exclusive

  • The industry association is once again in turmoil as it gets rid of Mike Hettinger, who was brought in to stabilize the association after a tumultuous year. TechAmerica brings in two consultants, Larry Allen and Bill Greenwalt, to handle the day-to-day activities of the organization in the meantime.

    September 23, 2014
  • Diane Dillard picked up the pieces of the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon after it was bombed in 1983. Ambassador Bill Brown found himself at the heart of a Soviet Union spy scandal. And John Limbert survived the infamous 444-day Iran hostage crisis. In the inaugural edition of Federal News Radio's new feature, Federal Voices, we hear from each of them, in their own words, about what those experiences were really like and how they survived to tell the tale.

    September 19, 2014
  • The office of compliance analytics at the IRS uses information, tools and analysis to help mission offices solve problems. Dean Silverman, a senior adviser to the IRS commissioner, said his office is trying to use these tools and approaches to improve the agency's outcomes and to create a data-driven decision-making culture.

    September 17, 2014
  • The General Services Administration tells Federal News Radio it no longer believes it's necessary to close down its seven services schedules to new vendors while it puts together the consolidated professional services contracts. GSA is trying to make it easier for agencies to buy professional services and for vendors to sell their expertise.

    August 28, 2014
  • Tiffany Hixson, the Federal Acquisition Service's professional services category executive, said the goal is to consolidate seven professional services schedules, such as MOBIS, FABS and professional engineering, into a handful of schedules. She said GSA is using the same approach for services as it did with IT by awarding the OASIS contracts to compliment the professional services schedule modernization.

    August 20, 2014
  • Despite a series of efforts to expand the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender federal workers by the Obama administration, LGBT feds, who comprise about 3 percent of the federal workforce, are less satisfied, feel less empowered on the job and are less likely to rate their agency's senior leaders and management as highly as their non-LGBT counterparts, according to a recent survey.

    July 06, 2014
  • Ford Heard, the Veterans Affairs associate deputy assistant secretary for Procurement Policy, Systems and Oversight, said his office will launch the acquisition corps and program management framework in the coming months to further professionalize the agency's acquisition workforce. A Federal News Radio survey of chief acquisition officers and other senior acquisition managers says workforce training and retention remain among their biggest priorities and challenges.

    July 01, 2014
  • Pentagon's most senior contract policy official is set to retire soon, but schedule is uncertain.

    June 25, 2014
  • Senate legislators will introduce and markup its version of the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) Wednesday, with a focus on giving CIOs full IT budget and contracting authority. The House and Senate bills differ in several ways, including how to limit the title CIO.

    June 24, 2014
  • The National Weather Service launched the ambassador program in February, and it now has more than 350 private sector, state, local, federal agency and other partners. The ambassador program is part of the NWS Weather Ready Nation effort to set an example of how to prepare for weather related events.

    June 18, 2014
  • Federal Chief Information Officer Steve VanRoekel says good management policies should be enough to improve how agencies buy, operate and deliver technology.

    June 17, 2014
  • The Data Aggregation Working Group, under the Information Sharing Environment, is creating a data aggregation reference architecture to give law enforcement and intelligence agencies a better approach to sharing information more securely and more quickly. The group ran two pilots and created a tool kit for others to use.

    June 05, 2014
  • After nearly a year on the job, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker is overseeing progress against five strategic pillars, including innovation, trade and management. She said she's trying to make sure employees feel connected to the vision and mission of the agency.

    May 15, 2014
  • Kevin Kern comes to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement after spending most of his career in industry.

    May 06, 2014