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USDA’s Washington shifts to new kind of ‘CIO’ role

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8 months ago

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Change in the agency chief information officer ranks isn’t unusual. There’s a common refrain most of you have heard that most CIOs only last, on average, two years.

While that perception comes from a six-year-old Government Accountability Office report, the reality is many agency CIOs last much longer. But it’s a rarity that one stays in the role and does so as successfully as Gary Washington has over the last almost eight years.

Gary Washington is moving into a new role at the Agriculture Department.

So the fact that Washington, one of the longest serving agency chief information officers in government, is moving to a new role at the Agriculture Department is worth taking a second to recognize.

USDA named Sam Berry, who joined in May as a senior advisor on government efficiency in the Office of the CIO, as its new CIO on Friday. With Berry taking over the lead technology role, USDA has converted the CIO’s role to a political one.

“Originally from Michigan, Sam has built a reputation as a visionary leader in the tech space. We are excited for his perspectives and entrepreneurial energy he brings to the role, and confident his leadership will help drive our technology strategy into the next chapter,” wrote Secretary Brooke Rollins in an email to staff, obtained by Federal News Network. “Sam brings a strong track record of driving digital transformation and technology excellence, with long-standing hands-on experience in both startup and enterprise environments. As founder and CEO of software companies, Sam led the automation of complex business processes, consolidated enterprise platforms, and priorities running infrastructure securely and efficiently in the cloud. His work as a founding engineer of several innovative service offerings demonstrates a sharp eye for building solutions from the ground up that deliver real world impact.”

Washington, who joined USDA in February 2018, will transition to this new chief innovation officer role, though Rollins didn’t offer any insight into what he will do. The longest serving agency CIO today is probably Dave Shive at GSA. In fact, there has been a high rate of turnover across the CIO community this year, with 23 out of 27 CFO Act agencies changing executives in the last nine months.

“With decades of service in both government and military sectors, followed by an impactful tenure within USDA, Gary has been instrumental in shaping the technological foundation USDA relies on today,” Rolins wrote. “We offer our deepest gratitude to Gary for his dedication, expertise and visionary leadership over the years. This new role is a natural progression and will allow him to focus on advancing USDA strategic innovation initiatives that align with serving our customers and the American people. These changes reflect our belief that technology and innovation are cornerstones for our future success. With Sam guiding our information systems and Gary spearheading innovation, we are more aligned than ever with our mission to serve American farmers, ranchers, and the agriculture community.”

Washington always out in front

As the USDA CIO, Washington accomplished more for USDA than nearly any other of the agency’s  technology leaders in the last 20 years. He led the effort to win five awards from the Technology Modernization Fund, including a $64 million investment to consolidate and modernize 17 disparate networks. At least two other attempts to consolidate networks across USDA failed, making Washington’s decision to use the carrot and stick of the oversight of the TMF board a major key to the agency’s success.

Washington, who came to USDA from the Office of Management and Budget’s Federal CIO team, understood how to use the resources available across government. USDA was one of the first agencies to win a TMF award, to bring in the Centers of Excellence experts from the General Services Administration, and to move applications to cloud services. He also pushed for the use of low-code/no-code platforms and leaned into using application programming interfaces to help agency software developers modernize applications more quickly.

Washington said in 2023 that he wants USDA to rely mostly on software-as-a-service, awarding cloud contracts through its Stratus vehicle. USDA launched the basic ordering agreement contract vehicle with last November and is expanding it this year with more vendors.

In the 2023 omnibus spending bill, lawmakers recognized the importance and impact of Washington and his Office of the CIO. Legislators added a provision requiring the agency’s CIO to approve any new or significant upgrades to IT systems.

“[N]one of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this act may be transferred to the Office of the Chief Information Officer without written notification to and the prior approval of the committees on appropriations of both houses of Congress,” the bill stated. “[N]one of the funds available to the Department of Agriculture for information technology shall be obligated for projects, contracts or other agreements over $25,000 prior to receipt of written approval by the chief information officer; Provided further, that the CIO may authorize an agency to obligate funds without written approval from the CIO for projects, contracts or other agreements up to $250,000 based upon the performance of an agency measured against the performance plan requirements.”

Washington’s IT modernization and management efforts were recognized outside of USDA as well. He was a finalist for the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal Management Excellence finalist in 2021 and a Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Service honoree in 2024.

Role of CINO varies

As Washington transitions into his new role, the question comes up: What does a CINO exactly do?

While it’s not exactly a new position, it’s one that isn’t as well defined as a CIO. Other agencies have had CINOs before, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in 2022 and the Defense Department in 2016. But typically, folks in these positions didn’t last long. The FDIC CINO lasted just over a year. The Pentagon decided to name a CINO only to put the position on hold less than nine months after that initial decision, and never came back to it.

Over the years, several other agencies have also established chief innovation officers, including the departments of Health and Human Services, Transportation and Energy as well as the  the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Currently, Leadership Connect says there are 17 people or positions with the CINO or deputy CINO title across government, including executives at the departments of Labor and Commerce, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

A 2019 report from the Institute for Defense Analysis detailed what the role of a chief innovation officer could look like.

“The role of a CINO is inherently flexible with sometimes purposefully ambiguous boundaries. To use a football metaphor, CINOs can be a bit like a ‘free safety’ position, with their portfolios defined around an agency’s priority needs,” the report stated. “The primary role of a CINO is not to innovate, but to provide recognition and support (e.g., time, funding, training, and management support) for federal employees to identify and implement innovative ideas. Despite their working in federal agencies with different operating contexts, government CINOs have similar understandings of their role.”

Elisa Farri, a vice president and the co-lead of Capgemini Invent’s Management Lab, wrote in a 2022 white paper that in their review of Fortune 500 companies the role of chief innovation officers varied widely.

“Unlike more established C-suite roles, whose job specs are relatively standardized, the chief innovation officer’s role varies significantly depending on the organization, business context and the individual themselves,” the researchers found. “The role is divided into two main categories: managing the innovation funnel (e.g., identifying new market spaces, funding and supporting early-stage initiatives, and managing the experiment portfolio) and building innovation capabilities (e.g., developing internal skillsets and disseminating best practices).”

Most recently, the IT and Innovation Foundation recommended the Trump administration establish a federal CINO. This person would coordinate and drive innovation within the federal enterprise.

“The CINO would complement the chief technology officer (CTO), whose role should be focused on supporting technological innovation in the broader society and economy, and the federal chief information officer (CIO), whose job is to focus on the federal IT enterprise,” ITIF wrote in February.

It seems like Washington will have a broad canvas to drive innovation through USDA. But it also will be worth watching how Washington settles into his new role, or if this is just a weigh station for his next adventure.

The post USDA’s Washington shifts to new kind of ‘CIO’ role first appeared on Federal News Network.

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PAYBACK TIME: US Department of War Planning Retribution for Failing Allies, Including Suspending Spain From the Alliance and ‘Reviewing’ UK’s Claims to the Falkland Islands

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4 weeks ago

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April 25, 2026

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A digital artwork featuring two men engaged in discussion, with a prominent image of Donald Trump in the background, creating a dramatic political atmosphere.A digital artwork featuring two men engaged in discussion, with a prominent image of Donald Trump in the background, creating a dramatic political atmosphere.Failing allies, leftist-Globalists Sanchez (Spain) and Starmer (UK) are about to taste retribution from Trump – Wiki Commons

Failing allies under pressure.

As we have been reporting here on TGP, US President Donald J. Trump is hardly the man to forgive and forget a slight or a betrayal.

And it’s been reported that Trump and his team have compiled a ‘naughty list’ of failing allies, and that some for of payback was expected against these countries.

And today, it arises that the Pentagon is exploring ways to punish NATO countries that failed to support the US during the Iran conflict – including drastic measures like suspending Spain from the alliance.

This was first reported by Reuters, but was picked up by a multitude of outlets, primarily in the UK, where there is widespread concern over the planned US ‘review’ of the British claim to the Falkland Islands.

Daily Mail reported:

“The policy options are detailed in an email expressing frustration at some allies’ perceived reluctance or refusal to grant Washington access, basing and overflight (ABO) rights for the Iran war. The email stated that ABO is ‘just the absolute baseline for NATO,’ according to the official, who added that the options were circulating at high levels in the Pentagon.

The memo also includes an option to consider reassessing US diplomatic support for longstanding European ‘imperial possessions,’ such as the Falkland Islands near Argentina.”

Needless to say, the response by the Euro-Globalists was immediate.

On the one hand, NATO states there is no provision to oust Spain, while the UK reaffirms its sovereignty over the South American Islands.

Read more:

NATO and the Bar Fight: A Bar Tab Europe Expects America To Pay Forever

The post PAYBACK TIME: US Department of War Planning Retribution for Failing Allies, Including Suspending Spain From the Alliance and ‘Reviewing’ UK’s Claims to the Falkland Islands appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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AXIS OF ECONOMIC LOSERS: Japan and Germany’s Socialist “Stakeholder” Takeover Turned Economic Superpowers Into Stagnant Ghost Towns – And the Left Wants This Poison for America

Published

4 weeks ago

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April 25, 2026

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Image depicting tattered flags of Germany and Japan with the text "The Axis of Losers," symbolizing the Axis Powers of World War II.Image depicting tattered flags of Germany and Japan with the text "The Axis of Losers," symbolizing the Axis Powers of World War II.Japan and Germany are dying from the same disease: socialism.

Back in the late 1980s and early ’90s, the so-called “experts,” the mainstream media, and every smug Ivy League economist couldn’t stop drooling over Japan. “Japan as Number One!” they screamed. Books flew off the shelves. Newsweek and Time covers warned of an “economic Pearl Harbor.”

Paul Harvey wailed about Japan buying up America with our own money. Paul Kennedy’s bestseller The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers basically coronated the Land of the Rising Sun as the next global hegemon.

The keiretsu system, the MITI bureaucrats, the lifetime employment model — it was all supposed to be the future. America was finished. The Japanese were going to own us.

Fast-forward to 2025-2026. Japan is a cautionary tale on life support. GDP per capita (PPP) hovers around a pathetic $55,000–$56,000 — crushed by America’s nearly $94,000. After taxes and cost of living? It’s even worse. The “Lost Decades” aren’t a glitch — they’re the feature. Zombie companies, endless stagnation, and a demographic death spiral made infinitely worse by policies that treat businesses like government welfare offices rather than wealth-creation machines.

The mainstream press will blame everything except the real culprit: the deliberate socialization of the corporation.

Keiretsu

In Japan, it’s the infamous keiretsu system — giant corporate clans glued together by cross-shareholdings and a house bank that plays mommy to every failing division. Lifetime employment. Seniority-based pay and promotions instead of merit. Company unions that treat every layoff like a war crime. The goal isn’t profit — heaven forbid — it’s “harmony” and keeping everyone employed forever. Result? Total paralysis. You can’t fire the dead weight. You can’t reallocate capital to what actually works. You can’t innovate like a maniac because revolution is “disruptive.”

When the 1990s bubble popped, they didn’t clean house — they dragged toxic debt around like a ball and chain for decades.

And don’t look now, but Germany — once the envy of Europe — is right there with them in the loser’s club. Years of zero or outright negative growth. Factories shuttering. The proud German export machine is coughing up blood. The vaunted “Rhine model” has turned into a slow-motion industrial suicide.

Mitbestimmung

Because Germany took the socialization even further with the notorious Mitbestimmung — “co-determination.” In big companies, workers and union reps literally occupy half the seats on the supervisory board. They get veto power over layoffs, plant closings, relocations, and major restructurings. It’s not capitalism anymore — it’s corporate communism with better engineering. The boardroom isn’t deciding how to crush competitors and reward shareholders; it’s negotiating how to protect today’s insiders at the expense of tomorrow’s growth.

Add in the deranged Energiewende — the green energy fantasy that tripled electricity costs — and you have the perfect storm. German industry is literally powering down while the rest of the world races ahead.

BMW/Tesla

Want proof? Look at BMW versus Tesla. BMW sells about 2.5 million vehicles a year. Tesla sells around 1.5 million. BMW’s market cap? A measly ~$55 billion. Tesla’s? Over twenty times higher. One company is run by visionaries who embrace the future and reward risk-takers. The other is run like a German labor ministry with a side hustle in cars.

This is what happens when you let “stakeholders” — code for unions, bureaucrats, and professional grievance-mongers — hijack the boardroom. The enterprise stops being a profit machine that lifts everyone through growth and becomes a social-work project designed to protect yesterday’s workers at the expense of tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, young people, and innovators.

It’s the exact same philosophy the American left has been trying to smuggle into U.S. boardrooms for years: ESG scores, “stakeholder capitalism,” DEI mandates, union power grabs, and the constant war on shareholders. They call it compassionate. It’s actually economic castration. Joseph Schumpeter’s “creative destruction” — the engine of real progress — gets sacrificed on the altar of Karl Marx’s class warfare dressed up in a suit and tie.

America’s model is raw, unapologetic, and brutally effective: The company exists to make money for its owners. Management executes or gets fired. You restructure, you pivot, you kill failing divisions without crying about “humanity.” It looks ugly to the European and Japanese salon socialists. It also creates the iPhones, the SpaceX rockets, the shale revolution, and the stock market that funds retirements for millions.

The Axis of Losers

Japan and Germany didn’t fail because of demographics or one bad energy policy. They failed because they turned their greatest companies into paralyzed extensions of the welfare state. The “Axis of Losers” chose preservation over progress — and they’re paying for it in lost decades and lost futures.

America still has a choice. We can reject this European-Japanese corporate socialism, tell the unions and the stakeholder grifters to pound sand, and keep rewarding the risk-takers and wealth-creators who actually build the future.

Or we can follow the Axis of Losers straight into the economic graveyard. The choice should be obvious — but the radical left never learns. They just rebrand failure as “equity” and keep selling the same poison. Don’t let them.

The post AXIS OF ECONOMIC LOSERS: Japan and Germany’s Socialist “Stakeholder” Takeover Turned Economic Superpowers Into Stagnant Ghost Towns – And the Left Wants This Poison for America appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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WATCH: Mother of Feral NYC Teen Who Body-Slammed and Stomped 15-Year-Old Girl’s Head DEFENDS Violent Son, Claims Victim ‘Bullied’ Him After She Refused to Give Him Her Phone Number

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4 weeks ago

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April 25, 2026

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Woman speaking to the media in a hallway while a man is seen attacking another person on the street in a separate scene.

Woman speaking to the media in a hallway while a man is seen attacking another person on the street in a separate scene.

A horrifying video from New York has sparked nationwide outrage after a 14-year-old boy was caught on camera brutally body-slamming a 15-year-old girl to the concrete and then stomping on her head, all because she refused to give him her phone number.

Now, the boy’s mother is publicly defending her son, claiming the victim was “bullying” him and that his savage and animalistic attack was somehow justified because he is a “humble” Christian.

The shocking attack occurred around 3:30 p.m. on Monday at the corner of East 107th Street and Third Avenue in East Harlem, just after school let out.

The 15-year-old girl, a ninth-grade student-athlete at East Harlem Scholars Academy Charter School heading to squash practice, was confronted by the 14-year-old masked suspect, who had reportedly been harassing her for weeks.

In the disturbing footage, the girl is seen trying to walk away and yelling, “Get the f–k away from me.”

The boy follows her, grabs her from behind, lifts her off the ground, slams her to the pavement, and then stomps directly on her head.

His friends can be heard laughing and egging him on as the girl lies motionless on the ground.

WATCH (VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED):

The girl suffered a concussion and was rushed to Harlem Hospital.

The 14-year-old suspect was arrested on Wednesday and appeared in Manhattan Family Court, where he was ordered held in custody by the Division of Youth and Family Justice.

Because both parties are minors, his name has not been publicly released.

In an interview captured outside the courthouse, the boy’s mother, Selma Allen, issued a wild defense of her violent son.

WATCH:

Allen claimed the 15-year-old girl had been bullying him in school, sending messages, and even pushing him down, and that this somehow justified the vicious attack.

“She was being a bully to him, that’s it,” Allen told reporters.

“He’s been complaining about her. I bring it to the principal’s attention but he don’t address it. The way my son is being bullied, he doesn’t want to go to school.”

She claimed her son is a “quiet” boy who “doesn’t provoke nobody,” and described him as a “humble Christian.”

“He don’t provoke nobody. But if you provoke him, he will lash out.”

Allen insisted her son had proof on WhatsApp and Instagram and repeatedly shifted blame onto the victim while downplaying the savage stomp on the girl’s head.

None of the reporters asked the obvious question: if the girl was truly bullying him, why was he aggressively demanding her phone number and following her?

The victim’s mother, Lucinda Arroyo, spoke out Thursday in an interview with the New York Post. She said her daughter had been dealing with weeks of harassment from the boy and said it was a “miracle” her daughter survived.

“She’s very upset that her whole life has been completely flipped upside down right now,” Arroyo said. “She’s known him as someone who’s bad news for a while.”

“This is not even bullying, this is outright assault — and he could have killed her,” she asserted.

Her daughter was left with a concussion, bleeding, a potential brain injury, crushing headaches and a twisted neck, and will require ongoing physical therapy.

The post WATCH: Mother of Feral NYC Teen Who Body-Slammed and Stomped 15-Year-Old Girl’s Head DEFENDS Violent Son, Claims Victim ‘Bullied’ Him After She Refused to Give Him Her Phone Number appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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