The GovNavigators Show

This week on The GovNavigators Show, Robert Shea and Adam Hughes sit down with Deep Grewal, Vice President of Public Sector at MinIO, to unpack the findings of a new survey on the federal government’s AI readiness, and why so many agencies are still stuck in the pilot phase.
While AI ambition is everywhere, Deep explains that the real bottleneck is in data management. From lineage and governance to infrastructure, portability, and total cost of ownership, the conversation makes the case that the unglamorous foundational work will determine which agencies actually scale AI and which remain in perpetual experimentation.
They dig into the tension between cloud-first and cloud-smart, the rise of hybrid and sovereign architectures, the GPU and storage crunch, and why AI must become a mission-wide capability rather than a bolt-on “innovation project.” Deep also lays out a practical checklist for moving to enterprise AI: get your data house in order, modernize infrastructure, upskill the workforce, establish governance, and prove the ROI.
If you’re trying to move from AI pilots to real production, this episode is your roadmap. 
Show Notes:
MinIO's Federal AI Readiness Gap
Anthropic's stand-off
One man's big bet against DOGE
What's on the GovNavigators' Radar:
Mar 4, 2026
Alliance for Digital Innovation’s Understanding OneGov: Discussions with GSA Leadership
Mar 5, 2026
The MUST ATTEND Driving Government Efficiency Summit
Mar 11, 2026 
Data Foundation event on Treasury’s Do Not Pay
Mar 19, 2026 
RSM Webinar: AI Governance and Responsible Adoption in Government

This special episode of The GovNavigators Show features a live conversation with Socure’s Jordan Burris, former chief of staff to the Federal CIO, recorded at the Government Executive Federal Technology Priorities Conference.
Jordan lays out a stark warning: modern fraud is not a series of isolated schemes, it’s an industrialized, AI-enabled ecosystem operating at global scale. He explains how adversaries are using the same large language models, automation, and data-sharing techniques as legitimate organizations to defeat traditional identity controls in days instead of months, creating what he calls a “zero-day” environment for fraud.
The discussion explores why long-standing federal fraud defenses are being outpaced, how commercial sectors have pulled ahead, and what agencies can do now to measure risk, modernize verification, and collaborate across silos. With hundreds of billions of dollars at stake each year, Jordan argues the government must move faster, test new approaches, and learn from industries already fighting these threats in real time.
If you care about improper payments, digital service delivery, customer experience, or cybersecurity, this is a roadmap for how identity has become the front line.
Show Notes:
USA Today's story on Socure's age verification work
Supreme Court rules against the administration's tariffs
ICYMI: upcoming changes to 8(a)
What's on the GovNavigators' Radar:
Feb 24, 2026:
Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Hearing on Security Clearances
State of the Union Address
Mar 4, 2026:
Alliance for Digital Innovation’s Understanding OneGov: Discussions with GSA Leadership
Mar 5, 2026:
Driving Government Efficiency Summit

In this special President’s Day pop-up episode, the GovNavigators break down a fast-moving week in federal management and policy. They unpack the latest partial shutdown and what it really means for DHS employees, travelers, and the long-term outlook for TSA, along with the state of negotiations between the White House and Congress.
The conversation turns to the Congressional Budget Office’s new long-term deficit projection, the Small Business Administration’s termination of more than 150 8(a) contracts and what it signals for the federal contracting community, and a notable Washington Post release of a searchable database of federal AI use cases, and what it says about the government’s progress (and remaining challenges) in making data usable.
Enjoy the long weekend, folks!
Show Notes:
Robert, there are a total of four presidents with alliterative names, they are: 
Woodrow Wilson (28th President)
Calvin Coolidge (30th President)
Herbert Hoover (31st President)
Ronald Reagan (40th President)

This week, the GovNavigators are joined by Mike Wetklow, former Chief Risk Officer at the IRS and longtime federal financial leader, to kick off a new series on the pod, introducing you all to the illustrious members of the GovNavigators Network. Mike reflects on his career across DHS, NSF, OMB, and IRS, his decision to return to school mid-career to study data analytics, and his current work preparing the next generation of public servants at George Mason University. The conversation explores how AI, data science, and emerging technologies are reshaping risk management and financial oversight, and why government’s real challenge may be learning to oversee technology that increasingly does the work itself.
In the news, Robert and Adam break down a brief partial shutdown, ongoing DHS funding uncertainty, and GAO’s latest report on federal shared services. They unpack why progress remains slow, what leadership commitment is missing, and why agencies continue to struggle to stop paying for duplicative systems. The episode also covers the administration’s move to reclassify parts of the federal workforce, revisiting the spirit of Schedule F, and a rare bipartisan moment out of the House Oversight Committee that raises cautious questions about the future of good-government reforms.
Show Notes:
Learn more about the GovNavigators Network
GAO report on Federal Shared Services
OPM Federal Workforce Reclassification Rule
What's on the GovNavigators' Radar:
Feb 10-12: AFCEA West
Feb 11: PSC Law Enforcement Conference
Feb 18-19: AGA National Leadership Training
Mar 5: Government Efficiency Summit

In this episode of The Lending Brief  (sponsored by Allocore), Bill Webner, CEO of Allocore, joins the podcast to break down why federal lending remains one of government’s most mission-critical—but technologically neglected—functions, and what it will take to modernize it at scale.
Drawing on his career spanning Freddie Mac, Booz Allen, Capgemini, and now Allocore, Webner explains how legacy, fragmented loan systems slow disbursements, increase fraud risk, and drive unnecessary operating costs across more than 175 federal credit programs. He contrasts the federal approach with modern commercial banking platforms, where speed and accountability are the norm, not the exception.
The conversation explores lessons from SBA’s pandemic-era lending programs, why emergency conditions often catalyze modernization, and how a sanctioned, shared lending platform could dramatically improve speed to disbursement, borrower experience, and fraud prevention across government. Webner also discusses why federal lending modernization is uniquely solvable, how it mirrors past shared-services efforts like payroll and travel, and why getting this right has an outsized impact on the broader economy.
Want more from The Lending Brief? Check out The Lending Brief Newsletter.