The Office of Personnel Management and the federal Chief Information Officer’s Council will survey members of the government’s IT workforce as one of the first steps toward implementing the sweeping overhaul of federal IT management and acquisition announced late last year. According to a post on CIO.gov, the IT Workforce Capability Assessment Survey is designed [...]

In an Executive Order signed yesterday, President Barack Obama came out swinging against burdensome and redundant regulations. The order states by May, federal agencies will have to submit a plan to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, describing their process for reviewing regulations, and whether they should be modified or streamlined, according to a [...]

The Defense Department has announced a recent host of civilian personnel changes. David M. Wennergren, who now serves as assistant deputy chief management officer for the defense secretary, will take over as the director of the Business Transformation Agency in Washington, D.C. BTA is tasked with modernizing DoD’s business operations. However, it will likely be [...]

Following President Barack Obama’s stamp of approval on plans to close the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., Defense Department leaders are preparing for the transition. “We hope that the implementation plan will be finished within the next 30 to 45 days and approved so we can begin execution,” said Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, [...]

The director of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, Dr. David Blumenthal, has a simple message for healthcare providers pondering whether and how to adopt electronic health records: Just do it. “Now is the time. . . .  Never again will the same level of resources and talent be devoted to helping [...]

After months of speculation and guessing games, more than $1 billion spent and a mere 53 miles of the Southwest border covered, the Department of Homeland Security canceled the virtual border fence program known as SBInet. “SBInet cannot meet its original objective of providing a single, integrated border security technology solution,” said DHS Secretary Janet [...]

Cloud computing— or at least cloud talk — in the federal sector has taken off, aided by the Office of Management and Budget’s cloud-first policy and the ever-shifting technological zeitgeist. But questions about cloud security have managed to put the brakes on too much enthusiasm for some. And, according to a recent Nextgov report, security [...]

As the Defense Department continues an arduous process of transitioning more than 220,000 employees from a national security-centric personnel system back into the general pay schedule, the director of the transition said that, despite a few bumps in the road, things have gone well. John H. James Jr. said much of the credit for the [...]

In the latest round of cost-savings announced by Defense Secretary Robert Gates last week, which included the cancellation of the amphibious Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, many media accounts reported the Marines had came out with the short end of the stick. But that’s not how Gen. James Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, tells it. “The [...]

The inside of the House of Representatives is getting a face lift. Rather, the back end. According to a notice from the chief administrative officer of the House, the chamber has decided on open source content management system Drupal to host its plethora of websites and is now seeking developers. Noted Gov 2.0 scribe Alex [...]