Fed Gov Today

Former Federal CIO, Suzette Kent, joins Francis to dissect the pivotal modernization challenges facing every federal agency. With the future of the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) hanging in the balance—especially as the Trump administration’s FY 2026 budget proposes zero dollars for it—Kent offers a candid, insider perspective on what the next generation of federal IT funding could (and should) look like.

Listeners will learn w...

Your retirement strategy just got a crucial update!

Two top leaders from the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, Jim Kaplan, Director of External Affairs, and Jim Courtney, Director of the Office of Participant Experience—join Francis to break down what's changing, what’s staying, and what it all means for your money.

Listeners will get the inside scoop on the imminent retirement of the L 2025 Fund and the introduction o...

Today, Francis is joined by Fazal Mohammed, Senior Manager for Solutions Architecture at AWS, who unpacks how federal agencies are rapidly modernizing and closing the innovation gap with the commercial sector.

You'll hear how cloud platforms are empowering a new generation of "citizen developers" to build agile, scalable solutions that once took years to implement. Fazal explains how agencies are rethinking mission ne...

Today, Francis sits down with Lance Scott, Chief Technology Officer of the Federal Electronic Health Record Modernization (FEHRM) program, for a deep dive into one of the most ambitious federal health IT undertakings in history. 

You’ll hear how three foundational pillars—data deduplication, provenance tracking, and automated data ingestion—are enabling real-time, intelligent access to critical health data, reducing costs and increa...

Today, Francis sits down with Dan Mathews to explore a foundational question: How can the federal government effectively reduce its real estate footprint? 

Mathews shares firsthand insights from his tenure at PBS, detailing how federal agencies are rethinking their physical presence to align with hybrid work trends and long-term cost savings. Listen and learn how interagency coordination, budgeting constraints, and political realiti...

Former OPM Associate Director, Ron Sanders, joins Francis to unpack a bold new hiring memo from the Office of Personnel Management and the Domestic Policy Council that could transform how agencies bring in new talent. You will learn about the unprecedented introduction of four mandatory essay questions for federal job applicants—a move aimed at curbing mass, low-effort applications and filtering for genuine interest and capability....

Learn how the most significant overhaul of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) in four decades could reshape the way the federal government buys goods and services. 

Julie Dunne, former Commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at GSA and now Principal at Monument Advocacy, joins Francis to explain the key changes already in motion and what’s still to come. She details how the revisions aim to streamline acquisition, cut ...

Today, we explore a pivotal moment for agency leaders as budget season intensifies on Capitol Hill. With funding and restructuring requests on the table, Francis speaks with Tim Soltis, former Deputy Controller at the Office of Management and Budget, about what it takes to turn policy ideas into operational success. Soltis brings insights from his recent article, where he proposes a bold restructuring concept: lean, centralized lea...

In today’s conversation you’ll hear why software is now just as critical as hardware in modern military operations—and what the Department of Defense is doing to keep pace with this shift. Former Deputy Navy CIO Commander, Julie Vida, joins Francis to explain how evolving battlefield realities, from GPS denial to cyber threats, are driving a transformation in how the Pentagon develops, acquires, and deploys software.

You’ll learn ho...

Today, we dive deep into the future of artificial intelligence in government, guided by a remarkable dataset: over 10,000 responses to the Trump administration’s request for information on a new federal AI action plan. Former Department of Commerce CIO and now president of Cambio Digital Transformations, Simone Szykman, joins the show to discuss the five key themes he and his AI assistant—ChatGPT—extracted from the public’s feedbac...

Will Schmitt, Chief of the Technical Portfolio Management Division, joins the show from TechNet Cyber in Baltimore. He reveals how DoD is categorizing Zero Trust approaches into three key courses of action (COAs): legacy uplift strategies, commercial service providers (like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Oracle), and standalone government-operated environments such as Dell-hosted clouds. Schmitt explains how each solution undergoes...

Colonel Jeffrey Strauss of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) joins the program to discuss one of the Department of Defense’s most urgent challenges: technical debt. Colonel Strauss explains how divesting from legacy technology—sometimes as granular as removing individual network cards—frees up capacity and resources that can be reinvested in modern solutions. He likens the effort to personal debt management: eliminating...

In this episode of Fed Gov Today, Francis Rose sits down with Jim Kaplan, Director of External Affairs at the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, to explore how the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) is modernizing to meet the evolving needs of federal employees and service members. From mobile app growth to overseas outreach and educational tools, Kaplan reveals how the TSP is becoming more user-centric than ever before.

Kaplan open...

In this episode of Fed Gov Today, Francis Rose welcomes Kshmendra Paul, one of the federal government’s most influential voices in data strategy, to reflect on two decades of evolving federal data policy and implementation. Paul, who has served as the Chief Data Officer at the VA, Program Manager for the Information Sharing Environment (ISE), and in key roles at the Department of Energy and the Department of Justice, shares candid ...

Today, Alissa Czyz, Director of Defense Capabilities and Management at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), joins Francis to expose a critical, costly challenge facing the Defense Department: mismanaged real property. Alissa shares how the Pentagon oversees a staggering portfolio of more than 700,000 facilities valued at $2.2 trillion, but a lack of consistent data across the military services is undermining its ability to m...