Author Archive

Adam Mazmanian

Adam Mazmanian

Editor-at-Large, Nextgov/FCW

Adam Mazmanian is an editor-at-large and was executive editor of Nextgov/FCW. Before joining the editing team, Mazmanian was an FCW staff writer covering Congress, governmentwide technology policy and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Prior to joining FCW, Mazmanian was technology correspondent for National Journal and served in a variety of editorial roles at B2B news service SmartBrief. Mazmanian has contributed reviews and articles to the Washington Post, the Washington City Paper, Newsday, New York Press, Architect Magazine and other publications.

Adam Mazmanian is an editor-at-large and was executive editor of Nextgov/FCW. Before joining the editing team, Mazmanian was an FCW staff writer covering Congress, governmentwide technology policy and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Prior to joining FCW, Mazmanian was technology correspondent for National Journal and served in a variety of editorial roles at B2B news service SmartBrief. Mazmanian has contributed reviews and articles to the Washington Post, the Washington City Paper, Newsday, New York Press, Architect Magazine and other publications.

Tech

FBI is losing track of classified and sensitive data, watchdog finds

The bureau is failing to account for electronic storage media that are marked for destruction at secure facilities.

Tech

Acting Secret Service head suggests that better tech could have thwarted would-be Trump assassin

Ronald Rowe Jr. told a Senate panel that additional cellular bandwidth and the use of counter-drone technology could have averted the attempted assassination of former President Trump.

Tech

Biden looks to preserve his tech and cyber legacy with veto threat

Experts see continuity in tech policy from the Biden administration to a possible Kamala Harris presidency, with possible divergence on some national security and antitrust issues.

Workforce

DHS cyber hiring program got off on the wrong foot, CIO says, but progress is showing

Ten years after its congressional authorization, the Cybersecurity Talent Management System is closing in on 200 hires.

Defense

DOD CIO resigns to take university post

John Sherman will become dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M.

Tech

House bill targets AI-generated comments in rulemaking

The legislation looks to provide assurance that public comments on pending regulations come from real people.

Tech

Education secretary pledges troubled online student aid tool will be ready for next fall

The online Free Application for Federal Student Aid tool had a rocky release, with bad data and uptime problems, but the Department of Education is looking for improvements next year.

Management

Feds need to be careful when tapping generative AI for work

Human review of AI-generated outputs is critical, OPM says in new guidance for government employees.

Tech

National Weather Service says partial circuit failure caused network outage

A six-hour outage took key weather information updates offline for about six hours earlier this week, amid outbreak of severe weather.

Tech

Federal weather system experiences outage amid severe weather nationwide

The agency is seeking money to shore up weather forecasting IT systems in fiscal year 2025.

Management

National Archives tees up new rules for UFO records

New legislation mandates a governmentwide repository of records dealing with "unidentified anomalous phenomena."

Management

OMB head 'not optimistic' about avoiding a government shutdown

Congress is back this week with a short clock to pass a 2024 budget or extend the existing stopgap measures funding the government.

Management

Sonny Hashmi to depart GSA

The head of the Federal Acquisition Service is leaving just before the close of 2023.

Tech

Okta breach includes theft of data on nearly all help desk users, including some feds

The company revised its earlier reporting on the scope of the breach, but said that data on users of high-impact federal and DOD systems was not compromised.

Management

House GOP pulls funding bill covering IRS, GSA, OMB and more

The leadership team around new House Speaker Mike Johnson removed the bill — which would have defunded GSA’s digital services team, 18F — from floor consideration because of an intra-party policy dispute.

Management

Cyber Director nominee talks AI, collaboration at confirmation hearing

Harry Coker, the Biden administration's choice to lead the Office of the National Cyber Director, said he'll draw on his experience as a program manager to make sure agencies hit their milestones on implementing the government's cyber strategy.

Oversight

Supreme Court lifts restrictions on federal agency contacts with social media firms

The ruling frees up federal agencies to contact social network platform owners about content moderation issues and other matters, pending the resolution of a court case.

Management

Ahead of shutdown, House and Senate Dems propose back pay for furloughed contractors

A similar effort to legislate back pay for contractors failed during the 2018-2019 shutdown.

Tech

VA's health record 'reset' will extend into 2024

There's one deployment of the new, multibillion dollar EHR on the books for next April and officials expect the rollouts to pick up in the summer.