White House executive orders (EOs) continue to command the attention of government technology reporters. This week, we saw a couple of orders focused on federal procurement – receiving largely positive media coverage. We also saw a continuation of the less positive coverage of the EO targeting the former leader of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) as well a last-minute reprieve for a critical CISA contract. Here’s what’s trending:
New White House EO on Procurement
We saw widespread coverage across the government tech media outlets on two of the President’s latest EOs focused on acquisition reform:
- One of the two EOs states that the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) should contain only provisions “essential to sound procurement” and remove everything else, according to coverage from Matt Bracken in FedScoop. Bracken reported that the other EO on contracting “is a bit lighter on details, simply calling for agencies to buy commercially available products and services.”
- In his in-depth analysis of the EOs, Jason Miller of Federal News Network wrote that the EOs are part of “the biggest overhaul of federal acquisition since [the] 1990s.”
- MeriTalk published a couple of articles on the EOs, with John Curran noting that the EOs specifically focus on savings that could be obtained by the government when purchasing IT products and services. A second article by Curran quoted observers who voiced general support for the intent of the orders.
- The White House is positioning the EOs as connected to broader efforts to deregulate, as well as the work of the Department of Government Efficiency, according to a piece in Nextgov/FCW by Natalie Alms, Ross Wilkers and Jessie Bur. Nextgov/FCW also published an editorial from three Trump administration officials who wrote: “This administration will overhaul the FAR with plain English, eliminate nearly all non-statutory and duplicative regulations, remove DEI, waste, and wokeness and add helpful buyer guides in place of requirements.”
- In a related story on the administration’s deregulation efforts, Caroline Nihill shared the news in FedScoop on a new online form that will allow the general public to submit ideas for deregulating government.
Anxiety Over CVE
Readers may have noticed some urgency around reports this week that a CISA contract for the agency’s Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) program was set to expire. Reporters at government tech outlets reported on the expiration, updating their reporting after CISA subsequently extended the program:
- MeriTalk’s Grace Dille reported that the contract was extended for 11 months at the “eleventh hour,” preventing a lapse in what CISA itself called an “invaluable” tool to identify, define and catalog publicly disclosed cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
- Ashley Silver of Government Technology noted that the program actually did briefly expire this Wednesday before CISA confirmed funding had been reinstated.
- The program was extended after an executive from CVE contractor MITRE warned the CVE board of “potentially catastrophic consequences” to the cybersecurity ecosystem if the contract were to expire, according to an article by Derek B. Johnson in CyberScoop. In industry trade publication Dark Reading, Becky Bracken wrote that MITRE’s letter “drew such widespread aggravation among the cybersecurity community that CISA reversed course and decided to throw the CVE a temporary lifeline.”
- Speaking of expiring cyber protections, Tim Starks reported in CyberScoop on a bipartisan push in the Senate to reauthorize Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, a law that provides legal protections to companies that share cyber threat information. It is set to expire in September.
More on the Krebs Saga
Coverage of last week’s EO calling for an investigation of the former CISA head Chris Krebs continued into this week with several government tech outlets reporting on new developments:
- Starks provided an update in CyberScoop that Krebs resigned from his position at cyber company SentinelOne “to devote himself fully to fighting the executive order.”
- In his coverage for Nextgov/FCW, David DiMolfetta quoted Kreb’s LinkedIn post, which said: “For those who know me, you know I don’t shy away from tough fights. But I also know this is one I need to take on fully — outside of SentinelOne.”
- Reporting for MeriTalk, Weslan Hansen quoted SentinelOne CEO Tomer Weingarten, who thanked Krebs for his “transparency and integrity – especially in this difficult moment.”
Finally, here’s a reminder to check out the “Gov & Beyond” podcast where you can hear directly from representatives from some of the publications mentioned in this blog post.
That’s a wrap on this week’s newsletter. Check back in for more weekly roundups of the top stories in the government technology press.