On GovLoop Insights’ DorobekINSIDER:
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All this talk about shutdown, has a lot of people questioning why they work for the government in the first place. But for FBI Seamus McElearney he couldn’t imagine working anywhere else. Here why his government job matters to him.
Shutdown Day 3
It sounds like a broken record, but… not much hope in with the shutdown. The slight glimmer of hope that came with Wednesday’s White House meeting quickly evaporated.
And, in fact, The Washington Post tweeted this:
That quote from Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN): “We’re not going to be disrespected,” he told the Washington Examiner’s David Drucker. “We have to get something out of this. And I don’t know what that even is.”
With that as background, GovLoop’s DorobekINSIDER #GovShutdown Reader – Day 3:
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The Washington Post: Focus shifts to looming debt-ceiling deadline as shutdown talks at White House go nowhere. The fight over the government shutdown quickly moved on Wednesday to a bigger showdown over raising the nation’s debt ceiling, as the first White House talks to solve the fiscal standoff failed to make any progress toward a deal. President Obama and business leaders warned that the clash has raised the chances of a historic default on the national debt, which would occur if Congress doesn’t agree to raise the $16.7 trillion debt ceiling later this month and could cause a new recession.
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The Hill: House Republicans are renewing their call for dollar-for-dollar spending cuts in exchange for raising the $16.7 trillion debt limit.
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U.S. CIO says shutdown raises cyber risks. Alarmed that skeleton crews are now running critical IT infrastructure, Steven VanRoekel, chief information officer of the federal government, says he fears that hackers could seize on security vulnerabilities created by the shutdown to infiltrate U.S. systems. “I worry about cybersecurity in the midst of a shutdown,” Mr VanRoekel told CIO Journal. “If I was a wrongdoer looking for an opportunity, I’d contemplate poking at infrastructure when there are fewer people looking at it.”
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The Wall Street Journal: Shutdown/end of shutdown could harm tech worker retention. The longer it takes for the federal shutdown to be resolved, the harder it will be for the government to retain its best IT employees. Blame politicians, sure, but–irony alert!–the Fed’s own IT revamping efforts may deserve some blame as well. The move to the cloud, shared IT services and consumer-facing apps has helped develop an IT staff with marketable skills
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CNN Money: Government postpones jobs report amid shutdown
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Shutdown may idle non-federal workers next week: The federal government shutdown is already affecting contractors and threatens to dampen private-sector employment, at least in the near-term, industry officials say. – Federal Times.
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DoD to award contracts throughout shutdown, but won’t announce them: The Pentagon will continue to award hundreds of millions of dollars in acquisition, services and other types of contracts despite a government-wide shutdown, but don’t expect to hear about them. – Federal Times.
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Washington Post: Shutdown won’t hit the economy right away, but when it does, here’s what that will look like. If you don’t work for the federal government, evidence suggests you’re not yet feeling a big economic hit from this week’s shutdown. But the longer it persists, the more the shutdown will reverberate across the economy, dampening consumer spending, gumming up the housing market and unleashing a new wave of disgruntled job seekers. The first signs of major economic distress should crop up here in the Washington region, which depends more on federal employment and contracting than any major metropolitan area in the country.
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The Hill: Lawmakers stand in shoes of staffers during the government shutdown Congress members with time to spare have taken to performing menial tasks as the funding impasse continues.
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The long read: Congressional Research Service report: Shutdown of the Federal Government: Causes, Processes, and Effects
The SEVEN stories that impact your life
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The nominee for the position of deputy director for management at OMB, Beth Cobert, received bipartisan support and praise during her Senate hearing yesterday. If confirmed by the Senate, Cobert intends to move forward with current OMB initiatives that call for agencies to better consolidate their data centers and increase their use of strategic sourcing. The Federal Times states that as deputy director, Cobert will also strive to improve the federal workforce through hiring initiatives and strategies for holding on to first-class government employees.
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Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew warned Congress again on Tuesday of the impending debt ceiling, stating that he has done everything in his power to prevent going above the authorized $16.7 trillion limit. The Federal Times reports that Secretary Lew has asked Congress to raise the debt ceiling before the October 17 deadline, but has not recommended a new level to policymakers.
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SecureKey Technology and HP Enterprise Services are hosting the federal government’s first cloud-based credential exchange. The purpose of the exchange is to design a system that will offer citizens secure online access to multiple federal agencies and online services through an approved third-party digital identification structure. FCW reports that this initiative is still in its pilot stage and has the following agencies as potential participants: the USPS, NIST, Department of Veterans Affairs, GSA, IRS, Social Security Administration, and Department of Education.
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Pentagon officials are examining the bill that was approved late Monday night by both the President and Congress allowing for the continued pay of military personnel during the government shutdown. Officials are seeking to figure out how this bill affects DOD’s contractors and civilian employees. Federal News Radio observes that certain provisions in the bill could give the Secretary of Defense the license to appropriate funds towards the pay of non-uniformed workers that are supporting members of the armed forces.
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Lt. Gen. Susan Lawrence, the Chief Information Officer for the Army, has retired today after 41 years of service. Having acted as the Army’s CIO for the past two years, Lawrence was responsible for the organization’s transition to an email-in-the-cloud system. She also led the consolidation of the Army’s data centers. Federal News Radio reports that Mike Krieger, the deputy CIO, will be acting in her position until an official successor is appointed.
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Lt. Col. James Wilkerson of the U.S. Air Force has decided to retire. An F-16 pilot, Wilkerson is most known for his sexual assault conviction which was overturned this past February by three star general, Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin. The Air Force Times notes that because of his past misconduct, which included not only the sexual assault conviction, but also an extramarital affair, Wilkerson could have to retire at a lower rank. Currently, a personnel board at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland is reviewing his record to determine at which level he is able to retire.
DorobekINSIDER water-cooler fodder
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The most destructive, unpredictable force in tech. WSJ columnist Farhad Manjoo writes that the most destructive force in tech is you. Well, perhaps not “you,” Download reader, but those end users who are bringing their iPhones/Androids/iPads and various log-ins to consumer-facing cloud services like Box Inc. and Facebook Inc. to work. And today’s CIOs best join the revolution or step out of the way. Mr. Manjoo writes: ”In the past, CIOs and their staff had a reputation for being snarky, geeky guys who were always looking for ways to tell employees what they couldn’t do. Now, at the most progressive companies, the tech department’s main job isn’t to say no. Instead, it’s to find a way to let employees safely run any device or program they like.” Because consumer tech columns usually steer clear of business IT land, we’re interested in what you think about Mr. Manjoo’s take on your world.
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The complete history of Twitter. Twitter needs no introduction. But it wasn’t always so for the “blogging-like tool for quick updates” (2006), which grew into “another leading social network” (2013), writes Quartz’s Matt Phillips, who lists descriptions of Twitter that have appeared in the New York Times. Among them: “…the unfiltered and instant outlet for self-expression,” and “…the online social network that has lured both Hollywood celebrities and basement amateurs away from their blogs.”
Find all GovLoop’s Shutdown Coverage here.