Post-award bid protests filed at the Government Accountability Office will not hold up the Office of Personnel Management’s rollout of a governmentwide HR system. OPM spokeswoman McLaurine Pinover confirmed to FedScoop via email that all companies that were entitled to and requested a debriefing received one, and that all debriefings were completed “well over 10 days ago.” Per rules that govern bid protests before the GAO, that means that the nearly $400 million award the agency made to Oracle in June can no longer be challenged before the watchdog agency’s adjudicatory body. The eventual 10-year award to Oracle came after a rocky start for the push to build a governmentwide HR platform. OPM initially awarded a sole-source contract — one without a competitive bidding process — to Workday in May 2025 to facilitate the Trump administration’s HR modernization efforts, only to walk the award back shortly thereafter. OPM eventually launched open competition for a contract to establish a governmentwide HR system. That contract faced pre-award protests from IBM and Economic Systems, Inc., which were withdrawn or resolved, freeing up the agency to make its award. And ultimately, Oracle was announced as the winner.

Most of the Technology Modernization Fund’s projects have yet to achieve expected cost savings, according to the Government Accountability Office, but there’s big money to be saved on the horizon. Two dozen projects are expected to reach savings of more than $1 billion, a figure that exceeds total TMF investments across its broader 68-project portfolio. Nearly a dozen of those have realized a combined $13.5 million in savings, while another 13 have not achieved savings at all, according to the GAO audit published Thursday. “While savings thus far have been small, the amount is not unexpected given that 21 projects — with expected savings of about $1.04 billion, or 98.3 percent of the total — anticipate achieving their savings in fiscal year 2027 or later,” the watchdog said in its report. Six TMF-funded projects that expected cost savings have been completed. Two were on track to meet their cost savings target. The watchdog found that the others missed the mark. A General Services Administration project went through “a major change that descoped planned work and reduced expected savings,” per the report. At least one other project met a similar fate, leading to less savings than initially planned. Higher-than-expected migration and transition costs led another project’s predicted savings to not materialize. Seven other projects were cancelled.

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The Genesis Mission is expanding beyond the Department of Energy to include 20 federal agencies that are bringing a combined commitment of more than $5 billion and a range of challenges to tackle. The Genesis Mission is a DOE-led effort to combine the advancements in AI, quantum and high-performance computing to stand up supercomputers, launch a national platform and double the productivity of the country’s research-and-development budget. The federal agencies enlisting in the initiative include the departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Transportation, and Interior, as well as NASA and the National Science Foundation. The expansion was announced Wednesday at the Genesis Mission 2026 Summit in Washington, D.C., with several agency leads in attendance.

Seven out of 10 federal cyber regulations requiring written reports to federal agencies are duplicated elsewhere, a government watchdog found in a report to Congress Wednesday. And so far, efforts to de-conflict haven’t had much success, the report from the Government Accountability Office concluded. At the request of two top lawmakers, the GAO examined federal cyber regulations at 37 agencies. It counted 80 out of 117 rules that “either contain the same kind of reporting requirement applicable to a sector or the same reporting requirement as at least one other regulation.” The desire to harmonize those conflicting rules gathered steam under the Biden administration, as it undertook a more aggressive push to regulate cybersecurity than prior administrations. It has continued into the second Trump administration. The GAO scrutinized regulations that required the private sector to report cybersecurity incidents, plans and reviews to federal agencies, as part of a study sought by House Homeland Security Chairman Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., and the top Democrat on the Senate counterpart to Garbarino’s panel, Gary Peters, D-Mich.

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Six Tech Hubs will get a combined $169 million under Department of Commerce awards announced Monday, redistributing funds the agency clawed back from winners over a year ago. The new awardees include projects in Virginia, Idaho, Illinois and Wyoming, among other states. The focuses of those hubs range from nuclear energy to forest bioproducts. Just two of the hubs — located in Maine and Missouri — again won after their previous awards were rescinded. The award announcement from Commerce’s Economic Development Administration comes more than a year after a decision by the department to rescind over $200 million in Tech Hub awards that were made in the final days of the Biden administration, and hold a new competition. At the time, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick called the previous process that led to those awards “rushed, opaque, and unfair.” But while that decision frustrated supporters, it also indicated that the bipartisan regional development program aimed at bolstering the technology economy across the country would continue after questions early in the Trump administration about its future. The new awards are confirmation of the program’s support. The awards also follow a National Science Foundation announcement last week for a similar program, Regional Innovation Engines. It named 12 engines across 20 states. While the Commerce and NSF programs have historically had bipartisan support, they’re up for reauthorization in fiscal 2027.

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Throughout 2026, you cast your nominations for the FedScoop 50, and the results are in. Hundreds of top executives from across the government tech landscape are now up for vote to see who will be honored among this year’s FedScoop 50. Voting is open now and runs through September 26. Make your voice heard to help us select who will be recognized on this year’s list.

One of those nominees in the prestigious Golden Gov category for this year is OPM Director Scott Kupor. Kupor recently sat down in the Daily Scoop Podcast studio to share updates on OPM’s ongoing federalwide modernization initiatives, from the latest on Tech Force to what’s next now that the agency has awarded Oracle its massive HR 2.0 contract.

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The Pentagon placed an immediate freeze on forthcoming cybersecurity requirements after government research suggested the policy would drive many businesses out of the defense industrial base at a time when the U.S. military urgently needs their innovations. Defense Department Chief Information Officer Kirsten Davies and Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael Duffey unveiled plans earlier this week to suspend the much-anticipated Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Phase 2 requirements that were set to take effect Nov. 10. A new CMMC Reform Task Force is expected to conduct a review of the entire program and submit a report of its findings and recommendations within the next 60 days. This major pause comes as contractors have been hustling to obtain third-party assessments of their CMMC compliance in preparation for that near-term enforcement date. The Pentagon released a new request for information to garner stakeholders’ feedback on the move and associated compliance challenges. The CMMC Reform Task Force will analyze the responses as part of its upcoming review of the program.

Scale AI is joining the Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission consortium, serving as the collaborative hub for working groups and structured partnerships, the vendor shared with FedScoop prior to its announcement Thursday. The technology provider is the latest private-sector partner to join DOE’s Genesis Mission Consortium as the agency continues building up its roster. Emerald AI and SambaNova Systems have also jumped on board in recent weeks. For Scale AI, the partnership represents a further expansion of its role in the Genesis Mission and comes after it signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this year. “Scale’s contribution to the Genesis Mission builds on the work we’ve been doing for years: creating high-quality evaluation benchmarks, preparing data for advanced AI systems, developing AI agents for complex workflows, and supporting computer vision and robotics applications,” a Scale AI spokesperson told FedScoop. DOE launched the consortium in February as a way to deepen public-private partnerships that it believes will fuel the larger initiative. Scale AI joins the likes of Accenture, Amazon Web Services, Databricks and IBM.

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The Small Business Administration is ramping up its relationship with Palantir, announcing a “new phase” in its anti-fraud work with the data analytics and software giant. In a press release Tuesday, the SBA said it’s formalizing and expanding its work with Palantir after signing a $300,000 contract in January for a fraud prevention pilot and bootcamp. That deal had a projected end date of April 4, but the agency said in the release that the “collaboration” with Palantir will now continue through “ongoing efforts to identify, investigate, and help prosecute fraud in pandemic-era small business relief programs.” The agency pointed specifically to its Paycheck Protection Program and COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program as areas previously beset by fraud. SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said in a statement that the Palantir partnership “will strengthen our ability to expose fraudulent actors, support criminal enforcement actions, and recover stolen funds with advanced technology and artificial intelligence.” “No amount of fraud is acceptable — whether it is $10,000 or $10 million — which is why the SBA is deploying these tools to accelerate our work to surface wrongdoing and ensure those who cheated taxpayer-funded programs face consequences,” she added.

The National Institutes of Health selected Kristen Honey, a longtime government data and technology official, to head up its coordination of public-private research partnerships. In a social media post, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT announced Honey as the inaugural official in the NIH role. As part of her duties, Honey will help “to build robust partnership models, reduce duplication, improve transparency, and move promising ideas from concept to execution with greater speed and consistency in collaboration with” ONC and across the department, per the post. The chief partnerships officer role is housed in the Office of the Director’s Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, per the post. “The ‘wicked problems’ that I run toward—complex, interdisciplinary challenges no one wants to own and that require cross-sector solutions—just got bigger. Joining NIH as Chief Partnerships Officer,” Honey said in a LinkedIn post. Honey has served in various HHS and White House roles over the past decade — including as HHS’s chief data officer. Honey was initially installed as CDO after President Joe Biden’s administration reorganization of its IT, data and artificial intelligence portfolio. Her time as CDO, however, appears to have ended after the Trump administration undid that reorganization in March, per her LinkedIn. Since then, she has listed her role as senior executive service. Currently, Arman Sharma, HHS’s deputy chief AI officer, is listed as the agency’s top data official on the CDO Council webpage.

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The top IT leader at the Department of Transportation is resigning, FedScoop was the first to report last week. Pavan Pidugu, the DOT’s chief digital and information officer, was sworn in February 2025 after serving as the CTO for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for nearly five years. His last day will be Sept. 4. Under Pidugu’s leadership, the agency underwent a restructuring of its technology department. The agency also migrated to Google Workspace, becoming the first cabinet-level agency to fully transition using the General Services Administration’s OneGov deal. A DOT spokesperson told FedScoop in May that the Federal Aviation Administration was gearing up to migrate later this year. In total, more than 50,000 employees across the agency will have access. Pidugu’s resignation comes amid a wave of technology leader departures, including federal CIO Greg Barbaccia, whose last day will be at the end of August. Interior Department CIO Paul “Macca” McInerny left the agency last week.

The Technology Modernization Fund is open for proposals and prioritizing faster permitting technology and artificial intelligence adoption projects, its acting director said Thursday. Jessie Posilkin said the TMF is “being explicit” about its desire for Council on Environmental Quality-supported projects to speed and scale permitting, and to advance USAi adoption in agencies facing capability and infrastructure gaps preventing responsible use. Posilkin said in a LinkedIn post: “TMF was made for moments like this, where agencies can’t afford to wait on budget and procurement cycles. I’m excited we’re still poised to help agencies meet a critical moment of opportunity – and a bipartisan one, at that!” Last month, Posilkin said the fund had $200 million left, pending potential reauthorization for fiscal 2027. But that might not stretch as far as it would have in the past, even with 100% of agencies repaying TMF loans, as the “scale and scope of government technology challenges are only going up” because of AI, Posilkin said at the time. The current version of the fiscal 2027 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill authorizes $5 million for the fund, but has not yet received a floor vote in either chamber. Agencies can submit a project proposal until July 24, but Posilkin encouraged them to move quickly so the small TMF team can review proposals expeditiously. She said: “This call is moving fast, partly out of necessity. We have a very narrow window between now and September 30, when our authorization to make new investments ends (absent congressional action, of course…). With more time, we could do even more — but we’ll meet as much of the agency need as we can, while we can.”

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Greg Barbaccia is stepping down as federal CIO and leaving government at the end of August, he said in an email to the CIO Council Tuesday. “I’m writing to share that I’ve made the difficult decision to leave government, and my time as Federal CIO is coming to an end,” Barbaccia wrote to CIOs on the council in his email, obtained by FedScoop. Barbaccia, who joined the Trump administration as its top IT official in January 2025, said his last day in the role will be Aug. 31. Barbaccia’s departure comes just months after he brought on former Department of Education CIO Thomas Flagg to be his deputy. Flagg would be the default acting official with Barbaccia’s departure, a government chief information officer told FedScoop on the condition of anonymity to be more candid. As federal CIO, Barbaccia has also served as the federal chief AI officer of the U.S. government, playing a pivotal role in shaping AI policy, oversight and adoption across federal agencies.

The Defense Innovation Unit is undergoing a major reorganization effort that will overhaul and collapse its operational portfolios from seven to three technology priorities “where speed, scale, and lethality intersect,” two sources told DefenseScoop on Monday. One senior defense official and one defense official familiar with this realignment said the Pentagon would likely reveal DIU’s near-term plans and new internal structure publicly this week. The officials requested anonymity to speak freely ahead of the Defense Department’s official, forthcoming announcement. But they suggested that this shake-up and reset is intended to concentrate DIU’s experts and resources on a smaller, more focused set of real-world problem areas so the hub can deliver outcome-driven, reportable combat power to the U.S. military at faster and less expensive rates. DIU’s recently installed director under the second Trump administration, Owen West, initiated the reorg. The three new portfolios and priority topics that the unit will be structured around, according to the two officials, are drones and autonomous warfare, kill webs, and "10x" technologies.

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Longtime IT industry leader Teresa Carlson has joined Anthropic to lead its public sector strategy as the artificial intelligence company navigates relationships with the U.S. and other governments. Carlson — who is known for her past leadership at Microsoft and Amazon Web Services — is now Anthropic’s global head of public sector, the Claude maker shared Tuesday. She is the first person to hold that title at the company. “After more than two decades helping government leaders navigate new technologies, I joined Anthropic because it prioritized working alongside government early and takes this as seriously as anything it does,” Carlson said in a written statement shared with FedScoop. “AI is changing how we work and how we live, and that change has to happen in collaboration with governments.”

Multiple U.S. Army internet subdomains were defaced in a 404 hijacking campaign, CyberScoop has confirmed. As of Monday morning, error pages on two U.S. Army websites – oil.army.mil and ai2c.army.mil – displayed defacement messages visible to users. The messages denigrated President Donald Trump and United States Ambassador to Türkiye Tom Barrack, called to “FREE KURDISTAN,” And included another line reading “Kurdish sr was here.” One of the websites, oil.army.mil, belongs to the Army’s Open Innovation Lab, a test bed for software and cyber capabilities established in 2020. The other belongs to the Artificial Intelligence Integration Center, established in 2019 to integrate AI technologies into the Army and train personnel on emerging technologies. The defacements were initially discovered by independent cybersecurity researcher Ronald Lovelace, who notified U.S. Army officials and CyberScoop.

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Anthropic announced earlier this week its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models will once again be available to the public as it has reached an agreement with the Commerce Department to deploy the AI models with new guardrails and classifiers meant to address jailbreaks. In a blog posted Tuesday, Anthropic said that export controls that prevented their sale to foreign companies and individuals have been lifted after weeks of negotiation with the White House and Commerce Department. The company has also restored access to the model for U.S. users. The export controls were put in place after the Trump administration became alarmed by a threat intelligence report from Amazon claiming to have jailbroken Fable’s cybersecurity capabilities. On X, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick appeared to confirm that the restrictions would be lifted. “Over the past two weeks, we have worked closely with Anthropic to analyze and approve Fable 5 to ensure alignment across the US Government and strengthen America’s leadership in AI,” Lutnick wrote.

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ under secretary for health is resigning effective next week, according to an internal email sent Tuesday and confirmed by the VA on Wednesday. John Bartrum has led the massive rollout of electronic health record modernization since his December 2025 confirmation, but did not explain why he is leaving only months into his tenure. “We successfully relaunched the Electronic Health Record Modernization program, putting it back on a credible path after years of uncertainty,” Bartrum said in the email. “In the spirit of President George Washington upon his retirement from public life, I am persuaded that, with these initiatives now firmly on track, you will not disapprove my determination to retire from public service.” The formerly assailed EHRM effort has been ramping up in recent months, with plans to have 19 sites updated by the end of this year. It’s the beginning of an “aggressive timeline” to complete deployment at all sites as early as 2031.