The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton

The Department of Homeland Security will use a “cybersecurity readiness” assessment to evaluate whether contractors have appropriate cyber defenses in place prior to making contract awards.

DHS published the details of the new “cybersecurity readiness evaluation factor” in a Nov. 1 notice signed by Kenneth Bible, DHS’ chief information security officer, and Sarah Todd, DHS’ executive director of acquisition policy and legislation.

The notice confirms DHS’ plan to use its own approach for evaluating contractor cybersecurity rather than adopting the Defense Department’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program.

“It is the department’s intention to ensure that effective and appropriate cybersecurity measures are in place by vendors supporting work where such measures are necessary,” the DHS officials write in the new notice. “This new evaluation factor will enable DHS to evaluate vendors’ cybersecurity posture pre-award for applicable contracts to inform a best value tradeoff award decision.”

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The Army has been talking for many, many years about the need to simplify its IT networks. But officials say they’re now poised to make more progress than ever before, largely because of some recent organizational changes in how the Army funds and buys information technology. It also doesn’t hurt that network simplification is a major priority for the Army’s new chief of staff.

In his first major speech to the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference in Washington, Gen. Randy George reiterated previous chiefs’ position that the network is the Army’s biggest modernization priority, and made clear exactly what he thinks the biggest problems are.

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In cost-plus contracts, exactly how much of a contractor's records can the government see? And who in particular can see them? Those questions are at the heart of a recent dispute among the Energy Department, HCM Corporation, and the Defense Contract Audit Agency. To shed light on the dispute, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with Haynes Boone procurement attorney Dan Ramish.

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Imagine an operation in which 10,000 law enforcement people worldwide arrested a thousand violent organized criminals. That is what happened in 2021, in an operation known as Trojan Shield. A Justice Department team led the effort. Team leaders have won this year's Service to America Medal for safety, security and international affairs. Federal Drive Host Tom Temin talked with one of them: Assistant U.S. Attorney Josh Mellor.

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Few people in government have more experience in federal labor relations and employee issues than Federal Drive Host Tom Temin's guest. For the past year, she's been chairman of the Federal Labor Relations Authority. For an update on the FLRA ( and other things): Susan Tsui Grundmann.

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On today's episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin:

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The Department of Veterans Affairs is looking at artificial intelligence tools to accelerate its work reducing burnout among its health care workforce.

The VA, through an AI Tech Sprint it launched Tuesday on Challenge.gov, is calling on technologists to develop tools that will allow clinicians to spend less time with paperwork, and more time treating patients.

The department is specifically looking at AI dictation tools that will help clinicians take notes during medical appointments, as well as AI tools that can help analyze and summarize patients’ medical records.

Tech teams have until Jan. 5, 2024, to participate in the AI Tech Sprint. The VA will award a total of $1 million to winning teams.

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The company HP, recently launched its first HP Work Relationship Index. It is a study that tracks and analyzes the relationship between people and their work. What it found was the relationship most employees have with their jobs is a bit on the rocks. To learn more about the study and what it could mean for future jobs, including in government, Federal Drive Executive Producer spoke with Todd Gustafson, the President of HP Federal.

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As the tally of fraud and abuse in pandemic relief spending mounts, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has a reminder: Program managers have a list of leading practices for preventing fraud. The question some have for those managers is why they did not use that list. For more, Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with GAO's Rebecca Shea, the Director of Forensic Audits.

GAO Report

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