OPM still not implementing some governmentwide data requirements

• There is still much room for improving the Office of Personnel Management’s network security. A new report from the Government Accountability Office found OPM has made some progress since the 2015 data breaches, but it’s still failing to implement governmentwide requirements like encrypting the data of all of its high-value assets containing sensitive information. (Government Accountability Office)

• The Veterans Affairs Department has expanded its telehealth program. VA will issue a joint regulation with the Justice Department and White House Office of American Innovation to allow VA doctors to provide telehealth services to veterans anywhere in the country. VA is also rolling out its Veterans Appointment Request mobile app to all regions. With the app, Veterans on their own can schedule, change or cancel appointments with their mobile devices. The VAR app was previously only available in 18 regions. (Federal News Radio)

• The Senate confirmed Tom Bowman to be the deputy secretary of the Veterans Affairs Department. Bowman is a former VA chief staff. He also served as the majority director of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. Five other VA nominees were confirmed as well. (Senate Veterans Affairs Committee)

• Newly appointed public buildings service commissioner Dan Matthews has pledged to work for taxpayers while meeting federal real estate needs. He wants to reach out to government partners in the real estate industry and build on the General Services Administration’s record of saving billions of dollars on potential construction and lease projects. (Federal News Radio)

• A Trump appointee at DHS has left unexpectedly. Richard Staropoli, the Homeland Security Department’s chief information officer, resigned suddenly yesterday. Sources tell Federal News Radio that Stephen Rice, the principal deputy CIO at DHS, announced Staropoli’s decision at the agency’s CIO Council meeting. President Donald Trump appointed Staropoli to be DHS CIO on May 1. Staropoli spent 25 years as a Secret Service agent and was a chief information security officer for a Wall Street firm before coming back to DHS three months ago. There is no word on who will replace Staropoli on an acting basis or when his last day will be. (Federal News Radio)

• The military’s administrative branch is starting to fill out. Richard Spencer was sworn in as the 76th secretary of the Navy. Spencer went to work in the private finance industry after serving five years as a pilot in the Marine Corps. Also, the Senate unanimously confirmed former Army Ranger Ryan McCarthy as the next undersecretary of the Army. His responsibilities will include the Army’s budget, business transformation, and energy-efficiency initiatives. McCarthy served in Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom, after which he became a staff member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as an assistant to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. (Navy) (Army)

• The Army said a decade-and-a-half of requests for new technology from its 400 deployable units has left it with a hodgepodge of different technologies throughout its mission command network. Between now and 2019, the service plans to introduce a common set of hardware and software throughout the active Army, the National Guard and the Army Reserve. The Army plans to field new equipment to 280 units in 2018 alone.

• An obscure fund in the House defense appropriations bill may be used to gain leverage in sequestration talks. The Defense Restoration Fund gives the Defense Department $30 billion to spend as it chooses. But one expert, Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, thinks appropriators are just using it to get more money out of the budget when negotiating a deal. (Federal News Radio)

• A bill to reauthorize the Food and Drug Administration gets sent to the president’s desk as the Senate nearly unanimously passes it. Some of the new provisions call for speeding up the review of generic drugs, increasing user fees for medical device manufacturers, and requiring FDA publish information on the previous year’s inspections of drug and medical device facilities. (Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society)

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