GSA to stop accepting applications for 3PAOs: As we reported two weeks ago, GSA is looking to privatize the process by which FedRAMP third party assessors get certified and has an active RFI on the street to bring in a private sector entity to manage this process. This week, to take this process a step further, GSA announced that it would no longer be accepting applications from potential 3PAOs beginning on March 25th. They will continue to process those applications already in the pipeline so there is the potential for additional 3PAO approvals before the government’s role in the process comes to a close. The private sector alternative to GSA as the accreditor of 3PAOs is not expected to be up and running until the fall. Any reader of this blog knows this is a big issue for SIIA and our members as we have long been concerned about the bandwidth of the FedRAMP program. We were happy to weigh in as part of this NextGov story
NASA to move forward with SEWP V: NASA announced this week that it is moving ahead with a new 7 year, $14 billion information technology contract known as SEWP (pronounced soup) V. The agency is planning an industry day for March 11th at the Greenbelt Marriott and expects to have the RFP out by this summer, with a targeted award date of May, 2014. SEWP V is the fifth in a line of big NASA IT contracts which began in 1993 and was awarded most recently in 2007, with a total value of $5.6 billion. Although NASA is the awarding agency, SEWP is open to all federal agencies wishing to leverage it for IT purchases and is mandatory at the Department of Veterans Affairs. NextGov has a full report.
House passes FY2013 Continuing Resolution: This week, the House passed a $982 billion continuing resolution to fund the government through the end of FY2013. The bill will be considered by the Senate next week, with the hope of avoiding a government shutdown when the current funding bill expires on March 27th. The House passed bill restored some $10 billion to DOD that was cut as a result of the now one-week old sequester, but kept in place the two-year pay freeze on federal employees. Federal News Radio has more.
Debate on “outsourcing” heats up: Last month, OFPP asked for formal comments on the issue of comparing the cost of performance by government employees to their private sector counterparts. This week the debate took to a public forum as industry gathered with OFPP to air concerns about how insourcing / outsourcing have been handled in the past via the A-76 process as well as to highlight concerns about how this process may work going forward. FCW has a report.
OMB Gets New Director: President Obama nominated former Walmart Foundation executive Sylvia Matthews Burwell as the new Director of OMB this week, filling the spot at OMB vacated by now- Treasury Secretary Jack Lew over a year ago. Burwell most recently served as President of the Walmart Foundation and she has prior experience at OMB, having been Deputy Director of OMB during the Clinton Administration. FCW has more on Burwell’s nomination.
Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) at SIIA. Follow his PSIG tweets at @SIIAPSIG. Sign up for the Public Sector Innovation Roundup email newsletter for weekly updates.