Setting the record straight on what exactly Stan Kaczmarczyk said on June 2 about the cloud cybersecurity effort known as Federal Risk Authorization and Management Program (FedRAMP). There have been several blogs and some articles that either didn\'t understand or misconstrued his comments, which has set some in the federal community off in the wrong direction.
With all the focus on the OPM cyber breach, let\'s not overlook the simple fact that despite what some would call urgent and compelling needs, the government has rules and regulations that still need to be followed.
Over the next year, GSA will work with other agencies and industry will come up with a set of risk indicators and create access to multiple data sources for contracting officers to better determine and understand the supply chain risk of the technology they are buying.
Shay Assad, the director of Defense pricing, said the Defense Contract Management Agency will open an additional five centers of excellence over the next few months to help military services and agencies make better decisions when buying commercial items. Assad said DoD also needs to move to value-based pricing.
In Senate hearings regarding the recent breach of the Get Transcript system last week, IRS officials said they were \"reviewing options\" to make their online services more secure. They did not mention the agency already has asked vendors for bids on a wide array of new authentication services.
The Department of Health and Human Services\' Buyers Club released a major solicitation for website development services using an agile development process. Mark Naggar, the program manager for the Buyers Club, said the two-stage methodology focuses on user needs first and foremost.
The Department of Veterans Affairs says it has made significant gains over the past several months in paying its health care vendors on time. Providers tell a different story, and say the department routinely fails to comply with the Prompt Payment Act.
Collaboration between the Homeland Security Department\'s Science and Technology Directorate and its industrial base is still a work in progress. S&T Undersecretary Reginald Brothers outlines six main priorities for his directorate in September. But some industry groups say S&T needs to create more incentives so vendors get involved. Marc Pearl is the president and CEO of the Homeland Security and Defense Business Council. He testified recently before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose about some of the goals within S&T, and the challenges that remain.
HP Enterprise Services submitted a protest to the Government Accountability Office on March 9 of the $29 million award to Knowledge Consulting Group under task order 2.
The General Services Administration is proposing a new rule to require vendors to give them contract transaction. Some contractors don't like the idea, because they claim to already provide that information in other ways. Barbara Kinosky is president of Centre Law and Consulting, and on the Board of Directors for the Professional Services Council. On In Depth with Francis Rose, she shared more on the reaction from the contracting community to the proposed rule.
The Homeland Security Department and the FedRAMP program management office released a draft crosswalk between the cloud cybersecurity program and the Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) initiative. The goal is to make it easier for federal workers to access their network and apps securely through mobile devices.
The Department of the Navy plans to use one of the three projects in its Innovation Cell to create data analytics for talent management. The goal of the cell is to rapidly acquire commercial IT by involving industry early in the requirements process.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee passed two bills Wednesday - one that would fire tax-delinquent federal employees and another that prevents agencies from awarding contracts or grants to companies with tax debt. More than 100,000 employees in the federal workforce currently owe a total of $3.54 billion in federal taxes.
Two huge steps could go a long way toward healing the frustration taxpayers have with agencies and vendors, says Federal News Radio's Francis Rose in a new commentary.
A new bill from the House Small Business Committee chairman would require SBA to develop a new methodology to measure how effective agencies are in ensuring small firms receive prime and subcontracts awards.