Podcasts about usds

In this episode of The CX Tipping Point Podcast, we spoke with Marcy Jacobs, the first Chief Digital Experience Officer for the State of Maryland. Marcy goes into the significance of user-centered design and the holistic approach needed to improve digital experiences, particularly in government and consulting sectors. She discusses her journey in digital government, from starting out as a graphic and web designer to leading digital transformation efforts at USDS and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Marcy explores challenges, solutions, and strategies for integrating digital services, enhancing user research, and leveraging AI for better customer experiences.Key Takeaways:Insights on prioritizing user needs over technology and shifting from an inside-out to an outside-in approach.Importance of understanding the full user journey.How project management and product leadership require technical depth, leadership buy-in, and measurable outcomes to avoid reinforcing ineffective processes.Breaking down silos between digital services and CX teams to ensure data-driven, actionable solutions rather than just measurement.The role of user research in improving services and the potential of AI when applied strategically. Join us as we uncover how digital services can transform government experiences and why a human-first approach is critical to success!Thank you for listening to this episode of The CX Tipping Point Podcast! If you enjoyed it, please consider subscribing, rating, and leaving a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your support helps us reach more listeners! Stay Connected: Follow us on social media: LinkedIn: @DorrisConsultingInternational Twitter: @DorrisConsultng Facebook: @DCInternational Resources Mentioned: Citizen Services Newsletter 2024 Service to the Citizen Awards Nomination Form

Nemzeti örökség része a Windows 95 indítási dallama, Egyre gyakoribbak a több száz USDs előfizuk -- Nemzeti örökség része a Windows 95 indítási dallama https://pcforum.hu/hirek/29158/amerikai-kongresszusi-konyvtar-nemzeti-orokseg-windows-95-minecraft-zene Egyre gyakoribbak a több száz USDs előfizuk https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/645842/anthropic-launches-a-200-per-month-tier-for-power-users // Résztvevők: Gyuri róka Kövess minket máshol is!: Medium.com - https://medium.com/shiwaforce Facebook csoportunk- https://www.facebook.com/groups/devtales X - https://twitter.com/_devtales YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@devtalespodcast7365 Slack - https://devtalespodcast.slack.com/join/shared_invite/zt-dcvcwmfr-D2rDNGgNR5FdKiPA5VR7Wg Email - devtales@shiwaforce.com

Paris Marx is joined by Kate Green and Milo to discuss how Elon Musk's DOGE is dismantling the US Digital Service and the consequences that has on really improving service delivery in government.Kate Green and Milo are former US Digital Service engineers.Tech Won't Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham.Also mentioned in this episode:Find out more about We The Builders and read perspectives of federal workers.USDS workers have resigned en masse from DOGE, and Musk's agency has fired many of those who haven't left.The General Services Administration has also cut the 18F technology team, and has been doing mass layoffs at the Technology Transformation Service. Support the show

A group of 21 engineers, data scientists, designers, project managers and other tech experts resigned from their positions at the U.S. Digital Service on Tuesday, writing in a letter to the White House that they would not “carry out or legitimize” the actions of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. The technologists said in their letter that they all left senior tech positions in the private sector to “pursue nonpartisan public service” and “stood ready to partner with incoming officials” as the Trump transition unfolded. But over the course of the past month, the staffers said it became clear that they could “no longer honor those commitments” at USDS, rebranded in January as the United States DOGE Service. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., a top federal IT advocate on Capitol Hill, has called for the Office of Personnel Management to rescind its recent guidance pushing for federal agencies to redesignate chief information officer roles in a way that could make them more political. In a letter sent to acting OPM Director Charles Ezell on Tuesday, Connolly requested that the federal HR agency rescind its Feb. 4 memo “Guidance Regarding Redesignating SES CIO Positions,” which recommends that federal agencies with senior executive service CIO positions designated as “career reserved” should redesignate those roles to be “general.” 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.

Misconceptions and constitutional questions swirl around the role of "DOGE" in light of the latest Trump administration job cuts and cost cutting measures. We cover the lesser known facts about DOGE that may become major factors in future legal battles; Did you know DOGE has no official executive leader? And that it actually replaced another "start up" launched under President Obama? Facts that will matter as we cover one of your most asked about stories. SUPPORT OUR MISSION   Shop our gear!  If you'd like to help support SmartHER News' mission of a free, independent, nonpartisan press – here's how you can become a SCOOP insider: https://www.scoop.smarthernews.com/get-the-inside-scoop/    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smarthernews/  Website: https://smarthernews.com/  YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/smarthernews   

Cohost, Bigg Bump: Jalen Hurts, for the black women. Cheryl Crow against Elon. DOGE vs USDS.The Hake Report, Monday, February 17, 2025 ADBigg Bump https://x.com/bigg_bump | https://www.instagram.com/bigg_bump | https://www.youtube.com/@biggbump | https://truthsocial.com/@BIGG_BUMP | https://rumble.com/user/BiggBumpTIMESTAMPS* (0:00:00) Start* (0:01:55) Bigg Bump: black king and queens* (0:06:36) Cheryl Crow, "All I Wanna Do"* (0:08:27) DOGE, not new!* (0:09:43) Hey, guys!* (0:12:18) How a black man become "king": Jalen Hurts, mother* (0:28:45) Palestine, BLM* (0:30:42) Jalen Hurts…* (0:36:12) WILLIAM 3: G. Washington; Trump/Daytona; Elon govt* (0:45:51) WILLIAM 3: Worshiping the black woman; Chiefs; Dwyane Wade* (0:51:13) Popcorn: Judge on character* (1:03:41) Coffees thx, and sry* (1:05:32) Cheryl Crow sells Tesla, donates to NPR* (1:14:38) Trump's DOGE vs Obama's USDS* (1:26:30) Countdown to retirement; Tenure, seniority; Buyout* (1:32:37) Regulators, just pay them not to work: Less damage!* (1:35:50) DENNY, Bulgaria: Govt workers* (1:38:42) DENNY: Discrimination at a bar* (1:41:27) DENNY: Regulation corruption, 4K Euros to pump tires* (1:45:17) Man in the arena … Supers from Rumble* (1:46:30) Popcorn: how others see you… Scars, war wounds* (1:48:27) WILLIAM 7: the Collective* (1:51:13) Closing… Hake News rap - Baixinha ForteLINKSBLOG https://www.thehakereport.com/blog/2025/2/17/presidents-day-with-bigg-bump-mon-2-17-25PODCAST / Substack HAKE NEWS from JLP https://www.thehakereport.com/jlp-news/2025/2/17/hake-news-mon-2-17-25Hake is live M-F 9-11a PT (11-1CT/12-2ET) Call-in 1-888-775-3773 https://www.thehakereport.com/showVIDEO YouTube - Rumble* - Facebook - X - BitChute - Odysee*PODCAST Substack - Apple - Spotify - Castbox - Podcast Addict*SUPER CHAT on platforms* above or BuyMeACoffee, etc.SHOP - Printify (new!) - Spring (old!) - Cameo | All My LinksJLP Network: JLP - Church - TFS - Nick - Joel - Punchie Get full access to HAKE at thehakereport.substack.com/subscribe

As former US Deputy Chief Technology Officer, Jen Pahlka helped to create the US Digital Service (USDS) to upgrade the government's tech capabilities. Today, the USDS houses Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), hell-bent on quick, disruptive change. Pahlka returns to Rapid Response to share why the motivation behind Musk's disruption of the status quo isn't necessarily wrong, arguing that we must clear the “sludge” out of government processes to finally create the conditions for substantive change. She also explores how AI can be used to streamline government work, the role of business minds in the White House today, and more. Visit the Rapid Response website here: https://www.rapidresponseshow.com/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Despite the ups and downs of the Ethereum ecosystem, two of its most influential builders—Aave's Stani Kulechov and Sky's Rune Christensen—remain bullish. In this episode, they discuss whether we're witnessing a DeFi renaissance, the challenges of building on Ethereum vs. Solana, and why DeFi adoption isn't growing as fast as some expected. They debate stablecoins, whether Solana is truly innovating, and how AI could transform DeFi by automating governance and risk management. They also respond to some hot takes—including whether Aave is falling behind Solana-based Kamino, and why Sky deployed its USDS stablecoin on Solana despite Rune's long-standing Ethereum advocacy. Show highlights:  02:33 Whether Sky and Aave are experiencing a “DeFi renaissance” 11:49 How Stani and Rune are trying to appeal to a simpler audience 23:00 Whether developers overlook how easy it is to build DeFi on Ethereum 27:40 Why Stani believes there is not a lot of innovation in Solana 32:17 What would need to happen for Aave to be in Solana 33:27 Why Sky deployed USDS on Solana 40:30 Whether the Ethereum ecosystem should be worried about users going to other chains 49:19 Why Rune praises Solana's culture 51:38 How USDS's growth on Base happens organically, contrary to Solana 59:35 Why they believe that the combination of AI and DeFi will be so powerful Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com Thank you to our sponsors! Mantle RockWallet Kelp DAO  Guest: Stani Kulechov, Founder and CEO of Aave Previous appearances on Unchained: Stani Kulechov on Why Aave Is So Successful - Unchained The Chopping Block w/ Stani Kulechov: Operation Chokepoint 2.0, Ethereum Innovation Push, & Polymarket Whales - Unchained Rune Christensen, Co-founder of Sky Previous appearances on Unchained: Can Maker's Rune Christensen Fix the Sad State of DAO Governance? Rune Christensen of MakerDAO Part 1: How to Keep a Crypto-Collateralized Stablecoin Afloat Rune Christensen of MakerDAO Part 2: How Dai Stayed at $1 While ETH Crashed From $1,400 to $85  The Chopping Block: How to Manage MakerDAO, With Hasu and Rune Rune Christensen of MakerDao on Its $15 Million From Andreessen Horowitz Why It's so Hard to Keep Stablecoins Stable Links Aave 2030 roadmap Alex Svanevik of Nansen tweeted: “When Aave on Solana?”  Qiao Wang of Alliance DAO commenting on why he recommends people build on Solana  The First Non-EVM Deployment of Aave Protocol: Aave V3 on Aptos - General - Aptos Forum Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Despite the ups and downs of the Ethereum ecosystem, two of its most influential builders—Aave's Stani Kulechov and Sky's Rune Christensen—remain bullish. In this episode, they discuss whether we're witnessing a DeFi renaissance, the challenges of building on Ethereum vs. Solana, and why DeFi adoption isn't growing as fast as some expected. They debate stablecoins, whether Solana is truly innovating, and how AI could transform DeFi by automating governance and risk management. They also respond to some hot takes—including whether Aave is falling behind Solana-based Kamino, and why Sky deployed its USDS stablecoin on Solana despite Rune's long-standing Ethereum advocacy. Show highlights:  02:33 Whether Sky and Aave are experiencing a “DeFi renaissance” 11:49 How Stani and Rune are trying to appeal to a simpler audience 23:00 Whether developers overlook how easy it is to build DeFi on Ethereum 27:40 Why Stani believes there is not a lot of innovation in Solana 32:17 What would need to happen for Aave to be in Solana 33:27 Why Sky deployed USDS on Solana 40:30 Whether the Ethereum ecosystem should be worried about users going to other chains 49:19 Why Rune praises Solana's culture 51:38 How USDS's growth on Base happens organically, contrary to Solana 59:35 Why they believe that the combination of AI and DeFi will be so powerful Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com Thank you to our sponsors! Mantle RockWallet Kelp DAO  Guest: Stani Kulechov, Founder and CEO of Aave Previous appearances on Unchained: Stani Kulechov on Why Aave Is So Successful - Unchained The Chopping Block w/ Stani Kulechov: Operation Chokepoint 2.0, Ethereum Innovation Push, & Polymarket Whales - Unchained Rune Christensen, Co-founder of Sky Previous appearances on Unchained: Can Maker's Rune Christensen Fix the Sad State of DAO Governance? Rune Christensen of MakerDAO Part 1: How to Keep a Crypto-Collateralized Stablecoin Afloat Rune Christensen of MakerDAO Part 2: How Dai Stayed at $1 While ETH Crashed From $1,400 to $85  The Chopping Block: How to Manage MakerDAO, With Hasu and Rune Rune Christensen of MakerDao on Its $15 Million From Andreessen Horowitz Why It's so Hard to Keep Stablecoins Stable Links Aave 2030 roadmap Alex Svanevik of Nansen tweeted: “When Aave on Solana?”  Qiao Wang of Alliance DAO commenting on why he recommends people build on Solana  The First Non-EVM Deployment of Aave Protocol: Aave V3 on Aptos - General - Aptos Forum Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On todays Show the Dynamic Duo James and Dwayne talk about Federal employees resignation, campaign financing, kickbacks, Elon Musk, Treasury Department, USAID, CIA, FBI, J6 investigations, media corruption, Politico, CNN, decentralized media, crypto currency, new media., negotiation skills, Zelensky demands, Trump's envoy, compromise, bad neighbor cases, Gaza Strip conditions, corruption in government, Elon Musk, USDS rebranding, Obamacare, Jeffrey Epstein, Lolita Express, financial fraud, executive order, women's sports bill. Don't miss it!

The Age of Transitions and Uncle 1-24-2025AoT #448Strong Man is back, and he has come toting a stack of executive orders. Make no mistake, these EOs have not appeared out of thin air. They were written in advance by the Project 2025 team at the Heritage Foundation. Is our glorious leader trying to endear himself to the electorate by fulfilling campaign promises, while also setting up his billionaire backers for total takeover? Topics include: word of mouth podcast promotion, The Third Rail, Ochelli Radio taking new hosts, garage bands, foray into alternative media, transhumanism, insight from doing this for a long time, return of Strong Man, big changes, Project 2025, Newt Gingrich, hippies, bald identity, Turning Point USA, executive orders, DOGE repurposed USDS, assassination records releases, J6 pardons, campaign promises, immigration enforcement, alt media bought and paid for, tech overlords, USPS will be given to Bezos, inauguration parties for online media creators, voices of dissent now appearing, Stargate, Steve Bannon, AfD party, Musk, Nazi salute, alt media identity crisis, doing something different Utp #358Sidewomankick and Frank come on the show to talk about our recent UAP sightings in Riverside, CA. Frank had a sighting years ago that sparked an interest in UFOs, and now he has had regular sightings. This whole year we have been observing drone, orb and other sorts of UAP. Topics include: live-streaming on X, calls, weekend streams, Found Footage Festival, snow in Houston TX, producers on other podcasts, Sidewomankick and Frank, UAP, UFOs, sightings in Riverside CA, neighborhoods, drones, orbs, UFO sighting earlier on in life, regular sightings every night, video evidence, Concorde like UAP, planes, collecting evidence, not going away, less sightings in the daytime, regular air traffic, Flight Tracker app, Canadians relaxed attitude, getting a clear view of sky, pilots don't like to discuss sightings, doing the broadcast on the side, regular sighting spots, what they may want, not scared, government man, long show, reaction to first Space X launch, better start believing, little bit of optimism, street teamFRANZ MAIN HUB:https://theageoftransitions.com/PATREONhttps://www.patreon.com/aaronfranzUNCLEhttps://unclethepodcast.com/ORhttps://theageoftransitions.com/category/uncle-the-podcast/FRANZ and UNCLE Merchhttps://theageoftransitions.com/category/support-the-podcasts/KEEP OCHELLI GOING. You are the EFFECT if you support OCHELLI https://ochelli.com/donate/Listen/Chat on the Sitehttps://ochelli.com/listen-live/TuneInhttp://tun.in/sfxkxAPPLEhttps://music.apple.com/us/station/ochelli-com/ra.1461174708

Strong Man is back, and he has come toting a stack of executive orders. Make no mistake, these EOs have not appeared out of thin air. They were written in advance by the Project 2025 team at the Heritage Foundation. Is our glorious leader trying to endear himself to the electorate by fulfilling campaign promises, while also setting up his billionaire backers for total takeover?  Topics include: word of mouth podcast promotion, The Third Rail, Ochelli Radio taking new hosts, garage bands, foray into alternative media, transhumanism, insight from doing this for a long time, return of Strong Man, big changes, Project 2025, Newt Gingrich, hippies, bald identity, Turning Point USA, executive orders, DOGE repurposed USDS, assassination records releases, J6 pardons, campaign promises, immigration enforcement, alt media bought and paid for, tech overlords, USPS will be given to Bezos, inauguration parties for online media creators, voices of dissent now appearing, Stargate, Steve Bannon, AfD party, Musk, Nazi salute, alt media identity crisis, doing something different 

First up, Ralph welcomes back constitutional law expert Bruce Fein to talk about his reaction to Donald Trump's inaugural address. Then Ralph is joined by Public Citizen Co-President Robert Weissman to discuss Public Citizen's lawsuit against Trump regarding Elon Musk's D.O.G.E task force. Finally, Ralph speaks with Public Citizen's Government Affairs lobbyist Craig Holman about the flood of donations from corporations and billionaires to Trump's inaugural fund.Bruce Fein is a Constitutional scholar and an expert on international law. Mr. Fein was Associate Deputy Attorney General under Ronald Reagan and he is the author of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy, and American Empire: Before the Fall.Sitting on that platform at the inauguration was probably trillions of dollars held by individuals—not by companies, just individuals—fabulous wealth. And you have to ask, if these are business people, why are you at the political event? Why aren't you building a better mousetrap? Why aren't you like Thomas Edison, looking to find new ways of doing business? It's because all of their profits come from manipulating government in their favor. It's the opposite of so-called capitalism.Bruce FeinRemember that this lust for power transcends all reason, and that we're endowed with that lust.Bruce FeinRobert Weissman is a staunch public interest advocate and activist, as well as an expert on a wide variety of issues ranging from corporate accountability and government transparency, to trade and globalization, to economic and regulatory policy. As the President of Public Citizen, he has spearheaded the effort to loosen the chokehold corporations and the wealthy have over our democracy.The alleged purpose [of D.O.G.E.] is to advance efficiency of the government. But what it's really about is rolling back regulations—the things that give us clean air, clean water, safe food, fair workplace, economic justice, protections against discrimination, and more—to benefit corporate bottom lines, on the one hand, and on the other, to pursue a right-wing libertarian extremist agenda with slashing government spending, especially to protect the most poor and vulnerable.Robert WeissmanMusk said at first he wanted to try to cut $2 trillion from the budget every year. That's an impossibility, since the entire budget of discretionary spending is less than $2 trillion. Apparently, if you're the richest person in the history of the world, you don't actually have to know anything that you're talking about to be taken seriously.Robert WeissmanCraig Holman serves as Public Citizen's Capitol Hill lobbyist on ethics, lobbying, and campaign finance rules. He is also working with European nongovernmental organizations and members of the European Commission and Parliament in developing a lobbyist registration system for the European Union. Previously, he was senior policy analyst at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, and he has assisted in drafting campaign finance reform legislation (including pay-to-play legislation), and has conducted numerous research projects on the initiative process and the impact of money in politics. What's interesting is that some previous inaugural committees…didn't want to make it look like their administration's on the auction block by taking million-dollar donations from special interests and corporations. And so Bush had limited contributions to $100,000, Obama limited to $50,000 as well—they just didn't want it to look like they're putting their whole administration on the auction block. Trump doesn't seem to care about that.Craig HolmanNews 1/22/25* On January 20th, Joe Biden handed over the presidency to Donald Trump. In one of his last acts before leaving office, former President Biden commuted the sentence of Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, NPR reports. Peltier has been imprisoned for nearly 50 years following his conviction for the murder of two FBI agents at the Pine Ridge reservation; he has never wavered in maintaining his innocence. Despite Peltier being 80 years old and in increasingly poor health, NPR reports FBI Director Christopher Wray urged Biden not to “pardon Leonard Peltier or cut his sentence short.” Biden ultimately did not pardon Peltier, instead merely allowing him to complete his sentence under house arrest. In a statement, Peltier himself said “It's finally over — I'm going home…I want to show the world I'm a good person with a good heart.” Friend of the show Tom Morello, a longtime advocate for Peltier's release, wrote “Leonard has become a friend over the years and I am so glad…he will be able to spend his remaining years with family and friends.” Peltier's daughter Kathy, shocked by Biden's last-minute commutation after decades of being rebuffed by successive presidents of both parties, said “I'm just thankful that he had the balls and the guts to do it.”* Donald Trump was inaugurated on Monday, making him the first president in the modern era to serve non-consecutive terms. Immediately following his formal assumption of power, he issued a flurry of executive orders, including an exhaustive list of “rescissions” of Biden's executive actions. Among these, POLITICO reports that Trump immediately put Cuba back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, signifying a return to the bad old days of hostility towards our island neighbor. This is only expected to worsen with American foreign policy being directed by Marco Rubio. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel called Trump's reversal “an act of arrogance and disregard for truth,” adding “the legitimate and noble cause of our people will prevail and we will once again succeed.”* Another Trump executive order issued Monday formally created the Department of Government Efficiency, aka DOGE. However, it seems that instead of creating a new agency, this action mainly just renamed the U.S. Digital Service – an existing executive branch office – the U.S. DOGE service. Moreover, this newly redubbed USDS does not appear to have a mandate to cut the federal workforce. Instead, it seems to be primarily concerned with updating federal information technology systems. Reading between the lines, it seems likely that Trump is putting Elon Musk in charge of this federal IT agency as a means to dole out public money to the tech oligarch and his cronies, rather than streamline the functions of the federal government.* In more Big Tech news, CBS reports President Trump is “set to announce billions of dollars in private sector investment to build artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States.” According to this report, OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle are planning a joint venture called “Stargate,” to begin with a massive data center in Texas. These corporations are planning to pour $500 billion into this project over the next four years. This will almost certainly be augmented by public funds provided by the Trump administration.* Turning to Gaza, Democracy Now! reported Saturday that both Biden and Trump gave Israel the “green light” to resume the assault on Gaza if Netanyahu felt it necessary. This piece quotes Netanyahu, saying that both presidents “gave full backing to Israel's right to return to fighting if Israel reaches the conclusion that negotiations of the second stage is fruitless.” As this piece notes, Israel killed approximately 200 Palestinians after the ceasefire was agreed upon last Wednesday. We can only hope the ceasefire holds and that President Trump sticks to his commitment to enforce the deal.* At the same time, friend of the show Norman Solomon is out with a piece in the Hill on the class action lawsuit filed by 800 Northern California residents, including Solomon himself, against their Democratic representatives in Congress, alleging that they are “illegally helping to provide weapons to Israel for use in committing genocide in Gaza.” As Solomon admits, the suit, directed against Congressmen Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson is unlikely to get far. However, he does believe both that the funding of the genocidal war is illegal under the humanitarian Leahy Laws and that these lawsuits can apply much needed scrutiny to these members and force them to register the opposition of their constituents to their positions – something with which many Democrats have refused to reckon. Solomon hopes to make Gaza a defining issue in the 2026 California Democratic Congressional primaries.* Two weeks ago, we discussed the American Historical Association's vote to condemn the “scholasticide” occurring in Gaza. Since then however, the AHA has tried to backpedal and delegitimize that vote. On January 17th, the AHA Council released a statement in which they write that while they deplore “any intentional destruction of Palestinian educational institutions, libraries, universities, and archives in Gaza,” the council considers the scholasticide resolution “outside the scope of the Association's mission and purpose.” The AHA Council therefore decided to disregard the vote of its membership and unilaterally veto the resolution. This cowardly and disgraceful decision to nullify the voice of America's historians will ironically be a stain on the history of the organization itself.* In more foreign affairs news, the crisis in South Korea continues to deepen. Last week, President Yoon was formally incarcerated pending his trial before the country's Constitutional Court after he attempted to seize power in a coup. Upon his detention, South Korean political newsletter Blue Roof reported that “Pro-Yoon supporters are rioting… storming the courthouse and attacking the marshals.” Security forces however were able to subdue the rioters, per Reuters. The Constitutional Court will now decide whether or not to remove Yoon from the presidency. Yoon could also face a trial on insurrection charges which would carry penalties up to and including life in prison and even capital punishment.* Turning back to domestic news, the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, representing the cops of Philadelphia, is currently engaging in contract negotiations with the city – and making outrageous new demands. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that beyond pay raises and better vacation policy, “the police union is seeking to roll back transparency and accountability measures that predate the COVID-19 pandemic and civil unrest of 2020.” Indeed, the FOP is seeking to terminate the department's decade-long policy of releasing the names of most officers involved in shootings, prevent the Citizens Police Oversight Commission from investigating police misconduct, and “restrict outside access to currently available records ― such as those detailing how fired officers return to the force through the once-secretive grievance arbitration process.” Beyond these measures to make the police more secretive and less accountable to the public, the FOP is also demanding outrageous new perks for police officers, including interest free home loans and provisions allowing cops to live outside the state. We can only hope the city remains firm in these negotiations and preserves the public's right to know* Finally, CNN is out with a new poll showing the Democratic Party registering its worst ratings in decades. According to this poll, “a 58% majority of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say that the…Party needs major changes, or to be completely reformed, up from just 34% who said the same after…2022.” This comes on the heels of a January 15th YouGov poll showing that a plurality of Biden 2020 voters who didn't vote for Kamala Harris in 2024 said “ending Israel's violence in Gaza was the top issue affecting their vote choice.” The CNN poll also showed that “Only 49% of Democratic-aligned adults say they expect their party's congressional representatives to be even somewhat effective at resisting GOP policies.” Yet, perhaps the starkest number from this poll is “just 33% of all Americans express a favorable view of the Democratic Party, an all-time low in CNN's polling dating back to 1992.” These abysmal results should be a wakeup call to the moribund leadership of the party as the country drives of a cliff. If history is any indication though, the Democrats will remain asleep at the wheel.This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Heard. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

This episode unpacks the latest developments in crypto markets as corporates like Intesa Sanpaolo and Genius Group join the Bitcoin buying wave, with MicroStrategy's premium holding steady at 1.91. We also highlight Tether's move to El Salvador and the growing traction of IBIT options, now capturing 50% of Deribit's open interest, signaling surging institutional demand. An ETF flow update and client strategies reveal how the big players are positioning themselves for 2024.We analyze funding rates, the Ondo unlock, and how to interpret these trends in relation to market dynamics. Recent aggressive crypto acquisitions reflect growing confidence in the new regulatory environment, paired with an update on Coinbase's Third Circuit Court of Appeals filing.On the macro front, we discuss last week's CPI, PPI, and employment data and we explore fiscal policy outlooks, debt sustainability, and potential policy shifts shaping the economic landscape. Additionally, we discuss China's 10Y yield dropping from 2.1% to 1.65% and it's potential impact on global liquidity.In the on-chain segment, we break down stablecoin borrow rates, with Aave at 10-11% and Sky peaking at 12.5%, alongside a surge in USDS growth (25% in the past week). Finally, we examine Sony's L2 launch on the OP stack, signaling a shift in how corporates leverage blockchain for Web3 adoption, and the interplay between public and permissioned chains.Topics Covered:Corporate Moves: New entrants into BTC buying, MicroStrategy premium analysis.Institutional Trends: IBIT options, ETF flows, and client strategies.Funding Rates & Unlocks: How market dynamics shape strategies.Regulatory Environment: Crypto acquisitions and Coinbase court updates.Macro Update: Key data reflections, China's stimulus, and fiscal policy outlook.On-Chain: Stablecoin borrow rates, USDS growth, and Sony's L2 launch for Web3 corporates.Host:Ben Floyd, Head of Execution ServicesPanelists: David Duong, Head of Institutional Research David Han, Research Analyst Georg Toropov, Senior CES Sales Trader

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.

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.

Some jobs will require college degrees for as far as the eyes can see.But in this episode, NextgovFCW's tech workforce reporter Natalie Alms describes how what government and business leaders call “skills-based hiring” is becoming more of the norm for certain tech jobs.As Natalie tells our Ross Wilkers, some agencies and contractors are de-emphasizing educational requirements for those roles and replacing them with other means.Three big government contracts are now all about skills-based hiring. “Nat,” as some of us coworkers call her, gives some signposts to watch for how much further that approach could expand across public sector and more.We recorded this episode before Nat's next big story she teased toward the end landed on Nextgov/FCW. That article is link number one in the list below.Trump's first White House debated the role of USDS. What will Trump 2.0 do?Major federal IT contracts to remove ‘unnecessary' degree requirementsHarris touts skills-based hiring for feds on the campaign trailMace sponsors bill to ban educational requirements for government contractorsGoodbye degree requirements? Biden administration pushes skills-based hiring for tech talentWhite House looks to eliminate college degree requirements for cyber jobs with federal contractorsNever mind the degrees – here's skills-based hiringOPM issues guidance on implementing Trump-era hiring policy

Is your stablecoin earning you money? Probably not. While most stablecoins sit idle, there's a revolution happening in DeFi. We're talking 9.5% yield on USD-backed stablecoins, and it's not some risky algo-stable magic. This is real yield, powered by Spark Protocol and the MakerDAO ecosystem. In today's episode of The Milk Road Show, Sam McPherson, CEO of Phoenix Labs, joins us to uncover the secrets behind sustainable, high-yield stablecoins, the future of multichain stablecoins, and the explosive growth of Spark Protocol's revenue. ~~~~~ ⁠⁠

Podcast Show Notes: LinkedIn Live Session by Blockchain DXB & Society X Episode Title: Unfiltered Chat: Weekly Crypto, Blockchain & AI Updates Hosts: Markose Chentittha (Oort Foundation & Society X) RA George (Blockchain DXB) Audio Note:This episode is 100% AI-generated using Google's Notebook LM, showcasing the innovative use of AI technology in podcasting. Topics Discussed: Bitcoin's $100,000 Prediction: Exploring market optimism and the influence of current events. The Trump Effect: Discussion on Trump's influence on crypto markets. Potential SEC chair replacement: Teresa Goody Guillén, a pro-crypto advocate. Promised Bitcoin & Crypto Presidential Advisory Council and potential members, including Ripple, Kraken, and Circle. Charles Hoskinson's announcement of IOHK's Washington DC office. Geopolitical Impacts: U.S. announcements concerning Ukraine and Russia's tensions. How these could impact Bitcoin prices. AML & CFT protocols and enhanced due diligence measures. Importance of compliance for centralized exchanges to ensure market integrity and investor protection. Partnerships with World Liberty Finance Token. Adoption of Chainlink CCIP (Cross Chain Interoperability Protocol) by Brazil's CBDC. Broader implications for DeFi, tokenization, and TradFi. Bullish market indicators across most sectors except DeFi. Surge in privacy coins and DOGE transactions, highlighting legitimate applications. MakerDAO's rebranding to Sky and launch of the USDS stablecoin on Solana. Insights from AWS report: Unlocking the Full Potential of AI in the Middle East. Partnerships and advancements at MBZUAI. Markose Chentittha: Oort Foundation and Society X insights. RA George: Latest from Blockchain DXB, including potential collaborations with the UAE Bank Federation on governance, cybersecurity, and environmental responsibility. Potential episodes with insights from Joe Sena (Spartan Race Founder). Series on UAE banks' strategic initiatives and resilience-building efforts. Episode Highlights: Will 2024 be the year of Chainlink's dominance? How geopolitical tensions are influencing Bitcoin's price movements. AI adoption challenges and opportunities in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Where to Listen:Find this episode on: Blockchain DXB Podcast on Spotify Markose Chentittha LinkedIn Profile Call to Action: Follow Blockchain DXB and Society X for more updates. Share your thoughts: Can AI-powered content change the way we consume media?

Podcast Shownotes: Blockchain DXB & Society X Unfiltered Chat Episode Title: Weekly Crypto, Blockchain & AI Snapshot Hosts: Markose Chentittha (Oort Foundation & Society X) RA George (Blockchain DXB) Broadcast Date: November 22, 2024Episode Type: LinkedIn Live Replay Macro-Level Insights: Bitcoin $100,000? Speculation around Bitcoin's price movement influenced by macroeconomic and geopolitical factors: Trump Administration's Crypto Strategy: Regulatory Developments: Tech & Innovation: Chainlink's CCIP Dominance: AI in the Middle East: Crypto Market Update: Privacy coins show limited growth potential. MakerDAO's project "Sky" launches the USDS stablecoin on Solana. DOGE sees a 41% surge in large transactions, driven by growing use cases and endorsements. Exclusive Updates from the Hosts: Markose Chentittha shared updates on Oort Foundation and Society X initiatives. RA George discussed Blockchain DXB's latest developments and collaborations. Future Topics & Teasers: Possible upcoming podcast on Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP). Series of episodes planned with UAE Bank Federation on governance, cybersecurity, and resilience in banking. Gary Gensler's Tweet on Stepping Down as SEC Chair Reuters: Crypto Industry's Jockeying for Influence in Trump's Promised Council Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol AWS Report: Unlocking AI in the Middle East Engage with Us: Listen to this episode and more on Spotify. Follow our live sessions on LinkedIn via Markose Chentittha's and Blockchain DXB's profiles. Support the Podcast: Share your thoughts and feedback via our social channels. Stay tuned for future episodes exploring the convergence of blockchain, AI, and macroeconomic trends.

 In this episode, we discussed increased retail activity, the evolution of the AI meta, and crypto regulatory reform. Additionally, we covered the deployment of USDS on Solana, and the recent news from Coinbase Wallet: USDC holders will now earn yield. Finally, we speculated on whether or not there will be an alt season, and institutional interest in crypto post-election. Thanks for tuning in! – Follow Mike: https://twitter.com/MikeIppolito_ Follow Michael: https://twitter.com/im_manderson Follow Vance: https://twitter.com/pythianism Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3R1D1D9 Subscribe on Apple: https://apple.co/3pQTfmD Subscribe on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3cpKZXH Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ Join the Bell Curve Telegram group: https://t.me/+nzyxAvQ0Xxc3YTEx —- (00:00) Introduction (02:27) Crytpo TikTok & Retail Activity (12:23) Evolution of the AI Meta (15:12) Bitcoin Options Go Live & Crypto Regulatory Reform (25:18) Will USDS Find Success on Solana? (44:37) USDC Yield Announced For Coinbase Wallet Users (50:58) Will There Be An Alt Season? (57:18) Category Creation, Founder Migration, and FTX Distributions —-- Disclaimer: Nothing said on Bell Curve is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Mike, Jason, Michael, Vance and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.tt and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

Join host Brian Fox as he interviews Frank McNally, an acquisition strategist with the United States Digital Service (USDS), about the pivotal role of procurement in government tech modernization. Frank shares insights from his career, spanning from the TSA to private consulting and now USDS, where he helps agencies tackle modernization challenges alongside top designers and engineers. He highlights the Digital IT Acquisition Professional training program and the importance of “failure as an option” to foster agile, adaptable solutions. Tune in for valuable insights into the evolving landscape of federal acquisition.

"AI-Generated Voice Presents: Blockchain DXB – The Crypto & Coffee at 8 Series (20th Nov Update)" Welcome to today's episode of the Crypto & Coffee at 8 series on the Blockchain DXB Podcast, hosted entirely by an AI voice! In this episode, we dive into: The latest global crypto market trends and metrics. Updates on the DeFi space, stablecoins, and market sentiment. Key news highlights, including Teresa Goody Guillén's potential SEC appointment and the launch of Sky's USDS stablecoin on Solana. Join us as we explore these dynamic topics and provide insights into the ever-evolving world of blockchain and cryptocurrency. Total Market Cap: $3.11T (+1.02%) 24-hour Volume: $179.37B (-6.67%) Top Stablecoin Volume: Tether (USDT) at $144.22B dominates 91.78% of stablecoin trading. DeFi Metrics: Total Value Locked (TVL): $109.46B (Lido DAO Dominance: $30.53B). Key DEX Volumes: Market Sentiment: Extreme Greed with a score of 83. Teresa Goody Guillén for SEC Chair President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly considering blockchain law expert Teresa Goody Guillén for SEC Chair. Her pro-crypto stance could signal a significant shift in regulatory approaches. Sky's USDS Stablecoin Goes Live on Solana The DeFi-native stablecoin offers exciting opportunities across platforms like Kamino Finance and Drift Protocol, with over 500,000 USDS in weekly rewards for early adopters. Lido DAO Legal Developments A California court ruling opens the possibility of holding Lido DAO partners liable under partnership laws, igniting debate on the need for legal recognition for DAOs. Dogecoin Whale Activity Significant surge in large transactions (+41%) and active addresses (+35%) points to sustained investor interest despite market corrections. What are the benefits and drawbacks of legal recognition for DAOs? Should decentralized organizations adopt centralized legal structures for protection? AI Innovations in the Middle East M2 Partners with Haruko We'd love to hear your thoughts: What's your take on DAOs seeking legal protection? Will Sky's USDS stablecoin redefine Solana's DeFi ecosystem? Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe for more blockchain and crypto updates! This episode is fully AI-powered, from content generation to voiceover, showcasing the potential of advanced AI in media production.

 20th Nov: Blockchain DXB Podcast

Is it time to sell your $MKR or double down at a bargain price? Maker has been on a wild ride, dropping 65% and then surging back. Is this a dead cat bounce or a rocket about to launch? In today's episode of The Milk Road Show, we dive deep into Maker's fundamentals, the controversial Endgame proposal, the innovative Spark Protocol, and the secret sauce behind their yield-generating stablecoins. What you'll learn: - Maker's Revenue Streams - The Endgame & Spark Protocol - Yield-Generating Stablecoins - Challenges & Catalysts - Price Prediction

In this episode of The Wolf Of All Streets recorded at Token2049 in Singapore, we dive into an eye-opening conversation with Mike Belshe, CEO of BitGo, where we explore the future of crypto security and custody, as well as USDS, or USD Standard, a new stablecoin that BitGo is about to launch. Together, we uncover how institutions navigate this fast-growing space and what it means for all of us. If you're curious about how crypto is reshaping global finance, this is one discussion you won't want to miss! Mike Belshe: https://x.com/mikebelshe ►► Sponsored by Aptos Foundation:

An amazing interview with Brian, co-founder of Hashpoint Research about the future of investor analytics on Hedera. Plus, USDS (new stablecoin from BitGo), UDPN (CBDC + Stablecoin), Hedera hackathon winners and major breadcrumbs! Another huge week in Hedera! Live

19th Sep: Blockchain DXB Podcast - https://shorturl.at/lTDqm

幻冬舎の暗号資産（仮想通貨）/ブロックチェーンなどweb3領域の専門メディア「あたらしい経済 https://www.neweconomy.jp/ 」がおくる、Podcast番組です。 ーーーーー 【番組スポンサー 「Bitcoin Tokyo 2024」のご紹介】 この番組は「Bitcoin Tokyo 2024」の提供でお届けします。 日本初のビットコインに特化をした国際カンファレンス「Bitcoin Tokyo 2024」が9月21日-22日開催されます。世界のトッププレイヤーが東京に集い、ビットコイン技術やビジネストレンドはもちろん、話題のETFやトランプのビットコイン戦略などのテーマで議論します。さらにビットコイン関連のアプリやサービスを体験する機会も。ビットコインの今をキャッチアップできるこのチャンスをお見逃しなく。 →チケットの購入や詳細は「Bitcoin Tokyo 2024」をチェック！ https://bitcoinconference.tokyo/ 【紹介したニュース】 ・グーグルクラウド、新RPCサービス「Blockchain RPC」開始 ・カストディ大手BitGo、独自ステーブルコイン「USDS」を来年1月に発行へ ・英レボリュート、独自ステーブルコイン発行を計画中か＝報道 ・サークルの米ドルステーブルコイン「USDC」、ブラジルとメキシコの法定通貨から直接利用可能に ・コインベースにZetachain（ZETACHAIN）とAleo（ALEO）上場へ ・TON財団とカーブファイナンスが提携、TON基盤のステーブルコインスワップ開始 ・ブラックロック、ビットコインを「ユニークな分散投資」の資産として概説するレポート公開 ・テザー社、2024年Q2の監査情報を開示。1184億ドルの準備金を保有 ーーーーー 【あたらしい経済関連リンク】 ニュースの詳細や、アーカイブやその他の記事はこちらから https://www.neweconomy.jp/

Podcast Shownotes: Blockchain DXB & Society X - LinkedIn Live Episode Title: Unfiltered Chat - Weekly Crypto, Blockchain & AI Snapshot Date: August 29th, 2024 Hosts: Markose Chentittha + RA George Special Guest: Andre Pemmelaar, Agentic AI Labs LinkedIn: Andre Pemmelaar https://www.linkedin.com/in/andre-pemmelaar-a8343a7a/ Episode Overview: In this episode of Blockchain DXB & Society X, we dive into the latest developments in the world of crypto, blockchain, and AI. This session covers key announcements, market movements, regulatory updates, and the intersection of AI and decentralized technologies. Topics Discussed: Jerome Powell's Announcement (23rd August): Interest rates cooling down with an official update expected on 18th September. Temporary surge in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency market prices. Emergency Tuesday Live: Discussion on "People, Privacy, and Politics." Updates on the legal situation surrounding Telegram's CEO: Bail set at $5.56 million. Under judicial supervision with weekly reports to the French police. TON Blockchain congestion issues and the recent airdrop for 10 million users via a Telegram-based mini-app. MakerDAO's Rebranding to Sky: Upcoming launch on 18th September. Introduction of the USDS stablecoin and Sky governance token. Existing MKR token holders can switch to 24,000 SKY tokens per MKR. Discussion on Rune Christensen's "End Game" blog and potential developments on Solana. India's Digital Public Infrastructure: Overview of India's 5 million retail CBDC users. Insights into the Digital Rupee and its non-blockchain-based digital identity system. India's plans to regulate cryptocurrency with a consultation paper expected in September/October. Exclusive Interview with Andre Pemmelaar: Introduction to Agentic AI Labs. Discussion on how Agentic AI Labs helps individuals and businesses. Merging decentralized AI with a blockchain-based identity vector. Privacy-first decentralized AI agents and regulatory considerations. OpenSea vs. SEC: Clarification on SEC's focus on centralized entities in the NFT space. Overview of the Howey Test and its application to NFTs. Crypto Market Movements: Market reactions to the Federal Reserve's announcements. Updates on Telegram CEO's arrest and market liquidation. Community Updates: Markose: Society X and Oort Foundation updates. George: Blockchain DXB developments. Andre: Insights on Tech Tuesday and updates from Agentic AI Labs. Links & Resources: Jerome Powell's Announcement - Official Link MakerDAO's Rebranding to Sky Video by Reserve Bank of India on Digital Public Infrastructure Call to Action: Stay tuned for more insights and updates on our next episode. Follow us on LinkedIn for real-time updates and join our discussions. Join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BlockchainDXB LinkedIn Profile: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://tinyurl.com/bdeevbru⁠⁠⁠⁠ Podcast Host: @black_incarnation ⚡ Buy me Coffee ☕ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.buymeacoffee.com/info36/w/6987⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To show your support see below ⚡ Tether USDT (ERC20) 0x7acd89cececd5b125a2fc4caa9bc642879579f1e ⚡Leder Wallet! Link https://shop.ledger.com?r=ae54df359c4d ⚡ Bitcoin address: 02ddf96964b352b75dd660a56a5162bf9e76e549e31263b88ed93015e635771795 ⚡ Ethereum address 0x2662CFE66d24bB7930b9d9dC0B5Fe809A1501d28

28th Aug: Crypto & Coffee at 8

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Victoria Guido hosts Robbie Holmes, the founder and CEO of Holmes Consulting Group. The conversation kicks off with Robbie recounting his initial foray into the tech world at a small web hosting company named A1 Terabit.net, chosen for its alphabetical advantage in the white pages. This job was a stepping stone to a more significant role at Unisys, working for the state of New York's Department of Social Services, where Robbie inadvertently ventured into civic tech and public interest technology. Robbie shares his career progression from supporting welfare systems in New York to becoming a technological liaison between the city and state, leading to a deeper involvement in open-source solutions. His journey through tech spaces includes developing websites, diving into the Drupal community, and eventually establishing his consulting business. Robbie emphasizes the serendipitous nature of his career path, influenced significantly by community involvement and networking rather than a planned trajectory. Additionally, Robbie gives insights on the impact of technology in public services and his stint with the U.S. Digital Service (USDS), where he contributed to significant projects like vets.gov. Robbie promotes the value of community engagement in shaping one's career, stressing how connections and being in the right place at the right time can lead to unexpected opportunities and career pivots. Follow Robbie Holmes on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbiethegeek/), X (https://twitter.com/RobbieTheGeek), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/robbiethegeek), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/robbiethegeek), or GitHub (https://github.com/robbiethegeek). Check out his website at robbiethegeek (https://about.me/robbiethegeek). Follow thoughtbot on X (https://twitter.com/thoughtbot) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/). Transcript: VICTORIA: This is the Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots podcast, where we explore the design, development, and business of great products. I'm your host, Victoria Guido. And with me today is Robbie Holmes, Founder and CEO of Holmes Consulting Group. Robbie, thank you for joining me. ROBBIE: I'm so happy to be here. It's great to talk to you, Victoria. VICTORIA: Yes. I have known you for a long time now, but I don't know everything about you. So, I thought I would start with the question: What was your first job that you ever had? ROBBIE: My first technical job, I ended up working for an internet web hosting company called A1 Terabit.net. And note the A1 because it came first in the white pages. It was a really small web hosting company run by a man named [SP] Maxim Avrutsky. I worked there for about six months before I submitted my resume to an online job forum. That's how old I am. And it ended up in the hands of Unisys, where I eventually worked for the state of New York. VICTORIA: Wow [laughs]. So, what a journey that you've been on to get from starting there, and what a marketing ploy back in the day with the white pages. So, tell me a little bit more about how you went from that first job to where you are today with having your own business in consulting. ROBBIE: Yeah, I wasn't even aware that I was jumping into the sort of civic tech space and public interest technology because the job I ended up with was working for New York State in the Department of Social Services. And welfare is federally funded and distributed to states and then states to localities. And New York City and New York State have a weird parasymbiotic relationship because over 50% of the welfare in New York State goes to the five boroughs in New York City. So, so much of my job was supporting the welfare system within the city, which was run by the human resources administration. So, that just led to this cascade of me, like, getting invested in supporting that, and then eventually jumping over to the other side where I worked for the City of New York. And at that point, I ended up becoming sort of a technology project manager and almost a tech liaison between the city and state. And I was out in the welfare centers, helping get the job centers up to a new application called the Paperless Office System, which was a client-server app that was a wrapper around welfare. All of that ended up leading to me finally making it to the network operation center for the City of New York, where I started replacing expensive solutions like HP OpenView with open-source solutions like Nagios and another open-source solution that provided an interface. And it really opened my eyes to the idea of open source. And I had really paid attention to a lot of open-source operating systems. So, I was kind of just a general tech nerd. And eventually, I started building websites, and that led me to the Drupal community in New York City, which was sort of this cascade that led me to communities. And I think that's sort of a through line for my entire career is I don't really think I ever had a plan. I think my entire career has been this sort of a lucky happenstance of being prepared when an opportunity arose and sometimes being in the right place because of my connections and community. VICTORIA: That's interesting about being involved with the people around you and seeing what problems are out there to solve and letting that lead you to where your interests lie. And then, following that, naturally led you to, like, this really long career and these really interesting, big projects and problems that you get to solve. ROBBIE: Yeah. And I think one interesting aspect is like, I feel I spent a lot of time worried about what I was going to do and where I was going to do it. I don't have a bachelor's degree. I don't have an advanced degree. I have a high school diploma and a couple of years in college. Well, 137 credits, not the right 125 or 124 to have a bachelor's degree. I have enough credits for a couple of minors though, definitely Greek art history, I think mathematics, maybe one more. I just never got it together and actually got my degree. But that was so interesting because it was limiting to what jobs I could find. So, I was in the tech space as an IT person and specifically doing networking. So, I was running the network operation center. I helped, like, create a whole process for how we track tickets, and how we created tickets, and how things were moved along. And, in the process, I started building websites for family and friends. And I built a website for our network operation center, so that way we could have photos to go with our diagrams of the network. So that way, when we were troubleshooting remotely, we could actually pull up images and say, "The cable that's in port six goes off to the router. I think that port is dead. Can we move it to the port two to its right, and I'll activate it?" And that made a really interesting solution for something we weren't even aware we had, which was lack of visibility. So many of the people in the fields were newer or were trying to figure it out. And some of us had really deep knowledge of what was going on in those network rooms and hubs. It led me to this solution of like, well, why don't we just start documenting it and making it easier for us to help when they're in the field? That led me to, like, the Drupal community because I started building sites in the Drupal CMS. And I went to, like, my first Drupal meetup in 2007, and there was, like, five of us around the table. That led to eventually me working for Sony Music and all these other things. But the year before I found my way to the Drupal community, I probably sent out, like, 400 resumes for jobs in the tech space, didn't really get any callbacks. And then, I met the community, and I started attending events, and then eventually, I started organizing events. And then, Sony I interviewed and talked to them a couple of times. And then, a friend of mine became the boss. And she contacted me and was like, "Hey, are you in the market?" And I was like, "I don't know. Why? What's up?" And she's like, "I became Doug." And I was like, "What?" And she was like, "I'm now replacing Doug at Sony. I'm running the team." And I was like, "Yeah, I'm happy to talk." And that was the big transition in my career from IT to sort of development and to delivery, right? Like, when it comes right down to it, is I became the manager of interactive media at Sony Music, which was really a job I landed because I was connected to the community, and running events, and getting to know everyone. VICTORIA: Yeah. And I think it's really cool that you had this exposure early on to what you called civic tech, which we'll get into a little bit, and then you went from the community into a commercial technology space and really getting into engineering with Drupal. ROBBIE: Yeah, it was an interesting transition because what they needed at Sony was sort of somebody who could ride the line between systems engineer, database administrator, and Drupal engineer, and also probably pre-DevOps DevOps person. So, I was responsible for all deployments and all tickets that came in. I was sort of both the technical arm of the help desk. When I joined, there was 24 websites on the Drupal platform, and when I left, there was over 200. And we upgraded it from Drupal 5 to Drupal 6 to Drupal 7 while I was there. So, I was heavily involved in all of those updates, and all those upgrades, and all of the deployments of all the new themes, and all the changes to all these sites. So, what was great was they, I believe, if I understand it correctly, they actually created a role for me out of, like, two or three jobs because they needed a me, and they didn't have a role that existed. So, all of a sudden, they made a manager of interactive media role. And I was able to work there for two years, sort of being what I jokingly say, like, a digital janitor. I used to say that I had, like, an eight-bit key ring in a push broom. And I was always mad at your kids for trying to break my stuff. VICTORIA: [laughs] That's so good. A digital service janitor [laughs]? The connection for me between that and where I met you in the U.S. digital service space [laughs] I feel like there's a lot of parallels between that and where your career evolved later on in life. ROBBIE: Yeah. What's amazing is I did all this early work in my career in civic tech and didn't realize it was civic tech at the time. I just realized what I was doing was providing this huge impact and was value. You know, I spent a couple of years in the welfare centers, and I used to say all the time that the two hardest jobs in the welfare center are the person applying for welfare and the person deciding whether or not that person gets welfare. So, being a technologist and trying to help make that as simple as possible or easier and smooth the edges off of that process was really important. And it really taught me how important technology is to delivering service. And I really never thought about it before. And then, when I was working for Phase2 technologies, I was a director of Digital Services. And I read in a blog post, I believe that was written by Mikey Dickerson, who was the original administrator for USDS, and he talked about HealthCare.gov. And he walked in the door, and he said, "How do you know HealthCare.gov is down?" And I think there was some allusion to the fact that we were like, we turn on the television and if they're yelling at us, we know it's down. And Mikey was like, "We know how to monitor things." So, like, if you don't know Mikey Dickerson, he's the person who sort of created the web application hierarchy of needs in Google. He was an SRE. And his pyramid, like Maslow's hierarchy of needs, was all over Google when I was there. I was so impressed with the idea that, like, we aren't talking about how do we solve this problem? We're talking about knowing when there's a problem. And then, if we know there's a problem, we can put some messaging around that. We can say, like, "We're aware," right? Like if the president calls the secretary, the secretary can say, "We know it's down. We're working on it," which is building up political capital. It's a really amazing process that I kept reading this blog post, and I was like, God, that's how I would approach it. And then, I was like, wow, I wonder if I could use my skills to help America, and very shortly submitted an application and was like, well, we'll see what happens. And about six months later, I walked in the door at the VA and was the eighth employee of the Digital Service team at the VA. That was a franchise team of the USDS model. VICTORIA: And can you say a little bit more about what is the U.S. Digital Service and expand upon your early experience there? ROBBIE: Yeah. So, the United States Digital Service was created after HealthCare.gov had its issues. Todd Park had convinced President Obama to reach out to get support from the private industry. And the few of the people who were there, Todd convinced to stick around and start creating a team that could support if there was this kind of issue in the future. I believe the team that was there on the ground was Mikey Dickerson, Erie Meyer, Haley Van Dyck, and Todd. And there was a few other people who came back or were very close at the beginning, including the current administrator of USDS. She has been around a long time and really helped with HealthCare.gov. It's amazing that Mina is back in government. We're very lucky to have her. But what came out of that was what if we were able to stand up a team that was here in case agencies needed support or could vet solutions before these types of problems could exist? So, USDS was what they called the startup inside the White House that was created during the 2014 administration of President Obama. The team started that year, and I joined in May of 2016. So, I would be, like, sort of the beginning of the second team of the VA U.S. Digital Service team. So, USDS supported this idea of tours of duty, where you're a schedule A employee, which meant you were a full-time government employee, but you were term-limited. You could do up to two years of duty and work, and then you could theoretically stick around and do two more years. That was how these roles were envisioned. I think there's lots of reasons why that was the case. But what's nice is it meant that you would come in with fresh eyes and would never become part of the entrenched IT ecosystem. There are people that transition from USDS into government, and I think that's a huge value prop nowadays. It's something that I don't know they were thinking about when the original United States Digital Service was stood up, but it was hugely impactful. Like, I was part of the team at the VA that helped digitize the first form on vets.gov and all the work that was done. When the VA team started, there was a team that was helping with veteran benefits, and they worked on the appeals process for veteran benefits. And I joined. And there was a team that was...eventually, it became dubbed the veteran-facing tools team. And we worked on vets.gov, which was a new front door to expose and let veterans interact with the VA digitally. And over time, all the work that went into the tools and the solutions that were built there, everything was user-researched. And all of that work eventually got brought into VA.gov in what they called a brand merger. So, we took, like, the sixth most trafficked front door of the VA and took all the modern solutioning that that was and brought it into VA.gov, the main front door. So, all of a sudden, there was an identity, a login provided on VA.gov for the first time. So big, impactful work that many people were a part of and is still ongoing today. Surprisingly, so much of this work has now fallen under OCTO, which is the Office of the CTO in the VA. And the CTO is Charles Worthington, who was a USDSer who's the epitome of a person who goes where the work is. Charles was a Presidential Innovation Fellow who helped out in the times of HealthCare.gov and, joined USDS and did anything and everything that was necessary. He interviewed engineers. He was a product person. Charles is one of the most unique technologists and civic tech people I've ever met in my life. But Charles, at the end of the Obama administration and in this transition, realized that the VA was in need of someone to fill the CTO role. So, he came over to become the interim CTO because one of the values of USDS is to go where the work is. And he realized, with the transition, that Marina Nitze, who was the CTO who was transitioning out, there was going to be a need for continuity. So, he came in to provide that continuity and eventually became the full-time CTO and has been there ever since. So, he has helped shape the vision of what the VA is working towards digitally and is now...he was just named the Chief AI Officer for the agency. Charles is a great person. He has successfully, you know, shepherded the work that was being done early by some of us into what is now becoming a sort of enterprise-wide solution, and it's really impressive. VICTORIA: I appreciate you sharing that. And, you know, I think there's a perception about working for public service or for government, state or federal agencies, that they are bureaucratic, difficult to work with, very slow. And I think that the USDS was a great example of trying to really create a massive change. And there's been this ripple effect of how the government acquires products and services to support public needs, right? ROBBIE: Yeah, I would say there's a couple of arms of the government that were sort of modernization approaches, so you have the Presidential Innovation Fellows, which are the equivalent of, like, entrepreneurs and residents in government. And they run out of...I think they're out of the TTS, the Technology Transformation Service over at GSA, which is the General Services Administration. But the PIFs are this really interesting group of people that get a chance to go in and try to dig in and use their entrepreneurial mindset and approach to try to solve problems in government. And a lot of PIFS work in offices. Like, Charles' early team when he first became the CTO included a lot of Presidential Innovation Fellows. It was basically like, "Hey, the VA could use some support," and these people were available and were able to be convinced to come and do this work. And then, you have the Presidential Management Fellows, which I think is a little bit more on the administration side. And then, we have 18F and USDS. The United States Digital Service is a funded agency with an OMB. And we were created as a way to provide the government with support either by detailing people over or dropping in when there was a problem. And then, 18F is an organization that is named because the offices of GSA and TTS (Technology Transformation Service), where it's housed, are on the corner of 18th Street and F in DC. And 18F is sort of like having a technology or a digital agency for hire within the government. So, they are full-time employees of the government, sort of like USDS, except government agencies can procure the support of that 18F team, just like they would procure the support of your company. And it was a really interesting play. They are fully cost-recoupable subcomponent of TTS, which means they have to basically make back all the money that they spend, whereas USDS is different. It's congressionally funded for what it does. But they're all similar sibling organizations that are all trying to change how government works or to bring a more modern idea or parlance into the government. I used to say to people all the time that at USDS, you know, we would set a broken bone say, and then we would come back around and say, like, "Hey, does your arm hurt anymore?" The idea being like, no. Be like, "Cool, cool. Maybe you should go to the gym, and you should eat better." And that would be, like, procurement change. That would be, like, changing for the long term. So, all the work I was doing was building political capital so we could do better work in changing how procurement was done and then changing how the government delivered these things. So, what was awesome was, like, we used to have these fights at USDS about whether or not we were a culture change or we were firefighters. And I think the reality is once we're involved, culture changes happen. The bigger question is, are we going to be there for the long haul, or are we only there for a shorter period of time? And I think there are reasons why USDS teams had both plays. And I think it really is just two different plays for the same outcome. VICTORIA: Yeah, that makes sense. And to pivot a little bit, I think, you know, our audience, we have clients and listeners who are founders of products that are aimed at making these, like, public service needs, or to give some examples, like, maybe they're trying to track Congressional voting patterns or contact information for different state representatives, and they're trying to navigate this space [laughs]. So, maybe you can give some advice for founders interested in selling their products to government agencies. What can they do to make it more appealing and less painful for themselves? ROBBIE: I wouldn't consider myself a procurement expert, but at USDS, the procurement team called themselves the [SP] procurementati. And I was a secret member of the procurementati. I often was the engineer they would call to evaluate statements of work or sometimes be on technology evaluation panels. And it was fun to be a part of that. Things that most companies don't realize is government agencies will put out things like request for information or sources sought in the government space. And this is a way for industry to influence how government tries to solve problems. If you are trying to go after government work and you're only responding to an RFP, you're probably behind in your influence that you could have on the type of work. So, you'll see if a procurement seems to be, like, specifically focused on an approach, or a technology, or a framework, it's probably because some companies have come through and said, "I think this would probably solve your problem," and they gave examples. So, that's one way to be more connected to what's going on is to follow those types of requests. Another is to follow the money. My wife is this amazing woman who helped write The Data Act and get it passed through government. And The Data Act is the Data and Transparency Act. And that led to her heading over to treasury and leading up a team that built USAspending.gov. So, there is a website that tracks every dollar, with some exceptions, of the funding that comes out of Congress every year. And what's great is you can track it down to where it's spent, and how it's spent, and things like that. For education purposes, I think that is a really good thing that business and growth people can focus on is try to see and target where competitors or where solutions that you've looked at have gone in the past. It's just a good set of data for you to take a look at. The other piece is if you're creating a solution that is a delivery or a deliverable, like a SaaS solution, in order for something to be utilized in the government, it probably needs to be FedRAMP-approved, which is a process by which security approvals have been given so that government agencies have the green light to utilize your solution. So, there's tons of documentation out there about FedRAMP and the FedRAMP approval process. But that is one of those things that becomes a very big stopping point for product companies that are trying to work in the government. The easiest way to work your way through that is to read up on it a bunch, but also find an agency that was probably willing to sponsor you getting FedRAMP approval. Most companies start working with a government agency, get an exemption for them to utilize your product, and then you get to shape what that FedRAMP process looks like. You start applying for it, and then you have to have some sort of person who's helping shepherd it for you internally in the government and accepting any issues that come along in the process. So, I guess FedRAMP approval is one that's a little complicated but would be worth looking into if you were planning on delivering a product in government. VICTORIA: Right. And does that apply to state governments as well? ROBBIE: So, lots of state-related and city and locality-related governments will actually adopt federal solutions or federal paradigms. So, I think in the state of California, I think FedRAMP as one of the guiding principles for accepting work into the state of California, so it's not consistent. There's not a one-to-one that every state, or every city, or every locality will pull this in. But if you are already approved to be a federal contractor, or a federal business, or a federal product, it's probably going to be easier to make your way into the local spaces also. VICTORIA: Right. And as you said, there's plenty of resources, and tools, and everything to help you go along that journey if that's the group you're going for [laughs]. Mid-Roll Ad: When starting a new project, we understand that you want to make the right choices in technology, features, and investment but that you don't have all year to do extended research. In just a few weeks, thoughtbot's Discovery Sprints deliver a user-centered product journey, a clickable prototype or Proof of Concept, and key market insights from focused user research. We'll help you to identify the primary user flow, decide which framework should be used to bring it to life, and set a firm estimate on future development efforts. Maximize impact and minimize risk with a validated roadmap for your new product. Get started at: tbot.io/sprint. VICTORIA: So, kind of bringing it back to you, like, you're saying you want those partnerships within the government. You want someone advocating for you or for your product or your service. Drawing that back to what you said earlier about community, like, how do you form a community with this group of people who are in the state, or federal government, or civic tech spaces? ROBBIE: Yeah, I think it's an interesting problem because so much of it feels impenetrable from the outside. Most people don't even know where to start. There are organizations out there that are pretty good community connections, an example I would give is ACT-IAC. It is a public-private partnership where people from within the government, experts in their fields, and people in the private industry who are experts in their fields will be together on community boards and engaging in panels. And so, it's a really nice way to start connecting those dots. I have no direct affiliation with ACT-IAC. But if they'd like to give me my own account, that would be great. But it is one of those organizations I've seen be successful for people trying to find their way into a community that is a little harder to find. I think, also, so much of the community engagement happens at conferences and around...so, like, if you're in the healthcare space, this last month, you've had multiple conferences that I think were really great for people to get to know one another, you know, an example is ViVE. It just happened out in LA, which is a little more on the private sector health space, but still, government agencies were there. I know that the Department of Veterans Affairs had people there and were on panels. And then, HIMSS is another conference that takes place, and that just took place down in Miami. And in Miami, HIMSS happened and a whole bunch of other social community events took place. So, I'm close with a thing called the Digital Services Coalition, which is 47 companies that all try to deliver good government based on the Digital Services Playbook that was created by USDS that lives at playbook.cio.gov and the way that they try to accomplish this work. And that organization, while they were in Miami, hosted a happy hour. So, there's a lot of connections that can be made once you start seeing the players and getting to know who's around. So, it's a little bit about trying to find your way to that first event, and I think that will really open up everything for you. Within a week or two, I was at an International Women's Day event at MetroStar, which is a really great company that I've gotten a chance to spend some time with. And then, I was at an event for the Digital Services Coalition talking about open source in government. So, there's a lot of stuff out there for you to be a part of that isn't super cost-prohibitive and also doesn't take a lot once you start to open the door. You know, once you peek around that corner and you find some people, there's a lot more to be done. VICTORIA: Yeah. And you touched on something at the end there that wants me to bring up some of the advantages you can have being a small business, a minority-owned business, or woman-owned business, or veteran-owned business, so thinking about how you can form those connections, especially if you have one of those socio and economic set-asides that you might want to consider if they're looking to work with the government as well. ROBBIE: Yeah. Those socioeconomic set-asides include small businesses, woman-owned small business. I think it's Native and Alaskan 8(a), which is historically underrepresented and service-disabled veteran-owned. So, there are also sub-communities of associations, like there's the Digital WOSB, the digital Women-Owned Small Business alliance that was founded by Jess Morris from Pluribus Digital, and a bunch of other companies in the Digital Services Coalition. I believe she's the president of the Digital WOSB right now. That is a sub-community of women-owned small businesses that are trying to connect and create a community that they can support one another. And that's just one example of the type of connection you can make through those types of socioeconomic set-asides. But once you have those official socioeconomic set-asides, it will allow you to get specific contracts engagements in the government that are not allowed or available for others. So, the government procurement process will have some amount of these specific socioeconomic set-asides that need to be hit. Like, 8% of all procurements need to go to this and 10% of all procurements need to go to this. So, I think the VA is probably one of the most effective at hitting any of the socioeconomic set-asides, specifically related to service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses. So, if you happen to be a person of color and you found a business and you are female presenting, right? You may have 8(a) woman-owned small business. If you also happen to be a veteran and you're service-disabled, all of those things stack. You don't just get to have one of them. And they can be really effective in helping a business get a leg up and starting out and trying to help even the playing field for those communities. VICTORIA: Yeah. What I really appreciated about my experience working with Pluribus Digital, and you, and people who had had that experience in the U.S. Digital Services, that there is this community and desire to help each other out and that you can have access to people who know how to move your product forward, get you the connections that you need to be competitive, and to go after the work. So, I love encouraging people to consider civic tech options. And maybe even say more about just how impactful some of it can be. And what kind of missions are you solving in these spaces? ROBBIE: Yeah, I often try to remind people, especially those who are heading towards or considering civic tech, there are very few places in this world that you can work on something that can impact millions of people. Sure, I was lucky enough. I have tons of privilege. I worked at a lot of wacky places that have given me the access to do the type of work that I think is impactful, but very little has the kind of impact. Like, when I was interviewed by Marina Nitze as, my last interview when I joined USDS, she sent me an email at the end of it and said like, "Everything was great. I look forward to working with you. And remember, every time you commit code into our GitHub, you'll be helping 8 million veterans." And then, she cc'd Todd Park. And Todd was the CTO of the U.S., and he responded back within a minute. Todd is one of the most busy people. It was amazing to me how fast he responded. But he was like, "Lemme tell you, as somebody who can talk on behalf of our president, our country needs you." And those kinds of things they're hard to comprehend. And then, I joined the Digital Service team at the VA. And one of the first things that I got to support was the 10-10EZ. It's the healthcare application for veterans. And before I got there, it was a hosted PDF that we were trying to replace. And the team had been working for months to try to build a new, modern solution. What it was is it was, like, less than six submissions were happening a day because it only worked in Adobe Acrobat, I think it was 6.5 and below, and Internet Explorer 8.5 and below. And if you think about the people that could submit utilizing that limited set of technologies, it was slowly becoming homeless veterans who were using library computers that had not been upgraded. So, there was a diminishing amount of value that it was providing. And then, on top of it, it was sort of lying to veterans. If the version of the Adobe Acrobat was out of date, or wrong, or too new, it would tell them to upgrade their browser. So, like, it was effectively not providing any value over time. We were able to create a new version of that and that was already well on its way when I joined, but we were able to get it out the door. And it was a React frontend using a Node backend to talk to that SOAP API endpoint. Within the first week, we went from 6 submissions a day to 60 submissions a day. It's a joke, right? We were all 10x developers. We were like, "Look at us. We're killing it." But about three years later, Matt Cutts came to a staff meeting of USDS, and he was the second administrator of the USDS. And he brought the cake that had the actual 10-10EZ form on it, and it said, "500,000." And he had checked with the analytics team, and there were over 500,000 submissions of that form, which means there are 500,000 possible veterans that now may or may not have access to healthcare benefits. Those are big problems. All of that was done by changing out one form. It opened up the world. It opened up to a group of veterans that no one else was able to do. They would have had to go into a veteran's office, and they would have had to fill it out in paper. And some veterans just don't have the ability to do that, or don't have an address, or don't have a...so, there are so many reasons why having a digital form that worked for veterans was so important. But this one form that we digitized and we helped make modern has been submitted so many times and has helped so many veterans and their families. And that's just one example. That's just one form that we helped digitize. But now the team, I mean, I'm back in the VA ecosystem. There's, like, 2,500 people in the general channel in the office of the CTO Slack organization. That's amazing. There's people there that are working all day, every day, trying to solve the same problems that I was trying to solve when I got here. And there's so much work being done to help veterans. But that's just one example, right? Like, at USDS, I know that the digital filing for the free version of your tax form, the IRS e-file Direct, just went live. That was something that USDS had been working on for a very long time behind the scenes. And that's going to impact everybody who submits their taxes. These are the kind of problems that you get to work on or the scope of some of the problems if you work in these types of organizations, and that's really powerful. It's the thing that keeps drawing me back. I'm back supporting the VA again through some contracts in my business. But it's funny, like, I was working for another agency. I was over working at DHS on an asylum project. And a friend of mine kept telling people to tell me, "Man, veterans need you. If only there was another one of you to help us over here, that would be great." And eventually, it led to me being like, well, veterans need me. I'm going to go back to the VA. And that was my second tour at USDS at the Department of Veteran Affairs. And now I'm back there again. So, it's a very impactful place to work. There's tons of value you can provide to veterans. And, to me, it's the kind of work that keeps bringing me back. I didn't realize just how much I was a, like, impact junkie until I joined USDS, and then it really came to a head. I cannot believe how much work I've gotten to be a part of that has affected and supported those who get benefits and services from the federal government. VICTORIA: [inaudible 33:47] impact junkie. That's funny. But yeah, no, thank you for sharing that. That's really interesting. Let me see if you could go back in time to when you first started in this journey; if you could give yourself any advice, what would you say? ROBBIE: Yeah, I think I spent so much time being nervous about not having my degree that I was worried it was going to hinder me forever. And it's pretty amazing the career I've been able to thread together, right? Like, you know, I've hit on a few of them already. But, like, I started with a small web hosting company, and then New York State in the Department of Social Services, then New York City in the Human Resources Administration, Sony Music, Zagat Survey, Google, Johnson & Johnson, IDT telecommunications, Phase2 technologies, where I got to work on an awful lot of problems in lots of awesome places like NBA.com, and Major League Soccer, and Bassmaster. And then, the United States Digital Service where I got to work on things supporting the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Homeland Security over at ADA.gov in DOJ. I helped them out. And I worked over at USDA helping get Farmers.gov off the ground. So, everything on my left leg, tattoo-wise, is something that changed my life from my perspective. And I have a Drupal tattoo on the back of my leg. I have a DrupalCon. So, anytime somebody said "Drupal" anywhere near a USDS person, I would magically appear because they would just be like, "Oh, Robbie has that Drupal tattoo." So, I got to work on a lot of dot govs that eventually landed or were being built in Drupal. So, I got to support a lot of work. And it meant that I got to, like, float around in government and do a lot of things that others didn't get to do. When CISA stood up, which is the office of security inside of DHS, it's one of the newest sub-communities or subcomponents, they built DHS SchoolSafety.gov, which is a cross-MOU'd site. And I got to sit in and help at the beginning of that because of my Drupal background. But it was really fun to be the person who helped them work with the vendors and make sure that they understood what they were trying to accomplish and be a sort of voice of reason in the room. So, I did all of that work, and then after that, I went and worked at Pluribus Digital, where I got a chance to work side by side with you. And then, that led to other things, like, I was able to apply and become the director of Digital Services and software engineering for my local county. So, I worked for Prince William County, where I bought a house during the pandemic. And then, after that contract ended, I had already started my own business. So, that's led to me having multiple individual contracts with companies and so many people. I've gotten to work on so many different things. And I feel very lucky. If I could go back and tell myself one thing, it's just, take a breath. Everything's going to be okay. And focus on the things that matter. Focus on the things that are going to help you. Focus on community. Focus on delivering value. Everything else will work itself out. You know, I joke all the time that I'm really good at providing impact. If you can measure my life in impact and value, I would be a very rich man. If you can measure it in money, I'm doing all right, but I'm never going to be yacht Robbie, you know, but I'm going to do okay. VICTORIA: Oh my god, yacht Robbie. That's great. So, just to recap, everything's going to be okay. You never know where it's going to take you. And don't be limited by the things that you think, you know, make you not enough. Like, there's a lot of things that you can do out there. I really like that advice. ROBBIE: And I think one last piece is, like, community matters, if you are a part of communities and you do it genuinely, how much that will impact your career. I gave a talk from Drupal NYC to the White House and beyond. And I talked through my entire resume and how everything changed when I started doing community engagement. When I went to the Drupal community in New York City and how that led to Sony, and that led to Zagat, which led to me getting acquired by Google, like, these things all cascaded. And then, when I moved to the DMV, I was able to join here and continue supporting communities, which allowed me to bring people into the local civic tech community from the local DC tech community. So, so many of the best USDS engineers, and designers, and product people I was able to help influence to come to government were people I met in the community or the communities I helped support. You know, I was an early revivalist of Alexandria Code and Coffee. It was a community that was started and then wavered. And then, Sean McBeth reached out to the community and said, "Do we want to help and support getting it off the ground again?" And I immediately said, "Yes." And then, that led to my friends at BLACK CODE COLLECTIVE wanting to create a community where they could feel safe and connected and create a community of their own. And then DC Code & Coffee started. And from there, Baltimore Code & Coffee kicked off. And it's just really nice that, like, it doesn't matter where I've been. All these things keep coming back to be a part of community and help support others. And you will be surprised at how much you get back in return. I wouldn't be the person I am today in my community. I wouldn't have my career if it wasn't for the people who started and helped shepherd me when I was starting out. And I feel like I've been trying to do the same for people for a really long time. VICTORIA: I love that. That's what I say, too, when people ask me for advice on careers and how to grow. And my biggest piece is always to go out and meet people. And go to your community, like, look and see what's happening. Like, find people you like hanging out with and learning from. And just that should be the majority of your time probably if you're trying to figure out where to go with your career or even just, like, expand as a person sometimes [laughs]. Robbie, I was going to ask; you mentioned that you had bought a house in Virginia. One of my other warmup questions was going to be, what's your favorite thing to put on the grill? ROBBIE: My house in Virginia definitely gets a lot of use, especially in the spring and the fall. I'm a big fan of team no extreme when it comes to temperature. But during those time periods, my grill is often fired up. My favorite is probably to make skirt steak on the grill. I'm a huge fan of tacos, especially made out of skirt steak. I'm in all day. That's one of my favorites. I also love to smoke. I have a smoker because I'm a caricature-esque suburban dude. I'm going to live into all of the possible things I could have. But I've had a smoker for a long time, and I love making sort of poor man's burnt ends. It's one of my favorite things to make. But you got to have some time. That's the kind of thing that takes, you know, 14 hours or 16 hours, but it's really fun to take advantage of it. A quick thing I love to make is actually smoked salmon. It takes longer to brine it than it usually does to smoke it. But it is one of the nicest things I've made on my smoker, you know, fresh pesto on a piece of salmon is pretty awesome, or everything bagel. Everything with the bagel seasoning is a pretty fun way to smoke some salmon. VICTORIA: Wow, that sounds so good. I'm going to have to stop in next time I'm in Virginia and get some [laughs] and hang out. Do you have any questions for me? ROBBIE: I'm excited to see where you've gone and how you've gotten here. I think this is such a cool job for you. Knowing who you are as a person and seeing you land in a company like this is really exciting. And I think you getting to be a part of this podcast, which we were joking about earlier, is I've been listening to probably since it started. I've been a big fan for a long time. So, it's cool to be here on this podcast. But it's also cool that my friend is a part of this and gets to be a part of this legacy. I'm really excited to see where you go over time. I know my career has been changing, right? I worked in government. Before that, I did all kinds of other stuff. Nowadays I have my own business where I often joke I have sort of, like, three things I offer, which is, like, consigliere services. Wouldn't it be nice to have a Robbie on your executive team without having to pay them an executive salary? You know, another one is like, you know, strategy and mentoring, but these are all things I know you do also, which I think is cool. But I've been working on contracts where I support companies trying to figure out how they modernize, or how their CTO can be more hands-off keyboard, or how their new director of business development can be more of a technical leader and taking on their first direct reports. So, I just enjoy all those aspects, and I just think it's something that I've watched you do in the company where we worked together. And it's always fun to see what you're working on and getting a chance to catch up with you. I feel like you're one of those people that does a really great job of staying connected. Every once in a while, I'll get a random text message like, "Hey, how you doing?" It always makes me smile. I'm like, Victoria is a really good connector, and I feel like I am, but you're even better at it on the being proactive side. That's how this all came about, right? We caught up, and you were like, "Why don't you come on the podcast?" So, that's really exciting. VICTORIA: Well, thank you, Robbie. Yeah, I think that's one of the great things about community is you meet people. You're like, "Oh, you're really cool. And you're doing cool stuff all the time. Like, how can I support you in your journey [laughs]? Like, what's up?" Yeah, for me, it was hard to actually leave DC. I didn't, you know, really think about the impact of leaving behind my tech community, like, that network of people. It was pretty emotional for me, actually, especially when we finally, like, stopped doing the digital version [laughs]. And I, like, kind of gave up managing it from California, which was kind of funny anyways [laughs]. Yeah, so no, I'm grateful that we stayed in touch and that you made time to be here with us today. Is there anything else that you would like to promote? ROBBIE: You know, just to remind you, you've done a great job of transitioning into where you are today, but anybody can do that, right? Like, before I moved to the DC area, I was in New York, and I was helping to organize JavaScript events. And I started looking at the DC area before I moved down here. And I found the DC Tech Community. And I found the Node School DC GitHub organization and reached out to the person who had ownership of it and said I wanted to help and support. I looked at this the other day. I think I moved on May 8th, and then, like, May 11th, when I walked in the door, somebody was like, "Are you new?" And I was like, "Yeah, I just moved here." And they were like, "Oh, from where?" And I was like, "New York." And they were like, "Are you that guy who's been bugging Josh about running Node school events?" I was like, "Yeah." And like, they were planning an unconference at the end of the month. And they were like, "Would you like to run a Node school at that unconference?" Like, 27 days later. So, it was amazing that, like, I immediately, like, fell from the New York Community where I was super connected, but I went out of my way to try to, like, see what the community looked like before I got there. And I was lucky enough to find the right people, and immediately I joked...I think I wrote a blog post that said like, "I found my new friends. By, like, going from one community to another, gave a person who was in his 40s a chance to meet new people very quickly." And it was pretty amazing, and I felt very lucky. But I did spend a little bit of energy and capital to try to figure it out because I knew it was going to be important to me. So, I think you've done a really good job. You've helped launch and relaunch things that were going on in San Diego and becoming a part of this connection to more people. I think you and I have a very similar spirit, which is like, let's find a way to connect with humans, and we do it pretty effectively. VICTORIA: Well, thank you. That really boosts my confidence, Robbie [laughs]. Sometimes, you show up to an event you've never been to before by yourself, and it's like a deer in headlights kind of moment. Like, oh God, what have I done [laughs]? ROBBIE: Oh, and the last thing I need to mention is I also have a podcast. I have my podcast about film. It's called Geek on Film. I used to record it with my friend, Jon. He's a little busy right now. But I used to pitch it as a conversation show about the current films that were going on. Now, it's one lone geek's ramblings about what he just saw. It's a great podcast for me because it gives me an opportunity to think a little more critically about film, which is one of the things that I probably have almost enough credits to get a minor in. But I absolutely love cinema and film in general. And it's given me an opportunity to connect with a lot more people about this subject and also to scratch the itch of me being able to create something around a community and around a thing I really love. VICTORIA: That's super cool. Yeah. You're top of mind because I also like films. I'm like, what's Robbie up to? Like, what's the recommendations, you know [laughs]? Do you have a top film recommendation from the Oscars? Is that too big of a question? ROBBIE: So, the one I will say that didn't get enough spotlight shined on it was Nimona. So, I'm a huge fan of the Spider-Man movies. I think Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse and Across the Spider-Verse are both masterpieces. But Nimona is an animated film that was picked up by Netflix, and it is amazing. I don't know that I laughed or cried or was more moved by a film last year. And I don't know that it gets enough credit for what it was. But it did get nominated for best-animated film, but I don't know that enough people paid attention to it. Like it may have gotten lost in the algorithm. So, if you get a chance, check out Nimona. It's one of those beautiful, little gems that, if you travel down its story, there's all these twists and turns. It was based on a webcomic that became a graphic novel. One of the production companies picked it up, and it wasn't going to see the light of day. And then, Netflix bought its distribution rights. There's going to be a great documentary someday about, like, Inside Nimona. But I think the movie itself is really charming and moving, and I was really impressed with it. So, that was the one that got me, like, just before the Oscars this year, where I was like, this is the little animated movie that could, in my opinion. It's so charming. VICTORIA: I will definitely have to check that out. Thank you for giving us that recommendation. ROBBIE: Totally. VICTORIA: Final question. I just wanted to see if you had anything to share about being an advisory board member for Gray and for Hutch Studio. Could you tell us a little bit more about that? ROBBIE: Yeah. So, Gray Digital was founded by a friend of mine. We met through United States Digital Service. And his organization...I had been supporting him for a while and just being behind the scenes, talking to him and talking through business-related issues. And it was really nice. He offered to make me an official advisory board member. It was a great acknowledgment, and I really felt moved. There's some great people that are supporting him and have supported him. They've done really great work. Gray is out there delivering digital services in this space. And I think I was really lucky to be a part of it and to support my friend, Randall. Hutch is different. Hutch is an organization that's kind of like if you think about it, it almost is a way to support entrepreneurs of color who are trying to make their way into the digital service delivery space. Being an advisory board member there has been really interesting because it's shaping how Hutch provides services and what their approach is to how to support these companies. But over the last year, I've convinced the person who's running it, Stephanie, with a couple of other people, to open the door up or crack the door so we could talk directly and support the individual companies. So, it's been really great to be a Hutch advisory member to help shape how Hutch is approaching things. But I've also been a part of, like, many interview processes. I've reviewed a lot of, like, [inaudible 48:01] who want to join the organization. And I've also created personal relationships with many of the people who are part of Hutch. And, you know, like, you know me personally, so you know I run a Day of the Dead party. We'll just party at my house every year. I have a huge amount of affection for Mexican culture and, in general, the approach of how to remember people who are a part of your life. So, this is, like, the perfect way for me to bring people together at my house is to say, like, "Hey, my dad was awesome. What about your family? Who are your people?" What's really nice is that has given me an opportunity to host people at my house. And I've had Hutch company owners at my house the last couple of years and the person who runs Hutch. So, it's a really great community that I look at that is trying to shape the next emergent companies that are helping deliver digital services across the government. And it's really fun to be early on in their career and help them grow. Again, it seems silly, but it's the thing I care a lot about. How do I connect with people and provide the most value that I can? And this is a way I can provide that value to companies that may also go off and provide that value. It's a little bit of an amplifier. So, I'm a huge fan of what we've been able to accomplish and being a part of it in any way, shape, or form. VICTORIA: Well, I think that's a really beautiful way to wrap it up. ROBBIE: Really glad to catch up with you and be a part of this amazing podcast. VICTORIA: Yeah, so much fun. Thank you again so much. It was great to be here with you today. You can subscribe to the show and find notes along with a complete transcript for this episode at giantrobots.fm. If you have questions or comments, email us at hosts@giantrobots.fm. You can find me on thoughtbotsocial@vguido. This podcast is brought to you by thoughtbot and produced and edited by Mandy Moore. Thanks for listening. See you next time. AD: Did you know thoughtbot has a referral program? If you introduce us to someone looking for a design or development partner, we will compensate you if they decide to work with us. More info on our website at: tbot.io/referral. Or you can email us at: referrals@thoughtbot.com with any questions.

The Pentagon launches new initiatives for a to reciprocity and digital modernization and the USDS touts its impact over the past year.

OMB, GSA and the USDS are providing the policies, tools and know-how to help agencies improve digital services like federal websites more quickly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

OMB, GSA and the USDS are providing the policies, tools and know-how to help agencies improve digital services like federal websites more quickly.

"If we assume that happens, I'm sure TikTok, let alone ByteDance as a company as a whole, will survive - and maybe even continue to thrive after this. Because, let's put things into perspective, right? TikTok has more than 1 billion users globally and then the US represents just a little over a 10th of that, 170 million. So I'm not saying that it's not going to impact TikTok and ByteDance. But does it pose an existential threat? Probably not. I believe given we already talked about how ByteDance has been super profitable. I think that, even if they get banned in the US, this is by no means the end of TikTok or ByteDance." - Jing Yang Fresh out of the studio, Jing Yang, the Asia Bureau Chief for The Information, provided an insightful analysis of the potential implications of the recent U.S. House of Representatives bill to force Bytedance to divest TikTok or face a ban in the US. Detailing a timeline of events, she illuminated how Bytedance and TikTok executives may have misinterpreted U.S. political signals. Despite Bytedance's profitability in China, she shed light on why TikTok is facing financial challenges and the complex dynamics between Bytedance and the investors of the company. Concluding her discussion, she offered her perspectives on the possible future of TikTok globally pending the outcome. Episode Highlights: [0:40] Quote of the Day by Jing Yang. [1:27] Introduction: Jing Yang, Asia Bureau Chief of The Information. [3:53] Lessons shared by Jing Yang from her career journey. [5:19] Chronology of the different attempts by the US government to ban TikTok. [7:40] What are the chances of TikTok being banned in the US? [9:34] TikTok's response to the US government after the announcement of the bill. [11:15] Impact of TikTok's potential ban in the US on content creators & users in the market. [12:52] The one thing that Jing Yang knows about the TikTok situation very few do. [14:10] Why TikTok misjudged the political situation in the US. [17:59] Project Texas and how it encumbered TikTok. [22:17] TikTok's engagement with USDS. [25:14] Chew Shou Zi's impact on negotiations with the US government after taking over as CEO of TikTok. [27:45] Assessment of Bytedance and TikTok's team in handling the US government. [30:04] Why TikTok is in the red and losing money. [32:55] Can TikTok still be profitable with a potential US ban? [36:04] Investors of TikTok distancing themselves from the company. [40:26] Impact of political affiliations and donations on TikTok. [41:43] Future of TikTok [42:43] Closing You can find Jing Yang at X (formerly known as Twitter): https://x.com/jingyanghk and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jing-yang-33548123/ and her articles on The Information: https://www.theinformation.com/u/Jing%20Yang?rc=fk3gq1 Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. Proper credits for the intro and end music: "Energetic Sports Drive" and the episode is mixed & edited in both video and audio format by G. Thomas Craig. Analyse Asia Main Site: https://analyse.asia Analyse Asia Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1kkRwzRZa4JCICr2vm0vGl  Analyse Asia Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/analyse-asia-with-bernard-leong/id914868245  Analyse Asia YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AnalyseAsia Analyse Asia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/analyse-asia/ Analyse Asia X (formerly known as Twitter): https://twitter.com/analyseasia

The Senate got its pound of flesh from the Technology Modernization Fund after all. Despite the efforts by industry and the Office of Management and Budget over the last six plus months to change the committee's mind, Senate appropriators rescinded $100 million from the TMF for fiscal 2024. Senate lawmakers released the remaining 2024 appropriations bill today that detailed the decisions to reduce funding for centralized IT modernization accounts across the board. The TMF is taking a double hit as the Senate also zeroed out any new funding for this year, possibly leaving the IT modernization effort in a tough spot from a funding perspective. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Senate got its pound of flesh from the Technology Modernization Fund after all.Despite the efforts by industry and the Office of Management and Budget over the last six plus months to change the committee's mind, Senate appropriators rescinded $100 million from the TMF for fiscal 2024.Senate lawmakers released the remaining 2024 appropriations bill today that detailed the decisions to reduce funding for centralized IT modernization accounts across the board.The TMF is taking a double hit as the Senate also zeroed out any new funding for this year, possibly leaving the IT modernization effort in a tough spot from a funding perspective. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Liquidity levels are improving in USDs and more may be upcoming via the depletion of the ON RRP. Will the Fed move towards more benign balance sheet policies over the course of the year? And how about a potential operation "Twist"? Meanwhile, China is allowing the public deficit to grow. Is China the next positive surprise? Guest: Joseph Wang aka. The Fed Guy14 day free trial - https://stenoresearch.com/subscribe/FREE macro newsletter - https://stenoresearch.com/free/Check out

For many mothers, the immediate postnatal period is a vulnerable one, often filled with financial, social, physical, and mental challenges while caring for a young child. Our federal government is working to provide better resources and services to support women through early motherhood, and U.S. Digital Service (USDS) is stepping up with solutions to make it easier, equitable, and more effective. Our guest, Birth of a Child Portfolio Lead Maya Mechenbier, became a mother shortly before leading these efforts at USDS, grounding the work USDS does for federal agencies with her own journey raising two daughters. Learn how she and her team are helping agencies provide supply kits for mothers, peer navigation resources, and text-based notifications to help mothers apply for federal aid. All of this comes together with technology, UX design, rigorous evaluation, and the personal touch of lived experience.Maya Mechenbier is a project lead and product counsel at USDS and Birth of a Child portfolio lead at the Office of Management and Budget, leading projects including the Peer Navigator Service, Newborn Supply Kit, and Notify for Families. Maya is in her second tour with USDS after serving with USDS's Quality Payment Program team at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) in 2016 and with the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) at the White House in 2015. She has also served in career roles at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC).More Links and InformationCheck out more Fors Marsh MediaConnect or partner with Fors MarshRead up on our government's progress supporting mothers through early childhoodGet a deeper dive on the Newborn Supply KitLearn more about USDS's work

The US Digital Service has a fascinating structure: it comprises nearly 250 people, all of whom serve two-year stints developing apps, improving websites, and streamlining government services. You could call USDS the product and design consultancy for the rest of the government. The Obama administration launched the USDS in 2014, after the disastrous rollout of healthcare.gov and the tech sprint that saved it. USDS administrator Mina Hsiang explains to Decoder how it all works, and what she hopes it can do next. Links:  Here's Why Healthcare.gov Broke Down (2013) Obamacare's 'tech surge' adds manpower to an already-bloated project (2013) Decoder: Barack Obama on AI, free speech, and the future of the internet Jeff Bezos Confirmed the "Question Mark Method" A comprehensive list of 2023 tech layoffs Tech to Gov U.S. Digital Corps Presidential Innovation Fellows AI.gov United States Digital Service Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23761681 Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Today's episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright. The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.US government announces ‘largest ever' investment in electric gridSummary: A fresh $3.46 billion investment focused on upgrading the US's aging electrical grid has been announced, and the money will be funneled to 58 projects across 44 states.Context: This money comes from a larger pot of funds established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and it will help clean up, reinforce, and build-out the country's energy grid, which has been struggling with a surge in renewable energy production across the US, but also with basic maintenance issues; these funds, which when added to private investments will tally something like $8 billion, will help more than 35 gigawatts of renewable energy come online across the country, alongside around 400 microgrids, which will add some much-needed resiliency and reduce outages in blackout-prone areas.—The VergeOne Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.A fertilizer shortage is spreading desperate hunger in Africa and AsiaSummary: Economic issues stemming from Russia's invasion of Ukraine have left farmers across Africa and in parts of Asia without enough fertilizer, reducing crop-yields and adding to the food shortage already being experienced in these areas due to the reduction in wheat and other fundamental food exports from Ukraine and Russia.Context: Other variables are also contributing to this food shortage, including climate-change-related heat waves, droughts, and floods, but the scarcity of fertilizer ingredients on the global market is the result of Russia's invasion, as Russia is the primary source of these ingredients; ballooning shipping costs during the pandemic, followed by US dollar value increases (fertilizer components tend to be priced in USDs, globally), followed by export irregularities caused by the war in Ukraine, have had the cascading effect of more than doubling fertilizer prices and reducing the availability of these materials, which has messed with with agricultural supply chains around the world and perpetuated those existing food scarcity issues.—The New York TimesCOVID antiviral Paxlovid to see price increase following 400% vaccine hikeSummary: Following a four-fold price-increase on their COVID-19 vaccine, drug-maker Pfizer has announced that they'll likely hike the price on their COVID antiviral treatment, Paxloxid, maybe up to around three- to five-times its current cost.Context: A round of Paxlovid already costs $530, and financial analysts are saying the company could up that to as much as $2,500 per course; folks in the US who are prescribed Paxlovid for their COVID infections generally get payment assistance, their insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, or government assistance programs paying for most or all of it, but it's expected that interest will drop with higher prices, and Paxlovid has already seen a diminishment in use—so this may mark a turning point at which the drug becomes simultaneously more expensive and less prescribed.—Ars TechnicaThe EIA projects that the US will substantially expand its liquified natural gas exports for the next several years, serving the needs of countries like Germany, which have been struggling to replace gas imports from Russia, and other nations that are working to replace more-polluting and emitting coal and oil energy infrastructure with gas versions (which are less-emitting and polluting) of the same.—US Energy Information Administration300 millionNumber of copies of Minecraft that have been sold since 2011.That makes the 3D-pixelated game the second bestselling video game of all time, after only Tetris (which has been around a lot longer, and has been ported to pretty much every device with a screen) which claims sales of around 520 million copies.—GizmodoTrust Click Get full access to One Sentence News at onesentencenews.substack.com/subscribe

This week, The Buzz presents a session from ELC 2014.Mikey Dickerson initially came to the federal government on a temporary basis as part of the team assigned to rescue the unfortunate Healthcare.gov rollout in 2013. Less than a year later, he was tapped to serve as the first administrator of the fledgling US Digital Service, which sought to bring a modern service design and delivery approach to the rest of the federal government. Just months after his appointment, Mikey sat down with Francis Rose to briefly discuss the origins and progress of the new agency. This conversation then led into a panel discussion on government service delivery with other members of the federal government.Panelists:Kevin Cooke, former Deputy CIO at the Department of Housing and Urban DevelopmentKevin Mahoney, former Chief Human Capital Officer at the Department of CommerceMarina (Martin) Nitze, former CTO, Department of Veterans AffairsDavid Robinson, former Associate Adminstrator, Mission Support Bureau at FEMAMelisa Starinsky, former Chancellor of the VA Acquisition AcademyFor more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org.

The system for coordinating organ donations and transplants in the United States is broken, according to experts who have testified over the course of many years to Congress. In this episode, hear their testimony about what is wrong with the current system and then we'll examine the bill that aims to fix the problems. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Contribute monthly or a lump sum via Support Congressional Dish via (donations per episode) Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Background Sources August 3, 2022. Senate Finance Committee. Lenny Bernstein and Todd C. Frankel. August 3, 2022. The Washington Post. February 10, 2020. Senate Finance Committee. The Bill Audio Sources July 20, 2023 Senate Committee on Finance, Subcommittee on Health Care Witnesses: LaQuayia Goldring, Patient Molly J. McCarthy, Vice Chair & Region 6 Patient Affairs Committee Representative, Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) Matthew Wadsworth, President and CEO, Life Connection of Ohio Raymond J. Lynch, MD, MS, FACS, Professor of Surgery and Director of Transplantation Quality and Outcomes, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center Donna R. Cryer, JD, Founder and CEO, Global Liver Institute Clips 30:40 Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR): HRSA, the Health Resources Agency, is on track to begin the contract process this fall and we're just going to be working here to complement their effort. 36:30 Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA): In 2005, I started the investigation of the deadly failures of UNOS, the monopoly tasked with managing the US organ donation system. Since then, more than 200,000 patients have needlessly died on the organ waiting list. There's a reason that I call UNOS the fox guarding the hen house. For nearly two decades, UNOS has concealed serious problems [at] the nation's organ procurement organizations, known as OPOs, instead of working to uncover and correct the corruption. This human tragedy is even more horrific because many of these deaths were preventable. They were the result of [a] corrupt, unaccountable monopoly that operates more like a cartel than a public servant. 44:45 LaQuayia Goldring: As a toddler, at the age of three, I was diagnosed with a rare kidney cancer that took the function of my left kidney. And when I was 17, I went back into complete renal failure and I received a first kidney transplant at that time. Unfortunately, in 2015, I went back into kidney failure. And at that time, I wasn't ready for another transplant, but I didn't have a choice but to go back on dialysis. I've been waiting nine agonizing years for a transplant, dependent upon a dialysis machine five days a week, just to be able to live. I was told that I would receive a kidney transplant within three to five years. But yet I am still waiting. I am undergoing monthly surgeries just to be able to get my dialysis access to work so that I can continue to live until I get a transplant. The UNOS waitlist is not like one to 100, where everybody thinks you get a number. I'm never notified on where I stand on the list or when I will get the call. I have to depend on an algorithm to make the decision of what my fate will be. 47:55 LaQuayia Goldring: Just a few weeks ago, a donor family reached out to me to be a directed kidney donor, meaning they chose me specifically for a kidney transplant. But unfortunately, due to the errors in the UNOS technology, I was listed as inactive and this was a clerical error. And all that they told me was this was a clerical error, and they could not figure out why I was inactive. But when it came down to it, I'm actually active on the transplant list. 51:45 Molly McCarthy: The Federal monopoly contractor managing the organ donation system, UNOS, is an unmitigated failure. And its leadership spends more time attacking critics than it does taking steps to fix the system. I've seen this firsthand in my five years as a patient volunteer with the OPTN and three years ago, I stepped into the role of Vice Chair of the Patient Affairs Committee, or PAC. 53:45 Molly McCarthy: Further, I have been called by a board member telling me to stop focusing on system outage and downtime of the UNOS tech system. He told me that having downtime wasn't a big deal at all, "the donors are dead anyway." That comment speaks volumes to me about the lack of empathy and respect UNOS has for donor families. 55:00 Molly McCarthy: Congress needs to break up the UNOS monopoly by passing 1668, ensuring that HHS uses its authority to replace UNOS as its contractor. 1:00:15 Matt Wadsworth: Break up the OPTN contract and allow for competition. 1:00:40 Matt Wadsworth: I commend this committee for introducing legislation to finally break up this monopoly and I stand ready to work with you in any way possible to ensure that this bill passes. It's the only way this industry will be able to save more patients' lives. 1:02:10 Dr. Raymond Lynch: I want to differentiate between organ donation, which is the altruistic decision of the donor patient and their family, and organ procurement, which is the clinical care provided by OPO staff. This is what turns the gift of donation into the usable organs for transplant. Organ procurement is a clinical specialty. It's the last medical care that many patients will ever receive. It's reimbursed by the federal government and it's administered by OPOs that are each the only provider in the territory to which they hold federal contracts. Right now patient care delivered by OPOs is some of the least visible in American healthcare. I can't tell you how many patients were evaluated by OPO workers in the US in 2022. I can't tell you how many patients were examined, or how many families were given information about donation, or how many times an OPO worker even showed up to a hospital to do this clinical duty. This lack of information about what OPO providers actually do for patients is a root cause of the variability in rates of organ procurement around the country. My research has shown that what we call OPO performance is a measurable restriction on the supply of organs that results in the unnecessary deaths of patients with organ failure. For example, if the lowest performing OPOs from around the country had just reached the national median over a recent seven year period, there would have been 4957 more organ donors, yielding an estimated 11,707 additional organs for transplant. Because many OPOs operate in a low quality data environment and without appropriate oversight, almost 5,000 patients did not get adequate organ procurement care, and nearly 12,000 other patients did not receive life saving transplants. 1:03:55 Dr. Raymond Lynch: OPO clinical work is currently not visible, it's not benchmarkable, and it's not able to be adequately evaluated, analyzed, or compared. However, much of the hidden data about how OPOs provide care to patients is known to one entity and that entity is UNOS. 1:05:20 Dr. Raymond Lynch: We need a new network of highly skilled specialist organizations, each attending to areas of expertise in the management of the OPTN contract. 1:21:15 Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN): When we look at OPTN, and look at the Securing Organ Procurement Act, the bill would strip the nonprofit requirement for the manager of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which would open the door for profiting from organ procurement and donation. And to me, this is something that I think many people really fear, especially people that are on a waitlist. And so what I would like for you to do is to address that and address those concerns. And why or why not you think the Act has it right. Dr. Raymond Lynch: Thank you, Senator. I think it's unfortunate that people would be afraid of that and it needs to be changed. Many of the patients that you referenced are waitlisted at for-profit hospitals. For-profit is a part of American healthcare. And I can tell you that our not-for-profit entity doesn't work. And there are for-profit hospitals and for-profit transplant centers that do work. So patients don't need to be afraid of that. They do need to be afraid of the status quo. 1:28:30 Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD): Ms. Cryer, do you have any views as to why it's much lower percentage chances for a racial minority to be able to have a transplant? Donna Cryer: Yes. And it really does come down to UNOS not doing its job of overseeing the organ procurement organizations. We know from many studies that black and brown communities donate organs in the same percentage they are the population. So it is not a problem of willingness to donate. It is a problem, as Miss Goldring was starting to discuss, about UNOS not ensuring that OPOs go out into the communities, develop relationships far before that horrible decision is needed to [be] made to donate the organs of a family member. 1:56:45 Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA): And among the many reforms the legislation would support HRSA's proposal to break up the OPTN monopoly contract into multiple smaller contracts, which would allow some competition and allow the best vendors in the business to manage different parts of the transplant network operation. That means hiring IT experts to do the IT. It means hiring logistics experts to do logistics, and so on. 1:57:15 Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA): UNOS does not want to lose control, so they're pushing to have the government limit eligibility only to nonprofit vendors that have worked in the past on organ donation, meaning, for instance, that the IT company that is hired to run OPTNs computers systems would have had to have worked on an organ transplant network in the past and be a nonprofit. So Ms. McCarthy, the requirement UNOS wants would seem to make it so that only one organization could apply for the new contract: UNOS. 1:58:35 Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA): Right now, Congress has an opportunity to root out corruption in this system, but if we don't act before the current contract expires we won't have another shot for years. August 3, 2022 Senate Committee on Finance Witnesses: Brian Shepard, CEO, United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) Diane Brockmeier, RN, President and CEO, Mid-America Transplant Barry Friedman, RN, Executive Director, AdventHealth Transplant Institute Calvin Henry, Region 3 Patient Affairs Committee Representative, Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) Jayme Locke, M.D., MPH, Director, Division of Transplantation, Heersink School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham Clips 36:15 Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR): A 1984 law created the first computerized system to match sick patients with the organs they need. It was named the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. Someone needed to manage that system for the whole country, so the government sought to contract an organization to run it. UNOS was the only bidder for that first contract in 1986. The contract has come up for bid seven other times, UNOS has won all seven. Today, the network UNOS overseas is made up of nearly 400 members, including 252 transplant centers, and 57 regional organizations known as Organ Procurement Organizations, or OPOs. Each OPO is a defined geographic service network. Families sitting in a hospital room thinking about donating a loved one's organs does not have a choice of OPOs. 37:40 Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR): Between 2010 and 2020, more than 1,100 complaints were filed by patients and families, staff, transplant centers, and others. The nature of these complaints runs the gamut. For example, in a number of cases, OPOs had failed to complete critical mandatory tests for matters like blood types, diseases, and infection. Our investigation found one patient died after being transplanted with lungs that a South Carolina OPO marked with the wrong blood type. Similar blood type errors happened elsewhere and patients developed serious illness. Some had to have organs removed after transplant. Another patient was told he would likely die within three years after an OPO in Ohio supplied him with a heart from a donor who had died of a malignant brain tumor. UNOS did not pursue any disciplinary action. In a case from Florida, another patient contracted cancer from transplanted organs and the OPO sat on the evidence for months. In total, our investigation found that between 2008 and 2015, and 249 transplant recipients developed a disease from transplanted organs. More than a quarter of them died. 38:55 Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR): Delivering organs has been another source of life threatening errors. We found 53 such complaints between 2010 and 2020, as well as evidence that this was just the tip of the iceberg. In some cases, couriers missed a flight. In others, the organs were abandoned at airports. Some organs were never picked up. Many of these failures resulted in organs being discarded. 39:20 Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR): It's reasonable to assume that many more errors are going unreported. Why? Because filing official complaints with UNOS appears to accomplish zero productive oversight or reform. Organ transplant professionals repeatedly told the Finance Committee that the complaint process was, and I quote here, "a black hole." Complaints went in, UNOS went quiet. In interviews with the Committee UNOS leaders have dragged their feet, dodged tough questions, and shifted responsibility onto others. investigations and disciplinary measures rarely amount to much more than a slap on the wrist. Only one time -- just once -- has UNOS recommended that an OPO lose their certification. 55:05 Diane Brockmeier: We must update the archaic technology system at UNOS. As OPOs, we are required to work with UNOS technology DonorNet every day. DonorNet is outdated, difficult to us,e and often slow to function when every minute counts. Manual entry subjects it to error and OPO and Transplant Center staff are not empowered with the right information when time is critical. I did serve in leadership roles on the OPO Committee from 2017 to 2022. Committee members and industry leaders voiced repeated requests to improve DonorNet. The consistent response was UNOS IT did not have the bandwidth to address this work. The limitations of the UNOS technology are delaying and denying transplants to patients that are dying on the waitlist. Poor technology impacts the disturbingly high kidney discard rate in the United States, where one in four kidneys never make it to a patient for transplantation. Critical time is lost due to the inefficiency of DonorNet, wasting time on offers that will not be accepted. Of course an available organ should be offered to the patient in this sequence. However, far too much of the matching, particularly on older donors and organs that are difficult to place, are left to the individual OPOs and transplant centers to find each other despite, rather than facilitated by, UNOS technology. Mid-America Transplant intentionally identifies surgeons who accept kidneys that have been repeatedly turned down many times. These are life saving options for those patients. In May of 2022, one of these patients was number 18,193 on the list. Relying on DonorNet alone, that kidney would never had been placed and the chance to save a life would have been wasted. 55:20 Diane Brockmeier: UNOS lacks urgency and accountability around identifying and remediating this preventable loss of organs, and they are not required to publicly report adverse events when patients are harmed, organs are lost, or the quality of patient care is deemed unsafe. UNOS does not require clinical training, licensure, or certification standards for OPO staff delivering critical patient care. In this environment, who's looking out for the patient? Who's being held accountable for poor patient care? No OPO has ever actually been decertified, regardless of its performance or its safety record. 57:55 Diane Brockmeier: When an OPO goes out of sequence to place an organ that would otherwise be thrown away, UNOS requires an explanation; however, when organs are recovered and discarded, you must remain silent. 58:05 Diane Brockmeier: We must remove conflicts to ensure effective governance. From 2018 to 2020, I served as a board member for the OPTN. Serving on the board of the OPTN automatically assigns membership to the UNOS board. My board experience revealed that at times UNOS actions are not aligned with its fundamental vision of a life saving transplant for everyone in need. How can you fairly represent the country's interest and a contractor's interest at the same time? 58:35 Diane Brockmeier: Board members are often kept in the dark about critical matters and are marginalized, particularly if they express views that differ from UNOS leadership. Preparatory small group calls are conducted prior to board meetings to explore voting intentions, and if the board member was not aligned with the opinion of UNOS leadership, follow up calls are initiated. Fellow board members report feeling pressured to vote in accordance with UNOS leadership. 59:10 Diane Brockmeier: To protect patients, I urge Congress and the administration to separate the OPTN functions into different contracts so that patients can be served by best-in-class vendors, to immediately separate the boards of the OPTN and OPTN contractors, and to ensure that patients are safeguarded through open data from both the OPTN and OPOs. 1:00:45 Barry Friedman: Approximately 23% of kidneys procured from deceased donors are not used and discarded, resulting in preventable deaths 1:00:55 Barry Friedman: Organ transportation is a process left to federally designated Organ Procurement Organizations, OPOs. Currently, they develop their own relationships with couriers, rely on airlines, charter flights, ground transportation, and federal agencies to facilitate transportation. In many cases, organs must connect from one flight to another, leaving airline personnel responsible for transfers. While anyone can track their Amazon or FedEx package, there is currently no consistent way of tracking these life saving organs. 1:01:45 Barry Friedman: Currently there is no requirement for OPOs to use tracking systems. 1:02:20 Barry Friedman: I also believe there's a conflict of interest related to the management of IT functions by UNOS, as the IT tools they offer transplant centers come with additional costs, despite these being essential for the safety and management of organs. 1:02:35 Barry Friedman: UNOS is not effectively screening organ donors so that they can be quickly directed to transplant programs. UNOS asks centers to voluntarily opt out of certain organs via a filtering process. As a result, OPOs waste valuable time making organ offers to centers that will never accept them. Time wasted equates to prolonged cold ischemic time and organs not placed, resulting in lost organ transplant opportunities. 1:03:10 Barry Friedman: Due to the limited expertise that UNOS has in the placement of organs, it would be best if they were no longer responsible for the development of organ placement practices. The UNOS policy making [process] lacks transparency. Currently OPTN board members concurrently serve as the board members of UNOS, which creates a conflict of interest that contributes to this lack of transparency. UNOS committees are formed in a vacuum. There is no call for nominations and no data shared with the transplant community to explain the rationale behind decisions that create policy change. 1:11:35 Dr. Jayme Locke: The most powerful thing to know about this is that every organ represents a life. We can never forget that. Imagine having a medication you need to live being thrown away simply because someone took too long to get it to you. Your life quite literally in a trash can. Organs are no different. They too have shelf lives and they are measured in hours. Discarded organs and transportation errors may sound abstract, but let me make this negligence real for you. In 2014, I received a kidney that arrived frozen, it was an ice cube you could put in your drink. The intended recipient was sensitized, meaning difficult to match. The only thing we could do was tell the waiting patient that due to the lack of transportation safeguard, the kidney had to be thrown in the trash, the final generous act of a donor in Maryland. In 2017, I received a kidney that arrived in a box that appeared to have tire marks on it. The box was squished and the container inside had been ruptured. We were lucky and were able to salvage the kidney for transplant. But why should luck even play a role? 1:12:45 Dr. Jayme Locke: In one week, I received four kidneys from four different OPOs, each with basic errors that led to the need to throw away those life saving organs. One due to a botched kidney biopsy into the kidneys collecting system, another because of a lower pole artery that had been cut during procurement that could have been fixed if someone involved had assessed the kidney for damage and flushed it before packing, but that didn't happen. Two others arrived to me blue, meaning they hadn't been flushed either. 1:13:15 Dr. Jayme Locke: Opacity at UNOS means that we have no idea how often basic mistakes happen across the country, nor can we have any confidence that anything is being done to redress such errors so they don't keep happening. 1:13:40 Dr. Jayme Locke: Women who have been pregnant, especially multiple times, are harder to match, contributing to both gender and racial disparities in access to transplant. This is a very real example of how a constrained pool of organs and high discards disproportionately hurt women and women of color, who are more likely to have multiple pregnancies. 1:14:25 Dr. Jayme Locke: Number one, immediately separate the OPTN board from any of the boards of any contractors. Number two, bring in real experts to ensure our patients are served by the best of the best in each field, separating out key functions of the OPTN, including policy, technology, and logistics. And number three, ensure that patients are safer by holding all contractors accountable through public adverse event reporting and immediate redressing of problems. 1:22:00 Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA): The system doesn't seem to be fair to racial minorities or people living in rural communities. So what are your efforts underway to understand the root causes and help make the system fairer to patients on the waiting list to explain the factors that result in the disparity for minorities in rural populations in the process? And how can the federal government address a problem if we have to be involved in addressing it? Dr. Jayme Locke: One of the most important things that we don't currently do is we don't actually account for disease burden in terms of examining our waiting lists. So we have no way of knowing if we're actually serving the correct people, if the correct people are actually making it to the waiting list. Disease burden is super important because it not only identifies the individuals who are in need of transplantation, but it also speaks to supply. So areas with high rates of end stage kidney disease burden, like the southeastern United States are going to have much lower supply. And those waiting lists predominantly consist of African American or Black individuals. So if you want to make a truly equitable organ system, you have to essentially get more organs to those areas where there are higher disease burdens. I think the other thing is that we have to have more focus on how we approach donor families and make sure that we have cultural competence as a part of our OPOs, and how they approach families to ensure that we're not marginalizing minority families with regard to the organ donation process. 1:30:00 Brian Shepard: The OPTN IT system that UNOS operates has 99.99% uptime. It is a highly reliable system. We are audited annually by HRSA.... Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD): My information shows it's had 17 days down since I think 1999. That's not correct? Brian Shepard: In 23 years, yes, sir. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD): Okay, well, every day there's a loss of life, isn't it? Brian Shepard: That's the total amount of time over the couse of -- Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD): I hope our national event system isn't down 17 days a year. Brian Shepard: The system has never been down for a day. And to my knowledge, and I have not been at UNOS since 1999, there's been maybe one event that was longer than an hour, and that was three hours. But the total amount of time since 1999 -- Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD): So you're satisfied with your technology? You think you have the right technology? You're satisfied with your tracking systems now? You think everything is okay? Brian Shepard: We constantly improve our technology. We're subjected to 3 million attempts a day to hack into the patient database and we successfully repelled them all. So we are never satisfied with our technology, but we do maintain 99.99% uptime. We disagree with the USDS analysis of our systems. 1:37:25 Brian Shepard: If you're asking whether UNOS can prevent an OPO from operating or for being an OPO -- Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH: Well not prevent them, but require them to do something .You don't have the ability to require them...? Brian Shepard: The peer review process has significant persuasive authority, but all the payment authority and all the certification and decertification authority live at CMS. 1:39:00 Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH: Do you think there should be tracking of organs in transit? Brian Shepard: I think that's a very beneficial thing. UNOS provides an optional service that a quarter of OPOs use. Many OPOs also use other commercially available trackers to do that. There is not a single requirement to use a particular system. 1:41:55 Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA): Mr. Shepherd, you are the CEO of UNOS. We have documented these problems and you've received more than 1000 complaints in the last decade alone. So tell me, in the 36 years that UNOS has had the contract to run our national organ system, how many times has UNOS declared its OPO Members, any OPO members, not in good standing. Brian Shepard: Two times, Senator. 1:43:20 Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA): How many times has UNOS put an OPO on probation? Brian Shepard: I don't know that number off the top of my head, but it's not a large number. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA): It's not large, in fact it's three. 1:45:20 Brian Shepard: Approximately 10% of the budget of this contract is taxpayer funded. The rest of that is paid by hospitals when they list patients. 1:49:30 Sen. Todd Young (R-IN): Once an OPO is designated not in good standing, Senator Warren referred to this as toothless. It does seem toothless to me. I'll give you an opportunity, Mr. Shepherd, to disabuse me of that notion and indicate for me what penalties or sanctions are actually placed on an OPO when they are designated not in good standing. Brian Shepard: The statute does not give UNOS any authority to offer sanctions like that. The certification, decertification, payment authorities belong entirely to CMS. UNOS's statute doesn't give us the ability -- Sen. Todd Young (R-IN): So it is toothless in that sense. Brian Shepard: It is designed to be, by regulation and contract, a quality improvement process, in contrast to the oversight process operated by a federal agency. 1:51:15 Sen. Todd Young (R-IN): To what extent is UNOS currently tracking the status of all the organs in transit at any given time? Brian Shepard: UNOS does not coordinate transportation or track organs in transit. We do provide a service that OPOs can use to use GPS trackers. Some of the OPOs use ours and some use other commercially available products. Sen. Todd Young (R-IN): So why is it, and how does UNOS plan to optimize organ delivery if you don't have 100% visibility into where they are at any given time? Brian Shepard: I think that the GPS products that we offer and that other people offer are valuable, they do help in the delivery of kidneys. Only kidneys travel unaccompanied, so this is a kidney issue. But I do think that GPS trackers are valuable and I think that's why you've seen more and more OPOs use them. 1:52:50 Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR): Mr. Shepherd has said twice, with respect to this whole question of the power to decertify an OPO, that CMS has the power to do it. UNOS also has the power to refer an OPO for decertification under the OPTN final rule. That has been done exactly once. So I just wanted it understood with respect to making sure the committee has got what's really going on with respect to decertifying OPOs. 2:00:15 Dr. Jayme Locke: Obviously people have described that we have about a 25% kidney discard, so one in four. So if you look at numbers last year, these are rough numbers, but that'd be about 8000 kidneys. And really, I think, in some ways, these are kind of a victim of an entrenched and cumbersome allocation algorithms that are very ordinal, you have to go sort of in order, when data clearly have shown that introduction of multiple simultaneous expiring offers would result in more efficient placement of kidneys and this would decrease our cold ischemia time. 2:00:50 Dr. Jayme Locke: So if you take UNOS's organ center, they have a very rigid system, for example, for finding flights and lack either an ability or interest in thinking outside the box. So, for example, if there are no direct flights from California to Birmingham, Alabama, instead of looking for a flight from San Francisco to Atlanta, understanding that a courier could then pick it up in Atlanta and drive it the two hours, they'll instead put on a flight from SFO to Atlanta and allow it to go to cargo hold overnight, where it literally is rotting, if you will, and we're putting extra time on it. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR): Just to make sure everybody gets this. You're saying you've seen instances of something being put in cargo hold when it is very likely to rot? Dr. Jayme Locke: That is correct. So if the kidney arrives after 10pm at the Atlanta airport, it goes to cargo hold. We discovered that and made calls to the airlines ourselves and after several calls to the airlines, of course they were mortified, not understanding that that was what was happening and actually had their manager meet our courier and we were able to get the kidney out of cargo hold, but this went on before we figured out what was happening because essentially they fly it in, it sits in cargo hold, it comes out the next morning to catch the next flight. Instead of thinking outside the box: if we just get it to Atlanta, it's drivable to Birmingham. And those hours make a difference. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR): That sounds way too logical for what UNOS has been up to. 2:03:05 Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR): Miss Brockmeier, UNOS has developed this organ tracking system. Do you all use it? I'm curious what you think of it. Diane Brockmeier: Thank you for the question, Senator. We did use and participate in the beta pilot through UNOS and made the decision to not move forward using their product, and have sought a commercial alternative. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR): And why was that? Diane Brockmeier: Part of the issues were some service related issues, the lack of the interconnectivity that we wanted to be able to facilitate a more expedited visual tracking of where the organ was. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR): Was the tracking technology low quality? Diane Brockmeier: Yes, sir. 2:11:25 Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR): All right, let's talk for a moment about the boards that are supposed to be overseeing these, because it looks to me like there's a serious conflict of interest here and I'll send this to Ms. Brockmeier, and perhaps you'd like to get to it as well, Mr. Friedman. The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which is the formal title of the organ network that operates under federal contract administered by HHS, and UNOS, which is the contractor that operates the network and controls information about the network, have the same boards of directors, despite efforts by the government to separate them. That means the people who look out for the best interests of UNOS, the multimillion dollar nonprofit, are the same people who look out for the interests of the entire organ transplant network. Sure sounds like a conflict to me. 2:12:55 Diane Brockmeier: I think there should be an independent board. I think the division of the responsibilities of the board and by the inherent way that they're structured, do pose conflicts. It would be like if you had an organization that was a supporting organization, you'd want to hold it accountable for its performance. And the current structure really limits that opportunity. 2:19:50 Dr. Jayme Locke: And if you think about IT, something as simple as having a system where we can more easily put in unacceptable antigens, this was a debate for many years. So for context, we list unacceptable antigens in the system that allows us to better match kidneys so that when someone comes up on the match run, we have a high probability that there'll be a good tissue match. Well, that took forever and we couldn't really get our unacceptable antigens in, so routinely people get offered kidneys that aren't going to be a match, and you have to get through all of those before you can get to the person that they really should go to. Those are simple examples. But if we could really have transparency and accountability around those kinds of things, we could save more lives. 2:23:10 Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR): Mr. Shepherd told Senator Warren that only 10% of UNOS funds come from taxpayer money and the rest comes from fees paid by transplant centers who add patients to the list. But the fact is, Medicare is the largest payer of the fees, for example, for kidneys. So we're talking about inefficiency, inefficiency that puts patients at risk. And certainly, taxpayer dollars are used to cover some of these practices. May 4, 2021 House Committee on Oversight and Reform, Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy Witnesses: Tonya Ingram, Patient Waiting for a Transplant Dr. Dara Kass, Living Donor and Mother of Transplant Recipient LaQuayia Goldring, Patient Waiting for a Transplant Steve Miller, CEO, Association for Organ Procurement Organizations Joe Ferreira, President, Association for Organ Procurement Organizations Matt Wadsworth, President and CEO, Life Connection of Ohio Dr. Seth Karp, Director, Vanderbilt Transplant Center Donna Cryer, President and CEO, Global Liver Institute Clips 5:15 Tonya Ingram: The Organ Procurement Organization that serves Los Angeles, where I live, is failing according to the federal government. In fact, it's one of the worst in the country. One analysis showed it only recovered 31% of potential organ donors. Audits in previous years found that LA's OPO has misspent taxpayer dollars on retreats to five star hotels and Rose Bowl tickets. The CEO makes more than $900,000. Even still, the LA OPO has not lost its government contract and it has five more years to go. 30:00 Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL): Unusual among Medicare programs, their costs are 100% reimbursed, even costs unrelated to care. So, extravagant executive compensation and luxury perks may be passed off onto the taxpayer. 46:55 Dr. Seth Karp: We have 10 hours to get a liver from the donor to the recipient, and about one hour to sew it in. For heart, we have about six hours. Time matters. 47:55 Dr. Seth Karp: Last year, I had the opportunity to co-write a viewpoint in one of the journals of the American Medical Association with TJ Patel, former Chief Data Scientist of the United States. In that article, we provided evidence that the metrics used to judge the performance of organ procurement organizations are basically useless. Until the recent OPO Final Rule, performance was self-reported, and OPO employees admitted to having gamed the system. When threatened with decertification, one of the OPOs themselves successfully argued that because the performance data were self reported and unaudited, they failed to meet a reasonable standard and the OPO should not be held accountable. In other words for decades, the metrics supposed to measure performance didn't measure performance, and the results have been disastrous, as you have heard. 49:45 Dr. Seth Karp: Whenever I, and quite frankly most everyone else in the field, gives a talk on transplantation, we usually make two points. The first is that organ transplantation is a miracle of modern medicine. The second is the tragedy that there are not enough organs for everyone who needs one. I no longer use the second point, because I don't believe it. Based on my work, I believe that there are enough organs for patients who require hearts, lungs, and probably livers, and we can make a huge improvement in the number of kidneys available. In addition to improving OPO performance, new technologies already exist to dramatically increase the organ supply. We need a structure to drive rapid improvement in our system. 54:00 Joe Ferreira: One common misconception is that OPOs are solely responsible for the entire donation and transplantation system, when, in fact, OPOs are the intermediary entity and their success is highly dependent on collaborations with hospitals and transplant programs. At the start of the donation process, hospitals are responsible for notifying any OPO in a timely manner when a patient is on a ventilator and meets medical criteria to be an organ donor. Additionally, transplant centers must make the decision whether to accept or decline the organs offered by OPOs. 57:55 Matt Wadsworth: As geographic monopolies, OPOs are not subject to any competitive pressure to provide high service. As the only major program in all of health care 100% reimbursed for all costs, we do not face financial pressures to allocate resources intelligently. 1:02:10 Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL): Mr. Ferreira, I'd like to turn to you. You run the OPO called the Nevada Donor Network. I have your OPO's 2019 financial statement filed with the CMS. It appears that your OPO spent roughly $6 million in 2019 on administrative and general expenses. Interestingly, in 2019, I see your OPO spent approximately $146,000 on travel meetings and seminars alone. And your itemization of Administrative and General has an interesting line item for $576,000 for "ANG". It took me a minute but that means you have an "Administrative and General" subcategory in your "Administrative and General" category. Very vague. Now Mr. Ferreira, I was informed by Mr. Wadsworth, a former executive of yours at the Nevada Donor Network, that your OPO has season tickets to the NHL's Las Vegas Golden Knights, isn't that correct? Joe Ferreira: That is correct, Mr. Chairman. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL): And you also have season tickets to the Las Vegas Raiders too, right? Joe Ferreira: That is correct. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL): And according to Mr. Wadsworth and others, your OPO took a board retreat to Napa Valley in 2018. Joe Ferreira: That is correct. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL): And Sonoma in 2019, right? Joe Ferreira: That is correct. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL): Mr. Ferreira, what you're spending on the Raiders, the Golden Knights, Napa Valley and Sonoma have one thing in common: they have nothing to do with recovering organs. 1:10:30 Dr. Seth Karp: In 2019, there were six heart transplants that were performed using donors after circulatory determination of death. And I don't want to get into the technical aspects of that. But in 2019, that number was six. In 2020, that number was 126. This is a new technology. This is a way that we can increase the number of heart transplants done in United States dramatically. And if we think that there were 500 patients in the United States waiting for a heart in 2020, 500 patients that either died or were delisted because they were too sick, and you think in one year, using a technology, we got another 100 transplants, if we could get another 500 transplants out of that technology, we could almost eliminate deaths on the on the heart transplant waiting list. That technology exists. It exists today. But we don't have a mechanism for getting it out to everybody that could use it and it's going to run itself through the system, it's going to take too much time. 1:24:05 Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA): You know, I'm a little disappointed that we're discussing race as a factor in organ transplant. We're all one race in my opinion; color makes no difference to me. We're the human race. And to me, the interjection of race into this discussion is very concerning. Discrimination based on race was outlawed almost 60 years ago through the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Now, I'm not a medical doctor, and I have very little knowledge of medicine. But last year, there was an article that came out in LifeSource and it says, "Does my race and ethnicity matter in organ donation?" And so my question here is for Dr. Karp. In your experience, would you agree that a donor's organs are more likely to be a clinical match for a recipient of the same ethnicity? Could you comment on that? Is that actually a factor, or not? I mean, we're all human beings, we all, you know, have similar bodies. Dr. Seth Karp: Yes. So there definitely are certain HLA types that are more common. That is race-based. So the answer to that question is yes. Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA): Okay. All right. And so if you have more of one particular race, more donations of one particular race, then naturally you would have more actual matches of that particular race. Is that correct? Dr. Seth Karp: That would tend to be the case. Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA): Okay. All right. All right. Okay, that's just a question that I wanted to clear up here. 1:34:20 Donna Cryer: We'd like to see investments in languages that are spoken by the community. Educational resources should be, as required by law, for those with limited English proficiency. They should be in the languages spoken by the community. They should be hiring diverse staff to have those most crucial conversations with families. The data shows, and certainly experience and common sense shows as well, that having people of color approaching families of color results in more donations. Executive Producer Recommended Sources Music by Editing Production Assistance

As detailed in the President's Management Agenda and Executive Order 14058, a major priority of the current administration has been to improve government service delivery to the American public. The challenges of receiving federal benefits have been well-documented - from confusing paper applications to unclear responsibilities between multiple federal agencies - and so a reform effort is underway to make service delivery faster, more effective, and more human-centered than ever before. Out of this effort has grown the Life Experiences Project - a framework that focuses on the major life events where Americans have the greatest need to interface with the federal government to help them navigate these challenging moments. These are make-or-break opportunities where a positive experience accessing services will do a world of good, but a bad experience can be ruinous. In this miniseries, The Buzz will be exploring the five major life experiences that CX teams from the US Digital Service focused on as a part of this project in collaboration with their agency partners. This week, we're kicking things off by looking at how new parents interact with the federal government to help them handle the trials and joys of having a child. We're joined by OMB's Federal Customer Experience Lead Amira Boland to introduce us to the framework, as well as Maya Mechenbier, the Birth and Early Childhood Project Lead from the US Digital Service. Resources:Having a Child and Early Childhood Overview at Performance.govJoin the team at USDS!Executive Order 14058 on Customer ExperienceThe Biden-Harris Management AgendaSubscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org. 

This week in the China Shop, the Fed hits the pause button, Bostic runs afoul of the Blackout restrictions (again) and Janet Yellen comments on the USDs falling global reserve share. In Stock News, NVDA joins the trillion dollar market cap club while CRM unveils its AI cloud. Over in the Crypto Corner, Blackrock files for a BTC ETF and Mark Cuban draws parallels to the dot com bubble and crypto's current turmoil. It's the halfway point in the monthly bet and one team's bold strategy of holding cash is starting to pay dividends!Check out Dan's newest podcast, Conspiracied History here!Check out the merch in our new shop here!If you like our show, please let us know by rating and subscribing on your platform of choice!Should you like our show and hate social media, then please tell all your friends!If you have no friends and hate social media and you just want to give us money for advertising and help you find more friends (or to replenish the Bet account), then you can donate here!SponsorshipsSupport for 2 Bulls is brought to you by ​MANSCAPED™​, who is the best in men's below-the-waist grooming. ​Their products are precision-engineered tools for your family jewels. MANSCAPED's™ Performance Package the ultimate men's hygiene bundle! Join over 7 million men worldwide who trust MANSCAPED with this exclusive offer for you…. 20% off and free worldwide shipping with the code: 2BULLS at manscaped.com.If you are interested in signing up with TRADEPRO Academy, you can use our affiliate link here. We receive compensation for any purchases made when using this link, so it's a great way to support the show and learn at the same time! **Join our Discord for a link and code to save 10%**For anyone trading futures, check out Vantatrading.com. Founded by Mr. W Banks and Baba Yaga, they provide a ton of educational content with the focus of teaching aspiring traders how to build a repeatable, profitable process. You can find our exclusive affiliate link/discount code for Vanta in our free discord server as well!Check out the custom studies for futures trading over at OrderFlow Labs. We do not receive any compensation for referrals, we just love their community and tools!To contact us, you can email us directly at 2bulls@financialineptitude.com Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Discord to get updated when new content is posted! Links:Why the Fed Paused its Rate HikesBostic Makes More Trades in Blackout PeriodWall Street's Biggest Bull Says Economy is Slipping into an ExpansionWFG Says Recession is Looming and SPY Could Fall to 4,000Yellen Comments on USD's Decline in Share of Global ReservesNVDA Joins Trillion Dollar Market Cap ClubCRM Unveils AI CloudMark Cuban Predicts Crypto Will Echo Dot Com BubbleBlackrock Files for BTC ETFBinance France Chief Brushed off Concerns Days before Police VisitDavid Blaine's Ted TalkDiscord:https://discord.gg/Q8hft2zMTMLearn More Here***Send us your mailing address so we can send you a smash it yourself mug when you join!***Friends of the Show:TRADEPRO AcademyVanta TradingMindMuscles AcademyOrderFlow LabsBeginner Stuff:Beginner EpisodesMiniseries PageKnowledge CenterResourcesAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Stanford's Evelyn Douek and Alex Stamos weigh in on the latest online trust and safety news and developments:India UpdateAt least some of the YouTube, Meta, and Internet Archive takedowns of clips from a BBC documentary that examines Prime Minister Narendra Modi's political rise were due to copyright claims made by BBC, rather than requests made by the Indian government. Maybe they could have mentioned that a bit earlier? - Rishi Iyengar/ Foreign Policy, Russell Brandom/ Rest of World, Internet ArchiveLuckily, Twitter owner Elon Musk chimed in with a tweet reply that he hadn't heard of the issue, adding “It is not possible for me to fix every aspect of Twitter worldwide overnight, while still running Tesla and SpaceX, among other things.” - @elonmuskTwitter reinstated Indian Hindu nationalist accounts previously suspended for hate speech against Muslims. - Newley Purnell/ The Wall Street JournalTwitter CornerA new Twitter Files thread on the German Marshall Fund's Hamilton 68 project, which tracked Russian influence operations on Twitter, illustrates the dashboard's flawed methodology. That doesn't change the fact that there was Russian interference during the 2020 U.S. presidential election. - @mtaibbiMusk made the rounds on Capitol Hill, meeting with House leadership to ensure that Twitter will be “fair to both parties.” We are sure there will be tons of transparency. - Tony Romm, Faiz Siddiqui, Cat Zakrzewski, Adela Suliman/ The Washington PostTwitter will allow anyone to appeal an account suspension, starting this Wednesday, February 1. - @TwitterSafetyAnd Twitter is re-suspending some of those accounts. White supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes was suspended less than 24 hours after his account was reinstated. - Julia Shapero/ The HillIn completely unrelated news, Twitter is being sued in Germany over failing to remove antisemitic hate speech. - Molly Killeen/ Euractiv, Aggi Cantrill, Karin Matussek/ Bloomberg NewsTikTok OffensiveTikTok is going on the offensive with public engagements explaining its private negotiations with the U.S. government. Executives are briefing members of Congress, academics, and think tank researchers about Project Texas, the company's plan to audit content recommendation systems and securely store and process U.S. user data in partnership with Oracle. - Cecilia Kang, Sapna Maheshwari, David McCabe/ The New York TimesResearchers briefed on TikTok's proposal to continue operating in the U.S. said that a new subsidiary, TikTok U.S. Data Security Inc. (USDS), will house all of its U.S. content moderation under the governance of an independent board that will report to the U.S. government (CFIUS) — not to ByteDance. Plans also call for TikTok's source code and content recommendation systems to be audited by Oracle and a third-party inspector. - David Ingram/ NBC News, Matt Perault, Samm Sacks/ Lawfare (commentary)Other storiesThe messy business of operating in China caught up with Apple again as the company's Safari web browser seems to have quietly adopted a Chinese government website block list. - Sam Biddle/ The InterceptGoogle plans to sunset a pilot program that stopped political campaign emails from winding up in the spam folder as it seeks to dismiss a lawsuit from the Republican National Committee claiming that Gmail filters have political bias. - Isaac Stanley-Becker/ The Washington Post, Ashley Gold/ AxiosThe Financial Times had a miserable experience attempting to run its own Mastodon instance, facing “compliance, security and reputational risks” in addition to cloud hosting costs and creepy factor issues, such as seeing direct messages by default. - Bryce Elder/ Financial TimesSports CornerDid Alex receive a call from the San Francisco 49ers football team during their NFL playoff game this weekend? No, not for that cyber issue last year. Things get “Purdy'' desperate when a team's first four quarterbacks are injured. - Nick Wagoner/ ESPNJoin the conversation and connect with Evelyn and Alex on Twitter at @evelyndouek and @alexstamos.Moderated Content is produced in partnership by Stanford Law School and the Cyber Policy Center. Special thanks to John Perrino for research and editorial assistance.Like what you heard? Don't forget to subscribe and share the podcast with friends!