Episodios

  • NextGov/FCW’s Natalie Alms on the early days of DOGE and its cost-cut decisions

    NextGov/FCW’s Natalie Alms on the early days of DOGE and its cost-cut decisions
    Mar 30 2026
    Cuts to contract and grant spending, including outright cancellations, were a feature of the Department of Government Efficiency’s activities during the first year of the Trump administration and some lawsuits followed from those impacted. Natalie Alms, senior correspondent at NextGov/FCW, worked with our colleague and fellow senior reporter Eric Katz at Government Executive to watch 23 hours of testimony in one of those cases that sheds light on DOGE’s goals and the pressures to meet them. “Nat” joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to explain what she and Eric discovered in reporting out a story that is still working its way through the judicial system, but is showing enough of the atmosphere and environment surrounding DOGE. Nat also goes over her findings on how some technologists joining the government workforce can remain connected to their private sector employers and summarizes the White House budget office’s ongoing review of federal contracts. If you have a tip you'd like to share, Natalie Alms can be securely contacted at nalms.41 on Signal. Inside DOGE’s early days of pressure campaigns, rule breaking and ‘chaos’ DOJ clears the way for government to hire technologists still connected to their private sector employers Contract reviews continue at OMB, official says Federal CIO tapped for dual-hatted role at GSA Agencies lost around 20,000 tech workers last year — and now the Trump admin is hiring Inside the federal CIO’s culture-first approach Trump admin launches US Tech Force to recruit temporary workers after shedding thousands this year
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    33 m
  • GovCon’s vital signs point to DHS’ partial closure, Anthropic’s possible exit and the FAR Overhaul

    GovCon’s vital signs point to DHS’ partial closure, Anthropic’s possible exit and the FAR Overhaul
    Mar 23 2026
    GovCon finds itself in a strange situation where the Homeland Security Department does not have a budget and is in a shutdown, but the three immigration agencies are still operating with some funds. How is that possible? Stephanie Kostro, president of the Professional Services Council, joins Nick and Ross for this episode to lay out how that is and the DHS funding lapse’s myriad impacts on industry and society. Their conversation then turns to what contractors are seeking to learn and understand from the U.S. government’s very public breakup with Anthropic, which will take months to complete, and what to watch for next in the Federal Acquisition Regulation overhaul effort. The Revolutionary FAR Overhaul is far from the only policy item contractors should pay attention to in 2026, as Kostro explains. Trump's new DHS nominee promises some changes, adequate staffing amid shutdown-induced departures CISA to furlough most of its workforce under impending DHS shutdown Path to averting a shutdown remains elusive as lawmakers debate DHS funding Microsoft takes Anthropic's side in DOD fight, warns it sets a new precedent WT 360: Nextgov/FCW’s Alexandra Kelley on the government’s breakup with Anthropic Anthropic sues over a dozen federal agencies and government leaders The FAR overhaul rewrote the rules, but now comes the hard part The hardest part of FAR reform is culture, not the rules GSA set to begin its rulemaking push for the FAR overhaul Small businesses face upheaval under the acquisition overhaul and agency cuts
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    37 m
  • All about the paths forward for SAIC, Anthropic, resellers and 8(a) companies

    All about the paths forward for SAIC, Anthropic, resellers and 8(a) companies
    Mar 16 2026
    Science Applications International Corp. can move ahead on their big decision points now that it has a permanent chief executive, which presents at least one element of certainty in a world replete with unknowns. Nick and Ross use this episode as a starting point for looking at SAIC’s next steps under CEO Jim Reagan, and the paths forward for several other key business and policy storylines in the public sector landscape. Anthropic’s fight against the U.S. government’s push to eject it from the market has industry-wide implications to unpack, as does the future of IT resellers and 8(a) companies amid their customer’s scrutiny on those corners of the market. Nick and Ross also break down why organizational culture is crucial for the Federal Acquisition Regulation overhaul effort. SAIC's board stays with Reagan, names him full-time CEO SAIC plans partial pivot away from enterprise IT Microsoft takes Anthropic's side in DOD fight, warns it sets a new precedent Anthropic sues over a dozen federal agencies and government leaders WT 360: Nextgov/FCW’s Alexandra Kelley on the government’s breakup with Anthropic Government equity investments open a new frontier for industry OPINION: Federal equity investments raise troubling questions about picking winners and losers L3Harris to spin off its rocket motor business with the Pentagon as an anchor investor OPINION: The government's 'passive' Intel stake heightens their commitment to each other and winning the chip wars ‘We will have their backs:’ GSA pushes culture shift for FAR changes The hardest part of FAR reform is culture, not the rules FAR overhaul targets risk-averse acquisition culture GSA wants answers from resellers about markups and equipment maker relationships Don’t count out resellers as OneGov agreements grow Where GSA sees resellers fitting into its unified procurement strategy SBA boots 628 more companies from 8(a) program 8(a) program faces unprecedented pressure from Trump administration attacks SBA probing 8(a) fraud allegations at tribal-owned contractor
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    37 m
  • Nextgov/FCW’s Alexandra Kelley on the government’s breakup with Anthropic

    Nextgov/FCW’s Alexandra Kelley on the government’s breakup with Anthropic
    Mar 9 2026
    The Defense Department and Anthropic are on opposite ends of a nasty disagreement, with government-wide and industry-wide implications, over what the company’s Claude large language model and other offerings can be used for. Alexandra Kelley, our Nextgov/FCW colleague who covers emerging tech, has extensively covered the fallout from that impasse as agencies are working to comply with President Trump’s executive order to stop using Claude after the Pentagon essentially broke up with Anthropic. “Alexa,” as we and other GovExec colleagues call her, joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to explain how those phase-out processes are taking place and provide an initial look at the government’s AI landscape without Anthropic in it. Claude is embedded in so many workflows across government that fully removing it is not a matter of simply deleting the app, as Alexa points out. Private sector, former military leaders urge Congress intervene in Pentagon-Anthropic dispute House amendment responding to Pentagon-Anthropic conflict fails committee vote Defense tech enters a new era: the case of Anthropic and the DOD Pentagon’s war on Anthropic based on ‘dubious’ legal thinking and ideology—not real risk, sources say Agencies begin to shed Anthropic contracts following Trump’s directive Trump directs government to ‘immediately cease’ using Anthropic technology It would take the Pentagon months to replace Anthropic’s AI tools: sources Anthropic CEO defends support for AI regulations, alignment with Trump policies Anthropic CEO sees 3 areas where policymakers can help with AI GSA and Anthropic ink deal for Claude AI across all government branches AWS GovCloud gets high-level security approvals for Anthropic and Meta AI models Anthropic introduces new Claude Gov models with national security focus AI startup Anthropic to build out public sector team
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    23 m
  • Enabled Intelligence’s blueprint for the data labeling challenge

    Enabled Intelligence’s blueprint for the data labeling challenge
    Mar 2 2026

    Data labeling refers to the practice of tagging and identifying raw data in order to add meaningful context, of which U.S. government agencies openly admit they struggle with and ask industry for help in.

    Peter Kant, founder and chief executive of Enabled Intelligence, started the company in March 2020 to specialize in data labeling work that also relies on continuous training and retraining of artificial intelligence models.

    Kant joins for this episode to explain how Enabled Intelligence tailors large language models for use in national security environments where the out-of-the-box tools are not quite ready to be in the hands of operators.

    In talking with our Ross Wilkers, Kant also describes how the company’s capture of a contract called Sequoia helps shed light on how the government is looking at the challenge of grasping all the data it has.
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    32 m
  • Generative AI’s pitfalls and potential benefits in GovCon law

    Generative AI’s pitfalls and potential benefits in GovCon law
    Feb 23 2026

    Humans in the loop are, in theory, supposed to be as much a part of all conversations surrounding the use of generative artificial intelligence tools as a way to safeguard against major mistakes.

    But as GovCon attorney David Timm has found out, errors showing misuse of the technology are starting to come up in bid protests and other legal rulings that show what can go wrong when relying on the tech too much.

    Timm, a partner at the law firm Burr & Forman, joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to share his findings from those decisions and how they could help set some guardrails for the use of GenAI in GovCon law.

    Even with the problems he sees, Timm is an optimist for how the tech can remove what he calls “Entropy” from workflows and make some tasks easier.

    Gen-AI Misuse in Procurement Litigation

    Procurement is Not "Oready" for GenAI Misuse

    Can a federal agency adopt the output of a Gen-AI bid evaluation tool?

    Buying Blind: Corruption Risk and the Erosion of Oversight in Federal AI Procurement
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    30 m
  • All about the landscape of government-wide contracts in 2026

    All about the landscape of government-wide contracts in 2026
    Feb 9 2026

    Consolidation and “common goods and services” dominate the discussion around how the federal government wants to revamp its contracting functions, including moves to put the General Services Administration at the center of it all.

    Leo Alvarez and Dylan Schreiner, respectively principal and GovCon senior manager at Baker Tilly, are fielding many questions from industry clients on what this landscape looks like and how to map their business strategies to it.

    In this episode, Leo and Dylan walk our Ross Wilkers through some of the big-ticket vehicles to watch in 2026 and how they help illustrate the government’s push to make contracting more straight-forward for every stakeholder.

    Navigating a world of fewer contracting officers and other key acquisition pros inside government also features in the discussion, plus what this all means for small businesses.

    GSA quietly rolls out CMMC-like cybersecurity framework for contractors

    New OMB memo lays out GSA's plan to consolidate contracts

    NITAAC finally pulls the plug on CIO-SP4

    GSA re-opens OASIS+ to new bids, shifts to continuous approach

    GSA to take over SEWP VI contract ‘sooner rather than later’

    Alliant 3's final solicitation hits the streets

    Army gets moving again on bundled recompete of professional services, IT vehicles

    Air Force Research Lab opens proposal window for $10B vehicle

    Pentagon halts $15B Advana recompete draft solicitation
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    31 m
  • Defense One’s Lauren Williams on industrial base management matters and pressure points

    Defense One’s Lauren Williams on industrial base management matters and pressure points
    Feb 2 2026

    Pressure points on defense companies from their Pentagon customer to invest more and do business differently than before are coming from multiple levels of leadership, including President Trump himself.

    Lauren Williams, business editor at our partner publication Defense One, canvasses the perspectives and opinions of industry pros on that matter to help put together the Defense Business Brief newsletter that goes out every Monday.

    Lauren joins our Ross Wilkers for this episode to break down those different pressure points, including Trump’s executive order barring companies from stock repurchases and issuing dividends until they invest more in tech development and production.

    But as Lauren also explains, that executive order is only one of several examples of the U.S. military customer taking a more direct involvement in shaping the kind of industrial base it wants.

    WT 360: Defense One's Lauren Williams on the new world order of acquisition

    DOE seeks batteries with four times the juice

    Defense Business Brief: Thales’ frigate pivot + 2026 lookahead with Leonardo DRS

    Defense Business Brief: Exec order fallout; $1B rocket-maker deal; Acquisition changes, and more

    Trump lambastes defense CEOs over pay, stock buybacks

    Defense Business Brief: US-made biotech; Rocketdyne; Hegseth’s industry tours

    ‘Very, very strange time’: After a big 2025, what’s next for the defense industry?

    Hegseth hints at higher defense budgets as OMB says another reconciliation bill is possible

    Unveiling acquisition overhaul, Hegseth tells industry to get with the program

    Why DOD is so bad at buying software
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    26 m