Ask the CIO

• Education’s Federal Student Aid to get new CIO; CISA, NTIS losing executives

  Mia Jordan, the CIO at the Agriculture Department’s Rural Development bureau, is leaving after 10 years to become the CIO at the Education Department’s Federal Student Aid Office.

• Schneider leaving federal CISO role for private sector

  Grant Schneider, the federal chief information security officer, is leaving federal service after almost 28 years, including the last two in his current role.

• SBA’s Cavallo to take modernization successes to OPM

  Guy Cavallo, the SBA deputy chief information officer, will become the principal deputy CIO at OPM starting on Sept. 14.

• FDA’s cloud motto: Easy, fast, cost effective, secure

  Dr. Amy Abernethy, the principal deputy commissioner and acting chief information officer of the Food and Drug Administration, said the agency is looking at common use cases and creating cloud-based package services to give the internal customers the majority of the capabilities they need.

• HHS CIO Arrieta unexpectedly resigns

  Federal News Network has confirmed that Jose Arrieta told senior leadership he would be leaving the agency after only 16 months.

• Federal CISO Schneider plans to reinvigorate CyberStat in fiscal 2021

  Grant Schneider, the federal chief information security officer, said the Federal Acquisition Security Council continues to work on its interim final rule detailing how it will share supply chain risk information with government and industry.

• USDA CIO cites workforce ‘restructuring’ as reason for hiring freeze, early retirement offers

  The Agriculture Department's Office of Chief Information Officer has implemented a hiring freeze and is offering early retirements to eligible IT specialists. The initiatives are part of a workforce "restructuring" effort to support USDA's ongoing IT modernization transformation, the department said.

• National Cancer Institute brings diversity of thought, people to help small business innovators

  Christie Canaria, the Small Business Innovation Research program director at the National Cancer Institute and a finalist for the Women in Technology leadership award, said her role in helping small business successful navigate the Small Business Innovation Research program depends bring an assortment of ideas to the table.

• CIO reporting, working capital funds remain outliers in agency IT modernization progress

  The House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on government operations released the 10th Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) scorecard and no agency received a “F” or “D” grade for the first time.

• Rep. Hoyer offers novel approach to fund IT modernization efforts

  House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) suggested giving the IRS $2 billion under the Technology Modernization Fund and then letting agencies use the savings from the tax agency for other projects.

• Air Force’s game-changing approach to cloud accreditation

  Nicolas Chaillan, the Air Force’s chief software officer, said the service is testing its cloud native access point approach through Platform One with the F-35 and Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) teams.

• South Dakota CIO takes office in the eye of pandemic storm

  Jeff Clines became South Dakota CIO during the the crucible of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. The cabinet position, full operational authority and the governor's keen executive sponsorship played a large part in his decision. The state's culture has led to success of the their reaction o the pandemic.

• Montana CIO gets ready to retire state’s mainframe infrastructure: Part 2

  Montana CIO Tim Bottenfield took the job in 2019 and has orchestrated successful remote working environment for state employees during the pandemic. Montana will complete the retirement of its mainframe infrastructure over the next 12 months.

• Former federal CIO Kent reflects on her tenure, accomplishments, biggest frustrations

  Suzette Kent, who recently left after more than two years as the federal CIO, said lawmakers need to reconsider how they fund technology modernization efforts so they are not just a one-year effort.