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The CODY bot, a tool used to streamline procurement processes at the General Services Administration, is now ready for use across the federal landscape after three years of buildout. CODY aggregates prerequisite data into a checklist, according to GSA officials familiar with the tool, enabling staffers to see if a vendor has met all representation requirements — ensuring there is no active federal debt against a vendor, and no exclusionary or responsibility cautions to trigger notifications. The agency primarily tracks how many hours the bot saves in a year rather than the costs saved, according to one of the officials. GSA Administrator Stephen Ehikian posted on X that the bot's completion resulted in the cancellation of a $423,000 contract. “President Trump's GSA is at the forefront of leveraging technology for government to produce tools that boost productivity and our employee's potential,” Ehikian said in a statement to FedScoop. A pair of House Democrats are sounding the alarm about the U.S. Secret Service's use of counter-drone technology, which recently triggered air traffic control system alerts at the Washington National Airport. Democratic Reps. Rick Larsen of Washington and Bennie Thompson of Mississippi are demanding more information about the use of the technology and raising concerns about whether the Department of Homeland Security component is following proper procedures. In a Monday letter sent to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the lawmakers pointed to alerts produced by the Traffic Collision Avoidance System last month. These alerts made erroneous recommendations to several commercial and Coast Guard aircraft, Larsen and Thompson say. And according to analysis conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration, the alerts were produced by Secret Service anti-drone technology at a nearby Defense Department location. The confusion comes after the deadly crash between a commercial airline and an Army helicopter at DCA airport earlier this year, which resulted in dozens of deaths. While DHS has launched an investigation, the Democratic congressmen say the counter-drone technology deployed by the DOD was operating outside existing notifications — and that the Secret Service did not share required notifications with the FAA. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Customs and Border Protection's Office of Information Technology says it's reviewing the loss of three physical servers, a public records request shows. According to a document produced by CBP's Cybersecurity Directorate, about 200 government devices have been stolen or gone missing in recent years. Of these devices, 140 were cell phones, and just under 40 were laptops. No items were reported to be lost abroad, according to the document. That federal employees would have lost phones and tablets isn't surprising. FedScoop has reported on lost electronics at the U.S. Agency for International Development and NASA, and agencies often review inventories of employee devices. Still, the loss of government-furnished equipment can raise concerns about the security of sensitive data. Some federal employees have even been caught stealing government IT equipment in order to sell it. The loss of three servers is somewhat unusual. The agency did not answer a series of questions about the lost servers, including what data they might have held or whether the losses were ever reported to law enforcement. In response to FedScoop questions, an agency spokesperson said, “CBP is currently reviewing this issue.” The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency must brief Congress on proposed deep cuts to agency personnel, a top Democrat said in a letter to its acting director. California Rep. Eric Swalwell, ranking member of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection, wrote in the letter to acting Director Bridget Bean on Thursday that CISA is obligated to notify Congress of its plans. CISA reportedly plans to cut agency staff by nearly 40%, or 1,300 people. Swallwell wrote in his letter that “upending an agency that plays such an important role in defending the homeland while keeping Congress in the dark is wholly unacceptable,” adding that CISA hasn't provided the subcommittee any justification for the cuts or explained how it will execute its congressionally mandated mission with a fraction of the workforce and resources. CISA had already cut 130 probationary staffers, a move blocked in court before being overturned in an appeal. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth signed a memo Thursday ordering the termination of several IT services contracts and directing the Pentagon's chief information officer to draw up plans for in-sourcing, among other measures. The aim is to “cut wasteful spending” and “support the continued rationalization” of the Defense Department's IT enterprise, Hegseth wrote. The move comes amid a broader push by the Trump administration to implement Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiatives across federal agencies. Hegseth's new memo to senior Pentagon leadership ordered the termination of contracts affecting a variety of DOD components, including a Defense Health Agency contract for consulting services; an Air Force contract to re-sell third party enterprise cloud IT services; a Navy contract for business process consulting services; and a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract for IT helpdesk services. In a video released on social media touting these DOGE-related efforts, Hegseth estimated that those contract terminations would save the Pentagon approximately $1.8 billion, $1.4 billion, $500 million and $500 million, respectively. Another round of General Services Administration workforce cuts is hitting Technology Transformation Services, specifically within its Integrated Award Environment (IAE), Solutions, and Office of Regulatory and Oversight Systems (OROS) programs, sources confirmed to FedScoop. Under TTS, the Solutions platforms and services, front office, public experience and accelerators teams were all affected by the reductions, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. However, programs that are safe from the current — and widespread — reductions in force include FedRAMP, Login.gov and Cloud.gov, sources said. Additionally, TTS consulting, fellowships and front office are untouched as well. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Internal Revenue Service's acting commissioner is set to leave the tax agency, according to a source familiar with the situation, a move that comes after the Treasury Department signed an agreement to share taxpayers' information with the Department of Homeland Security. Melanie Krause, who joined the IRS in October 2021 as the agency's chief data and analytics officer, is taking the federal government's deferred resignation offer and was not pushed to resign, according to the source. A Government Accountability Office and Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General alum, Krause was elevated to acting commissioner from chief operating officer in late February, taking over for Doug O'Donnell, who retired after manning the interim post following Danny Werfel's January departure. Krause decided to resign after Treasury officials struck a deal with Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the accessing of taxpayer information. Krause was largely excluded from those conversations, per the Washington Post. A Treasury spokesperson said in a statement to FedScoop that she will continue to serve as acting commissioner “until at least May 15th.” President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that could lead to the cancellation of major defense acquisition programs, boost the procurement of commercial technologies and shake up the workforce. The directive states that “after years of misplaced priorities and poor management, our defense acquisition system does not provide the speed and flexibility our Armed Forces need to have decisive advantages in the future. In order to strengthen our military edge, America must deliver state‐of‐the‐art capabilities at speed and scale through a comprehensive overhaul of this system.” The EO on “Modernizing Defense Acquisition and Spurring Innovation in the Defense Industrial Base,” directs Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Pentagon leadership to complete a comprehensive review of all major defense acquisition programs (MDAPs) within 90 days. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Just days into his latest run as president, Donald Trump fired 17 inspectors general acoss the federal government. The move not only set off alarms in the government oversight and accountability community, but it also set an early precedent for how the Trump administration would deal with any entities he saw as threatening to his agenda as president. Diana Shaw has spent much of her career in the shoes of federal inspectors general, having served as acting IG of the State Department and a variety of roles in DHS's Office of the IG, before retiring from government in 2024. So she knows as good as anyone, through her continued connections and deep experience, how IGs in the Trump administration are navigating the current dynamic, what's at play as they maneuver around the work of the DOGE and how things wil continue to unfold. Now a partner at DC law firm Wiley Rein LLP, Shaw joins the Daily Scoop to discuss all that as well as her thoughts on one of the biggest IG cases: the Pentagon's probe into the secretary of defense's use of commercial messaging applications like Signal to conduct official business. The Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency team is examining the Navy's software enterprise, the service's chief information officer said Tuesday. The review comes as the administration is undertaking a broad look at the Defense Department's and other federal agencies' contracts and workforce in search of what it considers wasteful spending and opportunities for savings. After accessing data at the Department of Homeland Security, including systems operated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency now appears to be behind a new effort to shrink the agency's staff. On Monday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem sent a message to employees encouraging them to leave the agency, according to an email viewed by FedScoop. The message explained details of deferred resignation, voluntary early retirement, and voluntary separation incentive payment programs. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The U.S. Agency for International Development is taking its final steps toward shuttering, sending a memo last Thursday to bureau heads focused on recruiting workers on administrative leave to assist with final steps required to decommission the agency. The memo states that the “default position” is that all staff are reporting to work — except those who have been requested and approved to go on administrative leave — and that USAID employees may be asked to work beyond their typical subject areas and to help with other projects. Those based in a bureau or independent office are supposed to have a space allotment, though managers are instructed to minimize the need for people to be shifted in and out of work. Teams that do not have an onsite presence will need to return to the office for “closeout procedures,” the email adds. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to White House officials Monday expressing serious concerns about the recent installation of Starlink internet service in the executive branch complex. The letter, which was signed by Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Shontel Brown, D-Ohio and shared exclusively with FedScoop, comes amid reports that Starlink — provided by Elon Musk's SpaceX — is now integrated into the White House property's IT systems. The members of Congress are also flagging the use of the internet service at the General Services Administration. A physical Starlink terminal connects to the low-Earth orbit satellite constellation that provides the internet service. But the White House has gone further than simply purchasing that equipment — the service has now been connected and routed into an administration data center. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Members of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency now have access to technical systems maintained by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, according to a recent memorandum viewed by FedScoop. The memo, which was sent from and digitally signed by USCIS Chief Information Officer William McElhaney, states that Kyle Shutt, Edward Coristine, Aram Mogahaddassi and Payton Rehling were granted access to USCIS systems and data repositories, and that a Department of Homeland Security review was required to determine whether that access should continue. Coristine, 19, is one of the more polarizing members of DOGE. He previously provided assistance to a cybercrime ring through a company he operated while he was in high school, according to other news outlets. Coristine worked for a short period at Neuralink, Musk's brain implant company, and was previously stationed by DOGE at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The memo, dated March 28, asks DHS Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar to have his office review and provide direction for the four DOGE men regarding their access to the agency's “data lake” — called USCIS Data Business Intelligence Services — as well as two associated enabling technologies, Databricks and Github. The document says DHS CIO Antoine McCord and Michael Weissman, the agency's chief data officer, asked USCIS to enable Shutt and Coristine's access to the USCIS data lake in mid-March, and Mogahaddassi requested similar access days later. A bipartisan bill to fully establish a National Science Foundation-based resource aimed at providing essential tools for AI research to academics, nonprofits, small businesses and others was reintroduced in the House last week. Under the Creating Resources for Every American To Experiment with Artificial Intelligence (CREATE AI) Act of 2025 (H.R. 2385), a full-scale National AI Research Resource would be codified at NSF. While that resource currently exists in pilot form, legislation authorizing the NAIRR is needed to continue that work. Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., who sponsors the bill, said in a written statement announcing the reintroduction: “By empowering students, universities, startups, and small businesses to participate in the future of AI, we can drive innovation, strengthen our workforce, and ensure that American leadership in this critical field is broad-based and secure.” The NAIRR pilot, as it stands, is a collection of resources from the public and private sectors — such as computing power, storage, AI models, and data — that are made available to those researching AI to make the process of accessing those types of tools easier. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

More details have emerged on the Department of Defense's Deferred Resignation Program. According to a new memo, the DOD will offer the program to eligible DOD civilian employees for a week between April 7 and 14. Voluntary early retirement authority will also be offered. The initiatives, ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, come as the Pentagon is looking to reduce its reduce civilian workforce and implement the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts. Jules Hurst III, acting undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, wrote in an April 1 memo that the DRP provides a “generous opportunity for employees to enter a paid leave status for several months, prior to resigning or retiring,” adding that employees pending approval or approved for the program will not be subject to return to in-person work requirements. A bipartisan bill that would establish a nonprofit foundation aimed at boosting private-sector partnerships at the National Institute of Standards and Technology was reintroduced in the House and the Senate on Tuesday. The Expanding Partnerships for Innovation and Competitiveness (EPIC) Act would create a Foundation for Standards and Metrology at the Department of Commerce, which would be focused on fostering collaborations with academia, industry, and other organizations. That new foundation would ultimately help supplement NIST's funding and — according to a release shared with FedScoop in advance of the Wednesday announcement — make the path to commercializing technologies developed by the agency easier. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Internal Revenue Service on Friday placed around 50 IT executives on administrative leave, according to five sources familiar with the situation, the latest in the Trump administration's gutting of the tax agency during the heart of filing season. The decision to cut the IT executives was made by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, according to one of the sources, and was carried out by acting IRS Commissioner Melanie Krause. Rajiv Uppal, the IRS's chief information officer, and Kaschit Pandya, the agency's chief technology officer, were not among the 50 dismissed staffers, a different source said. The 50 people were at the senior executive service level, two sources said, and most were associate chief information officers. One of the sources, an IT executive who left the IRS earlier this month, said the 50 staffers include experts working on cybersecurity, modernization, applications, development, contracts, networks, mainframe and data center operations, among other IT-related areas. An email sent to one of the affected employees Friday and viewed by FedScoop said they were being put on leave “effective immediately” and they were directed “not to perform any work-related tasks during this period.” They would continue to receive full pay and benefits during their administrative leave, per the email. Jeffrey King is now the acting chief information officer of the Treasury Department, according to an update to the CIO Council webpage. Tony Arcadi, who has served the position since 2021, told FedScoop on Saturday that he took the administration's deferred resignation offer and was placed on administrative leave as of last Monday. Nick Totten is the deputy CIO for the agency. Another source within the agency confirmed King, who was previously deputy CIO, is now acting in the chief IT position. King had been deputy CIO since 2022. He also briefly served as acting CIO of the Internal Revenue Service, where he helped push forward modernization initiatives. The Trump administration has been cycling through CIOs somewhat rapidly. The Energy Department, the Small Business Administration, and the Social Security Administration have all already moved on from their first appointees to the position. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Department of State is continuing to expand its artificial intelligence chatbot known as StateChat, including working toward a mobile version and the ability to query internal messages called cables. That's what John Silson, director of analytics in the State Department's Center for Analytics, recently told FedScoop reporter Madison Alder during an SNG Live event on AI and Automation. During the conversation, they touched on how State is continuing to iterate on StateChat, how the department is working to maxmize adoption, the importance of context in prompting and what comes next. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is reopening the deferred resignation program and also offering early retirement to eligible civilian workers as he seeks to “maximize participation.” Hegseth signed a memo on Friday, “Initiating the Workforce Acceleration and Recapitalization Initiative,” that was directed to senior Pentagon leadership, combatant commands, and defense agency and field activity directors. The move comes as department leaders are looking to shed civilian employees and reinvest the savings elsewhere as part of the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency efforts. Hegseth said DOD is offering the deferred resignation opportunity, as well as Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, to all eligible civilian employees, noting that exemptions wil be rare. He wrote in a March 28 memo: “My intent is to maximize participation so that we can minimize the number of involuntary actions that may be required to achieve the strategic objectives.” Karen Evans, a longtime government IT official who previously held the role that preceded the creation of the federal chief information officer, was nominated last week to serve as undersecretary for management at the Department of Homeland Security. Evans, whose nomination has been referred to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, joined the Trump administration earlier this year as executive assistant director for cybersecurity at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Evans' role at CISA was one of the most prominent cyber jobs in the federal government, leading the agency's “mission to protect and strengthen federal civilian agencies and the nation's critical infrastructure against cyber threats,” per an official description of the position. Before joining CISA, Evans spent the previous three-plus years working as the managing director of the Cyber Readiness Institute, a nonprofit geared toward educating and creating free cyber tools for small- and medium-sized businesses. For much of George W. Bush's administration, Evans served as administrator of the Office of Electronic Government and Information Technology. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Newly installed Federal CIO Greg Barbaccia has called for agency CIOs to inventory licenses with the five software vendors that earn the most from federal contracts by April 2 as part of a larger software accounting initiative. Barbaccia sent an email, obtained by FedScoop, to all federal CIOs on Monday requesting that agencies “complete a software license inventory to account for the full universe of software licenses at your agency.” To start, Barbaccia called for CIOs to identify licenses with the five software vendors who do the most business with the federal government: Microsoft, Adobe, Salesforce, Oracle and ServiceNow, per a 2024 report from the Government Accountability Office. The information technology staff of the now-hobbled U.S. Agency for International Development is down to a skeleton crew capable of providing only limited support, FedScoop has learned. The group is what remains of a once-large team as the Trump administration massively scales down American foreign aid and questions emerge about the future of USAID assets and the security of government data. Only three information technology operations employees, a project manager and a contracting officer are currently working on the agency's IT staff, according to someone within USAID. That's a tiny fraction of the approximately 100 or so staffers devoted to IT before the Trump administration started in January. Jason Gray, the chief information officer who briefly served as acting administrator of the agency, is now assisting the front office with their plans for USAID, the agency source said. He's also helping to manage account activation, another USAID source said. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Department of Homeland Security has selected Antoine McCord as its new chief information officer, a spokesperson with the agency's Management Directorate confirmed Friday. As CIO, McCord will be tasked with overseeing DHS's roughly $11 billion IT budget, the largest of any federal agency in fiscal 2025. A bio for McCord on the DHS website said he “emphasizes mission-driven leadership, focusing on operations to neutralize threats against the Department.” Details about McCord's background are scarce, beyond what's contained in that DHS bio page. According to the agency, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps, specializing in cyber and intelligence operations and “gaining hands-on experience in threat detection and technology integration.” After his time with the Marines, McCord joined the U.S. Intelligence Community, according to DHS, in roles that saw him oversee cyber operations against advanced threats and serve as an adviser on national security issues. McCord will be stepping into a CIO role that was filled during the Biden administration by Eric Hysen, who also led the department's artificial intelligence efforts. Hysen, a Google alum and a founding member of the White House's U.S. Digital Service, oversaw the creation of DHS's AI Corps, the publication of an AI roadmap and the release of commercial generative AI guidance. Firings at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have former workers, lawmakers, and advocates concerned about impact on the agency's efforts to produce climate and weather information critical to public safety. NOAA is one of many federal agencies in the U.S. that has cut probationary workers in recent weeks as part of President Donald Trump's plan to reduce the size of the federal government. While critics of the Trump administration have argued the rapid and widespread staffing reductions could have adverse consequences across the government, the picture they paint with respect to NOAA's terminations is particularly grim. That's because the agency's mission impacts every American, former NOAA workers told FedScoop. The recent cuts to staff put that work at risk, particularly for areas at the agency where staffing levels were already an issue, they said. What's more, there are areas outside of staffing cuts where efficiencies could have been achieved through consolidating work and technology advancements. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

This week, the GovNavigators welcome Nikki Clowers, Managing Director of the Office of Congressional Relations at GAO, to explore the vital role GAO plays in supporting oversight on Capitol Hill. She breaks down the GAO High Risk List—why it matters, how it guides government reform, and what it reveals about agencies in need of transformation. Show NotesGAO: High-Risk ReportTrump's Joint Address to Congress: Key HighlightsEvents on the GovNavigators' RadarMarch 11: The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Hearing: Moving from Recovery to Prevention of Improper Payments and Fraud March 13: FedScoop's Federal Forum March 12: ACT-IAC's Federal Tech Market UpdateMarch 19: ACT-IAC's Emerging Tech Demo Day

Early in the morning on March 1, without notice, the General Services Administration eliminated its 18F program, what was an internal team of tech consultants and engineers that developed open-source tools to improve digital services across the federal government. Just short of its 11th birthday, 18F had grown to be a staple in the federal government's digital services development and acquisition space. Now when you type in "18F.gov" to visit its website, you're met with an error message. The team has been completely wiped from the face of the federal government. GSA hasn't given much reasoning for the termination. Thomas Shedd, head of the agency's Technology Transformation Services organization that housed 18F, said during a town hall last week that the decision was based purely on its reported cashflow struggles and that it hadn't been cost-recoverable. Dan Tangherlini, former GSA administrator when 18F was founded, joins the Daily Scoop to share his thoughts on what 18F meant to good government, the legacy of the organization, and how GSA will continue to serve as the federal government's center of tech excellence without this key team moving forward. Roughly a month after being replaced as acting CIO of the Department of Energy, Principal Deputy CIO Dawn Zimmer is now back serving in the department's top IT role, multiple sources familiar with the change confirmed to FedScoop. Zimmer is filling the CIO position for the second time since Inauguration Day after Ryan Riedel briefly took on the role overseeing the department's $4.3 billion IT portfolio in early February. As FedScoop first reported, Zimmer returned to her primary role as principal deputy CIO at Energy when Riedel, previously a network engineer at Elon Musk-owned SpaceX, was appointed to the CIO role. She took over the acting CIO role after Biden administration Energy CIO Ann Dunkin stepped down at the change of administrations. It's unclear why Riedel departed the role after just over a month. The Energy Department did not return questions about his short tenure. President Donald Trump nominated Sean Plankey to head the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Tuesday, the last major piece to fall into place for cybersecurity leadership in his administration. Plankey served in the first Trump administration, holding a few posts with cyber responsibilities. He was the principal deputy assistant secretary for the Energy Department's Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response in 2019 and 2020. Before that he was director of cyber policy at the National Security Council, starting in 2018. He has most recently been at the global cybersecurity advisory company WTW. Plankey was briefly under consideration in 2020 to lead the agency he's now nominated to be director of after Trump forced Chris Krebs out of the role. He had long been thought to be Trump's pick this time around, too. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

All non-critical and non-statutorily required work will cease at the General Services Administration's Technology Transformation Services as part of a 50% reduction of the office, according to Director Thomas Shedd. In his prepared remarks for a Thursday afternoon town hall, which were obtained by FedScoop, Shedd said that to deliver technology at GSA in a “more focused and streamlined way,” moving forward TTS will support only work that is required by statute and policy, fits into the Trump administration's definition of critical, and is prioritized by the leadership at GSA “in accordance with the priorities of the administration.” Everything else will be eliminated, per Shedd, who said in his remarks that TTS will be smaller in size – at least 50% smaller. Additionally, any contracts that support the work that falls outside of the established bounds “will be terminated” and any job functions that are deemed non-essential will be cut. The prioritized and remaining TTS programs include Login.gov, FedRAMP, Cloud.gov, statutorily required websites, the Integrated Award Environment, the Office of Regulatory Oversight, the Centers of Excellence, the Presidential Innovation Fellowship Program, the U.S. Digital Corps, operations and other “special projects.” Australian-based software company Atlassian has tapped Matthew Graviss to be its first public sector chief technology officer following his recent departure as the State Department's top data and AI official. Although the role starts a new private sector chapter in Graviss's career, being the first person to establish a newly created position is familiar ground. During his time in the federal government, Graviss was the first-ever chief data officer at both the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. In an interview with FedScoop, Graviss said his role at Atlassian is an extension of that experience in that he'll again be codifying the responsibilities of the job, showing value and solving customer problems. Regardless of whether his role is in or out of the government, Graviss said “the delivery of better goods and services to citizens is contingent upon … an ecosystem of government employees, service providers, and solution providers.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Since the Trump administration took office Jan. 20, federal technology has become an essential element in the national news cycle. Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency have burrowed within agencies to gain access to key federal IT systems as part of their work to drive efficiency and cut waste and abuse. And as part of that, the Trump administration has fired huge swaths of the federal workforce. For the FedScoop news team, this has meant some major changes to the way they cover and deliver the news to the federal IT community. On this episode, the team gets together for a conversation about how they're approaching this new normal, the stories they're following, what's ahead and how readers can get in touch to share their stories. The Office of Personnel Management said in a Tuesday revision to existing guidance that it's not instructing other federal agencies to take personnel actions with respect to probationary employees. “Please note that, by this memorandum, OPM is not directing agencies to take any specific performance-based actions regarding probationary employees,” the new language in the revised memo reads. “Agencies have ultimate decisionmaking authority over, and responsibility for, such personnel actions.” The update follows a decision last week from a federal judge in San Francisco granting temporary, limited relief to pause and rescind those firings at several agencies. In making that ruling, U.S. District Judge William Alsup found that OPM's original Jan. 20 memo on federal probationary workers and its other related efforts likely unlawfully directed the firing of those agency workers. OPM “does not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe to hire and fire employees within another agency,” Alsup said during a hearing Feb. 27. As Salt Typhoon and other hacking groups continue targeting U.S. telecoms, a bipartisan bill that cleared a key House panel Tuesday aims to formalize a more cyber-focused role for the federal agency focused on those wireless networks. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration Organization Act would establish an Office of Policy Development and Cybersecurity within the Commerce Department's NTIA under legislation from Reps. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., and Jennifer McClellan, D-Va. The bill, which advanced out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, was passed by the chamber last year but stalled out in the Senate. The NTIA advises the president on telecommunications and information policy issues, with a specific focus on the expansion of broadband internet and spectrum. Obernolte, who chairs the House Science, Space and Technology subcommittee on research and technology, said the bill “addresses a critical gap” by formalizing NTIA's cybersecurity role to better “safeguard our communication networks.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The General Services Administration has eliminated its 18F program, an internal team of tech consultants and engineers that develops open-source tools to improve digital services across the federal government. The announcement, which came over the weekend, is the latest in the Trump administration's ongoing efforts to slash the federal workforce. The move was foreshadowed weeks ago when Elon Musk, who's become become the figurehead for the Trump administration's slashing of government programs and the federal workforce, tweeted that the decade-old program had been “deleted.” Early Saturday morning, Thomas Shedd — a mechanical engineer and former Tesla employee recently appointed as the director of GSA's Technology Transformation Services, which houses 18F — announced the program had been eliminated as part of the ongoing reduction-in-force effort, according to an email viewed by FedScoop. A GSA spokesperson also confirmed the terminations to FedScoop on Saturday, writing in an email that members of the 18F office were notified that they had been identified as part of GSA's Reduction in Force and reorganization plan and were being separated from federal service. The top-10 highest-paid consulting firms contracting with the federal government are set to make “$65 billion in fees” in 2025 and beyond, the General Services Administration says. But according to the agency's acting leader, that “needs to, and must, change.” GSA acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian issued last week a memo, obtained by FedScoop, calling for the termination of contracts with those top-contracted consultants: Deloitte Consulting LLP, Accenture Federal Services LLC, General Dynamics IT, Booz Allen Hamilton, Leidos, Guidehouse, Hill Mission Technologies Corp., Science Applications International Corp., CGI Federal and IBM. Ehikian wrote in the memo dated Feb. 26 sent to senior procurement officers: “Consistent with the goals and directives of the Trump administration to eliminate waste, reduce spending, and increase efficiency, the U.S. General Services Administration has taken the first steps in a Government-wide initiative to eliminate non-essential consulting contracts.” By March 7, agencies are asked to provide a list of contracts with the 10 firms that they intend to terminate as well as those they will maintain. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Customs and Border Protection has issued internal paperwork to authorize an evaluation of Starlink, the satellite internet service provided by Elon Musk's SpaceX, according to documents identified by FedScoop and a spokesperson for the agency. CBP has created a privacy threshold analysis — an internal document used to analyze potential privacy risks associated with a new technology and whether a privacy impact assessment is necessary — for Starlink internet, a step from agency officials that indicates that the SpaceX service is under serious consideration. It also continues a trend of federal agencies expressing interest in working with one of Musk's companies as the richest man in the world further embeds himself within the Trump administration and leads efforts to cut federal programs and shrink the federal workforce. Newly installed Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell on Thursday issued a memo calling for all Defense Department components to scrub any diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) content from their websites and social media platforms. By March 5 — next Wednesday — DOD components must take down all “news and feature articles, photos, and videos that promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)” from the web, according to the directive, calling the effort a “digital content refresh.” That media must be archived and retained following Pentagon records management policies, states the memo from Parnell, the assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

If you missed last week's Zero Trust Summit at the Spy Museum in downtown D.C., you're in luck. We have a replay of what was one of the best panels of the day focused on U.S. military cybersecurity and the adoption of zero trust across the services. FedScoop's Billy Mitchell was joined by Wanda Jones-Heath of the Air Force and Ann Marie Schummann of the Navy, principal cyber advisors for their respectives services, as well as Imran Umar, Booz Allen's vice president of zero trust, for a panel that explored the progress made in zero-trust adoption and what comes next as the Pentagon targets zero-trust readiness by the end of 2027, including embracing the framework for operational technology systems and weapons platforms. In the news: Government agencies responded with caution to the Office of Personnel Management's request that federal workers provide five bullet points about what they accomplished last week by the end of the day Monday. The Securities and Exchange Commission gave workers a template to follow; the General Services Administration and Department of Commerce told employees not to send classified information, links or attachments; and the Department of Defense told employees to pause responses for the time being, according to emails obtained by FedScoop and agency statements. At least some agencies ultimately told employees participation wasn't required. Technical systems housed within USAID may be transferred to the State Department, including those related to global health, a source familiar with the matter told FedScoop, with about 40 systems potentially impacted by the transition. The USAID.gov website has now been updated to note the long-anticipated reduction in force at the agency, noting that approximately 1,600 personnel are now on administrative leave. A small group within the agency seems to be involved in discussions related to transferring technical assets to the State Department, the source said. Some of those systems might end up on OpenNet, a global network State uses for data applications. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

A source familiar with the inner workings of the U.S. Digital Corps, a two-year fellowship for early-career technologists to show coding work and work through interagency agreements across the federal government that is managed by TTS, said that DOGE representatives asked them and others to show coding work. The source said that the DOGE representatives asked them and others to show coding work that held sensitive information. A GSA spokesperson told FedScoop that Shedd initiated these meetings, and that “getting a sense of the technical work being performed by the organization is an essential part of understanding what the team is doing and what they are capable of.” Unions are challenging the Trump administration's ‘deferred resignation' offer to government workers, but lack the standing to do so, according to a federal judge in Massachusetts. This decision eliminated the temporary pause on the previously decided deadline for workers to accept the resignation offer and denied the unions' attempt to seek a long-term hold on the deadline through a preliminary injunction. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Department of Energy on Friday replaced its chief information officer with a network engineer from Elon Musk's SpaceX, FedScoop has learned. Dawn Zimmer — who'd been serving as Energy CIO since Ann Dunkin resigned from the role as the Biden administration left office — has been removed from the role by the department's leadership, two sources with direct knowledge of the move told FedScoop. Zimmer was hired as Energy's principal deputy CIO in November, and she has returned to that role. With Zimmer removed as acting CIO, Energy leadership has appointed Ryan Riedel to the role, according to one of the sources, who also shared a screenshot of Riedel listed as CIO in the department's email directory. Riedel lists his current employment as a lead network security engineer at SpaceX on his LinkedIn. He joined the company in 2020 after previously serving at U.S. Army Cyber Command and in the U.S. Navy as an IT specialist, his profile shows. The change comes amid reports that members of the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency have entered the Department of Energy and at least one is accessing its IT systems. The U.S. AI Safety Institute has selected Scale AI as the first third-party evaluator authorized to assess AI models on its behalf, opening a new channel for testing. That agreement will allow a broader range of model builders to access voluntary evaluation, according to a Scale AI release shared with FedScoop ahead of the Monday announcement. Participating companies will be able to test their models once and, if they choose, share those results with AI safety institutes around the world. Criteria for those evaluations will be developed jointly by the AI data labeling company and the AISI. For Scale's part, that work will be led by its research arm, the Safety, Evaluation, and Alignment Lab, or SEAL. Per the announcement, the evaluations will look at performance in areas such as math, reasoning, and AI coding. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Last month, the Harvard National Security Journal published what's thought to be the first legal scholarship on the subject matter of unidentified anomalous phenomena, the modern term for UFOs. Dillon Guthrie — a D.C.-based attorney who has served as a counsel at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, an advisor on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and a legislative aide to Senator John Kerry — is the author of that article. In it, he attempts to analyze legislation and other government efforts to keep pace with UAP research and to continue to bring awareness to the topic. Pentagon correspondent Brandi Vincent, who regularly covers the Defense Department's growing investigations into UAP reports for DefenseScoop, recently sat down with Guthrie to discuss his new article and his thoughts on the federal government's work — from Congress to the DOD — around UAP. The Trump administration's broad efforts to remake the U.S. government have been met with widespread criticism from federal workers. On Tuesday, dozens of federal workers and their supporters gathered outside the Office of Personnel Management in Washington to push back on Musk's apparent leadership on the Trump administration's efforts to reshape the workforce. They also carried signs with phrases like “arrest Elon,” “stop the coup” and “fork Musk.” Some even held forks in reference to OPM's “Fork in the Road” email about deferred resignation. That offer echoed a message Musk sent to Twitter employees after he bought the company and was also the title of an art piece Musk said he commissioned. The protests come after reports that Musk and his DOGE team entered OPM and stood up an unauthorized, insecure commercial server connected to other agency systems to support the sending of mass email blasts to the entirety of the federal workforce, to include the aforementioned Fork in the Road email. USAID is turning off government devices for employees tending to the agency's missions around the world, several sources told FedScoop. As the future of the agency remains unclear — Secretary of State Marco Rubio is now reportedly its acting administrator — the disconnections risk the safety of U.S. government workers based in dangerous and hard-to-access regions. Several people familiar with the matter confirmed that USAID workers are having their phones disconnected. Those whose devices have been deactivated can assume they've been placed on leave, one person said, since those deactivations are outpacing formal human resources notifications. A second person familiar said that the phones of USAID workers who are currently abroad have also been disconnected. A third USAID employee confirmed earlier Monday that agency employees in the West Africa region lost access to their computers and phones, and that some Washington, D.C. offices — like the Office of Transition Initiatives — had experienced the same. The same employee later told FedScoop that they had also lost access to their email address with no warning. Thousands of USAID email accounts had been deactivated, one source said, following widespread reports that the Trump administration plans to shut down the agency and possibly integrate it with the State Department. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The main website for USAID went offline this weekend and thousands of staffers may have lost access to their email accounts amid rumors that the Trump administration intends to eliminate the agency. The website went dark after staffers associated with the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency gained access to the domain and then blocked USAID employees, a person familiar with the matter told FedScoop. The source said around 2,000 email accounts associated with USAID workers have since been deactivated. USAID did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. The news follows a massive and sudden pause on American international aid that's shaken global development groups charged with disbursing critical and life-saving resources. An all-staff email distribution list at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was bombarded with crude emails last Thursday night, prompting a review by its top IT official. The emails included an “Important Weather Alert” about a “99% chance of shit showers” over the next four years, a subscription confirmation for Scientology Today, and crude and inflammatory messages critical of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Some of those emails were obtained by FedScoop and others were posted online to X and Reddit. The incident has sparked a review by NOAA's Office of the Chief Information Officer, according to an email shared by a spokesperson for the weather and climate agency. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Department of Defense houses one of — if not the biggest — workforces in the world. It is a Fortune 1 company, if you think about it that way. And managing a workforce that large and complex doesn't come easy. However, the department believes that modern technology can play a role in making workforce management more effective. To discuss that, Wyatt Kash recently spoke with Mark Gorak, principal Director for resources & analysis in the office of the DOD CIO, about the digital tools and resource the department is leaning on to modernize it workforce management and the challenges such a large enterprise faces in managing its workforce. The Trump administration has made its pick for federal CIO, FedScoop has learned. Two sources familiar with the matter confirmed that Greg Barbaccia has been hired for the federal CIO role within the Office of Management and Budget. He replaces Clare Martorana, who served in the role for nearly the entirety of the Biden administration. In the short time the role has been vacant since Martorana stepped down Jan. 20, Deputy Federal CIO Drew Myklegard has filled it in an acting capacity. Barbaccia comes to the role with a background of mostly private-sector experience, though he started his career in the U.S. Army, according to a public bio. He then went on to build a resume as a technology leader at Palantir, where he spent a decade in roles including head of intelligence and investigations; blockchain company Elementus; and San Francisco-based credit underwriting technology company Theorem, where he was most recently CISO before taking the federal CIO role. OpenAI has announced a new more tailored version of ChatGPT called ChatGPT Gov, a service that the company said is meant to accelerate government use of the tool for non-public sensitive data. In an announcement Tuesday, the company said that ChatGPT Gov, which can run in the Microsoft Azure commercial cloud or Azure Government cloud, will give federal agencies increased ability to use OpenAI frontier models. The product is also supposed to make it easier for agencies to follow certain cybersecurity and compliance requirements, while exploring potential applications of the technology, the announcement said. Through ChatGPT Gov, federal agencies can use GPT-4o, along with a series of other OpenAI tools, and build custom search and chat systems developed by agencies. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

As mentioned last Tuesday, Mina Hsiang, administrator of the U.S. Digital Service, is one of the many technology officials who will depart federal service with the forthcoming change in administrations later this month. Hsiang, a longtime government digital services leader, was tapped to lead USDS at the beginning of the Biden administration and has now seen that role through to the term's end. In the second part of a two-part exit interview with FedScoop reporter Caroline Nihill, Hsiang gives her closing thoughts as she wraps up her time at the helm of the government's technology tiger team. In the headlines today: A draft cybersecurity executive order would tackle cyber defenses in locations ranging from outer space to the U.S. federal bureaucracy to its contractors, and address security risks embedded in subjects like cybercrime, artificial intelligence and quantum computers. The draft, a copy of which CyberScoop obtained, constitutes one big last stab at cybersecurity in the Biden administration's eleventh hour. The order is follow-up to an order published in the first year of his presidency, The new order gives agencies 53 deadlines, stretching in length from 30 days to three years. Also: The Department of Health and Human Services has three new officials to lead its artificial intelligence, technology and data work. According to biographies posted HHS, Alicia Rouault is the department's new associate deputy assistant secretary for technology policy and chief technology officer, Kristen Honey is the department's chief data officer, and Meghan Dierks is the chief artificial intelligence officer. The three new officials join the department after it announced a reorganization of its health, data, AI and cyber portfolios in July. As part of those changes, the chief technology, data and AI roles moved from the department's Assistant Secretary for Administration, where the Office of the Chief Information Officer is housed, to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Outdated federal human resources platforms increasingly hinder agency recruiting and training, say OPM's Steve Krauss and Workday's Matthew Cornelis. In a new FedScoop interview, they discuss how cloud-native solutions and unified data standards enhance workforce agility, cut costs and foster cross-agency collaboration.

Mina Hsiang, administrator of the U.S. Digital Service, is one of the many technology officials who will depart federal service with the forthcoming change in administrations later this month. Hsiang, a longtime government digital services leader, was tapped to lead USDS as the beginning of the Biden administration and has now seen that role through to the term's end. In a two-part exit interview with FedScoop report Caroline Nihill, Hsiang shares some of the highlights from the past four years — including a partnership with the Social Security Administraiton and the success of digital initiatives supporting COVID-19 vaccines and test kits — as well as her parting thoughts on her role, the need for technical leaders inside government agencies, and much more. The Defense Department has tapped Kratos to develop a testbed for hypersonic vehicles under the Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed 2.0 program, the company announced Monday. The other transaction authority agreement is for Task Area 1 of MACH-TB 2.0, an initiative that broadly aims to expand options for the Pentagon to demonstrate and validate hypersonic weapons and related technologies. If all options are exercised, the deal has a performance period of five years and a total value of $1.45 billion — the single largest contract ever awarded to the contractor. Former Defense Department Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy is now working at Boeing as the organization's chief information digital officer and senior vice president for information technology and data analytics, the company announced Jan.3. Deasy served as the Pentagon CIO during the first Trump administration starting in May 2018 and oversaw a variety of high-profile modernization initiatives. He was at the helm when the department moved to large-scale telework as employees adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic, helped stand up the Joint AI Center and led the charge to enterprise cloud through the JEDI contract. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Guy Cavallo, the chief information officer of the Office of Personnel Management since July 2021, will retire from federal service on Jan. 13, he confirmed to FedScoop. Cavallo leaves federal service having held several top technology roles over the past decade, including as deputy CIO of the Small Business Administration and executive director of IT operations at the Transportation Security Administration. He also served as OPM's principal deputy CIO and acting CIO before being named permanent CIO. As the longest-tenured CIO of OPM in recent memory, Cavallo led that charge on a two-year sprint replacing or migrating over 50 applications from legacy on-premises data centers to the cloud and the launch of the new Postal Health Benefits System last year for more than 1.7 million postal workers and retirees. He touted the system as fully operational 100% of the time with no unscheduled downtime throughout the Open Season. The Pentagon's Chief Digital and AI Office recently completed a pilot exercise with tech nonprofit Humane Intelligence that analyzed three well-known large language models in two real-world use cases aimed at improving modern military medicine, officials confirmed Thursday. In its aftermath, the partners revealed they uncovered hundreds of possible vulnerabilities that defense personnel can account for moving forward when considering LLMs for these purposes. A Defense Department spokesperson told DefenseScoop the findings revealed biases that could impact the military's healthcare system, such as bias related to demographics. They wouldn't share much more about what was exposed, but the official provided new details about the design and implementation of this CDAO-led pilot, the team's follow-up plans and the steps they took to protect service members' privacy while using applicable clinical records. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security disclosed Thursday that they are supporting New Jersey law enforcement with “numerous detection methods” as part of the response to recent mysterious aircraft sightings in the state's skies. Thus far, however, the federal agencies “have not corroborated any of the reported visual sightings with electronic detection,” according to a joint statement shared with FedScoop and DefenseScoop. “To the contrary, upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft, operating lawfully. There are no reported or confirmed drone sightings in any restricted air space,” the FBI and DHS statement said. The Department of Energy has to invest in and establish enterprise-wide data analytics to mitigate risk better and take action to begin implementing artificial intelligence capabilities in its Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, two Office of Inspector General reports this week recommended. In a report made public Monday, the OIG reported that DOE does not use an enterprise-wide approach for examining risks, and instead looks at risks in a “fragmented fashion” through aggregating risks identified by each “element,” which comprises field and headquarters organizations. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

As members of the Biden administration wrap up their duties ahead of next month's transition, the Office of Management and Budget's IT office is touting the “innovative” technological progress it's made over the past four years in the face of “unprecedented challenges.” In an impact report shared exclusively with FedScoop, OMB's Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer highlighted several of its tech-focused accomplishments throughout President Joe Biden's time in office, pointing specifically to work in artificial intelligence, open data, cybersecurity and quantum, all in service of further modernizing the federal government. Lawmakers in the House and Senate introduced a bipartisan bill Wednesday that would create an advisory panel aimed at developing a national strategy for technologies such as virtual and augmented reality. Under the United States Leadership in Immersive Technology Act, the Department of Commerce would be directed to establish such a panel that would advise the president on how to use those technologies, known collectively as immersive technologies or XR, for commerce, trade and economic competitiveness. That panel would also study XR and its impact on national security, according to a release from sponsor Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., announcing the bill. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

A package of bills introduced by Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., last week would freeze federal hiring and salaries for one year and reintroduce a merit-based compensation structure for federal employees, among other provisions. Blackburn on Thursday announced a single bill as part of her DOGE Act, but a spokesperson from her office clarified in an email to FedScoop that she plans to introduce seven bills under that umbrella. The package would establish a pilot program for civilian employees in the federal government, codifying what President-elect Donald Trump attempted to establish during his first term with Schedule F. The House and Senate Armed Services Committees moved forward a provision paving the way for an independent study assessing the potential creation of a sixth U.S. military service focused on cyber. Both houses of Congress passed nearly identical provisions in their respective versions of the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act earlier this year, and they were incorporated into the final conferenced bill that was reconciled between both chambers and released Saturday evening. The House passed a similar provision last year that was axed during this conference process for the annual defense policy bill, effectively killing it until it was revived this year. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

David Shive is one of the longest-tenured CIOs in all of the federal government and serves as vice chair of the Federal CIO Council. He also helms the IT portfolio of one of the most innovative and forward-leaning agencies across the executive branch. As such, he's an insightful leader with a strong read on the state of technology transformation across the federal government. FedScoop recently caught up with Shive on the sidelines of ACT-IAC's Imagine Nation ELC event in Hershey, Pa. During our conversation, we touched on a variety of things, including trends in digital transformation that GSA and other agencies experienced over the past year, AI adoption and what's next – as well as an interesting insight he picked up recently on where the U.S. stands compared to its allies in digital service delivery. Top lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee are using the stretch run of this congressional term to address the impact artificial intelligence has on the finance and housing sectors. Reps. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., and Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the chair and ranking member of the committee, respectively, announced Monday the introduction of a resolution to acknowledge the rising use of AI in financial services and in the housing industry, as well as a bill that calls on financial regulatory agencies to study the benefits of the technology within the sector. The resolution and bill are the culmination of nearly a year of work from the committee's bipartisan AI working group and come just days before a hearing that will explore how the technology is framing the future of finance. In an era where personal data is increasingly commodified, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is attempting to regulate the sprawling industry of data brokers. A newly proposed rule released Tuesday aims to put data brokers in line with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), ensuring accountability and consumer privacy amid widespread security issues. Initially established in 1970, the FCRA was one of the first pieces of legislation aimed at protecting consumer privacy. The proposed changes by the CFPB intend to broaden the law to include data brokers, holding them to the same standards as traditional consumer reporting agencies such as Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. The CFPB's proposed rule redefines consumer reports to encompass any broker that obtains personal data related to credit and financial assessment.

Sheena Burrell, the chief information officer of the National Archives and Records Administration, has taken a new job as chief innovation officer at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Burrell will join FDIC to lead its Office of Innovation — known also as the FDIC Tech Lab or FDiTech — on Dec. 2, an agency spokesperson confirmed to FedScoop. Her last day at NARA will be Nov. 30, a National Archives spokesperson said. In her absence, Gulam Shakir will serve as acting CIO “while we continue to plan for NARA's digital transformation and future,” the NARA spokesperson said. Twelve senators on Wednesday signed a letter addressed to the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general, urging investigation into the Transportation Security Administration's facial recognition technology “regime” as it looks to expand to more airports. Leading the bipartisan group was Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon. Their call for investigation follows TSA plans to introduce credential authentication technologies, or CAT units equipped with facial recognition and deployed at airport security checkpoints, at more than 430 airports. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Department of Veterans Affairs' top IT official told House lawmakers on Wednesday that a larger budget and the ability to pay certain government workers more would improve the agency's cybersecurity posture. Kurt DelBene, the VA's assistant for information and technology and chief information officer, called during a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee hearing for the entire federal government to “take steps to increase the salaries” of tech workers who are classified as GS-2210 under the Office of Personnel Management. The CIO said existing salaries are “too low to be competitive,” even with incentives and benefits, and that the VA continues to face challenges in recruiting and retaining professionals with cyber expertise. The State Department on Wednesday announced a new, government-wide task force focused on content authentication. The group, which includes more than 20 federal agencies, is supposed to streamline the government's international outreach on content authentication, which could help combat technology like deepfakes. The task force is charged with working with foreign governments and partners on developing the technical standards and capacities to detect this category of content, according to a statement shared with FedScoop ahead of the announcement. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

After serving as the head of the Technology Transformation Services at GSA for the past two years, Ann Lewis announced recently she is stepping down from the role. Lewis led the TTS organization during a time of major AI adoption across government, workforce transformation and a greater focus on spreading use of the agency's Login.gov single sign on platform. In a final interview with FedScoop, Lewis discusses those priorities for TTS going forward, as well as her journey into government, now that she's stepping away. The new director of the Defense Department's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) is scheduled to meet with lawmakers in closed-door and open sessions Tuesday to discuss his organization's activities investigating “unidentified anomalous phenomena” that have raised national security concerns. The hearing with the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities comes on the heels of the release of the Pentagon's fiscal 2024 consolidated annual report on UAP — the modern term for UFOs and mysterious Restrictive software licensing practices are impacting multiple federal agencies in the form of cost increases and limited choices of cloud service providers (CSP) or cloud architecture, according to the Government Accountability Office. The Department of Justice, NASA, Department of Transportation and Department of Veterans all told the GAO that as result of restrictive practices in software licensing, the agencies either experienced or expected cost increases in acquisition, infrastructure and licensing. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

As the White House gets ready to “pass the baton” to the incoming Trump administration, Federal CIO Clare Martorana said she is focused on cybersecurity issues and making sure her team does everything it can for their replacements to be set up for success. Over the remaining two months of the Biden administration, Martorana said in an interview with FedScoop on the sidelines of the ACT-IAC CX Summit on Friday that cyber is her top area of focus because “you need security, engineering, [and] competencies when you are contemplating the problem set in the solution you're trying to design.” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin departed early Friday morning on his twelfth and final trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where he will engage in a series of bilateral and multilateral meetings with some of his closest colleagues across Australia, the Philippines, Laos and Fiji. “During this trip, we will deliver results to advance cooperation, strengthen our relationships, and build an enduring network of allies and partners. I am proud of the historic progress we've made over the last four years and the depth of continuing U.S. commitment to the region,” Austin said in a statement ahead of takeoff. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

OpenAI is releasing an artificial intelligence infrastructure blueprint meant to highlight its vision for American AI, which the company argues will boost productivity and jumpstart advanced technology development. The release of the blueprint, which was viewed by FedScoop and was set to be presented in Washington on Wednesday, comes as the Biden administration continues to push for government support for data centers, artificial intelligence, and semiconductors. At the same time, the government's approach to AI is still taking shape — and companies like OpenAI are using the opportunity to advocate for policies that would make way for infrastructure and energy projects that would benefit them. On the same day outgoing President Joe Biden met with President-elect Donald Trump to discuss the transition between them, a top White House cyber official made some recommendations for early cyber priorities for the incoming administration. In its first 100 days, the Trump administration should build a framework for minimum cybersecurity standards for critical infrastructure companies, establish cybersecurity grants for those in need and deepen international partnerships, said Anne Neuberger, Biden's deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology. Neuberger offered those suggestions at an event Wednesday hosted by the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs in what she called the bipartisan tradition of cybersecurity, having received “the baton” from the prior administrations and passing it on in a world of threats heavily dominated by China, ransomware and artificial intelligence. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

If President-elect Donald Trump follows through on his pledge to reinstate an executive order that eases the president's ability to fire federal workers, the government's ability to recruit top talent for tech, IT, cyber and artificial intelligence positions will be harmed, according to a senior Biden administration official. The 2020 executive order concerning the creation of Schedule F in the excepted service was issued just 13 days before the 2020 election and was overturned by an executive order from President Joe Biden to enshrine protections for the federal workforce in 2021. The Office of Personnel Management announced a final rule this April that aimed to reinforce protections and merit system principles for career civil servants. The Biden administration official told FedScoop that if current or prospective federal employees QUOTE “believe they'll be constrained from offering their honest, informed professional input, and that they or their colleagues could be removed following a presidential transition based on their personal beliefs and not on their performance, this will reduce their desire to work for the government.” They added that “Attracting top talent, including the best tech talent, to serve the American people means respecting and protecting their expertise and service, not undermining it.”President-elect Trump has maintained that he will immediately reissue that 2020 executive order restoring the president's authority to remove what he calls rogue bureaucrats, adding that it would be the first point of his plan to “dismantle the deep state.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

A recent survey by Appen reveals a drop in both the deployment of AI initiatives and their return on investment. The survey indicates that the mean percentage of AI projects deployed has fallen from 55.5% in 2021 to 47.4% in 2024, with significant ROI dropping from 56.7% to 47.3%. Appen attributes these declines to a lack of high-quality training data, emphasizing the importance of expertly labeled data in enhancing AI model accuracy. Additionally, a Gartner report shows that nearly half of businesses struggle to estimate the value of AI projects, complicating their adoption.The episode also delves into the challenges faced by U.S. federal agencies in adopting AI technologies. A FedScoop report reveals that many agencies cite data management issues and a lack of AI-trained employees as significant obstacles. The Department of Energy has raised concerns about security issues with cloud services, while the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has noted a workforce that is both interested in AI and fearful due to a lack of understanding. Meanwhile, a Capgemini report predicts that generative AI could transform entry-level careers by facilitating 32% of entry-level tasks, although only a small percentage of leaders currently use these tools daily.Host Dave Sobel highlights recent advancements from major players in the AI space, including Stability AI, which has unveiled its Stable Diffusion 3.5 series of image generation models designed to produce more diverse outputs. Anthropic has launched updated AI models that automate tasks for software developers, allowing for complex actions with minimal human input. Microsoft is set to introduce its CoPilot AI agents, which promise significant productivity improvements for businesses. However, experts urge caution regarding the claims of productivity gains, emphasizing the need for clear baseline data to assess the true impact of these tools.Finally, the episode touches on Apple's Vision Pro mixed reality headset, which is facing production cuts and potential discontinuation due to a lack of developer enthusiasm and app availability. With only two apps launched specifically for the device in September, down from 252 in February, Apple is shifting its focus toward a more affordable model expected to launch by late 2025. Sobel concludes that the current trajectory suggests that the Vision Pro may not be the right form factor for spatial computing, indicating a potential dead end for the technology as consumer demand and developer interest remain low.Three things to know today00:00 Declining AI Project Success Points to Need for Better Data and Workforce Training in Both Federal and Corporate Spheres05:21 Stability AI Unveils Image Models, Anthropic Enhances Developer Tools, Microsoft Launches Copilot Agents08:57 With Vision Pro's Future in Doubt, Apple Prepares for Affordable Successor by 2025  Supported by:  https://www.coreview.com/msphttp://blumira.com/radio/   All our Sponsors: https://businessof.tech/sponsors/ Do you want the show on your podcast app or the written versions of the stories? Subscribe to the Business of Tech: https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe/Looking for a link from the stories? The entire script of the show, with links to articles, are posted in each story on https://www.businessof.tech/ Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/mspradio/ Want to be a guest on Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights? Send Dave Sobel a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/businessoftech Want our stuff? Cool Merch? Wear “Why Do We Care?” - Visit https://mspradio.myspreadshop.com Follow us on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079/YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftechBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessoftech.bsky.social

The Office of Management and Budget is getting close to finalizing long-awaited data guidance required by a 2019 law that mandates the machine-readability of federal information, two White House officials with direct knowledge of that work confirmed to FedScoop. According to the sources, who were granted anonymity to speak more candidly, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and the Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer are currently working on completing the guidance with a goal to get it out by the end of November. And, the Technology Modernization Fund on Tuesday announced four new investments, totaling $50.2 million, aimed at meeting user needs for housing and enhancing Social Security Administration operations. This round of TMF investments will enable the Department of Housing and Urban Development to modernize the agency's digital infrastructure and keep up with cybersecurity needs, and allow the Social Security Administration to digitize documents and forms, update beneficiary notifications and use artificial intelligence to support disability claims processing. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not use any legacy IT, having either decommissioned or modernized all of its systems, according to the independent agency's chief information officer. In an interview with FedScoop last week, NRC CIO Scott Flanders said that even though the agency has turned the page on systems defined by the Government Accountability Office as “outdated or obsolete,” there is still work to be done for modernization and evaluation of the agency's technology stack. One of the country's leading generative AI startups is urging congressional leadership to take action on a trio of safety, data and definitional priorities for the emerging technology before the end of the year. In a letter sent Thursday from Alexandr Wang to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the Scale AI founder and chief executive officer applauded the lawmakers for bipartisan AI regulatory work this Congress while “strongly” pressing the quartet to include in a potential year-end legislative package three “key AI priorities that will better position the United States to become a global leader in AI development and deployment.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Scoop News Group is thrilled to announce the winners of the FedScoop 50 awards for 2024! Now in their 13th year, the FedScoop 50 awards honor the most impactful leaders in the federal government who strive each day to leverage technology to transform government. Scoop News Group once again experienced record voting for the FedScoop 50 in 2024, receiving more than 1 million votes across five categories. As the Biden administration comes to a close, and the federal government prepares for a period of transition, it's an apt time to reflect on the transformation ushered in over the past year at the hands of selfless government officials and industry partners dedicated to bringing progress to our nation and the American people. The Energy Department could be a key force in counteracting the “profit motive” driving America's leading artificial intelligence companies, the agency's second-in-command said in an interview. DOE Deputy Secretary David Turk told FedScoop that top AI firms aren't motivated to pursue all the use cases most likely to benefit the public, leaving the U.S. government — which maintains a powerful network of national labs now developing artificial intelligence infrastructure of their own — to play an especially critical role. Turk's comments come as the Energy Department pushes forward with a series of AI initiatives. One key program is the Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence for Science, Security, and Technology, or FASST effort, which is meant to advance the use of powerful datasets maintained by the agency in order to develop science-forward AI models. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

New federal guidance for acquiring artificial intelligence solutions directs U.S. agencies to take steps to manage risks, promote competition and share information within the executive branch. The White House Office of Management and Budget on Thursday publicly released its anticipated memorandum on responsible AI acquisition in government (M-24-18), charting an initial path forward for agencies to buy products that use the booming technology in a safe and responsible way and placing new criteria on those contracts. T​​he federal government is in a “great place” following an agencywide deadline on zero-trust architecture implementation and now looking ahead to more challenging aspects of the cybersecurity model, according to a White House official. Mike Duffy, the acting federal chief information security officer, said in an interview with FedScoop that the next phase of zero-trust architecture implementation will focus largely on operations, taking near-term technical controls and leveraging those into a “longer-term technology transformation effort” and more defensible architectures. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The General Services Administration is conducting market research through the agency's eBuy program for the CIO Modernization and Enterprise Transformation II (COMET II), which is anticipated to be worth up to $1 billion. The request for quotes, which was shared in an email with FedScoop, aims to provide industry with the draft COMET II Performance Work Statement (PWS) as well as gain feedback on the initial task orders and the PWS. Also: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is pushing forward on its oversight of federal post-quantum cryptography migration, unveiling a strategy document last week that details how the agency intends to monitor and assess governmentwide progress on the transition. The public release of CISA's guidance on Friday, required by a 2022 Office of Management and Budget memorandum on migrating to post-quantum cryptography, lays out plans for the deployment of automated cryptography discovery and inventory (ACDI) tools to aid agencies as they work to inventory any IT systems or assets that may contain vulnerable cryptography. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The General Services Administration has tapped the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' chief information officer and chief data officer to serve as its new deputy CIO, the agency confirmed Thursday. Dovarius Peoples will join GSA on Oct. 6, an agency spokesperson told FedScoop. Peoples also has held leadership positions at the Office of Personnel Management and the National Security Agency. Also: The Department of Health and Human Services would be required to implement a pandemic preparedness and response program that leverages artificial intelligence under new bipartisan Senate legislation. That bill, which was introduced Wednesday and announced Thursday, would call on the secretary of HHS to establish a new program called “MedShield” that would protect against future pandemics by aiding collaboration between government and the private sector and use AI in several areas, including detecting pathogens and developing vaccines.

Government IT contractor Carahsoft had its Reston, Va., headquarters searched by the FBI Tuesday morning, three sources familiar with the matter told FedScoop. In response to an inquiry about the raid, the FBI confirmed via email that it had “conducted court-authorized law enforcement activity” but declined to comment further. Meanwhile, the Department of Veterans Affairs is once again facing criticism from its inspector general related to its modernized electronic health record program in a pair of new reports published this week. According to one of those, the VA has neglected to put in place the proper controls for its Oracle Cerner electronic health record system to adequately prevent and respond to major incidents. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The annual Congressional Hackathon is Thursday, and ahead of it, FedScoop is reporting that two of the five top recommendations from last year's event have been implemented and others are on their way to being realized. Steve Dwyer, senior director for innovation at the House Office of the Chief Administrative Officer, told FedScoop that the two completed and now implemented projects are an internal unified House calendar that was launched in July and an internal social media tracking tool that was announced in recent weeks by the CAO to compare lawmakers' social media statistics. A bipartisan House bill aimed at improving customer service interactions with government technology breezed through a key Senate panel Wednesday, putting it one step closer to becoming law. The Government Service Delivery Improvement Act passed the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee by an 11-0 tally, setting it up for a vote before the full chamber. The bill, first introduced by Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., Byron Donalds, R-Fla., Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., and William Timmons, R-S.C. in the House last October, passed that chamber in May. The legislation tasks agency heads with designating a senior official to oversee service delivery improvements and charges the Office of Management and Budget with choosing a senior official to coordinate governmentwide efforts on the issue.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the General Services Administration are partnering for an artificial intelligence maturity assessment as a foundational step in the nuclear agency's path to finalizing a strategic plan. Over the next nine months, the NRC will welcome a GSA provided-project manager to work directly with staff to consult on what the agency needs to solidify an enterprise strategic plan, Basia Sall, the chief data officer and director of the NRC's Data, Information Management and Enterprise Governance division, told FedScoop during an AI workshop at agency headquarters Tuesday. A federal grand jury in Atlanta has indicted a Chinese national on charges stemming from his alleged efforts to use spearphishing to target U.S. entities, including NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, and several military branches. The indictment, which was filed Sept. 10 and unsealed Monday by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, charges Song Wu, 39, with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft related to those efforts. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is asking organizations to provide information about artificial intelligence technologies for use in health care outcomes and service delivery as it plans demonstration events. In a request for information announced earlier this week, CMS said it wants to gather information about AI products and services from health care companies, providers, payers, start-ups and others, and plans to eventually select organizations to provide demos of those technologies at “CMS AI Demo Days” starting in October. The demo days will be held quarterly and are intended “to educate and inspire the CMS workforce on AI capabilities and provide information to inform potential future agency action." The Office of Management and Budget is set to soon issue a new memo to help guide agencies' acquisition of artificial intelligence technologies. Deputy Federal CIO Drew Myklegard said Tuesday at FedTalks, produced by FedScoop, that on top of all the milestones the Biden administration has met since issuing its landmark AI executive order last fall, OMB has been developing guidance to ensure federal agencies are following best practices when acquiring AI technologies. The forthcoming memo will follow the release of more wide-ranging OMB guidance issued March 28 on federal adoption of AI with a focus on governance, risk and transparency. Myklegard didn't give a specific timeline for the release of that guidance, but the executive order called for OMB to produce “an initial means to ensure that agency contracts for the acquisition of AI systems and services align with” OMB's earlier AI guidance within 180 days of its issuance — so, by Sept 24. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

In 2018, a secure communications app known as Anom was released and quickly gained popularity with organized criminals who saw it as a new tool to conduct operations out of the view of law enforcement. But little did they know, the very app they believed gave them a place to hide was secretly being run by the FBI. In his new book Dark Wire: The Incredible True Story of the Largest Sting Operation, journalist Joseph Cox explores the story of Anom and how it gave U.S. law enforcement and their global counterparts a front-row seat to the underworld. FedScoop's Madison Alder and Rebecca Heilweil recently spoke with Cox about Dark Wire, how the FBI was able to pull the operation off, if there's a chance for something like this to happen again, the unconventional ways government can access encrypted messaging today, and much more. Also: The National Labor Relations Board is one of the latest federal agencies to name an AI chief. David Gaston, NLRB's assistant general counsel, will serve as the agency's new chief artificial intelligence officer. And, two of the biggest artificial intelligence providers have signed agreements to formally collaborate with the U.S. AI Safety Institute on research, testing and evaluation of their models. The agreements, known as memorandums of understanding, were announced last week by the AI Safety Institute, which called them “first-of-their-kind” government and industry partnerships. Under those agreements, the institute, which is housed at the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology, will “receive access to major new models from each company prior to and following their public release” and collaborate with the companies on evaluation and risk mitigation.