United States News

The Louisiana 1st Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the state’s Department of Natural Resources, overturning a lower court’s award of $750,000 in a whistleblower case. Dan Collins, a land research consultant who had been working as a contractor for the state, had reported concerns...

A blog post by the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Government-wide IT Category Manager Mary Davie highlights some findings from a recent meeting GSA held with more than 50 IT industry representatives. Davie said industry told her government acquisition and program personnel need to be...

Colorado has moved to a system of “mini-bids” for its IT procurement, pre-qualifying a set of vendors to allow for quicker response and implementation times. “It was our first shot at doing it and I think as we’ve been in this for two years now, we’ve seen some improvements, so we’re...

The Army created its Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) eight months ago, and it’s fielding its first technologies this year, said RCO director Douglas Wiltsie at a May 3 conference. The RCO was established to develop technologies to deploy quickly to Army units. “Our focus is on ground maneuver...

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has said the government has “taken some steps back” in terms of its IT acquisition and management, and FCW reports the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) is now working with agencies to combat that. The report states that USDS is “working directly with...

Jason Miller reports that two high-profile contracts are currently stalled by protests. Windstream is the latest company to file a protest of the General Services Administration’s (GSA) $50 billion Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) telecommunications contract. And the Department of...

While Congress has revived the Modernizing Government Technology Act, President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to create the American Technology Council, a committee charged with providing guidance to how agencies upgrade their IT. The committee is comprised of administration officials,...

Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX), the sponsor of the MGT Act, said the White House’s Office of American Innovation, created in March, “gets it,” in terms of updating government technology, and applying private sector practices to help improve government services. One of the areas the office is tasked...

While Congress has worked to write a budget bill that will be passed this week, and which President Donald Trump has said he would sign, the president tweeted yesterday that the country “needed a good shutdown in September,” to “fix the mess” in the Senate. Shutdown threats and continuing...

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee approved the Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act on Tuesday with no amendments. The bill allows agencies to create funds to upgrade legacy IT systems, something the White House has also prioritized. With Congress heading into recess next...

Education Dive looks at how Michigan State meets its accessibility requirements, noting that it begins with procurement. According to the article, “the university’s requirements, revamped in 2015, state that accountability must be taken into consideration at multiple points: in its procurement...

Michael McCarthy, division chief in the LandWarNet Division, Army Capabilities Integration Center told FCW that too often, the Army doesn’t seek input from end users—soldiers—when drafting IT requirements. McCarthy said the requirements are often written to specifications suggested by...