Beginning today with the ISS National Lab. It’s the government funded organization which manages all non-NASA research and investigations. It recently announced a new funding opportunity for in-space production applications, which can leverage the unique space environment to develop, test, or mature new products and processes. To find out more about the potential here and it’s role overall in U.S. space research, I got the chance to speak with Ryan Reeves, who is a material scientist with the ISS National Lab. Interview Transcript:  Ryan Reeves The ISOs National Lab was created by Congre ..read more

Did you ever toss out a tool or appliance, you later wish you still had? That’s what the government — which still operates a modified version of the Rural Electrification Administration — might do. The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, by statute, sunsets a year from September 2025, more than five years after onset of the pandemic itself. This seems logical on first glance. What will be left to oversee years after the trillions have drained away? The sunset model has precedent in the special inspector general operations for Iraq and Afghanistan. The PRAC, though, received specific fu ..read more

Everyone knows that Software bills of material (SBOMS) are crucial to cybersecurity. But deciphering these documents has been a challenge for many agencies. The Silicon Valley Innovation Program aims to help. It is part of the Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate. It has a program to promote development of what it calls “supply chain visibility tools.” For details, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin with the managing director of the Silicon Valley Innovation Program, Melissa Oh and with it technical director, Anil John. Interview Transcript:  Tom Temin Tell us what’s g ..read more

Many human capital leaders face intersecting challenges — reaching out to recruit new employees and offering ways to retain current staff, while also trying to develop long-term workforce skills to best meet an agency’s needs. But for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, before any of that can happen, there has to be a focus on the human resources staff who work in tandem with the rest of the agency’s operations, said Eric Dilworth, NRC’s acting chief human capital officer. On top of trying to recruit and retain HR staffing specialists who process hiring actions in the agency’s human capital off ..read more

Trade associations connected to federal technology, generally back the latest White House directives on artificial intelligence. A recent Office of Management and Budget memo gives agencies detailed guidance on making trustworthy and secure AI systems. For one view, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin talked with the Executive Vice President of Policy at the Information Technology Industry Council, Gordon Bitko. Interview Transcript:   Tom Temin And when you were a federal CIO, this whole artificial intelligence question really didn’t come up. I mean, people knew it was out there, but ..read more

With sensors everywhere from the bottom of the ocean to outside Earth’s atmosphere, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration requires a robust logistics system to manage all its moving parts. That’s why Douglas Templeton, chief of the National Logistic Support Center (NLSC) for NOAA and the National Weather Service, said NOAA is currently modernizing its logistics systems. Everything from the software to the business processes to the distribution will be updated. “They’re older systems. They were purpose built for us in 1989. And a lot of that computer language has changed over the ..read more

Help is on the way to make it easier for agencies to buy generative AI capabilities. The General Services Administration will release a new GenAI buying guide later this week as part of fulfilling its requirements under the AI executive order issued in October. Laura Stanton, GSA's assistant commissioner for the Office of the IT Category, said the agency is designing the guide to help the acquisition workforce better understand the unique and different requirements for buying GenAI. "This guide introduces the concepts of generative AI and overviews acquisition scenarios for purchasing GenAI t ..read more

Fraud, waste and abuse (FWA) is a severe, costly reality that has persisted to a level many governments simply cannot afford. In recent years, FWA has been adapted for more widespread exploitation that has only expanded with the aid of historic events like the COVID-19 pandemic; case in point, in a 2023 Reuters survey, respondents’ confidence in their ability to prevent FWA has dropped to 59%. Bearing this lack of confidence in mind, the ultimate challenge lies in a lack of understanding of the root cause of FWA. Government officials underestimate the role that organized crime plays in fosteri ..read more

You hear a lot about zero trust controls in government tech circles, especially here on Federal News Network. Could this approach to cybersecurity which requires constant verification before access to a system, be applied to protecting space assets? The U.S. Space Force certainly seems to think so. It recently granted a a $17 million contract to the company Xage Security to help the branch achieve zero-trust access control and data protection. To learn more, I spoke to Geoff Mattson, CEO of Xage Security. Interview Transcript:  Geoff Mattson You know, in the old days, people erected prot ..read more

The State Department is looking to rein in some of its record hiring efforts later this year, after Congress cut the department’s overall budget by nearly 7% in its fiscal 2024 spending deal. Amb. Marcia Bernicat, the director general of the Foreign Service and the director of the Bureau of Global Talent Management, said the new budget means the Foreign Service will have fewer resources to continue its robust hiring efforts — but plans to keep hiring above its rate of attrition. “We got into a deficit of staffing the last time we slowed hiring, so our leadership is dedicated to putting a much ..read more