FCW Insider: Aug. 31

GSA won't budge on STARS II deadlines

The General Services Administration isn't moving away from a new, shorter period of performance for one of its popular small business governmentwide IT contracts.

What's new in Army cloud

The Army's enterprise cloud office is coming up on its first anniversary. FCW talked with its director, Paul Puckett, about what the office has been up to and how COVID has affected priorities.

Experts tout election security gains since 2016

While threats to election infrastructure endure, experts are telling the public not to lose sight of the many security gains that have been put in place over the last four years.

Cybersecurity in the telework age

Each mission environment has distinct needs and resources that don’t always fit into a one-size-fits-all solution.

Quick Hits

*** Many federal employees will notice a change in their withholding on their paychecks starting in September. Employees making less than about $104,000 annually won't have their social security taxes automatically deducted, as part of an executive order encouraging employers to defer social security deductions to put more cash in employee paychecks because of the economic crisis. Employees will still be obligated to pay their social security contributions in the future. The National Finance Center, the payroll shared service operated by the Department of Agriculture, announced the move in an Aug. 21 customer notification memorandum.

*** Tianna Spears, a former State Department employee who traveled frequently between Mexico and the U.S., writes of targeting and harassment she endured at the hands of Customs and Border Protection law enforcement officers. Spears, in an account published in Politico, says she was subject to frequent examination and car searches despite her diplomatic passport, and suspects she was singled out because of her race.

*** A commentary in War on the Rocks argues that the U.S. Army should create a Digital Corps modeled on its storied Medical Corps, and that Army technology workforce efforts like its Digital Service and software factory constitute "piecemeal" efforts. "Talent management is an investment, not a cost, and the effort to execute a bold vision for uniformed technologists will pay off over the long term. Efforts," the authors write.