Weekly Roundup: January 8 - 12, 2018

Michael J. Keegan

IRS releases new tax withholding guidelines. The Internal Revenue Service on Jan. 11 released the new income-tax withholding tables as part of the recently approved $1.5 trillion tax reform bill, and it shows that employees could start seeing changes in their paychecks as soon as next month.

DOI reorg moves employees across the country. The Department of the Interior announced that it will be moving tens of thousands of employees to new locations across the country as part of an effort reorganize the management of federal lands.

GSA kicks off e-commerce portal effort. The federal acquisition agency held its first listening meeting with e-commerce providers as it begins planning its own ecommerce portal for federal buyers.

CIO visibility into agency IT spending is clouded, GAO finds. Agency CIOs are supposed to have total visibility into IT spending under the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act, but in practice that's not always the case, potentially causing duplicative or poorly conceived IT contracts, according to a new study from the Government Accountability Office. The lengthy and detailed Jan. 10 GAO report shows federal agencies consistently underreport or miss IT projects under the Office of Management and Budget's relatively recent FITARA guidance.

Can AI help simplify federal acquisition?  For all the mystery still surrounding the future of artificial intelligence, some early governmental uses could help federal workers and contractors navigate acquisition regulations to make federal purchasing less complex. A new joint report from the Partnership for Public Service and the IBM Center for The Business of Government pointed to a pilot program currently deployed by the Air Force as a test case for making contracting quicker and more efficient. Strategic, widespread use of AI "could save government up to 1.2 billion work hours and $41.1 billion annually," the report estimated.

3 ways DHS is helping states with election security. A Department of Homeland Security official said the federal government is substantially more prepared to deal with a nation-state attack on election systems today than it was in the lead-up to the 2016 election. In a Jan. 10 speech to the Election Assistance Commission in Washington D.C., Bob Kolasky, acting deputy under secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate, said the department has worked to expand its communication and outreach to state and local governments, which are primarily responsible for administering elections.

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The Business of Government Magazine - A Special Edition of The Business of Government Hour. This is a special edition of The Business of Government Magazine. A Year in Review with host Michael Keegan as he explores key trends in government management and highlights insights from a host of government executives who are changing the way government does business. That’s next week on a Special New Year’s Edition of The Business of Government Hour.

Broadcast Schedule: The show airs Monday at 11 a.m., and Friday at 1 p.m. on Federal News Radio 1500AM WFED