18F delays RFQ again, DOD wants cloud, White House FISMA compliance and more

Questions swamp 18F, delay agile BPA a second time

A much-anticipated agile blanket purchase agreement plan, already delayed once, has been delayed a second time.

The deadline for 18F’s agile request for quotes has been pushed to July 7 as the General Service Administration’s “startup” continues to struggle to answer all of the questions vendors have posed about the request.

The RFQ was aimed at setting up digital services BPAs, gathering 20 GSA Schedule 70 vendors into a single, quickly accessed pool, and was originally slated to close on June 26.

But the fact that vendors must submit working projects, not just quotes, left many flummoxed, and MSLGROUP Vice President Brian Lake said some 300 questions came pouring in to 18F.

A GSA spokeswoman confirmed the second delay, blaming a “high volume of questions.”

The further delay could be a mixed blessing for vendors.

“While [for] some contractors it gives breathing room to get their teams together, it makes an interesting dilemma on what contractors who were ready to submit by tomorrow should do now,” noted Lake. Or should they “keep refining and working?”

GOP senators question White House on FISMA

Two GOP senators have sent a letter to the White House criticizing the Executive Office of the President for not submitting reviews of its IT systems to the Office of Management and Budget or key congressional committees for at least three years, the Washington Post reported.

Recent revelations of large hacks of the Office of Personnel Management “only underscore the importance of every federal agency, including the EOP, to take steps to improve its cybersecurity posture,” Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and John Thune (R-S.D.) wrote in the letter, according to the report.

Study: DOD agencies want cloud migration but lack budget

Defense Department officials want to move more than half of their applications to the cloud by 2020 but believe their budgets will allow for less than a quarter of those applications to make the transition, according to a new report.

The MeriTalk survey of 150 IT professionals at DOD agencies found that 57 percent of DOD cloud applications have been moved from legacy applications, while 43 percent have been built anew in the cloud. However, far more of those surveyed think building new is a “smarter long-term move” (52 percent) than those who prefer migrating legacy applications (18 percent), the report said.

“Against the backdrop of tight budgets, agencies must take time to complete a full analysis of each application’s needs before pulling the trigger to ensure they make the best decision from a cost and performance perspective,” Stanley Tyliszczak, a vice president at General Dynamics Information Technology, said in a statement. GDIT underwrote the study.

GPO mobile app profiles lawmakers

The Government Publishing Office has released a mobile app that allows the public to scroll through current members of Congress and search by last name, state, party affiliation or chamber.

Selecting a member brings you to their page, which provides a photo and shows such various stats as their hometown, district and length of service.

The app can be downloaded for free from the GPO website; all the information contained in the app can also be accessed via GPO.gov.

GPO said future iterations will add more information from its Congressional Directory.