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Cost Estimating NewsBrief: February 28, 2025
EXCLUSIVE: Hegseth draft memo lays out software acquisition reform push
(Breaking Defense) Pentagon leaders are crafting a plan to shake up how they buy and field technology, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth starting things off by potentially directing that the department adopt the Software Acquisition Pathway (SWP) as the preferred method for software development. In a draft memo obtained by Breaking Defense, Hegseth calls on the department to adopt the Software Acquisition Pathway, a practice created in 2020 to accelerate software development by implementing best practices from the private sector. At its core SWP is a streamlined method for procuring software programs bespoke to DoD requirements. Read More
Trump DOGE order directs agencies to build tech to track government spending
(NextGov/FCW) In an executive order issued Wednesday, President Donald Trump directed agency heads to work with Department of Government Efficiency team leads to build centralized tech systems to record all payments issued through each agency contract or grant — as well as “written justification” for each payment submitted. “Each Agency Head shall, with assistance as requested from the agency’s DOGE Team Lead, build a centralized technological system within the agency to seamlessly record every payment issued by the agency pursuant to each of the agency’s covered contracts and grants, along with a brief, written justification for each payment submitted by the agency employee who approved the payment,” the executive order states. Read More
Former Navy comptroller shares how financial management can successfully impact decision-making
(Federal News Network) Russ Rumbaugh was at the helm of the Navy’s financial management during a remarkably busy couple of years. As the assistant secretary for financial management and comptroller throughout 2023 and 2024, Rumbaugh led during a period when the Department of the Navy undertook major finance systems modernization efforts and when the Marine Corps notched a clean audit opinion, the first for any Defense Department organization. He was quick to demure about overreaching when it came to that clean audit during an interview for the Society of Defense Financial Management’s The Business of Defense podcast on Federal News Network. Read More
DISA Official Provides Military Federated ICAM Timeline
(ExecutiveGov) The Department of Defense is targeting the implementation of federal identity, credential and access management, or ICAM, connections on unclassified networks across all military services by the end of fiscal 2015. Brian Hermann, program executive officer for the Defense Information Systems Agency’s Program Executive Office Cyber, provided a timeline of anticipated ICAM milestones across military services during a recent media roundtable. Read More
High-Risk Series: Heightened Attention Could Save Billions More and Improve Government Efficiency and Effectiveness
(U.S. Government Accountability Office) We testified before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on our updated High-Risk List issued in Feb. 2025. The List highlights 38 areas across the federal government that are seriously vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement or need transformation. We added a new area on federal disaster assistance due to the need for efficient and effective federal relief as natural disasters intensify. Over time, progress on our List has led to about $759 billion in savings. Congress and executive agencies working together on our open recommendations could save billions more and improve government performance. Read More
How to maintain sanity in what seems like an insane environment
(Federal News Network) For federal employees, the world has turned upside down. Is it possible to create a healthy work environment with all of the DOGE stuff going on? Is it possible to concentrate on the work you thought you were hired to do? Rice University organizational psychologist Danielle King joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin to give some practical advice. Read More
AI generates playful, human-like games
(Science Daily) While we are remarkably capable of generating our own goals, beginning with child’s play and continuing into adulthood, we don’t yet have computer models for understanding this human ability. However, a team of New York University scientists has now created a computer model that can represent and generate human-like goals by learning from how people create games. The work, reported in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence, could lead to AI systems that better understand human intentions and more faithfully model and align with our goals. It may also lead to AI systems that can help us design more human-like games. Read More
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