President Biden Signs Executive Order on Improving Federal Customer Experience
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President Biden Signs Executive Order on Improving Federal Customer Experience

President Biden has signed an executive order to enhance the federal customer experience by improving the delivery of government services to U.S. citizens.

The EO, titled Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government, directs federal government agencies to modernize programs, reduce administrative burdens and launch new online tools built to provide seamless and secure customer experience, the White House said Monday.

The order outlines 36 customer experience improvement commitments across 17 agencies to organize the delivery of services across the federal government. The goal is to create a cross-government service delivery process that aligns with specific customer life experiences where citizens need to interact with one or more agencies.

The Biden administration also identified 35 high-impact service providers in government that deliver large volumes of services to American citizens. These include programs and offices from agencies including the General Services Administration (GSA), the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Social Security Administration (SSA). 

These agencies work to improve services provided to veterans, retirees, taxpayers, entrepreneurs, Medicare recipients and other individuals, businesses or organizations that interact with the federal government. 

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Johns Hopkins APL Receives $50M USAF Air Warfare Systems Contract Modification
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Johns Hopkins APL Receives $50M USAF Air Warfare Systems Contract Modification

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) has received a $50 million award from the U.S. Air Force that increases the value of its 2020 air warfare systems contract to nearly $100 million.

APL will continue supporting the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) in the development, acquisition, test and development of munitions, cyber and electronic warfare platforms and other aerospace systems, the Department of Defense said Monday.

The laboratory will conduct its support work at its facilities in Laurel, Maryland until July 31, 2026. AFLCMC, based at Eglin Air Force Base in California, did not obligate any funds at the time of the award of the contract modification.

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Westat Launches Westat CLS to Provide CRO Services for Commercial Clients; Nancy Dianis Quoted
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Westat Launches Westat CLS to Provide CRO Services for Commercial Clients; Nancy Dianis Quoted

Westat announced on Monday that the company has launched a new portal: Westat Commercial Life Sciences (Westat CLS) to provide direct access to the company’s clinical contract research organization (CRO) services and expertise for its biopharmaceutical industry clients.

“Westat has decades of experience to draw on as we continue to meet the commercial biotech/biopharma market’s needs,” notes Whitney Smith, Westat associate director. “To put the spotlight on our staff’s talents, the Our Team page provides one-click access to our technical leads, project managers, biostatisticians, epidemiologists, and more. These are the people who will work with our clients as an extension of their team—as trusted partners—and who are committed to moving projects forward.”

The site highlights five of the key areas of Westat’s expertise and provides case studies to illustrate the company’s work in vaccines, pediatric studies, rare and emerging diseases, oncology, and infectious diseases, which features a staff focused on customized attention and client confidentiality regarding client products and services.

“Westat is a long-established survey research company but we do much more, and we bring the same level of excellence to all areas of our work,” said  Nancy Dianis, vice president and director of Westat’s Clinical Trials Practice. “One of the benefits of working with Westat is that we offer innovative solutions to fit each unique program. That’s what sets us apart from other CROs. And we continue to work with every client as if they are our only client.”

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CGI to Modernize MARx System for CMS Under Recompete Contract; Steve Sousa Quoted
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CGI to Modernize MARx System for CMS Under Recompete Contract; Steve Sousa Quoted

CGI has booked a five-year, $44 million recompete contract from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to support its Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug (MARx) system.

Under the contract, CGI will be tasked with maintaining, operating and modernizing the MARx system, Part D, as well as transitioning the platform’s legacy systems to a cloud environment, the company said Tuesday.

Steven Sousa, CGI’s senior vice president of consulting services who was recently tapped to lead CGI Federal’s new healthcare and social services practice, said, “This modernization will provide needed support for the future operations of the MARx system, further expediting and securing prescription drug services for seniors or those eligible for Medicare.”

Sousa also commented that the recompete win builds on CGI’s previous service delivery for the MARx system and continues the company’s 20-year partnership with CMS.

The contract will allow CGI to utilize its experience working with the MARx system and the Medicare Enrollment and Payment Systems to implement a cloud-based platform based on agile development and DevSecOps.

CGI’s services are expected to increase efficiency, lower costs and provide a more secure technical architecture for CMS while improving the customer experience for the MARx system’s 51 million users.

The contract, which was awarded through the CMS Office of Information Technology’s Division of Medicare Systems Support, follows CGI’s win earlier this year of a $34.4 million contract to continue building a full lifecycle API Gateway for CMS’ Center for Program Integrity.

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GAO: USDS, 18F Program Offices Should Document Coordinated Approach to IT Guidance Development
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GAO: USDS, 18F Program Offices Should Document Coordinated Approach to IT Guidance Development

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recommended that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and General Services Administration (GSA) facilitate collaboration between the U.S. Digital Service and the 18F program to help advance the development of information technology guidance for federal agencies to assist with federal IT acquisitions and projects.

GAO offered the recommendation after it found that USDS and 18F do not always coordinate on IT guidance development, according to a report published Friday.

“Documenting a coordinated approach for developing and issuing guidance would reduce the risk of overlap and duplication, and the potential for conflicting information,” the report reads.

GAO has made 275 recommendations in 12 reports to help agencies address duplicative IT-related issues and issued six reports containing 117 recommendations to deal with issues concerning IT management roles and responsibilities over the past decade.

As of October 2021, agencies had fully implemented 74 percent of the total recommendations. However, agencies have yet to act on 102 recommendations to address concerns regarding IT management roles and duplicative IT.

GSA’s 18F program office and OMB’s USDS help agencies provide public-facing websites, online benefit applications and other digital services to citizens.

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CISA Director Jen Easterly: Agencies Should Urgently Patch Log4j Vulnerability
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CISA Director Jen Easterly: Agencies Should Urgently Patch Log4j Vulnerability

Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said CISA has added a critical vulnerability involving the log4j software library to its “catalog of known exploited vulnerabilities” to incite federal civilian agencies and partners to immediately patch or remediate the issue.

“We are proactively reaching out to entities whose networks may be vulnerable and are leveraging our scanning and intrusion detection tools to help government and industry partners identify exposure to or exploitation of the vulnerability,” Easterly said in a statement published Saturday.

She said the agency also formed a Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative senior leadership group, including partners at the FBI and the National Security Agency, to coordinate action to address the  log4j vulnerability.

“We continue to urge all organizations to review the latest CISA current activity alert and upgrade to log4j version 2.15.0, or apply their appropriate vendor recommended mitigations immediately,” Easterly added.

CISA has called on asset owners to install a web application firewall with rules that update to ensure that security operations centers concentrate on fewer alerts; make sure that the SOC take action on each alert; and enumerate any external facing devices with installed log4j software.

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Space Force Tests Satellite Network Resiliency Via Simulated Training Exercise; Kathleen Hicks Quoted
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Space Force Tests Satellite Network Resiliency Via Simulated Training Exercise; Kathleen Hicks Quoted

The U.S. Space Force has started conducting a war game called Space Flag at Schriever Space Force Base in Colorado to test the resiliency of satellite networks to threats posed by near-peer competitors such as Russia and China, Reuters reported Monday.

Kathleen Hicks, deputy secretary at the Department of Defense and a 2021 Wash100 Award recipient, observed the simulated space training exercise, which involved participants from allied countries such as Australia, Canada and the U.K.

“It happens in rooms like that … people at a relatively junior level in many cases. Collaborating and thinking through challenges and trying to figure out concepts that seem to make sense and discarding ideas that go astray,” Hicks said of the exercise.

DOD said the Space Flag 22-1 exercise uses simulation and modeling, enabling participants to plan and carry out integrated operations, test command and control capabilities and integrate tactical and intel space units to defend and secure U.S. and coalition space interests.

Hicks also met with Gen. James Dickinson, head of U.S. Space Command, to talk about space domain challenges.

Space Acquisition Forum

GovCon Wire will hold its Space Acquisition Forum on Jan. 19. Click here to register for the virtual forum to hear from defense officials as they share their insights on military acquisition reform and modernization efforts.

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Frank Kendall: 2 New Unmanned Aircraft Among His Top Priorities for Air Force
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Frank Kendall: 2 New Unmanned Aircraft Among His Top Priorities for Air Force

Frank Kendall, secretary of the Air Force and a three-time Wash100 Award winner, said he has top seven priorities aimed at giving the service branch deployable capabilities against near-peer competitors such as Russia and China and these include a new unmanned fighter jet and an unmanned bomber escort, Air Force Magazine reported Thursday.

Kendall said those two unmanned aircraft will be “acknowledged classified” programs, meaning the service will make the funding public but will not disclose the details of the aircraft systems.

To amplify the capability of the B-21 bomber, he said he wants the escort aircraft to deliver more weaponry and range and operate “as a formation in some loose sense … against a modern enemy” controlled through a network by an operator aboard the bomber.

“The tactics are very much to be determined,” he noted.

Kendall also discussed his other five priorities: space order of battle; air base resiliency; Advanced Battle Management System; air and moving target indication; and efforts to address vulnerabilities in the supply chain.

Frank Kendall: 2 New Unmanned Aircraft Among His Top Priorities for Air Force

Several Department of the Air Force leaders are scheduled to speak at a Potomac Officers Club event to share their perspectives on information technology programs at both the Air Force and Space Force.

Winston Beauchamp, deputy chief information officer, will headline POC’s “AF IT Modernization and Digital Transformation” forum on Wednesday.

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NIST Seeks Comments on Project Draft for IPv6-Only Implementation
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NIST Seeks Comments on Project Draft for IPv6-Only Implementation

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence has drafted a project description for implementing a secure network that uses only Internet Protocol Version 6.

NIST said Thursday it seeks public feedback to further refine the project titled Secure IPv6-Only Implementation in the Enterprise.

The project aims to tackle the security, privacy and operational matters involved in implementing or transitioning to IPv6-only network infrastructure. This includes both fully new implementations and transitions from existing IPv4 infrastructure.

NIST intends to demonstrate tools that enable secure IPv6 implementation and develop practice guides based on the effort’s results.

Interested parties may submit feedback through Jan. 27th.

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VA Needs Market Info on Data Management, Analytics Services
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VA Needs Market Info on Data Management, Analytics Services

The Department of Veterans Affairs has issued a request for information for capabilities that support data management, data analytics and evidence-based policymaking.

VA said Wednesday in a SAM.gov notice that its Office of Data Governance and Analytics needs support services in multiple data-focused areas including curation, analytics, governance, technical and programmatic assessments and change management.

The agency will use these services to establish an integrated capability set that addresses data management and integration requirements.

The effort’s future contractor would perform the following specific tasks: metadata management, data quality, data validation, paperwork reduction, data analytics and visualizations, performance frameworks, requirements analysis, data curation and enrichment, master data services, change management, strategic communications and data governance.

Interested parties may submit input through Jan. 7th. VA is currently not soliciting proposals and will only use responses to inform the effort’s procurement approach.

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