Nextgov/FCW

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is urging the Trump administration to close an encryption gap that could let foreign adversaries track visits to sensitive government websites, including the FBI’s tip portal and a veterans crisis line, according to a letter sent to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Office of Management and Budget on Monday and first seen by Nextgov/FCW. Read more from Cyber Reporter David DiMolfetta: https://lnkd.in/d2naQjym

Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., said China’s energy production “is really something we have to compete on, and right now we can't do that without permitting.” Read more below from Managing Editor Edward Graham: https://lnkd.in/eDTNrm_s

The Trump administration is seeking to give patients access to electronic health information through the enforcement of regulations and “troubleshooting call[s].” Read more below from Christian Robles: https://lnkd.in/eSge-WP7

A shared lending platform could save hundreds of millions of dollars annually, reduce fraud and speed up federal loans. Read more below from Doug Criscitello and Robert Shea: https://lnkd.in/ePfiY3KR

When Pavan Pidugu was sworn in to his role as the Transportation Department’s chief digital and information officer in February 2025, the agency operated more than a dozen separate grant systems, few of its rank-and-file employees used artificial intelligence in their daily jobs and the agency didn’t have an IT strategy for the modern age. Read more below: https://buff.ly/FByZjd8

Lawmakers are continuing to take bipartisan aim at the use of artificial intelligence-powered surveillance systems and at data center development and operations. Read more below from Managing Editor Edward Graham: https://lnkd.in/g5NUTQip

Half of #FRED's visitors are now AI agents, not people. That number from Federal Reserve Board Governor Christopher Waller has stuck with me since I moderated the closing panel at #FREDcon in St. Louis on Oct. 1. FRED has spent 35 years earning trust as one of the most useful public data tools anywhere. Now the St. Louis Fed is preparing it for a new kind of user with the FRED MCP Connector, which lets people reach FRED data through the AI tool of their choice. In a new piece for Nextgov/FCW, I argue FRED is a model for every agency that publishes data, and that its success came from sustained investment, listening to users, and leadership willing to plan ahead. Three steps for data leaders: 1. Treat AI agents as an audience. Test whether AI tools can find, read, and credit your data. 2. Fund the fundamentals: documentation, metadata, machine-readable formats, and Chief Data Officers with real resources. 3. Build feedback loops with the developers and AI companies that now sit between agencies and the public. Thanks to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis team for convening this awesome and fun conversation! https://lnkd.in/eqhBFeFP #OpenData #AI #FederalData #MCP #CDO

Half of #FRED's visitors are now AI agents, not people. That number from Federal Reserve Board Governor Christopher Waller has stuck with me since I moderated the closing panel at #FREDcon in St. Louis on Oct. 1. FRED has spent 35 years earning trust as one of the most useful public data tools anywhere. Now the St. Louis Fed is preparing it for a new kind of user with the FRED MCP Connector, which lets people reach FRED data through the AI tool of their choice. In a new piece for Nextgov/FCW, I argue FRED is a model for every agency that publishes data, and that its success came from sustained investment, listening to users, and leadership willing to plan ahead. Three steps for data leaders: 1. Treat AI agents as an audience. Test whether AI tools can find, read, and credit your data. 2. Fund the fundamentals: documentation, metadata, machine-readable formats, and Chief Data Officers with real resources. 3. Build feedback loops with the developers and AI companies that now sit between agencies and the public. Thanks to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis team for convening this awesome and fun conversation! https://lnkd.in/eqhBFeFP #OpenData #AI #FederalData #MCP #CDO

Utah announced three new pilots last week to test artificial intelligence capabilities that can refill chronic condition-related prescriptions, write initial acne prescriptions and offer virtual physical therapy, but a regulator acknowledged the state still has key questions to address as the model scales nationwide. Read more below from Christian Robles, who is reporting from the ADAPT conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico: https://lnkd.in/gM6UPgcM

A neuroscientist built a model that scores zero on every benchmark. It made more of its users smarter than anything else she tested. Read more below from Camille Tuutti: https://lnkd.in/g5YismW4