The Wrap: SBA Tech Management Fixes; PRAC Part Two; Pentagon Cyber Policy Office

Welcome to The Wrap for Monday, April 1!

?

From the newsroom at MeriTalk, it’s the quickest read in Federal tech news. Here’s what you need to know today:

?

SBA Tech Management Fixes

The U.S. Small Business Administration has staked itself to an Aug. 30 deadline to complete work on a range of IT management fixes that the agency’s inspector general has flagged for the past several years. According to an SBA IG report?published?on March 29, those fixes will address findings that the agency’s “governance board did not meet as required to oversee IT investments, performance against established baselines was not reported, critical system capabilities were missing, and corrective actions were not taken for underperforming investments.” The IG said those IT management problems were evident in its review of “seven major investments, totaling $317 million during the FY 2020–2022 period.” In a response to the IG’s findings, Stephen Kucharski, acting CIO at SBA, said that his office “continues to make progress building a strong IT governance framework that will enable the agency to achieve its mission goals and objectives, as well as promote risk reduction and value add to IT investments.” He continued, “Through an extensive revision of its oversight policies and processes, IT investments will integrate under a unified IT governance framework to address essential entitywide controls … The framework is still in development, but when operational, IT acquisitions and investments will be systematically reviewed for adherence to all Federal acquisition and security policies.”

?

PRAC Part Two

Legislation introduced last week by Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC), and Mitt Romney, R-Utah, ranking member of the HSGAC Subcommittee on Spending Oversight, aims to extend the kind of government spending oversight and fraud-fighting work that the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) – which was created in 2020 and is set to sunset next year – has done to oversee the Federal government’s $5 trillion of pandemic relief spending. The apple of the senators’ eyes is a shared data analytics center that powers pandemic-related investigations across Federal agencies, and which has helped to claw back almost $2 billion of fraudulent payments. “With the national debt now exceeding $34 trillion, Congress should pursue commonsense solutions – like leveraging data analytics – to combat fraud and protect taxpayer dollars,” Sen. Romney said in a?statement on the Government Spending Oversight Act. “This bill would allow PRAC’s successor – the Government Spending and Oversight Committee – to continue its oversight of pandemic-related funds, while also expanding its scope to encompass additional Federal spending, including Small Business Administration loans, unemployment insurance, and some of the largest spending programs enacted last Congress,” the senator said. The proposed new committee would provide support including through data analytics, enhanced data-sharing, and improved data management practices. Those technologies, Sen. Peters said, “will provide critical tools to identify and prevent fraud in Federal government spending.”

?

DoD’s new Cyber Policy Office

The Pentagon said last Friday that it stood up its new Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy, which was ordered as part of the FY2023 National Defense Authorization Act and will provide the Defense Department (DoD) and military services with a more civilian-facing role into the world of cyber policy. Among other tasks, the new office is responsible for developing, coordinating, assessing, and overseeing the implementation of DoD cyberspace policies and strategies, including the Pentagon’s recently unveiled?Defense Industrial Base cybersecurity strategy. Heading the office on a temporary basis is Ashley Manning, a career member of the DoD Senior Executive Service, until the Senate gets around to considering the recent nomination of Michael Sulmeyer, who is currently serving as the Principal Cyber Advisor to the Secretary of the Army, to be the first-ever Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy.

?

OMB Race, Ethnicity Data Changes

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has?published?a set of revisions to its “Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity” –?its first such update since 1997. The updated standards feature revisions to questions used to collect information on race and ethnicity, including adding Middle Eastern or North African as a new minimum race and ethnicity category on Federal surveys. Other changes include using one combined question for race and ethnicity and requiring the collection of additional detail beyond the minimum required race and ethnicity categories for most situations to ensure further disaggregation in the collection, tabulation, and presentation of data when useful and appropriate. “These updated standards will help create more useful, accurate, and up to date federal data on race and ethnicity,” said Chief Statistician of the United States Karin Orvis.

?

Save That Text

Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and John Cornyn, R-Texas., have?introduced?new legislation that aims to wrap more tightly into Federal record retention rules a variety of app-based communications services. The Strengthening the Federal Records Act of 2024 would modernize the Federal Records Act to account for the advent of communications apps that feature disappearing messages – such as WhatsApp – and help improve the government’s ability to keep records of official communications. “Federal agencies must maintain adequate records so that the American public can hold officials accountable, access critical benefits and services, and have a clear picture of how the government is spending taxpayer dollars,” said Sen. Peters. “We must also update the law to keep pace with rapidly changing technology and ensure that we are not sacrificing transparency as we embrace new forms of communication,” the senator said. The bill also wants to put more teeth into the law by requiring the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to refer repeated violations of records laws to the Department of Justice and report these violations to Congress.

?

Once again, let’s “call IT a day,” but we'll bring you more tomorrow. Until then please check the MeriTalk breaking news website throughout the day for the latest on government IT people, process, and policy. And finally, please hit the news tip jar [with leads, breaking news, or simply your two cents] at [email protected].