Welcome to the Fed Mission Success News Round Up brought to you by Makpar. Each week, we will provide a summary of actionable news and insights to help aid in overall mission success for Federal agency IT decision-makers and influencers.

Workforce Cuts Could Complicate IRS Goal to Modernize in the Next Two Years

Treasury Department leadership says they will modernize the IRS within two years, but workforce cuts, contract changes and operational uncertainty for the IRS tech team could make that difficult, according to NextGov.

Industry Calls for More Research Funding, Public-Private Partnerships in the National AI Strategy

Private sector companies are asking the federal government to prioritize diverse investments that inform the development of U.S. artificial intelligence systems, along with an effort to take the lead on standards development and to pursue industry-government partnerships, according to NextGov.

How the Defense Department is Approaching Procurement Reform

The Pentagon is trying many different approaches to speed up and simplify its acquisition programs, hoping to save billions in the process, and Barbara Kinosky, managing partner at the Centre Law and Consulting, provides more insights about DoD procurement in this FNN segment.

AWS GovCloud Gets High-Level Security Approvals for Anthropic and Meta AI Models

Amazon Web Service’s government cloud service has achieved FedRAMP High and Department of Defense Impact Level 4 and 5 authorizations to host artificial intelligence software from leading companies Anthropic and Meta, according to NextGov.

ICE Wants More Blockchain Analytics Tech

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is doubling down on its investment in blockchain intelligence technology, along with other investigative platforms, according to FedScoop.

CISA’s Executive Director is Leaving the Agency

Bridget Bean, the executive director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), is retiring, according to NextGov.