FCW Insider: November 22, 2021
The latest news and analysis from FCW's reporters and editors.
DOD names cloud contenders in JEDI replacement
The Defense Department has invited Google and Oracle to compete for its massive warfighter cloud program alongside Amazon and Microsoft.
Build Back Better passes House
The $2 trillion bill includes $550 million in governmentwide technology modernization plus billions targeted for agency tech programs as well as new investments in sustainable tech and electric vehicles.
What agency tech leaders think about a U.S. Digital Service Academy
Agency tech leaders sounded off to the Government Accountability Office about the prospect of launching a digital service training school modeled on the military service academies to bring more tech talent into government.
ICYMI: White House releases 'vision' for management agenda
The coming president's management agenda will stress the federal workforce, customer service user experience and equity as well as a push to build capacity in financial management and improve acquisition.
Quick Hits
*** The Bureau of Land Management relocated its headquarters to Grand Junction, Colo. under the Trump administration and in September, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the agency would move back to Washington, D.C. headquarters. The move led to a "significant loss of institutional memory and talent," Haaland said at the time, because few agency employees relocated. Now a Government Accountability Office report released last week found that BLM "does not have an agency-wide strategic workforce plan that supports its mission and programmatic goals." The report recommended BLM implement a strategic workforce plan and start tracking vacancies at a higher level of detail.
*** The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Security Agency are advising operators of 5G cloud infrastructures to take steps to harden their systems against intrusion and compromise by taking steps to detect unauthorized lateral movement across the network and to isolate individual elements of the 5G cloud network. The document released last week is the second in a planned four-part series on threats to 5G cloud.
*** Get to know the winners of the 2021 Public Sector Innovation awards. Read more in GCN.