Government Executive - Tech

Transportation loses its top tech official amid wave of CIO departures

Alexandra Kelley — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 06:00:00 -0400

The chief digital and information officer of the Department of Transportation is resigning from his position effective Sept. 4, according to an email obtained by Nextgov/FCW.

Pavan Pidugu, who has been the CDIO at the agency since February 2025, sent the email Thursday announcing his departure to his staff and expressing gratitude for his colleagues and their work. He wrote that serving alongside “this incredible team for the past many years has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career.”

“When we set out on this journey together, we shared a bold vision to fundamentally transform how technology serves the Department and the American public. Thanks to your hard work, dedication, and true builder mentality, we didn't just meet those expectations—we exceeded them,” the email continued.

Pidugu told Nextgov/FCW in August 2025 that he wanted to turn the Transportation IT shop into a place “where we build technology,” modernizing the agency amid the federal operations overhaul executed by the Department of Government Efficiency during the start of the second Trump administration. Pidugu led the crafting of the department’s “1DOT IT strategy,” which guided Transportation’s modernization agenda.

He said in the Thursday email that, during his tenure, his office achieved “unprecedented milestones” in their tech policy efforts, including conducting a mass, agency-wide transition to Gmail software to achieve about 70% cost savings, creating the internal T-Cloud environment and pursuing long-term plans to migrate legacy IT infrastructure.

The contract between Transportation and Google through software reseller Carahsoft is particularly important, with a value ceiling of $89 million to bring the Google Workspace suite to the agency and build a “modern collaboration environment,” as Pidugu called it in his Thursday email. The department was able to leverage the software at discounted rates negotiated through the General Services Administration’s OneGov program.

“These accomplishments are a direct testament to your talent and your willingness to embrace a product-centric culture,” Pidugu wrote. “By working together, we have broken down historic silos to operate as a truly unified enterprise.”

In his email, Pidugu did not state his reason for resigning or who will take up his position after he leaves.

Over the course of the week, reports of at least three federal CIOs planning to depart their posts in the government have emerged. Federal CIO Greg Barbaccia is set to leave his role by the end of August, and the Department of the Interior CIO Paul “Macca” McInerny also stepped down from his position last week. Department of Housing and Urban Development CIO Eric Sidle has been tapped to take over leading the Interior tech shop.

Pidugu received a Federal 100 award this year for his work at the Transportation Department in 2025.

GovExec Editor-in-Chief Frank Konkel contributed to this report.

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HUD's tech chief appears headed for Interior

Edward Graham and David DiMolfetta — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 16:02:15 -0400

Department of Housing and Urban Development Chief Information Officer and Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer Eric Sidle is expected to soon take up the Department of Interior’s top tech post after the latter agency’s CIO departed, according to two people familiar with the matter.

He is finalizing the paperwork process and could be onboarded in the next one to two weeks, said both people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the selection has not been made public.

Sidle joined HUD in May 2025 after serving in the private sector for a number of years in a variety of tech-specific roles. He previously worked for two years at tech consulting firm Fabrum Advisors as a technology advisor, operating partner and coach.

Prior to that position, Sidle oversaw autonomous driving hardware at NIO, served as chief technology officer at ChargePoint and worked as an engineering manager for special projects at Apple.

Interior’s prior CIO Paul “Macca” McInerny — a former SpaceX engineer that aligned himself with the Department of Government Efficiency’s mission — left the department last week after just over a year in the role, with a top strategy official at the agency, Matt Luby, tapped as interim CIO, Nextgov/FCW reported Monday.

One suspected source of frustration under McInerny involved the department’s effort to consolidate and speed up permitting systems — including systems tied to Bureau of Land Management leasing and energy development — that would likely demand significant overhauls to the agency’s IT stack.

HUD and Interior spokespeople did not return multiple requests for comment.

Sidle has publicly discussed his push to bolster anti-fraud initiatives while at HUD, an effort that aligns with the Trump administration’s broader “war on fraud.”

Speaking at the Government Service Delivery conference in Washington, D.C., last month, Sidle said HUD’s outdated technologies and disparate databases made it difficult to identify companies gaming the agency’s programs, noting that the median age of its systems was 20 years.

“Across different agencies, we’re now talking about how we’re going to be dealing with data sharing, Delta Sharing and all this other stuff,” he said, adding that “even before AI, just the basics of data analytics wasn’t being done — let alone now you have AI, which is going to take off and be able to protect this.”

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GSA taps White House design team to revamp Login.gov

Frank Konkel — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 15:45:04 -0400

Login.gov, the government’s identity-proofing platform housed within the General Services Administration, is collaborating with the National Design Studio to enhance the user experience of millions of Americans who regularly use the shared service.

The collaboration aims to “make it easier for people to access government services, while operating with privacy, transparency, and security at the core of everything we do,” according to an internal email sent to staff Tuesday by Greg Hogan, acting assistant commissioner of Login.gov, and obtained by Nextgov/FCW.

Currently, more than 100 million Americans have accounts through Login.gov to access a variety of government services like Social Security accounts, unemployment insurance, passport services and more across 50 states and agencies.

The National Design Studio was stood up via an August 2025 executive order to improve how Americans experience and interact with government agencies online and in-person. Housed within the Executive Office of the President and headed by Joe Gebbia, the National Design Studio has collaborated with several agencies across government, including on a major effort with the Office of Personnel Management to make federal retirement applications fully electronic.

Per Hogan’s email, “ND Studio has drafted a proposed set of changes that will help modernize and streamline the sign up, sign in, and identity proofing process.” Hogan makes clear that while National Design Studio is providing a service to Login.gov, it “does not oversee or operate” the service, nor is it “building a replacement Login.gov website.”

The National Design Studio instead built a separate “experimental version” of the site to test different design concepts and improvements that it pitched to leadership.

“The ND Studio will have resources available to support us in real-time thinking through these immediate changes and identifying areas where their expertise would be beneficial for the long term,” Hogan said in the email. “I believe our combined skills can greatly benefit the American public.”

“Our team at GSA remains responsible for every change made to the service. Any proposal must go through our normal reviews for engineering, security, accessibility, privacy, compliance, performance, and product before it gets shipped to users. We’ll implement only changes that improve the user experience and meet our standards,” he added.

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House Homeland committee seeks briefing on DHS network hack

David DiMolfetta — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 18:07:31 -0400

House Homeland Security Committee staff are requesting a briefing from the Department of Homeland Security on the breach of the agency’s Homeland Security Information Network, according to a committee aide with knowledge of the matter.

Staffers are hoping to be briefed on the intrusion — first reported by Nextgov/FCW last week — by Friday, said the aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter is sensitive.

Hackers are believed to have penetrated HSIN sometime between late May and early June, though their affiliation and whether any contents were pilfered from the platform is unclear, a person familiar with the matter previously said.

Approved users lean on the network to securely access data, exchange requests with partner agencies, manage operations, coordinate safety and security for planned events, respond to incidents and share mission-critical information needed to protect their communities, according to its website. HSIN carries unclassified but sensitive information shared among federal, state, local, territorial, tribal, international and private-sector partners.

The intrusion comes as the U.S. oversees security for World Cup games across the country, placing added scrutiny on the systems federal, state and local officials use to coordinate major events. A breach of the platform may raise concerns about whether hackers gained insight into security planning, interagency coordination or response procedures surrounding one of the most visible international events hosted predominately in the United States.

Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said last week that the network is being used to support the World Cup and America250 events. He added that it played a key role for emergency responders during last year’s mid-air collision between an American Airlines flight and an Army Black Hawk helicopter outside Washington, D.C.

“The information in HSIN, while not classified, is highly sensitive, and its exposure risks national security,” Warner said. “DHS and DOJ must thoroughly investigate who breached HSIN, what the attackers accessed, and ensure all DHS partners are provided with timely information and the tools necessary to mitigate any associated risks from the breach.”

When asked by Nextgov/FCW about the committee briefing request, a department spokesperson sent the same statement it provided last week that confirmed the hack.

The statement said staff “immediately took action to isolate the affected systems, mitigate the vulnerability, and launch a comprehensive forensic investigation,” and added that an investigation is ongoing and more details can’t be provided.

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Greg Barbaccia to leave federal CIO role at end of August

David DiMolfetta — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 15:00:00 -0400

Federal CIO Greg Barbaccia is leaving government service, capping off an 18-month tenure as the government’s top IT lead where he sought to overhaul how the U.S. agencies acquire and interact with tech services.

Barbaccia will depart Aug. 31, according to a White House official with knowledge of the matter, who requested anonymity to communicate the departure. It’s not clear where Barbaccia is headed next.

The Office of Management and Budget confirmed his departure date.

“Greg has done an excellent job as Federal CIO and Chief AI Officer,” a spokesperson told Nextgov/FCW. “He will certainly be missed when his time here comes to an end.”

The move was first reported by FedScoop.

“Greg Barbaccia has been an incredible partner at GSA. He has fundamentally reshaped our work on the federal government’s technology and the products GSA delivers across the federal workforce on behalf of the American taxpayer,” GSA Administrator Edward Forst said in a statement to Nextgov/FCW. “I’m deeply grateful for his extraordinary service to President Trump and the American people.”

Barbaccia joined OMB in January 2025 after a decade at Palantir and later stints at blockchain intelligence firm Elementus and Theorem, a machine-learning-enabled asset manager. A former Army intelligence sergeant and intelligence community analyst, Barbaccia had not worked in government since 2009 and had not previously served as an agency CIO.

Barbaccia was charged as federal CIO with overseeing governmentwide IT policy, helping shape the federal technology budget and setting the direction for agency modernization efforts. He also served as the federal chief AI officer and became the government’s service delivery lead under the Government Service Delivery Improvement Act.

During his tenure, he pushed agencies to rethink how they buy and manage technology, arguing that the government should default more often to buying commercial tools rather than building systems in-house. He also sought tougher enforcement of FITARA, the 2014 law giving agency CIOs authority over technology investments, and explored ways for OMB to more closely track major IT decisions across agencies.

Barbaccia also made culture a central theme of his tenure, saying his role had become less about “deep diving” into technical architecture and more about changing how the government thinks about technology, compliance and modernization. He pushed the federal CIO office to gather more feedback from agency technology leaders and sent staff into the field for in-person meetings with agencies.

“I came into the job thinking this would be much more of a technical undertaking about deep diving into technical systems and technical architecture,” he told Nextgov/FCW in February. “I’m understanding changing the culture and the way we think about tech and the government is a way more effective means of making change, so that's what I’m focused on — primarily changes across culture, tech and then the compliance regime.”

His departure comes after a turbulent period for the federal technology workforce, including Department of Government Efficiency’s push to downsize government as a whole, broad personnel losses across government — including portions of the federal tech workforce — and a reshuffling of many agency CIO roles. Barbaccia has acknowledged those disruptions but argued that artificial intelligence and a new early-career U.S. Tech Force program could help the government rebuild technical capacity.

Barbaccia also championed a “digital front door” for government services, questioning why taxpayers must repeatedly provide the same information to different agencies. That vision, he said, would require more responsible data sharing and a willingness to make difficult decisions around identity proofing, including the future of Login.gov and the government’s use of commercial identity tools.

During his tenure, the federal government began to confront a new class of advanced AI models that officials and researchers say will forever overhaul how organizations manage defensive and offensive cyber strategies. The models’ advent has raised ongoing questions for agency technology leaders about model-sharing and coordination amid a recent export control debacle that impacted parts of the government.

Nextgov/FCW Managing Editor Edward Graham contributed to this report.

Editor's note: This article has been updated to include a statement from GSA Administrator Edward Forst.

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Trump says Pulte can declassify ‘whatever’ he wants, sparking fears of exposing intelligence secrets

David DiMolfetta — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0400

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that acting spy chief Bill Pulte can declassify “whatever” records he wants and can declassify “almost everything,” a sweeping green light that has alarmed former intelligence officials, who warn that careless releases could expose sensitive intelligence capabilities and sidestep standard review processes with other spy agencies.

Trump said Wednesday that acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte would only serve in the job for “a month or two months or something,” but has his permission in the interim to release classified records.

“Bill is there just for a fairly short period of time,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. “But while he’s there, I said you can declassify whatever you want.”

Under U.S. law, records declassification is usually handled through a structured review process meant to identify national security risks before materials are released. Trump’s comments appear to give Pulte political backing to move aggressively, but they don’t necessarily address how agencies with involvement in any records would be consulted first.

“My guess is that NSA and CIA are losing their minds at the idea of Pulte declassifying a lot of stuff,” said a former official, who, like others for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid and for fear of retribution.

“If Pulte actually runs the traps and considers damage and balances, he won’t declassify much. If he doesn’t care about blowing up cyber exploits, putting foreign relationships at risk, or getting people killed, he could declassify a lot,” the former official added.

Intelligence records are typically reviewed by the agency that produced them before release, particularly if disclosure could expose that agency’s operations, but that consultation might be skipped entirely under Pulte, a second former official said.

An ODNI spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.

Trump has placed Pulte at the center of a wider declassification push that began under former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who used her role atop ODNI to release records tied to Trump-era grievances over alleged weaponization inside the intelligence community. ODNI’s own public releases under Gabbard included documents the office claimed exposed efforts by intelligence officials to undermine Trump’s 2016 victory and material it said showed a conspiracy used during his 2019 impeachment proceedings.

The declassification push is part of a broader campaign to challenge an intelligence community the president has long accused of working against him. Since the 2016 Russia investigation, Trump and his allies have argued that intelligence and law enforcement shops have used their powers to damage his presidency.

“Trump’s statement alone saying that Pulte has this authority is damaging to national security because any person thinking about volunteering or working with the United States might think twice now, and is more likely to go to the Brits or another service,” a third former official said, adding that if Pulte moves to declassify intelligence involving other agencies, he would be in violation of the law.

The president “just signaled to any person providing intelligence to the United States that their intelligence can be released at Pulte’s whim, thus putting their entire security and safety in jeopardy,” the third former official added.

The White House has assembled a task force collecting thousands of pages of intelligence and law enforcement documents, mostly related to the 2020 election, with plans to declassify some of them in ways that could support Trump’s claims about election irregularities and fraud, NBC News reported Tuesday.

Trump’s declassification plans land against a long-running backdrop of concerns over his administration’s handling of sensitive intelligence. During his first term, officials said he shared highly classified information provided by the Israelis with Russian officials in the Oval Office. Separately, Russian and U.S. news reports later identified Oleg Smolenkov, a former Russian government official living near Washington, as a possible CIA source who had disappeared from Russia in 2017 after allegedly providing information on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s role in the Kremlin’s 2016 election interference efforts.

Trump was later indicted in June 2023 over classified records kept at Mar-a-Lago, including documents prosecutors said involved highly sensitive national defense information, though the case was dismissed and later dropped after he returned to office. Former President Joe Biden also faced a classified documents investigation, but a special counsel declined to charge him on grounds that there was not enough evidence to convict him of “willfully” retaining the sensitive materials.

Pulte’s short tenure has already produced early staffing changes at ODNI that have removed around 50 career and political staff from their roles in the office. The moves follow a broader downsizing campaign started under Gabbard.

The personnel churn included the sidelining of Will Ruger, the deputy director of national intelligence for mission integration. Pulte also brought in a new chief of staff, Christina Norton, who served as Pulte’s chief of staff at the Federal Housing Finance Agency and as the RNC’s election integrity director, helping oversee its 2024 poll-watching operation. Her move into ODNI has sharpened concerns that the office could be drawn further into Trump’s push to revisit election-related claims.

Trump’s comments come after he slowed a Senate push last month to quickly confirm Jay Clayton as permanent intelligence chief, allowing Pulte to take over the office on a temporary basis. Trump said Wednesday that Clayton would get his Senate hearing in two weeks.

Clayton’s nomination has drawn a generally positive response from senators. But Democrats have reacted furiously to Pulte’s elevation, and even some Republicans have expressed concern about installing someone with no prior intelligence community experience as acting DNI. The fight has already affected Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a key spying authority that had appeared headed for reauthorization in early June before Democrats balked in protest of moving forward with Pulte at the head of ODNI.

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Hackers breached DHS information-sharing network, people familiar say

David DiMolfetta — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400

A key Department of Homeland Security information-sharing database was accessed by an unknown threat actor in recent weeks, potentially exposing sensitive data exchanged between federal, state, local and industry partners, according to two people familiar with the matter.

DHS investigators are probing the intrusion of the Homeland Security Information Network, said both people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the incident is sensitive. The hackers’ affiliation and whether any documentation was pilfered from the system are both unclear.

The department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis has conducted a damage assessment of the intrusion, which is believed to have occurred sometime between late May and early June, said one of the people. The hackers targeted HSIN servers and a SharePoint system used for collaboration efforts, the person added.

The intrusion comes as the U.S. is overseeing security for World Cup games across the country, placing added scrutiny on the systems federal, state and local officials use to coordinate major events. A breach of the platform could raise concerns about whether hackers gained insight into security planning, interagency coordination or response procedures surrounding one of the most visible international events hosted predominately in the United States.

The platform supports real-time communication, document sharing, alerts, web conferencing and incident management. It’s also used to exchange information about persons of interest and potential threats to help agencies maintain situational awareness during emergencies and events.

“The Department of Homeland Security is aware of a recent cyber incident involving a specific, unclassified legacy information sharing environment. We immediately took action to isolate the affected systems, mitigate the vulnerability, and launch a comprehensive forensic investigation,” a department spokesperson said after this story published. “There is no indication that classified networks were impacted, and the system remains operational for our partners. As this is an ongoing investigation, we cannot provide further operational details at this time."

The development would not be the first time HSIN has faced security problems. In 2023, an access misconfiguration linked to a contractor’s coding error caused restricted HSIN data to be exposed to unapproved users inside the platform, according to a memo obtained by Nextgov/FCW.

The error let information intended for a limited set of authorized users be made available more broadly across HSIN, including sensitive U.S. person data and other personally identifying information. The full consequences of that misconfiguration are still unclear, according to a third person. Wired previously reported that incident.

Nation-state groups and criminal hackers routinely target U.S. systems to collect intelligence, steal sensitive information, disrupt operations or gain footholds inside government networks. In February, a suspected China-linked breach of an FBI surveillance system likely revealed phone numbers of targets being monitored by the bureau, Nextgov/FCW previously reported.

Editor's note: This article has been updated to include comment from DHS.

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CIA will take ‘smart risks’ and ‘course correct’ as it adopts AI, director says

David DiMolfetta — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0400

The Central Intelligence Agency is moving aggressively to adopt advanced artificial intelligence tools, with Director John Ratcliffe saying Tuesday that the spy agency cannot afford to wait for a “risk-free approach” as emerging technologies reshape national security.

The CIA is “going to take smart risks, experiment and course-correct as we go” as it works to embed AI and other evolving technologies into its operations, Ratcliffe said at the AWS Summit held in Washington, D.C.

“We simply can't afford to wait for a risk-free approach when it comes to emerging technologies. It doesn't exist,” he said, noting that he can’t predict how far such technologies will go, but “what we’re not going to do, as we test the limits of what is possible at CIA, is to make perfect the enemy of good.”

The remarks underscore how aggressively the spy agency is trying to embed advanced artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies into its work, a notable push for an agency best known for human intelligence-gathering overseas. They also show that the agency is willing to accept some degree of risk as it adopts emerging technologies, betting that experimentation is preferable to moving too slowly in the face of foreign adversaries.

The CIA recruits and manages foreign assets, often undercover, to clandestinely collect intelligence on issues ranging from economics and terrorism to cyber threats. Over the last year, The Trump administration has sought to highlight the agency’s contributions to many of its national security achievements in Iran and Venezuela.

CIA officials have been increasingly public about the tech shifts the agency has undergone. Deputy Director Michael Ellis said earlier this year that the agency aims to integrate AI-powered “coworkers” into analysts’ workflows in the coming years, with the tools helping draft key judgments, edit for clarity and flag trends for human review.

The agency also recently announced a new acquisition framework to overhaul how it integrates technology into its missions. In his Tuesday speech, Ratcliffe said that, under new approaches, the agency completed some 400 acquisitions in about six months, a sharp reduction compared to previous acquisition deals that took around three years.

Recent research has argued that emerging tech may spur spy agencies to revert to older intelligence-collection methods, but Ratcliffe argued that more CIA officers “are going to have to become just as comfortable handling lines of code as they are with handling human assets and sources,” although “good intelligence is always going to require good judgment, and only people can and should decide which is the right way to go.”

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America at 250: What the Census reveals about our journey

John Breeden II — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 06:00:00 -0400

On July 4, 2026, the United States will celebrate its 250th birthday, a milestone that belongs to all 342 million of us. But one of the more interesting ways to think about that anniversary is through the federal institution that has spent almost the entire life of the republic trying to count, describe and understand who “we” actually are. The Census Bureau’s new Freedom 250 Project frames the semi-quincentennial as a chance to look back at 250 years of “measuring America’s journey,” which is a pretty good way to describe what the agency has been doing almost from the start.

The decennial census itself is nearly as old as the country. The first one was taken in 1790, only 14 years after the Declaration of Independence. It took 18 months to complete and counted 3,929,214 people, including 697,624 enslaved people, or 17.8% of the total population. It covered our 13 original states along with Kentucky, Maine, Vermont and the Southwest Territory, which later became known as Tennessee. That first count was not just a bureaucratic exercise. It was one of the earliest ways the new nation tried to understand its own size, shape and future.

That first census also reminds us how much the country has changed, and how much of today’s changes were already underway right from the start. For example, the Census Bureau’s America 250 story notes that people’s westward movement showed up early in the counts. By the time the 1890 census rolled around, officials who studied the totals concluded that the so-called “frontier line” no longer existed because people had already spread deeply into the American West. In other words, the census was not just recording static numbers on a page. It was documenting the physical movement of the country as Americans pushed outward, claimed more land and reshaped the map.

The scale of the nation’s growth is still striking. According to Census Bureau estimates for July 2025, about 342 million people now live in the United States, almost 123 times more than in 1780, the closest population benchmark to when independence was declared in 1776. That number alone says a lot. The United States did not simply get older over the past 250 years. It grew, spread and multiplied on a scale the founders could not have possibly predicted.

Just look at the number of people who lived in the original 13 colonies compared with today. Georgia had one of the biggest population swings, going from just 82,548 people in 1790 to 10.7 million today. Virginia had the largest population of the 13 colonies at 691,737, growing to 8.6 million as of the 2020 Census. Meanwhile, New York was a middle-of-the-road colony in terms of population with 340,120 residents in 1790. Today it’s the fourth most populous state in the country with 20.2 million residents.

And yet even with all of that growth, some things are oddly durable. One of the more humanizing details in the Census Bureau’s recent names data is that eight of the nation’s top 15 last names in 2020 were also among the most common in 1790. If your last name happens to be Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown, Jones, Miller, Davis or Wilson, then you are carrying a name stretching back to the earliest days of the republic. Despite a more than 84-fold increase in population since then, those names remained among the top 15 in the 2020 Census. Today they are joined by others at the top of the list including Garcia, Rodriguez, Lopez and Anderson.

That mix of change and continuity may be the most American part of the story. The census has recorded territorial expansion, urban growth, industrialization, migration and the long movement of population toward new regions and opportunities. At the same time, it has preserved quieter patterns that make the country feel connected to its own past. Names endure. Places rise and fall. New populations arrive, move and settle. And every 10 years, the census catches another snapshot of a nation that is never entirely still.

There is also something fitting about using the Census Bureau as a lens for the nation’s 250th anniversary because the agency’s work has always been about more than population alone. Its Freedom 250 materials emphasize both people and the economy, and that broader mission helps explain why census data has been so useful for understanding the nation over time. It does not just tell us how many Americans there are. It helps tell us where they are, how the country has expanded and how one generation’s America gradually turned into another’s.

That is why the Census Bureau feels like such an appropriate federal companion to the nation’s 250th birthday. For almost 236 years, census-taking has helped document how the United States kept becoming itself. It has counted the country’s growth, tracked its movement and quietly preserved the evidence of how far America has traveled. And as the nation gets ready to celebrate a quarter millennium of independence, that may be one of the clearest ways to see both where our country began and how much of our journey is still unfolding.

John Breeden II is an award-winning journalist and reviewer with over 20 years of experience covering technology. He is the CEO of the Tech Writers Bureau, a group that creates technological thought leadership content for organizations of all sizes. Twitter: @LabGuys

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Pentagon launches ‘War Force’ initiative to onboard tech talent

Edward Graham — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 09:36:50 -0400

The Office of Personnel Management and the Pentagon jointly announced the launch of a new initiative on Tuesday to bring top software engineering talent into the Department of Defense, part of a broader governmentwide push to hire more skilled technologists.

The recruitment effort, called War Force, operates under OPM’s larger Tech Force program. That initiative launched in December 2025 to onboard tech and cybersecurity professionals across federal agencies, although it notably followed Trump administration moves to let go of thousands of tech-focused workers and shutter several innovation-focused units.

OPM Director Scott Kupor said in a statement that War Force “builds on the momentum of Tech Force by connecting outstanding engineers with opportunities to solve complex challenges alongside the War Department.”

President Donald Trump signed an executive order last September that authorized DOD to use the “secondary title” of War Department — framing that is also reflected in the initiative's name.

OPM said the War Force recruitment effort “will launch with a targeted hiring campaign,” with a focus on bringing in applicants who have experience “deploying and integrating advanced technologies — including frontier AI, machine learning, automation, and data systems — and designing, building, and maintaining reliable software solutions that directly support operational needs on behalf of the American warfighter.” Job applications will be accepted through July 10.

Pentagon Chief Technology Officer Emil Michael said in a statement that the War Force will help with “executing the key tenets of the War Department’s AI Acceleration Strategy.” That guidance was released in January and outlines the department’s plans for rapidly integrating AI capabilities into its operations.

The War Force recruitment effort also comes after DOD announced in April that it was launching a cyber apprenticeship program this summer to bring more skilled personnel into the agency.

During public remarks at the SAP NOW summit in Washington, D.C., last week, Pentagon Chief Information Officer Kirsten Davies said the apprenticeship program “has already generated more than 70,000 inquiries,” despite the effort not officially launching until July.

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Secret Service phone security lapses put US officials at risk, watchdog says

David DiMolfetta — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 14:18:00 -0400

The Secret Service failed to effectively secure and manage mobile devices used for official business, including during protective operations, creating risks that adversaries could intercept sensitive communications and use them to target U.S. leaders and other protectees, according to a watchdog report issued Thursday.

The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general determined Secret Service employees routinely relied on personal phones for official work, including during domestic and overseas protective assignments, because government-issued devices lacked key tools needed to communicate with law enforcement, foreign partners and other officials.

Those personal devices were not managed or secured by the government, creating vulnerabilities that could expose operational details, employee information, contacts, location data, photos and other sensitive material, the report said.

Adversaries “could have intercepted and exploited Secret Service information, placing at risk our Nation’s leaders, other protectees, and employees — especially when unsecured devices were used overseas,” the inspector general wrote.

The audit grew out of broader reviews of the Secret Service following the July 13, 2024 attempted assassination of then-former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa. During those reviews, the watchdog said it learned that Secret Service personnel frequently used personal cellphones for official business, raising security and federal records concerns.

One episode described in the report connects the issue directly to the Butler security breakdown. Shortly before the attempted assassination, a Secret Service employee used a personal device to receive a picture message from local law enforcement of the would-be assassin because of reliability concerns with the employee’s government-issued phone. The employee told investigators that prior issues had prevented them from sending text messages with images using government equipment.

The watchdog also found that, after the attack, another employee had to take extra steps to email a photo of the would-be assassin to colleagues because a known issue prevented them from simply forwarding the image by text on a government-issued device.

The report points much of the blame at the Secret Service’s Office of the Chief Information Officer, which is responsible for setting mobile device security standards, managing government-issued devices and ensuring compliance with agency policies.

Secret Service employees told investigators that government-issued devices often lacked commercial messaging apps commonly used by foreign police, military officials, embassy drivers, State Department personnel and other partners overseas. Some also said they needed personal devices to access websites blocked on government phones, including sites used to research restaurants where a protectee was scheduled to dine.

Employees also cited reliability problems. According to the report, government-issued devices frequently disconnected from the Secret Service virtual private network, and about 12% of wireless help desk tickets involving mobile devices were related to VPN issues.

The watchdog found that the use of personal devices had become routine and expected during foreign assignments. Of 24 employees and supervisors interviewed about international travel reimbursement records, 23 said they relied on personal devices, with most saying they needed them during nearly every foreign assignment.

The inspector general also reviewed call and text records and found more than 15,000 instances in which employees sent or received calls from colleagues’ personal phones while working protective events. It found about 24,000 text messages between personal devices and government-issued phones, though its analysis did not include communications made solely between personal devices or through messaging apps.

The report also found that Secret Service mobile devices used overseas lacked required mobile threat defense software designed to provide real-time protection from malware, cyberattacks and other threats. The Secret Service did not begin installing that software on any government-issued mobile devices until August 2025, despite DHS policy requiring it for devices used outside the United States.

The watchdog also found that the Secret Service did not consistently wipe data from government phones after employees returned from international missions, even though agency policy required employees to wipe devices within 24 hours of returning to the United States. One employee told investigators their phone had never been wiped over the course of eight years and 20 international trips, including travel to high-risk countries. Another employee reported 15 trips over eight years and estimated their phone had been wiped only four times.

The Secret Service concurred with all five watchdog recommendations, including recommendations to improve its process for identifying mobile device needs, strengthen cybersecurity training, communicate that personal devices are not allowed for official business and update app vulnerability testing policies.

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Artificial intelligence is cutting months off nuclear licensing review times, official says

Edward Graham — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 10:00:00 -0400

Artificial intelligence has already helped the Nuclear Regulatory Commission shave years off its typical licensing review process, an agency official said on Thursday. Now, the NRC is looking at how it can safely adopt other emerging capabilities to further speed up its review processes.

Speaking at the ATARC AI for impact summit in Virginia, NRC Chief Data Officer and Deputy Chief AI Officer Basia Sall said uses of AI have built upon recent regulatory changes and federal guidance to turbocharge the once drawn-out procedure for granting licenses for nuclear facilities.

“I’m happy to report we've already reduced the amount of time it takes for licensing,” Sall said. “For example, one type of licensing would take four years. We said we're going to get it down to 18 months. We just finished that first round of that licensing in nine months.”

Not all of this is strictly due to AI. President Donald Trump issued an executive order in May 2025 to reform the NRC, which included setting an 18-month deadline on licensing reviews. But AI has helped the agency further shorten those licensing timelines, and Sall said internal personnel believe they can use the technologies to make the process even more efficient.

“I think some of our AI gurus at our agency were like, ‘Oh, yeah, we can do it better,’” she said.

NRC is also using AI to help with drafting documents “to make sure we look at the precedent” of previous decisions, Sall added.

Engaging with industry partners who are developing their own AI tools has also helped NRC conduct faster regulatory reviews. Sall said the agency has allowed some of these actors “to take our NRC public data and curate those data sets” for their own relevant applications.

“What that means is we receive a much better application than we have in the past,” she said. “We don't have as many questions. It's clear once we get it into our hands, we start our process, we accept it and then we start to do our review process.”

Using GSA’s AI offerings

NRC has also been leveraging some of the software and products made available through the General Services Administration’s OneGov initiative, which launched in April 2025 and provides agencies with significant discounts on select private sector technologies by treating the entire government as one customer. More than 20 companies have reached deals so far with GSA to offer their services at discounted rates.

Through OneGov’s offerings, Sall said NRC has already been testing AI tools like Anthropic’s Claude, Azure OpenAI and Google Gemini “for limited use cases with public data” and added that “we're finding some good success with that.”

GSA said in May that agencies have placed more than 120 orders for AI offerings through the strategy, which has made these technologies available for use to around 3.4 million federal employees.

NRC is also just beginning to take advantage of GSA’s USAi platform, which launched last August and serves as a testing ground for agencies to experiment with AI tools. A GSA official said earlier this month that “over 25 different agencies” were already using USAi, with an additional 16 others expected to begin using the platform before the end of 2026.

“We're looking at various tools about what makes sense,” Sall said, adding that “it’s going to be a menu” when it comes to testing out the various models on the platform.

Beyond experimenting with additional AI use cases, Sall said NRC has also been developing its own services. She cited the agency’s internally-built tool, known as SimplifAI, as something "which we're really proud of,” adding that it was built off Azure OpenAI and “we are finding that we're using that for our regulatory documents.” NRC recently moved to a 2.0 version after the initial model became deprecated.

NRC’s most recent AI use case inventory says the text retrieval and generation tool enhances the agency’s “efficiency and consistency in licensing, oversight, and other regulatory activities.”

Sall said some employees have also been training SimplifAI to help them write speeches.

“We're really proud that tool continues to develop,” she said, adding that “having those tools — a menu of tools — is going to be key, we think, moving forward.”

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FAA awards software and AI contract as part of air traffic control modernization

Edward Graham — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 17:26:47 -0400

The Federal Aviation Administration announced on Monday that it awarded Air Space Intelligence a 12-year, $875 million contract for new software and artificial intelligence capabilities, part of the agency’s ambitious effort to modernize the nation’s outdated air traffic control system.

The software company will provide “two complementary, cutting-edge technologies that will improve how flights are scheduled and managed throughout the National Airspace System,” according to the FAA.

These include Flow Management Data and Services, which the agency said will serve as “the new technological backbone” of a modernized Air Traffic Control System Command Center. ASI is also tasked with delivering a Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories — or SMART — system.

In a fact sheet, the agency said “Using AI, SMART analyzes airline schedules, weather, airport capacity, airspace conditions, and operational constraints to predict traffic flows and identify potential conflicts before they occur.”

The FAA said it is hoping to begin initial deployments of SMART as soon as this fall. ASI said it expects both systems to be rolled out over the next 12 to 24 months.

“Every day, our air traffic professionals knowingly manage thousands of scheduling conflicts across the National Airspace System, which ultimately end up as delays for the traveling public,” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said in a statement. “FMDS with the SMART capabilities will help us address that challenge by improving how we manage airspace before flights depart, reducing congestion, easing controller workload, and directly cutting down delays across the system.”

The contract is a part of the FAA and the Transportation Department’s broader push to upgrade the nation’s air traffic control system.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the launch of the ambitious effort in May 2025, saying at the time that it would entail some brick-and-mortar upgrades but that “everything else that controls the airspace is going to be brand new.” A key part of this effort, he said, will be replacing legacy systems and antiquated technologies with new capabilities, such as a modernized flight management system and updated ground radar systems at U.S. airports.

The initiative’s launch came on the heels of several high-profile air traffic control outages in the last few years, as well as the crash of an Army Black Hawk helicopter and a commercial airliner near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in January 2025 that killed all 67 people on both aircraft.

During an April event held just shy of the modernization effort’s one-year anniversary, Duffy said a few project workstreams were a “little behind,” but added that “for the most part, we’re on track to have this project completed before President [Donald] Trump leaves office.”

The FAA announced in December that it had selected Peraton as the project’s prime integrator to oversee the new Air Traffic Control System contract.

The One Big Beautiful Bill, which Trump signed into law in July 2025, allocated $12.5 billion for the air traffic control modernization effort, although the agency in December called that amount a “down payment” and said at the time that it would need an additional $20 billion for the initiative.

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Jim Flyzik helped transform government IT from back-office function to mission enabler

Nick Wakeman — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 07:00:00 -0400

The federal government went through tremendous changes in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The Clinton Administration’s National Partnership for Reinventing Government to streamline processes and cut bureaucracy was one of them. Then there was the Y2K threat and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

These were large momentous events that became watershed moments and elevated the role of information technology from a back-office function to a mission-enabler.

Jim Flyzik, who died on June 4 at age 72, played a critical role in this transformation as a long-time IT executive at the Treasury Department and one of the government's first chief information officers. He helped stand up the infrastructure for the launch of Homeland Security Department.

Flyzik is being remembered by colleagues and friends for his many accolades and accomplishments and for his character and integrity.

“Jim Flyzik was the rare kind of colleague who quietly made everyone around him better,” said Ira Hobbs, a long-time government executive and former Treasury CIO. “He possessed a beautiful combination of selflessness and dedication.”

Charles Armstrong, another former government CIO, described how Flyzik built his career around hard work, determination, and relationship building.

“During the 1990s, Jim pushed for adoption of the internet in government. He helped leaders from the vice president to the rank-and-file program leader under the value of new technology in terms they could understand,” Armstrong said.

Flyzik’s career also intersected with the passage of the 1996 Clinger-Cohen Act, which created the CIO position across the agencies. That law also led to the formation of the Federal CIO Council and more governmentwide cooperation.

Flyzik was one of the early leaders of the council and was recognized as a proponent of finding common solutions across agencies.

His accolades included being selected for the Federal 100 and Eagle awards given by FCW, now part of NextGov and GovExec.

It is hard to imagine how disconnected government IT was then, but Flyzik was a driving force at the CIO Council that he served as vice chair for.

Flyzik came into his own with the passage of the Clinger-Cohen Act, said Ed Meagher, a former Veterans Affairs Department staffer.

“Many of us post Clinger Cohen CIOs were zealots who wanted to storm the bastions of entrenched resistance to change,” Meagher said. “But Jim was the ultimate pragmatic tactician. He knew how to calm us down and work methodically to get every CIO reporting directly to the secretary of their department.”

Flyzik's ability to speak in a non-threatening way to those entrenched bureaucrats was a key to his success, Meagher said.

“One could count on the monthly council meetings having a packed agenda, be high energy and sprinkled with zingers and humor. And then Jim summing up, "Okay, so this is how things will go down,” said Alan Balutis, a long-time government official and a former senior director and distinguished fellow at Cisco Systems.

“He was a leader in getting the CIO Council up and running, especially making the link between the newly created agency CIOs and the Office of Management and Budget,” said Mark Forman, a former federal CIO. “He was always positive, a person with humor and class.”

Meagher said that it was Flyzik who lured him back into government service to take VA CIO post.

“He was the master of the soft sell,” Meagher said.

While Flyzik was a leader who saw the value of IT and how it can contribute to the mission of government, many of his former colleagues talked about what he meant to them as a person.

“He cared about people both personally and professionally. He taught many of us to think beyond the boundaries that we set for ourselves,” Armstrong said.

Rob Guerra, another former government executive, shared how Flyzik liked to mentor young people. After Flyzik retired from government, he joined a consulting firm that Guerra formed with Phil Kiviat.

“Jim was a very talented and impactful guy,” Guerra said.

“One of our brightest stars went out,” said Bob Woods, a former General Services Administration official. “He was open-minded and a collaborative kind of guy. He knew that you got a better product when you had more people involved.”

After his retirement, Flyzik also joined Tom Trezza as part of the Federal Executive Forum radio program to showcase government leaders who make an impact. Flyzik became the host and moderator.

“I can’t remember a single person who would ever refuse him because of his reputation and the respect for what he accomplished while in government,” Trezza said.

Flyzik’s obituary speaks about his love for his family. His wife Candace and a daughter were by his side when he died June 4 in Myrtle Beach, S.C., with his wife.

A celebration of Flyzik’s life was scheduled for June 19 at the Tower Club in Vienna, Va.

A second celebration of life is set for July 25 in Flyzik’s hometown of Lansdale, Pa., at the Cannoneers Sports Club. That event will run from 3-6 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in his name to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation at pulmonaryfibrosis.org or March of Dimes at marchofdimes.org/dmv.

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HHS plans AI pilot for employees who need more than chatbots

Alexandra Kelley — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 08:00:00 -0400

The Department of Health and Human Services is seeking industry feedback on the formation of a short-term, fixed-price pilot program to inform how the agency can best employ artificial intelligence solutions across the enterprise, focusing on tools that go beyond the basic chat and summarization technologies.

In a Request for Information published on June 8, HHS is focusing on how to implement an AI product that can cater to the department’s “power users,” or individuals that leverage advanced functions in technologies and systems. The goal is for HHS to empower these users to explore advanced AI models and capabilities to see how they can acclimate to and accelerate HHS workflows.

“HHS needs to observe how power users utilize advanced AI capabilities, how those capabilities map to HHS mission workflows, what guardrails and administrative controls are necessary, what can be enabled immediately, what requires configuration or integration, and what requires additional security, privacy, records, accessibility, or authorization work before enterprise scaling,” the draft RFI reads.

HHS specifies the need for a fixed-price contract that offers “inclusive, all-you-can-eat-style access bundles” to try a variety of solutions for power users. This approach is intended to help the agency determine baseline power-user AI usage, along with an operational methodology that works for the agency as a whole.

The pilot will also examine what advanced AI models and their features will require customization to work effectively with agency workloads; how to establish security and authorization logic; and ways to contribute to a shared operational AI use framework for HHS. Specific capabilities HHS wants its power users to access and investigate include premium reasoning, long context, agentic-capable models and more.

“The pilot is intended to generate operational evidence that cannot be obtained from paper market research alone,” the RFI reads. “HHS needs to observe how power users utilize advanced AI capabilities, how those capabilities map to HHS mission workflows, what guardrails and administrative controls are necessary…and what requires additional security, privacy, records, accessibility, or authorization work before enterprise scaling.”

As the pilot begins, the RFI states that the chosen model may be accessed by up to 1,000 authorized, portable HHS power users, but includes an option to scale access to up to 10,000 power users within the agency, depending on what the developer offers.

HHS’s endeavors follow the workforce reductions at the agency that were part of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency efforts to reduce bureaucratic bloat and backlog. In May, the agency experienced more layoffs and also began undergoing job reclassifications that would shift which positions have civil service job protections and which can be more easily terminated.

In light of the staff reductions, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in April that the agency intends to hire 12,000 employees in an effort to “rightsize” the agency.

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AI skills are becoming part of the hiring baseline at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Thomas Novelly — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 07:00:00 -0400

As the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency rebuilds its workforce after last year’s DOGE cuts, job applicants need to bring some AI proficiency, the agency’s associate operations director said Tuesday.

“We're hiring now, and every single new person we hire has to prove some capability of AI and data management,” Navy Rear Adm. Michael Baker said at the Defense One Tech Summit. “Every single new hire has to go through AI and data management training.”

It’s not just the new employees, Baker said: “Every single old hire has to go through AI training and data management so that all of us are operating inside of the reality of what this ecosystem is.”

NGA leaders have grand visions for weaving AI into the agency’s operations. For example, officials are exploring its use for human resources tasks, a move Baker said would take “the burden off of the operator.” (Recently, a deputy director of human development at NGA expressed fears that employees would get so dependent on AI that their skills would atrophy.)

Baker said he uses an AI agent at work.

“And a real ideal is, in the future, that agent is also helping to train me.” Baker said. “We're working together as we go back and forth to think through a problem. That's been the power of, really, this agentic AI, generative capabilities that you can have as you're thinking through things … In the past, maybe you are using the machine to help you understand history. We're moving to the place where I'm using the machine to help me try to predict and understand the future.”

The Navy admiral said AI agents might eventually be used for high-level strategic planning, and said it could be used to navigate the “insatiable requirements that the intelligence community” demands when calculating risk.

Baker said it’s a balancing act when adopting that technology, and said he wants the agency to rapidly innovate but also wants to be mindful of security and avoid “chaos.”

“That is the complex pace that we're in,” Baker said. “That's a really hard challenge for leaders, but it's a pretty fun space to be in.”

NGA currently has about 14,500 civilian, military and contract employees, according to its website. It’s not clear how many people left in the Trump administration’s rush to reduce intelligence-community headcount by thousands of workers last year. Employment figures for the community’s largest agencies are classified, Reuters has reported.

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AI is taking parts of background checks from 'months to hours,' clearance agency says

David DiMolfetta — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 08:00:00 -0400

The nation’s largest counterintelligence unit aims to use artificial intelligence tools to speed security clearance reviews for people and companies seeking to do sensitive work on behalf of the government.

The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency can use AI to reduce parts of the vetting process from “months to hours,” said Mark Nehmer, an agency analytics and innovation chief who spoke Tuesday on a panel at the Defense One Tech Summit in Virginia.

DCSA is the Defense Department’s main agency for conducting background investigations and vetting personnel for access to classified information, and serves as a key determinant for whether companies are eligible to work with military and intelligence agencies.

A recent congressionally approved acquisition overhaul, which encourages defense officials to prioritize goods and services from the commercial market, means that the counterintelligence agency will have to process some 43,000 clearance requests per year, he estimated.

“We’re trying to use AI exquisitely, use AI to make these little tiny decisions, and then bring that up to a human, so they can actually have a package of evidence to say, ‘I asked, and this is exactly the conclusion I will come to as a senior analyst that has to make those decisions day-in and day-out,’” Nehmer said.

He did not specify what AI systems would be used for the efforts.

The remarks are significant because they highlight how the government is applying AI to a key national security function that determines who has access to clearances, and they add another case to a long list of examples showing how the federal enterprise is using AI to speed operations.

DCSA has led the government’s background check process since 2019, when the Office of Personnel Management handed off its National Background Investigations Bureau to the Pentagon.

DCSA’s use of AI builds on a years-long effort to automate and overhaul the federal background-check system. The agency has enrolled millions of clearance holders in continuous vetting under an initiative known as Trusted Workforce 2.0, though the broader modernization effort has faced repeated delays, cost overruns and congressional scrutiny.

Over the weekend, the U.S. invoked an export control mechanism to essentially ban two major Anthropic frontier models, escalating debates over how Washington could exert itself over AI usage in the government. The decision has been widely criticized.

GovExec Editor-in-Chief Frank Konkel contributed to this report.

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Sen. Warner probes whether cyber agency workforce cuts weakened state support

David DiMolfetta — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 12:02:13 -0400

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., is pressing the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency for records on staffing levels and vacancies across its regional offices, warning that workforce cuts over the last year may have weakened the agency’s ability to support state and local governments facing cyber threats.

In a Tuesday letter to acting CISA Director Nick Andersen that was first shared with Nextgov/FCW, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee asked the agency to provide both headquarters and regional organizational charts from January 2025, October 2025 and the present day, along with details on vacancies and explanations as to why employees left their posts.

The letter also asks CISA for data going back to January 2023 on services provided to state and local governments, including how many requests the agency received and fulfilled, as well as how quickly it responded.

The request comes after Warner introduced the Guaranteeing Universal Access to Cybersecurity Act — legislation first reported by Nextgov/FCW — that would restore funding for the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, or MS-ISAC, a key cyber intelligence-sharing hub used by many state and local governments.

“The Trump administration’s dramatic reduction of Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) staff, defunding of the MS-ISAC, and cutting over $700 million in CISA’s proposed fiscal year 2027 budget demonstrates a dangerous underestimation of the threats facing our nation from adversaries and criminals who seek to destabilize our national security, economy, public health, and safety,” the senator wrote.

CISA is working to hire around 330 employees in the coming months, Andersen said last week. The agency has lost a significant share of its workforce over the past year after the Trump administration moved to reduce and restructure the cyber shop through a mix of layoffs, early retirement offers, transfers and program cuts. Some 180 job offers are expected by the end of June.

Warner said efforts to boost staffing are “welcome” but “they appear insufficient given the scale of threats facing our nation’s cybersecurity and critical infrastructure, particularly at the state level.”

His letter asks CISA to respond by June 26. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The letter flags concerns from governors, mayors, state chief information officers and others about CISA’s ability to provide services. State and local officials, cybersecurity groups and former officials have repeatedly warned that reductions in federal support leave smaller governments more vulnerable to cyberattacks, especially with midterm elections coming in November.

CISA has encouraged state and local governments to seek help from its regional teams, though half of the agency’s 10 regional directors are serving in an acting capacity, the letter adds. One CISA regional website also appears to misspell the name of its acting director, Warner wrote, referring to the spelling of Region 2 Director Mohamed Telab, whose first name is written as “Mohammed.”

Cybersecurity has long drawn bipartisan support in Washington, but CISA has become a recurring target of GOP scrutiny over its past work countering election-related disinformation. Since last year, Trump administration officials have sought to “refocus” the agency’s mission, arguing that CISA had strayed too far from its core tasks.

Last week, the House Appropriations Committee approved some $2.35 billion for CISA in the coming 2027 fiscal year — around $253 million below its fiscal 2026 level and about $135 million below the Trump administration’s initial FY27 budget request.

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White House cyber office hire triggers leadership changes inside infrastructure security agency

David DiMolfetta — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 07:00:00 -0400

Steve Casapulla, an infrastructure security executive in the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, is being detailed as the assistant national cyber director for policy in the White House’s cyber office, prompting a slew of leadership shifts inside CISA, sources tell Nextgov/FCW.

With Casapulla pivoting to the Office of the National Cyber Director, Scott Breor — an associate director for the agency’s security programs — will take up his post leading the Infrastructure Security Division, according to one current U.S. official, one former U.S. official and a third person familiar with the matter.

Sean Haglund, an associate director in CISA’s Office of Bombing Prevention, will serve as ISD’s acting deputy director, added the sources, who requested anonymity to communicate their knowledge of the new positions.

Chip Abernathy, who has served in the agency’s Office of the Chief of Staff, is moving to the National Risk Management Center to serve as an acting assistant director, while leadership for CISA’s Strategy, Policy and Plans office will be announced in the coming days, the people familiar also said.

Casapulla’s pivot comes shortly after Thomas Lind left his post heading policy at ONCD. The move was first reported by Politico. Alexandra Seymour also recently left her role as a deputy policy official in ONCD, Nextgov/FCW first reported.

A CISA spokesperson said the agency "does not comment on ongoing personnel matters.” ONCD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Significant morale decline at ONCD — attributed in part to misgivings from government and industry over the office’s handling of cyber-AI issues under director Sean Cairncross — has plagued the White House office, with some staff weighing departures, multiple people have described to Nextgov/FCW in recent weeks.

CISA, meanwhile, is working to hire a few hundred staff in the coming months, acting Director Nick Andersen said this week. CISA has lost a significant share of its workforce over the past year as the Trump administration has moved to reduce the size of and restructure the agency through a mix of layoffs, buyouts, early retirements and program cuts.

Andersen told a largely private sector audience on Tuesday that CISA is poised for renewed growth and “significant investments,” citing Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s recent testimony that the agency needs to hire about 600 more employees. CISA has already begun work on an initial plan to fill 329 “mission-critical” roles, with about 180 tentative job offers expected by the end of June, he said.

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Surveillance authority nears historic lapse as House deadlock meets intelligence leadership fight

David DiMolfetta — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 11:49:58 -0400

The House failed to approve an extension of a powerful foreign spying authority on Thursday, putting it on course to statutorily lapse for the first time in its history, even as President Donald Trump has named his choice for a permanent spy chief in an apparent bid to defuse a fight over the intelligence community’s leadership.

Hours after the 218-198 vote on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — which was fraught with bipartisan objections to Bill Pulte’s appointment to serve as acting director of national intelligence — President Donald Trump said he would name Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to serve in the role permanently.

Section 702 lets agencies like the NSA and FBI collect communications of foreigners abroad without a warrant, but the calls, texts and phone calls of Americans communicating with foreign targets can also be gathered, a caveat that has long raised constitutional concerns with privacy advocates.

“Few people anywhere in the Legal Community are respected at the level of Jay,” Trump said in a Truth Social post Thursday. “I encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible.”

An impasse between the White House and Democrats has persisted, with Democrats warning that Pulte’s role in mortgage fraud reviews last year could foreshadow an abuse of intelligence tools to target the president’s political opponents. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump praised Clayton, and said Pulte would only be in his post “for a short while.”

It’s unclear how the appointment of Clayton, who appears to not have prior national intelligence experience, would affect the outcome of a 702 extension. After Thursday, the House is scheduled to recess until June 23, making it likely that the spying power would statutorily lapse for the first time in its existence for at least a week.

In a statement, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that he has “known and respected Jay Clayton for many years” and believes “he is a capable public servant.”

But he said the timing of the announcement is suspicious, noting that “the president could have put forward a qualified nominee from the beginning. Instead, he waited until the House of Representatives went out of town, choosing a path that raises the risk of an entirely avoidable lapse in a critical national security tool.”

Warner added that there needs to be a guarantee that Pulte will not serve as acting DNI in order for the Senate to take up a FISA extension.

“Either Director [Tulsi] Gabbard must remain in place or the administration must designate the Senate-confirmed Principal Deputy DNI as the acting head through any transition,” he said, referring to Aaron Lukaas, a number two official in that office.

“I have known Jay Clayton for decades and worked with him during his time as Chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission,” Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.

“During that time, he had the independence of mind and respect for the law that are necessary for any Director of National Intelligence,” added Himes. “I am hopeful that he will maintain that independence and provide apolitical high-quality intelligence to policymakers. The Senate should evaluate and confirm his nomination quickly. It is critical that we have a permanent DNI in place and move past the Bill Pulte disaster.”

Section 702 of FISA, enacted in 2008, codified parts of the once-secret Stellarwind surveillance program created under the Bush administration after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. In 2013, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden disclosed documents detailing how the authority was used, fueling a global debate over privacy and mass surveillance. The program is frequently used to track myriad national security threats.

In March, the Trump administration notified Congress that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court renewed certifications for the surveillance program, letting it operate for another year even amid an expiration. The certifications can cover broad categories of national security risks, such as nuclear weapons and cyber threats.

But the split between the court’s recertification process and Capitol Hill’s role in extending the authority itself can create uncertainty for providers — such as AT&T and Microsoft — who are required to comply.

A congressional aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity to communicate private discussions, said staff on the House intelligence committee are assessing how the spying authority can still be used in the event of a lapse. One concern, said the aide, is that data collected under the 702 authority could become increasingly out-of-date, and, therefore, be less effective.

Civil liberties advocates contend that Section 702 collection can continue even after a statutory lapse because of the way annual certifications are approved, and that other authorities remain available to support national security operations.

A former intelligence official told Nextgov/FCW that, while collection activities would immediately, lawfully continue, firms may enter an “odd legal space” where providers mandated to comply with the law could argue that they don’t need to supply information. If access under 702 is curtailed, the intelligence community would likely explore ways to lean on other lawful collection authorities, the former official added.

Glenn Gerstell, former general counsel at the NSA, echoed these points.

“Companies may say they are not 100% certain the authority still applies,” he said in an interview.

Two areas — terror attacks and cyberattacks — might present a higher risk with the authority having lapsed, Gerstell added, because they are fast-moving developments that often rely on single tips that intelligence analysts must run down.

“702 is a great way to find and pursue that tip. It’s a great tool for quickly getting an answer,” he said. “If the FBI hears a ransomware attack has been made, and they believe it to be foreign-generated, they’re going to want to move with lightning speed to figure out where it’s coming from.”

“It feels like we’re playing Russian roulette with national security,” he later added.

The NSA, CIA, FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence — which all have authority to access Section 702 data — did not return requests for comment.

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DOJ shutters alleged China-linked operation targeting current and former feds

David DiMolfetta — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 08:00:00 -0400

The FBI and Justice Department seized 13 websites allegedly used by Chinese intelligence operatives to target current and former U.S. officials and military personnel with access to classified government information.

In a press release, the DOJ said the domains were designed to look like legitimate consulting firms and were used to advertise vague, well-paid consulting roles aimed at security clearance holders. The campaign, which allegedly began in November 2023, sought to entice Americans into producing research reports or sharing insider information on topics of interest to the Chinese government, according to court documents.

The seized domains included sites associated with firm names like Centrik Global Consulting, Rightinfo Consulting, Finnacle-Vesper Consulting, CYDF Consulting, Pulse Wave Global, Catalyst Global Solutions, Horizzen, GeoIndopacific, SafeSec Group and others.

The campaign relied on familiar job-market platforms and freelance sites to advertise positions such as “Senior Analyst” and “International Affairs Consultant.”

The Justice Department said the operators used aliases, fake personas, stolen identities and artificial intelligence-generated photographs to make the companies appear credible. The alleged scheme also involved encrypted messaging apps, including Telegram, overseas payments, cryptocurrency and online payment accounts registered under false names, according to an affidavit filed in support of the seizure warrants.

The takedowns mark the latest U.S. government effort to disrupt foreign intelligence schemes that blend online recruiting and financial incentives to reach Americans with access to sensitive national security information.

Waves of federal layoffs over the past year have pushed thousands of government employees and contractors into an uncertain job market. That disruption has created renewed collection opportunities for foreign intelligence services.

Nextgov/FCW reported in January that a suspected Chinese intelligence outfit contacted a former senior State Department official late last year and offered payment for an assessment of U.S. policy priorities in Venezuela. The person who contacted the former official claimed to be affiliated with a sham consulting firm that had previously surfaced in research first reported by Nextgov/FCW last September, that assessed the firm was part of a broader network of fake companies tied to China.

The U.S. has sought to further publicize targeting efforts. In a rare public disclosure, Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence Lt. Gen. Anthony R. Hale issued a memo in November warning that foreign adversaries are targeting soldiers, civilians and their families through fake companies and phony recruiters. The advisory was sent to more than a million personnel across the Army, and later to members of the media, marking an unusually direct acknowledgment of the threat.

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Return-to-office push put GSA’s network infrastructure to the test

Edward Graham — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 07:00:00 -0400

Telecommunications services provider MetTel announced on Wednesday that it successfully completed network upgrades to 11 General Services Administration offices across the U.S. to help meet the needs of the Trump administration’s return-to-work mandate.

President Donald Trump signed a January 2025 executive order requiring that federal agencies “take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements,” the vast majority of which evolved out of the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020. But an influx of employees back into offices also means that existing bandwidth and broadband services often need to be modernized.

MetTel said it outfitted the GSA offices “with Software-Defined Wide Area Network technology, 22 new high-capacity network circuits and Voice over IP services,” with the circuits being “tailored to the unique needs of each site.”

The work was conducted through GSA’s $50 billion governmentwide Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract to modernize its existing operations. MetTel received a $230 million task order under EIS in 2020 for network and voice infrastructure services.

A GSA spokesperson said in a statement to Nextgov/FCW that, “as the government’s needs continue to evolve, EIS contractors remain a dedicated partner, ready to respond to new requirements and support digital transformation efforts.”

MetTel has already taken steps to help modernize GSA’s operations, including announcing in November 2025 that it deployed “a nationwide network and voice infrastructure modernization” across the agency under the EIS contract.

In an interview with Nextgov/FCW, Don Parente — MetTel’s vice president of public sector — said that, “because we moved them to a software-defined architecture, it made it easier for us to very quickly spin up the dial and get additional bandwidth flowing for them.”

Parente said GSA’s previous SD-WAN adoption and embrace of faster broadband internet services, including Starlink, enabled it “to really pivot quickly when they needed to bring all these people back in the new office.”

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OPM's long-planned HR overhaul moves ahead with $396M award to Oracle

Nick Wakeman — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 16:01:26 -0400

The Office of Personnel Management is sticking with the incumbent as the agency moves forward with a plan to modernize human resource systems across the government.

OPM has picked Oracle for the 10-year, $395.8 million Federal HR 2.0 contract that will cover more than two million federal employees. Oracle faced challengers such as Workday, IBM, SAP and Economic Systems Inc.

IBM and Economic Systems filed protests earlier this year objecting to terms in the solicitation. IBM withdrew its protest and GAO denied Economic Systems’ protest on June 1. Once the protests were resolved, OPM was clear to make its award.

Much of what OPM uses to manage HR functions is run on PeopleSoft, which Oracle acquired in 2005. Oracle recently extended its support for PeopleSoft through 2037, which includes updates and fixes.

The contract is structured as a firm-fixed-price award with a 10-year ordering period. Requirements include core HR and personnel action processing, payroll and benefits integration, audit-ready reporting, and time and attendance tracking.

The system also has to comply with security standards such as FISMA and FedRAMP, as well as be interoperable with existing federal IT systems.

OPM wants the core implementation to be completed by the fall. Other phases will follow for agency transitions, and then licensing and sustainment.

More than 100 HR systems currently operate across the federal government. Federal HR 2.0 is OPM’s attempt to wrangle all that into a single, integrated platform.

The goal of the program is to centralize HR functions across government agencies. OPM wants a platform that can be the infrastructure for a data-driven federal HR ecosystem, according to solicitation documents.

Some of the functions OPM wants include position management, personnel action, records processing, workforce analytics, and employee and manager self-service capabilities.

Given that the award was announced Wednesday, the clock is ticking for competitors to file protests. Companies generally have 10 days to file after a debriefing.

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Building cyber-resilient payroll systems in government

Linda Jones — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 06:00:00 -0400

Payroll systems don’t usually make headlines, but in 2024, the State Department warned employees about a payroll fraud scheme where cybercriminals posed as staff to reroute direct deposits.

It started with spoofed emails that looked like they came from real employees and retirees, and some included fake 1099 forms loaded with malware. The goal was simple: Get in, change payment instructions, and disappear before anyone noticed.

It’s a sharp reminder that payroll is a high-value target. Essential, but vulnerable.

What the Threat Landscape Looks Like Now

Cybercriminals are increasingly targeting payroll and HR platforms because they know exactly what’s inside: credentials, Social Security numbers and bank details — prime ingredients for identity theft. Phishing attacks are the most common, but business email compromise is also rising. In these cases, attackers impersonate vendors or internal departments to reroute funds or gain access to sensitive files.

And while external threats get the most attention, internal risks shouldn’t be overlooked. Overly broad access or outdated permissions can lead to accidental exposure or worse. Then there are third-party tools that connect to payroll systems, like file transfer software or benefits integrations. These add convenience but also risk.

Take the 2023 MOVEit breach, for example. A vulnerability in a file transfer tool allowed attackers to steal sensitive data from government contractors, including personal information tied to Medicare. The breach showed just how damaging a weak link in the software supply chain can be.

Core Cybersecurity Measures Every Payroll System Needs

There’s no single fix for these risks, but there are clear priorities. Multi-factor authentication should be standard for everyone with access to payroll platforms, especially admin users. Role-based access controls help limit exposure and keep users from seeing more than they need to.

Encryption is critical, with masking and tokenization adding protection. Agencies should scan for vulnerabilities, log activity, and flag unusual access.

The good news is that there are solid frameworks out there. The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework and the CIS Controls give agencies clear starting points. The latest NIST update even highlights the need to embed cybersecurity into HR practices like employee onboarding, offboarding, and system deprovisioning. That’s especially important when payroll and HR platforms overlap, as they often do.

Security vs. Compliance: Where Agencies Get Stuck

Just because a system checks the compliance boxes doesn’t mean it’s secure. Some legacy platforms technically meet Federal Information Security Modernization Act or Fair Labor Standards Act standards, but still rely on outdated security protocols or lack support for basic protections like MFA.

Another common issue is access sprawl: giving employees more permissions than they need “just in case.” It may help in the short term but makes lateral attacks easier. The best approach is one where IT, HR and compliance teams work together — not separately — to close these gaps.

Why it’s Hard to Fix but Worth it

Upgrading payroll is tough. Legacy systems, limited budgets and staffing gaps all slow progress. But the risk of doing nothing keeps growing. As more agencies move to cloud-based systems, there’s a real opportunity to rethink not just how payroll works but how it’s secured. Modern platforms offer stronger baselines and make it easier to adopt tools like MFA, encryption, and behavioral monitoring.

At its core, payroll is personal. It touches every employee in the agency. When it breaks down, people feel it fast.

That’s why cybersecurity shouldn’t stop at the perimeter or the server room. It needs to extend into the systems that keep the government workforce running. Treat payroll like the critical system it is, and you’ll be protecting more than just data. You’ll be protecting trust.

Linda Jones, SHRM-CP, is the Vice President of Administration and a Board Member at Software Solutions Inc., where she has provided leadership for nearly 20 years. In her role, Linda oversees human resources, facilities management, vendor negotiations, and special projects.

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Trump memo pushes national security agencies to move faster on AI

David DiMolfetta — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 14:16:17 -0400

President Donald Trump on Friday signed a national security memo aimed at speeding up government use of advanced artificial intelligence across the military and intelligence community, while also trying to harden those systems against foreign theft and manipulation.

The National Security Presidential Memorandum reflects a growing view inside the White House that U.S. security agencies are moving too slowly to adopt frontier AI tools, even as the evolving technology improves rapidly and rivals like China seek ways to craft their own versions.

It calls for agencies like the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Office of the National Cyber Director to build “deep, proactive” relationships with AI companies so that cutting-edge models can be made available to national security personnel faster.

It also instructs officials to identify areas where AI could improve government operations, including intelligence analysis and cyber threat detection. At the same time, the memo says the tools cannot be used for unlawful surveillance of Americans, language that speaks to long-running civil liberties concerns over how agencies collect, analyze and process data.

The memo also focuses heavily on protecting U.S.-developed AI models from foreign adversaries. It directs senior officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and NSA Director Gen. Joshua Rudd, to work with private-sector companies on security protocols meant to prevent advanced models from being stolen, copied or compromised.

One area of concern is model distillation, a technique in which an AI system repeatedly queries another AI system in an attempt to mimic its performance and build out a separate model. The White House in April accused China of carrying out “industrial-scale” distillation attacks on U.S. AI systems.

The memo also directs agencies to work with industry to secure the infrastructure that supports frontier AI, including the data centers that store the enormous amounts of computing power needed to run advanced models. Data centers have recently become more attractive targets during periods of geopolitical tension.

Trump recently signed an AI security executive order that leans heavily on voluntary cooperation with industry. That order encourages developers to submit powerful new models to a 30-day government review before public release.

More AI-related guidance is expected soon. Nick Andersen, CISA’s acting director, said last week that the cyber agency is preparing a binding operational directive focused on AI-enabled cyber threats.

The administration’s approach to AI has shifted in recent months as officials confront a new class of cyber-focused models, including Anthropic’s Mythos, that can rapidly identify vulnerabilities across computer networks. The model has become a major driver of government discussions over how advanced AI systems could reshape both defensive and offensive cyber operations.

Last week, Anthropic said it is expanding Project Glasswing — its controlled-access program for giving trusted organizations early access to Mythos — to about 150 additional entities. The new group spans more than 15 countries and includes organizations in water, healthcare, communications and other critical infrastructure sectors.

OpenAI’s recent release of GPT-5.5-Cyber, which also demonstrated sophisticated cyber capabilities, has further heightened concerns in Washington over how quickly these systems are advancing and how they could reshape both cyber defensive and offensive operations.

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