Wisconsin lawmakers urge single vendor for VA, DOD health records upgrade

Five Wisconsin lawmakers are urging the VA and Defense departments to consider the benefits of a single vendor for an electronic health record system, according to a Nextgov report.

Agencies coordinate efforts to get Japan info out with special web code

People who want information about the earthquake, tsunami and now, nuclear peril in Japan can find it at agency sites thanks to special suffix.

CTO shares lessons learned from freeing HHS data

The Health and Human Services Department has been pushing out its data in recent months and the results have sparked innovation and helped consumers, Chief Technology Officer Todd Park said at a new media conference.

Former Treasury CIO Duffy joins DRT Strategies

Michael Duffy, most recently senior advisor at the Justice Department and a former CIO at the Treasury Department, has joined DRT Strategies.

Industry needs to play bigger role in information sharing

Kshemendra Paul, program manager for the Information-Sharing Environment in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, invited vendors to get more involved.

SBInet-like system in the works for border surveillance

The Homeland Security Department canceled the SBInet border surveillance system two months ago, but SBInet-like capabilities will live on in the new system proposed for some parts of the border, a GAO official says.

NTIA's Daniel Weitzner expected to be named US Deputy CTO for Internet policy

The White House is expected to announce the appointment of Commerce Department official Daniel Weitzner as the deputy CTO for Internet policy.

CACI's $450M DHS win gets thrown out by GAO

GAO upholds protest of CACI winning a financial management systems modernization contract at DHS and recommends a new competition.

Lucrative opportunities survive SBInet's demise

The SBInet system might be gone, but the need for border security continues. What lessons did DHS and industry learn from the attempt to build a virtual fence along the border of the United States and Mexico?

Army has new iPhone app, DHS terminates blog, Craig Newmark debuts site

The Army offers a new iPhone app while DHS kills off a blog and Craig Newmark debuts a new website.

GAO upholds cancellation of $2.6B Northrop DHS campus contract

The Government Accountability Office denies a protest from Northrop Grumman of what the company believed was an "unreasonable" termination of its contract.

No-compete contracts decline at DHS

The Homeland Security Department has cut down on noncompetitive contracting and beefed up its oversight of such awards, the inspector general says in a new report released today.

NARA names 3 to new leadership positions

David Ferriero, archivist of the United States, named three top deputies to a new leadership team.

Services, IT support cut to save millions in Coast Guard's 2012 budget

The Coast Guard is looking for savings from contractors and reduced IT support to shift resources to its operations.

VA considers moving e-mail to the cloud

The Veterans Affairs Department is looking for vendors to help with e-mail, archive, backup and storage solutions in the cloud.

Kundra describes vision of three huge federal data centers

In the future, federal data center consolidation could go much further and create three huge "digital Fort Knox" centers, Kundra said.

VA's RFI seeks open-source VistA development ecosystem

Veterans Affairs Department CIO Roger Baker discussed how the VA is exploring the creation of an open source development ecosystem to modernize its longstanding VistA Electronic Health Records System.

Top CBP procurement execs show lighter side at Industry Day

Many of the top IT and procurement officials at Customs and Border Protection were on hand to share information and a few candid remarks at Tuesday's Industry Day.

Customs increases collaboration with $1B in IT spending at stake

Customs and Border Protection's IT office is using more requests for information and other methods to get ideas from vendors in advance of a procurement, officials said.

CBP to spend $750M on Arizona border technologies

Mark Borkowski, assistant commissioner of Customs and Border Protection's Office of Technology Innovation and Acquisition, outlined procurement plans for the next phase of border security in the southwestern United States.