FCW Insider: Sept. 30

President Donald Trump signed a stopgap funding bill last Friday to avoid a government shutdown on Oct. 1. The measure extends through Nov. 21, giving Congress about eight weeks to finalize a spending plan for fiscal year 2020. However, some of the same dynamics that led to last year's shutdown are still in place. Adam Mazmanian has more.

The Navy Department announced Aaron Weis as its new CIO. The move comes more than a month after the Navy announced a substantial reorganization of the CIO roles and responsibilities. Lauren C. Williams reports on the move.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved a pair of bills designed to improve the cyber and physical security for the energy grid last week. One bill includes $900 million in new spending to put a supply chain protection program and an advanced energy security program covering energy transmission and delivery and oil in place. Mark Rockwell has the story.

The House of Representatives passed a bill last week to expand access to cybersecurity technical guidance housed at the Department of Homeland Security. The Cybersecurity Vulnerability Remediation Act would require DHS to disseminate and share its cybersecurity mitigation protocols with other agencies, industry, academia and other sectors. Derek B. Johnson explains.

Quick Hits

*** From FITARA scorecards to the White House? It turns out that one of Capitol Hill's leading IT experts is mulling a White House bid in 2024. Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), a three-term member who isn't running for re-election in 2020, said "I will think about it" when asked at an event hosted by the Texas Tribune last week if he was considering a run at the presidency. Hurd, a former CIA officer, got into IT policy right off the bat when entering Congress in 2014, as chair of a subcommittee charged with federal technology policy.

*** New Office of Personnel Management Director Dale Cabaniss released guidance last week to agency heads seeking updates to agency performance management and termination policies and procedures in furtherance of the President's Management Agenda. Per the guidance, agencies have until April 30, 2020 to submit to OPM a review of whether internal agency policies are a barrier to addressing poor performance either through discipline or dismissal, to remove such barriers that aren't required by law or regulation and to issue guidance to agency managers about new policies for implementing performance improvement plans.

*** A Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty to federal bid rigging charges in what prosecutors say is an ongoing investigation into a larger conspiracy to game the General Services Administration's online public auctions. According to the charging document, Igor Yurkovetsy plotted with other electronic bidders to coordinate lowball bids on targeted surplus GSA computer equipment lots at multiple agency sites nationwide over six years. The alleged conspirators split up the equipment for resale.