Government Matters

Updates on the CDO Council

Ted Kaouk, Chief Data Officer at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, provides updates on the federal Chief Data Officers Council and projects it is focusing on this year

Top priorities for the latest Defense nominees

Sharon Burke, Senior Advisor at New America, and Bill Greenwalt, Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, discuss the latest Biden administration confirmations and hearings for nominees

Working with federal leaders to execute the budget request

Tina Jonas, Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Dave Mader, Civilian Sector Chief Strategy Officer at Deloitte, discuss the release of the fiscal year 2022 budget request and next steps for agency officials on Capitol Hill

The latest on Large Scale Exercise 2021

Adm. Jamie Foggo (USN-ret.), Distinguished Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, provides details for a major upcoming Navy and Marine Corps training exercise that will implement a live-virtual concept

The latest on Biden’s executive order on climate change

Terry Gerton, President & CEO of NAPA, discusses action items for agencies within the new executive order on climate change and the risk it poses

The latest on TMF project proposals

Richard Spires, Principal at Richard A. Spires Consulting, discusses what he will pay attention to as agencies submit proposals to the Technology Modernization Fund and start to execute projects

Updates on Air Force funding and initiatives

Lt. Gen. David Deptula (USAF, Ret.), Dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, discusses his top five action items for the next Air Force secretary

Overviewing strategic budget objectives in the Defense Department

Stacie Pettyjohn, Senior Fellow and Director of the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security, discusses priorities likely to be in the upcoming defense budget request

Updates on inactivating U.S. Navy littoral combat ships

Seth Cropsey, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, explains why the first two littoral combat ships will be leaving the Navy earlier than planned

The latest on the Senate postal reform bill

Jessica Klement, Staff Vice President of Policy and Programs for NARFE, explains the new postal reform bill for health benefits and explains why Congress should wait to move forward with it

The future of information in warfighting

Chris Dougherty, Senior Fellow at CNAS, discusses the importance of information management in preparation against the increasing threat of “informationized warfare”

Updates on Department of Labor’s role in unemployment system

Stephen Wandner, Senior Fellow at the National Academy of Social Insurance, discusses the need for resources for the Department of Labor to improve unemployment insurance programs

Lessons learned from coronavirus oversight

Brian Miller, Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery, discusses challenges he has faced in his role as a Special IG and success his office is having in pandemic relief oversight

Goals for the NSF Convergence Accelerator

Doug Maughan, Office Head for the NSF Convergence Accelerator, talks about the National Science Foundation’s Convergence Accelerator program that uses ideation from the community to find solutions for national challenges

Updates on returning to the workplace

Ron Sanders, Staff Director at the Florida Center for Cybersecurity, and Dan Blair, former Deputy Director at the Office of Personnel Management, talk about the “new normal” and agency plans for bringing employees back to workplaces

Overseeing the pandemic task force

Robert Shea, National Managing Principal for Public Policy at Grant Thornton, discusses the addition of an interagency Fraud Enforcement Task Force to minimize fraud in COVID-19 relief

Updates on vaccines and federal contractors

Stephanie Kostro, Executive Vice President for Policy at the Professional Services Council, discusses the lack of clarity in guidelines for contractors regarding vaccines

Cyberattacks against small businesses on the rise

Kiersten Todt, Managing Director at the Cyber Readiness Institute, goes over ideas for what the government can do to help small businesses strengthen their cybersecurity

Updates on defense auditing

Mark Easton, former Deputy Chief Financial Officer at the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, discusses President Biden’s nominee for defense comptroller and the value of improved data for the audit

Updates on Force Design 2030

Col. James McGinley, Co-Chair of the USMC Affairs Committee at the Navy League, provides his takeaways from the update to the Marine Corps Force Design 2030 and discusses what to expect from future updates

Updates on 2022 budget request

Seamus Daniels, Associate Director and Associate Fellow for Defense Budget Analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, debunks the notion of the “rule of thirds” in defense budgeting

The state of US naval seapower

Jerry Hendrix, Vice President of the Telemus Group, discusses his view that the United States should go back to prioritizing seapower to be able to match the current competitive environment

Recommendations for preventing domestic abuse in DoD

Brenda Farrell, Director of Defense Capabilities and Management Issues at GAO, details the Defense Department’s struggle to accurately report incidents of domestic abuse and violence

Using data to identify and analyze racial inequities

Temilola Afolabi, Research Associate at the Center for Open Data Enterprise, discusses opportunities for the Biden administration to use data to improve racial equity

Biden signs executive order to strengthen cybersecurity

Ron Marks, President of ZPN Cyber and National Security Strategies, discusses the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack and the need for requirements to prevent similar attacks

National security budget proposal at the DoD

Miranda Priebe, Director of the Center for Analysis of U.S. Grand Strategy at RAND, describes how economic growth from infrastructure investments have beneficial effects for national security

Cybersecurity EO impact on government contractors

Eric Crusius, Partner at Holland & Knight, discusses interpreting the cybersecurity executive order and preparing to implement requirements

The future of Chief Financial Officers in government

Mike Wetklow, Deputy Chief Financial Officer at the National Science Foundation, and Stephen Kunze, Deputy Chief Financial Officer at the Department of Commerce, talk about the first draft of their plan for chief financial officers of the future

Updates on this week’s confirmation hearings

Tony Bertuca, Chief Editor at Inside the Pentagon, and Aaron Mehta, Deputy Editor and Senior Pentagon Correspondent at Defense News, discuss the recent confirmation hearing of Christine Wormuth as well as upcoming hearings for other Biden nominees

New cyber executive orders

Karen Evans, former Chief Information Officer of the Department of Homeland Security, and Tony Scott, CEO of The TonyScottGroup, LLC, discuss President Biden’s new executive order on cybersecurity