Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel said that a federal plan for qualifying and providing security audits on private sector cloud providers will become mandatory for any agency that wanted to contact with third party cloud providers. FedRAMP was supposed to provide a mechanism for vetting and authorizing new cloud systems in essence, acting like a traffic cop to determine which new cloud services can and cannot be launched and insuring a consistent interpretation of cloud service provider authorization packages with standardized processes and evaluation criteria, as well as monitoring.
Source: https://threatpost.com/governments-cloud-audit-program-falls-behind-schedule-110311/75848/