62-year-old Robert Burke, a retired four-star admiral, is facing up to 30 years in prison for an alleged scheme to steer a government contract to a company in exchange for future employment. Burke, who served as the vice chief of naval operations from 2019 to 2020, has been arrested and charged with four felony counts, including bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery. He is also charged with performing acts affecting a personal financial interest and concealing material facts from the United States. Burke made his initial court appearance on Friday in Miami.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) did not have to look far to find its new CIO, as it tapped Scott Flanders, the acting chief information officer since January, to take on the permanent job. His first day is today. Flanders, who has been the deputy CIO for the previous several years, will replace Dave Nelson, who retired at the end of January after eight years. Flanders has been with the NRC since 1991. Before joining the CIO’s office, Flanders led the Division of Site Safety and Environmental Analysis in the then Office of New Reactors. The NRC’s IT budget for 2024 is $170 million and the agency requested $190 million for 2025.
The intelligence community has updated its technology plans, with a new information technology roadmap released last week, which indicates that the IC will embrace multiple cloud computing environments. But the document acknowledges that the IC’s efforts to tailor different cloud capabilities are still complex and nascent. The roadmap also commits to adopting DevSecOps software practices, enterprise data architectures, and artificial intelligence at scale. Intelligence officials said spy agencies need to quickly adopt emerging IT capabilities to stay ahead of U.S. adversaries.
The Department of Health and Human Services is getting a head start on pooled hiring. HHS’s “hire now” platform, lets hiring managers view both internal agency applicants and governmentwide ones at the same time. Through that portal, HHS has hired about 900 candidates. Another 800 or so hires are currently making their way through the process. “It’s helping to bring in that acquisition workforce, that IT workforce of the future — it’s to ensure that we’re creating opportunities and really helping to attract that talent to public service writ large in addition to our own specific mission,” said Bob Leavitt, the chief human capital officer at HHS. About 11% of all HHS hires come from shared certificates.
The Pentagon’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office plans to bring in more vendors to further the department’s Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) effort. The Defense Department is opening its doors to more companies as part of a new initiative called the Open Data and Applications Government-owned Interoperable Repositories. The initiative will allow the department to integrate industry solutions in a way where the DoD retains ownership of its data while letting companies develop applications using that data. The Pentagon will initially use this ecosystem to scale its data infrastructure, interoperability, artificial intelligence and analytics capabilities in support of the CJADC2 initiative.
Agency program managers have some new best practices to protect their programs from fraud and abuse. A new report from the Pandemic Responsibility and Accountability Committee (PRAC), said agencies that took three broad steps, such as preparing for an emergency by maintaining a crisis-ready staff, were better prepared to limit improper payments during the COVID-19 emergency. The PRAC said developing strong internal controls, that include validating self-certifying criteria and implementing a risk-based monitoring approach, were among the other traits of successful programs. The PRAC report details resources, reports, and other documents agencies can refer to as they further develop their funding programs.
The Federal Housing Administration is the latest agency to issue cybersecurity reporting rules. FHA is requiring lenders of mortgages to report cyber incidents to the Department of Housing and Urban Development within 12 hours of detection. FHA’s rule joins a growing set of federal cyber incident reporting regulations, including new rules from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency that will require reporting across all 16 critical infrastructure sectors.
Participants in the Thrift Savings Plan will now see a speedier withdrawal process in the TSP’s “My Account” online platform. After requesting a withdrawal from their TSP account, users no longer have to wait 30 days to request a second withdrawal. The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board said removing the 30-day waiting period should give participants more flexibility in how they manage their accounts.
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