The Wrap: TMF’s Billion Dollar Spend; DoT Prepping New Cyber Plan; Meet us at Tech Tonic July 18
Welcome to The Wrap for Tuesday, June 18!
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From the newsroom at MeriTalk, it’s the quickest read in Federal tech news. Here’s what you need to know today:
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TMF’s Billion Dollar Spend
The General Services Administration’s (GSA) Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) is close to awarding all of the $1 billion of funding provided to it by Congress under the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act. That was the biggest news today from TMF, which was created in 2017 by Congress to sprinkle repayable seed capital around to Federal agencies to help jumpstart tech modernization projects. In offering up the spending news, GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan made a spirited plea for further support for TMF, saying, “it is essential that Congress provide resources to allow the?TMF?to continue to meet the growing demand for investments which address constantly evolving technology needs, threats, and advancements so that government can deliver better for the American people.” In public remarks last month, Carnahan last month said TMF has invested nearly $1 billion into 53 projects across 30 agencies. While TMF received the big $1 billion infusion in 2021, it also received several hundred million before that through regular appropriations from Congress. New appropriations for TMF are currently getting a very cold shoulder from House appropriators, who not only offered zero new funding for the program for fiscal 2025 in their version of the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) appropriations bill, but dropped any mention of the program from the bill altogether. Senate appropriators still have not had their say in the matter.
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DoT Prepping New Cybersecurity Plan
After some significant prodding from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Department of Transportation (DoT) is in the process of putting together an agency-wide cybersecurity plan and hopes to go public with the plan by the end of September. That’s the latest from a new GAO annual?report ?that covers the watchdog’s “priority” recommendations to the agency. GAO’s ask for DoT to develop a cybersecurity risk management strategy stretches back to 2019, and the latest update from GAO brought the welcome news that DoT is getting ready to deliver. GAO gave no specific details on the coming DoT plan but did offer that “implementing this recommendation would help DOT address the growing number of cyber threats to systems and data by taking a risk-based approach to cybersecurity by effectively identifying, prioritizing, and managing DOT’s cyber risks.”
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HUD’s Acting CIO
Congrats to Sairah Ijaz, who has been named acting chief information officer at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) while the agency continues its search for a permanent CIO. Ijaz, who previously served as HUD’s deputy CIO, announced her new role in a LinkedIn?post ?last week. She steps into the role after former CIO Beth Niblock – who served in the position since July 2021 – moved to a new post as the agency’s senior advisor for disaster management. HUD posted the?CIO job posting ?on USAJobs.gov in May and applications closed on June 14 – following a decision by the agency to move the CIO role to a career position.
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Meet us at Tech Tonic July 18
As the summer weather turns ever-more steamy, please circle July 18 on your calendars and meet us at Tech Tonic ,?where we will roll out the coolest celebration of the season on July 18 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Morton’s The Steakhouse in D.C. What’s on tap? We definitely will be celebrating the government IT community, preparing for a lively discussion of the latest thinking in AI development for government, and honoring this year’s group MeriTalk Cyber Defender award winners (watch this space for the big reveal soon…) Dress code? Ditch the jackets and serious shoes, and please show off the Hawaiian shirts because this is a beach party! Please do click through to register.
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Once again, let’s “call IT a day,” but we'll bring you more on Thursday after the Juneteenth Federal holiday 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] .