FCW Insider: Feb. 24

A new report lays out where the General Services Administration's cloud certification program FedRAMP has gone wrong – and what can be done to fix it. Derek B. Johnson has more.

The publication of a memo in the Federal Register advanced a new policy that could block Defense Department unions. The delegation of authority is the first step in a plan that could lead to the elimination of unions at civilian defense agencies. Lia Russell explains.

Agencies shouldn't be afraid to leverage open-source tools like GitHub during software development, a U.S. Citizens and Immigration Service tech official said. Derek reports.

The new Centers of Excellence at the Departments of Defense and Labor will not be the last, said the head of GSA's Technology Transformation Service. Mark Rockwell takes a look.

The Air Force wants $150 million for a software pilot in 2021 for the new Space Force. Get the story from Lauren C. Williams.

Quick Hits

*** Rep Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, is asking Chad Wolf, acting chief of the Department of Homeland Security, for assurances that recent personnel moves at the Office of Director of National Intelligence, including the appointment of several key loyalists to the top and senior positions, will not impact the ability of DHS to brief the committee on election security threats. In a Feb. 21 letter, Thompson said he's concerned that the ODNI shakeup bodes ill for information sharing across departments.

"The American people are depending on the executive branch to work effectively with Congress to protect elections from foreign interference," Thompson stated. "Candor must be the hallmark of that effort."

*** The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced an upgrade to its weather prediction supercomputing system. Two new Cray computers, each with a 12 petaflop capacity, are coming online in 2022, replacing existing Cray and Dell systems.

*** The U.S. Department of Agriculture is planning as request for information to industry and stakeholders to focus on the use of data and technology to making American farming more productive while reducing its environmental footprint. Secretary Sonny Perdue's recent vision statement looks to improve data collection and to close key data gaps.