Members of the House Oversight Government Operations Subcommittee expressed happiness with the progress that Federal agencies have made on their FITARA scores, but remained critical of the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) guidance on the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) due to the policy’s revised guidelines on what constitutes a data center. […]
Seven Federal agency chief information officers and their senior staffs won well-deserved recognition earlier this month for boosting their agencies’ grades on the latest FITARA (Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) Scorecard issued by the House Oversight and Reform Committee. […]
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., chairman of the House Government Operations Subcommittee, pledged late Tuesday to continue his subcommittee’s vigorous oversight of Federal agency IT modernization efforts, and to evolve the criteria underlying one of the more visible aspects of that oversight effort – the semiannual FITARA (Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act) Scorecard issued by the full House Oversight and Reform Committee. […]
With summer coming to a close and back-to-school season approaching, agencies will need to catch up on their assignment to get task orders in for the next generation of telecommunications contracts – Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions, or EIS. With a September 30 deadline fast approaching, did the class of Federal agencies do their homework on the contract? Current indicators show some progress, but a long way to go. […]
With the year quickly coming to a close, the FedRAMP Authorization Act will be one of Rep. Gerry Connolly’s “big priorities” for legislation, with a markup session expected when the House returns from its August recess, Connolly said during MeriTalk’s Cyber Security Brainstorm today. […]
The Senate on July 25 approved the Federal Agency Customer Experience Act (S. 1275), which would charge Federal agencies with gathering customer feedback about agency services, and to make some of that feedback data public. […]
Leadership of the House Government Reform Subcommittee introduced legislation today that would codify into law the FedRAMP (Federal Risk Assessment and Management Program), and take a number of other actions aimed at making the program work more efficiently. […]
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. […]
Democratic and Republican leaders of the House Subcommittee on Government Reform today previewed their bipartisan effort to create legislation that would codify into law the FedRAMP (Federal Risk Assessment and Management Program) program that standardizes security requirements of cloud services used by the government, and make the FedRAMP program operate more efficiently. […]
With ever-changing threats, advances in technology, and persistent adversaries, the cybersecurity landscape for Federal IT can seem like a shootout against attackers coming from all angles. […]
Reps. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and Gerry Connolly, D-Va., strongly voiced doubts that the Trump Administration’s plan to merge the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the General Services Administration (GSA) would help solve OPM’s existing IT troubles in a July 15 letter to OPM Acting Director Margaret Weichert. […]
The House on July 11 approved an amendment to its version of the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 2500) that would block the Trump administration’s plan to merge the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the General Services Administration. […]
Two Democratic senators told Margaret Weichert, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), to put the brakes on proposed furloughs of OPM employees in connection with a plan by the Trump administration to merge OPM with the General Services Administration. […]
While the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) may be struggling with its outdated and constrained IT systems, the need for modernized technology is not a valid reason to merge OPM with the General Services Administration (GSA), said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., in a June 30 interview with Government Matters. […]
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. […]
Members of Congress raised concerns over what they called a spotty response from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to requests from the Hill for documents related to OPM’s reorganization plan, during a hearing of the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations on June 27. […]
The Office of Management and Budget in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security recently proposed an update to the Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) policy: TIC 3.0. Still in draft form, TIC 3.0, proposes increased cloud security flexibility for federal agencies, and the opportunity to use modern security capabilities to meet the spirit and intent of the original TIC policy. […]
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 voted today to approve $35 million of FY2020 funding for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), which provides money to Federal agencies to pursue promising IT modernization projects. […]
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) finalized the Data Center Optimization Initiative (DCOI) policy on June 25, largely keeping the draft policy in place despite criticisms from Congress and industry. […]
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., is offering an amendment to the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act (HR 3351) that would boost the FY2020 budget for the Technology Modernization Fund by $15 million, to a total of $50 million. […]
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. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) plans to furlough 150 employees if Congress does not authorize a proposed merger of OPM with the General Services Administration by June 30, according to a report from the Washington Post. […]
The draft Financial Service and General Government budget released by the House Appropriations Committee on Sunday, June 2, only includes $35 million for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), putting funding below the White House budget request of $150 million and more in line with the $25 million allocated in fiscal year 2019. […]
The Trump administration’s plan to reorganize the Office of Personnel and Management (OPM) ran squarely into bipartisan concerns expressed by House members over a lack of information about the plan to move the agency’s functions to the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a memo today to agency chief human capital officers (CHCOs) encouraging increased workplace flexibilities for employees impacted by the closure of six Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) stations over the summer. […]
The Trump administration’s proposal to reorganize the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is due to face tough questioning by the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations at a hearing scheduled for May 21. […]
The Trump administration will propose legislation on Friday to move the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) under the General Services Administration (GSA) due to a severe need for structural changes and IT modernization, Acting OPM Director Margaret Weichert told reporters on Tuesday. […]
An Office of Personnel Management (OPM) spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk that Margaret Weichert, OPM’s Acting Director, has accepted an invitation from the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s Government Operations Subcommittee to testify at a hearing to examine the Trump administration’s plan to reorganize OPM. […]