We’ll mark up the status of the MGT Act and which technologies the government should tackle next, cyber components of the 2018 homeland security appropriations bill, how feds can hire short-term tech talent, and the next CIO to announce his retirement. FedScoop reports that after two years of reaching across the aisle and navigating the channels of Congress, representative Will Hurd is on the verge of seeing his Modernizing Government Technology Act become a law. A move that could transform government IT as we know it. The House and Senate passed the MGT Act, and now it’s heading to the Oval Office for president Trump’s John Hancock!

If Trump signs the bill, what technology issues will federal policymakers tackle next?

 

In an interview with FedScoop, congressman Hurd hinted at artificial intelligence and quantum computing being next on the agenda. For a deeper dive and what’s to come, check out Carten Cordell’s article linked below. So speaking of bills, Nextgov reports that the Fiscal. 2018 homeland security appropriations bill allocates one point eight billion dollars towards DHS’s cyber operation wing. The funding will be used to maintain and upgrade the cyber security at federal computer networks, protect critical infrastructure, and improve Incident Response and the private sector. In other news, the topic that keeps on giving technology news…

modernization! The Office of Personnel Management issued a memo to the heads of the federal agencies authorizing them to hire technical staff for up to one year to work on cloud migration and IT modernization initiatives. According to Federal Times, the memo states these positions are needed to directly carry out provisions of the Smarter IT Delivery initiative that was started under President Obama back in 2015. In case you missed it, State Department CIO Francis Wiggins announced that he’ll be retiring on December 8th. We at MetroStar thank Mr. Wiggins for his service and wish him a happy retirement.