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Now is the Time to Reform IT Acquisition
May 26, 2017
Venkatapathi “PV” Puvvada, president of Unisys Federal, writes in FCW that the “time for IT acquisition reform is now.” Puvvada highlights recent progress, including the House’s passage of the MGT Act, as signs the government is ready to move on real reform, as well as the Department of...
Senate Bill Would Create Bug Bounty Program for DHS
May 26, 2017
Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Rob Portman (R_OH) have introduced a bill in the Senate to create a pilot “bug bounty” program, that would offer cash rewards to ethical hackers who find vulnerabilities in the Department of Homeland Security’s websites. The bill calls for $250,000 for the...
U.S. EEOC Will Absorb the OFCCP
May 26, 2017
Attorney Cheryl Behymer looks at a piece of President Trump’s budget that had been rumored, but is now official: The proposed merger of the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contracting Compliance Programs and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The former would be subsumed under...
Boeing Protests Air Force’s Jamming-Plane Decision, Alleging Conflict of Interest
May 26, 2017
Boeing has filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office over a U.S. Air Force decision to allow L3 Technologies to choose a new plane to replace its EC-130 Compass Call intelligence aircraft. It is an unprecedented decision, according to reports, to allow a defense company to select...
Cybersecurity Regulations Cracking Down on Contractors
May 25, 2017
A new article at JD Supra looks at the changes in cybersecurity regulations for federal contractors. According to the authors, “New rules and regulations (with the imminent promise of more on the way) are setting the stage for Cybersecurity to be the next big government enforcement target under...
Illinois Gov Says Procurement Process Forced Expensive Lease
May 25, 2017
Capitol Fax, which covers the Illinois state government, looks at what it calls a questionable lease signed by the state, of a large warehouse space, where government IT workers may eventually work. Illinois is currently without a budget, and the reporter wonders why an expensive lease was signed,...
Is the MGT Act Just the Beginning of Funding IT Modernization?
May 25, 2017
General Services Administration acting Administrator Tim Horne testified at a House Appropriations Committee hearing yesterday, saying the centralized fund to pay for IT systems upgrades recommended in the Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act is a start, but not enough. Horne said the...
Senators Pressing to Bring Up MGT Act
May 25, 2017
A bipartisan group of senators, including Sens. Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Tom Udall (D-NM), are urging the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee to act quickly on the Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act. The two wrote an email to the chairman and ranking member of the...
Army to Get New Contract Writing System
May 24, 2017
According to GovConWire, CGI has won an award to develop an enterprise-wide software platform to help U.S. Army contracting staff write, manage and execute contracts. The software is meant to “simplify business processes, comply with the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of...
Will OFCCP and EEOC Merge?
May 24, 2017
Bloomberg looks at a recommendation made by the Heritage Foundation, and reportedly under consideration by President Donald Trump, to merge the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contracting Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The publication...
How Does President Trump’s Budget Affect Cybersecurity?
May 24, 2017
The Federal Times talked with Symantec’s Chris Townsend, vice president of federal, and Jeff Greene, senior director of global government affairs and policy, to discuss how cybersecurity is treated in the president’s budget. Townsend said he was pleased to see cybersecurity prioritized,...
Why Vendor Fees Should Be Avoided in the Public Sector
May 24, 2017
Vendor fees or no vendor fees?
When it comes to choosing a software platform for public sector procurement, the topic of vendor fees has been an ongoing debate for years.
It’s a simple model that many are familiar with: costs are charged to potential suppliers by the platform provider, who...