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Department of Commerce News 
Top News
- VA chipping away at oldest disability claims in backlog
- What's the latest on phased retirement?
- New mobile tools gives agencies ‘giant innovation permission slip'
- Congress pressures agencies to speed up office consolidations
- Furlough Friday: Multiple agencies took advantage of holiday weekend
- Data breach puts DHS employees at risk of ID theft
- IRS replaces official in Tea Party controversy
- Commerce nominee sails through hearing
- Obama nominates Archuleta as next OPM director
- FedRAMP achieves another cloud security milestone
- Tangherlini to be nominated as permanent GSA chief
- House GOP panel moves on deep budget cuts
- OMB reworking financial system requirements
- Federal retirement funds temporarily tapped
- Friday federal headlines - May 24, 2013
Smooth confirmation hearing for Pritzker
Obama's commerce secretary pick, Penny Pritzker, gets smooth confirmation hearing in Senate
OMB reworking financial system requirements to focus on outcomes, not inputs
The administration is expected to release a new directive in the coming weeks to update Circular A-127, which defines how agencies operate their financial systems. The new guidance is expected to open the market up to vendors and make it easier for agencies to transition to shared service providers.
Obama nominates Pritzker, Froman for economic jobs
Obama nominates friends Pritzker for commerce secretary and Froman for trade representative
New security standard to boost agency trust, use of mobile devices
On the one-year anniversary of the Digital Government Strategy, the CIO Council and DHS are expected to issue a security baseline and reference architecture for mobile computing. The goal of the document is not to give agencies new requirements but to focus on those security standards that are mobile-centric.
USDA seeks authority to transfer funds to offset sequestration cuts
Agriculture Department Secretary Tom Vilsack can move money in-between accounts within the same bureau, but not across the agency under a special provision called Interchange Authority. Vilsack has officially asked Congress for use of that authority in an effort to stunt the negative effects of sequestration at his agency. At at recent House hearing, Republican lawmakers questioned why more agencies haven't movasked Congress for similar permission.
Acting commerce secretary leaving administration
Acting Commerce Secretary Blank leaving Obama administration
Inside the Reporter's Notebook: Barry West returns, two CIOs leaving, Einstein cyber initiative faces delay
Barry West is returning for his fourth gig as a CIO, and three other key technology officials are leaving. Two congressmen want to pressure contractors to pay back taxes.
Commerce considering managed service to fix cyber weakness
The Commerce Department issued a request-for-information asking for input from vendors around 11 cyber capabilities.
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.
Kirit Amin heads to Commerce as deputy CIO
Amin spent the last eight months as HUD's chief technology officer.
Telework helps PTO employees stay productive through Sandy
Despite the federal government closing its offices to the public on Monday and Tuesday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office was still able to average 70 percent productivity, thanks to its telework policy.
Federal Drive Interviews -- Oct. 30, 2012
The Federal Drive gets post-superstorm Sandy updates from the National Weather Service and the U.S. Coast Guard.
New FOIA portal promotes transparency, eases agency interactions
The Environmental Protection Agency partnered with the Commerce Department and National Archives to launch a new online portal aimed at streamlining the Freedom of Information Act request process for both the public and federal agencies.
6-month spending bill clears Senate hurdle
A spending bill required to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month has cleared a procedural hurdle in the Senate.
Obama's effort to reorganize government results in little progress
John Powers is a principal at Deloitte Consulting LLP. He spoke to Federal News Radio as part of the special report, The Obama Impact: Evaluating the Last Four Years.
PTO changes the way it invests in IT systems
John Owens, the Patent and Trademark Office's CIO, said the agency used to spend 85 percent of its IT budget on operations and maintenance (O&M) support and 15 percent on development, modernization and enhancements (DME) of systems. Now, the agency spends 50 percent on each. That change has allowed it to upgrade IT systems without additional money.
Commerce facing additional challenge with HSPD-12
The department is trying to figure out the best way to manage the cards of contract employees after they leave the department. Every agency using a managed service provider for secure identity card issuance faces a similar challenge. Commerce also is working on integrating physical and logical access systems.
Groves envisions future censuses to be cheaper, more mobile
Robert Groves led the U.S. Census Bureau into an era of technological innovation in the hopes of lowering costs and collecting better data for future censuses.
NIST issuing ID cards for testing
The National Institute of Standards and Technology is making it easier for agencies to test the use of logical access control for applications.
Ex-Commerce secretary won't be charged in hit-run
Prosecutors declined Tuesday to file criminal charges against former U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson, saying a seizure caused a bizarre series of traffic collisions that led to his resignation.
