{"id":73705,"date":"2025-11-19T15:57:38","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T20:57:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/?post_type=podcast&p=73705"},"modified":"2025-11-19T15:57:38","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T20:57:38","slug":"inside-washington-states-award-winning-procurement-and-innovation-programs","status":"publish","type":"podcast","link":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/radio\/inside-washington-states-award-winning-procurement-and-innovation-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Washington state\u2019s award-winning procurement and innovation programs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Quite a few states have innovation programs, mechanisms for jumpstarting new and interesting ways to improve government, but Nicholas Stowe, Washington state’s outgoing chief technology officer, shares on this week\u2019s Priorities Podcast why he thinks his state\u2019s innovation and modernization program<\/a> has enjoyed an especially favorable success rate. \u201cWe really tried to maximize reusing existing governance processes,\u201d he says. Also on this episode is Wendy Wickstrom, web and user experience manager at Washington Technology Solutions, who shares how flipping a procurement process upside-down<\/a> helped the state create what officials say is a new model for reducing risk and fostering a more connected government. \u201cWe knew we wanted agency participation, but we didn\u2019t want to dictate every deliverable that they gave us,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week\u2019s top stories:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

After receiving letters from the Department of Justice requesting access to state voter data, 10 Democratic secretaries of state on Tuesday drafted<\/a> their own letter, citing \u201cimmense concern\u201d with how that data might have been shared across the federal government. The secretaries write that in recent meetings with DOJ and Department of Homeland Security officials they received \u201cmisleading and at times contradictory information\u201d on the topic of their unredacted statewide voter rolls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The House of Representatives passed a bill by voice vote<\/a> Monday evening that would reauthorize the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program. Enjoying bipartisan support, the Protecting Information by Local Leaders for Agency Resilience, or PILLAR, Act is now open to be considered by the Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration on Tuesday announced<\/a> it\u2019s issued approvals to 18 states on their final proposals for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New episodes of StateScoop\u2019s<\/em> Priorities Podcast<\/em><\/a> are posted each Wednesday. For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on<\/em> Apple Podcasts<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> Google Podcasts<\/em><\/a>,<\/em>Soundcloud<\/em><\/a> or<\/em> Spotify<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wendy Wickstrom, of WaTech, and Nicholas Stowe, Washington state’s outgoing chief technology officer, share how a procurement challenge and an innovation and modernization program are ensuring the state’s projects are solving its most pressing challenges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":73710,"template":"","meta":{"disable_grayscale_images":true,"grayscale_contrast":0,"sponsored_content":null,"display_author_bio":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23264],"tags":[75,1734,23229,23268,25131,25902,26012],"people":[],"special-report":[],"authors":[12566],"show":[23743],"class_list":["post-73705","podcast","type-podcast","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-priorities-podcast","tag-procurement","tag-watech","tag-washington-state","tag-priorities-podcast","tag-technology-news","tag-state-government-technology","tag-innovation-and-modernization","author-statescoop-staff","show-priorities"],"yoast_head":"\nInside Washington state\u2019s award-winning procurement 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