HUD, Army, OPM receive additional funds for technology modernization

The Technology Modernization Fund Board provided further support to expand the use of the Login.gov service as part of the latest set of awards to three agencies totaling another $35 million.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Federal Housing Administration became the fourth project to obtain a “loan” from the board to implement the General Services Administration’s identity service.

FHA is scheduled to receive $14.8 million to modernize its identity credential access management (ICAM) systems for the FHA Connection (FHAC).

The board says that FHAC “will seamlessly integrate with Login.gov and enhance the customer experience by creating self-service registration capabilities for users, organizations, and application administrators. This mission-critical program supports 15 high-value systems, including the single-family and multi-family housing, public and Indian housing programs, and the chief financial officer.”

HUD expects to save at least $7 million and improve FHA’s cyber posture by retiring legacy systems such as Web Access Security System (WASS), FHAC and SiteMinder.

“Tens of thousands of external users interact with HUD’s current FHAC components,” Beth Niblock, HUD CIO, said in a statement. “However, our current systems are overloaded, redundant and poorly integrated. The FHAC modernization will give FHA-approved lenders and business partners secure access to the services they need.”

This was HUD’s second award under TMF, winning $13.85 million in 2018 for a mainframe modernization project, and is already paying out more than $2 million.

21 prizes from $1B windfall

Together with HUD, the board awarded the Office of Personnel Management $6 million to improve its website and content management systems. It also awarded the Army $15.5 million to modernize and improve the cybersecurity of its operational technology at manufacturing stockpiles, maintenance depots, and ammunition plants, called organic industrial bases (OIBs), which manufacture equipment, vehicles, and ammunition.

Since Congress passed $1 billion in the American Bailout Act in March 2021, the board has awarded 21 awards, including four that specifically call for zero trust, worth more than $435 million. Since TMF began in 2018, the board has made 32 loans worth more than $530 million.

The board has now awarded 14 awards in calendar year 2022, including three in August.

“If we are going to achieve digital transformation for the American people in our lifetimes, we must think and work differently across the entire federal enterprise. Through TMF’s investments, we are demonstrating what is possible right now in modern government service delivery,” TMF Board Chair and Federal CIO Clare Martorana said in a statement. “Investments in OPM, HUD and the Army will address immediate security needs and improve customer experience and business operations by modernizing outdated systems – expectations we must be able to meet for our customers.”

OPM to improve the website

This is OPM’s second award under TMF. Its initial award of $9.9 million is focused on zero trust.

For this latest award, OPM will use the $6 million “loan” to update both the underlying technology and the content of OPM.gov, which receives about 22 million visitors a year.

“Currently, customers are experiencing difficulty navigating the site, using the tools effectively, and finding the information they need. The nearly 20,000 pages on OPM.gov contain 3,600 dead links, creating a confusing user experience for current federal employees, job seekers, and human resource professionals who visit OPM.gov expecting easily accessible and up-to-date information.” , stated the TMF website. . “OPM will implement a modern and more secure content management system (CMS) hosted in OPM’s enterprise cloud environment so that users can have intuitive and accessible web tools. The project will also develop processes to publish updated information and create an intranet environment that hosts historical information. OPM will use a Digital Governance Board to ensure changes to technology, design and processes are customer-centric.”

OPM Director Kiran Ahuja said in a statement that “this investment will improve the government’s ability to recruit job seekers, provide the federal workforce with relevant career-related information, and make it easier for public servants to manage their benefits.” ”.

Army to improve cyber posture

The Army is using its new funding to address basic infrastructure issues spanning 26 OIBs and supporting 28,000 employees.

“It is estimated that 500,000 devices in the OIB constitute a significant attack surface area. Any network compromise would disrupt production and could potentially destroy equipment, injure workers, and impact coordination with multiple partner agencies. Any insecurity in the systems supporting these OIBs could pose serious national security risks,” states the TMF Board website. “The Army Critical Infrastructure Cyber ​​Protection Project will enable cyber attack detection and warning (AS&W) and vulnerability assessment (VA) capabilities and establish a security operations as a service (SOCaaS) framework that ensures cyber defenders can monitor, respond to, and remediate cyber threats.”

Army CIO Raj Iyer said this money will address an urgent need and ensure the Army is not waiting for funding through the traditional budget process.

“For the Army and its partners, this project will modernize and enhance our cybersecurity posture and improve command and control of critical OIBs,” he said in a statement.

The board still has more than $500 million to award of the $1 billion in the American Bailout Act of March 2021. The General Services Administration, which administers the fund, has requested an additional $300 million in fiscal year 2023. , but Congress has been less than thrilled to put additional money into the TMF. The House approved $100 million for TMF this year, while the Senate cut new TMF funding to zero.