Jason Miller Reports 
Top News
- Sequestration, budget cuts taking its toll on DoD
- Small companies won't feel effect of lowered contractor pay cap
- GSA trying innovative approaches to disposing of real property
- IRS draws new criticism over $70M employee bonuses
- VA identifying project managers, then improving their skills
- OMB sets new deadlines to improve data on USASpending.gov
- As VA works to eliminate one backlog, one more might emerge
- BRAC-like commission proposed to hunt down government cost savings
- Sequestration claims another conference: DHS' GFirst cyber event
- Postal Service closing Capitol Hill post offices in 'symbolic' move
- Senators seek cost cuts for F-35 fighter jet
- Fed pens new furlough song
- Web guru Dorris brings new life to government websites
- EPA CIO Jackson returning to private sector
- Navy strikes enterprise licensing deal with Oracle
- Contractors with security clearances lack path to report problems
- NSA leak case gives vendors reason to reevaluate personnel
- 8 contract executives guilty of 8(a) contracting fraud
- Whistleblower suit leads to $12M false claims settlement by SAIC
Jason Miller covers civilian agencies in the federal government with a focus on technology and acquisition. He is also an executive editor at Federal News Radio. Jason's reports can be heard Monday - Friday on the Federal Drive and In Depth.
DoD, VA building on early success of joint e-health record
Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary Eric Shinseki announce an expansion in 2014 of initial capability of the joint electronic health record to two more sites.
IT upgrades highlight MSPB's innovations in how it meets its mission
CIO Tommy Hwang said the agency is receiving more documents electronically from agencies and law firms than ever before. He also is moving the email system to the cloud and developing a BYOD policy.
May 17, 2012(Encore presentation June 28, 2012)
GSA Expo turns into a smaller, toned down affair
The Public Buildings Service Western Regions conference scandal is reverberating across government. A new Federal News Radio online survey found other agencies are feeling the effects of GSA's problems. More than half of all respondents said their agency canceled conferences or meetings.
Senate committee approves OFPP nominee, four other bills
The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee moves the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations, the Keeping Politics Out of Federal Contracting and two other pieces of legislation to the floor for a full vote.
FedRAMP names organizations to review vendors' cloud cybersecurity
Vendors wanting to provide cloud services to the government must first receive support from these nine organizations that they are meeting the cloud computing security controls.
NASA kicks off SEWP V planning
The space agency will reach $10 billion in sales in 2012 under the SEWP IV governmentwide acquisition contract. Joanne Woytek said there is a lot of industry interest in the next iteration of the contract.
GSA hires IBM to run the smart building initiative
Under the one-year contract, Big Blue will develop a system to collect data for the Public Building Service to analyze to find areas to become more energy efficient.
IG offices thrive despite lack of permanent leadership
Ten agencies do not have Senate-confirmed inspectors generals. Four have been waiting for more than 1,000 days for a nomination or confirmation. But House lawmakers found that agencies without a permanent IG still are making a lot of progress in rooting out waste, fraud and abuse.
Engraving and Printing ready to build on ERP success
The BEN Enterprise brings together the Treasury Department bureau's data about finances, procurement and printing. Now Peter Johnson, BEP's chief information officer, wants to add business and analytics tools.
May 10, 2012
McCain again makes his case to increase DoD's cyber role
The Arizona senator sent the third in a series of letters to Gen. Keith Alexander trying to explain why DoD, not DHS, should be in charge of defending critical infrastructure from cyber attacks. He said the administration's approach would create another layer of bureaucracy and slow down responses to threats.
Jordan makes his case for being next OFPP administrator
Joe Jordan told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee he would focus on three priorities if confirmed. He also backed away somewhat from the administration's stance on a cap on executive compensation. Jordan received support from the committee, and a vote on his nomination could come as early as next week.
OFPP dispels 8 more agency, vendor communications myths
The administration will issued the Mythbusters 2 memo today. The document takes aim at commonly held misconceptions by vendors. It follows the initial Mythbusters memo issued in February 2011 focusing on agency-held fallacies.
DoD using cyber teams like aircraft - for offense and defense
Gen. Keith Alexander said a recent cyber exercise is the first time the military showed it can do offensive and defensive capabilities at the same time, by the same team. This was part of Alexander's answers to questions from Sen. John McCain.
Agencies getting tools to 'innovate with less'
The Shared Services Strategy is the latest way agencies can reduce spending on infrastructure technology and spend more on mission-critical IT. Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel said PortfolioStat is the lynchpin to the entire process for agencies. He held the first meeting with agencies leaders to discuss expectations.
GPO using model to launch FDSys with a series of new projects
Chuck Riddle, the Government Printing Office's chief information officer, said he's focused on innovation around five areas. The agency is piloting several new technologies, including mobile apps and a virtual desktop.
May 3, 2012
OMB gives agencies four months to figure out shared services
The new strategy details several requirements for agencies to meet by Aug. 31. The goal is to reduce the amount of money agencies spend on commodity IT and have them spend it on innovations.
Interior email contract saga ends with Onix, Google winning
The agency announced it awarded Onix, the company which protested the 2010 contract, a $35 million deal to provide email-as-a-service to 92,000 employees. Under the terms of the deal, Onix must fully migrate Interior employees to the cloud by December.
NIST altering view of technology to focus on customers
CIO Del Brockett said he's taking a two-pronged approach to provide better service to employees and the public. He said innovation through pilots with the labs show the value of emerging technologies.
April 26, 2012
White House team tackles identity management in the cloud
A working group is developing common requirements for a federated cloud identity management shared service. NIH already showed how this could be done with its iTrust tools. The tiger team is expected to issue the common standards in the next few months.
Performance improvement has 'turned the corner' in government
Shelley Metzenbaum said agencies are doing a better job in setting outcome-based goals and using data to measure their progress. OPM is finalizing guidance and training to use the competence models for performance improvement positions. Treasury and DHS are setting their own path to using data to meet their mission goals.
