confront and mitigate cyberthreats today, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affair Committee Investigations Subcommittee determined in a report released today, recommending that agencies give CIOs more authority to make decisions on cybersecurity. […]

Federal CIO Suzette Kent tops the witness list for the House Government Operations Subcommittee’s June 26 hearing to assess implementation of the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA), and to release the eighth version of the full House Oversight and Reform Committee’s FITARA Scorecard that grades Federal agencies on their progress under the law, MeriTalk has learned. […]

A new update to the Sharing Quality Services cross-agency priority (CAP) goal, released June 20, lays out the timeline for the currently designated quality services management offices (QSMOs), and hints at three more areas for the new, centralized approach to shared services. […]

The June updates from the President’s Management Agenda’s (PMA) CAP Goal Action Plan to Modernize IT to Increase Productivity and Security, released June 20, see all key milestones either completed or on track to be completed by Q4 FY2019, but delays in implementing government-wide tools have impacted asset management security capabilities. […]

The Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) Office of Federal Procurement Policy Deputy Administrator Lesley Field explained how OMB is working on its category management, training procurement officers, and data use modernization to accelerate and sharpen Federal procurement at the Acquisition Innovation CXO Tech Forum today. […]

In light of the increasing ubiquity of data breaches, Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report today recommending that Federal agencies should discontinue knowledge-based verification to strengthen their remote identity proofing processes and that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) should provide guidance in creating alternative identity proofing methods. […]

The Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought wrote a letter to Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and eight other members of Congress asking for a two-year delay of a ban that prohibits U.S. government contractors from doing business with Chinese-telecommunications company Huawei, in an effort to give companies more time to comply with the legislation. […]

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released the finalized framework of the Federal Data Strategy, as well as a draft of its year one action plan today, cementing the administration’s approach to data under the President’s Management Agenda and setting out new activities for agencies to complete. […]

Federal Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Grant Schneider said today that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is continually working towards developing standards and accountability for supply chain security and cybersecurity. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its 2019 Annual Report on Tuesday, May 21, and while the report names a few current areas with duplicative or inefficient IT efforts, it also points to past IT initiatives as examples of Federal success in achieving cost savings. […]

A new memo released Tuesday, May 22, by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) updates the Federal identity, credentials, and access management (ICAM) policy, encouraging the use of more flexible solutions, supporting pilots for new authenticators, and requiring agencies to create an ICAM team. […]

The Trump administration’s plan to reorganize the Office of Personnel and Management (OPM) ran squarely into bipartisan concerns expressed by House members over a lack of information about the plan to move the agency’s functions to the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). […]

Federal agencies have made a slow but sure increase in cloud service investments, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report last week. […]

While Federal agencies are making progress in moving to the cloud, challenges exist in tracking the cost savings benefits of those moves due to a lack of agency-level guidance and confusion about tracking under guidance from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), according to a report released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Monday, May 6. […]

Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and James Lankford, R-Okla., introduced the Federal Agency Customer Experience (FACE) Act of 2019 on May 1 to improve American customer service experiences when they interact with Federal agencies. […]