The GovNavigators Show

This week on the GovNavigators Show, Robert and Adam welcome Lauren Lombardo, Policy Director for Recoding America, to discuss her work driving collaborative and coordinated government management policy reform. Lauren walks us through how working on campaigns at 13 years old sparked an early interest in public service, and describes her professional path working as a data scientist in the private sector before pivoting to use her technology background as a staffer in Congress. She dives into her work with the Recoding America fund, building connections with think tanks and individuals passionate about government management reform, developing the narrative surrounding these issues, and administering grants to organizations doing policy development and advocacy work in the government management sphere. Plus, learn why Lauren believes problems attributed to technology in government often stem much deeper, and why bipartisanism is necessary for real policy change.  
Show Notes 
Allocore: allocore.com 
New York Times: Accept Your Fate. Don’t Wear Shorts to the Office.  
Congress.gov: House C.R. 
The Hill: House passes reconciliation framework for Pentagon boost, voting restrictions 
House Armed Services Committee: FY27 NDAA Resources 
GSA: OneGov CORUS partnership 
FedScoop: VA won’t require existing FedRAMP certification for cloud contracts 
VA: FedRAMP memo 
Nextgov/FCW: After Hugging Face breach, FedRAMP chief tells slow-to-patch vendors to stay out of government 
Recoding America Fund: recodingamerica.org 
HSGAC: Testimony of Anthony Fauci 
C-SPAN: Dr. Anthony Fauci Testifies on Origins of COVID-19 Pandemic 
The Washington Post: Rand Paul threatens to hold Fauci in contempt after he declines to answer questions 
 
What’s on the GovNavigators’ Radar? 
August 4th 
TheXchange August Workshop on NASA's SEWP VI, Reston, VA 
August 5th  
HSGAC Business Meeting, Washington, D.C. 
August 5th-6th  
The 14th Annual Border Security and Intelligence Summit, Washington, D.C.

This week on the GovNavigators Show, Robert and Adam welcome back Howard Mortman, Director of Communications at C-SPAN. Howard reveals what’s new with the network, the trends he’s been seeing, and how public affairs broadcasting has been changing. The episode dives into the role C-SPAN footage plays in spurring political conversation on social media, and the network’s new show aiming to bring tough policy questions and civil discourse that feeds solutions on air. Robert, Adam, and Howard also discuss C-SPAN programming, including America 250 festivities and a special initiative to send reporters to the field to augment 2026 campaign coverage. Plus, new developments on Howard’s podcast, Extreme Mortman, including an exciting name change, behind the scenes information on process, and the episodes he’s looking forward to the most. 
Show Notes 
House Appropriations: Continuing Resolution Press Release 
Time Magazine: House Passes $1.15 Trillion Defense Spending Bill 
House Armed Services Committee: FY27 NDAA Resources 
HHS: Press Release on Deferring California and Minnesota Medicaid Payments 
Reuters: US pauses $1 billion in Medicaid payments to California, Minnesota 
C-SPAN: C-SPAN Website 
C-SPAN: America 250 
C-SPAN: Campaign 2026 
The Hill: C-SPAN inks deal with YouTube TV, Hulu 
C-SPAN: Ceasefire 
C-SPAN: Extreme Mortman 
What’s on the GovNavigators’ radar? 
July 28th: 
Digital Government Institute 14th Annual 930Gov Conference, Washington, D.C. 
July 30th: 
ATARC NextGen Cyber Operations: AI in Action Summit, Reston, VA 
Potomac Officers Club 2026 Air and Space Summit, McLean, VA

This week on the GovNavigators Show, Robert and Adam welcome Dana Fowler, member of the GovNavigators Network, to walk us through her career path and offer insights on government performance reform. Dana details her interesting start in the federal government as “basically a deckhand on a fishing boat,” before moving onto the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the CDC, the Performance Improvement Council within GSA, and the Department of the Interior, in a performance management field she never expected to be a part of. The show raises the importance of leveraging data for decision-making, measuring the right things for the right reasons, and the value of an outside perspective. Plus, Dana gives us a peek into her new projects that work on government reform from the outside, using the knowledge she’s collected as a “practitioner” within. 
Show Notes: 
House Budget Committee: Press Release on Reconciliation 3.0 
The Hill: Key House committee advances framework for reconciliation 3.0 
Congress.gov: Budget Impoundment and Control Act of 1974 
The Washington Post: Wildfire smoke in DC 
FedRAMP: FedRAMP 20x 
DOW: Department of War Suspends CMMC Phase II Requirements 
Federal News Network: Pentagon suspends CMMC phase two requirements 
NOTUS: The Social Security Chief Keeps Sending Staff His Daughter’s Pretzels 
Performance.gov: GPRA 
IBM: IBM Center for the Business of Government 
We the Doers: We the Doers website 
House Oversight: Emerging Fraud Threats and the Evolving Fraud Landscape hearing 
IMDB: Movie reference 
What’s on the GovNavigators’ radar? 
July 21-23rd: 
AGA Professional Development Training (PDT) 2026, Washington, DC 
July 21st: 
ACT-IAC Supply Chain Innovation Forum, Reston, VA 
July 23rd: 
GovForward’s 8th Annual Carahsoft Summit on FedRAMP, Washington, DC

This week on The GovNavigators Show, Robert and Adam welcome Alex Snider, a former GSA and State Department official and author of the new book Sometimes You Should Be Late, to talk about what mindfulness has to do with government management. Alex walks through his career path in the Executive branch, and explains how recovering from a bike accident and the concussion that followed sent him toward meditation, therapy, and a new relationship with time. The conversation digs into the way breath is important to helping us live in the present, how bringing mindfulness into stakeholder meetings and performance reviews changes how public servants relate to one another, and why "sometimes you should be late" isn't an excuse for flakiness but a case for slowing down enough to notice the things that matter. Plus, Alex lets us in on the realities of a first-time author’s book launch, and how it further reinforced his idea that we should let go of the things we can’t control.  
Show Notes: 
WSJ: Housing Bill Becomes Law Despite Trump Refusing to Sign It 
Federal News Network: Federal CIO Barbaccia leaving in August 
Federal News Network: DoT CIO Pidugu leaving 
Federal News Network: Interior Department CIO is out after holding job for over a year 
Government Executive: HUD's tech chief appears headed for Interior 
The Hill: DOGE officially shuts down 
Politico: Washington’s quantum reality check (White House quantum summit) 
IBM Newsroom: Oak Ridge National Lab, Cleveland Clinic, and IBM Achieve First-Known Computations of Fusion Materials on a Quantum Computer 
Alex Snider: Sometimes You Should Be Late (Book) 
Alex Snider: Slow Mindfulness (Substack) 
Alex Snider: slowmindfulness.com 
What's on the GovNavigators' Radar? 
July 14th: 
Federal Student Loan Management Roundtable, Center for USA Lending, Washington, DC 
Grants Management SIN Webinar, GSA 
July 15th: 
Emerging Fraud Threats and the Evolving Fraud Landscape Hearing, Subcommittee on Government Operations, U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 
Exposing Fraud in America Hearing, Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee 
July 16th: 
GovExec Government Efficiency Summit, JW Marriott, Washington, DC

This week on The GovNavigators Show, Robert and Adam welcome Tyler Davey, CEO of ClearGov, to talk about how technology can finally make city budgets accessible to the people paying for them. The show digs into the problem with the traditional 300-to-500-page budget book, why context is the key to real citizen engagement, and how ClearGov's AI-powered chatbot and Engagement Studio turn complicated financial reports into community conversations. Tyler explains why government at the local level is what ends up impacting us the most, sharing a story of a case study where a new engagement platform encouraged input and surfaced citizen priorities. The episode also covers compliance and privacy considerations across state and local jurisdictions and why reaching the "silent majority" matters as much as responding to the loudest voices in the room. Plus, Robert and Adam share the latest updates on quantum, the Supreme Court, and FASAB. 
Show Notes: 
White House: Ushering in the Next Frontier of Quantum Innovation (Executive Order) 
White House: Securing the Nation Against Advanced Cryptographic Attacks (Executive Order) 
OMB: Memorandum M-26-15, Execution of the Migration to Post-Quantum Cryptography 
SCOTUS: Trump v. Slaughter 
SCOTUSblog: Supreme Court Allows Trump to Fire FTC Commissioner, Overturns Humphrey's Executor 
The Hill: Trump Cancels Housing Bill Signing Over Senate Inaction on SAVE Act 
The Hill: House Republicans Vote to Block NDAA Rule Over SAVE America Act 
Federal Register: Notice of Issuance of Staff Implementation Guidance 64.1 (FASAB MD&A Guidance) 
ClearGov: Website 
Businesswire: ClearGov Financial Engagement Platform Launch Announcement 
ClearGov: Rochester Hills, Michigan Case Study 
 
What's on the GovNavigators' Radar? 
July 8th: 
GSA FY26 Small Business Contracting Opportunities and Category Management Forum, National Industries for the Blind, Alexandria, VA 
July 16th: 
GovExec Government Efficiency Summit, JW Marriott, Washington, DC 
July 21-23rd: 
AGA Professional Development Training (PDT) 2026, Washington, DC