After months of anticipation, the Pentagon on Friday issued the final standards under the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification. The release marks the first step towards implementing the new cybersecurity standards into all Defense Department contracts. Now comes the hard work. All defense contractors of all shapes, sizes and missions will need to become certified to meet one of CMMC's five levels of security. Requirements will be phased into requests for information starting this summer, and then into solicitations later in the year. If contractors don't meet the requisite CMMC level of security in a contract, they will not be allowed to bid on work. Jackson Barnett explains what's next.

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JAIC's head is set to retire

Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, the head of the Pentagon's Joint AI Center, will retire this summer. A Pentagon spokesperson said “The search for his replacement as the JAIC director is ongoing. He will continue his duties until he transitions from military service later this year.” Shanahan will depart JAIC as the department looks to scale the buildout of the office and its early successes. Jackson has more on Shanahan's departure.

Best Bosses in Fed IT nominations now open

Nominations are now open for the 2020 Best Bosses in Federal IT list. In its second year, the list honors the CIOs, CTOs, CISOs and other technology leaders driving modernization and innovation around the federal government. Best Bosses are passionate and accountable leaders delivering top-level support for their teams to innovate, think big and work toward a critical common mission. Submit a nomination now.

GSA's fight against fake comments

Now that the General Services Administration is in charge of administering federal rulemaking, it's working to get its arms around the fake commenting that has plagued the process. GSA is in the process of modernizing the program with more secure, innovative technical solutions that can mitigate fake comments and sift through mass-comment campaigns. “We’re going to take the integrity of the rulemaking process very seriously and go through an intentional, rigorous, phased process, and the initial step of that is discovery,” Tobias Schroeder, director of the eRulemaking Program, said during a public meeting Thursday. Dave Nyczepir has the scoop.

A new suggestion to increase Congress' tech-savvy

The Harvard Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation published a new paper arguing that the Government Accountability Office’s Science, Technology Assessment and Analytics (STAA) group should be supplemented with another office that would carve out a slightly different, but complementary, focus area. This, the center says, could help increase tech-savvy in Congress. The paper is the latest piece of work to enter the debate around how to make Congress smarter on tech. There is now widespread bipartisan agreement that something needs to change — thanks in part to high profile hearings like those with Mark Zuckerberg in 2018 — but exactly what that change should look like is still a question. Tajha Chappellet-Lanier has more.