Digital Government
Letters to the Editor
Lease or buy: Another view In the Oct. 20 issue of Federal Computer Week in 'A Legal View ' Carl Peckinpaugh responded to a question from a company executive regarding how to know when the government should lease or buy an item. Digital would like to offer some additional information for your reade
Digital Government
Health care premiums on the rise for feds
Although the Office of Personnel Management says health benefit premiums will go up on average by 8.5 percent in 1998 many federal employees will be faced with even steeper premium increases next year unless they switch health benefit plans. For starters OPM misrepresented the amount of the 1998 in
Digital Government
Latest Domino release primed for intranets
With the latest release of Notes and Domino its companion World Wide Web server platform Lotus Development Corp. has turned this onceproprietary groupware application into a viable platform for standardsbased intranet solutions. Lotus' impressive Notes groupware was in danger of being made unnece
Digital Government
GAO blasts DOD for mismanaging program
The General Accounting Office reported late last month that the Defense Department has not adequately controlled its $18 billion fiveyear plan to eliminate nearly 2 000 duplicative computer systems and has wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on the effort. In 1993 DOD offices selected 363 'migr
Digital Government
Bill calls for strategic plan, accounting of transactions
Congress this month sent President Clinton a bill that would impose a new requirement on agencies to report progress in using electronic commerce for procurement. Nestled in the 1998 Defense authorization bill which eliminates mandatory use of the Federal Acquisition Computer Network (FACNET) and a
Digital Government
Roster
The Senate last week confirmed Raymond Kammer to be director of the National Institute of Science and Technology Terry Garcia to be assistant secretary of Commerce for oceans and atmosphere at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Arthur Bienenstock to be associate director of the Off
Digital Government
Are retired feds getting what they deserve?
Congress recently asked the General Accounting Office to determine whether federal retirees were receiving benefits that exceeded their preretirement pay. Apparently many taxpayers believe that federal retirees live too high on the hog. As will soon become apparent that just isn't so. To understan
Digital Government
Internet site boosts bookstore's federal biz
Computer Literacy (Bookshops + Online) an online and retail bookstore for computer professionals has added purchasing options to its online site to make it easier for large government buyers to use the store. The Sunnyvale Calif.based bookseller has more than 20 000 books and technical manuals ava
Digital Government
FEMA to expand disaster prediction
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) last week agreed to issue a request for proposals to expand a system that predicts the number of deaths and economic losses from natural disasters. In four to six weeks NIBS a congressionally authorized n
Digital Government
Federal Bytes
Borderline automation Members of Congress last week criticized an effort to install a system at U.S. land borders that would require travelers to present identification before crossing to or from Canada or Mexico. At a hearing last week many lawmakers agreed that the system would represent a major
Digital Government
Laptop ban makes no sense
Laptops are about as popular as cigarette smoking on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Traditionbound members of the Senate Rules Committee last week voted not to allow lawmakers to use laptop computers for any purpose in the Senate chamber. The voice vote was not recorded. The reasons given for the a
Digital Government
Navy develops fast-track blueprint for IT-21 rollout
MONTEREY Calif. The Navy has adopted a fastpaced plan to turn its ambitious Information Technology for the 21st Century (IT21) vision into reality with rapid insertion of an advanced network architecture into both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets according to Adm. Archie Clemins commander in chi
Digital Government
Industry Watch
Nichols nabs DOD pact Nichols Research Corp. a Huntsville Ala. integrator of highperformance systems won a $4.6 million subcontract with Wang Laboratories Inc. to support the Army's Redstone Arsenal Technical Test Center. Nichols will provide Silicon Graphics Inc. equipment and integration service
Digital Government
Security standards to merge
A group of information technology vendors last month announced plans to merge a commercial security standard for sending email messages with one used primarily by the Defense Department a move designed to encourage more federal agencies to use secure email technology. Led by RSA Data Security I
Digital Government
Managing GWACs: Procurement reform's biggest challenge
We are entering a phase where continuous improvement efforts will be central to procurement reform. Right now government and industry must apply this logic to the management of governmentwide acquisition contracts (GWACs) for services whose abrupt appearance not much more than a year ago along wi
Digital Government
Fedwire
GTE nabs Navy telecom contract The Navy late last month awarded an estimated $102 million telecommunications contract to GTE California Inc. to provide voice data and video communications. Under the Port Hueneme Division Naval Surface Warfare Center contract GTE will provide services for local tele
Digital Government
Five vendors lodge agency-level protests against ECS II
The National Institutes of Health expects to rule soon on five agencylevel protests from unsuccessful bidders on the $2 billion Electronic Computer Store II procurement. The vendors Severn Companies Inc. Sytel Inc. SMAC Data Systems Friendship Computer and Native American Sales would not comment o
Digital Government
NSA cancels telecom award to Cisco Systems
The National Security Agency has canceled the award of a controversial contract to buy thousands of highspeed network switches from Cisco Systems Inc. The agency which rarely comments on any topic publicly did not announce the cancellation of the socalled Light Core contract designed to supply NS
Digital Government
FAA launches comm upgrade
The Federal Aviation Administration is considering a program potentially worth billions of dollars to upgrade its entire air and ground system infrastructure to support data and voice communications. The FAA last month released a request for information (RFI) for the development of its NextGenerat
Digital Government