The Daily Scoop Podcast

If President-elect Donald Trump follows through on his pledge to reinstate an executive order that eases the president’s ability to fire federal workers, the government’s ability to recruit top talent for tech, IT, cyber and artificial intelligence positions will be harmed, according to a senior Biden administration official. The 2020 executive order concerning the creation of Schedule F in the excepted service was issued just 13 days before the 2020 election and was overturned by an executive order from President Joe Biden to enshrine protections for the federal workforce in 2021. The Office of Personnel Management announced a final rule this April that aimed to reinforce protections and merit system principles for career civil servants. The Biden administration official told FedScoop that if current or prospective federal employees QUOTE “believe they’ll be constrained from offering their honest, informed professional input, and that they or their colleagues could be removed following a presidential transition based on their personal beliefs and not on their performance, this will reduce their desire to work for the government.” They added that “Attracting top talent, including the best tech talent, to serve the American people means respecting and protecting their expertise and service, not undermining it.”President-elect Trump has maintained that he will immediately reissue that 2020 executive order restoring the president’s authority to remove what he calls rogue bureaucrats, adding that it would be the first point of his plan to “dismantle the deep state.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Retired Navy Rear Adm. Timothy Gallaudet is one of multiple witnesses set to testify at a congressional hearing next week about government transparency concerns and reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) that could endanger U.S. national security. Two sources familiar with the plans, who requested anonymity to discuss the hearing before it’s held, told DefenseScoop on Wednesday that it will be led by Republicans on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Nov. 13. Without sharing more information about who is testifying and why the hearing is being hosted now, a spokesperson from that committee separately confirmed in an email that it is scheduled for next Wednesday. Cyber Subcommittee Chairwoman Nancy Mace and National Security Subcommittee Chairman Glenn Grothman will co-chair the hearing. They said the lawmakers hope to provide more information to the public “in the coming days.” The upcoming hearing will follow several that lawmakers have convened in recent years, which came largely in response to mounting public pressure and alerts raised by former defense officials about seemingly unexplainable objects increasingly threatening America’s military assets and personnel in the modern era. One of the officials DefenseScoop spoke to suggested that some of the topics that will be raised in this next meeting will likely include transparency issues associated with the Pentagon’s and Intelligence Community’s handling of UAP reports and ongoing investigations; calls for more congressional oversight of the executive branch on UAP; and examples of how such phenomena have presented challenges to flight safety in real-world military operations. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

An organization for Justice Department employees is asking leadership to step up protections for workers facing online threats, such as doxxing, especially as the U.S. election could make those issues worse. The DOJ Gender Equality Network, a gender equity and equality organization that represents nearly 2,000 employees and contractors at the department, sent a letter on Oct. 31 asking Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco and Assistant Attorney General Jolene Lauria to strengthen action on the threats. The letter states: “We make this request at a pivotal juncture: There has been an uptick in [doxxing] against government officials since January 6, 2021, and experts believe the election could exacerbate the problem exponentially. The time to act is now.” Credentialed U.S. military and national security officials are experimenting and engaging in multiple classified environments with Defense Llama — a powerful new large language model that Scale AI configured and fine-tuned over the last year from Meta’s Llama 3 LLM — to adopt generative AI for their distinctive missions, like combat planning and intelligence operations. Dan Tadross, Scale AI’s head of federal delivery and a Marine Corps reservist, briefed DefenseScoop on the making and envisioned impacts of this new custom-for-the-military model in an exclusive interview and technology demonstration on Monday. He explained that there are already some users from combatant commands and other military groups that are able to leverage the tool on certain networks. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Scoop News Group last week hosted its annual CyberTalks event at the Andrew Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C., featuring the top cybersecurity officials in the public sector space. Much of the conversation throughout the day focused on the progress the Biden-Harris administration has made in cybersecurity modernization, how the White House is looking to sustain that, and what comes next. Federal CIO Clare Martorana and acting Federal CISO Michael Duffy joined me for a pair of fireside chats at CyberTalks to discuss that and more. If you missed the event, you’re in luck, because today we’re revisiting those conversations in their entirety on the Daily Scoop Podcast. Meanwhile, it’s election day. And while that will bring to a close the pre-election period that was busy for foreign and domestic actors looking to undermine confidence in U.S. elections, the post-election period could be an even bumpier ride, according to some observers. As reported on CyberScoop, federal agencies, state and local election officials, and experts say they are preparing for a chaotic, disruptive and messy period between election day and inauguration where foreign nations, domestic political groups and other bad actors will attempt to take advantage of a deeply divided electorate during a uniquely vulnerable time in America’s electoral cycle. And, the federal government is continuing to invest in generative AI technology produced by OpenAI, with a handful of agencies like the Defense Department, the Department of the Treasury, NASA, and the National Gallery of Art recently inking deals to use the enterprise version of the firm’s ChatGPT platform. The increased activity comes as policymakers weigh potential concerns with the technology, while also trying to exploit its potential benefits. It also shows how OpenAI is developing as an early frontrunner in providing the government with generative AI technologies on both the defense and civilian sides. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Days before a deadline for federal agencies to submit to the White House their updated zero-trust implementation plans, a coalition of government IT leaders released a guide intended to strengthen data security practices. The 42-page Federal Zero Trust Data Security Guide, spearheaded by the Federal Chief Data Officers and Federal Chief Information Security Officers councils, zeroes in on “securing the data itself, rather than the perimeter protecting it,” part of what a Thursday press release termed “a foundational pillar of effective” zero-trust implementation. By Nov. 7, federal agencies must provide their updated plans for zero-trust implementation to the Office of the National Cyber Director and the Office of Management and Budget. The Federal Acquisition Institute, a career development resource housed within the General Services Administration, recently released a credential focused on artificial intelligence prompt engineering. The credential is more evidence that federal interest in purchasing AI technology continues to grow. The tool is specifically designed to help government acquisition staff evaluate large language models, the type of technology built by OpenAI and Anthropic. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Host Billy Mitchell continues his conversation with Andrea Fletcher, Chief Digital Services Officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), discussing CMS’s approach to open-source technology and AI adoption. Fletcher highlights CMS’s pioneering open-source program office, the first of its kind in the federal government, which enhances cybersecurity and promotes collaborative, cost-effective development. She explains CMS’s partnership with the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) to address technology talent gaps, streamline processes, and navigate regulatory challenges. Fletcher also shares CMS’s strategy for AI, focusing on workforce upskilling, fraud detection, and policy innovation to improve healthcare accessibility across diverse provider needs, from small clinics to large healthcare organizations. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

In remarks on the new AI national security memo delivered Thursday at National Defense University, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan highlighted the potential AI has for the country’s national security advantage but spoke in dire terms about taking action. Sullivan said simply: “The stakes are high” and if the nation doesn’t act more intentionally to seize advantages and to deploy AI more quickly and more comprehensively for national security, the U.S. risks “squandering our hard-earned lead” with the technology. Meanwhile, the Pentagon is bracing for what’s ahead in the shift to focus on post-quantum encryption and the arrival of quantum computers. Among all of the cybersecurity modernization efforts underway at the Defense Department, cryptography has recently moved to the top of Deputy CIO for Cybersecurity David McKeown’s list of priorities. Speaking at AFCEA DC’s annual Tech Summit on Thursday, McKeown said the effort will likely be a big lift for the department given its timeline and scale. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

President Joe Biden will issue a memo and framework on the use of AI in the context of national security Thursday, with the aim of providing steps for U.S. leadership and guardrails for governance of the technology. Under the memo, agencies will be directed to access “the most powerful AI systems and put them to use,” senior administration officials who briefed reporters on the memo ahead of its release said. The memo will also bolster the role of the AI Safety Institute and provide direction to agencies for AI use for national security. The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, known as ARPA-H, is seeking information about how autonomous artificial intelligence systems, known as agentic AI, might be used in the health care space. A recent request for information posted by the Department of Health and Human Services agency specifically asks for information on implementations of agentic AI, how multiple agentic AI systems work together, scalability, risks, and how autonomy is decided, among other things. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Office of Management and Budget is getting close to finalizing long-awaited data guidance required by a 2019 law that mandates the machine-readability of federal information, two White House officials with direct knowledge of that work confirmed to FedScoop. According to the sources, who were granted anonymity to speak more candidly, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and the Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer are currently working on completing the guidance with a goal to get it out by the end of November. And, the Technology Modernization Fund on Tuesday announced four new investments, totaling $50.2 million, aimed at meeting user needs for housing and enhancing Social Security Administration operations. This round of TMF investments will enable the Department of Housing and Urban Development to modernize the agency’s digital infrastructure and keep up with cybersecurity needs, and allow the Social Security Administration to digitize documents and forms, update beneficiary notifications and use artificial intelligence to support disability claims processing. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Since the creation of the U.S. Digital Service in 2014, several federal agencies have chartered associated offshoots, like the VA, the DOD, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, injecting modern, digital principles into the mission work at those agencies. At CMS in particular, the digital service team plays an integral role working to transform how the federal government delivers healthcare to the American people. Andrea Fletcher is the head of that team, and she joins me in part one of a two-part episode for a wide-ranging discussion on the history of Digital Service at CMS, the major themes and challenges the team faces, and what’s next. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is using artificial intelligence to mine tips about potential threats but is revealing little about how the system actually works. Specifically, the bureau is using a system it calls the “Complaint Lead Value Probability” to prioritize tips by conducting algorithm scores and triaging, according to two versions of an agency AI disclosure. The technology, which is meant to help sort through the tips the FBI receives, is one of several AI tools employed by a bureau that also uses Amazon’s Rekognition software and drug signature algorithms. The Department of Labor is spelling out how artificial intelligence can boost job quality without harming the rights of workers, releasing a roadmap last week that aims to empower workforces in underserved communities as use of the emerging technology proliferates. The 17-page document, titled “Artificial Intelligence and Worker Well-Being: Principles and Best Practices for Developers and Employers,” details eight key priorities for AI companies and management to follow that are intended to keep the focus on “centering worker empowerment and well-being.”