The Digital Benefits Network, part of the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown University, released a report this week focused on understanding the experience applicants have when applying for public benefits online, specifically account creation and identity verification. Elizabeth Bynum Sorrell, Senior Manager at the Digital Benefits Network, joins StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast to share that the report found that beneficiaries prioritize access over privacy, but have a hard time navigating the different steps to verify their identity. She also highlights the importance of single sign-on systems to simplify the process and build trust, noting their use in 20 states.

Top stories this week: 

The State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program is on track to be reauthorized. The Protecting Information by Local Leaders for Agency Resilience, or PILLAR, Act, was introduced last week and began winding its way through committees, enjoying favorable bipartisan comments. One thing it's missing, though, is a dollar amount.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach on Monday made public he’s suing Gov. Laura Kelly. The suit is his attempt to force the governor to send the personal data of 730,000 applicants who applied to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program over the past five years  to the federal government.

A report published last week by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers cautions that accessibility lawsuits filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act are already on the rise, jumping from 2,250 lawsuits in 2019 to 4,000 last year, with costs to offenders as high as $350,000, not counting remediation costs. The warning comes as states look ahead to an April 2026 deadline to meet new accessibility requirements.
New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday.
For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,Soundcloud or Spotify.


Crafting a good state benefits portal

Tarek Tomes, the chief information officer of Minnesota, and Katie Savage, Maryland’s CIO, may be separated by 1,000 miles, but they have at least one thing in common when it comes to their work: They both have directives from their governors to support child and family services. Gov. Tim Walz has said he wants to make Minnesota the best state in the nation to raise a family. And Gov. Wes Moore has named eliminating child poverty as one of his top priorities in Maryland. Both CIOs tell StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast that they are working with agencies across the state to ensure they have the IT support they need to meet their goals. “I think approaching technology through the lens of empathy — really understanding that when people are knocking on these doors, you know, they’re knocking on these doors with a lot of other things going on in their lives,” Tomes says.

This week’s top stories:

New York State has named a new deputy chief information officer. Jenson Jacob, a longtime state government employee, was named to the role recently after serving in roles as lead enterprise architect, chief digital transformation officer and deputy chief technology officer.

Texas’ secretary of state has announced it has data-sharing agreements with nine other states. The agreements are designed to allow Texas to reduce voter fraud and identify inconsistencies like duplicate registrations. Some of the details of the data-sharing arrangements are unclear, however, because the state has not published the agreements.

A federal judge has issued an injunction blocking the Department of Agriculture from collecting the personal data of individuals applying for SNAP benefits in 21 states and Washington, D.C. The ruling arrived after privacy advocates raised concerns that such data sharing could expose applicants’ sensitive information.

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday. For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud or Spotify.

The technology behind child and family services

On this episode of the Priorities podcast, James Barros, administrator of the Emergency Management Agency in Hawaii, joins us to discuss the results of the September tests. He said the tests showed the need for clearer evacuation messaging in emergency alerts, tailored to each person’s physical location. Details, such as whether residents are in buildings, on the beach or at high elevation, that each require a different response. 

Top stories this week: 

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has confirmed it will end its long-standing cooperative agreement with the Center for Internet Security, which runs the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center. The shift could change how state and local governments access the monitoring services they rely on for cyber defense.

Governor Gavin Newsom has signed California’s SB 53, which imposes new transparency rules on major AI developers, requiring them to disclose how they assess safety risks, publish safety protocols, and report major incidents. The new law, which takes effect in January, positions California as a leader in AI oversight as federal regulation remains in flux.

New York City has extended its Big Apple Connect program for another three years, continuing to offer free internet and cable service to residents in public housing. Since its launch in 2022, the program has already connected more than 150,000 households.

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday.
For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,Soundcloud or Spotify.

Why geography matters in emergency messaging

Diversity, equity and inclusion are dirty words in Trump’s America, and though many private companies and government agencies have rebranded such efforts in 2025, equity lives on in New York City. Digital Inclusion Week is underway in New York, where Paolo Balboa, the city’s first chief digital equity officer says “call it what you will,” but equity work is progressing. On StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast, Balboa shares numerous efforts by the city government, including Big Apple Connect, just one piece of the city’s Digital Equity Roadmap, which provides free internet and cable service — “a basic commodity for existing today” — to public housing residents. “Digital equity is all about getting residents and communities to a place where they can use and navigate the internet confidently, so that they can fully participate in society, democracy and the economy,” Balboa says. When asked to describe his role, which the city created last March, Balboa says it boils down to finding the organizations already doing equity work and trying to partner with them.
This week’s top stories:

Oklahoma has named a new chief information security officer. Daniel Langley, who most recently served in Washington state’s information technology bureau, has taken the role. He also served as CISO of the Washington state lottery and spent almost a decade with the U.S. Army, where he finished as a captain in the Signal Corps.

Following an expansion of efforts to bolster digital equity across the five boroughs, New York City’s Office of Technology and Innovation on Monday kicked off its Digital Inclusion Week. The event is part of a national collection of events co-hosted by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance designed to raise awareness.

While more states are embracing data-driven governance, many chief data officers still struggle with limited resources and weak institutional power, according to a recent survey of state CDOs. Most state CDO offices operate with budgets of less than $1 million and manage small teams, yet are expected to coordinate data strategies across agencies, according to a report from NASCIO and the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation.

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday. For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud or Spotify.

Inside NYC's Digital Inclusion Week

Doug Robinson, executive director of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, joins the Priorities Podcast this week to explain why “uncertainty” is the word of the year for state technology leaders. “That has a lot to do with obviously the states’ fiscal conditions and uncertainty there, federal funding uncertainty, and just the turbulence in terms of just overall relationship with the federal government,” Robinson says. As in previous years, the report covers a wide gamut of issues, including generative artificial intelligence, digital accessibility, IT budgets, could adoption and the provision of services to local governments.

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday. For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud or Spotify.

‘Uncertainty’ is the word of the year for state CIOs

Ratna Dougherty, an assistant professor at the University of South Florida’s Public Affairs school, joins the Priorities Podcast to explain how the government shutdown is affecting disaster relief efforts. One change, Dougherty says, is that state and local governments face a more complex process in applying to receive support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. There could be other challenges, too. “Because of a lack of appropriations, as funds are being spent down, there’s no replenishing of those funds if those are necessary,” she says.

This week’s top stories:

New Jersey’s Office of Innovation has published a guide designed to help governments build and use generative artificial intelligence tools. The guide contains nine tips, informed by the experiences of developers and IT leaders at the New Jersey state government.

San Jose, Calif., has developed a reputation as a career “launchpad,” according to Stephen Caines, the city’s chief innovation officer, but he and others in City Hall want to change that. The city is seeking a vendor to create a new platform that would provide city staff with the ability to create their own digital helpers, and hopefully avoid feelings of burn out.

The office of Idaho Gov. Brad Little on Friday announced a new webpage as part of the state’s “Operation No Return” initiative, in which immigrants with illegal statuses who were convicted of serious crimes are transferred from county jails into federal custody for deportation after they’ve completed their sentences. The new webpage displays the names, mugshots, offenses and countries of origin of those transferred to federal authorities. 
New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday. For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud or Spotify.

What happens to disaster relief during a shutdown?

Star Wars and disco were hip when Kansas built its previous unemployment insurance system and it was “sufficient,” Kansas Labor Secretary Amber Shultz says. But on the latest episode of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast, Shultz describes how, over the course of two years, the state transformed that system into a modern one, with a modern user interface. A system that had to be taken offline constantly — “a house of cards” — has been replaced by one that has nearly perfect uptime, she says. “Our contact center representatives, they couldn’t use a mouse, and they had to memorize all these hundreds of weird shortcodes for abbreviation back in those days, and then the code was not documented,” she says. Today, the state heralds a different story, one in which call centers see 60% fewer calls and processing time has been reduced by 80%.

Top stories this week:

New York City this week announced a new pilot program that integrates a new emergency alert system with the city’s public schools. The system, which leaders claim is the first of its kind in the United States, provides an automated method of contacting 911 in the event of active shooter scenarios or other threats.

As the federal government shutdown stretches on, state agencies are grappling with technical, financial and policy adjustments following a federal directive to pause processing of SNAP benefits next month. 

Nearly all states and territories have submitted their final proposals to the federal government detailing how they plan to spend their allotments of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. Given recent adjustments to how the program is administered, though, the current proposals could leave roughly half of the program’s $42 billion unspent.

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday. For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud or Spotify.

How Kansas lost the 'weird shortcodes' and modernized its UI system

A learning program for notaries in Indiana was not getting good reviews. Robert Fulk, the chief information officer for the Indiana Secretary of State’s office said people thought it was outdated, long, repetitive and clunky. And it was, until his office redesigned it from top to bottom using AI. Artificial intelligence is now infused into every aspect of the program, from its instructional content to its audio and video assets. “It’s really engaging for the learners,” Fulk says on the latest Priorities Podcast.

Also joining this episode is Patrick Carter, vice president of state practice at Results for America, who says that more states than ever are using evidence-based decisionmaking in their budgets. It’s catching on in other areas, too, he says, but it’s still a relatively unused practice. Budget downturns and declining state revenues could turn that around, though. That, and the practice’s increased body of knowledge and winning examples. “We’ve learned lots of lessons from governments over the last 10-20 years about what works,” Carter says.

Top stories this week: 

The Rockefeller Foundation and the nonprofit Center for Civic Futures on Tuesday unveiled a new effort, called the AI Readiness Project, aimed at preparing state governments to use artificial intelligence tools to improve how they administer services to the public.

The Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown University is also ramping up its efforts to support AI work in state and local governments. Andrew Merluzzi, who’s serving as its new AI innovation and incubation fellow, said he thinks the recent years of groundwork are finally beginning to bear fruit.

The Federal Communications Commission last week voted to approve an order that will roll back caps on phone and video calls to and from prisons and jails. Some rates are expected to double.
New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday. For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,Soundcloud or Spotify.


Redesigning a ‘repetitive and clunky’ learning program with AI

The extended government shutdown has begun to strain state and local governments usually dependent on reimbursement checks for major projects and support from officials who haven’t been in their offices, according to Justin Marlowe, a research professor at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. Marlowe tells the Priorities Podcast that the shutdown is causing project delays, and has been especially damaging for IT operations. “If you see a delay in the approval of any of that project planning process, it ripples through the entire project, throws off the entire timeline and ultimately costs a lot more,” he says. Being forced to rely less on the federal government, he says, accelerates a national trend that’s been underway since the 1950s. “[It’s] forcing a lot of states and localities to fundamentally rethink their partnership with the federal government,” Marlowe says.

This week’s top stories:

Alex Pettit, who has served as the chief information officer of Oregon and Oklahoma, announced last week that he’s returning to Oregon to serve as its digital transformation officer. Pettit, who most recently served as Colorado’s chief technology officer, wrote online that he’s excited to “bring hard-won experience from the field and apply it to familiar soil.”

A new guide published by the nonprofit Open Contracting Partnership aims to provide government officials with a resource containing the best practices for procuring AI technologies. “AI adoption and AI procurement are diverging,” said one of the group’s program managers. The guide is hoped to bring those back into alignment.

Following a recent decision by a federal judge in Wisconsin to send a whistleblower case from 2008 to trial, an AT&T subsidiary could be forced to repay millions it received in federal broadband subsidies. Central to the case is a debate over whether money dispersed through the FCC’s E-Rate program counts as federal funds under the False Claims Act.

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday. For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud or Spotify.


The shutdown led states to ‘fundamentally rethink’ their relationships with the federal government

Quite a few states have innovation programs, mechanisms for jumpstarting new and interesting ways to improve government, but Nicholas Stowe, Washington state's outgoing chief technology officer, shares on this week’s Priorities Podcast why he thinks his state’s innovation and modernization program has enjoyed an especially favorable success rate. “We really tried to maximize reusing existing governance processes,” he says. Also on this episode is Wendy Wickstrom, web and user experience manager at Washington Technology Solutions, who shares how flipping a procurement process upside-down helped the state create what officials say is a new model for reducing risk and fostering a more connected government. “We knew we wanted agency participation, but we didn’t want to dictate every deliverable that they gave us,” she says.

This week’s top stories:

After receiving letters from the Department of Justice requesting access to state voter data, 10 Democratic secretaries of state on Tuesday drafted their own letter, citing “immense concern” with how that data might have been shared across the federal government. The secretaries write that in recent meetings with DOJ and Department of Homeland Security officials they received “misleading and at times contradictory information” on the topic of their unredacted statewide voter rolls.

The House of Representatives passed a bill by voice vote Monday evening that would reauthorize the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program. Enjoying bipartisan support, the Protecting Information by Local Leaders for Agency Resilience, or PILLAR, Act is now open to be considered by the Senate.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration on Tuesday announced it’s issued approvals to 18 states on their final proposals for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program.

New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday. For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud or Spotify.

Inside Washington state’s award-winning procurement and innovation programs

After two years of research into how states are using and thinking about AI, New America has published an expansive report that its creators say contains encouraging signs. Lilian Coral, vice president of New America's technology and democracy programs, and Neil Kleiman, urban policy professor at Northeastern University’s public policy school, tell the Priorities Podcast that the implications of generative AI are far-reaching. Kleiman called the findings “remarkable.” “The other thing we were struck by was the politics around this,” he says. “Everybody is either excited or so freaked out about this technology that everybody is ready to do something.” Coral says she also hears fear and excitement emanating from government, but “what I was really encouraged by was the level of conversation that I could hear.”

This week’s top stories:

A repurposed IT system being used by the Department of Homeland Security presents “unacceptable risks” to the nation’s eligible voters, according to a group of secretaries of state who on Monday signed off on a letter opposing a recent proposal by the federal agency. The Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements Program is subject to numerous legal changes under DHS’s proposal, including that it would be used not for its original narrow purpose, but allow bulk searches and searches of “individuals that are U.S. citizens by birth” to find ineligible voters and instances of voter fraud.

After numerous stalled attempts from the White House and Congress to preempt states from enforcing their artificial intelligence laws, yet another attempt is brewing in Congress, this time potentially bundling AI preemption with child online safety legislation. Doug Robinson, the executive director of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, sent a letter to congressional leaders last week urging them to reject any such continued attempts at state AI law preemption, even one coupled with laws designed to protect kids. 

Two former committee chairs at the Association for Computing Machinery argue in a commentary piece for StateScoop that Congress must preserve state authority in AI governance. In the piece they argue that “AI’s impact is happening now, not in some distant future” and that states must be permitted to create and enforce their own laws as the need arises.
New episodes of StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast are posted each Wednesday. For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud or Spotify.

‘Fear and excitement’ are driving AI discourse in government

Each Wednesday, StateScoop’s Priorities Podcast explores the latest in state and local government technology news and analysis. Listen to in-depth conversations with government and industry’s top executives, and learn about trending stories affecting state and local IT leaders ranging from modernization and digital accessibility to the latest advances in generative artificial intelligence.

Crafting a good state benefits portal

Priorities Podcast

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