GovConJudicata Weekly Debrief (10/11–15)

This week's Weekly Debrief covers Labor's troublesome IT governance structure, Homeland's plans for wearable tech, JAIC and AI for contract writing, Space Force acquisition shake up, contractor misconduct on the rise, and category management's impact on small business.

Labor

NextGov – Audit: Labor Department IT Governance ‘Ambiguous,’ Unorganized

• "The Labor Department information technology governance infrastructure struggles to support agency operations, in part due to uncodified policies that place too heavy an emphasis on department staff to implement strategic decisions on an ad hoc basis, according to a new audit."

DHS

FedScoop – DHS seeks wearable health tech for staff

• "The Department of Homeland Security is seeking wearable technology that could improve the wellness of agency staff and help them to mitigate stress. In a transaction solicitation issued Tuesday, the department issued a call for solutions that could help staff manage problems before they develop into major concerns."

Defense

FedNewsNet – JAIC thinks AI might solve DoD’s struggles with contract writing systems

• "The Defense Department has been trying to move the military services and Defense agencies to a single, modernized contract writing system for a decade now. And although those efforts have seen major setbacks, DoD’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center thinks it might be possible to build one with AI, and to have something to show for it as early as next March."

BreakingDefense – Exclusive: New Shakeup Coming To Space Force Acquisition

• "The Department of the Air Force on Monday will put in place a realignment of initial space policy development that in the past has been directly under the purview of the Air Force secretary, handing them instead to the office of the Space Force chief, Breaking Defense has learned."

Contracting

FedNewsNet – Federal contracting dollars have been on the rise, and so has contractor misconduct

• "Many new federal contractors came into the market as a result of the pandemic, and contract spending was on the rise anyhow. The latest analysis by the Project On Government Oversight shows that contractor misconduct is also occurring more frequently, and with perhaps not enough oversight from buying agencies. For more, Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke to POGO’s investigator, Neil Gordon."

FCW – Is category management hurting small businesses?

• "Is the federal government's emphasis on large contract vehicles designed to leverage buying power taking away opportunities from small businesses? Rep. Kwesi Mfume (D-Md.), chairman of the Contracting and Infrastructure Subcommittee of the House Small Business Committee, voiced his concerns at an October 13 hearing."

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