The U.S. Digital Service (USDS) partnered with the IRS to launch the new Direct File Pilot Program, which USDS Administrator Mina Hsiang said on Wednesday is an “incredibly exciting” customer experience (CX) achievement. […]

The United States Digital Service (USDS) has been “laser-focused” on its mission to deliver better government services to the American people through technology and design since August 2014. […]

United States Digital Service (USDS) Director of Engineering Maya Israni said today that the biggest challenges her team sees Federal agencies encounter when it comes to IT modernization are resources, people, and appetite. […]

Cori Zarek will join the United States Digital Service (USDS) as deputy administrator later this month, she announced in a blog post today. […]

Mina Hsiang, administrator of the U.S. Digital Service (USDS), offered her latest insights into current work and progress underway in executing on the White House’s customer experience executive order (CX EO) during remarks on July 21 at the MerITocracy American Innovation Forum. […]

The Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) U.S. Digital Service (USDS) and the General Services Administration’s (GSA) 18F program must coordinate more consistently on developing agency guidance to eliminate overlap or duplication of guidance or conflicting guidance, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. […]

The American Rescue Plan (ARP), passed in March, included an additional $1 billion for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF). Last week, Federal Chief Information Security Officer Chris DeRusha said the first round of awards was coming soon. Today, Federal CIO Clare Martorana said the TMF board sent the first seven project awards to Congress for final approval. […]

Mina Hsiang will serve as the new administrator of the United States Digital Service (USDS). She will be the first woman and first Asian-American to lead the agency since it was created in 2014. […]

Now that there are real dollars beginning to finally accompany the many voices calling for government IT modernization, it’s perfect timing for Marianne Bellotti’s new book, “Kill It with Fire,” which cautions against the headlong approach the title connotes. She conveys this quite succinctly in the book’s pithy epigraph – with a quote from Ellen Ullman, a fellow author and computer programmer: “We build our computer systems the way we build our cities: over time, without a plan, on top of ruins.” […]

The U.S. Digital Service’s (USDS) Matt Cutts announced he is stepping down as the agency’s administrator in a self-authored Medium post this week. […]

A broad economic recovery plan released late today by President-elect Joe Biden proposes a whopping $9 billion increase to the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), along with a host of other funding measures to upgrade Federal government technology and improve IT security following the Russian hack of thousands government and private sector networks that came to light last month. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) is partnering with Defense Digital Service (DDS) and HackerOne to launch the second Hack the Army bug bounty challenge. The challenge, which will run from Oct. 9 to Nov. 8, encourages hackers to attack more than 60 publicly accessible web assets to improve the DoD’s cyber defenses. […]

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and U.S. Digital Service (USDS) are teaming up to determine a new way to hire IT talent for Federal positions. […]

In the wake of a critical report on the implementation of the MISSION Act by the U.S. Digital Service, officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) offered assurances to the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs that the program is on track and veterans will see no disruption in care. […]

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., on Thursday introduced the Digital Service Act, which would increase funding for the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) and provide a conduit for state and local governments to get USDS grants to fund information technology (IT) modernization efforts. […]

Welcome to MeriTalk News Briefs, where we bring you all the day’s action that didn’t quite make the headlines. No need to shout about ‘em, but we do feel that they merit talk. […]

The U.S. Digital Service (USDS) said earlier this month that it established a new standard for Federal acquisition pros looking to procure digital services. Acting as a “core-plus certification” to the existing Federal Acquisition Certification in Contracting (FAC-C), FAC-C-DS certifies those who complete a Digital IT Acquisition Professional (DITAP) program. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is focused on modernizing its aging technology infrastructure. From overhauling its electronic health records system to moving to the cloud, the VA has been busy. […]

Government agencies shouldn’t give up on developing agile models of procurement despite setbacks, according to Eric Hysen, former United States Digital Service official. […]

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency needs to attract new tech talent with new ideas and a desire to work on something bigger and more important than the next popular dating app. One of the ways the agency hopes to do that is by continuing to work with the government’s own in-house innovation shop, 18F. […]

Federal agencies need more help from IT groups within government and from the private sector to mitigate cybersecurity threats, according to Grant Schneider, acting Federal chief information security officer at the Office of Management and Budget. […]

The technology departments at Federal agencies are just as exciting as Silicon Valley startups, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith and U.S. Digital Service Administrator Haley Van Dyck told a panel at South by Southwest in Austin. […]