Page 224 - Dod News Today

Several industry groups sent a letter to lawmakers last week urging them to include $10 billion for cybersecurity in the next coronavirus relief bill, however congressional backers of a tech push in the relief bill say that Senate opposition makes a big push unlikely to pass.

The actual rate at which service members were refusing to take the vaccine was not known, per the Washington Examiner. 

Quick Hits *** The Chief Data Officers Council launched a new website and published a report to Congress on CDO activities. The CDO Council was mandated by the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act.   *** With multiple winter weather events hitting in the National Capitol region this week, the Office of Personnel Managementreminded agency heads about the importance of communicating emergency situations to employees even amid the current "maximum telework posture" required under the...

The $500 million bill would pay for the Department of Labor to help develop new benefits technology capabilities to share with states and to establish a digital services team to develop and maintain the tech.

Digital engineering techniques enabled the next-generation USAF fighter to be designed, assembled, tested and flown in rapid time.

The lawmakers had sent a letter to the White House earlier this week urging President Joe Biden to select one official to oversee the federal government’s response to the breach.

The Defense Department is still figuring out how to give contractors reciprocity with the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program and similar certifications, but the end is close, officials say.

Quick Hits IRS elevated Nancy Sieger to the post of permanent CIO. She had been serving as acting CIO of the tax agency since June, 2019. *** Customs and Border Protection reopened the comment period on a proposed rule that would move the use of facial recognition systems on non-citizen and non-resident travelers in and out of the United States out of the pilot phase and make it a permanent fixture of international travel. The comment period for the Biometric Exit/Entry program had concluded...

Quick Hits *** Citizen satisfaction with government service continues to drop, according to the latest rankings from the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Their 2020 report on the federal government released Feb. 8 showed a drop of 4.4% to 65.1 out of 100. The Departments of Commerce and Agriculture were high scorers among government agencies; Treasury and the Social Security Administration scored the lowest. The survey measures citizen perceptions of ease of government processes, clarity ...

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin directs commanding officers and supervisors to hold a "stand down" discussion on extremism in the next 60 days.