The Wrap: Barbaccia is New Federal CIO; DOGE Alignment at GSA; DoD’s DEI Warning

Welcome to The Wrap for Friday, January 27!

From the newsroom at MeriTalk, it’s the quickest read in Federal tech news.

New Federal CIO

A week or so after Clare Martorana cleaned out her desk, Greg Barbaccia?is taking over as Federal CIO in the Office of Management and Budget . OMB’s press shop – like those of most other agencies over the past week – is still taking the quiet approach in the early days of the new administration, so the announcement came via Barbaccia’s own?LinkedIn update. Based on the many congratulatory comments that he received, Barbaccia is well regarded in the Fed tech world, but perhaps still less than a household name , although that’s bound to change quickly. For those who don’t know him already, he’s a 美国军队 veteran, a former intelligence community analyst, CISO at software engineering firm Theorem, head of investigations for blockchain search engine Elementus, and a ten-year alum of Palantir Technologies , where he was head of intelligence and investigations, security lead, core operations lead, and government account manager.?

DOGE Alignment at GSA

New tech faces also abound at the General Services Administration ( GSA ), which has named Thomas Shedd director of the agency’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS) group, along with a second hat as deputy commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS). Shedd has spent his career in Silicon Valley, including the last eight years at Tesla building software that operates vehicle and battery factories. GSA said his passion is “finding opportunities for software to solve big problems with solutions that hold up long term,” which sounds ideally aligned with the thinking of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is the force behind President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) group that has taken over the White House’s U.S. Digital Service and been given the mission to “commence a Software Modernization Initiative to improve the quality and efficiency of government-wide software, network infrastructure, and information technology (IT) systems.” Also joining GSA as new FAS Commissioner is Josh Gruenbaum, who’s coming in from investment firm KKR & Co. “The Federal Acquisition Service stands at the heart of the government’s ability to operate effectively,” Gruenbaum said in a statement. “Whether through our work in procurement, fleet management, technology, or charge card programs, we are the enablers of government efficiency,” he said, adding he looks forward to “aligning closely with DOGE as we work to ensure that taxpayers are receiving necessary and valuable services at the best possible price.”?

DoD’s DEI Warning

Taking a cue from President Trump’s orders last week to slash Federal government Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) programs, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is issuing a stark warning to employees of the United States Department of Defense (DoD): those who do not comply with the White House’s new direction will be terminated. “The President’s guidance (lawful orders) is clear : No more DEI at [DoD]. The Pentagon will comply, immediately. No exceptions, name-changes, or delays,” he? wrote?in a post on X. During his first?press conference after winning Senate confirmation by the narrowest of margins, Hegseth reiterated that one of his first focuses will be rolling back DEI programs at DoD, as well as implementing other executive orders issued by the president. But unlike other Federal agencies, the DoD does not have full-time, dedicated personnel for DEI initiatives.?

IG Firings Fallout

Not only are prominent House and Senate Democrats livid over the White House’s abrupt firing of at least 16 major agency inspectors general on Friday, they are also telling anyone who will listen that the dismissals run contrary to the law – at least in the short term. That was the bottom line from statements of protest over the weekend from Dems including House Oversight and Reform ranking member Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who said amendments to the Inspector General Act approved by Congress in 2022 require presidents to give lawmakers 30-day notice before removing an agency IG, and to provide “substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons” for those removals. For his part, President Trump brushed off the firings in remarks on Jan. 25, and called them “a very common thing to do.” He also pointed out that he had not fired Justice Department IG Michael Horowitz, who the president credited with a “well done” IG report in 2017 regarding former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by President Trump. “I don’t know them, but some people thought that some were unfair or some were not doing the job,” President Trump said of the fired IGs. Full disclosure: The Wrap has a soft spot in its heart for the reams of public reports that Federal IGs issue all the time recapping internal probes into agency IT work both good and bad. It’s the kind of stuff that would never come into the public light if good IGs were not on the job.??

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