Health and Human Services

Vaccination rates tick up slightly among federal employees

The number of vaccinated feds has increased, although there are still thousands of pending exception and extension requests to the mandate.

  • By Natalie Alms

The growing importance of GWACs

One of the government's most popular methods for buying emerging technologies and critical IT services faces significant challenges in an ever-changing marketplace

  • By Chris Riotta

Shutdown looms as Congress faces spending deadlines

Most agencies are still operating under shutdown plans crafted under the Trump administration, but there are provisions for continuing pandemic programs and operations.

  • By Adam Mazmanian

Biden mandates COVID vaccine for feds, contractors

The vaccine mandate will supplant administration workforce policy put in place in July that requires either vaccinations or regular testing for federal employees.

  • By Natalie Alms

Pentagon pushes ahead with COVID vaccine mandate

The Defense Department will mandate Pfizer-produced COVID-19 vaccines following the Food and Drug Administration's approval, and other agencies are expected to follow.

  • By Lauren C. Williams

HHS mandates COVID vaccine for its public-facing clinicians

Nearly 25,000 HHS employees will be required to get vaccinated against COVID-19 amid a surge in national infections, Secretary Xavier Becerra announced on Thursday.

  • By Chris Riotta

HHS looks to reset labor relations

Some federal agencies are leveraging a Biden administration executive order to change the tone of labor-management relations but unions say a few departments aren't taking the order to heart.

  • By Natalie Alms

Lawmakers seek IG probes of telework cybersecurity

A group of House lawmakers are calling on the inspectors general of nine executive departments and the intelligence community to see what cybersecurity vulnerabilities may have arisen due to the mass increase of telework during the coronavirus pandemic.

  • By Justin Katz

NITAAC releases long-awaited RFP for $50 billion CIO-SP4

The National Institute of Health's Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) has released its highly-anticipated request for proposals for the new CIO Solutions and Partners 4 (CIO-SP4) contract vehicle.

  • By Chris Riotta

CISA's Wales backs new response, recovery fund

Brandon Wales, acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said the funding would go toward expanding CISA's incident response teams with additional contractors and developing new technologies to be used by those teams.

  • By Justin Katz

This year's Sammies includes a special COVID response category

Partnership for Public Service announced the 29 finalists for its annual Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals.

  • By Natalie Alms

How to improve health IT

The past year has called unprecedented attention to public health systems and their underlying data, but federal agencies' struggles with health IT long predate the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • By Troy K. Schneider

Peters calls on White House to protect health care systems from cyber threats

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) is asking the White House to take more aggressive actions to shield the country's health care systems from state-sponsored cyber threats.

  • By Justin Katz

NTEU looks for a 'fresh start' for federal employees under Biden

The union's blueprint for immediate action joins with NAPA's working group on the federal workforce in calling for the next director of OPM to abandon a regulation-heavy approach.

  • By Natalie Alms
Featured eBooks

NITAAC CIO-SP4 on track

Despite the pandemic, the next iteration of one of National Institute of Health's Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center's governmentwide contracts is steadily progressing.

  • By Mark Rockwell

Automated ATOs and cybersecurity

Software to automate the system authorization process at agencies could work along the same lines as tax filing tools, according to one senior IT advisor at HHS.

  • By Mark Rockwell

Post-election shutdown risk looms

Five weeks separate the November elections and the expiration date on the current stopgap funding measure keeping the federal government operational – and a path to avoiding a shutdown is not entirely clear.

  • By Adam Mazmanian

House tees up continuing resolution to avoid Oct. 1 shutdown

Protected leave for federal health workers and a USCIS funding measure are included in the stopgap bill.

  • By Adam Mazmanian

Shared services poised for adoption

Quality Service Management Offices shared service offerings move closer to reality for federal agencies.

  • By Mark Rockwell

HHS signs $2.5B consolidated telecom contract

The sprawling government department tapped Verizon via the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract vehicle to cover telecommunications for all its component agencies.

  • By Mark Rockwell

Energy Dept. looks for AI impact

Two recently-announced artificial intelligence collaborations show how the technology can affect real world problems, according to the head of the Energy Department's AI office.

  • By Mark Rockwell