Summaries for May 1, 2009

TRANSPORTATION HAS STIMULUS RUNNING IN HIGH GEAR
Now 2,400 projects into its stimulus spending, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has become something of a poster child for getting those billions out the door and into the economy. DOT received slightly more than $48 billion from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA.) At a recent seminar in Washington, Martin Gertel, one of the members of DOT's Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery team, aka TIGER team, talked about the IT underpinnings of DOT's ARRA efforts. -> Read More

CYBER IS CONVERGING ON THE WHITE HOUSE - OR IS IT?
Swine flu almost vanquished anticipation last week over release of the White House's 60-day review of cyber security report. The flu had the potential to become a physical, not cyber, disaster. The report, which was expected to come out last Friday and is now expected this week - will recommend the White House be the central coordinating point for cyber security, not the Department of Homeland Security and not the National Security Agency. -> Read More

                                                                            Advertisements

IRMCO 2010
If you missed this year's IRMCO conference, save the date for April 11-14, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay, Cambridge, Maryland. For details about IRMCO 2010, or to view presentations from IRMCO 2009, go to www.irmco.gov.

---

AFFIRM Scholarship Fundraiser
Celebrating the Arts:  A Fine Wine, Food & Art Experience
Join AFFIRM on Thursday, May 14th for an evening of fine wine, food, and original paintings as we Celebrate the Arts and support AFFIRM's scholarship program.

We'll begin our evening with a networking reception as we appreciate art while sampling chardonnay and pinot noir with hor d'oeuvres paired with each wine. Then we'll be seated for small plates paired with a flight of three cabernet and blended red wines.

Join us on May 14th from 6pm to 9pm at the Galleria at Lafayette Center.

To register for the event visit www.AFFIRM.org. Individual ticket costs: $50 for government; $100 for industry.

IRMCO PUT THE CAPSTONE ON THE TRANSITION PERIOD
IRMCO, which has become the premier conference for the federal IT community, dates back to before President Obama was born. But because the planners of the conference paid close attention to the content of the sessions, IRMCO, which concluded April 22 at Cambridge, Md., remains as fresh as a new administration. This year, the themes of transparency, openness and information sharing permeated IRMCO. -> Read More

STIMULUS SPENDING SNARES STATES IN TRANSPARENCY
Federal agencies are being held to a high standard with respect to tracking where their stimulus dollars are going and how many jobs their projects are creating. But is it possible to really know all of this information? Read on to find out more about this and other developments in the last two weeks, including closing thoughts from IRMCO. -> Read More

• Transportation Has Stimulus Running in High Gear

  Martin Gertel

  Now 2,400 projects into its stimulus spending, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has become something of a poster child for getting those billions out the door and into the economy. DOT received just over $48 billion from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), with the first project being the resurfacing of Maryland Route 650 – New Hampshire Ave.

  During the recent IRMCO conference, Linda Washington, DOT’s Assistant Secretary for Administration (and one of the highest ranking career officials in the federal government) described DOT’s strategy of creating a TIGER team, for Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, to organize around stimulus.

  At a recent seminar in Washington, one of the members of the TIGER team, Martin Gertel, talked about the IT underpinnings of DOT’s ARRA efforts. He noted, “We are now operating in ARRA time. We must fulfill expectations even before they are enumerated.” This is one of the big worries for federal managers. The Office of Management and Budget is trying to write guidance and regulations for stimulus spending as fast as it can, even as agencies are under pressure to award contracts and grants in record time without cutting corners.

  Under the TIGER, Gertel said, DOT has data teams working with IT staffs to “make systems do things they weren’t intended to do,” for example, track not only where money is going but also the number of jobs created by each project. He added DOT’s IT people are working overtime. Other initiatives include:

  • Adding extra financial codes to specifically track stimulus dollars. This is required by OMB guidance, but in most federal financial systems it isn’t easy.
  • Instituting a Microsoft SharePoint system for people in DOT involved with stimulus to share information, including Government Accountability Office reports.
  • Geographical information system, now available on DOT’s intranet but eventually to be deployed to the public, showing where the projects are located.
  • Building a recommendations action tracking system to make sure DOT’s IG items get followed up on. The first IG report, Gertel said, encompassed 10 recommendations each with several action steps.
  • Adding Internet links “for people, including contractors, to send us questions.” There is also a telephone help desk, which is averaging 180 calls a week. DOT promises 24-hour turnaround on answers to questions.

  Return to top

---

• Cyber Is Converging On The White House - Or Is It?

  Swine flu almost vanquished anticipation last week over release of the report from the White House’s 60-day review of cyber security. The flu had the potential to become a physical, not cyber, disaster. Because Kathleen Sebelius was not confirmed as Health and Human Services secretary until Tuesday (April 28), that left Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to post hand-washing photos on her department’s home page as part of its outreach to citizens concerning the H1N1 outbreak.

  So goes Washington.

  Melissa Hathaway, a former Bush aide and now President Obama’s presumed pick to oversee federal cyber security efforts, oversaw the 60-day review in her capacity of acting senior director for cyberspace. Her report will recommend the White House be the central coordinating point for cyber security, not the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and not the National Security Agency (NSA). It was in part NSA’s heavy involvement that made Rod Beckstrom of the National Cyber Security Center at DHS resign in a huff in March. There has been no indication that cyber security is very high on Napolitano’s list of priorities.

  The White House as locus of cyber would also further another expected, if not yet explicitly enumerated, goal of the administration, namely adoption of federally-koshered standards for industry cyber security. This was a key recommendation in the Report on Cyber Security for the 44th Presidency from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Hathaway has been talking to the authors. The idea of standards – or federal regulation of cyber security strategies – is in keeping with the administration’s general lack of squeamishness about injecting government further into industrial affairs. Just as the recession and banking crisis gave the administration an opening to ratchet up its grip over the financial and automotive sectors (en route to the energy, health and state/local government sectors) revelations about infiltration of the electrical and aerospace industry networks gave impetus to the need for federal regulation of cyber security.

  Two cyber security bills introduced by Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) would codify some of what Hathaway was likely to recommend, with White House control at the center. S-773, the Cyber Security Act of 2009, would also create a cyber security panel to advise the president, one that would include people from industry.

  It would also mandate something called the real-time cyber security dashboard, defined thus: “... a system to provide dynamic, comprehensive, real-time cyber security status and vulnerability information of all Federal Government information systems and networks managed by the Department of Commerce...”

  The bill mandates a long list of provisions involving state and local security, shoring up oversight and metrics by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, licensing of cyber security professionals, buttoning down the domain name system and directing the National Science Foundation to boost emphasis on cyber research.

  Significantly, the bill would require the president to develop a comprehensive cyber security strategy “which shall include ... a plan that encompasses all aspects of national security, including the participation of the private sector, including critical infrastructure operators and managers...” This significantly advances the cause of federal regulation of the private sector’s infrastructure security.

  S-778 would establish the Office of the National Security Advisor within the White House – a Senate-confirmed position.

  What has been left out of many of the president’s and Congress’s initiatives, is the NSA role. But NSA has its proponents, and they can cite its vast experience and technical know-how that should not be wasted.

  Homeland Security seems to have been left out of the picture. But S 920, introduced by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) would also create a strong White House position.  It would also increase funding and personnel for the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team

  And even with that degree of concentration of power in the White House, the military is continuing to push ahead with a cyber security command within the Strategic Command. In April, just as the shrink-wrapped airframe of an F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter was arriving in Great Britain for torture testing by a subsidiary of BAE Systems, revelations of a breach of Lockheed Martin systems housing F-35 data hit the news. Lockheed maintained that no confidential data was taken, but the event spooked the cyber community.

  Published reports said Defense Secretary Robert Gates will formally announce the cyber command after release of results of the 60-day review – now expected the day after tomorrow. Expect DOD to make use of NSA capabilities.

  Return to top

---

• IRMCO Put the Capstone on the Transition Period

  IRMCO, which has become the premier conference for the federal IT community, dates back to before President Obama was born. But because the planners of the conference paid close attention to the content of the sessions, IRMCO, which concluded April 22 at Cambridge, Md., remains as fresh as a new administration.

  A keynote speech by Craig’s List founder Craig Newmark was both timely and off-beat. Newmark told IRMCO he’s been named a kind of ex-officio bard for the administration’s Web 2.0 efforts.

  The sessions with feds talking to feds were all business, evidencing the Obama administration’s new initiatives.

  A joint panel of Office of Management and Budget and Office of Personnel Management officials sorted out and summarized the challenges agencies have in meeting goals of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act – the stimulus bill. Danny Werfel, Deputy Controller in the Office of Financial Management, detailed the data and reporting requirements of stimulus, saying, “Our orders are unprecedented transparency and accountability,” with special emphasis on data “Granularity, specificity and quality” – in addition to the eight layers of reporting managers face. He conveyed the simultaneous senses of tension and excitement OMB is undergoing in trying to get guidance out to agencies in time to take effect before the stimulus money gets flowing.

  Dustin Brown, the Deputy Assistant Director for Management, told attendees to be on the lookout for stimulus success stories in their agencies to share across government.

  OMB’s new administrator for e-government and IT, Vivek Kundra was on hand to detail his plans for the nascent www.data.gov web site, and for developing a cloud computing blanket purchasing agreement. Meanwhile the National Academy of Public Administration announced it would be taking in ideas from industry and the public on behalf of the administration for the somewhat more developed, but still shallow www.recovery.gov site. The academy’s site for submitting ideas is itself simply architected but fascinating.

  Peter Alterman, Deputy Associate Administrator for Technology Strategy at the General Services Administration, along with Lena Trudeau, a Program Area Director at the Academy, talked about how new media has changed government, with Alterman taking it to the basics: “Citizens are owed trustworthy information, information they want, user-friendly interfaces and accessibility (blind people pay taxes) and real protection of privacy.” Trudeau noted that big efforts don’t necessarily have to be expensive or time-consuming. The “open for questions” web site fielded by the Obama administration a few weeks ago took eight days to get up and running. She cautioned federal managers about being too cautious with respect to old laws and regulations, such as the Paperwork Reduction or Records Retention Act, lest they impede real progress with new media and Web 2.0 deployments. Added Alterman, “Who wants to archive tweets?” referring to the 140-character messages emitted by users of www.twitter.com.

  Echoing Trudeau’s sentiments from industry, Chris Miller, an IT official at Accenture, described the gradual retreat of the “legals” in the face of demands from workers who wanted to benefit from internal wikis, blogs, and video sharing. He joked that the initial policy from the lawyers was that nothing could be posted about anything related to work, outside of work, or any person an employee came in contact with.

  The theme of transparency, openness and information sharing permeated IRMCO. Melanie Pustay, Director of the Office of Information Policy at the Justice Department, told of Justice’s recent switch in policy for classifying documents, now weighing in favor of not classifying. The first agency to sign on was the FBI, of all places.

  As always, much of IRMCO’s value occurred in the halls between sessions and at the now-legendary IRMCO Late Night sessions. Those are the times attendees reconnected with colleagues, met new ones, and established relationships in a manner that that no online environment can match.

  If you missed it, next year’s IRMCO will take place once again in Cambridge, Md., April 11-14, 2010.

  Return to top

---

• Stimulus Spending Snares States in Transparency

  Other developments in the last two weeks:

  • Federal agencies are being held to a high standard with respect to tracking where their stimulus dollars are going and how many jobs their projects are creating. But is it possible to really know all of this information? Rep. Ed Towns (D-N.Y.) has introduced legislation to let states use some of their grant money for administrative and oversight expenses. And he has promised to expand the number of GSA schedule contracts available for cooperative purchasing — that is, use by non-federal governments.
  • The National Academies Press has a new report, “Technology, Policy, Law, and Ethics Regarding U.S. Acquisition and Use of Cyberattack Capabilities” It was written by Adm. William Owens, former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former vice chairman and CEO of Nortel Corp., and Kenneth Dam, Max Pam Professor Emeritus of American and Foreign Law at the University of Chicago School of Law. It lays out the case for clearer and more comprehensive policy for the use of cyber attacks by U.S. forces, and for developing this capability further.
  • Need to hire people in your agency? You might be surprised to know knowledge, skills and abilities statements, KSAs, are not required. They’ve become a tradition in federal hiring, albeit a dreaded one. But you are free to skip requiring them of potential hires. That’s according to the Office of Personnel Management’s Angela Bailey, Deputy Associate Director Center for Talent and Capacity Policy.

  From Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, comes this advice to federal agencies using social media, delivered as wrap-up to the IRMCO conference last month:

  • Leverage traditional platforms.
  • Be an authoritative news node.
  • Be available in platforms relative to constituents, which can vary from Facebook for the young to walk-in offices to older citizens.
  • Find pathways into social networks.
  • Help citizens acquire information, and figure out yours and your agency’s roles in the so-called link economy.
  • Be transparent, be an archivist, seek forgiveness for mistakes, decide if you can be a trusted information aggregator.
  • Help citizens act on information and offer opportunities for feedback.
  • Figure out how to measure whether you help people solve problems.

  Return to top