U.S. General Services Administration
GSA Administrator appoints inaugural members to the Federal Secure Cloud Advisory Committee
WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), announced the inaugural membership of the Federal Secure Cloud Advisory Committee (FSCAC). The FSCAC will advise and provide recommendations to the GSA Administrator, the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Board, and federal agencies on technical, financial, programmatic, and operational matters regarding securely adopting cloud computing products and services.
The FSCAC is designed to ensure effective and ongoing coordination of federal agency adoption, use, authorization, monitoring, acquisition, and security of cloud computing products and services to help agencies to meet their mission and administrative priorities. The work of the FSCAC will serve to help build and sustain FedRAMP’s operational successes.
“Technology changes fast, so ensuring the federal government, and especially FedRAMP, can quickly respond to that constantly evolving product and threat landscape is critical,” said GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan. “We’re eager to get feedback from both industry and agency partners about how we can improve the experience of using FedRAMP by streamlining the process and enhancing security. Establishing this new Federal Secure Cloud Advisory Committee is an important first step.”
The Committee is comprised of 15 members who are qualified representatives from the public and private sectors, appointed by the GSA Administrator, in consultation with the OMB Director, as follows:
- Committee Chair: The GSA Administrator or designee.
- Ann Lewis, GSA (Regular Government Employee)
- At least 1 representative each from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST):
- Branko Bokan, CISA (Regular Government Employee)
- Matt Scholl, NIST (Regular Government Employee)
- At least two officials who serve as the Chief Information Security Officer within an agency:
- Bo Berlas, GSA (Regular Government Employee)
- LaMonte Yarborough, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Regular Government Employee)
- At least one official serving as Chief Procurement Officer (or equivalent) in an agency:
- Nauman Ansari, U.S. Small Business Administration (Regular Government Employee)
- At least one individual representing an independent assessment organization:
- Marci Womack, Schellman (Representative)
- At least five representatives from unique businesses that primarily provide cloud computing services or products, including at least two representatives from a small business:
- Victor Brown, IBM (Representative)
- Michael Vacirca, Google (Representative)
- Ravi Jagannathan, Palo Alto Networks (Representative)
- John Greenstein, Bluescape, (Representative, Small Business)
- TBD, (Representative, Small Business)
- At least two other representatives from the federal government as the Administrator determines necessary to provide sufficient balance, insights, or expertise to the committee:
- Jackie Snouffer, Defense Information Systems Agency (Regular Government Employee)
- Bill Hunt, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (Regular Government Employee)
- Fifteenth Member (no category):
- Joshua Cohen, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (Regular Government Employee)
Meeting information will be made available on the Federal Registry and the FSCAC website.
Background
GSA, in compliance with the FedRAMP Authorization Act of 2022, part of the FY23 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), is required to establish the FSCAC, a statutory advisory committee to accord with the provisions of FACA (5 U.S.C. § 10). The purposes of the FSCAC are to:
- Examine the operations of FedRAMP and determine ways that authorization processes can continuously be improved.
- Collect information and feedback on agency compliance with and implementation of FedRAMP requirements.
- Serve as a forum that facilitates communication and collaboration among the FedRAMP stakeholder community.
For more background on this announcement, see the initial call to establish this committee.
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About GSA: GSA provides centralized procurement and shared services for the federal government, managing a nationwide real estate portfolio of nearly 370 million rentable square feet, overseeing approximately $75 billion in annual contracts, and delivering technology services that serve millions of people across dozens of federal agencies. GSA’s mission is to deliver the best customer experience and value in real estate, acquisition, and technology services to the government and the American people. For more information, visit GSA.gov and follow us @USGSA.