November, 2024

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Consolidating the USPS Final Mile

Art of Procurement

Maybe it is because I grew up watching Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, but there is something about the United States Postal. The post Consolidating the USPS Final Mile appeared first on Art of Procurement.

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Agencies Need Data Backup and Recovery to Combat Increasingly Complex Ransomware

FedTech Magazine

Agencies must prepare for potential breaches with a cyber resilience plan to leverage robust data backup and recovery strategies, which enable speedy restoration of systems and data. These strategies reduce the impact of breaches when they include immutable snapshots that allow agencies to restore clean versions of their systems, minimize disruption and ensure continued mission effectiveness.

Data 126
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FAA seeks artificial intelligence-powered safety tool

FedScoop

The Federal Aviation Administration is continuing to search for potential applications of artificial intelligence meant to boost aviation safety, including with a new call for information from technology vendors. Earlier this week, the agency posted a request for information focused on tools that might use machine learning and artificial intelligence to identify safety risks.

Data 127
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New survey: Public sector poised for generative AI revolution

AWS Public Sector

Amazon Web Services (AWS) , in partnership with Market Connections , is excited to announce the results of a recent study on how public sector leaders are approaching the adoption of generative artificial intelligence (AI). The survey asked 839 IT decision-makers in US government, education, healthcare, and nonprofit organizations about how their organizations envision incorporating generative AI into their unique missions.

Education 118
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How to Create a Blueprint for Fleet Resilience

Speaker: Jeff Dickinson - President and CEO of Railgistixs Transport, Supply Chain and Logistics Thought Leader

Despite the ongoing transformation of the supply chain and logistics landscape, the steadfast importance of carrier safety remains a core principle. From prioritizing preventative maintenance to optimizing fleet utilization, the fundamentals persist. If you’re overlooking and neglecting essential safety precautions today, this could result in expensive repairs and potential safety hazards in the future. 🚧 Join Jeff Dickinson for a conversation on how to mitigate risk, enforce compliance,

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GAO Finds Need for Increased Awareness around FBI Employee’s Whistleblower Rights

Whistleblower Network News

On November 12, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released two reports following an extensive review into how the Department of Justice (DOJ) handles whistleblower protections for employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). According to the GAO, the DOJ and its Office of Inspector General need to increase awareness around FBI whistleblower rights.

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When they search for new staffers, cities and counties should cast a wide net and recruit globally

American City & Country

State and local governments employed 20.5 million as of October 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Among those workers, there was an increase in the number who quit (about 22,000) in September, the BLS reported. Job openings in September 2024 in state and local governments in the U.S. totaled 703,000, says the BLS. So, if local governments need to hire qualified workers to replace those leaving, where can they turn to when recruiting?

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How Data Recovery and Backup Strategies Form the Blueprint for DOD’s Cybersecurity Plans

FedTech Magazine

The Department of Defense’s holistic approach to cybersecurity and building resilience hinges on data security and recovery, fortifying the defense industrial base (DIB), and securing its networks along with the nation’s supply chain. DOD aims to protect its mission-critical systems and achieve its objectives with greater efficiency by following a comprehensive strategy centered around the zero-trust framework.

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OpenAI further expands its generative AI work with the federal government

FedScoop

The federal government is continuing to invest in generative AI technology produced by OpenAI, with a handful of agencies recently inking deals to use the enterprise version of the firm’s ChatGPT platform. The increased activity comes as policymakers weigh potential concerns with the technology, while also trying to exploit its potential benefits. It also shows how OpenAI is developing as an early frontrunner in providing the government with generative AI technologies on both the defense and civ

IT 119
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Building your first generative AI conversational experience on AWS

AWS Public Sector

Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers a variety of options for building chat-based assistants with generative artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. The goal of this post is to present in simple words some of these options and what to keep in mind to decide which to use and how to get started. To create a chat-based application, you need the following prerequisites.

Data 106
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Rise8 CEO: What It Takes for Government DevOps Teams to Create Quality Software

ExecutiveBiz

Bryon Kroger, Rise8 founder and CEO, is a U.S. Air Force veteran turned bureaucracy hacker who is relentless in his pursuit of making the world work better—a future where fewer bad things happen because of bad software. Rise8 enables large enterprises with critical missions to continuously deliver valuable software that users love.

Quality 104
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Ransomware presents a growing threat to vulnerable local governments

American City & Country

In the past, cities and counties were not a prime target for ransomware attacks, says Rahul Mahna , a partner who leads the Outsourced IT Services team at Eisner Advisory Group LLC. The company is a licensed independent CPA firm providing tax and business consulting services to their clients, which includes governments. Mahna has more than 20 years of experience in cybersecurity and information technology.

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Liverwurst, Listeria, and Liability: Food Safety at Boar’s Head

Art of Procurement

In July of 2024, the USDA suspended production at a Boar’s Head meat processing plant in Jarratt, Virginia and the. The post Liverwurst, Listeria, and Liability: Food Safety at Boar’s Head appeared first on Art of Procurement.

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Are Agencies Using Their Tech Innovation Budgets Meaningfully?

FedTech Magazine

Many defense and civilian agencies still struggle to answer questions about where their assets live, if they’re in the correct environment and if they’re secure. Some of the most aggressive innovation happening at the federal level is centered on digital asset tracking and management, far beyond the supply chain environments you might expect to see in production facilities, warehouses and distribution centers.

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IRS’s AI voicebots and chatbots have room to grow, advisory panel says

FedScoop

The Internal Revenue Service’s experimentation with voicebot and chatbot functionality should continue, but several tweaks to the technology are needed for better customer service, an advisory panel to the tax agency said Wednesday. In its 379-page annual report , the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council devoted a small section to results from its testing of artificial intelligence-powered voicebots and chatbots in use by the agency’s taxpayer services division.

Utilities 110
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Announcing the Generative AI for Geospatial Challenge, which awards $1M in AWS credits to innovators

AWS Public Sector

The Taylor Geospatial Institute (TGI) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are joining forces to accelerate geospatial data breakthroughs powered by generative artificial intelligence (AI). Through the Generative AI for Geospatial Challenge , they aim to inspire and nurture groundbreaking solutions coming from the convergence of geospatial data, cloud computing, and AI models.

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Intel Lands $7.9B in CHIPS Act Funding

GovCon Wire

Intel has received up to $7.86 billion in CHIPS and Science Act direct funding from the Department of Commerce to support its semiconductor manufacturing and advanced packaging projects in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio and Oregon.

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Harnessing data for safer communities

American City & Country

When ranking the most significant developments of the digital age, the evolution of data storage does not garner many glamour points. Yet few innovations have had such a profound impact on the ability to develop new technologies and perform tasks previously unimaginable. The ability to gather, store and analyze almost unlimited amounts of data has transformed almost every aspect of society, including law enforcement.

Data 104
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The Power of Visualization in Freight Optimization and Resilience

Art of Procurement

Anyone who spends their day working with data will tell you that data alone is never enough. It needs to. The post The Power of Visualization in Freight Optimization and Resilience appeared first on Art of Procurement.

Freight 119
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How OCC Charted Its Course for Cloud Adoption

FedTech Magazine

Cloud is a huge part of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s IT modernization efforts because many of its applications lived on-premises, according to CIO and Chief Data Officer Kristen Baldwin. Care and feeding of on-premises solutions can impact banking operations, whereas migrating to the cloud made routine updates something users didn’t need to schedule their activities around.

IT 114
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House bill to modernize government data, extend CDO Council moves out of committee

FedScoop

Legislation from a bipartisan pair of House lawmakers that would extend the Chief Data Officers Council past the end of the year passed out of committee Wednesday after being introduced Monday. The Modernizing Data Practices to Improve Government Act ( H.R. 10151 ), introduced by Reps. Summer Lee, D-Pa., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., which cleared the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, is the companion piece to a Senate bill that was introduced in September.

Data 110
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Dr. Jeffrey Wigand (Part II)

Whistleblower Network News

In this special episode of the Whistleblower of the Week podcast, host Jane Turner continues her talk with legendary Big Tobacco whistleblower Dr. Jeffrey Wigand. Dr. Wigand is the former Vice President of Research and Development at Brown and Williamson, a major tobacco company. He blew the whistle on Brown and Williamson’s deliberate misconduct, strategic cigarette engineering, and research manipulation that aimed to get, and keep, cigarette users addicted while concealing the truth of the pr

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Implementing a unified search platform for educational content on Amazon OpenSearch Service

AWS Public Sector

This post discusses how Amazon Web Services (AWS) can help you set up a unified search platform for educational content using Amazon OpenSearch Service. Amazon OpenSearch Service is a managed service that makes it easy to deploy, operate, and scale OpenSearch clusters in the AWS Cloud. With digital learning becoming increasingly popular, managing a vast amount of educational data can be challenging.

Education 106
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The Law Governing the Effects of Insolvency in Arbitration: Is UNCITRAL Getting it Wrong? – Part II

Kluwer Arbitration

Building on Part I of this post, Part II explains the serious practical disfunctions that would derive from the adoption by Working Group V (“WG V”) at UNCITRAL of the current proposal to subject all the effects of insolvency in arbitration to the law of the State in which insolvency proceedings have been opened (the lex fori concursus ). The Risk of Abuse Practice shows that the ability of one party to an ongoing dispute resolution process to trigger insolvency proceedings in their home jurisdi

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The SBA doubles down on the Rule of Two

Federal News Network

A long-standing rule concerning small business preference is about to get a major expansion, courtesy of the Small Business Administration. The rule, which applied to open market competitions, will, once the rule is finalized, also apply to multiple award contract vehicles. That’s a big change. Haynes Boone procurement attorney Dan Ramish joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin to provide more details.

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Document AI Saves Agencies Time and Money

FedTech Magazine

The federal government relies on forms and other documents. Many important forms sit on the web, while others sit in storage boxes. The wealth of information available to government agencies is often locked in these forms due to a lack of manpower to process and analyze them for correlations and relationships. Unlocking this data requires significant work due to the requirements for data entry, validation, and proper routing and categorization of the information.

Data 107
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The government is working to improve data access. An AI chatbot could be part of that.

FedScoop

A National Science Foundation demonstration project aimed at improving data infrastructure within the U.S. government is eyeing an artificial intelligence chatbot that could help answer questions about statistical information. The tool is currently in the process of being prototyped by a contractor with an expected competition date of August 2025. If it’s proven to be feasible, the hope is that someday it could answer a variety of user queries about public data.

Data 111
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Aleut Books USACE Contract for Environmental Support

ExecutiveBiz

Aleut Environmental Remediation, a subsidiary of Aleut Federal, has secured a $48 million contract from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Alaska District, to support the Environmental Quality Program across Alaska and the Pacific Ocean Division Area of Responsibility, including Guam, Hawaii, Japan, Korea, Wake Island and the Northern Marianas Islands.

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Procurement Methods vs. Solicitation Tools: What Every Procurement Professional Needs to Know

The Procurement ClassRoom

Throughout the evolution of project and public procurement management, terms and expressions in the field have increasingly been used interchangeably. Yet, these terms—such as Request for Quotations (RFQ), Request for Proposals (RFP), Request for Expressions of Interest (REOI), and Invitation for Bids (IFB)—are technically indicative of distinct concepts.

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Moving Co. Wants DOD To Recompete $20B Deal After Tweaks

Government Contracts

Moving company Suddath has disputed a $20 billion dollar contract to manage moving services for the U.S. Department of Defense, arguing U.S. Transportation Command significantly altered contractual terms after award and should have reopened the deal to competition.

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DOE Awards Potential $1.1B DUF6 Conversion Contract to Mission Conversion Services Alliance

GovCon Wire

The Department of Energy’s Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center has awarded a contract to Mission Conversion Services Alliance for the continued management and operation of all uranium hexafluoride activities at the Portsmouth Paducah Project Office, or PPPO. According to an award notice posted on SAM.gov on Friday, the contract is potentially worth $1.

Contract 105
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A trusted technology partner can help cities and counties achieve their digital vision

American City & Country

If a local government wants to re-do its IT setup, its leaders should collaborate with knowledgeable teammates, says Matt Sprague , industry strategy director, local government at Trimble , a U.S.-based software and hardware firm that provides services and a variety of technologies. “If a city or county is starting from scratch on their vision or plan for digital transformation , then we recommend identifying a trusted partner who can help guide the development of the vision.

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Former GSA, FDIC IT official headed to Railroad Retirement Board

FedScoop

A former top General Services Administration tech official is taking over as chief information officer at the independent federal agency charged with administering benefits to railroad workers. Bob De Luca, who previously served as acting director and deputy commissioner of GSA’s Technology Transformation Services, started this week as CIO of the Chicago-based U.S.

Insurance 113
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Pharmacy Whistleblower Receives $3.4 Million in Settlement Alleging Healthcare Pricing Scheme

Whistleblower Network News

On November 1, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Doug McMakin, a pharmacist who brought claims against Medisca Inc., is set to receive $3,425,625 from a settlement under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act (FCA). Medisca agreed to pay $21.75 million to resolve allegations of establishing false Average Wholesale Prices (AWPs) for ingredients used in compound prescriptions.

Price 107
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NAVSUP piloting new RFID inventory system, integrating with Marine Corps solution

Federal News Network

When the Navy needs basic parts like bolts, it turns to the Defense Logistics Agency like the rest of the Defense Department. But when it needs a part with no application outside of the Navy — like a system that goes inside a submarine — that’s where Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) comes in. With eight fleet logistics centers (FLCs) around the globe that manage roughly 430,000 items worth about $45 billion total, it’s constantly looking to improve its tracking systems so it doe

Inventory 106
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Romania Paying $7B To Buy F-35s From Lockheed Martin

Government Contracts

The Romanian government, in an effort to bolster the capabilities of its air force, has agreed to purchase 32 stealth fighter jets for $7.2 billion from manufacturer Lockheed Martin, according to multiple statements.

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Okta Gets FedRAMP High Authorization for Automation Platform

ExecutiveBiz

Okta has received the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program’s High Authority to Operate designation for its cloud-based no-code automation and orchestration platform used for complex identity processes. In a blog post Thursday, Katy Mann, senior vice president of public sector at Okta, said Okta Workflows is now available for FedRAMP’s high customers and eligible moderate customers.