FCW Insider: June 11
Top stories, quick hits and other updates from FCW's reporters and editors.
Customs and Border Protection acknowledged that images of travelers and license plates collected under its authority were stolen in a breach of a subcontractor's network. Adam Mazmanian has more.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, wants the Pentagon to develop a process and criteria for suspending and debarring foreign tech companies that pose supply chain risks. Lauren C. Williams tees up debate on this week's big defense bill.
House Democrats want the Office of Personnel Management to improve on its core duties including retirement processing and recruitment without support from a planned merger with the General Services Administration. Adam has more from the funding bill.
How do policymakers put homeland security front-and-center in today's connected world? Randy James and John Paczkowski of ICF suggest five steps to critical infrastructure collaboration in this FCW commentary.
Quick Hits
*** The U.S. Digital Service is transitioning to a reimbursement model under which agencies will compensate the Office of Management and Budget for use of its services and personnel, according to details in a House appropriations bill report. This is similar to the model that 18F, the team of digital specialists at the General Services Administration, has used since its launch. The shift to the reimbursement model explains the steep drop in the administration's budget request for the federal CIO operation at OMB, which includes USDS. The Information Technology Oversight and Reform office at OMB is tabbed to receive $15 million for FY 2020. That's down $13.5 million from FY 2019 funding levels. The drop also accounts for the move of the Federal IT Dashboard from OMB to GSA.
*** There's also language in support of the Federal IT Acquisition and Reform Act in the Financial Services and General Government funding bill expected to pass committee on June 11. The bill specifies that agency heads must ensure that CIOs have the authority to participate in budget planning involving information technology and approve agency IT budgets.
*** The same appropriations bill also restores streamlined critical pay for IRS technology specialists through Sept. 20, 2023. The IRS, which in the midst of a long-term technology refresh, lost critical pay authority in 2013. There have been separate bills introduced to restore the authority, which in the past has allowed senior technology executives to earn as much as $240,000.