FCW Insider: Nov. 16

Making software more than 'IT thing'

Software modernization has a branding problem, and it's going to take more than the colloquial culture shift to speed up the Defense Department's adoption of modern tech capabilities, according to Deputy CIO Peter Ranks.

Federal panel sides with VA on union contract

The Federal Service Impasses Panel largely sided with the Department of Veterans Affairs in a contract ruling in a case between the VA and the National Veterans Affairs Council.

Biden's GSA transition team brings deep agency ties

The six volunteers tasked with General Services Administration transition planning have worked at GSA, the White House or both.

Quick Hits

*** Camilo Sandoval, the recently appointed federal chief information security officer, is on leave from his job to help a group allied with President Donald Trump's re-election campaign to use data to support unsubstantiated claims made by Trump and others that there was widespread voter fraud. The Washington Post first reported the story.

*** A federal district court judge in New York ruled that the appointment of Acting Department of Homeland Security Chad Wolf was not done lawfully and that therefore actions made under his tenure were exercised under legal authority. The ruling came in a long-running case challenging changes to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program giving legal status to some undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. The court ruling tracks with a similar determination by the Government Accountability Office.

*** Nominations for the 2021 Fed 100 are now being accepted. The deadline for submissions is Dec. 31.