March, 2024

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Federal Highway Administration Announces Proposed Rule Ending Longstanding Buy America Waiver for Manufactured Products

Inside Government Contracts

On March 7, 2024, the Department of Transportation’s (“DOT”) Federal Highway Administration (“FHWA”) announced a proposed rule to rescind a longstanding general waiver of Buy America requirements for manufactured products (the “Manufactured Products Waiver”). If finalized, this would be a major change for the agency, reversing a policy that has been in place for more than 40 years.

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Shipping Company Involved in Baltimore Bridge Collapse Retaliated Against Whistleblower

Whistleblower Network News

Maersk Line Limited, the company that chartered the cargo ship that crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, was sanctioned by the Department of Labor (DOL) in July 2023 for retaliating against a whistleblower who raised safety concerns. The DOL’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found that Maersk illegally fired a seaman who reported a variety of safety concerns to the U.S.

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The four key drivers that can enable better IT procurement

Open Contracting Partnership

Bridging the digital divide: Implementing open procurement for effective digital transformation Digital transformation is arguably the most important administrative undertaking of governments around the world. From healthcare management and social safety net technology to managing vaccine sign-ups during the pandemic , governments simply need to buy IT better.

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6 foundational capabilities you need for generative AI

AWS Public Sector

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is easy to use—and that’s what makes the technology so exciting. But it’s important not to confuse ease of use with effortless deployment. The value of generative AI is inextricably linked to the technology’s reliability and traceability, as described in our earlier blog post, Generative AI: Understand the challenges to realize the opportunities.

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How to Create a Blueprint for Fleet Resilience

Speaker: Jeff Dickinson - President and CEO of Railgistixs Transport, Supply Chain and Logistics Thought Leader

Despite the ongoing transformation of the supply chain and logistics landscape, the steadfast importance of carrier safety remains a core principle. From prioritizing preventative maintenance to optimizing fleet utilization, the fundamentals persist. If you’re overlooking and neglecting essential safety precautions today, this could result in expensive repairs and potential safety hazards in the future. 🚧 Join Jeff Dickinson for a conversation on how to mitigate risk, enforce compliance,

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Treasure Hunting with TJX

Art of Procurement

The last few years have not been kind to retailers. Inventory misalignment has dragged down revenue and working capital. Companies. The post Treasure Hunting with TJX appeared first on Art of Procurement.

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Episode 1: Attorney’s Update on the CTA’s Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Requirements

Coleman Jackson, P.C.

LEGAL THOUGHTS – Attorney’s Update Episode 1 on CTA Beneficial Ownership Information Filing Requirements COLEMAN JACKSON, ATTORNEY & LEGAL COUNSEL | Transcription of Legal Thoughts Posted on March 20, 2024 Topic: The Courts Have Begun to Weigh in on the Transparency Law Welcome to Legal Thoughts! Attorney Introduction: My name is Coleman […] The post Episode 1: Attorney’s Update on the CTA’s Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Requirements appeared first on Tax

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International Trade Enforcement Roundup – February 2024

GovCon & Trade

You are reading the February 2024 Update of the Bass, Berry & Sims Enforcement Roundup, where we bring notable enforcement actions, policy changes, interesting news articles, and a bit of our insight to your inbox. To stay up to date, subscribe to our GovCon & Trade blog. If you have questions about any actions addressed in the Roundup, please contact the international trade team.

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VA Seeks Offers for $14B Integrated Healthcare Transformation 2.0 Contract

GovCon Wire

The Department of Veterans Affairs has issued a request for proposals for the potential 10-year, $14 billion follow-on Integrated Healthcare Transformation contract. IHT 2.

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How Agencies Should Prepare for NARA’s Deadline to Digitize Federal Records

FedTech Magazine

Agencies face an uphill battle to scan, convert, tag and secure documents ahead of the National Archives and Records Administration’s deadline for digitizing permanent government records in June. Although the time, labor and cost savings of digital records will be beneficial to agencies, the sheer volume of records is daunting, requiring federal IT leaders to tap into an array of technology solutions to get the job done.

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Treasury report calls out cyber risks to financial sector fueled by AI

FedScoop

The new report sounds the alarm on AI-specific cyber risks while highlighting best practices to combat them.

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How Pearson improves its resilience with AWS Fault Injection Service

AWS Public Sector

Introduction Application owners are committed to developing new applications and enhancing existing ones rapidly as a top business priority. However, when it comes to mission-critical applications, whose availability is vital for business operations, owners must allocate dedicated time to design and rigorously test the resilience of their applications.

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Protecting APIs & Sensitive Data

FedInsider

Wednesday, April 3, 2024 | 2:00PM EDT | 1 Hour | 1 CPE In today’s interconnected digital landscape, application programming interfaces (APIs) play a pivotal role in facilitating seamless communication and data exchange between various applications and systems. However, with this increased connectivity comes heightened security risks, particularly concerning the protection of sensitive data in those APIs.

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Cyber Defense Magazine Article on CMMC Proposed Rule

GovCon & Trade

We published an article titled “Department of Defense Publishes Long-Awaited CMMC Proposed Rule,” in the March 2024 edition of Cyber Defense Magazine. In the article, we discuss the function of the CMMC Proposed Rule to protect sensitive information being handled by government contractors and identify individuals and organizations that will be tasked with complying with the program.

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Material Security’s Dan Skinner Evaluates Shifting Cybersecurity Ecosystem

ExecutiveBiz

Dan Skinner , head of federal go-to-market at Material Security , began his career nearly three decades ago and has since garnered a wealth of technical and leadership experience. In a recent Executive Spotlight interview with ExecutiveBiz, Skinner assessed the ways in which the cybersecurity landscape has changed over the past few years and shared his insights on the role of the cloud on this transformation.

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Quzara’s Saif Rahman: DIB Organizations Should Put Emphasis on Security Visibility, Maintain SOC Capability

GovCon Wire

Saif Rahman, CEO and co-founder of Quzara, said defense industrial base organizations looking to comply with the Department of Defense’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification framework should focus on having security visibility through auditing, monitoring and generating security logs to better understand the vulnerabilities they face. In an article published on Carahsoft.

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Tech issues are part of the problem — and solution — for FOIA backlog, GAO finds

FedScoop

The ever-increasing backlog of Freedom of Information Act requests for federal agencies is due in part to technological issues facing the workers charged with fulfilling them, a new Government Accountability Office report found. The congressional watchdog, tasked by a bicameral, bipartisan group of lawmakers to investigate FOIA response delays, found that the backlog jumped from 14% in 2013 to 22% in 2022, with the growing complexity of requests, staffing shortages and increasing threats of liti

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Karsun Solutions builds modernization platform using Amazon Bedrock

AWS Public Sector

Summary Highly regulated enterprises and government agencies still maintain critical applications operating on legacy mainframe systems. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a 2023 report identifying critical federal IT legacy systems in need of modernization that were written in older languages, such as COBOL. According to GAO, reliance on older languages carries risks “such as a rise in procurement and operating costs, and a decrease in the availability of individuals with the

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Smithsonian’s Digitization Program Captures and Preserves Delicate Treasures

FedTech Magazine

The Smithsonian Institution’s massive collection includes items too fragile to put on display or so complex that they’re difficult for scientists to study. Its Digitization Program Office takes these objects and creates 3D scans that preserve them for history, research and outreach to people who may not be able to visit the Washington, D.C., museums.

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Make Progress in Incident Response & Reporting

FedInsider

Wednesday, April 17, 2024 | 2:00PM EDT | 1 Hour | 1 CPE When Executive Order 14028, “Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity,” was issued in May 2021, it included directives for agencies to establish several incident response and logging procedures, including sharing information on incident detection and response, by August 2023. In August of that year, the Office of Management and Budget issued Memorandum 21-31 setting specific requirements for agencies to meet, for which the Cybersecurity a

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SandboxAQ’s Jen Sovada Wins 1st Wash100 Award for Quantum Leadership & Education

ExecutiveBiz

Executive Mosaic is pleased to induct Jen Sovada , president of global public sector at SandboxAQ and chair of Executive Mosaic’s 4x24 Quantum Group , into the ranks of the 2024 Wash100. Sovada won her first Wash100 Award this year for her leadership and expertise in the emerging quantum field and for her work helping government customers understand and harness the power of quantum.

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State Department OKs Poland’s $3.7B FMS Requests for Missile Defense Systems

GovCon Wire

The State Department has approved Poland’s foreign military sales requests worth $3.68 billion combined to procure short-, medium- and extended-range air defense missiles from the U.S. government. Poland has requested 821 Lockheed Martin-manufactured (NYSE: LMT) Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range missiles and associated logistics and program support under a potential $1.

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So, You Want to Manage a Proposal? Things Every First-Time Proposal Manager Should Know

Key Solutions

Stepping into a Proposal Manager role for the first time can be overwhelming and intimidating. Many proposal professionals learn on the job or through a trial-by-fire scenario. The “this is fine” meme comes to mind.

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AWS convenes public sector and industry leaders on future of AI in federal financial services

AWS Public Sector

On February 22, 2024, Amazon Web Services (AWS) hosted its first Federal Financial Services Artificial Intelligence (AI) Forum at Amazon HQ2 in Arlington, Virginia, convening leaders from the public sector and financial services industry. AI has the potential to revolutionize the financial services sector by leveraging data to enhance customer experiences, reduce risks, mitigate counterintelligence, and streamline operations.

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DOD Drives New Interest in 5G Networks Across Government

FedTech Magazine

Upgrading to a 5G network is a simple matter for citizens; our carriers and phones do it for us. But when it comes to a government transition, there’s more advance work that needs to be done. The federal government’s move to 5G accelerated when the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 became law at the end of December 2023. The NDAA requires the Defense Department to develop private 5G networks at military bases and other DOD facilities.

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Peaceful protests, lawful assembly can’t be sole reason for DOJ facial recognition use under interim policy

FedScoop

Activities protected under the First Amendment, such as peaceful protests and lawful assembly, “may not be the sole basis for the use of” facial recognition technology under the Justice Department’s interim policy governing its deployment of the technology, the agency told a civil rights panel. In written testimony submitted to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights last week, the DOJ shared details of its approach to using facial recognition technology, or FRT, including its interim policy, which

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Seagate’s Bill Downer Shares Thoughts on Data Security & Zero Trust

ExecutiveBiz

Bill Downer , vice president of national programs at Seagate Federal , believes “the edge is everywhere,” no matter where the data is collected and stored. He is a strong advocate for defending data at rest, and at Seagate, he leads the company’s delivery of secure data storage products to federal agencies. In a recent Executive Spotlight interview with ExecutiveBiz , Downer discussed Seagate’s most impactful partnerships, highlighted emerging cyber threats and shared his insights on zero trust

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General Dynamics Electric Boat Secures $145M Navy Contract Modification for Submarine Engineering Support

GovCon Wire

A General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) subsidiary will continue to help the U.S. Navy design and provide engineering support for operational strategic and attack submarines under a potential $145 million contract modification. The award also extends technical, design agent and planning yard support services for the service branch, the Department of Defense said Thursday.

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DOJ to Launch Whistleblower Award Program

Whistleblower Network News

On March 7, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will be rolling out a whistleblower award program this year. “We’re planning something new: a DOJ-run whistleblower rewards program,” Monaco announced in a speech at American Bar Association’s 39th National Institute on White Collar Crime. “The premise is simple: if an individual helps DOJ discover significant corporate or financial misconduct — otherwise unknown to us — then the individual could quali

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2024 Chief Officer Awards Finalists Unveiled

WashngtonExec

Congratulations to all the Chief Officer Awards finalists and nominees across industry and government! Join us May 10, 11:30 a.m. at The Hilton in McLean, Virginia, for an in-person event and luncheon. In the coming weeks, we will be posting Q&As with some of the finalists, so keep your eye out for that. Below are [.

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Early Bird Agencies Have Begun Deploying Windows 11

FedTech Magazine

Better to be an early adopter than one scrambling to do everything at the last minute. That’s how Joe Powers sees it. As associate CIO for enterprise infrastructure solutions at the Office of Personnel Management, Powers is leading the agency’s rollout of Microsoft Windows 11. The new operating system replaces Windows 10, which will reach end of life in October 2025.

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Transportation Department to examine consumer privacy issues with big airlines

FedScoop

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced Thursday that the agency is launching a privacy review of the country’s top airlines. Airlines can access several forms of personal information about passengers, including through apps, online purchases, software used by flight attendants , and, increasingly, biometric screening systems. While the Department of Transportation isn’t typically associated with investigations into digital rights violations, the agency says it has the authority to imp

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How AutogenAI Has Tapped a New AI Use Case in GovCon, With CEO Elizabeth Lukas

ExecutiveBiz

The use cases for artificial intelligence don’t stop multiplying in the government contracting industry and since its founding in 2021, AutogenAI has developed a new one: using AI to assist the proposal writing process. Noted business leader Elizabeth Lukas came aboard the company last fall as its Americas CEO. Recently, we sat down with Lukas to gain an understanding about AutogenAI’s unique offerings and inquire what the company’s performance tells us about the federal marketplace.

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What Open Source Means for the Future of the Intelligence Community

GovCon Wire

Open source intelligence encompasses any publicly or commercially available information, and with today’s vast catalog of data from news websites, social media, broadcast television and more, it has grown into a prominent force in U.S. intelligence missions. The Potomac Officers Club’s 10th Annual Intel Summit in September will cover a wide range of relevant intelligence topics.

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Whistleblower Allegations Lead to $600K Home Health Care Settlement

Whistleblower Network News

On March 12, Dena J. King, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, announced that Family First Home Health Care, Inc. (Family First), a home health care agency in Gastonia, N.C., and its owner, Marion James, have agreed to collectively pay $600,000 to resolve claims brought under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act (FCA).

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SBA Veteran-Owned Small Business Certification with Select GCR

Select GCR

A Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB) is a company majority owned and run by veterans who have served in the military. These businesses are important because they bring the unique skills and experiences gained during military service into the business world. Government agencies and big companies often give special opportunities to VOSBs, like contracts and resources, to help them grow.

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How MLOps Helps Agencies Get the Most out of AI

GovLoop

Building a large AI data model from scratch is prohibitively expensive for most organizations. But the release of AI foundation models, particularly large language models (LLM), has allowed organizations to take advantage of broader community investments in AI. But there’s a catch: Agencies need to tweak and train these models to meet their specific objectives, maintain privacy and ensure regulatory compliance.

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