• A record number of Americans hold a US passport. The State Department said there are more than 170 million in circulation and that it issued or renewed 90 million passports during the Biden administration. Applicants saw long wait times to apply or renew their passports at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the department said it’s gotten processing times down to four-to-six weeks.
  (Setting records in U.S. passport and visa services - State Department)
• Agencies have a year to implement new requirements for managing and optimizing data centers. As part of the Federal Data Center Enhancement Act of 2023, the Office of Management and Budget laid out six areas of focus for agency operated or agency owned, contractor operated data centers. The new policy includes everything from managing physical and virtual assets to monitoring equipment and power usage to metering energy consumption. The latest data from OMB said in 2022, agencies still had 328 tier one data centers in use. OMB said the memo expires September 30, 2026.
  (OMB issues new data center policy - Office of Management and Budget)
• The Education Department lost two top technology executives this week. The Education Department is putting a help wanted sign out for two senior positions. It has to replace Steven Hernandez, the agency’s chief information security officer. He took a job with the U.S. Agency for International Development as its deputy CIO and CISO. Education also has to find a new deputy CIO to replace Brian Bordelon, who joined the Commerce Department as its chief technology officer and deputy CIO. Hernandez leaves Education after seven years to join his former boss Jason Gray, who now is the USAID CIO and was the Education Department CIO for six years. Bordelon had been with Education for just about 18 months.
  (Technology executives on the move at Education, OPM, HHS - Federal News Network )

        Join us Jan. 27 for our Industry Exchange Cyber 2025 event where industry leaders will share the latest cybersecurity strategies and technologies.

• The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is urging companies to voluntarily adopt new AI security guidance. The AI cybersecurity collaboration playbook details how businesses can respond to AI cyber incidents and share information with the government. CISA developed the playbook with its partners in the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative. It was informed by tabletop exercises hosted by Microsoft and Scale AI. CISA plans to regularly update the playbook to account for emerging trends and changes in technology.
  (CISA, JCDC, government and industry partners publish AI cybersecurity collaboration playbook - Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency)
• The Transportation Security Administration is launching new customer service training. TSA will provide about 7,000 frontline staff with customer experience training in 2025. That’s part of TSA’s latest High Impact Service Provider Action Plan. This year, the agency will also launch the third iteration of its Passenger Experience Survey at about 20 airport checkpoints nationwide. TSA also plans to expand mobile drivers license readers and facial recognition technology at airport checkpoints in 2025.
  (TSA HISP Action Plan - Performance.gov)
• At a confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, said he would be a “change agent” within the Pentagon. Hegseth, a veteran and former Fox News host, received a friendly response from Senate Republicans during a hearing that lasted nearly five hours, while Democrats pressed Hegseth on allegations of sexual misconduct, excessive drinking, past comments about women in combat roles and his ability to run a massive organization. Republican Senator Roger Wicker said while Hegseth’s nomination is “unconventional,” that may be what would make him an “excellent choice.” Democratic Senator Jack Reed said he doesn’t believe Hegseth is “qualified to meet the overwhelming demands” of the job. The Senate Armed Services Committee is expected to vote on his nomination in the coming days.
  (Hegseth receives support from Republicans, called unfit to be defense secretary by Democrats during Senate hearing - Senate Armed Services Committee)
• Federal agencies are taking steps to improve efficiency. That’s a top goal for the incoming administration. The Government Accountability Office issues an annual report on overlap, duplication, and fragmentation of federal programs. Agencies have implemented about 70% of GAO’s more than 2,000 recommendations and saved $670 billion. But the head of GAO Comptroller General Gene Dodaro said there’s more ways to streamline government operations. About 30 agencies are involved in disaster response and recovery and another 30 agencies are involved in food safety.
  (Trump’s second term agenda to include cutting ‘slackers’ from federal workforce, - Federal News Network)
• To field unmanned systems at scale, the Defense Innovation Board is calling on the Pentagon to first identify the technologies it wants to scale. Board members said that outside of the Replicator initiative, which aims to field thousands of attritable autonomous systems by summer 2025, it’s unclear what systems the Pentagon wants to move forward with in a “meaningful way.” The board also calls on the Defense Department to set up a joint small unmanned systems management office to centralize and streamline acquisition efforts of those systems. The office would be funded at the office of the secretary of defense level.
  (DoD advisory board wants Pentagon to identify unmanned systems it wants to scale - Defense Innovation Board)

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