Recent research by the nonprofit U.S. Digital Response and the National Association of State Chief Information Officers examined what vendors don’t like about states’ request for proposal documents. The work was dead simple, as was the solution they proposed: Just put a cover sheet on your RFPs. Waldo Jaquith, a government delivery manager with USDR, joins StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast to explain the findings and why he thinks this one simple change could not only save vendors time, but improve the quality of responses that states get when they’re making purchases.

This week’s top stories:

In a letter addressed to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Norm last week, 21 Republican secretaries of state asked for improvements to her department’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, program, so they can more easily detect noncitizens who are voting in elections.

According to a recent report published by the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, state and local governments need to adopt a more “whole-of-state” approach to cybersecurity, involving all levels of government in policy and strategic planning in order to better protect critical infrastructure.

In recognition of the growing threats posed by artificial intelligence, a new security advisory committee in Arizona has published its first recommendations, including one to create an AI elections lab that can fine tune election-specific AI models for use by election offices.

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday.

For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, ,Soundcloud or Spotify.

On this week’s Priorities Podcast, a director at the Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute at New York Law School shares ways the administration of President Donald Trump can accelerate funding to states through the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. Michael Santorelli says BEAD can be made more effective by rolling back unnecessary requirements, addressing rate regulation and providing clearer guidance on satellite services like Starlink. But he says his group’s main recommendation is to get shovels in the ground faster. “Had Biden been re-elected, and the NTIA regime had stayed the same, they were on a timeline for not getting shovels in the ground in some states until like later next year,” he says. “And so anything that can close that or shorten that period of time and start getting projects going soon in the spring, certainly, hopefully, I think would be easy to claim a success then.”

This week’s top stories:

Amid delays by the federal government to release public health data like counts on avian influenza cases, state governments are continuing to build up their own public health reporting tools, including a new global report developed by the New York State Department of Health.

The National Association of Secretaries of State has sent a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, noting a preference that she retain certain services used by state and local election officials to protect the nation’s critical elections infrastructure. The request arrives as the former South Dakota governor evaluates further cuts to her department and its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Voting is open for the 2025 StateScoop50 Awards. Cast your votes for nominees being recognized for their achievements and contributions to the state government technology community.

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday.

For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,Soundcloud or Spotify.

John Cohen, executive director of the countering hybrid threats program at the Center for Internet Security, says state and local law enforcement agencies can better work together to address evolving, multi-dimensional threats. Cohen tells StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast that the cybersecurity, physical and information operations by foreign and domestic threat actors present in the 2024 election did not derail the elections process, thanks to thorough preparation by elections officials. At CIS, he says, that preparation included the launch of ThreatWA, an intelligence subscription service that bridges the gap between state and local law enforcement agencies. Cohen also says state and local governments should be vigilant about DeepSeek, the Chinese-owned artificial intelligence app that many states are working to ban.

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday.

For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,Soundcloud or Spotify.

This week, the Priorities Podcast is joined by Amanda Renteria, CEO of the civic tech nonprofit Code for America, and Robert Gordon, a former Joe Biden White House adviser who spent the past three decades working across state, local and federal government. Both Renteria and Gordon, who’ve centered their careers on making government function more efficiently and effectively, share why they think the first three weeks of the Trump administration have been disruptive and potentially damaging for state and local governments, but that the administration’s posture may also present an opportunity. “I have a feeling government is going to look very different in a year from now,” Renteria says.

This week’s top stories:

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds this week signed an executive order creating a Department of Government Efficiency task force. It will include 15-20 private-industry business leaders tasked with finding ways to maximize the use of taxpayer funds.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered updates to the state’s fire maps, which were most recently updated last April. The changes mandate a more conservative approach to managing natural vegetation in some of the state’s most fire-prone regions.

The Beeck Center for Social Innovation and Impact at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., has published a new tracker for state chief data officers. Ali Benson, director of the Beeck Center’s Data Labs initiative, told me the tool lends increased visibility to an increasingly important role.

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday.

For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud or Spotify.

After more than one year on the job, New York State Chief Information Officer Dru Rai says he’s concerned about several emerging IT trends, including shared services, procurement and the potential high cost of artificial intelligence. On StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast, Rai also says it’s important for state government technology officials to consider their processes in tandem with their IT consolidation efforts. “Consolidation does not result in cost saving if you don't do what needs to be done. For example, did you find common applications?” he says. “On procurement side, for example, when you buy things, did we ever create enterprise agreement?"

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday.

For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,Soundcloud or Spotify.

On this week’s Priorities Podcast, Maryland Chief Technology Officer Eric Bathras explains his role in Maryland’s Digital Infrastructure Group, which Gov. Wes Moore created this month with an executive order. Bathras says he and Maryland Chief Information Officer Katie Savage presented the idea of the group to the state’s leadership last year. He says it was born from a need to get more state agencies involved in planning broadband expansion. Ahead of incoming federal broadband grant dollars, Bathras says DIG provides the best opportunity for collaboration across the state’s agencies to maximize resources. “We have this unique opportunity to be able to blend our fiber and our wireless assets together and really move the state forward in terms of broadband expansion across the state in the coming years,” he says.

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday.

For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud or Spotify.

On this week’s Priorities Podcast, Madeliene Dwyer, a policy analyst for the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology, breaks down the executive orders on artificial intelligence released by 13 states and Washington D.C. Dwyer says that although governors are generally being thoughtful about how they approach AI, some states are taking greater care to avoid “unintended consequences.” She points to potential pitfalls and best practices, such as Washington state’s explicit mention of civil rights in its order.

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday.

For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,Soundcloud or Spotify.

On the latest episode of StateScoop's Priorities Podcast, Duncan McKay, a corporal with the Kirkland, Washington, Police Department says his department is prioritizing patrol car safety and maintenance through the use of electronic inspection reporting. By using digital tags on each vehicle, Duncan says, the system enables real-time access to inspection data, allowing the department to address potential vehicle safety issues and ensure that critical emergency equipment is always available. By transitioning from paper logs to digital inspections, he says the department can perform pre-shift inspections in just minutes. By ensuring vehicles and equipment are accounted for, Duncan says, officers stay longer in communities where they're needed. "Not only do we want to make sure that our vehicles are in proper working order, obviously we need to get to wherever we're going, but we need to get there safely," he says.

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday.

For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud or Spotify.

Massachusetts Chief Information Officer Jason Snyder joins the latest episode of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast to break down a new program designed to spur innovative AI solutions in the state. Snyder says the project, which started last January, connects university students with difficult challenges facing state agencies. But he says not only has the program yielded an unexpected number of productive solutions to government problems, but it’s also impressed officials into hiring eight of the first participants. “The students developed an AI that just in using human language: ‘I want to build a bridge.’ And it would come back and list all the policy associated with it and provide the actual links to that policy and references so they could click on it and access it,” Snyder says on the podcast. “The commissioner was blown away and actually hired the two students that worked on that project.”

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday.

For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,Soundcloud or Spotify.

After the devastating Hurricane Helene struck North Carolina last September, Gary Thompson, the state’s deputy hazard mitigation officer, says on StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast that the state hopes to make its stream gauges and flood warning system more resilient before next year’s storm season. Thompson says North Carolina plans to upgrade those critical communication systems with ultrasonic radar sensors and satellites so they can continue to predict flood zones, issue evacuation warnings and deliver critical information to residents about incoming storms. “One of the advantages is all the equipment is out of the water, so if there's a lot of rain, a lot of velocity, if we have the equipment high enough and stable enough for it to survive during that event,” Thompson says. Joining him is Taylor Kerby, founder of Triangle UAS, an equipment vendor that helped design North Carolina’s modern stream gauges, and Pattiy Torno, a longtime resident of Asheville, North Carolina, which was hit particularly hard by Hurricane Helene.

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday.

For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,Soundcloud or Spotify.