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GSA to Soon Push Through With Initial Polaris Solicitations
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GSA to Soon Push Through With Initial Polaris Solicitations

The General Services Administration plans to soon launch the Polaris information technology contract vehicle‘s initial solicitations, which were originally planned for release in February, FedScoop reported Tuesday.

A spokesperson told Fedscoop that GSA is working with other agencies to launch Polaris’ first two solicitations and that interested parties should monitor SAM.gov and GSA Interact for updates.

GSA issued pre-solicitation notices for small business and women-owned small business pools in late January, but did not meet the supposed February launch schedule due to unknown reasons.

Polaris is a governmentwide acquisition contract that will succeed the $15 billion Alliant 2 vehicle for services in quantum computing, cloud, cyber, artificial intelligence and other emerging IT areas.

The agency will also issue pre-solicitation notices of Polaris pools for historically underutilized business zones and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses in the future.

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Heidi Shyu: FY 2024 Rapid Experimentation’s 2nd Sprint to Address Contested Logistics
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Heidi Shyu: FY 2024 Rapid Experimentation’s 2nd Sprint to Address Contested Logistics

Heidi Shyu, undersecretary for research and engineering at the Department of Defense and a 2022 Wash100 Award winner, said DOD will kick off planning for the second sprint of the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve that is set to take place in fiscal year 2024 and wants the sprint to address contested logistics, Breaking Defense reported Tuesday.

“Looking at the logistics problems the Russians are having. It’s a contested logistics environment. It’s not even that contested — it could be a lot more contested, a lot more difficult. So we truly want to focus on that area,” Shyu said at a conference in Hawaii.

RDER will also focus on long-range fires and all domain command and control and Shyu said she plans to work with nontraditional vendors for the second round of the joint experimentation initiative that seeks to address capability gaps and advance adoption of emerging technologies.

“So if you’re a small company and have a great idea, we’re interested in hearing your ideas. We are initiating that process pretty quickly. Probably in the next few weeks we’re starting our second sprint,” Shyu said during her keynote.

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FedRAMP: CISA Directive Covers Cloud Providers Maintaining Federal Data
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FedRAMP: CISA Directive Covers Cloud Providers Maintaining Federal Data

The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program has announced that cloud service providers that maintain federal information are covered by a binding operational directive issued by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

BOD 22-01 seeks to reduce the risk of known exploited vulnerabilities and sets requirements for agencies to address such vulnerabilities included in a CISA-managed catalog, FedRAMP said Tuesday.

FedRAMP said it has updated the template for plan of action and milestones to facilitate tracking of cyber vulnerabilities against the catalog.

Cloud providers can track those vulnerabilities in the new template or add a new column to their POA&M. They should also register for automatic alerts to stay informed of recently added vulnerabilities.

“CSPs should only include applicable vulnerabilities in their POA&M. They do not have to include a status for every known vulnerability on the CISA-managed catalog,” the notice reads.

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ODNI Unveils 2022 Annual Threat Assessment Report
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ODNI Unveils 2022 Annual Threat Assessment Report

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has released an annual report providing an assessment of worldwide threats to U.S. national security.

The 2022 Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community was released in accordance with Section 617 of the Intelligence Authorization Act for fiscal year 2021, ODNI said Tuesday.

The report details the national security challenges posed by China, Russia, Iran and North Korea to the U.S. across various areas, including military capabilities, economy, cyber and space domain.

The document explains how China works to modify global norms and threaten its neighbors and discusses Russia’s willingness to use military force to “impose its will on neighbors” as seen in Ukraine and other countries.

Other issues covered in the report are health security concerns including infectious diseases and the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and environmental degradation, transnational organized crime, violent extremism, illicit drugs and surges in migration.

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Battelle Releases Survey Results to Address Climate Resilience; CEO Lou Von Thaer Quoted
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Battelle Releases Survey Results to Address Climate Resilience; CEO Lou Von Thaer Quoted

Battelle has announced its plans to host a conference, Innovations in Climate Resilience, that will gather thought leaders to discuss tactics to aid environmental sustainability.

The conference is scheduled for March 29 and 30 and will take place in Columbus, Ohio. It is intended as a convergence of public and commercial sector figures dialoguing about potential technological and policy options for decreasing environmental and societal impacts, the company said Tuesday.

“As an independent, not-for-profit applied science and technology development company, Battelle is uniquely positioned to bring government leaders, entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers and innovators together to problem-solve and pioneer real-life solutions that make a tangible impact,” said Lou Von Thaer, Battelle president and CEO and a seven-time Wash100 Award winner.

Battelle also recently issued a survey to nearly 500 academics and over 100 public sector officials that revealed findings about energy, roadblocks in knowledge and routes for government action.

71 percent of participants reported that they believed the employment of renewable energy sources was crucial for climate resiliency. And 53 percent of academics and 52 percent of government figures said they thought a move toward electrification and fossil fuel alternatives was “vital” to improving climate health.

Respondents also overwhelmingly said they felt that a lack of widespread education about climate change was proving detrimental to progress being made on the subject. Members of the academic and policy-making communities additionally cited the need for enforcing caps and limits on carbon emitters.

The March conference will include keynote presentations, platform speeches and poster explications from figures such as National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy, Former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Environmental Security Sherri Goodman, Deputy Assistant Secretary Office of Nuclear Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy Alice Caponiti and more.

These speakers will touch on decarbonization, water purification, how to plan and anticipate occurrences of extreme weather and technological strategies to power a circular economy, among other subjects.

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Kelly Hoover Thompson to Lead Government Health Sales at LexisNexis Risk Solutions; CEO Haywood Talcove Quoted
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Kelly Hoover Thompson to Lead Government Health Sales at LexisNexis Risk Solutions; CEO Haywood Talcove Quoted

Experienced healthcare regulation executive Kelly Hoover Thompson has joined LexisNexis Risk Solutions as government health team lead.

The public sector-facing health services company said Tuesday that Thompson will foster relationships with federal, state and local government officials, expand her team and enhance interoperability in the new role.

Haywood Talcove, CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions’ government business and three-time Wash100 Award winner, commented that Thompson brings deep policy knowledge and an understanding of “government’s role in data sharing” to her new position, which will allow the company to “leverage key relationships between the public and private sector.”

Thompson has occupied several senior-level legislative and healthcare jobs in the Pennsylvania state government leading health and human services agencies, including serving as deputy secretary of the Pennsylvania department of health.

She was chief executive officer of the start-up Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative and is a member of the board of scientific counselors for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2020, Thompson was recognized as one of Modern Healthcare’s 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare. Additionally, she is a frequent public speaker on interoperability and health policy and serves on the National Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment Technical Committee and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Patient Safety Committee.

At LexisNexis, Thompson will also be expected to align the healthcare vertical with international corporate goals as well as administer business development and revenue pipeline to the public sector in support of the company’s data, linking and analytics strategies.

“I’m excited about the opportunity,” Thompson shared. “It gives me a new way to impact our healthcare industry and the much-needed work across our nation.”

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CBRE’s Stuart Dyer Talks Data Center Outsourcing, Cloud Security With Potomac Officers Club
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CBRE’s Stuart Dyer Talks Data Center Outsourcing, Cloud Security With Potomac Officers Club

First Vice President of the data center advisory group at CBRE, Stuart Dyer, was featured recently in an Executive Spotlight interview with the Potomac Officers Club. Dyer brings over a decade of business development and data center experience to his role at CBRE, where he guides a broad range of government and commercial clients through colocation and land acquisition purchasing.

In this excerpt from the interview, Dyer describes the changes he’s seen in the public sector as cloud security and data center operations evolve:

“The federal landscape, as it relates to data center outsourcing and leveraging commercial providers, has changed significantly in the past decade. When I started helping the government with their data center consolidation efforts a decade ago, there was a hesitancy to move to public cloud or commercial providers that housed government infrastructure off-premises from government facilities. 

Over the years, cloud security has improved, the culture within the government has changed and today, the government is looking to commercial providers as their primary and trusted partners in the IT modernization journey. We will see a significant, year-over-year increase in spending from the federal government on public cloud and outsourced infrastructure, while it simultaneously shutters its owned and operated data center facilities.”

To read the full Executive Spotlight interview with CBRE’s Stuart Dyer, visit PotomacOfficersClub.com, where you can read more profiles on GovCon executives and learn more about the platform’s membership options and benefits.

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CentralSquare Names Dara Brenner, Weston Helms, Janet Haugen to Executive Team; CEO Dave Zolet Quoted
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CentralSquare Names Dara Brenner, Weston Helms, Janet Haugen to Executive Team; CEO Dave Zolet Quoted

CentralSquare Technologies has announced the addition of three new members, Dara Brenner, Weston Helms and Janet Haugen, to its executive team.

Brenner will assume the role of chief product officer, Helms will be vice president of corporate development and Janet Haugen will become an independent member of the board of directors, the government technology company said Tuesday.

“As the business grows, we are making critical investments to improve public safety, streamline public administration processes, and fuel innovation for governments and communities across the nation,” said CentralSquare CEO Dave Zolet.

Zolet, who is a four-time recipient of the Wash100 Award also cited the new team members’ “extensive and specialized expertise in product leadership, growth strategy and investment strategy.”

Brenner will leverage her 25-year history in human relations, recruitment and business, during which he led teams dealing with modernization and technology efforts. She was head of human capital management and HR/talent and products at Ultimate Software and EQUIFAX and most recently served as vice president at UKG.

Brenner said she anticipates collaborating with the CentralSquare team, building customer satisfaction and “advanc[ing] SaaS solutions that improve governments’ citizen services.”

Prior to joining CentralSquare, Helms claimed $20 billion in transactions for over 25 different global information technology, professional services and technology deals in his jobs helming corporate development for Computer Sciences Corporation and CSRA. In his last position, he was vice president and lead of transaction advisories at Wolf Den Associates.

At CentralSquare, Helms will be expected to expand the company’s revenue efforts through mergers and acquisitions, partnering with other executives and organizations as well as investments.

Haugen comes to the CentralSquare board as an experienced board of directors and audit committee member of Bentley Systems and Juniper Networks. She also spent 20 years at Unisys where she held positions such as senior vice president and chief financial officer.

The new appointments follow CentralSquare’s hire of Amir Siddiqi as chief customer officer in October 2021.

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FDIC Solicits Cloud-Based Catalog for Data Assets
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FDIC Solicits Cloud-Based Catalog for Data Assets

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has launched a solicitation for software-as-a-service that can deliver a cloud-based data catalog.

The FDIC said Friday in a SAM.gov notice it will use this catalog to discover and attain analytical insight into the corporation’s enterprise-wide data assets. The federal corporation wants to run this catalog with its Microsoft Azure Government Cloud platform.

The catalog would additionally store the assets’ metadata and deliver data governance tools for managing standards, policies, processes, controls and roles. Interested parties may submit proposals through March 22nd.

The FDIC works to supervise financial institutions, protect consumers and perform other activities that sustain the U.S. financial system. 

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IRS Launches Taxpayer Experience Office
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IRS Launches Taxpayer Experience Office

The Internal Revenue Service has created an office dedicated to delivering and improving taxpayer experience across all transactional aspects.

IRS said Friday its new Taxpayer Experience Office will support a longer-term effort to augment taxpayer services in line with a report to Congress mandated by the Taxpayer First Act.

The agency will spend the next five years focusing on priorities and activities proposed by the Taxpayer Experience Office, which will also work to determine changing industry trends and taxpayer expectations. The office is expected to expand its workforce in the coming months.

The report to Congress builds on taxpayer feedback and listed more than 100 different efforts to support taxpayers. These efforts include expanding e-File and payment options, secure two-way messaging and digital signatures. Experts who helped the government build the Taxpayer Experience Strategy also contributed to the report.

“The IRS is committed to customer experiences that meet taxpayers where they are, in the moments that matter most in people’s lives and in a way that delivers the service that the public expects and deserves,” said Ken Corbin, IRS’ chief taxpayer experience officer.

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