GovConJudicata Weekly Debrief (2/10–14)
This week's Weekly Debrief covers the JEDI protest, trouble with FBO's migration to beta.SAM.gov, Trump's budget, and CISA's role in election security.
JEDI
Federal Times – Pentagon and Microsoft must halt work on JEDI cloud ... for now
"A federal judge ruled the Pentagon and Microsoft must temporarily suspend work on the Department of Defense’s controversial Joint Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure contract while a court hears Amazon’s challenge to the award decision.Pentagon officials planned to start work on the contract Feb. 14."
Federal News Network – Amazon seeks Trump testimony in JEDI Cloud lawsuit
"Amazon Web Services has asked a federal court for permission to take testimony from President Donald Trump himself as part of its lawsuit over the Pentagon’s multibillion dollar JEDI Cloud contract. According to court documents made public Monday morning, AWS is also seeking depositions from former Defense Secretary James Mattis, current Defense Secretary Mark Esper, DoD Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy, and the source selection officials who ultimately decided to award the contract to Microsoft."
GSA
NextGov – Federal Contracting Community Shreds FBO Replacement Site in Letter to GSA
"The transition of the federal contracting opportunities website from Federal Business Opportunities, better known as FedBizOpps or FBO, to the Contracting Opportunities page of beta.SAM.gov caused concern ahead of the migration and frustration after the move. Three months after the transition finished, the government contracting community’s anger has yet to be assuaged."
Budget
GovExec – Trump’s Budget Seeks to Increase Funding for the Internal Revenue Service
"President Trump's fiscal 2021 budget seeks to restore funding to its 2010 levels for the Internal Revenue Service, which has been struggling with staffing and resources over the past decade."
FedScoop – Trump budget touts funding for AI and quantum but proposes slashing federal R&D by $13.8B
"The Trump administration is proposing a $13.8 billion reduction in federal research and development spending in its fiscal 2021 budget released Monday, despite emphasizing “industries of the future” as a priority."
"President Trump unveiled a $4.8 trillion budget for the next fiscal year on Monday that proposes dramatic cuts to domestic spending and new tax cuts, while presenting an optimistic path for reducing deficits that relies on broad economic growth."
Cyber
FCW – CISA leans into facilitator role in election security plan
"Officials from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency often describe their role in election security as helping to coordinate and advise the larger ecosystem of election stakeholders. In a newly released strategic plan, the agency lays out its strategy for protecting the 2020 elections by largely leaning into that facilitator role, breaking down its coordination activities across four lines of effort: elections infrastructure, campaigns and political infrastructure, the American electorate and warning and response."
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