Ask the CIO

Suzi Connor, the chief information officer at CDC, said a new three-pronged approach will change the way the agency manages and uses technology. Connor joined Federal News Network's Jason Miller on this week's episode of Ask the CIO.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Whether or not the Section 809 panel’s recommendation to exempt the Defense Department from the Clinger-Cohen Act makes sense or goes too far, the congressionally-mandated group hit upon a bigger issue to be solved for every agency: The way Congress provides funding for agencies to buy technology is frozen in time. Former Office of Management and Budget and Defense Department IT executives weighed in on why the frustrations over IT management boiled over in the Section 809 panel report, on this week's Ask the CIO with host Jason Miller.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Andrea Norris, the chief information officer at the National Institutes of Health, said her agency is investing heavily in people, tools and cloud services to take more advantage of data.

Max Everett, the Energy Department’s chief information officer, said about one-third to one-half of the department still needs to move their email to the cloud.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Raghav Vajjhala, the chief information officer of the FTC, said a new blanket purchase agreement with four vendors will help the agency take a low risk approach to IT modernization.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Contracting officers are getting some much needed help to make sure solicitations include language to guarantee accessibility for people with disabilities. Section 508 requires agencies to buy technology products and services that are compliant with accessibility standards. Where no human could review the tens of thousands of requests for proposals (RFPs) that come out every year to make sure they include the correct Section 508 clauses, computers can.Marina Fox, who leads the DotGov Domain Services in Office of Governmentwide Policy at the General Services Administration, joined Jason Miller on Ask the CIO this week to discuss.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Margie Graves, the deputy chief information officer of the government at the Office of Management and Budget, said the administration is trying to identify innovative approaches for recruiting and training IT workers.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Lt. Gen. Bruce Crawford, the Army’s chief information officer, said the service’s new artificial intelligence task force will focus on tasks ranging from automating cybersecurity to identity management.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Josh Moses, the former Office of Management and Budget’s chief of the cyber and national security branch in the office of Federal CIO, said agencies are in better shape to defend against cyber attacks because of a combination of policy, people and programs.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Artificial intelligence and the cyber workforce will be front and center when the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on IT comes back for the 116th Congress. Both Reps. Will Hurd (R-Texas) and Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), currently the chairman and ranking member of the subcommittee, respectively, said they want to see progress across the government in both of these areas. House Information Technology subcommittee Chairman Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, talks with Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill. on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 18, 2015, before the start of the subcommittee's hearing on Cybersecurity. While it’s still unclear what the shape of the committee and subcommittees will look like and whether Hurd and Kelly will switch roles both say they plan to remain involved in federal IT and management issues. They spoke with Federal News Network Executive Editor Jason Miller on Ask the CIO.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.