Weekly Wrap-Up
Week of August 23, 2021
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Goodbye Recess, Hello August Action in the House
(Politico) The House is briefly back this week to advance President Joe Biden’s massive domestic agenda. But Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is still in a standoff with a motley crew of moderates vowing to derail her legislative plan — and no one knows exactly how this will end.
Pelosi made clear this weekend she’s not in the mood to compromise. Fresh off her annual Napa fundraiser, the speaker put out a letter saying she’d like to pass both infrastructure and reconciliation by Oct. 1 — giving some certainty to the gang of nine moderates, led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.). She also offered another olive branch, reiterating that the bill would be “paid for.”
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Background Press Call by Senior Administration Officials on the President's Upcoming Cybersecurity Meeting
(The White House) So, the President recognizes that the escalating cyber threats we face require a whole-of-nation effort, and this meeting will highlight the scope of the challenge we face, but also the opportunities. So, it’s really a call to action.
Tomorrow, the President will meet with leaders from a range of sectors and companies with the power to immediately act to improve our nation’s cybersecurity, specifically from tech, insurance, education, and critical infrastructure.
From tech, the companies participating will be Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, IBM, and ADP. You’ll note that we particularly included ADP because of the services they provide to thousands and thousands of small- and medium-sized companies.
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UCLA Releases Report to Help Governments Ethically Deploy AI
(MeriTalk) Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity have released a new set of recommendations to help governments of all levels evaluate the potential risks and harms associated with new artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.
The report, released earlier this month, is the result of a comparative analysis of AI risk and impact assessments from five regions around the world: Canada, New Zealand, Germany, the European Union, and San Francisco, Calif. The report compares how these different assessment models approach key questions related to the safety of AI systems, including what impacts they could have on human rights and the environment, and how the range of risks should be managed.
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TMF, Cyber EO Drive Modernization at Labor, CIO Says
(FCW) Department of Labor CIO Gundeep Ahluwalia said the president's cybersecurity executive order lit a fire under agencies with lofty modernization plans, while newly funded resources like the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) were providing paths to achieve those goals.
Speaking at a Meritalk event on Monday, Ahluwalia suggested a confluence of factors were causing significant advancements in governmentwide modernization efforts, from the increased scale of ransomware attacks targeting both the public and private sectors, to unprecedented investments in federal IT and cybersecurity.
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Fed IT Experts Emphasize Continuous Modernization Plans
(MeriTalk) Federal agencies need to think about IT modernization as a continuous process rather than as an isolated strategy, said Federal IT experts during a virtual webinar hosted by Federal News Network on August 18.
Adoption of a continuous modernization mindset will allow Federal agencies to become more future-proof by thinking about emerging technology and capabilities, and then addressing their modernization strategies accordingly. Kevin Walsh, director of IT and Cybersecurity at the Government Accountability Office, talked about various modernization efforts across the Federal government, and said that modernization should move forward even if agency mission objectives do not change.
“While agency objectives like [those of] the IRS or Social Security Administration might not change, the technology they utilize should change to accomplish their mission more efficiently and effectively,” said Walsh.
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Federal CIO Martorana: 'We Must Focus on Service Delivery to the American Public
(FedScoop) Government agencies must double down on service delivery to the American public and use technology to bridge inter-departmental silos, according to Federal CIO Clare Martorana.
Speaking Tuesday at FedScoop’s FedTalks conference, Martorana said an improved user experience for citizens would in part be driven by departments adopting a more product-focused mindset.
“It’s technology, obviously informed by the massive amount of data we collect across government, that will enable us to power outstanding customer experience,” she said. “It’s not our citizens’ job to figure out how to navigate across department and agency silos to get the service they deserve. That’s our job.”
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Pentagon Putting More Data Behind IT Modernization Decisions
(Federal News Network) As the Defense Department digs out of its mound of technical debt, the office of the chief information officer is ensuring military services and defense agencies receive value for these new investments.
DoD is implementing a revamped approach to IT portfolio management to better connect investments to mission requirements.
Danielle Metz, the DoD deputy chief information officer for information enterprise, said the new framework will integrate with DoD business processes to enforce recommendations for optimization and modernization.
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The Alliance for Digital Innovation Announces Its 2021 Board and Officers
(ADI) The Alliance for Digital Innovation (ADI), which represents a cohort of organizations in the IT, cybersecurity, cloud, and digital technology sectors, is pleased to announce its 2021 Officers and Board. At its latest meeting, the Board of Directors re-elected John Wood (Telos Corporation) as Chair, elected Steve Kovac (Zscaler, Inc.) as Vice Chair, and re-elected Jeff Powell (Strongbridge LLC) as Treasurer, and Robert DuPree (Telos Corporation) as Secretary.
The new board was named at its recent annual meeting. Elected by ADI members, each board member brings unique insights and diverse experiences to support the federal government in procuring modern digital technological solutions.
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Learn More About the 2021 Federal 100
(FCW) The power of the individual informs FCW's coverage each and every day, but with the Federal 100, we take time to really spotlight and celebrate it. The women and men listed here are proof positive of what one person can make possible in federal IT; click on any name below to learn more about that winner's accomplishments.
Note: Winners’ affiliations in this list reflect where the accomplishments being recognized took place. Several individuals have since changed jobs; those moves are noted in their individual profiles.
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If you would like to have your story featured in ADI's Member News, please contact ADI's Policy & Communications Manager, Jaishri Atri. |
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