Government Matters

Linda Springer, senior advisor at the White House Office of Management and Budget, sat down with Francis for an exclusive interview to discuss the impact of President Trump’s budget on the federal workforce, progress with the agency reorganization effort and the overall coordinate of the White House’s management agenda. Springer also teased a major announcement coming from OMB this week – phase one of an OMB effort to look across management offices to find things that can be eliminated, paused or modified to reduce administrative burdens government-wide.

In this week’s Federal Beat roundtable, Nick Wakeman, editor of Washington Technology, and Jason Miller, executive editor of Federal News Radio, discuss the announcement that the General Services Administration is moving its Technology Transformation Service under the jurisdiction of the Federal Acquisition Service.

Randy Stone, deputy Inspector General of policy and oversight at the Defense Department, discusses the mission, responsibilities and goals of his office, which he describes as ‘an IG’s office, inside the IG’s office.’

Todd Harrison, director of budget analysis at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, discuss the “unfunded priorities” lists submitted by the military services to Congress.

Marjorie Censer, editor at Inside Defense and Tony Bertuca, chief editor at Inside the Pentagon, discuss how the defense industrial base is faring after nearly 150 days of the Trump presidency.

Frank Konkel, senior technology editor at Government Executive, and Adam Mazmanian, executive editor of FCW, discuss Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin’s announcement that VA will be adopting the Defense Department’s electronic health records system.

Ronald Marks, chair of the Intelligence Program at the Daniel Morgan Graduate School of National Security, discuss how agencies should be building out and managing their cybersecurity strategies.

Mike Hettinger, president of Hettinger Strategy Group, and Rich Beutel, principal at Cyrrus Analytics, LLC., discuss what we know about the White House’s vision to build a 21st century government and modernize the customer experience.

Adrian Gardner, CIO at FEMA, discusses the work his agency is doing to comply with the cybersecurity executive order and how to recruit the right cyber talent. He also talked about the 4th Annual Cybersecurity Summit, happening Wednesday June 7.

Richard Spires, CEO of Learning Tree International, discusses the common themes emerging from the multiple executive orders and policy items on management released by the White House.

Marcus Weisgerber, global business editor at Defense One and Paul D. Shinkman, senior national security writer at U.S. News & World Report, discuss the FY18 DoD budget request and read the tea leaves about what Trump’s budget might mean for the military’s future.

The General Services Administration’s Justin Herman discussed the agency’s pilot project to make public service information available on personal assistants like Amazon’s Alexa, or the Google Home. Francis sat down with him at ACT-IAC’s Management of Change Conference in Cambridge, Md.

Kymm McCabe, technology principal at Deloitte, discussed the Federal Agency Customer Experience Act introduced by Senator James Lankford, and Senator Claire McCaskill, which aims to make it easier for agencies to gather feedback about their services to citizens.

Kevin Kelly, CEO at LGS Innovations and Wayne Lewandowski, area vice president of Federal at Thales e-Security, discuss the impact of President Trump’s cybersecurity executive order on agencies.

The Trump administration is busy trying to fill thousands of political vacancies on the defense and civilian sides of government. First-time appointees need to figure out how agencies operate -- fast -- and one relationship can be key. The partnerships between agency leaders and their inspectors general are some of the most important in government. Glenn Fine, acting IG at the Department of Defense, offered some advice to colleagues in the IG community at all levels of government.

Military.com air warfare reporter Oriana Pawlyk, Nextgov technology reporter Mohana Ravindranath, and FCW staff writer Sean Carberry joined Francis for this edition of the Federal Beat. They discussed Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' trip to Singapore, the push for a bug bounty program at Homeland Security, an Air Force request for 4,000 airmen, Rep. Mike McCaul's (R-TX) DHS reorganization effort, and the Trump administration's emerging health IT strategy.

Lt. Gen. Mary Legere (USA, ret.), managing director for the national and defense intelligence business at Accenture, discussed the proliferation of new strategies for collecting information in the Intelligence Community.

Mike Kuhlman, chief scientist of national security at Battelle, discussed the possible impact of President Trump's budget proposal for fiscal year 2018 on federal laboratories, biodefense, and research & development.

Kim Weaver, director of external affairs for the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, offered the latest information on the Department of Defense's blended retirement program.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a slew of IT projects advancing simultaneously. Today, the agency is both a consumer and provider of shared services. It's also implementing a cybersecurity executive order and consolidating data centers at a steady pace. NOAA chief information officer Zachary Goldstein discussed those issues with Government Matters at ACT-IAC's 2017 Management of Change Conference.

Ira Hobbs, former deputy assistant secretary for IT at the Treasury Department, discussed what agencies can do to get a head start on new reporting requirements mandated by the White House's cybersecurity executive order.

Chris Cummiskey, CEO of Cummiskey Strategic Solutions and former acting undersecretary at the Department of Homeland Security, discussed cyber procurement and how small businesses fit into the cyber contracting community.

Kathleen Tighe, inspector general at the Department of Education, discussed vulnerabilities in DOE's information security programs.

Flora Jordan, an engineer with Marine Corps Systems Command, is a Sammies finalist in the promising innovations category. She discussed her work on a new generation of USMC protective gear.

Steve Goodrich, CEO of the Center for Organization Excellence and author of "Transforming Government," discussed the White House's plan for government reorganization.

Former federal controller Danny Werfel and NARFE legislative director Jessica Klement discussed possible markers in President Trump's budget proposal for fiscal year 2018.

Federal Times senior staff reporter Carten Cordell, Politico defense reporter Jacqueline Klimas, and Fedscoop managing editor Billy Mitchell joined Francis for this edition of the Federal Beat. They discussed what the White House budget proposal could mean for federal workers, federal IT, and the Department of Defense.

Roland Edwards, deputy chief human capital officer at the Department of Homeland Security, discussed how the government reorganization memo and cybersecurity executive order are driving workforce priorities at DHS. He sat down with Francis at ACT-IAC's 2017 Management of Change Conference.