The Daily Scoop Podcast

The Daily Scoop Podcast
  • 4.8 (17)
  • News
  • Updated Daily

A podcast covering the latest news & trends facing top government leaders on topics such as technology, management & workforce. Hosted by Billy Mitchell on FedScoop and released Monday-Friday.

  1. 2d ago

    U.S. military debuts new Task Force Easy to enable drone tech ‘adaptation dominance’

    The Pentagon recently established a new task force that’s charged with rapidly iterating and advancing weaponized drones and small uncrewed ground vehicles across the U.S. military. Col. Michael Penn, the Army official who is commanding the team — dubbed Task Force Easy — shed new light on its origin and Defense Department leaders’ overarching vision for it during the annual AUSA conference on Tuesday. “We’re slower, less effective. We don’t outpace our enemy and our threat in how quickly we adapt new technology. So we’re trying to fix that in our task force,” Penn said. Task Force Easy was initiated as DOD personnel have been hustling to solve technical and structural challenges associated with acquiring and deploying affordable drones and other unmanned capabilities en masse for modern combat operations. Democrats on the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees recently sent letters to the Department of Veterans Affairs and Oracle demanding answers about the increase in the electronic health record modernization contract ceiling. In a letter dated last week, ranking members Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., asked VA Secretary Doug Collins for several documents related to the increase and answers to 13 questions by Oct. 30. In August, the VA-Oracle EHRM contract ceiling jumped from almost $10 billion to nearly $27 billion without widespread knowledge in Congress — but the VA says Congress was told of the estimated total rollout cost last year. Citing FedScoop reporting, the lawmakers asked for documentation supporting the VA-Oracle EHRM contract modification, including market research and documents explaining the increase and “unanticipated complexities” the VA cited in the redacted modification. They also asked for written responses to questions about how the contract increase happened — including why it did, given that Oracle co-CEO Mike Sicilia told the Senate committee in a 2022 statement that the company would absorb any “performance or workflow” issue costs. The letter also includes several questions about the new EHR’s compliance with federal disability regulations, additional costs and patient safety. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

    U.S. military debuts new Task Force Easy to enable drone tech ‘adaptation dominance’

  2. 3d ago

    How CISA’s partnership with Elastic is driving enhanced visibility across the federal cyber landscape

    Federal civilian agencies have long faced a fragmented cybersecurity landscape – each operating its own tools, budgets, and detection logic, leaving gaps in whole-of-government visibility. In December 2025, there was a landmark shift in how the U.S. government can now defend itself: CISA launched its shared, cloud-hosted Security Information and Event Management -as-a-Service (SIEMaaS) offering to Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies, at no cost. The initiative consolidates security telemetry across agencies onto FedRAMP-authorized Elastic Cloud, and is managed by CISA's Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program. Now nearly a year into that initiative, Chris Townsend, Global VP of Public Sector for Elastic, joins the Daily Scoop Podcast to explore how the SIEMaaS model represents a fundamental rethinking of federal cyber operations, how it tackles OMB M-26-14 logging requirements and why partnerships like this one are key to the future of coordinated national cyber resilience. The Office of Personnel Management released an artificial intelligence chatbot focused on answering questions about federal workforce data in plain English. Now, it wants people to try to break it. FWD Chat, or Federal Workforce Data Chat, was officially released to the public Wednesday in a testing phase, with the intention of making improvements on the tool as officials get user feedback. Sample prompts invite users to ask how many federal employees were hired last year, what the average salary is by state, and the most common types of employee separations. Outputs are accompanied by suggested follow-up questions and data downloads. “It’s a beta. Use it, try to break it, and hit the feedback button,” Adam Starr, chief information officer of OPM, said in a LinkedIn post announcing the tool. In emailed responses to FedScoop, Starr said the chatbot is built on an OpenAI model, leverages a data programming language, and is planned for integration with the Trump administration’s America.gov chatbot. Per Starr, the project took the agency roughly three months to complete. The Pentagon is launching a pilot program that will use artificial intelligence to manage its classification processes and handling of sensitive military information, according to a memorandum reviewed by DefenseScoop and sources familiar. Within the next six months, the department will start an “initial small-scale deployment of an automated security classification capability” intended to “overhaul” the way the department classifies info, according to a memorandum issued Monday by Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg. The DOD will use an AI-backed system the Air Force recently developed, known as the Automated Classification Management Environment (ACME), for the trial program while tapping the service’s top civilian official as the executive agent for the pilot. If the pilot is successful, according to the memo, the automated system will eventually serve as “the single, digital authoritative reference” for all of the DOD’s original classification decisions, a responsibility historically reserved for specially designated human officials who determine how sensitive information is categorized. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

    How CISA’s partnership with Elastic is driving enhanced visibility across the federal cyber landscape

  3. Oct 8

    Antoine McCord returns to Anduril after leaving DHS CIO role

    Former Department of Homeland Security CIO Antoine McCord has returned to defense technology company Anduril, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. McCord helmed DHS’s multibillion-dollar IT portfolio from March 2025 to August 2026. The official wore a number of other hats, including acting CISO and head of the Office of Biometric and Identity Management. Under his leadership, DHS prioritized surveillance systems, expanded its data estate, accelerated AI use and boosted investment in biometric technologies. Privacy experts and transparency advocates raised concerns about the efforts, pointing to seemingly sluggish governance controls and accountability levers. Following McCord’s appointment, DHS also increased its spending on his former — and now current — company. DHS spent roughly $148 million on Anduril’s services in fiscal 2025 and $431 million in fiscal 2026, nearly tripling its annual investment. DHS welcomed Kyle Schutt to its ranks in August to fill the gap left by McCord’s departure. The Department of Veterans Affairs has launched an identity verification pilot on its website through CLEAR, according to Wednesday press releases. Billed as “one of the first steps of a larger VA modernization effort,” the announcement said veterans can use “CLEAR1” for free to access and create their VA-dot-gov accounts, though it is not mandatory and choosing not to enroll will not affect veterans’ ability to access VA benefits or services. VA-dot-gov is the front door to veterans’ benefits, serving roughly 17 million veterans — 9.1 million of which are enrolled in VA healthcare, the release said. Currently, users can access the site through Login-dot-gov or ID.me. Veterans can now set up their CLEAR accounts or visit CLEAR locations at six VA medical centers across the country. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

    Antoine McCord returns to Anduril after leaving DHS CIO role

  4. Oct 6

    Why the CIO role is increasingly more about business than technology

    David Shive is one of the longest-tenured CIOs in all of the federal government. Also vice chair of the Federal CIO Council, Shive has a wealth of knowledge on what it means to be a CIO at the federal level and how the role has evolved over the last decade-plus. Shive, a nominee for the 2026 FedScoop 50 Awards, recently joined the Daily Scoop Podcast to share how he thinks about his role as GSA CIO amid the ongoing AI boom and why IT management inside the government has become as much about good business practices as the technology itself. The Trump administration and Anduril Industries unveiled plans Tuesday for a new “software-defined” shipyard that will help build attack submarines for the Navy. The announcement comes as the Navy aims to boost its undersea arsenal, which could play a key role in a potential future conflict with China in the Pacific, and President Donald Trump seeks to enhance domestic manufacturing. The Navy has awarded Anduril a contract worth up to $2.9 billion to support the effort, according to a press release from the contractor. The firm plans to invest $3.7 billion of its own funding to help stand up the facility, grow the workforce, and add new tech and other capabilities that will be required for the project. The facility, dubbed Arsenal-2, will be constructed at Tradepoint Atlantic in Baltimore County. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a memorandum that was publicly released on Friday with updated policies to expedite counter-drone technology deployments across U.S. military bases, critical infrastructure, and other domestic assets, as unmanned systems continue to disrupt national security and transform global warfare. The five-page directive, dated Sept. 28, targets specific administrative and procedural bottlenecks that have historically slowed the Defense Department’s counter-drone hardware and software adoption — like radio spectrum and frequency authorization delays and often arduous safety review processes. Notably, this new policy requires review and approval authorities to treat any delays in handling requests associated with DOD’s counter-drone needs as operational risks. Hegseth’s memo appears to serve as an enforcement mechanism for Joint Interagency Task Force 401, which he previously launched to lead the Pentagon’s high-priority counter-drone initiatives. Also in this episode: SAP NS2’s Hunter Downey explains how federal agencies can accelerate AI adoption by using tools embedded in enterprise applications on government-authorized sovereign cloud platforms. Downey argues that established security controls can help agencies navigate compliance requirements, modernize legacy systems and protect sensitive data. He also discusses the differences between generative and agentic AI, why trusted cloud operations and secure data connections matter, and how agencies can measure AI’s value through faster, better-informed mission decisions. This segment was sponsored by SAP NS2. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

    Why the CIO role is increasingly more about business than technology

  5. Oct 2

    Inside GSA’s new AI acquisition policy

    The General Services Administration has issued its artificial intelligence acquisition clause as a class deviation from its regulations, according to a regulation overhaul memo updated Monday, making it a policy that can be used immediately. GSA previously proposed a rule to amend federal regulations for AI acquisitions and took two rounds of public comment on drafts. Since then, the agency decided on a class deviation from the GSA’s Acquisition Regulation first. While the memo says the deviation will be effective Oct. 19, contracting officers could use it now and existing contracts may be changed at the discretion of the officer, it said. As a deviation, it is essentially policy until GSA rescinds it or codifies it through formal rulemaking, which the memo says will include a public comment period. A bill to eliminate educational requirements in federal contracting jobs unanimously passed the Senate late Wednesday night, putting the legislation a presidential signature away from becoming law. The Skills-Based Federal Contracting Act (H.R. 5235), led by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and co-sponsored by Democrats Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, cleared the House in February and advanced out of committee in the upper chamber in August. The bill would ban federal agencies from putting minimum education standards into contract solicitations — unless the agency includes a written explanation showing why those requirements are critical to the mission. Mace said in a press briefing Thursday this “is a middle-class American workers bill. If you have the skills, you should get the job.” Mace, who’s retiring from Congress at the end of this term, said the bill will be transmitted to the White House within “the next couple of days” or “up to a week.” The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

    Inside GSA’s new AI acquisition policy

  6. Oct 1

    Carter Farmer tapped as next Federal CIO

    Carter Farmer, the Environmental Protection Agency’s chief information officer, is said to be the White House’s pick for the new federal CIO, according to several sources familiar with the matter. Farmer replaces Greg Barbaccia as the federal government’s top IT official. Barbaccia left government and returned to Palantir at the end of August. Barbaccia told FedScoop: “I’ve always enjoyed working with Carter, and I think he’s a great fit for the role. We share a very similar culture and approach to getting things done, and he knows his competencies exceptionally well.” Farmer was added to the Technology Modernization Fund Board as a fully voting member last month, a position he would hold permanently as the federal CIO, along with General Services Administration CIO David Shive. The EPA posted its open CIO position on USAJobs-dot-gov on Monday. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is looking to build out its AI ecosystem by assigning software development work to AI agents and expanding existing platforms, per a request for information published Friday. An agentic software factory, which ICE wants to build, has AI agents handling a significant share of the planning, implementation, testing and review process of the development lifecycle. ICE’s IT shop wants help across three layers of the agentic software factory, which are “desired future-state capabilities, not existing ICE implementations,” the unit explained in its documentation. The first layer is an enterprise control plane that will include the governance, architecture, infrastructure, shared services and cost-reporting mechanisms. The next layer contains the agentic orchestration, allowing ICE to coordinate AI agents and map out protocols for tool access, human escalation and stop conditions. The third layer that’s top of mind for ICE is its independent assurance boundary, which will provide cybersecurity, accessibility and mission ac ceptance testing before production. The STELLA platform, which stands for Secure Technology Environment for Large Language Agents, was implemented earlier this summer, FedScoop previously reported. Documents obtained via a public records request outlined ICE’s plans to use the platform as a way to develop, test and deploy AI use cases. At least a dozen fully deployed, production-ready AI applications are already live on the platform, per ICE’s background documentation provided in the RFI. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

    Carter Farmer tapped as next Federal CIO

  7. Sep 30

    Trump’s America.gov goes live in bid to tie government services together using AI

    The Trump administration unveiled an artificial intelligence chatbot Tuesday that it views as a new front door for services from the federal government. America.gov, which launched Tuesday morning, opens with a search bar inviting users to ask anything — from booking a campsite at a national park, to getting a passport for their child, to replacing their Social Security card. “Whatever you need from the government, start here,” the homepage says. “Under the hood, America.gov is an extraordinary use of AI designed to improve your life. It’s trained specifically on one official source of truth: The United States Government,” Joe Gebbia, the U.S. Chief Design Officer and co-founder of Airbnb, said during the launch event in Washington, D.C. According to remarks Gebbia made to CNBC’s Squawk Box on Tuesday, the platform is powered by Google’s Gemini and Elon Musk’s Grok. The initiative comes as the Trump administration has, generally, sought to increase the use of AI in government and decrease restrictions on the technology. Google has extended its OneGov deal with the General Services Administration for its artificial intelligence Gemini, according to a Tuesday website update. The deal, which charged $0.47 per agency for one year for Gemini for Government and gave 20% off list for first-party cloud services, was set to expire Wednesday but will now last until Nov. 15. The deal includes Gemini, Google AI platform and tools, FedRAMP High authorized Google Cloud Platform products and builds upon a previous 71% discount Google Workspace agreement, the website says. GSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Google declined to comment. The extension follows a recent OneGov extension for Anthropic’s Claude and a new deal for OpenAI’s ChatGPT models. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

    Trump’s America.gov goes live in bid to tie government services together using AI

  8. Sep 29

    Driving federal data policy from the outside-in

    For the U.S. federal government in the age of AI, data policy is critical to building better outcomes for the American people. That’s the chartering mission of the Federation of American Scientists’ new Data Policy Institute, which is led by former U.S. Chief Data Scientist Denice Ross. Ross sits down with FedScoop Senior Reporter Madison Alder to discuss her time supporting the federal government’s data utility and accessibility as U.S. chief data scientist and how her new role within the Federation of American Scientists continues that effort, particularly as many federal datasets have vanished from the public domain. A coalition of dozens of software developers and former government employees is calling on the General Services Administration to reverse recent actions related to the U.S. Web Design System, warning that its current direction could have widespread impact on website accessibility. In an open letter shared exclusively with FedScoop, the coalition warned GSA leaders that recent moves to put the lead official at USWDS on administrative leave, implement new leadership, remove contributors to a public GitHub repository for the system, delete public comments and add in new AI programs have put the system and thousands of websites it powers “in jeopardy.” Those actions leave agencies with a difficult question: “Can we continue to treat USWDS as trusted government infrastructure?” the signatories wrote. “Given the removal of experienced community maintainers and user comments from public discussions, we believe the answer, currently, is no.” To remedy the situation, the signers asked GSA to take seven actions, including restoring access to USWDS GitHub for community maintainers, bringing back former leaders and staff, communicating openly, and maintaining “rigorous manual accessibility testing and documented quality assurance.” The takeover of USWDS described in the letter unfolded rapidly over the past several weeks. It more or less began with a move to place USWDS lead Anne Petersen, the final remaining member of the legacy team, on administrative leave at the beginning this month, and a flurry of activity in the GitHub page. Those tensions boiled over last week when a newcomer to the project, Ryan Parker, stated plans to “automate as much accessibility testing as possible across current and future USWDS versions.” The Federal Aviation Administration is asking Congress for an additional $30 billion to reach its modernization goals tied to the overhaul of air traffic control systems and aviation infrastructure. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., introduced the Modern Skies Act on Monday, which lays out the plan including efforts to implement a common automation platform and cloud computing infrastructure. The bill is backed by nearly 60 organizations, including Airlines for America, the Association of Value Airlines, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. Schmitt appeared Monday alongside representatives from the trade groups, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy at a news conference announcing the plan at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

    Driving federal data policy from the outside-in
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About

A podcast covering the latest news & trends facing top government leaders on topics such as technology, management & workforce. Hosted by Billy Mitchell on FedScoop and released Monday-Friday.

Information

  • Creator
    The Daily Scoop Podcast
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    500
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    The Daily Scoop Podcast

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