The Daily Scoop Podcast

Pentagon leadership will accelerate high-volume production of technologies designed to detect, track and destroy enemy drones via “Replicator 2.0,” DefenseScoop has learned. This development marks the first public report of the second capability focus area under the Replicator initiative — a high-profile effort that underpins the Defense Department’s multifaceted plan to deter China. According to a memorandum signed by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Sept. 27 and viewed by DefenseScoop ahead of publication Monday, the Pentagon “will tackle the warfighter priority of countering the threat posed by small uncrewed aerial systems (C-sUAS) to our most critical installations and force concentrations” under Replicator 2.0. The Department of Veterans Affairs is making tele-emergency care available nationwide following a pilot that the agency credited with helping over 60,000 callers. In a Thursday announcement, the VA announced that tele-EC, which aims to increase “timely access to virtual emergency care options” for veterans enrolled in VA health care, will be available across the nation to assist those who are unsure if what they’re experiencing is a minor emergency or not. 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 General Services Administration has tapped the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ chief information officer and chief data officer to serve as its new deputy CIO, the agency confirmed Thursday. Dovarius Peoples will join GSA on Oct. 6, an agency spokesperson told FedScoop. Peoples also has held leadership positions at the Office of Personnel Management and the National Security Agency. Also: The Department of Health and Human Services would be required to implement a pandemic preparedness and response program that leverages artificial intelligence under new bipartisan Senate legislation. That bill, which was introduced Wednesday and announced Thursday, would call on the secretary of HHS to establish a new program called “MedShield” that would protect against future pandemics by aiding collaboration between government and the private sector and use AI in several areas, including detecting pathogens and developing vaccines.

Federal agencies across the government have posted their plans to comply with an Office of Management and Budget memo on artificial intelligence governance, providing a window into what risk management and reporting practices will look like in the executive branch. The compliance plans, which were due 180 days following the finalization of OMB’s M-24-10 memo, outline steps each covered agency plans to take when it comes to updating their internal policies, collecting information for their AI use case inventories, removing barriers to responsible use of AI tools, and determining whether a use is rights- or safety-impacting, among other things. Also, delays and errors were among the “troubling” issues identified with the Department of Education’s new system for its Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form, the Government Accountability Office said this week. In a report and congressional testimony released Tuesday, the GAO said the education agency’s Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) pinpointed and addressed defects in the FAFSA Processing System (FPS) before deployment, but continued to find “numerous defects” after its launch.

Government IT contractor Carahsoft had its Reston, Va., headquarters searched by the FBI Tuesday morning, three sources familiar with the matter told FedScoop. In response to an inquiry about the raid, the FBI confirmed via email that it had “conducted court-authorized law enforcement activity” but declined to comment further. Meanwhile, the Department of Veterans Affairs is once again facing criticism from its inspector general related to its modernized electronic health record program in a pair of new reports published this week. According to one of those, the VA has neglected to put in place the proper controls for its Oracle Cerner electronic health record system to adequately prevent and respond to major incidents. 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 Biden administration is coming to a close. As the president’s term nears its end, what better way to take stock of the last four years than to reflect on some of the top goals from the President’s Management Agenda and what’s been accomplished. Loren DeJonge Schulman, associate director for performance and personnel management at the Office of Management and Budget, joins the podcast to talk PMA progress in areas like customer experience, hiring and cybersecurity, and how the White House hopes to sustain that progress as a new administration is set to take over next January. Also: A bipartisan bill would extend the life of a council of the government’s top data officials and require that body to look at improving data management practices for artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. The Modernizing Data Practices to Improve Government Act (S.5109) was introduced last week by Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Todd Young, R-Ind., and announced on Monday. That legislation would specifically renew the Chief Data Officers Council — which is set to expire in 2025 — for seven years, and add new requirements for several AI-related actions. And, federal agency direct hire authorities for STEM, cybersecurity and acquisition positions have been extended through the end of 2028, the Office of Personnel Management said in a memo released Monday. OPM had previously signed off on direct hire authorities for those positions on Oct. 11, 2018, and again on Sept. 29, 2023. In the Monday memo, OPM acting Director Rob Shriver said the new DHA window will be open through Dec. 31, 2028 or until the personnel agency “terminates this authority, whichever occurs first.”

A dozen federal agencies received an A on the most recent FITARA Scorecard, with 18 agencies improving their grades since January. In a Friday roundtable hosted by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., ranking member of the House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation, officials from USAID, NASA, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Energy and the Governmental Accountability Office shared the overwhelmingly positive FITARA grades for most of the 24 CFO Act agencies. Meeting procurement requirements laid out in 2019 Office of Management and Budget guidance on cloud strategy has been a mixed bag for federal agencies, a new congressional watchdog report found. As of this July, all 24 Chief Financial Officers Act agencies completed an OMB requirement in its Cloud Smart strategy to ensure that CIOs oversee modernization efforts, according to the Government Accountability Office. And all but one agency — the Small Business Administration — addressed the OMB mandate to “iteratively improve agency policies and guidance.” But there is plenty of work to do on the remaining three OMB callouts, the GAO said in its June 2022-September 2024 performance audit. 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 annual Congressional Hackathon is Thursday, and ahead of it, FedScoop is reporting that two of the five top recommendations from last year’s event have been implemented and others are on their way to being realized. Steve Dwyer, senior director for innovation at the House Office of the Chief Administrative Officer, told FedScoop that the two completed and now implemented projects are an internal unified House calendar that was launched in July and an internal social media tracking tool that was announced in recent weeks by the CAO to compare lawmakers’ social media statistics. A bipartisan House bill aimed at improving customer service interactions with government technology breezed through a key Senate panel Wednesday, putting it one step closer to becoming law. The Government Service Delivery Improvement Act passed the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee by an 11-0 tally, setting it up for a vote before the full chamber. The bill, first introduced by Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., Byron Donalds, R-Fla., Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., and William Timmons, R-S.C. in the House last October, passed that chamber in May. The legislation tasks agency heads with designating a senior official to oversee service delivery improvements and charges the Office of Management and Budget with choosing a senior official to coordinate governmentwide efforts on the issue.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the General Services Administration are partnering for an artificial intelligence maturity assessment as a foundational step in the nuclear agency’s path to finalizing a strategic plan. Over the next nine months, the NRC will welcome a GSA provided-project manager to work directly with staff to consult on what the agency needs to solidify an enterprise strategic plan, Basia Sall, the chief data officer and director of the NRC’s Data, Information Management and Enterprise Governance division, told FedScoop during an AI workshop at agency headquarters Tuesday. A federal grand jury in Atlanta has indicted a Chinese national on charges stemming from his alleged efforts to use spearphishing to target U.S. entities, including NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, and several military branches. The indictment, which was filed Sept. 10 and unsealed Monday by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, charges Song Wu, 39, with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft related to those efforts. 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.

From the impact of the Crowdstrike outage to IT issues with the Thrift Savings Plan’s modernized benefits and recordkeeping system, Jennifer Franks has her pulse on the federal cybersecurity space and the biggest challenges agencies face. Franks joins the Daily Scoop to discuss her journey to this role, what it’s like to work with federal agencies who may not be excited about her poking holes in their work, the biggest reports she’s issued recently — as well as those that are forthcoming — and much more. Also: The Department of Housing and Urban Development has funded a project that will use 3D-printing technology to construct an affordable housing unit in Nome, the culmination of a yearslong effort from federal, state and local governments, private industry and academia. The $600,000 HUD project is part of a $1.6 million matching grant program to fund the development and testing of a mobile 3D printer built specifically for use in the unforgiving Alaskan clime. And, all federal agencies using artificial intelligence for “consequential decisions” should be required to have a civil rights office to prevent things like algorithmic discrimination, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said Monday in a letter to the White House. In the letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young, the lawmakers noted that President Joe Biden had taken steps when it comes to addressing AI bias — including his Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights and October 2023 executive order on the technology — but said that more oversight is needed. 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 White House is pursuing several new efforts meant to advance U.S. leadership on artificial intelligence, announcing Thursday the creation of a new task force on data center infrastructure and related measures following a meeting with several executives of leading AI and tech companies. The meeting centered on key aspects of the physical infrastructure required to build AI infrastructure in the U.S., including clean energy permitting and workforce requirements — priorities that seemingly echo policymakers’ discussions about boosting semiconductor manufacturing. Meanwhile, an end-of-life version of Ivanti’s cloud IT service management software has a recently released vulnerability that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency says is being exploited. CISA warned that organizations outfitted with Ivanti’s Cloud Service Appliance version 4.6 and below are being targeted by hackers and the bug has been added to the known exploited vulnerabilities (KEV) list. The Utah-based company said on Friday that a “limited number of customers” have confirmed exploitation but did not provide further details.