The slow progress on the Department of State’s IT modernization contributed significantly to the inability of most passport services employees to work from home during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a report published Tuesday, the department’s inspector general revealed that despite the $59 million spent by the Bureau of Consular Affairs on passport-related […]
Octo has been awarded a $31 million contract to provide technical support for the General Services Administration‘s legacy Federal Procurement Data System. GSA issued the Operations and Maintenance of FPDS Next Generation and System for Award Management Integration Environment contract through the CIO Modernization and Enterprise Transformation blanket purchase agreement, Octo said Thursday. The agency […]
The U.S. Digital Service, a technology unit within the Executive Office of the President of the United States, has named Mina Hsiang as its third administrator. Hsiang brings over a dozen years of technical experience from the private sector. She has built products, teams and organizations focused on delivering analytics and digital services, USDS said […]
New funding from the U.S. Department of Energy will go toward the development of new technologies aimed at securing the supply of critical materials used in making clean energy solutions. A total of $30 million was awarded to 13 national laboratories and universities working on select projects that will diversify the supply of particular rare […]
Perspecta, a subsidiary of Peraton, has secured a $2 billion blanket purchase agreement to manage the transformation and consolidation of the Defense Health Agency’s information technology services. Perspecta was named the principal contractor on the firm-fixed-price BPA, which the Department of Defense announced Monday. As the BPA’s main contractor, Perspecta will perform the required services […]
A new office within the Department of Labor will lead efforts to modernize unemployment insurance systems, which have traditionally been delivered through over 50 distinct systems at the state level. The Office of Unemployment Insurance Modernization‘s marching orders are to support UI modernization and manage the $2 billion already earmarked for the purpose through the […]
Guidehouse, a consultancy services provider, announced that it now serves as the fiscal transfer agent for the Small Business Administration’s 7(a) Loan Program and Secondary Market. The SBA said that Guidehouse is now the central registry for all guaranteed individual loans and SBA pool certificate interests. The company is also the agency’s paying agent for […]
The Department of Justice has introduced a new program that seeks to develop skills that prosecutors and lawyers can use in handling emerging threats to national security. The three-year Cyber Fellowship program is designed for attorneys with real-world experience in cyber threats and national security, rotating professionals selected through various DOJ components, including the criminal […]
The Department of Energy has named Tracey LeBeau administrator and CEO of Western Area Power Administration, effective Aug. 29. As one of DOE’s four power marketing administrations, WAPA is responsible for marketing and transmitting wholesale electricity from multi-use water projects across 15 states in the central and western United States. WAPA markets an average of 25,000 […]
The Government Accountability Office has released a report on how government agencies used facial recognition technology in fiscal year 2020. GAO said a comprehensive understanding of facial recognition’s use in government is important as the technology’s adoption continues to expand. The agencies included in the survey were the U.S. Agency for International Development, Environmental Protection […]
