This appearance on “Gov & Beyond” by Natalie Alms, government and policy reporter at NOTUS, marks the first time a guest has made a second appearance on the podcast – and with good reason. Until recently, Alms was one of the star reporters at Nextgov/FCW before her recent switch to NOTUS, an up-and-coming Washington, D.C.-focused publication. Alms’ experience covering federal government tech policy issues in her previous job made her a natural fit for her new gig at NOTUS.
In this second conversation with Luca Pagni and Joyson Cherian, Natalie discussed her decision to move to NOTUS, her time at Nextgov/FCW and some of the stories that have captured her attention recently.
For someone who seems to have an innate knack for covering many of the policy stories that make Washington tick, Natalie did not begin her career with the specific intention of covering government policy or technology issues. Ask her how she ended up in her position at Nextgov/FCW where she worked for more than five years, her answer is simple: “I needed a job.”
Despite the fact that she was at the time just looking for a paycheck, she says she quickly “fell in love” with her job covering government technology policy news that is often overlooked by more mainstream media outlets but is nevertheless critical to the successful operation of our federal government. “There’s really just so much there that really matters to people, not only in D.C. but outside of D.C. as well,” she said. “So that makes it really interesting and important, which is super motivating to me as a reporter.”
Noticing NOTUS
If you’re not familiar with NOTUS, Natalie’s interview suggests that won’t be the case for long. The name NOTUS, derived from a common abbreviation used to denote the U.S. President (POTUS), stands for News of the United States and was launched in 2024, Natalie said.
“We write about Washington for Washingtonians,” Natalie said. “We’re trying to build the next great D.C. newsroom, covering the essential stories about people who live and work here and the things they need to know to live their lives and do their jobs. But of course, as you guys know, and as the people listening likely know too, what happens in D.C. has a national impact, so we have readers across the country and the world as well.”
While she still speaks highly of her experience at Nextgov/FCW, the pull to NOTUS was inspired by bouts of slight jealousy when reading stories there that she wished she had written. So when she came across a NOTUS job posting looking for a reporter with experience covering government agencies, “that was super exciting to me,” she said. She started at her new job in June.
Covering the New Abnormal
Natalie’s employer and job are not the only things that have changed since her last appearance on “Gov & Beyond.” As she noted in her recent interview, the government’s entire operating environment has changed drastically since then. And by extension, that change has had a profound impact on reporters who cover federal agencies.
She said that at the start of this second Trump administration last year, she had responsibility for covering the organization that became known as DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency). At the time, DOGE was pushing government employees out of their jobs, dismantling agencies and causing all kinds of disruption to the traditional business of government. Natalie said things feel a lot different now.
“I felt last year I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off, trying to cover everything,” she said. “This year is a lot less frantic feeling. But in my mind, there are still some things that we don’t know yet about DOGE and its aftermath that I’m sort of keeping my ear to the ground on. And part of that just includes keeping an eye on sort of the various oversight reports and GAO (Government Accountability Office) reports that are percolating.” [Notably, a few days after the podcast was recorded, the GAO issued a report strongly critical of aspects of DOGE’s work.]
Not surprisingly, Natalie also said she also plans to keep her eyes on the effects that AI will have on government operations, including how federal leaders plan to use the technology to offset the impacts of all of the government workers lost as a result of DOGE’s work. She also gave “Gov & Beyond” listeners a sneak peek at an upcoming story she was planning that brings a discussion of AI and its role in country’s ongoing culture war issues, with the General Services Administration set to issue a rule that would put new requirements on contractors to make sure that their AI is unbiased.
Listen to the podcast or read the transcript below for details on Natalie’s view of the world. She also talks about why fruit should not be part of your dessert and her favorite movie – that should only be watched in the fall or winter.
Timestamps
0:47 – Natalie’s career journey from Nextgov/FCW to NOTUS
1:39 – Natalie’s motivation behind covering government agencies
3:33 – What makes NOTUS unique
7:03 – Federal agency trends and DOGE aftermath
9:14 – How political parties message modernization and efficiency efforts
11:40- Implementation of AI in government agencies
15:09 – Does fruit belong in desserts?
Transcript
Intro: Welcome to Gov & Beyond. I’m your host. Luca Pagni, here with my cohost Joyson Cherian. This podcast features conversations with the newsmakers and influencers at the center of today’s public sector news cycles from our studio at W2 Communications, let’s go Gov & Beyond.
Luca Pagni (LP): Welcome everyone to Gov & Beyond. I’m your host Luca Pagni here with my co-host Joyson Cherian. We’re excited to be joined today by Natalie Alms, government and policy reporter at NOTUS. Natalie, welcome back to the show!
Natalie Alms (NA): Thank you so much for having me. It’s great to be here.
(LP): Likewise. Natalie, for some of our newer listeners that might have missed the last time you were on the podcast, could you start out by telling us about your background and journey to NOTUS?
NA: Of course. So, like you said, I’m a government and policy reporter at NOTUS, which is a newsroom here in D.C., where I cover how the Trump administration is transforming the federal government. But before this, I was at a trade publication called Nextgov/FCW, which I’d imagine some of your listeners may be familiar with, given its focus, and I was covering government technology there for nearly six years. And before that, I was in local news in North Carolina, my home state, for just a little bit. So I’ve been in D.C. now for a while, and it hasn’t gotten old yet.
Joyson Cherian (JC): What inspired you to get into covering government news and policy?
NA: That’s a great question. To be honest, I needed a job. I started five and a half years ago at Nextgov on a pretty similar beat to what I have now, and I really fell in love with it once I started. And I love it for a few reasons, and this is sort of why I wanted to continue in this vein. The first is that I think government agencies are relatively undercovered, even though they have a really immense impact. You know, you can go to Capitol Hill and find hordes of reporters chasing people down, and that’s certainly important and wonderful work, but I felt like I could sort of uniquely contribute by covering government agencies. I’m also a big nerd, so I love learning about all the sort of wonky things that the government does that really impact everyday people, and so that’s sort of convinced me to keep going. And there’s no shortage of things I can cover. Recently, you know, I was doing stories on how the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) is moving to stop requiring companies from reporting demographic data, which it’s done for like 60 years to help enforce civil rights laws. I’ve also been covering the end of DOGE, the relocation of USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) employees to move them outside of D.C. There’s really just so much there that really matters to people, not only in D.C. but outside of D.C. as well, so that makes it really interesting and important, which is super motivating to me as a reporter.
JC: You talked about you know the government agencies not being covered a ton, and and that’s where your interest you know led you to for our audience members who may not be too familiar. Could you tell us a little bit more about NOTUS and what’s unique about the publication and its direction?
NA: Of course, yeah. So NOTUS, as in POTUS, News of the United States, if anyone’s wondering why on earth it’s named that, launched in 2024, and a big part of the newsroom is a fellowship program that NOTUS houses for early career journalists that can work alongside sort of more veteran reporters and editors here in D.C. So we write about Washington for Washingtonians. We’re trying to build the next great D.C. newsroom, covering sort of the essential stories about people who live and work here and the things they need to know to live their lives and do their jobs. But of course, as you guys know, and as the people listening likely know too, what happens in D.C. has a national impact, so we have readers across the country and the world as well, sort of tuning in to find out what’s happening here in D.C. and what it means for them.
LP: Gotcha, and you know, just kind of continuing down the thread that Joyson started off. We’ve been seeing NOTUS grow a lot recently. Can you tell us more about what drew you to the publication and some of the other team members?
NA: Great, yeah, I was drawn to NOTUS because I kept reading their stories and wishing I had done them. To be honest, that’s the truth. For example, like earlier this year, NOTUS had a really good story. I forget who was on the byline, but one person was Anna Kramer, who’s another policy and government reporter here. I think there might have been others as well, but the story was about how federal data has been disappearing, and it had examples of people who had worked for government agencies on you know collecting data that were laid off, people who relied on government datasets that were no longer available, and really painted sort of a picture, a big picture, of a trend, and also sort of a small, more specific picture about like why does X Y Z dataset matter? So that had me interested, and then what really drew me in was a job posting specifically looking for someone with experience covering government agencies. I don’t think that’s something you see every day at a newsroom, but that was super exciting to me, sort of combined with the work they were doing, and now I’m here reporting on government agencies, which is great. And if people in your audience are familiar with Government Executive, a trade publication linked to Nextgov, where I worked, Eric Katz, a former reporter there, is now also at NOTUS. He actually started before me, so there’s a small contingent of us, and it’s been fun and exciting to sort of take that expertise to this newsroom here.
LP: Yeah, it’s awesome and great to see all the great work that the team at NOTUS is putting out. Just kind of to that end of you know, you’re talking about the evolution of government agencies and just how things have transpired in the administration. You know, I feel like we’re constantly in this flux of you know. If you look at just the past 12 months, we’ve been saying that for the last few years of how things have evolved since you were last on the podcast. How have you seen the government landscape evolve, you know, thus far, and where are you seeing it go?
NA: That’s a great question. I think last year, with the start of this second Trump administration, and the everything that DOGE was, which I assume people are familiar with, led by Elon Musk for a while, and was known for its work pushing government employees out of their jobs, dismantling USAID, among other things. I think on that side, especially in a lot of the sort of more domestic federal agencies, to me it seems a lot slower this year. You know, we have other things going on that this administration is focused on. So that’s one of the big things I felt last year, I was, you know, running around like a chicken with my head cut off, trying to cover everything. This year is a lot less frantic feeling, but in my mind, there are still some things that we don’t know yet about DOGE and its aftermath that I’m sort of keeping my ear to the ground on, and part of that just includes keeping an eye on sort of the various oversight reports and GAO reports that are percolating. I’m really curious to see what they find about what happened last year and what that means for the government and the people who rely on it.
JC: When we spoke to you last year, I remember you talking about you know the newsrooms locally having to take an almost always on mentality, and especially no Friday afternoons off because there’s always news happening. It seems like it’s been a little bit more measured since then. And you’ve just talked about some of the areas that have captured your attention in recent months. What are the topics that are piquing your interest right now, and what are you keeping an eye out on for the rest of the year?
NA: Yeah, that’s a great question. One thing I’m curious about as we look forward to midterms and then eventually a presidential election is how Democrats sort of pitch their own agenda for the government and how it works, and if that’s even part of their agenda, I guess. Mamdani in New York City recently launched COGE, the Commission on Government Efficiency, which is meant to sort of come out with recommendations on how public service delivery in the city can be improved. That was interesting to me, the sort of obvious wink at DOGE. I’m curious how people respond to messaging about government use of AI or government modernization, government efficiency in light of the last few years, and I’m really curious what Democrats want to do in terms of how the government works. Are there things that they guardrails they want to put in place, are there new ways they want to work. You know, some of my sources have sort of said, and this includes just regular government employees in addition to people working in the more political sphere, but like people saying that they’re jealous of how of how fast DOGE worked, the air cover it got, and the sort of decisiveness, I guess, with which they operated. So I’m curious if that translates into how they message, what their priorities were, and how all this plays, sort of both politically and practically. I guess that’s a very big picture idea, but that’s some of what I’m interested in-the politics of it all, which isn’t something I’ve reported on as much. But it’s an interesting intersection for me to think about moving forward.
JC: You said the phrase of the year, this year, last year, maybe even the year before, AI. How has the emergence of AI driven coverage for you, driven interest for you, and driven how you operate from a day-to-day perspective?
NA: Ooh, that’s a good question. It is certainly, I mean, one one way it’s driven things is just that it is the topic that I hear about all the time. If I’m going to industry events, government events, one thing I’m really interested in is how government agencies under this administration are trying to seemingly make up some of the gaps in their workforce that may have resulted from workforce reductions over the last year. Last year, I talked with Greg Barbaccia, who is currently the federal chief information officer, although he is leaving in August. He told me sort of straight up that AI was a tool that this administration was looking to use to get things done with fewer people. So how that’s working is something I think is not totally clear to me yet, but is something I’m very interested in. I’ll also give a plug for a story that’s coming out in the next few days of mine on sort of the intersection of culture war issues with AI, which is GSA, the General Services Administration, is working on a rule that would put some new requirements on contractors that are on government-wide GSA contracts to make sure that their AI is unbiased. How that works in practice is really interesting to me. So I won’t spoil my own story, but you can go onto NOTUS and find it if that sounds interesting to you. I guess I’ll say that some people have concerns about how that would work in practice.
LP: We’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for it. Natalie, as you probably recall from our previous episode, you know we always like to close out the end of our episodes with some fun little get-to-know-you style questions, just to learn more about the reporters outside of the newsroom. So to kick things off, what is one of your most frequently watched movies that, if you come across it, you’ll immediately stop what you’re doing and start watching it?
NA: That’s such a tricky question. I am a sucker for “When Harry Met Sally,” though. I think it’s a classic for a reason, you know and I love watching it on an airplane, especially. I feel like it’s a perfect airplane movie. And if you haven’t seen it, which first of all, what are you doing? I recommend watching it in the fall. In my opinion, it’s a fall and winter movie. So save it for when it cools off, people. You know, watch it in a few months.
JC: What we’ve learned from hosting the podcast is when we ask people what they like, they’re happy to tell us what they like. When we ask people what they don’t like, they’re passionate about what they don’t like. That being said, what is a food or dish or ingredient that you absolutely do not like, possibly hate, do not get the appeal of.
NA: Okay, I am coming in hot with what I think is a controversial take. Although I do feel there are people that believe the same as me, which is that, why would you ruin a dessert with a fruit? I like fruit, of course. I love fruit, but if I’m looking for a sweet treat, in my opinion, why are we putting fruit there? You know, give me chocolate, give me something artificially flavored, give me something not good for me. I don’t need fruit. I, you know, you would think this would change with age, but so far, I share this opinion with my toddler nieces and nephews, which is no fruit and desserts, and that’s that’s my hill I’ll die on.
JC: Now, are we saying fresh fruit or cooked fruit, like a peach cobbler, for instance,
NA: Especially cooked fruit, and that’s also a texture thing. I like this follow up, but just in general, if you have an array of desserts, I’m going to gravitate towards the no fruit desserts as opposed to the fruit desserts.
JC: Respect.
NA: Thank you.
LP: Well, then, kind of continuing down that, if you never had to hear one song or any artist, any of the above, you’d be extremely happy. What would that be?
NA: So I mentioned nieces and nephews, and they would be, you know, they might agree with me on the fruit thing. I don’t think they would agree with me on this, which is, I could go the rest of my days without hearing Baby Shark again. Hopefully, well, I was gonna say hopefully people know what that is, but for their sake, I suppose hopefully they don’t. It is extremely catchy and long, and definitely an earworm. The kids love it, but it gets stuck in my head. It’s stuck in my head now, even just mentioning it, you know. And I haven’t even heard it, so I could do without that.
LP: Yeah, unfortunately, it’s now in my ear too, so thank you.
NA: You’re welcome. Anytime.
LP: Well, Natalie, thank you so much for your time today. If any of our listeners wanted to learn more about you and the work that you’re doing, what would be the best way to reach you?
NA: Great question. I’m on X and Blue Sky @AlmsNatalie, and I’m also on LinkedIn, and if you have tips for me, my email and Signal are in all of those places. I often tell people that my best stories come from other people’s brains, other people’s ideas, so if there’s something I should be paying attention to, feel free to reach out.
LP: Awesome. Well, thank you to everyone who tuned into this episode, and Natalie, thank you again for helping us go Gov & Beyond.
NA: Thanks for having me.
Outro: Thank you for joining us on today’s episode of “Gov & Beyond.” To learn more about our podcast and hear all of our episodes. Please visit us at w2comm.com/govandbeyond, and make sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter at Govandbeyond. You can also subscribe anywhere podcasts are found.