People

In today’s Federal Newscast, after a delay, the White House publishes a memo allowing the defense secretary to to exclude civilian employees from current collective bargaining law.

Federal News Network presents a daily update of important moments in the history of the U.S. government.

President Donald Trump has made an unconventional pick to oversee America’s spy agencies: an unusually undiplomatic ambassador who has had little intelligence experience.

Multi-state IT collaboration efforts are on the rise as Arkansas and Oklahoma forge a unique cross boundary data center collocation initiative. Arkansas’ CTO managed through the governor’s reorganization of 45 cabinet departments down to 15.

President Trump has ousted the Pentagon’s top policy official who certified last year that Ukraine had made enough anti-corruption progress to justify the Trump administration’s release of congressionally authorized aid to Kyiv in its conflict against Russian-backed separatists.

Margaret Weichert, the number two leader at the Office of Management and Budget, is leaving government for the private sector, she confirmed to Federal News Network.

Veterans in rural areas often have to deal with a shortage of medical practitioners — a new Veterans Affairs initiative is aiming to fix that.

Joe Klimavicz, the Justice Department CIO and deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Management Division, came to the agency in 2014 and has been vice chairman of the CIO Council since 2018.

Andre Mendes, who has been acting CIO at the Commerce Department since August, is now the permanent technology leader. Beth Angerman, the former GSA principal deputy associate administrator in the Office of Governmentwide Policy, found a new home in the private sector.

North Dakota’s Gov. Doug Burgum picked a state CIO with similar unconventional traits. Shawn Riley overcame a difficult upbringing, started his own company at 16, and now with Burgum’s support leads the state’s IT renaissance.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie on Wednesday defended the firing of his deputy secretary, describing the removal as a “simple business decision.”

The leader of the Defense Department’s hub for integrating artificial intelligence into operations and functional purposes of the military will retire this summer.

An ongoing concern is the number and length of vacancies for inspector general spots in many agencies.

The General Services Administration named Julie Dunne and Tom Howder to lead the Federal Acquisition Service on a permanent basis. Both has been acting in the commissioner and deputy commissioner roles, respectively.