FCW Insider: November 23, 2021
The latest news and analysis from FCW's reporters and editors.
White House says 90% of feds are vaccinated
The deadline for the administration’s mandate for feds to get vaccinated is here, but agencies still have to process exemption requests and go through the discipline process for anyone not in compliance.
New rule puts $15 minimum wage for federal contractors in place next year
Employees working on federal contracts will have a $15 minimum wage starting on Jan. 30, 2022, per a new rule issued by the Labor Department on Monday.
ICYMI: DOD names cloud contenders in JEDI replacement
The Defense Department has invited Google and Oracle to compete for its massive warfighter cloud program alongside Amazon and Microsoft.
Quick Hits
*** Customs and Border Protection expects to issue a solicitation for a long-planned cloud management contract next year, according to a posting on SAM.gov. Plans for the Enterprise Cloud and Integrated Services procurement were first posted in May 2020, with the expectation that a request for proposals would go out in 2021. According to a Nov. 19 posting, CBP is still “refining and reviewing” requirements for the procurement – which involves managing the agency’s multi-cloud portfolio with an eye to controlling costs – and is seeking further information from industry via the General Services Administration’s eBuy platform. A draft request for information and a formal solicitation are expected in 2022.
*** The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation issued a final rule on Tuesday requiring banks to notify their primary federal regulator within 36 hours of the discovery of any computing infrastructure failure or cybersecurity incident that meets certain standards of disrupting business operations. These include but aren’t limited to distributed denial of service attacks that freeze a bank’s operation for a four hours or more, ransomware attacks that encrypt banking data, failed system upgrades that lead to widespread outages and more. The rules take effect April 1, 2022.
*** Nominations for the 2022 Federal 100 awards are now being accepted.
*** Editor's note: FCW Insider is taking a break for the Thanksgiving holiday. The next issue will publish Monday Nov. 29.