Many federal agency budgets are being put on the chopping block in what Federal Times calls the “first round of congressional jockeying” over fiscal year 2012 budgets. The House Appropriations Committee has been wielding the budget axe most prolifically; it’s spending blueprint would cut discretionary spending by $30 billion, or 3 percent below this year’s [...]
The Defense Department has issued a rule that would penalize contractors with unsatisfactory business systems — such as accounting and estimating — by withholding a percentage of payment, The Washington Post reports. The interim rule is the third attempt to regulate contractors’ business system. The latest iteration comes with a number of caveats. The withholding [...]
The Federal Communications Commission has announced Robert Naylor, who formerly helmed the Small Business Administration’s IT efforts, will take over as the commission’s chief information officer. In his role as CIO, Naylor is tasked with initiating a “tech-forward” strategy aimed at cutting costs and shifting toward cloud-based solutions. “This hire equips the FCC to lead [...]
The Government Accountability Office’s authority to review bid protests at most civilian agencies — for large task or delivery orders under indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract vehicles — has expired, FierceGovernmentIT reported last week. That authority, for $10 million-plus orders on ID/IQ contracts expired May 27. The ability for GAO to review “broad protests,” filed [...]
Before being named the Health and Human Services Department’s chief technology officer two years ago, Todd Park was considering retirement. In his 20s, he helped launch health IT startup, Athenahealth, and cashed in a decade later when the company went public. By his mid-30s, Park was on track to retire, focus on his family and [...]
Director of DoD Pricing Shay Assad, Photo: Defense.gov Defense Department policymakers have long been extolling the virtues of better buying. In fact, acquisition chief Ashton Carter launched a program bearing that name last year, aiming to drive the costs of major weapons programs down. Now, Shay Assad, who last week was named to the newly [...]
Defense Department official Shay Assad’s new title gives heft to DoD’s increasing efforts to squeeze $400 billion from its bottom line over the next 12 years. Earlier this week, DoD announced Assad, who formerly headed the department’s defense procurement and acquisition policy shop, would be given a new title: director of defense pricing. But, according [...]
Going green is no longer just a good idea. It’s a requirement — at least in future federal acquisitions. Earlier this week, Federal Times reported on a new federal acquisition regulation mandating that going forward, nearly all new contract activity, such as task and delivery orders will have meet energy-efficiency standards. The interim rule was [...]
Successfully implementing changes within the Commerce Department according to the federal government’s ambitious IT reform act, requires not just a change in strategy, agency Chief Information Officer Simon Szykman said, but also a change in technology leaders’ thinking. “Moving toward a leaner, cloud-driven and collaborative approach is a significant shift in philosophy, and we are [...]
For Department of Veterans Affairs Chief Information Officer Roger Baker, the word “reform,” is nothing new. Writing in a blog post on CIO.gov to mark six months since the federal government launched its ambitious 25-point IT reform plan, Baker said the department was well-positioned to begin working on the plan’s mandates, “because for federal IT, [...]