The Senate held a series of votes May 4 to instruct its 26 conferees on the direction the chamber wants them to take in negotiations on the USICA/COMPETES semiconductor, innovation, and competition legislation working its way through Congress.
Shortly before heading out of town for a two-week home-district work period, Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress named a whopping 87 members to a conference committee that will work out differences between the House and Senate versions of a competition and innovation bill that includes $52 billion in semiconductor funding, funding for a new tech directorate at the National Science Foundation, and big boosts in Federal research and development funding.
The Procurement Innovation Lab (PIL), which was established in 2016 to experiment with innovative acquisition techniques across the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) enterprise, has now expanded its vision to help innovate procurement processes for other entities across the Federal space.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has named Geoffrey Nieboer as the agency’s Chief Data Officer (CDO), and moved Brian Whittaker to the role of Acting Chief Innovation Officer, according to the agency’s organization directory.
The Senate voted March 21 to invoke cloture on House-passed legislation designed to fully fund the CHIPS Act to boost domestic semiconductor production and create a new technology directorate at the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s (ODNI) Science and Technology Group (STG) is seeking feedback on its Fiscal Year (FY) 2022-2026 Science and Technology (S&T) Investment Landscape, which sets a pathway for its S&T investment portfolio over the next four fiscal years, according to a request for information (RFI) published last month.
When people think of The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), they typically think of an agency full of brilliant scientists, engineers, and innovators that are pushing the boundaries of technology to achieve the agency’s mission.
The Department of Defense (DoD) is seeking information from the microelectronics (ME) research and development (R&D) community to help establish a public-private partnership to aid in domestic production of ME-related technologies, according to a request for information (RFI) posted to SAM.gov Feb. 24.
Proving that there is no substitute for good timing, TaxBit – a provider of automated tax and accounting services for virtual currencies – opened up its new Washington office earlier this month amid growing policy and legislative action that may end up wrapping cryptocurrencies more tightly into “traditional” economic models.
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has awarded AT&T four Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contracts to modernize the agency’s telecommunications and transition FEMA off the Networx contracts, AT&T announced.
The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is in the process of beefing up its infrastructure, technology, policy, and procedures with a broader aim toward modernizing business processes and promoting evidence-based decisions, asset management, and knowledge sharing.
The National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) has released a new mobile app – dubbed aCTknowledge – that shares unclassified counterterrorism reports, analysis, training resources, and alerts.
While one primary focus of the Biden administration’s President’s Management Agenda is continuing to improve Federal IT to enable better delivery of citizen services, tech leaders from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) explained on Feb. 1 that they face emerging challenges in pursuing those goals.
Growing technology advancements have created new opportunities for military officials to improve training, war fighting, and even efficiency in the court of law, officials from the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force explained at a GovExec virtual event on Jan. 28.
The Department of Interior’s Interior Business Center (IBC) announced the completion of multiple modernization projects for the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board’s (FRTIB) Financial Systems.
The House of Representatives has crafted a new semiconductor and innovation legislative measure that features $52 billion in funding for semiconductor production, $45 billion for supply chain issues, and the establishment of a new Science and Engineering Solutions Directorate at the National Science Foundation (NSF). The bill, called the America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence […]
The Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer (OFCIO) added two Federal IT veterans to its staff last week, hiring Drew Myklegard as associate Deputy Federal CIO and former Air Force Chief Data Officer (CDO) Eileen Vidrine as a senior strategic advisor for Data to the Federal CIO, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) confirmed to MeriTalk.
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has announced five contract awards for commercial radar capabilities under the agency’s new Strategic Commercial Enhancements Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) Framework.
In this new year, agencies continue to embark on digital transformation journeys, modernizing IT applications and infrastructure. Federal technology leaders discussed their agency’s 2022 digital transformation plans and goals at ATARC’s Digital Transformation Summit on Jan. 18.
The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) is seeking information on innovative approaches to enhance the design and performance of Advanced Smart Textile (AST) systems – think clothing embedded with an array of active technology capabilities – and is emphasizing individual component integration.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has awarded a seven-year, $87 million contract to Accenture Federal Services (AFS) to help streamline the trademark lifecycle through supporting and enhancing its Trademark Product Line (TMPL).
The year 2021 has played out as a non-stop whirlwind of activity for the Federal IT community – one unprecedented in recent memory for new policy direction, funding pushes, and urgency to improve network security.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Deputy CIO Beth Cappello, whose agency snagged a $50 million Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) award earlier this year, this week urged Federal agency IT and financial organizations to align their expectations and resources in order to achieve better IT modernization results.
Democratic leaders in both chambers of Congress announced Nov. 17 that they will form a conference committee to resolve differences between the Senate-passed United States Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) and the House-passed National Science Foundation (NSF) for the Future Act – thus creating a pathway to passage for the supply chain and research investment bills.
With the House consideration of the Build Back Better Act (BBBA) – Democrats’ $1.75 trillion-plus budget reconciliation bill – pushed to this week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that the Senate will begin consideration of the fiscal year (FY) 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this week.
While the COVID-19 pandemic pushed forward massive advancements in telehealth, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has taken it one step – or more – further and is using virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) in nearly 50 sites for clinical care, an official said Nov. 8.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has embarked on a new initiative to assess the status of geographic information systems (GIS) within the 911 community, with a goal of defining what is required to achieve interoperable GIS data sharing nationwide.
Government agencies continue to modernize IT environments putting data to work for employees, citizens, and the warfighter. During a webinar hosted by Dell Technologies on Oct 19, Federal chief intelligence officers (CIOs) shared best practices for selecting the right infrastructure for high-value workloads.
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said today that the Pentagon, as well as the rest of the Federal government, needs to adopt a problem-solving mindset in order to succeed in innovation in a rapidly changing technological landscape.
The Department of Defense (DoD) has signed a seven-year, $374 million contract with Concur Technologies that makes the company the sole source for DoD’s Defense Travel Modernization (DTM) project, DoD announced Sept. 15 on SAM.gov.