Department of Agriculture Archives

WILMINGTON, DELAWARE – DECEMBER 11: Tom Vilsack, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Department of Agriculture, delivers remarks at the Queen Theater December 11, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. President-elect Joe Biden is continuing to round out his domestic team with the announcement of his choices for cabinet secretaries of Veterans Affairs and Agriculture, and the heads of his domestic policy council and the U.S. Trade Representative. Vilsack served for eight years as President Barack Obama’s secretary of Agriculture. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Vilsack looks to return USDA to more-liberal telework policy

Tom Vilsack said he's moving USDA back to a telework policy of allowing up to four days of remote work a week, which he rolled out in…

Mar 8, 2021 By Billy Mitchell

College or university application or letter from school. Student or teacher reading education document.

CIOs are working with CXOs more, but still largely in an advisory role

The Office of Federal Student Aid is working on upgrading IT and improving CX simultaneously, but CX teams remain relatively new.

Mar 3, 2021 By Dave Nyczepir

Federal Data Strategy Year 2 action plan will continue ‘foundational’ actions

Data governance, infrastructure and the workforce remain areas in need of improvement, said the chair of the federal CDO Council.

Dec 11, 2020 By Dave Nyczepir

White House adviser floats idea of CXOs at agencies

CIOs largely oversee digital user experience currently, but that could change, says Matt Lira, if agencies had customer experience officers (CXOs).

Nov 6, 2020 By Dave Nyczepir

Federal data science reskilling program coming soon, Roat says

Maria Roat said a new data science training program is launching later this month.

Aug 3, 2020 By Dave Nyczepir

USDA places focus on reskilling after Centers of Excellence modernization

A major challenge "that doesn't get discussed is how you prepare your workforce to be able to support this new environment" after modernization, said USDA CIO Gary…

Nov 14, 2019 By Billy Mitchell

Picture of business people working together in office company

USDA unveils program to develop next generation of CIOs, CISOs

The department is looking for current employees who have served in leadership roles and want to lead its information technology community.

Aug 9, 2019 By Dave Nyczepir

Why agencies aren’t scaling bots vertically just yet

More often RPA is being introduced across a few use cases as controls often have yet to be established.

Jul 1, 2019 By Dave Nyczepir

“Closeup of the White House facade and front lawn on a summer evening, in Washington DC. One of the rare moments when the sun is shining on the north side of the building. Picture taken from Pennsylvania Avenue.”

White House celebrates ‘outstanding’ employees with Gears of Government awards

The White House recognized 24 federal employees at seven agencies Monday with the President’s Gears of Government Award. Developed in 2018 by the Office of Management and Budget,…

May 6, 2019 By Billy Mitchell

Service members are greeted by locked doors at the Harriotte B. Smith library aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune due to a government shutdown, Oct. 1. Only operations and activities essential to safety, protection of human life and protection of our national security are authorized to remain open, and only the minimum number of civilian employees necessary to carry out those activities will be exempt from furlough.

Shutdown could delay some of Trump’s IT reform goals

As the partial government shutdown rocks on into its third week, the lack of appropriations are starting to sting federal programs, including the White House’s technology modernization…

Jan 4, 2019 By Carten Cordell