Digital Government
The Star Wars distraction
Congress' recent effort to resurrect the Star Wars missile defense system unfortunately will only divert muchneeded funds and attention away from more real threats to the United States: terrorists. DOD has been studying how it could deploy a National Missile Defense, or Star Wars, system since the
Digital Government
Boeing protests GSA Seat shutout
Boeing Information Services last week protested the General Services Administration's decision to disqualify the company from its $9 billion Seat Management program earlier this month. Boeing is just one of several vendors claiming that agency procurement officials misled them into believing pricin
Digital Government
Treasury to codify IT managers' skill sets
The Treasury Department plans this fall to begin assessing and documenting the skills of its top information technology managers as a prelude to crafting training programs for current and future executives. The education plan, designed to carry out provisions of the ClingerCohen Act which demand t
Digital Government
Letters
Offset, not windfall In his June 22 column, Bureaucratus stated that the windfall elimination provision (WEP) would go away if you transfer to the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) and stay in for five years. That provision applies to the government pension offset, not the WEP. If you ret
Digital Government
VA responds to GAO criticism of IT management
The General Accounting Office this month released a report criticizing the Department of Veterans Affairs for failing to have a sound strategy for using and buying information technology. The report comes only weeks after the VA announced it would create the Office of the Assistant Secretary for In
Digital Government
Tech, Hill issues leave border control in limbo
Despite a looming Sept. 30 deadline, a top Immigration and Naturalization Service official told Congress last week that the agency does not know when it will have in place a controversial system designed to monitor border crossings. The INS would use the entry/exit control system to keep track of i
Digital Government
Possible CPI changes threaten retirees' pockets
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) calculates the consumer price index, which is the principal source of information on trends in consumer prices and inflation in the United States, by tracking prices for a fixed 'market basket' of goods and services that consumers purchase for daytoday living.
Digital Government
Getting a good grip
Although the handheld computer industry seems to lurch from year to year, with vendors and products coming and going, the market has generated enough business to foster continued development of the technology. Today, the concept of handheld has expanded from the original personal digital assistants
Digital Government
Bay, HP deliver 10/100 Ethernet switches
Bay Networks Inc. and HewlettPackard Co. earlier this month unveiled new workgroup switches designed for the 10/100 Ethernet environment and targeted toward priceconscious users. The Bay stackable switch and the HP standalone switch are aimed at the workgroup area, but they differ on features an
Digital Government
Fedwire
Bill would nix health identifier Citing privacy concerns, Sen. Conrad Burns (RMont.) last week introduced legislation that would repeal a previous law directing the government to assign citizens a standard identification code for obtaining health care. Burns said the law, part of the Health Insura
Digital Government
GPO bill is 'every nightmare come true'
The Senate wants to give a goingaway gift in the form of the Wendell H. Ford Government Publications Reform Act of 1998 to one of its retiring distinguished members. Introduced by Sen. John Warner (RVa.) as S. 2288, the bill is every nightmare come true for publishing officials in executive b
Digital Government
AMD aims to boost government presence
In a push to appeal to what the company sees as a growing number of costconscious federal PC buyers, chip manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) launched a program to increase its presence in the federal market. The Government Connection program combines an initiative to educate agencies a
Digital Government
CBD Watch
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Ship reporting system. Sol. FY88WHALE. (CBD, July 17) NOAA and the Coast Guard seek a vendor to establish and maintain a ship reporting system off the East Coast of the United States to reduce the threat of ship strikes to right whales. Ship strikes
Digital Government
NSA award for switches faces protest
The National Security Agency late last week was poised to award a contract for thousands of highspeed network switches to Fore Systems Inc., even as the deal becomes tangled in a lawsuit between Fore and another bidder. Fore late last month filed a complaint at the U.S. District Court in Pittsburg
Digital Government
Roster
John Douglass, the Navy's assistant secretary for research, development and acquisition, this month was selected to serve as president and chief executive officer of the Aerospace Industries Association. Douglass will retire from the Navy on Aug. 31 and will assume his duties as AIA president on Se
Digital Government
Industry Watch
DOD picks Apple The Defense Department has chosen Apple Computer Inc.'s WebObjects World Wide Web application development platform to use as part of an upgrade to DOD's health care information technology infrastructure. Apple Enterprise Software, the division that developed WebObjects, used the app
Digital Government
Federal Bytes
I'll do the talking. If being president means you have to endure a constant barrage of partisan criticism (as well as questions about your sex life), it also apparently includes moments to savor. One of those occurred this month when President Clinton finally made his first speech on the Year 2000
Digital Government
NARA proposes records policy
The National Archives and Records Administration last week proposed a policy for managing the federal government's electronic records that would require agencies to account for their digital documents but would not demand that agencies preserve documents in original formats. Only agencies that need
Digital Government
DOD ignores security policy
Despite a growing awareness of security threats and hacker attacks, many Defense Department agencies are ignoring a policy that requires the use of certified secure operating systems and are choosing instead to use commercial operating systems, such as Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT, for critical app
Digital Government