That new White House guidance on agency use of artificial intelligence: It embodies guardrails, but also a few opt-out scenarios that give agencies plenty of discretion. One analyst thinks it gives them too much discretion. For more on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin, Federal News Network’s Eric White spoke to the senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, Amos Toh. Interview Transcript:  Amos Toh I think that the OMB memo does provide one of the most robust frameworks for regulating how governments, how federal agencies should regulate their use of AI. But the problem is th ..read more

Dr. Bob Frey, principal, Successful Proposal Strategies This week on Amtower Off Center, Dr Bob Frey, author author of Successful Proposal Strategies On-the Go and principal of Successful Proposal Strategies LLC, joins host Mark Amtower for a discussion on winning proposals. Topics discussed include:. The six functional areas needed for winning proposals What do evaluators across the spectrum (DOD, military,IC, civilian) care about when reviewing proposals Differences in federal vs commercial and international proposals Key elements of and the importance of the executive summary The post The ..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

As they do every four years at this time, political appointees begin to depart. In their absence, contractors should prepare for a slowdown in new and innovative project starts. At least, that is the view of long time federal marketing and sales consultant Larry Allen, who talked with  the Federal Drive with Tom Temin.  Interview Transcript:  Tom Temin This phenomenon is real, isn’t it? The the end of term, even if the same guy could get elected, the political start to leave in general now don’t they? Larry Allen That’s right Tom, they really do. And it’s inevitable. It really ..read more

The General Services Administration is putting the final touches on its solicitation for the Alliant 3 IT services contract. But one of the sections that GSA is already finished with is a new approach to attracting small businesses with new or emerging technology capabilities. Large businesses can get started today on meeting the requirements of GSA’s small business emerging technology solutions engagement requirements under Alliant 3 contract. Paul Bowen, the director of the center for GWAC programs at GSA, said this evaluation factor is among the first of its kind. “There’s an opportunity fo ..read more

Flow-down requirements are a unique, yet ubiquitous, feature of the federal acquisition system. Flow-down requirements impact prime contractors, subcontractors, customer agencies, contracting activities, and contracting officers. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) includes a host of contract clauses that must be flowed down to subcontractors. Moreover, given the procurement system’s focus on regulatory and performance compliance, prime contractors are incentivized to flow down as many clauses as possible beyond those mandatory flow-downs. Some of these additional flow-downs can be centra ..read more

A defense contractor is facing heavy fines and probation for admitting to a bribery scheme with a former Naval Information Warfare Center employee. The Justice Department said Cambridge International Systems, Inc., headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, pleaded guilty to giving everything from a ticket to the 2018 Major League Baseball all-star game in Washington, D.C. to funneling $2,000 a month to James Soriano, a contracting officer with the Naval Information Warfare Center. In return, Soriano helped steer contracts of more than $132 million to Cambridge International. The company will be s ..read more

This week on Off the Shelf, Alan Thomas, founder and chief strategist at Alpha Tango Strategies, examines the history of the eCommerce platform and shares his thoughts on the acquisition and policy history of the CPI as well as prospects for growth now that the eight follow on contracts have been awarded. Thomas highlights the outreach role GSA has played and must continue to play to enhance opportunities for growth in customer agency usage., and he discusses the impact of GSA’s new SaaS advance payment policy and what it means for customer agencies and industry. Thomas contrasts this new ..read more

This week Jason Miller, executive editor at Federal News Network, joins Off the Shelf, for a wide-ranging discussion of the policies, regulations, legislation, trends, and programs shaping the federal procurement market. Topics include the FAR at 40 years, the new part 40 of the FAR, GSA’s commercial platform awards, GSA’s new policy on SaaS and advance payments, the impact of CMMC on small business, new grant regulations, and the trends on DoD’s PALT for task and delivery orders. The post Trends in federal procurement first appeared on Federal News Network ..read more

A major contractor for the Veterans Affairs Department is getting acquired. Cognosante, a provider of digital transformation and cloud modernization services, will merge into Accenture Federal Services. Cognosante won more than $300 million in federal prime contracts the last two years, with its largest customers being the VA and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Cognosante holds spots on several governmentwide contracts including CIO-SP3, OASIS and Alliant 2. Accenture Federal Services did not disclose the terms of the deal. (Accenture Federal Services to buy IT services firm ..read more