Last Wednesday, the House Passed the Telework Improvements Act of 2010, which makes all federal employees eligible for telework, unless their manager deems them ineligible. Employees eligible for telework will be able to work remotely for 20% of their hours, or one day per week. However, OPM’s recently released Federal Viewpoint Survey shows that government [...]
Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced its final version of “meaningful use” requirements for electronic health records (EHRs). The new regulations responded to congressional criticism of draft regulations and abandoned an “all-or-nothing approach” in favor of greater flexibility for care providers. The final regulations were written at the end of a [...]
This week, the Obama administration announced plans to cut 30 IT programs with combined annual development costs of about $3 billion, and total life cycle costs estimated at about $20 billion. Trey Hodgkins, TechAmerica’s VP of National Security and Procurement Policy, said the decision brings to a “screeching halt some very significant programs,” and added [...]
According to a report by Visiongain, more than $71 billion will be spent on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) between 2010 and 2020, based not only on increasing demand in the U.S. market, currently the lion’s share of worldwide UAV shares, but also on growing demand from Western Europe, Israel, India, China and Japan. “Armed forces [...]
Northrop Grumman’s new football-field-sized persistent Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance UAV, an “unblinking eye” over a tactical theater, will take to skies over Afghanistan in just eighteen months, according to company officials. The U.S. Army has ordered three of the Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicles (LEMVs), which will be capable of sustaining altitudes of 20,000 feet for [...]
While Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have proven their effectiveness in military theaters around the world, especially Iraq and Afghanistan, their use in the United States is currently limited to restricted airspace and certain sections of the Mexican and Canadian borders. The use of UAVs in American airspace is a contentious issue for amateur pilots and [...]
Lockheed Martin announced plans last week to sell most of its Enterprise Integration Group (EIG) and Pacific Architects and Engineers, Inc. (PAE) in order to stay ahead of government concerns about organizational conflicts of interest (OCI). “Through EIG, Lockheed Martin provides both systems and services to a broad range of government customers, and this has led [...]
With federal deficits rapidly spiraling out of control, it’s no surprise that policy makers in Washington are floating a range of ideas to rein in budgets and bring more accountability. To date, DoD’s policy has centered around the creation of public-private partnerships (PPPs) and a performance-based approach to logistics (PBL). These arrangements focus on bringing [...]
The Department of Homeland Security’s Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading Edge Solutions II (EAGLE II) will be substantially different from EAGLE when its final iteration is released at the end of the fiscal year. DHS’ department-wide platform for acquiring IT services currently has five functional categories (FCs): Engineering Design, Development, Implementation and Integration; Operations and [...]
Last week, DHS announced $790 million in critical infrastructure preparedness grants. While some of the programs announced by Secretary Napolitano are relatively small in scope (i.e. the Intercity Bus Security Grant Program (IBSGP), an $11.5 million program “to support security plans, facility security upgrades and vehicle and driver protection”), the two largest grants, the Transit Security Grant [...]
