TechWonk Blog
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States have long been considered laboratories of democracies and increasingly are becoming cradles of innovation. Governors across the country are leading the charge in leveraging emerging technologies to solve the most pressing issues facing constituents. For example, states are using mobile application technology to better respond to their constituents needs, applying blockchain technology to save [...]
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This week, NAFTA negotiators will meet once again to renegotiate the 23-year-old, critically important trade agreement between the United States and two of its largest trading partners, Mexico and Canada. We share many of the Trump administration’s goals of modernizing this agreement, which was negotiated long before the incredible changes that the internet and digital technologies have brought to [...]
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The start of the 115th Congress and new administration not only marked an era of profound political change, but it also presented a unique and timely opportunity to modernize outdated policies. Lawmakers acted on many issues critical to the tech industry by enacting substantial reforms to bring both the U.S. federal tax code and the U.S. government procurement process into the 21st century. The Tax [...]
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This week, President Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2018 (FY18) and federal IT contractors should note the changes it brings for them. We commend the Senate and House’s continued commitment to acquisition reform, adopting innovative technologies to help warfighters meet their missions, and improving oversight of cybersecurity. While no single provision can [...]
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“Regular order” for government funding used to mean a systematic cadence of work by the appropriations committees and both chambers of Congress to fashion a spending bill before the start of the new fiscal year. I’ve been around Washington long enough to remember regular order in action and to see the fruits of that process. Unfortunately, “regular order” for the appropriations process has come to [...]
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America and technological innovation are synonymous. From revolutionizing society with the internet, to the smartphones providing us apps that drive our day, to the microchips powering the device you are using now to read this blog, the private sector in the United States has consistently maintained an edge against foreign competition when it comes to innovation. This success, however, is not guaranteed. [...]
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Currently, there is a staggering backlog of 700,000 investigative products, including simple record checks, that are plaguing the federal government. The backlog has grown so egregiously that the government has moved Top-Secret security clearance reinvestigations from five to six years to cope with the backlog. And, it now takes 500 days to obtain a Top-Secret Clearance and 300 days to obtain a Secret [...]
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The IT Alliance for Public Sector (ITAPS) recently sent a letter outlining our concerns with California’s A.B. 1546, a bill that would create a statutory mandate for the California Department of Technology (CDT) to develop a standardized contractor performance assessment to evaluate the performance of a contractor on certain information technology (IT) projects. While we support the need for accountability [...]
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This week the Trump Administration, as part of its Workforce Week, is expected to announce initiatives to bolster apprenticeship programs as a way to address the United States’ skills gap. This announcement comes at a pivotal time: millions of Americans are looking for work while millions of good-paying jobs go unfilled. In the tech sector alone, there are over half a million open computing jobs in [...]
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We just wrapped up our biggest annual event, the ITI Tech Show, and it was a major success. The ITI Tech Show is the only party in D.C. where tech plays the starring role. All the biggest names in tech exhibit their newest innovations so administration officials and Members of Congress can get hands-on and really “nerd-out” with virtual reality, cybersecurity, smart cities and more. Over 650 people [...]
