Homeland Security gets its very own generative AI chatbot

In today's Federal Newscast, Homeland Security has rolled out its own generative AI chatbot, now available to roughly 19,000 employees.

  • House lawmakers finally unveiled a second stop-gap funding bill late last night. The continuing resolution would keep the government open through March 14. The current CR expires at midnight on Dec. 21. This latest CR not only would keep funding agencies at fiscal 2024 levels, but also allocates $100 billion for disaster relief accounts and $10 billion for farm subsidies. Speaker Mike Johnson said he would like to give lawmakers 72 hours to read the bill before voting. That possibly would push the Senate's vote on the CR into the weekend, meaning Congress would have to pass a very short term CR to keep the government fully open.
  • A bill to reform the way federal agencies recruit and hire their employees is heading to President Joe Biden’s desk for a signature. Congress has passed the Chance to Compete Act, a bipartisan bill that will codify skills-based hiring practices for the federal workforce. The House cleared the bill Monday evening by voice vote, following the Senate’s passage of the legislation late last week. The Chance to Compete Act will require agencies to think more critically about hiring qualified candidates. They’ll have conduct technical and skills-based assessments. That’s instead of the current and common practice of job applicants only evaluating themselves on their skills. Federal hiring experts said those self-evaluations often lead to dead ends for federal recruiters. Once signed into law, agencies will have three years to make the switch over to skills-based assessments.
  • A new bill seeks to prohibit the Defense Department from doing business with companies that provide IT services to China. Rep. Pat Fallon’s (R-Texas) new legislation would prevent the Defense Department from entering into IT contracts with companies that own, operate or fund research facilities in China that focus on artificial intelligence research and development. The Defense Department would also be prohibited from working with companies that allowed the PRC to access software source code that will be used by the United States government. The bill will most likely be reintroduced in the next Congress.
  • The Department of Homeland has rolled out its own generative AI chatbot. DHSChat is now available to roughly 19,000 employees at DHS headquarters and select pilot users across 10 operating agencies. DHS-Chat uses the same technology as popular commercial tools like ChatGPT. But it was built internally and operates on DHS’ secure infrastructure. DHS said the tool can help employees summarize complex documents and reports, generate computer code, and streamline repetitive tasks like data entry.
    (DHS’s responsible use of generative AI tools - Department of Homeland Security)
  • Half of the Department of the Air Force Infrastructure is in a moderate or high-risk condition and “can no longer be considered a sanctuary.” About 33% of the service’s utilities such as water and electric services are in critical condition and 25% are degraded. That is according to the service’s recently released installation infrastructure action plan. The new document lays out how the Air Force plans to get after these challenges and prevent further degradation of the facilities essential to the service’s operations. Air Force Materiel Command will be responsible for overseeing the implementation of the action plan.
  • The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is telling agencies to shore up their cloud computing security. CISA’s binding operational directive issued yesterday requires agencies to evaluate the security settings of their cloud applications, like Microsoft 365. The directive requires them to do that using CISA’s Secure Cloud Business Applications baseline and assessment tool. CISA has been piloting the tool with 13 agencies over the last two years. Under the directive, agencies have until next June to evaluate their cloud environments and apply standard security configurations.
  • A last-minute attempt from Democrats to prevent the revival of Schedule F has been blocked. On Tuesday, Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) called for a unanimous consent agreement to pass the Saving the Civil Service Act. The bill would bar agencies from removing federal employees’ civil service protections without consent from Congress. The Democrat-backed legislation is an attempt to prevent Schedule F from resurfacing in the next administration. Senate Republicans, however, quickly struck down Kaine’s attempt to move the bill to a vote. The push from Democrats came after President-elect Donald Trump promised to bring back Schedule F in his second term. Senator Kaine said he expects the debate over Schedule F to be an ongoing point of contention in the next Congress.
    (Saving the Civil Service Act - Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virg.))
  • Virginia Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) won the top Democrat spot on the Oversight and Accountability Committee. Connolly beat out Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in an election before the Democrats' Steering and Policy Committee by a vote of 34 to 27. Connolly was the ranking member of the Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, IT and Government Innovation in the last Congress. As the new full committee ranking member, Connolly promises not to be timid in countering "Republican gaslighting." Republican Congressman James Comer will continue to be the chairman of the committee.
  • The Department of Veterans Affairs plans to roll out its new Electronic Health Record to more sites, starting next year. The VA last year paused its new Oracle-Cerner EHR from going live at more of its medical facilities, until it addressed issues at sites already using it. But the department’s EHR Modernization office said performance is improving. VA officials said sites using the system have seen a 50% decrease in crashes and lags, since the VA made its last round of updates in August. Officials said the VA is also seeing a 60% reduction in incident tickets that need to be resolved. The Defense Department completed its deployment of the same Oracle-Cerner EHR, but the VA only has the EHR running at six of its sites.
    ( - Federal News Network )
  • A bipartisan House task force said agencies need to do more to bring AI experts into the federal workforce. Agencies made more than 200 AI hires this year, and are looking to more than double that by the end of fiscal 2025. To meet those hiring goals, the task force recommends Congress create an AI Scholarship for Service program that helps recruit AI workers into government service. The task force also recommends agencies focus more on a candidate’s skills and experience, and focus less on traditional academic degrees. The report also recommends agencies standardize the roles and competencies for AI-related federal jobs.

Copyright © 2024 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

Related Stories

    Artificial Intelligence

    Why the federal sector must leverage more chatbots as CX remains a top priority for the administration

    Read more
    Amelia Brust/Federal News NetworkTammy Flanagan

    Schedule F, are you ready for if it actually comes your way?

    Read more