Weekly Roundup: Week of April 18 - 22, 2016

Quadrennial Reviews at Homeland Security. The Government Accountability Office reports that the Department of Homeland Security recently undertook its second-ever quadrennial review of its potential threats, opportunities, and potential consequences. However it concludes that improved Risk Analysis and Stakeholder Consultations could enhance future reviews. Benchmarking Best Practices. Government Executive reports: “The Obama administration launched a cross-agency initiative, Benchmark and Improve Mission-Support Operations, which aims to establish governmentwide cost and quality metrics across mission-support functions—contracting, financial management, human capital, information technology and real property. Currently, in its third year of data collection, it provides a significant opportunity for the next administration to build on the effort.” “What Works” Contracts. Government Executive reports: “The Obama administration is “doubling down” on its study of the “pay for success” approach to funding social services programs after they demonstrate results, rather than in advance. . . . In a Tuesday blog post, Budget Director Shaun Donovan and Domestic Policy Council Director Cecelia Munoz wrote that “with the addition of 25 new Pay for Success feasibility studies across the country, the federal government is significantly increasing its investment in PFS.” Mobile Apps Playbook for Government. According to FedScoop: “The Department of Homeland Security released its Mobile Applications Playbook Monday, giving federal agencies a roadmap for creating, testing and deploying apps that will be shared across the government. . . . . The 39-page guide can be used anywhere along an application’s development lifecycle, giving development teams a path forward when they are stuck on an issue related to an application’s progress.” Results Scorecard. What is agencies’ progress in using evidence in making decisions? Government Executive reports: “The Obama administration has made substantial progress in measuring federal program effectiveness, but more needs to be done to shift federal funding to programs that work, according to a scorecard released Monday by Results for America, a bipartisan advocacy organization that supports greater performance in government. . . . "This administration believes in the power of evidence," said OMB Director Shaun Donovan at an event announcing the new ratings. "Evidence should drive policy decisions. We need to do what works and stop doing what doesn't." Presidential Transition Update. The New York Times reports: “Mr. Obama began pressing his senior advisers to begin planning for the transition late last fall, telling them he wanted to take the process seriously and match or exceed the job done by Mr. Bush, to whom he and his team give high marks for a well-executed handover in January 2009. . . . “He indicated that he wanted this to be a serious process,” Anita Decker Breckenridge, Mr. Obama’s deputy chief of staff for operations and the point person on the process, said in an interview.” Status of DATA Act Implementation. Federal News Radio reports: “The future of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, a law aimed at making government spending more transparent, is getting murkier as the lead agencies behind the implementation struggle to keep deadlines and provide agencies with the guidance they need to adopt the new standards” John Lainhart New US Cyber Commission Tries to Find a Seat for Government at the Table. At the first assembly of a new U.S. commission on cybersecurity, members debated how to improve the relationship between the federal government and the best minds in data protection. Silicon Valley firms "think government is the enemy,” said Commissioner Herb Lin, a senior cybersecurity researcher at Stanford University. The primary task of the members of the presidentially appointed Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity is to pen a 5-to-10-year roadmap for strengthening computer defenses across the country. Their deadline is the last month of the current administration and their main audience is the next president. Own Worst Enemy: Two-Thirds of Government Data Breaches are Accidental Leaks. Public sector data breaches exposed some 28 million identities in 2015, but hackers were responsible for only one-third of those compromises, according to new research. Negligence was behind nearly two-thirds of the exposed identities through government agencies, the Symantec 2016 Internet Security Threat Report concluded. In total, the report shows that 21 million identities were compromised accidentally, compared to 6 million by hackers. In other words, officials at the local, state and federal government levels were sometimes the public’s own worst enemy when it came to data breaches in 2015. Cybersecurity a top challenge for nation's Homeland Security. ICMA, the International City/County Management Association, joined the National Homeland Security Consortium (NHSC) in releasing the 2016 National Issues Brief today. The brief identifies the top challenges facing the nation as well as actions recommended to address them. Those challenges include a number of issues but highlighted is Cybersecurity and the fragility of critical infrastructure as growing concerns that require a coordinated effort to address. There is an increasing sense of urgency about the state of the nation's critical infrastructure, which may be vulnerable to a growing number of catastrophic natural and human-made events. * * * * * The Business of Government Radio Show. How has military medicine been transformed? What is DoD doing to strengthening military medicine’s global health engagement? What has been done to reform the military health system? Join host Michael J. Keegan as he explores these questions and more Dr. Jonathan Woodson, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs on his last interview as he closes his public service career. Broadcast Schedule: The show airs Monday at 11 a.m., and Friday at 1 p.m. on Federal News Radio 1500AM WFED. If you can't wait, though, you can listen to (or download) this week's program and all our previous interviews at businessofgovernment.org.