Religious News Service reporter Bobby Ross, Jr. recently asked this question, “When adoption agencies can turn away gay prospective parents, what happens to the kids?” With conflicts between religious based adoption and foster care agencies and government non-discrimination regulations playing out across the country including the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, this is an important question. In March, the City of Philadelphia issued an urgent call for 300 new foster parents to provide loving homes for some of the over 6,000 kids in Philadelphia foster care. That same month, the City abruptly barred Catholic Social Services, one of the city’s top-rated foster agencies, from placing children with foster families. This decision makes it exponentially harder for hundreds of children in need of foster care to find homes. Foster homes are sitting empty, even as the city begs for more families to help in its foster care crisis. Catholic Social Services and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia have been serving children throughout Philadelphia for over a century. Their Catholic mission drives them to find loving homes for all children in their care, regardless of the child’s race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity. Catholic Social Services currently serves over 100 children in foster homes. No family or individual has ever complained that the agency’s Catholic mission prevented them from fostering or adopting a child. Sharonell Fulton from Overbrook Farms has been a foster parent for over 25 years. She has opened her home to over 40 children, including two children currently in her care. She strives to provide a loving, stable home and treat each child as if they were her own. To do that, Fulton relies on Catholic Social Services’ help, including around-the-clock support and access to information and resources. “What justice is there in taking stable, loving homes away from children?” Fulton said in a statement to CatholicPhilly.com. “If the city cuts off Catholic Social Services from foster care, foster moms like me won’t have the help and support they need to care for the special-needs kids.” By freezing and threatening to cancel its foster care contract with the CSS, the city is “taking away this help and causing harm and heartache to countless families like mine,” Fulton said. The children will suffer if parents like Fulton do not have the support they need. In May, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty filed the lawsuit in the United States District Court in Philadelphia on behalf of archdiocesan Catholic Social Services (CSS), Sharonell Fulton and two other women caregivers associated with the archdiocesan agency. They asked the court to halt the city’s harmful policy. A hearing is expected later this year.

Five state and private agencies have joined hands to develop the electric vehicle (EV) industry through more R&D projects as well as better support for local startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the automotive market.

Suggested guidelines for regulators, administrations and operating agencies authorized by Member States for dealing with number misappropriation

GIS provides an invaluable platform relevant to almost every aspect of modern life.

The post Making the move – How federal agencies can embrace the benefits of the new cloud-based GIS system first appeared on Federal News Network.

The higher scores stem from major improvements in two categories: CIO investment evaluation and cloud computing.

The post ‘Historic’ FITARA scorecard shows record 13 agencies earned A’s first appeared on Federal News Network.

Mark Johnson, vice president of Federal Cloud at Oracle, joined host John Gilroy on this week's Federal Tech Talk to discuss the challenges federal information technology folks have in transitioning to the cloud.

The post Oracle: Helping federal agencies move to the cloud first appeared on Federal News Network.

Bill Wright is the senior director of North American Government Affairs at Splunk, joins host John Gilroy on this week's Federal Tech Talk to discuss how his company can help federal technology leaders need to ingest, monitor, analyze and search their agency's data.

The post Splunk: Helping federal agencies manage their data first appeared on Federal News Network.

Federal News Network has compiled an updated list of return-to-office postures, providing a simplified look at agencies’ highly nuanced telework policies.

The post An updated list of agencies’ return-to-office postures first appeared on Federal News Network.

The Senate on Friday approved a $460 billion package of spending bills in time to meet a midnight deadline for avoiding a shutdown of many key federal agencies,

The post Congress passes first package of spending bills just hours before shutdown deadline for key agencies first appeared on Federal News Network.

Federal technology leaders from DISA, Army PEO-EIS and CMS are heading for new jobs in the private and public sectors.

The post Education, DHS among agencies seeking new IT leaders first appeared on Federal News Network.

Lawmakers say agencies need to be more transparent and modernize how they handle classified information to "reestablish trust" with the American people.

The post Key senator pushes fresh reforms to how agencies manage classified information first appeared on Federal News Network.

The Small Business Administration released its annual scorecard measuring how well federal agencies meet their small business contracting goals each year.

The post Ten federal agencies receive ‘A+’ in annual scorecard measuring small business contracting goals first appeared on Federal News Network.

Christine Harada, the senior advisor in OFPP, said a new memo released today details four initiatives to help keep the acquisition workforce pipeline full.

The post OFPP pushing agencies to hone in on next generation acquisition workers first appeared on Federal News Network.

Shrupti Shah, the managing director of government and public service practice at Deloitte, said by using AI, agencies can improve citizen services more quickly.

The post 3 ways agencies can start experiencing the impact of AI first appeared on Federal News Network.

The Defense Department’s zero trust framework is acting as a catalyst, driving mission owners to industry in search of zero trust solutions

The post DoD agencies confront zero trust challenges, misunderstandings ahead of 2026 deadline first appeared on Federal News Network.

A year since it launched, the Council of Federal Financial Assistance already is improving the transparency, accountability and results of grant funding.

The post All agencies to give grant funding opportunities a facelift first appeared on Federal News Network.

TSA is also giving agencies the flexibility to take a "phased approach" to REAL ID enforcement given the slow progress on transitioning to compliant IDs.

The post REAL ID rule paves way for agencies to accept mobile drivers licenses first appeared on Federal News Network.

During this exclusive CISO Handbook webinar, moderator Justin Doubleday and guest Ross Foard, ICAM subject matter expert with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency will explore how ICAM factors into zero trust and other modern security practices. In addition, Bryan Murphy, senior director at CyberArk, will provide an industry perspective.

The post CISA aims to provide agencies with dashboard of capabilities for identity management first appeared on Federal News Network.

Granting access to, sharing and securing data in the cloud continues to challenge agencies across government. During this exclusive webinar, moderator Jason Miller will discuss cloud strategy, security and applications with agency and industry leaders.

The post Taking an API, cloud driven approach can lead agencies to better mission outcomes first appeared on Federal News Network.

In this episode of Market Chat!, a top artificial intelligence (AI) official at the General Services Administration discusses how the federal AI marketplace is maturing, and a panel of three senior marketing officials discuss how their companies are tuning their AI marketing messages to address evolving government needs and challenges.

The post Episode 18: Marketing artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to federal agencies first appeared on Federal News Network.

Agencies are embracing sustainability on multiple fronts as they work to mitigate climate risks and meet the administration’s environmental goals. This ebook takes a look at efforts across government to hit net-zero milestones and how OMB will measure success.

The post Agencies Lean Into Sustainability first appeared on Federal News Network.

Data center optimization efforts paved the way for cloud adoption and hybrid evolution across government. Pick up insights and lessons learned from cloud leaders at DHS, GSA, NOAA and SEC in our new Executive Briefing.

The post How agencies continue to build on data center optimization to modernize IT first appeared on Federal News Network.

Robin Carnahan, the administrator of GSA, explains why the agency’s mission has remained the same over the last 75 years, but how it goes about has changed.

The post GSA: 75 years of adapting to the changing needs of agencies first appeared on Federal News Network.

The real threat is collusion. When journalists strike secret alliances with the very people they're supposed to be holding accountable, we are in deep trouble. Lies go unchallenged.  Democracy cannot function. And that's what we're watching right now. Continue reading →

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