Tag Archives: Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recommended that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) implement security controls, manage information technology supply chain risks and establish elements of its cybersecurity risk management program as it pursues IT modernization efforts. VA has made strides when it comes to achieving data center consolidation goals and improving software licensing. 

The 10th iteration of the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act scorecard shows that no agency got an F or a D rating. The General Services Administration (GSA) is the only agency that received an A+ rating, while nine agencies got B scores and the remaining agencies secured Cs.

The Chief Information Officers Council plans to introduce a data science reskilling program for government employees later this month. Maria Roat, deputy federal CIO and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, underscored the federal workforce’s need for training at a House subcommittee hearing.

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said preliminary scores show that no agency will get an F or a D rating in the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act scorecard, Nextgov reported Monday.

Grant Schneider, federal chief information security officer, spoke about federal agencies’ improvement in cybersecurity and information technology modernization at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency summit Thursday, Federal Times reported.

The Office of Management and Budget released an updated Data Center Optimization Initiative to better comply with the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act’s data center consolidation requirements. The revised DCOI establishes metrics and goals for data center optimization and defines requirements for agencies’ progress reports ahead of FITARA’s Oct. 1, 2020 deadline for consolidation.

The eighth iteration of the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act scorecard shows that five agencies saw improvement in their letter grades. The agencies showing progress in their letter grades are the departments of Defense, Agriculture, Justice and Treasury and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Eleven federal agencies maintained their scores, while five agencies showed a drop in their letter grades.

The Government Accountability Office discovered that nine agencies successfully implemented provisions of a 2014 law requiring changes to governmentwide information technology management. GAO released a report on Monday highlighting the 12 practices that helped agencies implement the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act. 

Andrea Norris, chief information officer at the National Institutes of Health, said her office moves approximately 6 petabytes of data each day through a core computational network, Federal News Network reported Thursday. “Our backbone network is one core because the predominant data that we’re moving through there is scientific by far, but we do have set up in some cases, we architect virtual local networks for specialized scientific instrumentation,” Norris said on the network’s Federal Monthly Insights - Digital Transformation.

Congress provided the chief information officer at the Department of Defense with additional authorities and responsibilities through new provisions that took effect Tuesday, Jan. 1, as part of the fiscal 2018 defense authorization measure, Federal News Network reported Tuesday. The amendments would direct the DoD CIO to develop, publish and adopt standards for all cyber and information technology capabilities that operate on networks of service branches and defense agencies.