Digital Government
House rethinks GAO overhaul
The leadership of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee has begun to rethink its plans to restructure the General Accounting Office, in light of recent testimony opposing some aspects of the committee's draft legislation. A committee staff member said the most controversial recommenda
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Valone leaves FAA for CACI
Robert Valone, who joined the Federal Aviation Administration two years ago to manage the troubled air traffic modernization program, is leaving next month to become a vice president at systems integrator CACI Inc. Valone most recently was the deputy director of research and acquisitions at the FAA
Digital Government
Clinger, Horn ask GSA to pare Post-FTS 2000
Key members of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee this month asked acting General Services Administration chief David Barram to reduce the duration of the PostFTS 2000 contract from 10 to three years and to prohibit companies that win the contract from offering local services. The
Digital Government
NEAT system tracks Earth-threatening asteroids
Like a plot from a sciencefiction movie, NASA and the Air Force have collaborated to develop an automated computer system that scans the skies for asteroids and comets that might be on a collision course with the Earth. The Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) system takes the place of spotty, manu
Digital Government
Stillman removes six from board
Neil Stillman, president of the Federation of Government Information Processing Councils (FGIPC), last week succeeded in his attempt to remove six FGIPC board members who opposed his recent moves against the Industry Advisory Council (IAC), setting the stage for a potentially rancorous FGIPC annual
Digital Government
Satellite navigations get $570M in support
The General Services Administration recently launched a $570 million program to provide support services to the Federal Aviation Administration, the Defense Department and other agencies interested in developing satellitebased navigation projects. GSA's Federal Systems Integration and Management (
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DARPA pushes large-systems survivability
As defensive information warfare assumes a higher profile throughout government, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is placing renewed emphasis on its yearold Information Survivability program with a new push into largesystems survivability. The agency recently released a broad agency
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AWARDS
User Technology Associates Inc. A $39 million award for technical systems development and operations at the Labor Department, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington, D.C. Unisys Corp. A $26.6 million award to provide maintenance for desktop computers, monitors and printers at U.S. Air Force bases o
Digital Government
How does GSA's Info Tech Fund work?
The following issue was raised by a reader: For some years, the General Services Administration has administered an Information Technology Fund, through which it purchases IT resources for other agencies. Will the repeal of the Brooks Act affect the use of this fund? Federal acquisitions of IT reso
Digital Government
RFP prepped for $600M operations consolidation pact
NASA is preparing a request for proposals to consolidate the agency's space operations support into one massive procurement expected to be worth at least $600 million a year. The contract, called the Consolidated Space Operations Contract, would support the planning and execution phases of NASA mis
Digital Government
FEDERAL BYTES
Light Up and Solve the Year 2000 Problem Federal agencies and Congress are pulling their hair out trying to figure out how they're going to pay the estimated $30 billion it will take to make the federal government's computers able to run into 2000. But a possible solution some members of Congress l
Digital Government
Vendors use protests to sell more PC wares
Air Force buyers will not have to wait long to get Desktop Vlike pricing and technology, despite protests that have halted the procurement, because several firms are putting together what analysts call "DT V killer" packages. These companies intend to market PCs aggressively to Air Force users d
Digital Government
Study: IT understanding lags among senior managers
Lack of longterm leadership from senior managers at all levels of government and a dearth of funding are the key obstacles to improving agencies' use of information technology, according to a new study published by Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. The study, "Information Technol
Digital Government
IRS seeks prime to take TSM's reins
In an effort to rescue the Tax Systems Modernization, the Internal Revenue Service plans to hire, within the next two years, a prime contractor to take charge of the beleaguered multibilliondollar program. In the meantime, the IRS said it will delegate the technical work for TSM to TRW Inc., which
Digital Government
SRA launches Internet, intranet search products
SRA International Inc. last month unveiled a pair of products designed to ease information searches on the Internet or within corporate intranets. SRA's Intermezzo is a search tool that allows users to locate information in multiple databases using multiple search engines. The company's NetOwl sear
Digital Government
IDP refreshes Justice Notebook, Army Portable-1
International Data Products Corp. has replaced its venerable 486 notebook computer offerings on the Justice Department's Notebook and the Army's Portable1 contracts with allnew Pentium PCI bus multimedia systems. The company's strategy has been to stick with the same basic unit for as long as pos
Digital Government
GAO rejects AT&T protest
The General Accounting Office denied a protest against the multibilliondollar Defense Information Systems Network filed by AT&T late last year. AT&T filed the protest to head off the multipleprocurement strategy devised by the Defense Information Systems Agency. DISN will replace the Defense Comm
Digital Government
Abba Technologies to resell Maximum Strategy line
Abba Technologies Inc., an 8(a) systems integrator, will carry highend storage solutions from Maximum Strategy Inc. as part of its highperformance computing product suite, under an agreement announced last week. Abba Technologies, also a Silicon Graphics Inc. reseller, will integrate Maximum Stra
Digital Government
Intranet surfers nab intell for U.S. forces in Bosnia
Commanders in Bosnia now surf a secure intranet to gather realtime intelligence data, following a Defense Department decision to use Netscape Communications Corp.'s World Wide Web software as the key information management tool for its $88 million Bosnian C2 Augmentation (BC2 system.) Col. Don Ott
Digital Government