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.

SBA relying on shared services to improve cyber posture

Chase Garwood, the SBA acting CIO, said the agency is working with DHS and Justice to improve the security of its internal and external customer-facing systems.

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IRS tones its systems to better handle the tax season

Two contracts with Unisys that could be worth more than $800 million help the tax agency innovate and become more efficient. The IRS is using the first-of-its-kind in the federal market storage-as-a-service approach to increasing and decreasing the amount of storage it needs based on how busy it is during the year.

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Inside the Reporter's Notebook: Communication breakdown over FITARA? Lawmaker wants answers from DHS

News and buzz in the acquisition and IT communities that you may have missed this week.

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VA Deputy Secretary Scott Gould leaving

After four years as the second in charge, Scott Gould has decided to leave VA. His last day on the job will be May 17.

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SESers honored for distinguished service, saving $94B in 2012

Each year, the Presidential Distinguished Rank Awards honor members of the Senior Executive Service for their accomplishments. But this year, one very important group of federal employees was left out. Carol Bonosaro, president of the Senior Executives Association, said she's frustrated that this year's event included no winners from the intelligence community because the White House has yet to approve their nominations. An ODNI official said intelligence community winners will be announced soon.

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Cureton continues to take risks in post-federal career

Linda Cureton recently retired as the NASA CIO. In an exit interview, she offered lessons learned over her 34-year federal career.
April 25, 2013

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Performance guru Metzenbaum leaving OMB

OMB's associate director of performance and personnel management is returning to Boston after four years of leading the day-to-day Obama administration performance management agenda.

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OMB employees begin furloughs

The White House tells "a majority" of career staff not to come to work. It's the first of 10 furlough days over the next six months. Labor, FAA and EPA also have or are furloughing employees.

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HUD CIO Jerry Williams takes new job at Education

Jerry Williams will become the new chief information officer at the Education Department's Office of Federal Student Aid. Patsy Garnett, HUD's acting deputy CIO for IT and business modernization, also is heading to a new agency.

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DHS, DoD asking OMB for sequestration reprogramming authority

Homeland Security, Defense and USDA are asking the Office of Management and Budget for the ability to reprogram agency funds to soften the blow of sequestration. DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said the agency must cut $3 billion by Sept. 30 and every mission, contract and person will be impacted in some way. She said the Coast Guard already is feeling the impact of the cuts in mission areas.

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Using the cloud to analyze data

Shawn Kingsberry, chief information officer of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, joins host Jason Miller to talk about how his agency is using its cloud hub to run its mission critical systems.
April 18, 2013

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OFPP kicks the strategic-sourcing door wide open

Administrator Joe Jordan said he views the possibilities as everything from new contracts to take advantage of volume discounts to standardizing terms and conditions to save on administrative costs. GSA FAS is reorganizing around 14 strategic sourcing areas.

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House approves FISMA modernization bill, two other cyber bills

An update to the Federal Information Security Management Act and the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2013 passed through the House Tuesday night. The Cybersecurity Information Sharing and Protection Act also passed, but faces a veto threat because of concerns over data protection.

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GSA appeals MSPB's exoneration of Prouty

The agency also puts former Region 8 Commissioner of the Public Building Service on administrative leave until the MSPB Board makes a decision on the appeal.

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Data analytics improving CFOs' lines of sight for program execution

Federal chief financial officers have more foresight, insight and hindsight than ever before to make better decisions. But just as important as having these wide-ranging sight lines is how they are being translated down to the program level. Experts say agencies are slowly heading down the path of using data to make better decisions.

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Inside the Reporter's Notebook: A deeper dive into the 2014 budget

News and buzz in the acquisition and IT communities that you may have missed this week.

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Bureau of Fiscal Service primes network for influx of new customers

Kim McCoy, the bureau's chief information officer, said she's looking at how best to pre-position resources to get new agency financial management customers on board more quickly.
April 11, 2013

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FEHBP modernization plan receives cautious optimism from Hill

The Office of Personnel Management told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that the 50-year-old law creating the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) has hurt its ability to keep the FEHBP up-to-date. The agency estimates billions in savings over the next decade should Congress approve the White House's proposals in the 2014 budget request.

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White House pushes $2B increase in IT spending

The White House asked Congress for a $2 billion increase in federal technology funding for fiscal 2014. Federal CIO Steve VanRoekel said there is broad recognition that the time to invest in IT is now because of the long-term savings and benefits it can bring.

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Intel community seeks to protect workforce from sequestration's impact

James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, said the 17-agency community is trying not to repeat lessons of past cuts that hampered analytical capabilities. Clapper also issued a new IC-wide code of ethics and made a key change to the security clearance form.

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