USDA Agriculture

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) has taken implementation of FITARA (Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) to heart, making it part of performance plans, department policy, and gaining visibility across its IT environment, USDA officials explained July 31 at an ACT-IAC event. […]

Capital, House of Representatives, Congress, Senate

FITARA, FedRAMP, and 21st Century IDEA are all shaping Federal IT modernization efforts, explained Rich Beutel and Mike Hettinger at ServiceNow’s Knowledge 2019 Conference. […]

Connolly

Federal IT is on the right path and is making progress on modernization, but Congress will continue to push agencies to modernize faster and address slowdowns in processes, including FedRAMP, said Representative Gerry Connolly, D-Va. […]

FITARA

Department of Agriculture (USDA) CIO Gary Washington said today that his agency is focusing on boosting its FITARA (Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) grades by the time the House Oversight and Reform Committee issues its next set of scores – expected in December – and is confident that the agency can accomplish that goal. […]

Most Federal agencies earned stable scores in the latest FITARA (Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) Scorecard issued by the House Oversight and Reform Committee, but two big shifts in the way the committee reached those grades could portend significant changes going forward. […]

FITARA

Several Federal IT industry stalwarts offered praise today for the important role that FITARA (the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) has played in pushing Federal agencies toward greater IT modernization, and for the opportunities for further progress that the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s FITARA Scorecard helps to clarify for Federal CIOs. […]

The chairman and ranking member of the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Government Reform delivered a clear to-do list on Thursday to Federal CIOs: pursue further data center consolidation, tighten the reporting lines between CIOs and agency heads, and craft better roadmaps for IT modernization. […]

Congressional concerns over the revision to the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) policy were a main focal point during a hearing on the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) Scorecard 8.0 today. […]

The House Oversight and Reform Committee’s latest report card on how the 24 largest Federal agencies are progressing on critical IT initiatives reveals a core of relatively stable agency scores, but with several big twists that significantly impact grades for most agencies. […]

FITARA

The Department of Defense (DoD) netted its highest grade on the FITARA (Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act) Scorecard yet, earning a C+ on the eighth version of the biannual scorecard released today by the House Oversight and Reform Committee. […]

Cybersecurity cyber

Federal agencies are unprepared to confront and mitigate cyberthreats today, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affair Committee Investigations Subcommittee determined in a report released today, recommending that agencies give CIOs more authority to make decisions on cybersecurity. […]

FITARA

A new survey from MeriTalk finds that 70 percent of Federal IT leaders surveyed believe that FITARA (the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) has been effective in accelerating Federal IT modernization, with 68 percent agreeing that the law has improved Federal IT efficiency. […]

FITARA

Federal CIO Suzette Kent tops the witness list for the House Government Operations Subcommittee’s June 26 hearing to assess implementation of the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA), and to release the eighth version of the full House Oversight and Reform Committee’s FITARA Scorecard that grades Federal agencies on their progress under the law, MeriTalk has learned. […]

School may be out, but the next edition of the biannual report card for Federal IT is coming next week, as the House Oversight and Reform Committee has scheduled its hearing for the eighth version of the FITARA Scorecard on Wednesday, June 26. […]

OPM Office of Personnel Management

Michael Rigas, deputy director at the Office of Personnel and Management (OPM), cited the agency’s low score on the most recent FITARA (Federal IT and Acquisition Reform Act) scores to justify its proposal to move the agency’s functions under the General Services Administration (GSA). […]

One of the biggest hurdles to Federal agency adoption of Technology Business Management (TBM) practices may be the degree of cultural change necessary to get everyone – including IT, finance, and top leadership – on board for the effort, said Ken Rogers, deputy CIO at the State Department, on Wednesday, May 15, at the Apptio Federal TBM Summit. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report today that shines a light on nine Federal agencies for 12 practices the agencies adopted to help them more effectively implement FITARA (Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) provisions. […]

Out of the 24 CFO Act agencies, 13 agencies reported that they had met data center closure goals set by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and a majority met cost savings targets, but no agency with a data center met optimization targets, according to a report released today by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). […]

As the Federal government continues toward technological modernization, the General Services Administration (GSA) announced yesterday in a blog post that it is offering a new Software License Management (SLM) program–SLM Fast–to more efficiently, securely, and cost-effectively manage software. […]

Capitol Washington DC Federal

U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, who heads the Government Accountability Office (GAO), today publicly questioned the priority given by Federal agency heads to cybersecurity issues that have long been flagged by GAO on its “High Risk List,” the latest biennial edition of which was issued by the agency today. […]

FITARA Awards 2019 - Congressman Will Hurd

During a hearing on Tuesday, members of Congress, including Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, shared their concerns about the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA’s) technology efforts with Secretary Robert Wilkie, including the electronic health record modernization (EHR-M) project, FITARA implementation, and telehealth efforts. […]

If you take a look at MeriTalk’s newly released FITARA Dashboard, be ready to find some clear success stories across the seven categories of the FITARA Scorecard – as well as areas where improvement still is needed. […]

Cybersecurity cyber

MeriTalk recently connected with Ted Girard, Vice President Public Sector, Okta, on how agencies can get the most out of the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program to navigate on-premise, cloud, and mobile security. MeriTalk:  How does CDM align with the transition from legacy systems to the cloud? Ted Girard:  While the initial CDM phases […]

Federal Cloud Flag

While the Federal IT community is eager to embrace the benefits of cloud services, agency leaders are working to balance the transition to cloud with Federal policies and maintaining continuous operations, deputy CIOs from the Air Force and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) told the crowd at CES-Government on Friday in Las Vegas. […]

During remarks to reporters on Sunday, President Trump explained his comfort with having a number of acting agency secretaries in his cabinet, saying he is in “no hurry” to name new nominees to head agencies on a permanent and confirmable basis. […]

DoD Pentagon Military

A report from the Department of Defense Inspector General found various software management problems across several service components which the IG said raise cybersecurity risks and create unnecessary costs, but DoD’s Office of the CIO declined to respond to the draft report. […]

In the afterglow of last week’s FITARA Scorecard 7.0 report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee–which catalogued both substantial improvements by some Federal agencies in numerous grading categories and efforts by others to shore up a sturdier floor under otherwise fairly poor grades–several Federal IT industry executives took a few minutes with MeriTalk to share their thoughts about how agencies might be able to boost their grades on the next scorecard, scheduled for May 2019. […]

Modernization
FITARA

While yesterday’s hearing held by two House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittees was a mostly upbeat affair given the better grades earned by several Federal agencies on the committee’s latest FITARA scorecard, committee members also grilled witnesses about impediments that stand in the way of agencies implementing a key aspect of the MGT (Modernizing Government Technology) Act. […]

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