Weekly Roundup: February 12-16, 2018

John Kamensky

Feb 12 – 16

Top Federal Management Official Confirmed. Government Executive reports the good news that: “The Senate Wednesday evening confirmed the Trump administration's nominee for the top management position in government, approving her in a unanimous voice vote. . . . Margaret Weichert will serve as the Office of Management and Budget’s deputy director for management, a key role for setting the president’s management and federal workforce agenda.

New Cross-Agency Priorities Set. GovMatters interviews Dan Tangherlini about the newly-announced Agency Priority Goals and Cross-Agency Priority Goals in the president’s budget, noting common themes.

New CIO Priorities. Federal Computer Week reports: “Like its predecessors, the Trump administration arrived in Washington with ambitions of reorganizing, reinventing and modernizing government. . . . Within the first four months of its tenure, the Trump White House established two offices to do so -- the Office of American Innovation, headed by the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner, and the American Technology Council, led by former Microsoft executive Chris Liddell.”

New OPM Workforce Priorities. Federal News Radio reports: “The Office of Personnel Management’s Quadrennial Federal Workforce Priorities Report, the first of its kind, details the steps agencies should consider when reshaping the government workforce and improving employee engagement. . . . The report, which OPM released Wednesday after two years of research in the federal space and private sector, describes six specific priorities to achieve those goals, and it details OPM’s vision for the workforce of the future.”

New Evidence Provisions in Law. The Social Innovation Center has compiled an inventory of evidence provisions in the President’s FY 2019 budget.

Budget Highlights on Management Priorities.  Government Executive reports: “President Trump proposed major reforms to the civil service in his fiscal 2019 budget request, focusing on streamlining the hiring and firing process, transitioning current employees to new federal jobs and minimizing the influence of labor groups.”

Deep-Seated Management Reforms.  Federal News Radio reports: “With the goal of taking on “deep-seated transformation” across the federal government, President Donald Trump is outlining six broad areas in his inaugural management agenda. . . .The White House says in its fiscal 2019 budget request to Congress that it will announce specific efforts in March.”

Performance.gov Relaunch. FedScoop reports: “As the Trump administration issued its budget request for fiscal 2019 on Monday, the Office of Management and Budget quietly re-launched the Performance.gov website with a new focus on IT modernization as a key driver to the White House’s strategy for federal reform. . . . The relaunch comes after OMB put an operational pause on Performance.gov — the data-driven central website for tracking cross-agency priorities in the President’s Management Agenda — last summer in preparation for its government reorganization plans.”

Budget Reorg Plans. Federal News Radio reports: “President Donald Trump is doubling down on last year’s government reorganization initiative in the fiscal 2019 budget proposal the White House released Monday. . . . The president’s budget request, titled “An American Budget,” aims to cut more than $25 billion in federal spending by eliminating major programs from Cabinet agencies, as well as shuttering more than 20 small, independent agencies.”

Are You Agile? Sol Sender and Ben Edwards write in Government Executive commentary piece that: “When we talk with managers who are undertaking ambitious digital projects, we ask them if they are using agile methods. Many of them will say “yes, we’ve adopted agile already.” You’d think that would be an encouraging sign: when practiced well, agile methods can create exceptionally valuable and productive teams. But we’ve learned it most often reveals something quite different: that they aren’t using agile at all.

Michael Keegan

DHS developing supply chain security initiative. The Department of Homeland Security is turning its focus on supply chain cybersecurity inwards with a new initiative aimed at ensuring security in procurement practices.

DHS Announces Finalists in Biothreat-Spotting Contest. These are finalist for a department contest to advance five early warning systems designed to detect biological attacks.

DOD to clarify its cloud plans with industry day. The Defense Department’s cloud steering group announced it will host an industry day March 7 to discuss its planned Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud acquisition.JEDI aims to deliver a cloud services solution that can support unclassified, secret and top secret requirements across DOD. The contract, which some industry observers have said could hit $2 billion, has prompted questions and speculation for months over whether DOD would go with a single cloud service provider.

Army Modernization Command Needs CTO to Inform Investment Decisions. Ryan McCarthy, U.S. Army undersecretary, has said the service needs a chief scientist for its new modernization command that will work with acquisition managers and soldiers and help with investment decisions.

GSA to take over IT Dashboard, preps for MGT. The General Services Administration is planning to set up operations to oversee MGT Act implementation, take over the IT Dashboard and expand shared services.

Non-traditional IT contractors unite to watch each other's backs. Steve Kelman writes that the nascent Digital Services Coalition could change industry collaboration -- if its members can preserve the culture of trust.

White House ‘Deeply Committed’to Artificial Intelligence. The White House made machine learning and autonomous systems research and development priorities this year, the deputy chief technology officer said. Speaking Feb. 13 at an event hosted by The New York Times, Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios said the Trump administration became the first to specifically prioritize machine learning and autonomous systems in its R&D priorities memo. That annual memo helps agencies decide where to allocate funding dollars each year.

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This Week’s The Business of Government Radio Show. Join us for a Special Edition of The Business of Government Magazine – A Year in Review with host Michael Keegan as he explores key trends in government management and highlights insights from a host of government executives who are changing the way government does business.

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