Public Service Recognition Week: Octavia Hall
May 8th, 2012 | Air Force Defense Unions | Posted by Blair Tomlinson
As an Army brat, Octavia Hall has always been around public service. She spent most of her life in Germany bouncing around several bases. Hall said it was both her family and her community who encouraged her to serve.
“When I went out to the bus stop, I remember the soldiers coming over to talk to us about going to school, getting a good education, asking about our career goals. They contributed a lot to my wanting to serve,” Hall said.
As military families do, Hall’s family moved again, this time to Maryland. In high school she was active in cheerleading and a singing-show group she compared to the hit show Glee.
When graduation approached, Hall wasn’t interested in military service, but she knew there was a place for her on the civilian side. After receiving her diploma from La Plata High School, she was hired as a resource adviser at Joint Base Andrews. Hall helped families with child-care needs, career development courses and dual military spouses dealing with deployments.
“It’s always been instilled in me to help others in need,” Hall said.
Hall’s job at Andrews led her to her current position as the president of Local 1401 of the American Federation of Government Employees.
Listen to Hall share her views on public service:
Tags: AFGE, American Federation of Government Employees, Octavia Hall, public service
Senator MacCaskill’s grandsons ham it up for the camera.
March 29th, 2012 | Congress Defense Government reform Homeland Security Procurement Uncategorized | Posted by Blair Tomlinson
Spring Break fever was in the air today on Capitol Hill. Legislators have officially fled Washington D.C. and there will be no hearings until April 16th.
But before the final votes ensued, the Senate subcommittee on contracting oversight held a hearing where Senators McCaskill, Portman and Tester grilled witnesses from the Army, The Office of Personnel and Management and The Department of Homeland Security over contractor spending.
Meanwhile, Chairwoman McCaskill’s grandsons were in attendance. My guess is they are on their own Spring Break. They sat graciously through the hearing; only occasionally trying sneak into my shot. I’m sure they were absolutely enthralled with the subject of Contractors: How Much Are They Costing the Government.
When Grandma adjourned the hearing she let the boys smack the gavel to officially call the hearing to a close – then they really spotted me. And as kids do, they hammed it up for the camera. So, cute.
Senator McCaskill speaks with OPM Chief Operating Officer, Chuck Grimes, while her grandchildren ham it up for the camera, March 29, 2012.
Navy releases updated draft RFP for NGEN contract
March 16th, 2012 | Defense Information Technology | Posted by Nicole Johnson
The Navy on Friday released a revised draft request for proposal to industry for its Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN) program.
The updated draft reflects comments from industry and Navy stakeholders and will provide further clarification of development requirements for NGEN, the Navy said in a news release. Industry has 10 working days to review and comment on changes to the initial draft, which was released in September.
NGEN will replace the current Navy-Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) as the world’s largest network. It will serve both sailors and Marines on land and overseas.
VA to award health record contract to next qualified bidder
March 15th, 2012 | Defense Information Technology Veterans Affairs | Posted by Nicole Johnson
The Veterans Affairs Department will not openly recompete a $102.6 million contract to manage a critical portion of its future integrated electronic health record (iEHR) system with the Defense Department.
Instead, VA will award the contract to the second most qualified bidder, said VA Spokeswoman Jo Schuda. The firm has not been named.
Last month, VA canceled the contract it had awarded to Fairfax, Va.-based ASM Research Inc. to manage a portion of the iEHR, called the enterprise service bus, which will allow various components of the future system to communicate with each other and with VA and DoD health information stored in data centers. The contract was awarded under VA’s $12 billion Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology, or T4, program.
“This decision was based on the findings of an investigation by the government into an alleged organizational conflict of interest focused on the involvement of individuals from a subcontractor company on the ASM Research team,” the company said in a statement.
Schuda said the enterprise service bus is only part of the iEHR development, which includes more than 20 other projects that are underway.
“While we’re still assessing the exact impact on iEHR development, we believe it will be minimal,” she said.
Robert Gates sounds off (again)
March 14th, 2012 | CIA Defense | Posted by Sean Reilly
Robert Gates was back in Washington this evening with a display of the understated candor that was a trademark during his five years as secretary of defense. It was Gates, after all, who last year described members of Congress as a group “with oversized egos and undersized backbones”—a line he cheerfully repeated during tonight’s award ceremony hosted by the National Academy of Public Administration.
Gates, on hand to receive the academy’s Elliot L. Richardson Prize for excellence in public service, spoke during a wide-ranging question-and-answer session with James Kitfield, senior correspondent at National Journal. Here are a few other excerpts:
* On the similarities between the CIA, Defense Department and Texas A&M University, all of which Gates headed during his long career: “In all three places, most of the people you work with have tenure. They’re there before you got there and they will be there after you leave. If you really want to change something, you’d better make them your partners in change.”
* On canning people: “I don’t think I fired anybody because they didn’t know about a problem. . . . What I fired them for was once they knew about it, they didn’t take it seriously.”
* On the increasing polarization of American politics: “I am very worried. It’s because we’ve got a situation where compromise has become synonymous with selling out or abandoning your principles. If you want highly ideological politics, go to France—those guys perfected it.”
The ceremony was held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in downtown Washington.
Tags: National Academy of Public Administration, Robert Gates, Texas A&M University
VA/DoD joint office gets new director
March 6th, 2012 | Defense Information Technology Veterans Affairs | Posted by Nicole Johnson
Former Harris Corp. executive Barclay Butler has been appointed director of the DoD/VA Interagency Program Office (IPO), which oversees the agencies’ integrated electronic health record project and other joint initiatives.
Barclay, who served as vice president of healthcare operations for Harris’ Falls Church, Va., office, started work at the joint office on Feb. 27, DoD announced Tuesday. David Wennergren, DoD’s assistant deputy chief management officer, had been serving as interim director since July. The director position required approval from VA and DoD secretaries.
As director, Barclay is also the program executive for the iEHR and the health portion of the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) initiative, according to a charter signed by VA Deputy Secretary Scott Gould and then-Deputy Defense Secretary Bill Lynn in October. Barclay must also acquire, develop and integrate “major joint DoD/VA health (information technology) capabilities for the iEHR and VLER health,” the charter said.
Barclay was appointed one day before VA canceled a $102.6 million contract to manage a critical portion of the iEHR.
The contract was awarded on Jan. 13 to Fairfax, Va.-based ASM Research Inc. to manage a portion of the iEHR, called the enterprise service bus, which will allow various components of the future system to communicate with each other and with VA and DoD health information stored in data centers. The contract was awarded under VA’s $12 billion Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology, or T4, program.
DoD and VA share a $700 million combined budget for the iEHR this fiscal year, and the joint program office is responsible for the program’s success, said VA’s Chief Information Office Roger Baker said in an interview last month.
The charter also tasks the office director with reporting staff shortages “for any areas that may impact the ability to deliver capabilities on schedule.” By 2014, the departments hope to provide a single virtual access point for health and benefits services. The program office will determine how many employees are needed to staff the office, and personnel working on office programs or initiatives will be evaluated by the director or deputy director.
DoD would not say if a deputy director has been named.
“If they want to completely insulate themselves from any change issues relative to politics,” the joint office must meet every program milestone, Baker said.
Tags: Barclay Butler, health IT, iEHR, Interagency Program Office, VLER
VA cancels critical contract for electronic health record
February 29th, 2012 | Defense Information Technology Veterans Affairs | Posted by Nicole Johnson
The Veterans Affairs Department has canceled a $102.6 million contract to manage a critical portion of its future integrated electronic health record (iEHR) system with the Defense Department.
The contract was awarded on Jan. 13 to Fairfax, Va.-based ASM Research Inc. to manage a portion of the iEHR, called the enterprise service bus, which will allow various components of the future system to communicate with each other and with VA and DoD health information stored in data centers. The contract was awarded under VA’s $12 billion Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology, or T4, program.
VA Spokeswoman Jo Schuda confirmed that the contract was canceled on Feb. 28 but did not provide further details about what prompted the decision. It also isn’t clear how this will impact development of the new system.
In an interview with Federal Times this month, VA Chief Information Officer Roger Baker said the enterprise service bus is “the heart of the iEHR.” “Everything will talk to it or through it.”
Baker said VA and DoD are still finalizing an estimated four- to five-year development plan for the iEHR. Development of the iEHR is tied to the larger Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record that will enable better sharing of veterans’ health and benefits data, but the iEHR is a separate program that requires its own oversight, Baker said.
Army considers Bring-Your-Own-Device plan
February 28th, 2012 | Defense Information Technology | Posted by Nicole Johnson
The Army’s deputy chief information officer is proposing a new plan that would expand the Army’s mobility strategy beyond the BlackBerry and allow users to do government work on their personal devices.
If the Army works aggressively through partnerships with the National Security Agency and industry, it could be ready to release a request for proposal for mobile technology within the next 12 months, said Army deputy CIO Mike Krieger, at a mobility event last week. The contract would provide a large number of soldiers, contractors and civilians with zero client mobile devices, or smartphones that have no operating systems or software and only serve as a connector between the user and applications running in the data center.
“Data that is traditionally stored on the device would be running in a data center,” Krieger said. The technology would allow people to use their own devices for personal and government business.
Currently, BlackBerry is the “primary game in town” because it meets Defense Department security requirements, which include encryption standards and the ability to verify users with a Common Access Card, Krieger said. Zero client technology would help the Army more easily meet security requirements.
The Army’s ongoing transition to enterprise email services through the Defense Information Systems Agency has improved the Army’s oversight of its mobile devices, Krieger said. Before moving to DISA provided enterprise email, Krieger said many functions on the BlackBerry didn’t work because the software was not configured properly.
“Now, I know how many I have, and I can do enterprise policies, and I have better security,” he said.
The Army halted its migration to enterprise email in December because of a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act that temporarily withheld funding for the program, pending a detailed review.
Krieger said he expects the Army will resume migration on or about March 17.
“Email is really the first step in going DoD enterprise services,” he said. “It has little to do with email.”
Tags: Army
Will Afghan War be over before Defense has a plan to deploy civilians?
February 27th, 2012 | Defense | Posted by Stephen Losey
Julia Schoenfeld looks at the results after firing an M9 pistol during Civilian Expeditionary Workforce training at Muscatatuck Center for Complex Operations at Camp Atterbury, Ind., in February 2010. (Army)
Three years ago, the Defense Department set up a Civilian Expeditionary Workforce policy to help manage how it deploys civilians to war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan. But the Government Accountability Office said today that the CEW concept is still a long way from what the Pentagon envisioned.
CEW was meant to create a cadre of Defense civilians with crucial skills that are willing, ready and trained to go to war and help support combat troops — quickly. CEW has had some success, GAO said, most notably by creating a database of thousands of resumes from volunteers and filling 10 percent to 15 percent of the 2,929 Defense civilians now in Afghanistan.
But it hasn’t been fully implemented yet, GAO said. Defense components haven’t identified and designated the numbers and types of positions that will make up the emergency-essential, non-combat essential and capability-based volunteer segments of CEW. That’s important because, for example, emergency-essential employees directly support combat operations or make sure combat-essential systems are available (such as, fix helicopters or weapons).
Why haven’t Defense components taken that crucial step? Because the Office of the Secretary of Defense hasn’t issued critical guidance for making those decisions, GAO said. OSD swears it will get around to it one of these days, once it finalizes “key assumptions regarding the size and composition of the CEW.” The Pentagon wasn’t able to tell GAO when the guidance will be issued.
But in the meantime, the Iraq War is over, and the Obama administration plans to pull combat troops out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014. So by the time those key assumptions are finalized, that critical guidance is issued, and those civilians are identified and designated … will there even be a war requiring a CEW?
Tags: Afghanistan, deployed civilians, Pentagon
DoD revises CIO executive board charter
February 17th, 2012 | Defense Information Technology | Posted by Nicole Johnson
A Defense Department board led by Chief Information Officer Teri Takai will serve as the “single senior governance forum” to address information technology, IT acquisition and cyber issues across DoD.
In a Feb. 12 memo, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter included a revised charter for the DoD CIO Executive Board, which he said would “re-focus and strengthen” the board to provide leadership and guidance on certain departmentwide issues.
The memo, effective immediately, follows recommendations by the independent Defense Business Board urging DoD senior leadership to give Takai more clout. The charter gives the board authority to “decide on matters brought before it, and subject to the DoD CIO’s final approval,” facilitate how DoD recruits IT professionals, coordinates departmentwide cybersecurity solutions and other matters.
Members include the under secretary for policy, under secretary for acquisition, technology, and logistics, undersecretary for personnel readiness and the Defense comptroller.
Tags: Teri Takai