Digital Government
Congress threatens TSM funds
Members of Congress last week warned the Internal Revenue Service that they will cancel the Tax Systems Modernization next year unless the agency proves to them within the next two months that it can repair the multibilliondollar program. "We're done," said Rep. Jim Lightfoot (RIowa), chairman
Digital Government
Cahoon made assistant archivist for policy, IRM
The National Archives and Records Administration has named L. Reynolds Cahoon the new assistant archivist for policy and information resources management, replacing Ralph Bledsoe, who retired late last year. Cahoon most recently served for six years as managing director of the family history depart
Digital Government
IRS won't use the Internet?for now
The Internal Revenue Service has abandoned plans for a pilot project offering electronic filing over the Internet for the April 15 tax deadline, although the agency may test such a system later in the year, Treasury Department deputy assistant secretary for information systems Wushow "Bill" Chou
Digital Government
New guidelines help agencies tailor CIOs
The Office of Management and Budget plans to give agencies broad latitude to appoint new chief information officers so they can tailor the job to fit agency needs. Bruce McConnell, chief of the OMB Information Policy Branch, said an upcoming memo to agencies will describe the role CIOs should play
Digital Government
Future remains unclear for excised provisions
The Clinton administration is willing to try again to enact governmentwide procurement reform provisions that were jettisoned in acquisition bills, but so far an exhausted Congress is showing little enthusiasm. Both House and Senate aides said last week they prefer to focus their efforts on making
Digital Government
Acquisition reform tops list of priorities
Rep. Tom Davis (RVa.), like the legendary former Speaker of the House, Tip O'Neill, has learned well the lesson that all politics are local. This truism has caused Davis to embrace causes that most of his colleagues, whatever their party, view as strictly insidetheBeltway concerns.~~Davis' distr
Digital Government
Extending protection to Net transmissions may hurt access
Extending copyright protection to works transmitted over the Internet could restrict public access to government data and impose new burdens on users of computer networks, including taxpayerfunded libraries, Congress was warned recently. At hearings before the House Judiciary Committee's Courts an
Digital Government
IRS to tap GSA for TDPI
An upcoming procurement experiment by the Internal Revenue Service could change how agencies make volume purchases of computer equipment, software and services and elevate the importance of a General Services Administration schedule contract in vendors' contract portfolios. The IRS plans to use the
Digital Government
FAA proposal would limit bidders, protests and regs
Just months after being cut free from conventional federal procurement regulations, the Federal Aviation Administration is circulating copies of its acquisition reform proposal in preparation for getting a new system in place by April. As expected, the proposal contains many elements of reform init
Digital Government
Performance pressure stresses agencies
Agencies now free of centralized information technology oversight procedures could lose that flexibility if they fail to get results from more creative ways of buying and managing their systems, a panel of industry and government officials said last week. "Now is when the hard work is really going
Digital Government
NTIS, Kinko's join forces for on-demand printing
Getting copies of government documents can be a frustrating and timeconsuming process, but it could soon be as simple as going to the local copy store. By the end of this year, copying services company Kinko's Inc. will offer ondemand printing of National Technical Information Service publication
Digital Government
IRS aims to increase electronic tax filings
The Internal Revenue Service is hoping that an expansion of its digital tax services will result in a 36 percent increase in the number of taxpayers using these electronic filing options by April 15. This year, for the first time, taxpayers who use a variety of commercial tax return preparation sof
Digital Government
TDA I, II snagged by GTSI, Win
Government Technology Services Inc. is the apparent new winner of Treasury Department Acquisition I (TDA I), a twoyear contract to supply desktop systems to Treasury users. The Internal Revenue Service, which ran the procurement, selected GTSI over Electronic Data Systems Corp., which originally w
Digital Government
Feds tap work flow to manage business processes
Federal agencies, seeking to streamline such operations as making engineering changes, fulfilling Freedom of Information Act requests and processing employee promotions, are turning to workflow automation tools for help. A variety of software packages offer users the capability to map their busine
Digital Government
TSM on the ropes
Ten years into its development, Tax Systems Modernization is "in serious jeopardy" and could fail unless the Internal Revenue Service substantially improves its network security design and systems architecture, develops performance metrics and upgrades the technical skills of its information mana
Digital Government
Presidential Technology Team sets sights on problem programs
The Office of Management and Budget wants the government's "best and brightest" information technology experts to become part of a roving consulting team that will help agencies rescue troubled projects and prevent the most difficult IT programs from developing problems in the first place. The id
Digital Government
No consensus on rewrite of Part 15
Reforming federal procurement means, in part, redefining key concepts in the Federal Acquisition Regulation, according to one former contracting law professor. "Almost all operative words are not defined properly or need redefinition," Ralph Nash, a professor of contract law who is retired from T
Digital Government
Cohen, Clinger departures create leadership vacuum
The top two GOP advocates for procurement reform and information technology programs are retiring from Congress at the end of the year. Sen. William Cohen (RMaine) and Rep. William Clinger (RPa.) will leave behind no obvious successors to champion the use of IT in the federal government. Cohen wa
Digital Government
Army to scan 17 million Gulf War records
When President Clinton formed an advisory group last year to examine evidence of illness among Persian Gulf War veterans, it meant the Defense Department would have to review and declassify millions of records from the 1991 conflict. The Army responded to this mandate by fielding a new imaging and
Digital Government
Agencies plagued with fiscal fears
Unsure how much, if any, funding they will have next week and for the rest of the year, agencies are scrambling to restructure their information technology spending plans. In more than two dozen agencies and Cabinet departments, information resources managers are curtailing purchases and delaying c
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