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.

FAR Council finalizing nine rules in 2013

The semi-annual regulatory agenda highlights final and proposed changes to the federal acquisition and agency-specific acquisition regulations.

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Inside the Reporter's Notebook: GSA FAS, shared services and DHS contract awards

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

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Cloud is the next chapter in the government's identity management saga

The Postal Service issued a draft solicitation for the Federal Cloud Credential Exchange. The goal is to create a cloud-based service to perform identity authentication and verification. Agencies could plug into the service, integrating it with any application that adheres to the standards.

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NIST's IT Lab well-heeled to answer agencies' expanding calls for its services

IT Lab Director Charles Romine said the organization collaborates with an ever-growing number of agencies on technology challenges. He said the Lab also is focusing on questions around cloud, cybersecurity, mobile computing and big data.
January 10, 2013

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New era of social media pushes agencies toward data, away from platforms

GSA, State and the Air Force are starting to see the benefits of using social media data to improve services and not focusing so much on how it's delivered. Challenges and contests are examples of this information-centric approach. But the dependence on and acceptance of social media platforms is growing across nearly every agency.

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OMB proposes to eliminate, consolidate 376 reports

The White House submitted a report to Congress as part of the GPRA Modernization Act that details hundreds of unnecessary reports and studies. The report listed 70 DoD reports as well as the desire to streamline the report on duplicate reports.

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Commerce's CFO, CIO collaboration paying off across the board

Scott Quehl, the CFO, and Simon Szykman, the CIO, work closely together on ensuring projects remain on track and are efficient as possible. Their relationship is making it easier for Commerce to deal with budget and oversight pressures.

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White House to mandate machine-readable open data

The guidance is two months late, but OMB is expected to issue it in early 2013. Todd Park, the federal CTO, said the White House also is updating the Data.gov platform and expanding the approach to healthcare data to other sectors.

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GSA changes its model for the next generation telecom effort

The Network Services 2020 initiative will not be a large worldwide contract as the Networx and FTS procurements were over the past 20 years. GSA still is developing the overall strategy, but plans to use a similar approach it used with DISA on the recent satellite communications contract.

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CBP turns inward to modernize IT infrastructure

Charlie Armstrong, the agency's assistant commissioner for the Office of Information and Technology and chief information officer, said a new cloud initiative is the target environment for mission support systems. CBP recently moved all of its employees to email-in-the-cloud.
January 3, 2013

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Mica to take over new Government Operations subcommittee

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is consolidating two subcommittees that oversee major agency functions, such as procurement and technology, into a new panel. No news yet on who will be the ranking members.

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Sequester delayed for two months; pay freeze extension still possible

Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick introduced a bill to extend the pay freeze for federal workers for all of fiscal 2013. The Senate still must pass the bill.

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OPM better defines leadership development roadmap

The agency issued the Federal Supervisory Training Framework that details three levels of competencies for new or existing managers. The guidance is one of several initiatives OPM put forward over the past few years to improve employee leadership skills.

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Mass transit idea wins SAVE award

The government will save money on mass transit for federal employees thanks to this year's SAVE award winner. Frederick Winter's idea to switch eligible feds from a regular transit fare to a reduced senior fare will lower the cost of those employees' travel by 50 percent.

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GSA challenges real estate developers with a 'once-in-a-several-lifetimes' opportunity

The General Services Administration issued two requests for information earlier this month to redevelop the FBI headquarters building and the area of Washington known as Federal Triangle South. Acting Administrator Dan Tangherlini said he's willing to entertain any and all ideas for saving the government money, making the buildings more efficient and helping to transform the neighborhoods.

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Energy modernizing IT in layers with mobile at the top

Bob Brese, the agency's CIO, said cloud service and security operations center will help make the move to smartphones and tablet computers easier.
December 20, 2012 (Encore presentation January 31, 2013)

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New FAR rule would permanently require prompt payments to small subs

The Federal Acquisition Regulations Council's proposal would implement part of a July 2012 memo from the Office of Management and Budget. The memo directed agencies to take specific steps to ensure accelerated payments to small businesses.

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OMB delaying budget passback guidance, creating uncertainty

The White House typically gives agencies both funding and policy updates for the upcoming budget request by Thanksgiving. This year OMB decided to hold off on passback guidance because of the current fiscal negotiations with Congress. Several senior agency officials said this lag will compress the timeline to respond to the information and require them to prepare for something that may never happen.

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DHS issues $6B RFQ for continuous monitoring tools, services

The blanket purchase agreement lists 15 tools and 11 service areas that DHS wants vendors to provide to improve agency cybersecurity.

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OPM fast tracking draft regulations for phased retirement

Director John Berry said the agency's Innovation Lab is helping to take a different, more rapid approach to developing the proposed rule to implement the new program. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) also is suggesting the creation of a "leave bank" for workers who leave federal service but plan to return. Berry said that's an innovative idea OPM may look at.

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