Fed Gov Today

The nominee to become the next Commandant of the Marine Corps says technology is integral to preparing his service for the future fight. The Senate Armed Services Committee questioned Gen. Eric Smith, the current Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, at his confirmation hearing Tuesday. In this highlight of the hearing, the Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) asks Gen. Smith about the Marine Corps’s tech posture. Gen. Smith also answers questions from the committee’s ranking member, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS).The Department of Homeland Security and its components are looking at 32 startup companies and the technology they can deliver in critical areas. Those companies demonstrated what they can do at the Silicon Valley Innovation Program Demo Week 2023. Melissa Oh, Managing Director of the SVIP at DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate, tells you what her office took away from Demo Week, and what it will do next.WATCH: “Innovation in Government from GEOINT” on demandPhoto: Gen. Eric Smith testifies to the Senate Armed Services Committee, June 13, 2023 (screen grab from committee web site)

This edition of Fed Gov Today, featuring the ACT-IAC Health Innovation Summit 2023, is sponsored by Red Hat and Carahsoft.Innovation is coming fast for health care providers all across the federal government, according to speakers at the Health Innovation Summit. The people who run the support infrastructure will benefit from innovation too. Ryan Dempsey Argentieri is Deputy Director of the Office of Technology at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. At the Summit, I asked her if health innovation right now is mostly patient centric, or provider centric.The work Ryan described is just some of the tactical work that’s going on at the agency level. Strategic opportunities will explode in health care IT in the coming years too. Ben Cushing, Chief Architect for Health and Life Sciences at Red Hat, and former Application Engineer at the National Institutes of Health, tells you what to look for in the coming months and years.The Deputy Chief Information Officer at the Department of Health and Human Services is new to the agency, and to health IT, but she’s not new to the Federal government. Jennifer Wendel joined HHS recently from the FBI. At the Health Innovation Summit, she described her portfolio at HHS.Photo: Speakers at the ACT-IAC Health Innovation Summit 2023 (L-R): Amanda Lienau, VA; Ryan Dempsey Argentieri, ONC; Col. Thomas Cantilina, DHA; Srini Iyer, Leidos (photo credit Ben Marglin via LinkedIn)

On the latest episode of the Innovation In Government television show from SOF Week, you learned about five pillars the Operator Relief Fund bases its help around for Special Operators. The pillars are sleep; alcohol; hormones; nutrients; and psychological. At SOF Week, I asked Derek Nadalini, Beneficiary Advocate for the Operator Relief Fund, how his group settled on those five pillars.Defense department leaders say their supply chains are one of their most important priorities. A lot of the discussion focuses around the continuity of those supply chains, but capacity is becoming more important too, according to those leaders. Jerry McGinn, Executive Director of the Baroni Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University and former Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manufacturing and Industrial Base, writes about the DIB in Breaking Defense, and tells you more about his prescription for the supply chain.The Chief Information Officer of the United States says she is “super optimistic” about the potential of artificial intelligence for citizen experience. She describes a numbers game that could deliver big impact for citizens. Pam Isom, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of IsAdvice & Consulting, former Executive Director of the Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office, and former Deputy Chief Information Officer at the Energy Department, offers ideas to maximize that potential.Photo: Francis Rose and Derek Nadalini at SOF Week, May 10, 2023

The intelligence community is moving to the cloud through its Commercial Cloud Enterprise. But one of the I-C’s leaders says the community doesn’t have a multi-cloud strategy. Bob Osborn, Chief Technology Officer for Global Governments for ServiceNow & former CIO of the National Nuclear Security Administration, describes what goes into a multi-cloud strategy, and how to make it work.The United States has a “generational opportunity” to cooperate with partners. That opportunity exists in tech development and the defense industrial base, according to Bill Greenwalt, visiting senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; a founder of the Silicon Valley Defense Group; former deputy undersecretary of defense for industrial policy; and former senior staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He and his co-author Tom Corben write about the generational opportunity, and Bill tells you how to make the most of that opportunity.Federal agencies would buy software very differently under a bill in Congress. The “Strengthening Agency Management and Oversight of Software Assets Act” is under consideration in both the House and Senate. Mary Davie, President of Mary Davie Consulting, former assistant commissioner of the Office of Integrated Technology Services at the Federal Acquisition Service, and former Deputy Associate Administrator for the Mission Support Directorate at NASA, advises agencies about what they’ll have to prepare for if the bill becomes law.ACT-IAC Health Innovation Summit 23, Reston VA, June 8, 2023Photo: Mary Davie (NASA)

The next evolution of FedRamp is here. A new blog post at FedRamp.gov is titled “Revision 5 Baselines Have Been Approved and Released.” Dave Wennergren, CEO of ACT-IAC & former Chief Information Officer of the Navy, former Deputy Defense Department CIO, and former assistant Deputy chief Management Officer at DOD, explains what the new guidelines mean, and what comes next for industry and agencies.Agencies and other stakeholders have a new list of action items to make their digital modernization efforts work. David Powner, Executive Director of the Center for Data-Driven Policy at MITRE and former Director of IT Issues at the Government Accountability Office, writes about them with his colleague Nitin Naik, and he tells you what’s on the roadmap they’ve written, and how agencies can navigate it.The Thrift Savings Plan is taking a page out of the President’s Management Agenda. It’s reshaping its customer experience organization to serve TSP participants better. Kim Weaver, Director of External Affairs at the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, tells you why the FRTIB has unveiled its new Office of Participant Experience, and what it will do.ACT-IAC Health Innovation Summit 23, Reston VA, June 8, 2023Photo: David Powner testifies to the House Oversight and Reform subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation, May 10, 2023 (screen grab from committee site)

This podcast was recorded at GEOINT Symposium 2023, hosted by the US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, in St. Louis, MO, May 22-23, 2023.Technology isn’t the aspect of the metaverse government leaders are strategizing for. Personal privacy and personal security are important considerations for government leaders too. Dan Opstal, Acting Director of the National Civil Applications Center at the U-S Geological Survey, hosted a panel about privacy and security in the metaverse at GEOINT 2023. After that panel, he told me about the intersection of the metaverse with his job.The Chief Information Officer at NGA is new to the job, but he’s not new to the agency. Mark Chatelain has only been the CIO there since February, but he’s been at NGA since before it was NGA. At GEOINT 2023, I asked him how his tenure there informs the way he leads the technology shop.ACT-IAC Health Innovation Summit 23, Reston VA, June 8, 2023Photo (L-R): Francis Rose & Mark Chatelain at GEOINT 2023 (Fed Gov Today photo)

This podcast was recorded at GEOINT Symposium 2023, hosted by the US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, in St. Louis, MO, May 22-23, 2023. The theme of this year’s event is “From Maps To Metaverse.” Many of the discussions here focused on the metaverse. Christy Monaco, Vice President of Programs at the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation and former Chief Ventures Officer at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, explains how the Foundation decided on that theme.NGA is exploring what it calls non-linear career paths to solidify recruitment and retention. Ian Zearfaus, Director of the Human Capital Advanced Capabilities Office at NGA, discusses how non-linear career paths benefit employees and the agency.One of the panels here about the metaverse addressed bringing it to the geoint field. One of the panelists was the Deputy Chief Technology Officer at NGA, Christopher Johnson. I asked him how the practitioners on this panel define the metaverse.ACT-IAC Health Innovation Summit 23, Reston VA, June 8, 2023Photo (L-R): Francis Rose & Christopher Johnson at GEOINT 2023 (Fed Gov Today photo)

Congress could find budget savings in federal agency software, according to a veteran of the Hill. He calls those contracts “software vampire squid.” Matt Cornelius, former Senior Professional Staff Member for the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and former Senior Technology and Cybersecurity Advisor at the Office of Management and Budget, writes about software licensing in FCW, and he tells you about legislation that could kill the squid.Federal employees would all become at-will employees if two members of Congress get their way. The Public Service Reform Act would eliminate most of the ways federal employees have to appeal personnel decisions, too. Jeff Neal, former Chief Human Capital Officer at the Department of Homeland Security, explains the nuances of the bill and why he believes it would be bad for the federal workforce.ACT-IAC Health Innovation Summit 23, Reston VA, June 8, 2023Photo (L-R): Francis Rose, Jeff Neal on Government Matters

The debt limit debate on Capitol Hill could have some impact for operations at federal agencies. Those implications for agencies could be somewhat familiar and different at the same time. Janice Haith, industry strategic advisor at Oracle and former Deputy Chief Information Officer of the Navy, tells you why, and how to prepare for it.Operators across the government are using the Team Awareness Kit for a variety of situational awareness uses. Its program center says TAK is the “core of a suite of georeferenced imagery and communications tools that allow for scaled operational planning, data sharing, visualized elevation data, and target management.” Ryan McLean, Director of the TAK Program Center, explains what TAK, how it works, and how it exists as a unique entity inside the DoD ecosystem.ACT-IAC Health Innovation Summit 23, Reston VA, June 8, 2023Photo: TAK logo, courtesy of TAK.gov

The Inspector General’s office at the General Services Administration has a new look at the Transactional Data Reporting pilot on the Multiple Award Schedule. That new look finds more problems on top of the problems the IG office found before. Larry Allen, President of Allen Federal Business Partners, doesn’t think the problems the IG found are problems, and he explains why.U.S. Special Operations Command is running some innovative programs to get special operators the equipment they need. Those programs come from SOCOM’s Science and Technology Directorate. Lisa Sanders is Director of Science and Technology at SOCOM. At SOF Week 2023, she told me about her directorate’s mission.Photo: Francis Rose and Lisa Sanders at SOF Week 2023