Experts are fearful that passage of appropriations for fiscal 2024 may be an ugly process that results in a hefty continuing resolution. While the CR would keep the government running, it would forbid federal agencies from spending money to start new programs or new activities. a continuing resolution could severely hamstring federal innovation, particularly on the defense side as the Pentagon and military services look to accelerat adoption of emerging tech in anticipation of a potential conflict with peer competiors like China or Russia. That’s according to Meagan Metzger, CEO of Dcode and a general partner with Dcode Capital, both of which focus on helping make the government better through innovative acquisition practices.

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Why agencies need to start planning now for ap potential CR

The Department of Defense is undertaking a massive effort to adopt a zero trust security architecture across its enterprise by 2027. As ambitious as that effort is, it’s not going to happen without the support of automation driving it, according to DOD chief informations security officer Dave McKeown. 

McKeown spoke recently at the UiPath Together Public Sector summit about the role of automation in cybersecurity and how it also likely could’ve prevented recent leaks of classified information within the DOD.

The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.

If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.

Why zero trust will fail within the DOD without automation.

There’s a new book captivating audiences across the federal technology space and getting rave reviews. "Recoding America – Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better".

Former U.S. Deputy CTO and founder of Code for America Jen Pahlka wrote the book based on her intimate firsthand knowledge of working in and with government agencies for most of the last two decades to improve digital service delivery. And in it, she concludes that there are much deeper issues that are leading to the failure of the U.S. government in the digital age …Or as the book’s synopsis puts it: “we must stop trying to move the government we have today onto new technology and instead consider what it would mean to truly recode American government.”

In web application security, compromised credentials are responsible for 80% of breaches. This has highlighted the need to replace passwords with more effective security methods. Passwordless authentication methods offer a faster, more secure, hassle free way to protect our digital lives. In a new interview, Sean Frazier, federal chief security officer at Okta, discusses the advances and their use cases.

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Why government is failing in the digital age; Replacing passwords with multi-factor authentication

It’s no secret that the Department of Defense has struggled to scale innovation. Known as the Valley of Death, the challenge is that the department often fails to expand and build innovative pilots into larger production contracts. 

A new program operated by the Defense Aquisition University wants to attempt to solve that by wrapping its arms around the department’s innovation worfkorce readiness. Called Innovate to Win, the initiative is intended to help the DoD codify and measure the innovation readiness of the Defense Acquisition Workforce and, by extension, that of the whole DoD workforce.

Dr. Marina Theodotou, the head of workforce innovation readiness for the Defense Acquisition University, and Christen Goulding, Director of Communications at DAU, join me now to discuss the program, its goals and how they hope to create a metric to measure innovation readiness.

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Inside the Department of Defense’s self-assessment pilot to measure innovation readiness

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence recently released a data strategy for Intelligence community agencies. The strategy, which runs from 2023 through 2025, provides focus areas and actions for all 18 IC agencies to accelerate adoption of common services and efforts to make data more interoperable, discoverable, and artificial intelligence-ready for both people and machines, according to ODNI. 

This isn’t ODNI’s first data strategy. The office released one back in 2017. But since then, the I-C has taken steps to mature its data environment and usage, and this latest document looks to usher in a new era of data-driven decisionmaking. To discuss that evolution, now joining the Daily Scoop Podcast is I-C Chief Data Officer Lori Wade.

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Inside the intelligence community’s new data strategy

In late 2021, the Biden administration issued landmark citizen and customer experience focused policy items in the President's Management Agenda and an Executive Order on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government. And to further bolster those efforts, the administration in this year’s budget request called for more than $500 million to support CX efforts across federal agencies, including standing up news customer service offices at agencies like Agriculture, Homeland Security, Interior, Labor, Treasury and Veterans Affairs and more than a 100 employees to staff them.

While it remains to be seen if that request gets funded in fiscal 2024, the message is loud and clear: improving the government’s customer service delivery, largely through digital services, is a top priority.

Joining the podcast to discuss the progress made since 2021 and why CX has become such an important theme in the Biden administration in recent years is Martha Dorris, founder and CEO of Dorris Consulting International, through which she runs the Service to the Citizen Awards. Dorris also worked hands-on with federal CX, IT and acquisition at the General Services Administration for more than three decades.

The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.

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Why the federal government’s focus on CX has reached a fever pitch.

The Special Competitive Studies Project, which has continued the work of the now dissolved National Security Commission on AI, issued its latest report this week on generative AI and its impact on the global competitive landscape. That report states, among other things, that recent advancements in AI come as transformations in geopolitical structuring resemble that of the days leading up to World War I. And because of that, “This moment provides the United States government with a unique opportunity to lead with conviction as humanity enters a new era.“

Ylli Buy-Rak-Tari is the CEO and President of the Special Competitive Studies Project, and he joins me now to discuss the major takeaways from SCSP’s new report and the stakes at play for the U.S. as it looks to embrace AI for defense, national security and more.

Why it’s critical for the U.S. to position itself as the leader in generative AI

After bringing the government shutdown clock to the very brink of a closure over the weekend, Congress was able to reach a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government funded through Nov. 17. While that’s a better-than-worst-case-scenario outcome, it still has some impacts for the way agencies must operate without full appropriations. And there’s a strong possibility we may be right back in a race against the clock just before Thanksgiving as Congress must reach a funding agreement prior to that Nov. 17 deadline.
 
Meagan Metzger, CEO of Dcode, joins The Daily Scoop Podcast now to discuss the impact.


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Shutdown averted - what you should know about the CR

Darren Ash was hired as CIO of the Department of the Interior last September. And during his first year, the longtime federal IT official, who’s served also as CIO of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the USDA Farm Service Agency among others, has been focused on delivering an IT strategic plan to guide the vision for Interior’s IT operations.

Ash joins The Daily Scoop Podcast now to discuss that strategic plan, how the agency is considering emerging technologies like AI and cloud, and much more.

The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.

The latest from the Department of the Interior's CIO, a year on the job

Since 2019, Deloitte’s Center for Government Insights has issued annual reports on the top trends transforming government. Tuesday, Deloitte issued its latest report for 2024, in which it presents the eight trends propelling the 10x government of the future.

Bill Eggers is the executive director of Deloitte’s Center for Government Insights and the author of the Top Trends in Government 2024 report. He joins me to discuss the top takeaways from this year’s exploration into what’s driving transformation in government and what those who are lagging behind can stand to learn from the model use cases showcased in the report.

Bill Eggers discusses Deloitte’s Top Trends for Government in 2024 report.

A podcast covering the latest news & trends facing top government leaders on topics such as technology, management & workforce. Hosted by Billy Mitchell on FedScoop and released Monday-Friday.

New tracks tagged #The Daily Scoop Podcast