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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.

Quick Hits *** A group of Capitol region House Democrats led by Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) is asking the Office of Personnel Management to require agencies to offer employees administrative leave to get COVID-19 vaccinations. Agencies are permitted to offer administrative leave – paid leave that does not count against an employees vacation or sick time – for vaccination, but there is no requirement that agencies do so. "Mandating that federal agencies provide administrative time to get vaccina...

Dennis Kirk, Trumps nominee to lead the Merit Systems Protection Board, was also withdrawn as was the nomination of Jason Abend to serve as Inspector General of the Department of Defense. IBM has named Steve LaFleche as the new leader of its U.S. public and federal market sector. Read more in Washington Technology. *** Winter Casey, who served as deputy chief technology officer in the White House under Michael Kratsios has left government for the post of vice president, global government...

Lawmakers are looking to President Bidens Labor Secretary nominee Marty Walsh for help on modernizing unemployment insurance delivery, worker safety and stimulating growth in STEM jobs.

Jennifer Granholm, the former governor of Michigan, is poised to become energy secretary as the agency continues to grapple with the fallout of the SolarWinds Orion hack.

During his time as mayor, Marty Walsh pursued actions to increase the amount of minority-, women- and veteran-owned contractors in Boston.

Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.) will chair a new subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee focused on cybersecurity, emerging tech and information systems.

By Justin Katz   The coronavirus pandemic pushed federal agencies to rely on technology to support telework, but some organizations are feeling the pinch from hiring freezes instituted at the start of the Trump administration. At a government IT event hosted by the Advanced Technology Academic Research Center (ATARC), a few speakers discussed the strain being put on IT departments. "We all, I think, across the board have the security concerns that were fighting individually and collectively, b...

By Justin Katz   On day one of Alejandro Mayorkas tenure as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, if hes confirmed as expected, hell be under pressure from Congress to deliver answers about why the federal governments cybersecurity measures failed to detect or defend against the SolarWinds Orion hack. Mayorkas promised at his confirmation hearing to review the agencys high profile cybersecurity programs, including the network protection program Einstein thats a key component of the...