Author Archive
Natalie Alms
Staff Reporter, Nextgov/FCW
Natalie Alms is a staff reporter at Nextgov/FCW covering federal technology policy, service delivery, customer experience and the government's tech workforce. She is a graduate of Wake Forest University and has written for the Salisbury (N.C.) Post. Connect with Natalie on Twitter at @AlmsNatalie.
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Digital Government
USDA inches ahead in plan to secure EBT cards from skimming
The U.S. Agriculture Department doesn’t have a timeline for fully moving food assistance accounts to industry-standard chip cards, however, leaving beneficiaries vulnerable to digital theft.
- By Natalie Alms
Modernization
SSA taps TMF to upgrade online services
The General Services Administration announced $50 million in new investments Tuesday, covering tech upgrades at the Social Security Administration and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
- By Natalie Alms
Artificial Intelligence
AI tools helped Treasury recover billions in fraud and improper payments
Risk screening, check fraud detection and more have helped the government recover more than $4 billion, Treasury announced.
- By Natalie Alms
Digital Government
White House probes the collision of AI and personal data
Policymakers are examining how the advent of artificial intelligence could create new privacy risks around the federal agency purchase and use of personal information from data brokers.
- By Natalie Alms and David DiMolfetta
Artificial Intelligence
Labor's AI mission spans public policy and internal agency use
Meet the Department of Labor's CAIO Mangala Kuppa. She's focused in large part on AI safety and making sure the tech tools promote workers' well being.
- By Natalie Alms
Digital Government
Why governments are ‘particularly well-positioned’ to offer identity validation
According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, governments that use its guidance to offer attribute validation services may have to rely less often on commercial data for identity.
- By Natalie Alms
Digital Government
Hill Dems question IRS on identity verification requirements for Direct File
Taxpayers had to go through outsourced identity verification to use Direct File during the last tax season, a level of assurance the lawmakers note is not required for commercial tax prep companies.
- By Natalie Alms
Digital Government
GSA's Login to offer face recognition to customer agencies
Agencies using the government-created service will have the option to incorporate new face-matching capabilities or stick with existing offerings.
- By Natalie Alms
Digital Government
Bipartisan Senate duo seeks to push IRS customer service forward
The tax agency is already working on some of the items in the bill — like improving online accounts.
- By Natalie Alms
Modernization
IRS delay on key system could cost up to $70 million
The IRS had been considering switching to a new system for core, individual tax processing, but it’s waiting to do so until after the coming tax season.
- By Natalie Alms
Digital Government
IRS Direct File to be available in 24 states next year
The agency is also expanding the scope of tax situations the tool will cover.
- By Natalie Alms
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Digital Government
GSA's identity service on track to meet key standards, program director says
The director of Login.gov says that the federally managed identity service is on track to finally meet an important standard for digital identity verification.
- By Natalie Alms
Policy
USDA wraps equity commission, vows to continue work
The department will likely have to contend with anti-DEI efforts as it pursues this goal.
- By Natalie Alms
Emerging Tech
GSA testing finds variations in the accuracy of digital ID verification tech
The preliminary results of a study that tested five different vendor solutions found some to be relatively accurate, while others were inaccurate or inequitable.
- By Natalie Alms
Exclusive
Modernization
TMF at the tipping point
The government’s revolving fund to help agencies jumpstart IT modernization and cybersecurity projects is at a “critical juncture,” in terms of funding and congressional support, according to the General Services Administration, which administers the fund.
- By Natalie Alms
Digital Government
CX bill passes Senate committee
The proposal is one of many that moved through House and Senate committees this week, including a transparency bill that brings additional congressional oversight to the General Services Administration.
- By Natalie Alms
Digital Government
State Department goes big with online passport renewal
The latest pilot has been ongoing since June, but limited in scale. Now, Americans can renew online anytime.
- By Natalie Alms
People
Harris touts skills-based hiring for feds on the campaign trail
The move to skills-based hiring for federal government jobs has been ongoing under the Trump and Biden administrations.
- By Natalie Alms
Modernization
Lawmakers mull a fraud-focused scorecard for oversight
Agency watchdogs warned lawmakers that their centralized fraud analytics capacity could end next year without congressional action.
- By Natalie Alms
Digital Government
Why digital identity should be a priority for the next president
MITRE called for greater attention to identity issues after a series of workshops held with stakeholders about the importance of White House leadership.
- By Natalie Alms