TTS Director Ann Lewis to step down from GSA; Inside DHS nominee Kristi Noem’s record on cyber

Ann Lewis, the director of Technology Transformation Services and deputy commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, is leaving the General Services Administration after almost two years. Lewis will leave the agency on Nov. 22, according to a Tuesday press release. Mukunda Penugonde, who currently serves as deputy director of TTS, will step in as acting director and deputy commissioner. Lewis was tapped by the Biden administration in December 2022 to serve at GSA after a lengthy career in the private sector. President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Kristi Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security may bode poorly for the agency’s cybersecurity grants to state and local governments, given her opposition to the program while serving as chief executive of her state. Trump will nominate the South Dakota governor to serve as secretary of DHS, numerous news outlets reported Tuesday. Her administration in 2022 called the combined $1 billion grant program “wasteful spending” by the federal government when her state was one of only two in the nation not to seek any funding from it. In 2023, South Dakota was the lone holdout. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.