This program is sponsored by Carahsoft and NVIDIA.

The Director of the Office of Personnel Management will release a cyber talent management plan soon, according to testimony to the House Oversight and Reform Committee. That commitment is one of several Kiran Ahuja made in testimony that you heard in part on Fed Gov Today recently. Angela Bailey, founder and CEO of Anandalife, former Chief Human Capital Officer at the Department of Homeland Security, and former Chief Operating Officer and Associate Director for Employee Services at OPM, offers both an agency perspective, and an OPM perspective, on what CHCOs in government need from OPM, and what it can deliver.

The Department of Defense is reviewing results from 12 flight tests that used artificial intelligence to fly the aircraft. It’s just one example of how advanced AI tests are getting in the government. Margaret Amori, head of Nvidia Inception North America, tells me at Nvidia GTC 2023 the questions government is asking about AI today are a lot different than they were five years ago.

The Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization at the Department of Health and Human Services is prepping for two industry outreach sessions in April. It’ll conduct a vendor engagement session April 11th, and an “office hours” session for 8A companies April 13th. Shannon Jackson, Executive Director of the Office, tells me about HHS’s small business goals, and how they’re doing in meeting them.

Photo: Shannon Jackson, courtesy U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The new National Cybersecurity Strategy aligns with the Defense Department’s key cyber initiative. The Chief Executive Officer of the organization partnering with DOD on that initiative calls the strategy a rebalancing of cyber responsibilities. Matthew Travis, CEO of the Cyber AB, explains how the CMMC program intersects with the strategy.

The Defense Department is extending a pilot program that allows vendors to store spare parts in warehouses the Defense Logistics Agency runs. But it may not be following its own rules to evaluate whether the program works. Diana Maurer, Director of the Defense Capabilities and Management team at the Government Accountability Office, details how the program works, what problems her team found, and what the Department should do about them.

Photo: The Pentagon. Credit here

The new Defense Department Cyber Workforce Strategy includes four pillars for the department to focus on. The Department says an implementation guide is coming soon. Brig. Gen. Greg Touhill (USAF ret.), Director of the CERT Division at the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and former federal Chief Information Security Officer, explains how to get the strategy from document to execution.

A small drone company, Cyberlux, partners with one of the biggest defense contractors, Huntington Ingalls Industries, to get its products in the hands of war fighters. The Wall Street Journal reports efforts are under way to make that path the rule instead of the exception. Stan Soloway, President and CEO of Celero Strategies, a member of the Defense Business Board, and former deputy undersecretary of Defense for acquisition reform, explains the paths DOD is taking to make that technology acquisition easier.

The Office of Personnel Management is developing ways to collect data to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of telework and remote work. The Director of OPM, Kiran Ahuja, answered questions about that, and a lot of other federal workforce issues, at a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing. The highlight of the hearing on today’s show features questions from Reps. Pete Sessions (R-TX) and Gerry Connolly (D-VA) for Director Ahuja.

AFCEA DC luncheon March 22, 2023

Photo: OPM Director Kiran Ahuja testifies at a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing, March 9, 2023 (screen capture from committee website).

This program is sponsored by Denodo.

The Department of Veterans Affairs says it will rely on its VistA electronic health record system for another five to ten years. The VA’s transition to the Cerner health record system is on hold now. VA officials outlined their plan for maintaining VistA at a hearing of the House Veterans Affairs Technology Modernization subcommittee Tuesday. Jim Gfrerer, founder and Principal at Fidelis Technology and former Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology and Chief Information Officer at the Department of Veterans Affairs, was a witness at the hearing. He tells me what he sees moving forward for maintaining VistA, and transitioning to a new system.

The E-Gov Act is 20 years old now. Six of the seven former Federal Chief Information Officers and E-Gov Administrators gathered recently for an exclusive conversation about the past, present, and future of federal I-T. That hour-long conversation is available exclusively at FedGovToday.com, featuring Mark Forman, Karen Evans, Steve VanRoekel, Tony Scott, Suzette Kent, and the current Federal CIO, Clare Martorana. This special presentation is sponsored by Denodo. In today’s highlight, Tony Scott, Mark Forman, and Clare Martorana describe the strategy-building process that allows them to think ahead about building the federal IT enterprise, instead of just blocking and tackling.

The Defense Department’s financial management system is on the Government Accountability Office’s High Risk List again. It’s been on the list now for nearly 30 years. Kevin Walsh, Director of the Information Technology and Cybersecurity Team at GAO, reviews new findings of progress the Department is making - and isn’t making - to get its financial house in order.

Photo: Jim Gfrerer, former VA CIO (screen capture from House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing footage)

This program is sponsored by Denodo.

The Department of Veterans Affairs says it will rely on its VistA electronic health record system for another five to ten years. VA officials outlined their plan for maintaining VistA at a hearing of the House Veterans Affairs Technology Modernization subcommittee Tuesday. Roger Baker, consultant at Roger Baker Consulting, former Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology and Chief Information Officer at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and former advisory board member for Cerner, was a witness at the hearing. He tells me what he sees moving forward for maintaining VistA, and transitioning to a new system.

The E-Gov Act is 20 years old now. Six of the seven former Federal Chief Information Officers and E-Gov Administrators gathered recently for an exclusive conversation about the past, present, and future of federal I-T. That hour-long conversation is available exclusively at FedGovToday.com, featuring Mark Forman, Karen Evans, Steve VanRoekel, Tony Scott, Suzette Kent, and the current Federal CIO, Clare Martorana. This special presentation is sponsored by Denodo. In today’s highlight, Steve VanRoekel says the I-T transformation concepts the government is working on aren’t new, and Suzette Kent tells me why she thinks what you call things matters.

The Government Accountability Office will examine the Thrift Savings Plan’s transition to its new recordkeeping system. The Thrift Savings Plan says operation of the Converge system is improving. Kim Weaver, Director of External Affairs at the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, explains the metrics the TSP is using to measure improvement for Converge.

Photo: 

This program sponsored by Denodo.

Brig. Gen. Denise Brown is in her seventh month as the Director of the Army’s Networks and Command, Control, Communications, and Computer Services and Integration. One of her primary jobs is to move the Army’s Unified Network Plan forward. At AFCEA DC’s most recent luncheon event, BG Brown explains her team’s role in strategic competition.

The E-Gov Act is 20 years old now. Six of the seven former Federal Chief Information Officers and E-Gov Administrators gathered recently for an exclusive conversation about the past, present, and future of federal I-T. That hour-long conversation is available exclusively at FedGovToday.com, featuring Mark Forman, Karen Evans, Steve VanRoekel, Tony Scott, Suzette Kent, and the current Federal CIO, Clare Martorana. This special presentation is sponsored by Denodo. In today’s highlight, Clare Martorana says the work her predecessors did set the table for progress the government makes under her watch.

The Office of Management and Budget will run pilot projects to support nine citizen life experiences. OMB says the pilots build on President Biden’s customer experience executive order. Loren DeJonge Schulman, Associate Director for Performance and Personnel Management at OMB, reviews the nine experiences and the ways OMB will measure their performance.

AFCEA DC Ukraine/Russia luncheon March 22, 2023

Photo: White House social graphic via White House

From West 2023 in San Diego, CA, sponsored by Carahsoft.

A lot of the focus at West 2023 was on the Pacific. But the war in Ukraine was top of mind too. Maj. Gen. Erich Staudacher (GEAF ret.), General Manager of AFCEA Europe, says the similarities in the Pacific and in Europe should inform the way industry works with governments.

Navy leaders are shifting the way they look for solutions to problems. They say they’re asking industry about what’s available more, and moving away from dictating what the service requires companies to build. Capt. Christi Montgomery, Commanding Officer of Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center, tells me how she engaged with industry when she visited West 2023.

Operation Flank Speed is the Navy’s “biggest cloud technology advance,” according to RADM Tracy Hines, Navy Cyber Security Division Director in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. Cybersecurity is one of the benefits the Navy claims in the program. RADM Hines tells me everyone in the Navy is in the cyber field now.

AFCEA DC Ukraine/Russia luncheon March 22, 2023

Photo: RADM Tracy Hines (L) and Francis Rose, February 15, 2023 at West 2023. Photo via Fed Gov Today

Fact sheet about the new National Cybersecurity Strategy from the White House

The complete National Cybersecurity Strategy (PDF)

State Department statement on National Cybersecurity Strategy

The new National Cybersecurity Strategy is out from the Biden Administration. It updates the last National Cyber Strategy that came out in 2018. It’s built on five pillars: defending critical infrastructure; disrupting and dismantling threat actors; shaping market forces to drive security and resilience; investing in a resilient future; and forging international partnerships to pursue shared goals. Suzanne Spaulding, senior adviser for homeland security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, former under secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security, and former commissioner on the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, details what she sees in the strategy for government and industry.

The new strategy includes new elements, but it says right in the document that it builds on the work of federal agencies and previous administrations. Suzette Kent, CEO of Kent Advisory Services and former Federal Chief Information Officer, outlines what is new, and what continues and accelerates from before.

The new strategy includes an objective to strengthen the cyber workforce. Agencies are already working on ways they can build their cyber workforces. Karen Evans, Partner at KE&T Partners, Managing Director of the Cyber Readiness Institute, former E-gov administrator at the Office of Management and Budget, and former Chief Information Officer at the Department of Homeland Security, explains what the strategy will do, and enable, across the federal workforce and the companies that serve the government.

Photo: Cover of new National Cybersecurity Strategy, released March 2, 2023

From West 2023 in San Diego, CA, sponsored by Carahsoft.

SEAL teams around the world are just one group that gets its comms support from Naval Special Warfare Tactical Communications Command One. The command supports other special operations forces and conventional forces too. Commander Blythe Blakistone, commander of TCC1, tells me about her command’s mission.

The Navy is using unmanned systems in a lot of different ways, not just in high-end weapons systems. One way the service is deploying unmanned systems is in data collection. Wade Ladner, Technical Director of the Naval Oceanographic Office, tells me his office’s survey data and ocean observation collection is unique.

A new cyber workforce strategy is coming from the office of Defense Department Chief Information Officer John Sherman “any day now.” One of the leaders responsible for executing that strategy when it comes out will be Patrick Johnson. He’s Director of the Workforce Innovation Directorate in the Office of the CIO at DoD. He tells me the Pentagon can learn a lot about building a cyber workforce from industry.

The intelligence community should talk more about the threat China poses to the United States, and how it’s executing on that threat already, according to Rear Admiral Michael Studeman. He’s Commander of the Office of Naval Intelligence and Director of the National Maritime Intelligence Integration Office. He delivered a speech at West 2023 that described a pretty stark outlook on the threat from China and Russia. After his speech, he tells me what exactly he wanted to convey in those remarks.

AFCEA DC Ukraine/Russia luncheon March 22, 2023

Photo: RADM Michael Studeman (L) and Francis Rose, February 15, 2023 at West 2023. Photo via Fed Gov Today

From West 2023 in San Diego, CA, sponsored by Carahsoft.

Three weather operations provide data for the Navy. Those operations include Fleet Weather Centers in Norfolk, VA and San Diego, and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Oahu. Captain Kate Hermsdorfer, Commanding Officer for Fleet Weather Center San Diego, tells me who her command’s customers are, and what her command does for them.

The Department of Defense is working on a zero trust pilot that it says could cut its zero trust journey from five years to one. The director of the Zero Trust Portfolio Management Office, Randy Resnick, says the department will run the pilot in conjunction with the four vendors on the JWCC contract. Brian O'Donnell, Vice President of Sales at Carahsoft says at West 2023 this year cyber, as always, is top of mind for defense IT practitioners.

The Coast Guard’s data modernization strategy includes elements of cloud computing and other information technology pieces. But the Chief Data Officer of the Guard says people are an important part of that strategy too. At West 2023, Coast Guard CDO Capt. Brian Erickson tells me investing in his workforce is important to the Guard’s data success.

Photo: Capt. Brian Erickson, USCG (L) & Fed Gov Today host Francis Rose at West 2023, Feb. 15, 2023.