FCW Insider: Dec. 18
The latest news and analysis from FCW's reporters and editors.
A 3.1% pay raise and 12 weeks of paid parental leave are inching closer to becoming reality after House and Senate votes on Dec. 17. Adam Mazmanian has more.
USAID's chief human capital officer explains how necessity drove the adoption of a more automated HR workflow to serve its far-flung employees. Lia Russell reports.
The Department of Transportation is looking for senior-level talent to reimagine and reconfigure how it manages, collects and presents key safety and regulatory data. Mark Rockwell takes a look at the job openings and DOT's high-level data ambitions.
A trend toward openness in technology and policy – open data, open source, interoperable cloud platforms – is setting the stage for open innovation that transform the government technology, writes Dan Chenok, executive director of the IBM Center for the Business of Government, in an FCW commentary. "By embracing the benefits of open infrastructure and application development, agencies can provide a secure channel for engaging with their government and industry counterparts -- enabling the development of open data that in turn fuels new innovation."
Quick Hits
*** President Donald Trump signed an executive order giving feds the day off on Dec. 24.
*** Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), a sponsor of the Modernizing Government Technology Act, was pleased that the governmentwide revolving fund authorized by his bill was replenished in the 2020 funding deal but would like to see Congress do more in the future.
"Modernizing the federal government won’t be done with fairy dust. It requires strategic investments, especially in the Technology Modernization Fund," Connolly said in an emailed statement. "While I wish this agreement provided more support for the TMF, this is a much better down payment on modernization than what came out of the Senate and will continue to fight for more robust investment next year."
*** The Department of Defense is looking to fast-track the regulatory approval process as it puts rules into place to make sure banned telecommunications gear – mostly of Chinese origin – doesn't wind up in key security systems.