Michael J. Keegan

VA’s DelBene: Contractors Playing Integral Innovation Role. VA is driving forward the idea that when it comes to technology and innovation, federal contractors need to become an integral part of the government team. Kurt DelBene, VA’s chief information officer (CIO), said “One of the things that we’ve observed – and I’ve noted as I joined – is that there’s an arm’s length typically too often between the contractor and the full-time teams.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is to promote the progress of science. It promotes the progress of science by investing in research to expand knowledge in science, engineering, and education. NSF also invests in actions that increase the capacity of the U.S. to conduct and exploit such research. NSF research has made possible many of the technological advances that have improved medicine, communications, transportation, manufacturing, and the utilization of natural resources, together with a broad range of other impacts on our lives.

What's going on with DHS' enterprise cloud plan? The Department of Homeland Security teased its plan for a 10-year enterprise cloud contract in the fall and then went relatively quiet. Based on previous cloud procurements, that could be a good thing. 

How Local Governments Can Rise to the Infrastructure Complexity Challenge. To take advantage of the federal government’s $2 trillion in investments, municipalities must think big, start small and scale fast.  By recognizing some of these challenges in advance, county and municipal leaders can adopt strategies to help them realize the ambitious goals of these programs.

The 2023 Federal 100. Meet those recognized by their peers as exceptional contributors to federal IT in 2022.  Hundreds of nominations were submitted, and a panel of government and industry judges deliberated for hours. The result? A list of 100 men and women who personify what's possible in federal IT. 

DHA preps for MHS Genesis follow-on contract. The Defense Health Agency is conducting market research on a sustainment contract for the military's $5.5 billion electronic health records program. The contract, which spans 10-years and includes a team of contractors charged with delivering and integrating the Cerner electronic health record into the work of more than 200,000 care providers and 9.6 million beneficiaries. 

With disruption now the norm rather than the exception, governments need to rethink business as usual and prepare for business as disrupted. Government executives and managers should plan for continuous disruption and for how their agencies and departments will operate under continuous turbulence and change. In 2022 alone, we witnessed the impact of war,  the continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and natural disasters such as Hurricane Ian—not to men­tion energy scarcity, supply chain shortages, the start of a global recession, record highs for inflation, and rising interest rates.

Easterly Voices Urgent Need to Set AI Regulatory Landscape.  Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Jen Easterly warned on Thursday that the United States needs to quickly determine the regulatory landscape for development of AI technologies, which she said have the potential to become the most consequential – and perhaps dangerous – technologies of the 21st century.

As the nation’s combat logistics support agency, the Defense Logistics Agency manages the end-to-end global defense supply chain – from raw materials to end user disposition. “Our mission is to ‘deliver readiness and lethality to the warfighter always and support our nation through quality, proactive global logistics,” explains Vice Admiral Michelle Skubic, director of DLA. To accomplish this mission, this agency has a staff of about 25,000 employees divided into multiple supply chains that contract for material and services across the military classes of supply.