Top Stories: March 16

The White House urged "maximum telework flexibilities" for DC-area feds in a Sunday night memo to agency heads in response to the worsening coronavirus pandemic. The Office of Personnel Management followed with an update instructing federal employees to seek guidance from their supervisors on telework. Adam Mazmanian has more.

As part of the COVID-19 response, the Office of Management and Budget urged agency head to curtail domestic travel on government business, except for trips deemed mission-critical. Adam reports.

Defense reporter Lauren C. Williams has the story on the Pentagon's halt to domestic travel for uniformed and civilian personnel.

As more agencies are forced to move employees to telework, some will face initial growing pains. Mark Rockwell looks at how agency networks might get tested as never before.

Late last week, OMB asked agencies to extend telework to vulnerable federal employees whose health is especially at risk from coronavirus infection. Lia Russell explains.

Not every agency will be ready to flip the switch to telework, according to experts and former officials. Derek B. Johnson looks at a telework stress test at the Department of Homeland Security.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is looking to bolster its technical capabilities to identify foreign propaganda online that targets specific audiences in the U.S. Derek has more.

Quick Hits

*** The Defense Department has asked the U.S. Court of Federal Claims for a pause so it can "reconsider" parts of its decision to award Microsoft the $10 billion JEDI cloud infrastructure contract. Amazon Web Services, which is challenging the award, opposes the pause according to court papers. Nick Wakeman has more at Washington Technology.

*** In a March 13 alert, the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency urged organizations to patch devices, virtual private networks and other computing infrastructure in preparation to support more teleworking due to the coronavirus pandemic.