A major war contractor is expecting a $45 million check from the U.S. government. A military appeals board has sided with Kellogg Brown & Root in its quest to get the government to reimburse it for security in Iraq. KBR paid out of its own pocket for private guards to protect convoys carrying supplies to the U.S. military. Procurement Attorney Joe Petrillo joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to take a closer look at the five-year battle in this week's Legal Loop.
Industry needs to be "more creative and bold" when it comes to helping agencies solve their biggest challenges, says AT&T executive Casey Coleman, the former chief information officer at the General Services Administration.
Former Deputy Defense Secretary Bill Lynn says the Pentagon needs to adjust its strategy to take advantage of the global and commercial technology markets.
The General Services Administration and the Homeland Security Department are putting the final touches on the next set of contracts that will truly kickstart the federal move toward dynamic cybersecurity protections of agency networks and computers. The two agencies will release six task orders under the $6 billion CDM program in the coming year to implement tools and services across more than 40 agencies.
The Defense Department's request for its overseas contingency operations is about $20 billion less than initial estimates. Former Defense officials say realistic goals and managed expectations usually spelled success for weapons systems.
The Science and Technology Directorate issued a Broad Agency Announcement and four specific solicitations to get industry, academia and others thinking about how to improve cybersecurity. Over the next nine months, the agency will review white papers, proposals and make awards, with expectations of the development of commercial or open source projects in the next year or two.
The Defense Intelligence Agency will inaugurate its new Open Innovation Gateway on Wednesday, as part of its strategy to bring new technologies into the intelligence community from non-traditional vendors, and to buy new capabilities within weeks instead of years.
Chandra McMahon, Lockheed Martin's vice president for commercial markets, discusses NSA's accreditation system that tests cybersecurity companies against 21 separate focus areas.
The Homeland Security Department's contract dollars declined for a second year in a row as sequestration set in. The impact of budget cuts is spread unevenly across its components.
Vendors protested GSA's desire to extend the Office Supplies 2 contract for six more months. GSA says agencies can buy office supplies through the multiple award schedules. National Industries for the Blind protests the OS3 contract to the agency, not to GAO.
The Small Business Administration adjusted its monetary size standards for inflation, allowing nearly 9,000 additional small businesses to qualify for loans and financial assistance.
By September, the Navy anticipates it will have retaken full ownership of its main IT network after having outsourced it a decade earlier. The service says it wants to find ways to bring innovation into NMCI, but vendors will have to meet some checkpoints along the way.
The first solicitation will address near-term fixes for the current application. The second one will look to commercial technology for a wholesale replacement of the scheduling application. VA says it will build off the contest it ran in 2013 where it awarded $3 million to competitors to develop VISTA-friendly scheduling software.
Lawyers say GSA's analysis of the impact of OS3 on small businesses met the requirements under the Small Business Jobs Act.
The General Services Administration has tapped Lockheed Martin to help update the Federal Acquisition Service's (FAS) business systems. The agency announced Monday it awarded Lockheed the Application Maintenance, Enhancement and Operations (CAMEO) task order, which will "streamline a highly integrated IT portfolio."