Technocrat | September 24, 2018: To Shut Down or Not to Shut Down? That Is the Question
There may not be a government shutdown this year. The budgetary stars have aligned so far. That’s a big deal, given the government’s history of blown deadlines.
In hopes of dodging the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline, the Senate just approved a wide-ranging bill that would fund the military and other civilian agencies for the next year. That includes $675 billion for the Defense Department, with $147.9 billion going toward military equipment and upgrades.
As we’ve already noted, the government’s spending spree is in full swing. Agencies could spend as much as $300 billion in the final quarter of fiscal 2018. One recent survey found that 52 percent of federal government decision-makers are confident their agencies would spend the rest of this year’s budget. More than 80 percent of those surveyed said the remaining money would be allocated to existing contract vehicles, with IT making up 26 percent of the most common near-term purchases.
When it comes to helping cash-strapped agencies invest in IT projects, that funding remains up in the air. The Technology Modernization Fund is a key pillar in federal chief information officer Suzette Kent’s IT modernization strategy. At the moment, the status of the TMF remains unknown, and failure to secure its funding would be a major blow to Kent’s agenda. However, delaying some cash could also prove beneficial for this governmentwide revolving capital fund. BGOV’s Chris Cornillie explains why in this week’s exclusive story.
Meanwhile, here’s some cybersecurity news you can’t miss. The State Department is the latest victim of a data breach, which affected its unclassified email system. Although the hack reportedly involved only a small number of employee inboxes, privacy watchdogs have criticized the agency for insufficient cybersecurity protections.
Maybe it’s finally time to invest in bug bounties—also known as crowd-sourced security programs—which have been pretty effective in the private sector. In fact, lawmakers are fond of paying skilled hackers to find weaknesses in federal computer networks.
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“If the TMF doesn’t get funded it’s going to be a massive disappointment. Everyone wants to see it succeed.” —Mike Hettinger, lobbyist and former staffer with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. |
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