• The Navy has a new strategy for science and technology. Navy leaders have branded it a “call to service” for scientists and engineers from across the country to help solve military problems. The focus areas include autonomy and artificial intelligence, power and energy, manufacturing, and a host of other issues. The plan does not spell out how the Navy will make progress on those objectives, but Navy Secretary Carlos del Toro said the new work will involve partnerships with the Office of Naval Research, the Naval Postgraduate School, the U.S Naval Academy and the Naval War College.
  (SECNAV Delivers Keynote at Sea Air Space Luncheon - U.S. Navy)
• An Air Force legislative proposal to transfer National Guard space units to the Space Force is sparking a backlash among state governors. The National Governors Association has called for the immediate withdrawal of the proposed legislation to eliminate governors’ authority over their National Guard units. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said reducing governors’ authority over their National Guard personnel will affect military readiness, recruitment, retention and the National Guard infrastructure across the country. Air Force officials proposed legislation to bypass governors in seven states and move 14 Guard units with space missions to the Space Force.
  (Air Force’s proposal to move Guard units causes backlash - National Governors Association)
• Two agencies have obtained extra money for IT modernization projects. NASA won its first award from the Technology Modernization Fund. The Labor Department garnered its sixth in almost six years. These are the fourth and fifth awards the board has made since January 1 and continues its focus on cybersecurity and application modernization. The space agency is receiving $5.8 million to accelerate cybersecurity and operational upgrades to its network. Labor is getting $42 million for the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs to replace its outdated Integrated Federal Employee Compensation System. The TMF board now has invested in 43 projects since receiving the $1 billion appropriation in the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021.
  (NASA, Labor receive extra funding for IT modernization - Federal News Network)
• U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) is considering the best way to build its forces in the future, by conducting a study on future force generation models. The command has typically relied on the military services to train and equip its digital warriors. But leaders have pushed to embrace a more independent U.S. Special Operations Command-type model in recent years. And others have called for the Defense Department to establish an independent cyber service. CYBERCOM is slated to brief Pentagon leadership on the results of the study this summer.
  (CYBERCOM considers options for future force generation model - Federal News Network)
• Chandra Donelson is the Department of the Air Force's new acting chief data and artificial intelligence officer. In her new role, Donelson will be responsible for implementing the department’s data management and analytics, as well as AI strategy and policies. Donelson previously served as the space data and artificial intelligence officer for the Space Force, a role she will continue to hold. Her fiscal 2024 goals include integrating data and AI ethics into the department’s mission systems and programs.
  (Air Force appoints acting chief data and artificial intelligence officer - USAF)
• The Postal Service is looking to raise prices on its monopoly mail products for the sixth time since 2020, when it gets approval from its regulator to set mail prices higher than the rate of inflation. USPS is planning to raise the price of a first-class Forever stamp from 68 to 73 cents. If approved by the regulator, these new USPS prices would go into effect on July 14. A recent study warned that USPS price increases are driving away more customers than the agency anticipated. But USPS said the data behind the study is “deeply flawed.”
  (USPS Recommends New Prices for July 2024 - Postal Service)
• The Department of Veterans Affairs is reviewing more than 4,000 positions that are at risk of a downgrade in their respective pay scales. The six VA positions under review include a mix of white-collar General Schedule (GS) and blue-collar Wage Grade (WG) positions. They include housekeeping aides, file clerks and boiler-plant operators. The VA expects to complete its review of these positions by the end of May. The American Federation of Government Employees said affected employees have received notices in the mail. But, the union said, it has not received notice from the VA about any imminent downgrades.
  (VA reviewing 4,000 employee positions at risk of downgrade in pay scale - Federal News Network)
• With cyber attacks on the rise, incident response is a big part of managing security risks. Now the National Institute of Standards and Technology is seeking feedback on new recommendations for cyber incident response. The draft guidance is tied to NIST’s recently issued Cybersecurity Framework 2.0. The revised publication layout is a new, more integrated model for organizations responding to a cyber attack or other network security incident. Comments on the draft publication are due to NIST by May 20.
  (Incident response recommendations and considerations for cybersecurity risk management: a CSF 2.0 community profile - NIST)

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• Service members are apparently not getting enough sleep each night to properly do their jobs. A watchdog organization found that service members are consistently getting less than 6 hours of sleep. Military personnel say they fall asleep on the job, which Government Accountability Offce said creates serious safety concerns. The GAO wants the Pentagon to conduct an assessment of DoD's oversight structure for fatigue-related efforts. And the Defense Department recommended that troops get seven hours of sleep each night.
  (Service members don’t get enough sleep, putting their lives at risk - GAO)
• Attention vendors, who provide grants services to the government, this RFI's for you. The Grants Quality Service Management Office (QSMO) is ready to expand its marketplace of service providers. But first, it is taking the pulse of the vendor community to gauge the capabilities of the sector. The QSMO's new Request for Information (RFI) is asking vendors for details about their grants management system, including whether it is set up as a software-as-a-service, whether it integrates with SAM.gov and login.gov and whether it is highly configurable and does not require code changes. Responses to the RFI are due by April 30.
  (Grants shared services office kicks off marketplace expansion - General Services Administration)
• Agencies have likely escaped budget cuts due to sequestration for another year. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analyzed the fiscal 2024 spending bills and estimated that the discretionary budget authority for defense and non-defense agencies falls under the caps established in the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. CBO, however, said the final decision about whether cuts are needed under sequestration will come from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), based on its own estimates of federal spending. OMB told Congress in August it did not think sequestration cuts would be necessary based on current estimates, but it will send another letter to Congress later this year with the final decision.
  (CBO estimates sequestrations cuts not necessary for fiscal 2024 - Congressional Budget Office)
• There is a new artificial intelligence chief at the top U.S. spy agency. John Beieler has been named the chief AI officer at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He also serves as the top science and technology adviser to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines. Beieler now leads a council of chief AI officers across the 18 components of the intelligence community. One of the first tasks for that group is developing an AI directive for the IC. Beieler said it will cover everything from data standards to civil liberties and privacy protections.
  (Intelligence community gets a chief AI officer - Federal News Network)
• The Postal Service may soon ask for a sixth rate increase, since November 2020, that would go into effect this summer. But the Postal Regulatory Commission is taking a closer look at whether this new pricing model is actually helping USPS improve its long-term finances. The regulator is asking for public feedback on whether the current pricing model is working for USPS and its customers — and if not, what modifications to the ratemaking system should be made, or what alternative system should be adopted? The regulator will accept comments through July 9.
  (Postal Regulatory Commission seeks feedback on USPS pricing model - Federal News Network)
• The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is preparing to host its biggest biannual cybersecurity exercise. Dubbed “Cyber Storm,” the event will kick off this month with more than 2,000 participants from government and industry. The weeklong exercise simulates the response to a cyber attack on multiple critical infrastructure sectors. This year’s Cyber Storm comes as CISA rewrites the national plan for responding to major cyber incidents. CISA expects to release the updated plan by the end of 2024.
  (CISA’s ‘Cyber Storm’ will help it update National Cyber Incident Response Plan - Federal News Network)
• The IRS is looking to take the next steps in its most ambitious project under the Inflation Reduction Act. The IRS is letting taxpayers in 12 states test out its “Direct File” platform this filing season, as it gets feedback from earlier users, in the hopes of scaling up the pilot program. In a roundtable discussion with Direct File users, the IRS said all participants said they would recommend Direct File to eligible friends and family. Roundtable participants included college students, military veterans, as well as nonprofit and government employees.
  (IRS' direct file platform receives positive initial feedback - Treasury Department)
• The Air Force wants to bypass governors in seven states and transfer the National Guard space units to the Space Force. Air Force officials are calling for legislation to bypass existing law requiring them to obtain a governor’s consent before making changes to a National Guard unit. It would allow the service to transfer 14 Air National Guard space units located in New York, Florida, Hawaii, Colorado, Alaska, California and Ohio and make them part of the Space Force. Not surprisingly, the idea is facing criticism from governors.
  (Air Force wants to override law in 7 states, transfer Guard units to Space Force - Federal News Network)

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• The Biden administration's final rule to block Schedule F is in place, but the push still continues in Congress. Many advocates say the new regulations securing job protections for career feds are a step in the right direction. But some are concerned it will not be enough to stop Schedule F's resurrection in a future administration. Democratic lawmakers are urging the passage of the Saving the Civil Service Act. The bill aims to prevent career civil servants from being made at-will and easier to fire. The legislation has not seen much action, but the new final rule spurred lawmakers, like Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), to press harder and call for its passage.
  (Saving the Civil Service Act - Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.))
• New guidance is out to improve the management of more than a trillion dollars in federal grants. The Office of Management and Budget released the 2024 revisions to the Uniform Grants Guidance. This is the first update in four years. OMB's Deputy Director for Management Jason Miller said among the major changes is improving NoFos, the notice of funding opportunities. "The Uniformed Grants Guidance includes a streamlined NoFo template for agencies to use to help with shortening and simplifying their grants announcements," Miller said. This is one of several substantial revisions to the guidance, which seeks to clarify and reduce the burden on grantees. OMB received more than 3,200 comments to the draft.
  (OMB updates governmentwide grant management guidance - White House)
• The Biden administration is working on hiring tools to help agencies compete for AI talent. The White House is planning to hire 100 AI professionals into the federal workforce by this summer. Some of those hires will come from a “Tech to Gov” virtual hiring fair on April 18. Participating federal and state agencies are looking to fill AI and AI-enabling positions. Kyleigh Russ, a senior adviser at the Office of Personnel Management, said her agency is also working on an AI and Tech Talent Playbook to show how agencies can effectively onboard these in-demand hires. “We know that this talent is very sought-after and that there will be constant competition, both across government and the private sector," Russ said.
  (Biden administration working on hiring tools to help agencies compete for AI talent - Federal News Network)
• The 2024 Vital Signs report from the National Defense Industrial Association provides a look into the challenges facing the defense industrial base. The Vital Signs 2024 Survey asked the industry to identify areas of improvement for the DoD when working with private companies. Some 65% of respondents want to see a clear and consistent demand signal through contract vehicles. More than 40% of respondents would like the DoD to provide specific points-of-contact in program offices. The report also recommends that the Office of the Under Secretary for Acquisition and Sustainment to engage with industry before finalizing the classified implementation plan for the National Defense Industrial strategy.
  (DoD needs to send stronger demand signal, increase investment in critical supply base - National Defense Industrial Association)
• Agencies and federal unions have marching orders from the Biden administration to re-establish labor-management forums. In some cases, it is possible for these forums to be met with resistance from either party, or even employees themselves. The Office of Personnel Management is offering advice on how to wade through any trouble spots in implementation. For one, OPM encourages management to have discussions with union leaders before making any top-down decisions.
  (OPM outlines how agencies, unions can recreate labor-management forums - Federal News Network)
• The Postal Service is missing more than half its service targets for mail products on which it has a monopoly. Its regulator told USPS it did not meet service performance targets for 15 out of 27 market-dominant products in 2023. The regulator is calling on USPS to take corrective action and to come up with a plan to improve its performance. USPS said 98% of households are getting their mail and packages within three days and that 50% of mail and packages arrive a day ahead of their service standard.
  (PRC issues report evaluating USPS service levels and rates - Postal Regulatory Commission )
• The Environmental Protection Agency is aiming to make permitting for environmental projects easier. EPA said its new website not only fulfills its commitment under the Biden administration's Permitting Action Plan, but also makes its information and process more transparent. Through the new site, EPA is posting information about the permitting process, such as permit applications and public meetings. The goal is to improve the timelines, predictability and transparency of federal environmental review and authorization processes for covered infrastructure projects, which include offshore wind energy under the renewable energy production sector.
  (EPA launches new permitting site - EPA)
• The public can now track defueling and decommissioning operations of the Red Hill fuel facility in Hawaii. A new app will provide the latest developments on tank cleaning, the decommissioning plan, environmental clean-up and regulatory approvals. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a full closure of the facility after jet fuel leaked into the Navy’s water distribution system. The app to track the closure efforts is available for download at Apple's App Store and the Google Play store.
  (New app will track Red Hill fuel facility closure - Navy Closure Task Force)

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• The Justice Department wants to use data to help address the nation’s drug crisis. DoJ is launching a public data challenge to inform the public safety response to drug overdoses. The department is making data from the Drug Enforcement Administration available as part of the challenge. DoJ wants participants to combine DEA data, with other public health and safety data, to drive insights that could save lives. Initial submissions to the challenge are due by April 24.
  ( DoJ data challenge 2024 - Challenge.gov )
• Two federal cyber executives have landed new jobs.The Department of Homeland Security has a new chief information security officer and ZScaler has hired a former federal technology leader to expand its global reach and influence. These are two of the most recent federal executives on the move. DHS CIO Eric Hysen named Hemant Baidwan as the new CISO. Baidwan is taking over for Ken Bible, who retired on March 29. Meanwhile, Brian Conrad, who led the FedRAMP cloud security program for the last three-plus years, joins ZScaler as its new director of field compliance authorizing authority liaison.
  (DHS hires new CISO; Former cloud security lead lands new job - Federal News Network)
• Agencies would see more reporting requirements on their telework policies under a new bill in Congress. Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.) introduced the bipartisan Telework Transparency Act on Wednesday. If enacted, agencies would have to provide more up-to-date information on how many feds are teleworking, and how often. The bill also aims to assess telework’s impact on office space, productivity, recruitment and retention.
  (Senate bill aims to set more federal telework reporting requirements - Federal News Network)
• The Biden administration is trying to put the final nail in Schedule F’s coffin. Stronger workforce protections for policymaking federal employees are officially in place. The Office of Personnel Management finalized regulations on those protections Thursday morning. OPM’s ruling ensures those employees can’t be fired at-will, or converted into a different job classification without their approval. The effort from the Biden administration comes in response to Schedule F, a now-revoked executive order from former President Donald Trump that tried to make some feds easier to fire. The Biden administration’s final rule aims to hedge against Schedule F’s possible return in a future administration.
  (Biden administration locks in plans aiming to block Schedule F for good - Federal News Network)
• State Department officials are concerned that recent budget cuts will lead to an overburdened workforce. Congress recently approved a more than $56 billion budget for the State Department for the rest of this year. That is a nearly 6% cut compared to spending levels in 2023. Richard Verma, the deputy secretary of State for management and resources, said that budget puts the department in a tough position. “The department will have to make trade-offs; the dollars are simply unable to stretch as far as we need to meet the moment. And budget cycles do not always align with the global realities and crises," Verma said, adding that the State Department has a 13% staffing gap on average and that 15% of ambassador nominees remain unconfirmed.
  (Powering up American diplomacy in the 21st Century: A conversation with the Honorable Richard R. Verma - CSIS)
• The Air Force’s Platform One is looking for non-traditional small businesses and startups to showcase their innovative technology. Platform One wants to understand how technology integrates and exploits artificial intelligence, machine learning and large language models. DevSecOps small businesses and startups can pitch their solutions during an industry day event on May 8 through May 9 in Colorado Springs. Software should be able to integrate with Platform One’s established enterprise network. Platform One will select companies to apply for a Direct to Phase II award.
  (Platform One seeking innovative companies to showcase their products - Platform One)
• The Department of Homeland Security is on the hunt for fresh cyber talent. DHS is pushing to hire multiple entry-level cybersecurity professionals this month, who will serve at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, FEMA or DHS headquarters. The positions are being recruited through DHS’ growing Cyber Talent Management System. The system is exempt from many of the government’s competitive hiring, classification and compensation practices.
  ( DHS job posting for cybersecurity specialists - USAJobs)
• Federal employees have a right to be whistleblowers, even under their agencies’ non-disclosure policies. The Office of Special Counsel is reminding agencies of their obligation to include this “anti-gag order” language in their non-disclosure agreements. OSC said agencies have violated this anti-gag provision in the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act at least 25 times over the past year. This includes the Department of Veterans Affairs reprimanding an employee for the way he questioned agency practices. Co-chairman of the Senate Whistleblower Protection Caucus, Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), recently asked all 74 federal inspectors general to ensure their agencies have these “anti-gag” policies in place.
  (OSC strongly enforces the prohibition against employee gag orders that chill whistleblowing - Office of Special Counsel )
• The General Services Administration has awarded General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) a $922 million contract to modernize the U.S. Central Command’s IT infrastructure. Under the contract, CENTCOM will transition to a new cloud environment and improve its networks. The command will also use artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to help operators make better decisions. GDIT will leverage its zero trust capabilities to improve the command’s cybersecurity posture, as the Pentagon rushes to achieve the target level of zero trust by 2027. The contract has a one-year base period and five option years.
  (GSA awards $922 million contract to modernize CENTCOM’s IT - GDIT)
• A new bi-partisan bill is taking aim at many of the long-standing challenges agencies face in buying commercial technologies. The Federal Improvement in Technology (FIT) Procurement Act, introduced by Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), aims to streamline the procurement process to promote greater competition and better deals. The legislation would require the Office of Management and Budget to update federal procurement rules to eliminate obsolete, burdensome or overly restrictive requirements. It would also expand the use of certain procurement methods to make buying IT faster and easier with a focus on outcomes. Finally, the bill would require agencies to strengthen training for the acquisition workforce around buying rapidly advancing technologies, such as artificial intelligence.
  (Sens. Peters, Cruz seek to ease burden for agencies to buy commercial IT - Homeland Security)

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• The State Department has named a new chief diversity and inclusion officer (CDIO), filling a position that has been vacant for 10 months. The job is going to Zakiya Carr Johnson, a former White House official and former director of the department’s Race, Ethnicity and Social Inclusion Unit. Secretary of State Antony Blinken created the CDIO position at the start of his tenure. He said the job is critical to attracting and retaining State Department employees.
  (Appointment of Zakiya Carr Johnson as the Department’s chief diversity and inclusion officer - State Department)
• A Homeland Security board has some major security concerns about one of the government’s biggest technology suppliers. The Cyber Safety Review Board said Microsoft’s security culture needs an overhaul. The board’s latest report found the tech giant had inadequate security practices when suspected Chinese hackers broke into the email accounts of multiple high-level government officials. The report recommends the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency regularly review the security practices of all cloud service providers. And it recommends the government periodically re-evaluate the security of cloud services widely used across agencies.
  (CSRB castigates Microsoft, urges federal cloud security updates in pending - Federal News Network)
• More than a quarter of federal employees are feeling burnout, according to a recent study. A recent Gallup survey of federal employees finds 26% of them feel burned out “very often” or “always” at work. Rob DeSimone, the associate principal of workplace initiatives at Gallup, said that level of burnout can lead to high attrition rates. “When people are burned out, they're much, much more likely to leave their agency," DeSimone said. Gallup identifies five root causes of burnout. Those include unfair treatment at work, unmanageable workloads, unclear communication from managers, lack of manager support and unreasonable time pressure.
  (One-quarter of federal workforce feeling burnout, with no ‘silver bullet’ fix, study finds - Federal News Network)
• Health care employees at the Defense Health Agency are getting closer to seeing union representation. After winning a union election in 2022, the American Federation of Government Employees said it is still working through some key steps to set up the new council for DHA. That council will represent up to 45,000 agency workers. The employees are mostly transfers from the Army, Navy and Air Force who were reshuffled into the new agency. Once everything is finalized, DHA will have a national-level collective bargaining agreement along with some smaller chapters to address local issues.
  (Forming DHA council to represent DoD health care workers - American Federation of Government Employees)
• The office of the Defense Department’s chief information officer will automate the review of zero trust implementation plans. Last year, the DoD CIO’s office received 39 zero trust implementation plans from the military services, defense agencies and combatant commands. It took four months and 35 full-time employees to review the plans. Randy Resnick, the director of the Zero Trust Architecture Program Management Office, said the process needs to be automated this year. The DoD CIO’s office mandated all defense components to submit updated zero trust implementation plans every October.
  (DoD to streamline review of zero trust implementation plans - Federal News Network)
• The Pentagon’s first-of-its-kind Commercial Space Integration Strategy synchronizes the department’s efforts to integrate commercial space technologies into its operations. The long-awaited strategy, released by Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb, signals the Defense Department's willingness to take military action to protect commercial satellites. The document also calls for integration of commercial space technologies before conflict arises. The new strategy is aligned with the Space Force commercial space strategy, which is set to be released this week.
  (New space strategy calls for better protection of commercial space technology - DoD)
• A new bill in the Senate would extend the Department of Homeland Security’s use of a special procurement tool. The BEST Technology for the Homeland Act would extend DHS’ other transaction authority through fiscal 2031. It is currently set to expire at the end of this September. Other transaction agreements are considered more flexible than traditional contracts. The lawmakers behind the legislation want to see DHS use OTAs to acquire more innovative technologies.
  (Peters and Daines introduce bipartisan bill to ensure DHS can procure advanced technologies to strengthen national security - HSGAC )
• What is the best way candidates can prepare for a federal interview? The Office of Personnel Management is offering some guidance. OPM will share tips and an in-depth, inside look during a webinar on April 10. The free session is targeting federal job applicants and anyone else who might be interested in joining the federal workforce. During the webinar, experts at OPM will cover different types of federal interviews, common questions and other advice for preparing.
  (Federal interview process webinar - Office of Personnel Management)

The post New chief diversity and inclusion officer headed to State Dept first appeared on Federal News Network.

• Women-owned small businesses won more federal contracting dollars in fiscal 2023 than ever before. New data from FedMine, a government business intelligence platform, shows women-owned small firms won more than $25.5 billion in federal contracts last year, up from $22.6 billion in 2022. FedMine said that 13% year-over-year increase represents about 3.3% of all federal contract dollars going to women-owned small businesses. That is still below the governmentwide goal of 5%. FedMine also found that out of the more than 13,000 companies that won contracts in 2023, more than 1,500 of them were first-time awardees.
  (Women-owned small firms won more federal contracting dollars in 2023 - Fedmine.us)
• Letter carriers are getting recognition from their union for saving lives and other heroics. The National Association of Letter Carriers track about 150 cases a year where its members act as first responders in an emergency. Now the union is rewarding these letter carriers for going above and beyond. Phillip Moon is a letter carrier who has been delivering mail on the same route in Amarillo, Texas for 27 years. He won this year’s Heroes of the Year award for saving a woman and her two dogs from an attacking pitbull. Moon said he is honored to receive the award, but does not think he is a hero — just someone who did the right thing. "I don’t consider myself a hero. I’m just very grateful and honored and thankful that I was in a place where I could be of some assistance to somebody in need," Moon said.
  (‘We are on the front line:’ USPS letter carriers recognized for heroic acts - Federal News Network)
• The Navy is updating its basic training phone call policy by allowing boot-camp recruits to use their personal cell phones to call family and friends. Most recruits who don't make it through boot camp tend to drop out during their first few weeks. The service hopes that allowing personal cell phones, instead of using a pay phone, will reduce the dropout rate. Recruits are allowed five phone calls during their 10-week training period. The updated policy is one of the latest changes the Navy has introduced to its basic-training experience, as the service struggles to meet its recruitment goals.
  (Navy updates basic training phone call policy - dvidshub.net)
• The Department of Health and Human Services is trying to centralize its cybersecurity resources. HHS’s Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) will be the department’s one-stop-shop for cybersecurity, according to Brian Mazanec, the deputy director of the Office of Preparedness at ASPR. "There are too many doors into cybersecurity when engaging with the federal government generally, let alone HHS,” Mazanec said. “Within HHS, there are a lot of different players. So we're in the process now of really establishing this front door through ASPR to all of those resources.” HHS is also working to set new cybersecurity standards, as well as potential requirements, for the health sector.
  (HHS looks to create ‘one-stop shop’ for healthcare cybersecurity - Federal News Network)
• Here is your chance to help ensure your agency buys artificial intelligence tools and capabilities in a responsible and trustworthy way. The Office of Management and Budget is seeking help to inform the development of guidance to ensure the responsible procurement of AI by agencies. In a new request for information, OMB is asking for feedback around 10 questions as part of its initiative to develop a set of requirements to ensure that agencies buy AI systems and services in a way that aligns with the recent guidance required by the November executive order for secure and trustworthy AI. This RFI is the first step for OMB in meeting the deadline to issue this new AI acquisition guidance by late September. Responses to the RFI are due by April 29.
  (OMB issues RFI for responsible acquisition of AI tools - Federal Register)
• The Defense Department awarded $17.6 million to 27 universities to strengthen basic research in defense-related areas. The research collaboration competition winners from West Virginia University, Arizona State University and the University of South Carolina, among others, will receive up to $600,000 over three years to pursue DoD-related science and engineering research. Louisiana Tech University and the University of Tulsa will receive up to $1.5 million over two years as winners of the capacity-building competition, to pursue activities that will help them achieve basic research excellence in areas relevant to DoD.
  (DoD finances 27 academic teams under its competitive research program - DoD)
• The Department of Homeland Security used some limited exceptions to the Buy American Act last year. In fiscal 2023, DHS said it executed 1,050 contract actions valued at $67 million, by using the domestic non-availability exception under the Buy American Act. That represents less than 2% of applicable procurement dollars obligated by DHS last year. Most of those contract actions were awarded by the Coast Guard for various aircraft components that are only made in foreign countries.
  (DHS fiscal 2023 annual posting of Buy American Act domestic nonavailability waiver actions - SAM.gov)
• The Census Bureau is looking to roll out a remote work policy it drafted at the end of last year, but is rethinking how many employees can opt in after Congress recently set minimum utilization rates for federal buildings. The bureau recommends employees should not move outside the commuting area of their official duty station until they are approved for remote work. The Census Bureau is also consolidating office space while its headquarters is being renovated by bringing in employees from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Census HQ renovation is expected to be complete this summer.
  (Census Bureau rethinks scope of remote work policy, consolidates office space - Federal News Network)

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• Open Season is not until this fall, but some feds may want to start looking at their health care early. A special enrollment period starts today for Postal Service annuitants. USPS retirees who are eligible for Medicare Part B, but do not have it, can sign up between now and September 1 without having to pay a penalty. The USPS is covering the cost of the penalty for any annuitants who do choose to sign up. The special enrollment period comes ahead of the launch of the brand-new Postal Service Health Benefits program for plan year 2025. And for everyone else, Open Season will run Nov. 11 to Dec. 9.
  (Postal Service Health Benefits program - Office of Personnel Management)
• Nearly a two-year effort has concluded with agencies receiving their first update to the standards for collecting federal data on race and ethnicity in more than 25 years. The Office of Management and Budget's Chief Statistician Karin Orvis said the interagency working group made several significant changes to the standards, including adding Middle Eastern or North African as a new minimum category. Agencies are to begin updating their surveys and administrative forms as quickly as possible and must submit an agency action plan for complete compliance within 18 months. Orvis said the working group reviewed 20,000 comments and held almost 100 listening sessions as part of its effort to finalize the new standards.
  (OMB updates standards to collect federal data on race, ethnicity - White House)
• The Defense Department has established the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy. The new office, officially launched on March 20, will oversee all cyber-related policy issues at the Pentagon. That includes certifying the department's cyber operations budget and overlooking cyber workforce development programs. Ashley Manning will serve as the official performing the duties of the assistant secretary until the Senate confirms an official for the position. President Joe Biden nominated Michael Sulmeyer, who is currently serving as the principal cyber adviser to the Army Secretary, to serve in the new role.
  (Establishment of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy - DoD)
• There is a new section to the FAR and it may be the most important change in decades. Get used to hearing about FAR Part 40. It's the new consolidated section of the Federal Acquisition Regulations for all things cybersecurity and supply chain security. The FAR Council issued the final rule today establishing this new section, bringing together clauses and regulations covering broad security requirements for most acquisitions. The new FAR part will provide contracting officers with a single, consolidated location to find these requirements. While the new FAR section does not create any new requirements or contract clauses, the council currently is reviewing three rules that would be added to Part 40 when finalized.
  (FAR Council formally established new cybersecurity section - Federal Register)
• Senate lawmakers are pushing to bring federal record-keeping practices into the 21st century. Agencies would need to make sure employees back up their texts and other digital chats used for official business under the Strengthening Federal Records Act of 2024. Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) are co-sponsoring the bill. They say the Federal Records Act needs to keep with rapidly changing technology. The bill would also strengthen the role of the National Archives and Records Administration in holding agencies accountable to record-keeping rules.
  (Senate bill aims to bring federal records law into the age of ‘WhatsApp’ - Federal News Network)
• The Navy has created a sort of one-stop-shop of efficiency when it comes to Navy Culture. A new initiative dubbed Culture of Excellence 2.0 aligns several Navy programs and concepts, allowing the leadership to better understand the needs of its sailors. New materials released as part of the initiative include a playbook on mental health and a suicide-related behavior response guide. The women’s initiatives team and the new policy for the assignment of pregnant sailors also fall under the umbrella of Culture of Excellence 2.0. And there will be a new tool for commanders to better understand the risk of destructive behaviors within their commands.
  (Navy updates its culture campaign - U.S. Navy)
• A new leader has taken the reins at the National Security Agency’s Cybersecurity Directorate (CSD). Dave Luber formally took over as CSD Director on Friday, replacing Rob Joyce, who had led the directorate since 2021. Luber previously served as CSD’s deputy director. He is a longtime veteran of the intelligence community, having also served as executive director at U.S. Cyber Command and in various positions throughout the NSA. The Cybersecurity Directorate is responsible for helping to secure defense industrial base networks and issuing public advisories on cyber threats.
  (New NSA CSD director - X)
• When candidates go online to apply for a federal job, they will see a brand new look. USA jobs.gov has updated its homepage design and some key features of the website. There is now a "search tips" option for anyone who might need help narrowing down a search. A link at the top of the homepage will take users to a list of upcoming hiring events and information sessions. And there is info about what career fields are hiring right now, and how the federal hiring process works.
  (Website homepage update - USAJobs.gov)

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• Agencies continue to struggle with giving too much money to citizens when doling out benefits. New data from the Government Accountability Office shows 74% of all improper payments in fiscal 2023 resulted from overpayments. These are payments made to people who have died or who are no longer eligible for government programs. GAO found agencies reported about $236 billion in improper payments last year, down about $11 billion, as compared to 2022. The Medicaid program reduced the amount of improper payments it paid out by $30 billion, while the Labor Department's unemployment insurance program saw an increase of $44 billion in payment errors last year.
  (Improper payments dropped by $11B in 2022 - GAO)
• The Education Department is getting pushback over its latest return-to-office plans. All bargaining unit employees at the Education Department will soon be expected to report to work in person at least five days per pay period. Secretary Miguel Cardona made the announcement to employees in an all-staff email Thursday morning. Cardona noted that the changes are subject to bargaining obligations with the agency’s union, the American Federation of Government Employees. But AFGE local president Sheria Smith said the announcement came as a shock to some: “We received at least 100 messages from employees saying, ‘Hey, I want a reasonable accommodation — I moved — am I supposed to come back now?” The change for employees will take effect May 20.
  (Announcement on increasing in-person presence of agency employees - Education Department)
• Top officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs said the latest rollout of a new Electronic Health Record is a step in the right direction. Under Secretary for Health Shereef Elnahal said the VA’s recent go-live at the James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago is the most successful rollout so far. “We’re going to watch this closely, and we’re going to be on top of it, not just in the next few weeks, but in the coming months," Elnahal said. A successful EHR rollout would give the VA the chance to move on from problems that have hampered the project since 2020. A recent inspector general report found a scheduling error with the Oracle-Cerner EHR in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to the death of a veteran in 2022.
  (Recent VA EHR rollout ‘most successful’ so far, but IG outlines recent problems - Federal News Network)
• A new roadmap to improve the cloud security authorization process is out. The first piece of the Federal Risk Authorization and Management Program’s overhaul is out. The program management office released a new roadmap for the cloud security program outlining four primary goals, six initiatives and 28 near-term priorities. FedRAMP will take on several pilots over the next 18 months to lower the cost and to speed up the authorization process. One pilot program will support machine-readable “digital authorization packages” through automation using the Open Security Controls Assessment Language framework. The new roadmap comes before the Office of Management and Budget finalized its updated FedRAMP guidance, released in draft in October. OMB is current reviewing more than 285 comments.
  (FedRAMP’s overhaul begins with 28-near term initiatives - Federal News Network)
• The Defense Department wants its vendors to be more cyber secure, and it already has a lot of tools to help them. But as of now, they are a bit of a scattered mess. That is one of the things DoD wants to fix via a new Defense Industrial Base Cyber Strategy. The Pentagon published the strategy yesterday. DoD also wants to significantly expand the number of companies that can take advantage of its free cyber defense services. That eligibility will expand under a new rule set to take effect in a few weeks.
  (DoD seeks single point of entry, new governance to boost vendors' cyber defenses - Federal News Network)
• Data analytics tools used to fight fraud in COVID-19 emergency programs might be redeployed to look at more government spending. The Government Spending Oversight Act would preserve analytics tools built by the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC), and would require their use to uncover more fraud in federal spending. The bill would create a Government Spending Oversight Committee to manage those tools. PRAC said its tools have flagged nearly $2 billion dollars in pandemic fraud so far. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) introduced the bill.
  (Peters and Romney introduce bipartisan bill to strengthen oversight of government spending - Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee)
• The Army’s Innovation Exchange Lab is up and running. The new lab will allow companies to test their solutions within the Army’s Unified Data Reference Architecture (UDRA). The Army is particularly interested in solutions serving as data catalogs within the framework of UDRA. The lab is accessible to all industry partners. Companies can include a detailed description of their product during registration. The Army is in the midst of the implementation phase of UDRA, an effort that will allow the service to build out a data mesh across all of its programs.
  (Army implementing new data architecture, launching innovation exchange lab next month - Federal News Network)
• The Army has opened a central office to manage the relocation of military families with special needs. It is called the Exceptional Family Member Program, which provides support to soldiers whose family members require special medical or educational assistance. The program is mandatory for all active-duty families with special needs. The program staff works with military and civilian agencies to provide medical, housing and educational services to over 40,000 enrolled families.
  (New Army office will provide centralized support for families with special needs - U.S. Army)
• A bipartisan pair of senators is calling for more oversight of the Federal Employees Health Benefits program (FEHB). Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) introduced the FEHB Protection Act, which would require the Office of Personnel Management to verify eligibility before adding new members to the health care program. If enacted, the bill would also require an audit of FEHB to remove any invalid members who are currently enrolled. The bill comes in response to a recent report showing that ineligible FEHB members are costing the government up to $1 billion each year.
  (FEHB Protection Act - Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Tom Carper (D-Del.))

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• Labor Department employees are facing criticism for protesting in front of their offices in Boston about the agency’s telework policy. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Rep. Scott Franklin (R-Fla.) called the decision by AFGE employees to show up at their offices to seek more telework privileges "hypocritical." In a letter to acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, the lawmakers are seeking answers to three questions by April 10. Among the details Ernst and Franklin want to know is how much official time did employees log in the four weeks preceding the March 19 rally and what did the protest cost the Labor Department.
  (Lawmakers call Labor employees’ in-person protest for more telework hypocritical - Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa))
• Tensions over telework are affecting yet another area for the federal workforce. At least half of recent cases at the Federal Service Impasses Panel have to do with either return-to-office, or work-life balance. The panel, an independent branch of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, generally helps settle disputes between agencies and federal unions. Now, after agencies began returning employees to the office more often, the panel has found that issues like hoteling are commonly leading to impasses in collective bargaining.
  (Federal telework, work-life balance often top issues in collective bargaining - Federal News Network)
• Federal agencies face new requirements to vet artificial intelligence tools before putting them to use. The Office of Management and Budget is requiring agencies to publicly report on how they are using AI, the risks involved, and how they are going to manage those risks. If agencies do not follow those steps for a particular use case, OMB said that in most cases, they will have to stop using those AI tools. Vice President Kamala Harris said the guidance ensures safe, secure and responsible use of AI across the federal government. "When government agencies use AI tools, we will now require them to verify that those tools do not endanger the rights and safety of the American people," Harris said.
  (OMB sets 'binding requirements' for agencies to vet AI tools before using them - Federal News Network)
• The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has released new and far-reaching regulations. CISA’s proposed cyber incident reporting rules will apply to about 316,000 organizations across 16 critical infrastructure sectors. CISA kept the definitions in the rules broad. The agency said it needs a lot of data to analyze cyber risks and share information quickly across sectors. The goal of the regulation is to prevent hacking campaigns and other incidents from spinning out of control. The new rules will not be finalized until the end of 2025. CISA is taking comments on the proposed rules through June 3.
  (CISA’s cyber incident reporting rules will apply to 316K entities - Federal News Network)
• Agencies will soon have more options to buy commercial products. The General Services Administration is expanding the number of providers under the Commercial Platform Initiative (CPI) from three to eight, including six new ones. Along with current platform providers, Amazon Business and Fisher Scientific, GSA awarded spots to a range of companies including Staples and Grainger and four small business e-commerce platform providers. The awards come as the use of e-commerce platforms by agencies has been growing. GSA said for 2023, 34 agencies spent $80 million through the three CPI platforms. That is double the amount of money spent in 2022.
  (GSA’s commercial platforms program to grow by five providers - Federal News Network)
• Blue Star Families want to hear from military and veteran families about issues affecting their lives. The largest annual military family lifestyle survey is now open and all active-duty service members, veterans and their spouses are encouraged to tell their stories. The survey is designed to understand issues affecting military families, including housing, employment, access to health care and food insecurity. It remains one of the most comprehensive data sets for lawmakers, the Pentagon leadership, and community partners. You can find the survey by googling "Blue Star Families."
  (Largest military family lifestyle survey is now open - Blue Star Families)
• The Pentagon’s policy that allows service members to be reimbursed for travel when seeking reproductive care out of state, was used 12 times from June through December of last year. The department spent around $44,000 on transportation and lodging expenses for service members seeking such procedures as an abortion, in vitro fertilization, and egg retrieval. The policy was the reason Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) put a hold on military promotions for nearly a year.
  (Pentagon’s reproductive care policy used 12 times from June to December - DoD)
• Republican lawmakers said teleworking employees at the Small Business Administration are not making full use of their office space. SBA said about half of its workforce is in the office on any given day. But House Small Business Committee Chairman Roger Williams (R-Texas) and seven of his colleagues, said the agency's buildings remain underutilized and are wasting taxpayer dollars. Lawmakers are asking SBA about its return-to-office plans and why the agency is asking for a 30% increase in its rent budget for 2025.
  (Eight committee Republicans pen letter to SBA over work from home policy - House Small Business Committee )
• The Treasury Department will work with the financial sector to make more fraud data available for training artificial intelligence models. A new report from Treasury on AI cyber risks, said a fraud data gap is one of the major challenges for the financial sector. The report also points to a lack of consensus across the sector on what exactly constitutes an AI system. Treasury said it will work with other agencies and industry partners to develop a common lexicon of AI terminologies most relevant to financial institutions.
  (Managing artificial intelligence-specific cybersecurity risks in the financial services sector - Treasury Department)
• Federal employees donated more than $68 million to this year’s Combined Federal Campaign. Each year, feds can contribute to the charitable donation program, which spans more than 5,000 different charities. The donations go toward programs that offer, among other things, housing, education, food supplies, and job training. The 2024 campaign wrapped up this week with an awards ceremony in the nation’s capital. Since its inception more than 60 years ago, the Combined Federal Campaign has raised over $8.6 billion. Next year’s campaign will begin this fall.
  (2024 finale and awards ceremony - Combined Federal Campaign)

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• Turning to social media to attract the next generation of talent, the Defense Department is rolling out a new marketing campaign amid a recruiting crisis. The Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory Services recently launched its first social media campaign, called the "discover your future at DoD." It targets young job seekers looking to pursue careers in AI, cyber and STEM, among other career fields. The campaign will run through April on Instagram, LinkedIn, Spotify and Reddit.
  (DoD's Social Media Campaign to Build Next-Gen Civilian Talent - DoD)
• Federal employee advocates are urging for more guardrails when it comes to agency relocations. Non-profit organization Democracy Forward is petitioning the Office of Personnel Management to create stricter guidelines around any potential agency relocations. The organization said better guardrails would ensure stability, expertise and institutional knowledge at agencies. The petition is a direct response to a handful of agency relocations during the Trump administration that led to major staff attrition. The National Treasury Employees Union has also thrown its weight behind the proposal. The federal union said it would be especially important for any agency to engage with its own workforce before initiating a relocation.
  (More guardrails needed for any potential agency relocations, federal advocates say - Federal News Network)
• When will the Pentagon’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification requirements finally come into play? The Pentagon will likely push hard to publish a final CMMC rule this fall, meaning the requirements would start hitting contracts no earlier than next March. That is according to estimates from the Cyber Accreditation Body, a nonprofit that partners with the Defense Department on the CMMC assessment program. The comment period for the proposed CMMC rule closed in February. Once finalized, the rules will require many defense contractors to get their cybersecurity practices certified.
  (Cyber AB town hall for March - Cyber AB)
• The Department of Veteran Affairs is scheduling more medical appointments with veterans at a majority of its facilities. The VA has seen 25,000 more patients so far this fiscal year compared to the same period last year. More than 80% of VA medical centers have done the same. Under Secretary for Health Shereef Elnahal said the VA is looking at ways to keep this growth in appointments sustainable, while managing clinician burnout. “Hopefully a lot of that will stay in place. We have to be mindful of overall staffing, our authorities and our ability to pay things like overtime, and so not all of it will be sustained,” Elnahal said.
  (Most VA sites scheduling more medical appointments through ‘access sprints’ - Federal News Network)
• The number of Thrift Savings Plan participants receiving a full match is once again on the rise. The TSP set yet another record, as now more than 87% of Federal Employee Retirement System participants in the TSP are getting a 5% monthly contribution from the government added to their retirement accounts. TSP officials have credited the increase largely to a recent switch of the automatic enrollment rate from 3% up to 5%. The TSP board said it is looking for ways to encourage even more participants to bump up their contributions to at least 5%.
  (TSP highlights, March 2024 - Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board)
• Lawmakers are advancing legislation that aims to bolster the security of government facilities. The Senate earlier this month passed the Improving Federal Building Security Act, which would require agencies to respond to recommendations issued by the Federal Protective Service. Agencies would also have to explain why they are rejecting any recommendations. The Government Accountability Office found that agency security offices, between 2017 and 2021, ignored 57% of the facility security recommendations made by the Federal Protective Service.
  (Senate passes Peters and Scott bipartisan bill to strengthen federal building security - HSGAC )
• More funding is going into efforts to electrify the federal vehicle fleet. The General Services Administration is putting an additional $25 million into installing electric vehicle charging stations at federal buildings across the country. The funds will go toward installing nearly 800 chargers at more than 30 facilities. The federal government recently ordered more than 58,000 zero-emission vehicles and more than 25,000 charging ports. The Biden administration is calling on agencies to buy only zero-emission vehicles by 2035.
  ( General Services Administration announces $25 million for electric vehicle charging ports as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda - General Services Administration )
• The Defense Department's Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office has wrapped up the ninth iteration of its Global Information Dominance Experiment (GIDE 9), which brings together the service branches, combatant commands, the Joint Staff, and allies and partners to deliver capabilities for the Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control initiative (JADC2) . Organizers said GIDE 9 successfully demonstrated a vendor-agnostic data integration layer for the first time and that the team was also able to experiment with generative AI tools during the exercise.
  (Pentagon’s CDAO wraps up ninth iteration of Global Information Dominance Experiment - Federal News Network)

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• Scammers are targeting the payroll and retirement accounts of current and former State Department employees. The department's inspector general office warns that fraudsters are sending phishing emails to individuals, impersonating financial offices within the State Department. The hackers then use the stolen credentials to log into an employee’s online account and redirect the payroll and pension payments to their own bank accounts. The IG’s office is telling employees to immediately report any suspicious emails to its hotline.
  (Fraud alert: Employee and annuitant pay account takeovers - State Department OIG)
• One key lawmaker wants to see agencies act in the wake of a major healthcare cybersecurity incident. Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) is calling on the Department of Health and Human Services to increase its oversight of cybersecurity in the healthcare sector. In a new letter, Peters said HHS and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency need to increase their coordination after a ransomware attack on United Health subsidiary Change Healthcare. Peters and other lawmakers are calling for new cybersecurity rules for the health sector after the attack disrupted many hospitals and healthcare systems.
  (Peters urges federal agencies to increase cybersecurity measures to protect American healthcare systems from cyber attacks. - HSGAC)
• More Defense Department organizations are entering the Thunderdome. DoD has rolled out its zero trust capabilities under the Thunderdome initiative to 15 sites so far and dozens more are scheduled for 2024. John Sherman, the DoD chief information officer, told House lawmakers last week that the Defense Information Systems Agency will accelerate the implementation of Thunderdome capabilities to another 60 sites this year. He said DISA is also working with the Coast Guard and U.S. Southern Command to bring these organizations the zero trust tools. DISA awarded Booz Allen Hamilton a $1.9 billion production other transaction agreement in August to implement Thunderdome across the DoD as part of the Pentagon's three-year journey to reach initial capabilities under zero trust.
  (DoD expanding Thunderdome zero trust capabilities to 60 sites, including the Coast Guard - House Armed Services Committee)
• The Pentagon is bringing in a relative outsider to lead its policy team. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he is appointing Amanda Dory as the next acting under secretary of Defense for policy, effective at the end of April. Dory is currently the director of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies at National Defense University. She will replace Sasha Baker, who is departing next month. DoD has not had a Senate-confirmed under secretary for policy since last July, when Colin Kahl left the position. His nominated replacement, Derek Chollet, has been held up amid concerns by Senate Republicans.
  (Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin statement on departure of acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Sasha Baker - DoD)
• Terry Gerton, who has led the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) since 2017, is stepping down from that role at the end of 2024. Gerton is the longest tenured president and CEO in the good-government organization's 57-year history. NAPA said that during her tenure, Gerton put the organization on solid financial footing, growing NAPA's annual revenue by more than 50% and net assets by nearly 300%. She also led the establishment of the Agile Government Center and the Center for Intergovernmental Partnerships to expand and deepen the academy’s integration into the public administration community. NAPA is working with an executive search firm to hire the next president before Gerton leaves in December.
  (Gerton, NAPA's president and CEO, stepping down after 7 years - NAPA)
• The State Department sees artificial intelligence as an increasingly valuable tool to meet its mission. The department is looking at generative AI to help its employees chart the next step in their careers. Don Bauer, the chief technology officer of the State Department’s Bureau of Global Talent Management said that AI can help explain what opportunities are out there. “If I identify a career path for you, then I’m using publicly available position descriptions, extracting those out, and then building up the ability for you to recognize skills you need. Then we’re going to tie that with our learning management system, so we can actually say, ‘If you want to be this person, here’s the skills you need and here’s how you can go get trained,'” Bauer said.
  (State Dept looking at AI to help workforce plan next career steps - Federal News Network)
• A familiar face takes over at a key laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Kevin Stine has been named director of NIST’s Information Technology Lab. Since 2015, Stine has served as chief of the lab’s applied cybersecurity division, where he oversaw the roll out of the Cybersecurity Framework. The IT Laboratory is home to several other priority NIST initiatives, including efforts to advance the safety and trustworthiness of artificial intelligence.
  (Kevin Stine named director of NIST’s Information Technology Laboratory - NIST)

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• Lawmakers are urging the Defense Department to explore nuclear power to bolster the country’s critical infrastructure. Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee sent a letter to the Pentagon on Friday asking the department to consider deployment of advanced nuclear reactors to secure critical infrastructure. Lawmakers want the Army to brief the committee on the service’s plans to deploy nuclear technologies to power military bases. The 2024 defense policy bill requires the Defense Department to consider advanced nuclear technologies for some military installations.
  (Dear Secretary Austin and Secretary Wormuth - Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.))
• Congress has bumped up the Defense Department's funding for artificial intelligence. DoD is slated to receive almost $2 billion to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence this year. Senate and House lawmakers, in approving the final set of 2024 spending bills late last week, are also giving the DoD Chief Digital and AI Officer’s office $10 million for projects focused on autonomy. With that additional funding, $100 million more than DoD requested for 2024, the Pentagon will have to provide a report to House and Senate Defense committees identifying collaborative objectives for 2024 for each service, combatant command and defense agency participating in Alpha-1. Alpha-1 is a platform offering best-of-breed capabilities through an enterprise pipeline, that lets users take more advantage of existing data and reduce technical risk.
  (DoD to get $100M more than it asked for in 2024 for AI - Senate Appropriations Committee)
• Vendors will likely have to wait a little longer for the final solicitation of the SEWP VI governmentwide acquisition contract. The NASA SEWP program office is holding an information session on April 2 to provide an update about the schedule. NASA had hoped to get the final request for proposals (RFP) out by late March or early April. Part of the reason for the delay was the more than 1,600 questions NASA received about the draft RFP. Joanne Woytek, the SEWP program manager, said earlier this month that the SEWP VI solicitation is in the final stages and going through internal reviews. Woytek also said that there are many steps that still need to happen before the solicitation is released.
  ( NASA SEWP VI contract going through final review stage - NASA on webex)
• Congress is calling for a fix to staffing concerns at the Federal Bureau of Prisons. BOP currently faces a 40% staffing shortage nationwide. The agency will see reductions in part of their budget for the rest of the fiscal year, but now as part of the spending agreement Congress reached last week, there are some new requirements aiming to help BOP with staffing and pay issues. Lawmakers are telling the Office of Personnel Management to work with BOP to research ways to improve pay and recruitment techniques for federal correctional officers. The American Federation of Government Employees, the union representing BOP staff, said it is pleased about the forthcoming efforts.
  (Reaction to FY 2024 minibus - American Federation of Government Employees)
• The Defense Department's Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) is expanding its data integration efforts to enable the Pentagon’s vision of the Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control initiative. CJADC2 is the Pentagon’s effort to connect all sensors across the military services into a single network. The CDAO recently achieved the minimum viable capability for CJADC2 and now plans to spend the next six months developing requirements to allow more companies to join in. The minimum viable capability for CJADC2 came out of the latest iteration of the Global Information Dominance Experiment.
  (CDAO expanding data integration to enable CJADC2 - Federal News Network)
• In the transition from military to civilian life, service members sometimes lose their housing, pay or health care. The Defense Department typically provides one-on-one assistance to members at higher risk of homelessness or unemployment, but the Government Accountability Office has found that over the last two years, more than 4,300 at-risk service members did not receive the right assistance. Officials at DoD and the Department of Veterans Affairs said they are now outlining plans to address the issue, and aiming to provide better help for those who need it.
  (Service members transitioning to civilian life: Agencies can improve warm handovers for additional assistance - Government Accountability Office)
• The FDIC will take six steps over the next year to shore up its cyber defenses against ransomware. Among the steps the organization will take is to assess alternatives for testing the restoration of their Active Directory infrastructures from backups. In August, the CIO's office improved its ability to protect backup data and tested capabilities to restore systems from those files. These and other actions came after an FDIC inspector general report found some shortcomings in the agency's planning and policies. The audit, however, did find the FDIC was generally well prepared to deal with a ransomware attack. The FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) recently reported an 18% increase in ransomware complaints in 2023.
  (FDIC taking additional steps to shore up cyber defenses - FDIC OIG)

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• A pair of Senate and House Democrats is calling for a more permanent path forward for better relationships between federal unions and management. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) introduced the Federal Labor-Management Partnerships Act Thursday. If enacted, the legislation would make labor-management forums a permanent staple for the federal workforce. The lawmakers said the forums can help resolve employee concerns before they escalate. The new bill comes after President Biden signed an executive order earlier this month to re-establish the forums, after they were temporarily revoked during the Trump administration.
  (Federal Labor-Management Partnerships Act - Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) )
• Congress is moving ahead with plans to cut the IRS’ modernization funding. Lawmakers, as part of a spending deal for the rest of fiscal 2024, are making good on a promise to cut $20 billion of funding the IRS received in order to rebuild its workforce and upgrade its IT systems. The agency still has roughly $60 billion of multi-year modernization funds left. The Biden administration agreed to these cuts last year, as part of a deal with congressional Republicans to lift the debt ceiling and avoid a default on government debts. The spending deal also locks in the IRS’ current budget for day-to-day spending.
  (Congress proceeds with $20B cut to IRS modernization fund in FY 2024 spending deal - Federal News Network)
• The Senate has brought the funding hammer down on centralized IT modernization accounts in 2024. Senate appropriators cut all three accounts that help fund governmentwide IT modernization efforts. In the final set of the 2024 spending bills, lawmakers not only zeroed out the Technology Modernization Fund account for this year, but rescinded $100 million from previous years' appropriations. The Senate also reduced the allocation for the Federal Citizen Services Fund by $15 million for this year, and the Office of Management and Budget's IT Oversight and Reform Fund saw a $6 million cut. The lawmakers were not done with the ITOR fund, as they also rescinded $10 million given to the U.S. Digital Service under the American Rescue Plan Act.
  (Senate to take $100M back from TMF, $10M from USDS - Federal News Network)
• Congress is looking for even more details from agencies on their telework policies. The government spending agreement this week lays out six new requirements for sharing data on returning federal employees to the office. Within 90 days, the Office of Management and Budget would have to turn over all agencies’ return-to-office “action plans,” lawmakers said. Agencies would also have to report to Congress on their use of office space, and employee productivity. An OMB memo, now almost a year old, told agencies to start mandating in-person work for feds at least 50% of the time.
  (Congress calls for more details on federal telework in 2024 spending package - Federal News Network)
• The Defense Innovation Unit could get a major funding boost. Congressional appropriators proposed an increase of $840 million for DIU in the 2024 budget. The compromise version of the defense spending bill also requires the agency to provide Congress with details on the infrastructure, staffing and authorities the agency will need in the future. DIU was created to bring innovative and promising technologies into the Pentagon faster.
  (Defense Innovation Unit might get major funding increase - U.S. House Docs)
• Congressional appropriators reduced the Space Force’s procurement account from $4.7 billion to $4 billion. They also reduced the service’s research and development account from $19 billion to $18.6 billion. The bill cuts funding from the IT, data analytics and digital solutions efforts. But the Tactically Responsive Space program got a boost in the 2024 budget. The House and Senate are expected to vote on the bill today.
  (Congress makes cuts to Space Force’s budget - U.S. House Docs)
• The White House kicked off a new effort to change the perception that agencies don't listen to public feedback and aren't transparent in their decisions. The Office of Management and Budget released a request for information to gather input on the experiences of individuals and organizations, including from underserved communities, in how they inform federal decision-making and participate in engagement activities. OMB will use this feedback to help develop a governmentwide framework, common guidelines and leading practices for public participation and community engagement. OMB will hold listening sessions with the public over the next month as part of how it will gather responses to the RFI, which are due by May 17.
  (OMB developing governmentwide framework for public engagement - Federal Register)
• Americans will be waiting another six years until the next Census, but the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is looking for a status update. Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) is asking the Government Accountability Office to review the Census Bureau’s preparations for the 2030 count in order to study potential risks, such as effectively hiring the large number of people needed to do the counting, managing IT and cybersecurity challenges, and following up with households that don’t respond.
  (Peters calls on GAO to conduct oversight of 2030 Census preparations - Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee)

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• A judge with the Merit Systems Protection Board is ordering the Army Corps of Engineers to send a letter of appreciation to a whistleblower. The judge ruled that the Army Corps has not lived up to the terms of its 2023 settlement and still owes Dr. Toni Savage a letter of "sincere thanks" for exposing millions of dollars of contracting fraud she witnessed as a contracting officer at the Army Corps of Engineers Huntsville, Alabama Support Center. The Army Corps was also required to pay an undisclosed sum of money to Savage who suffered retaliation for blowing the whistle.
  (Judge orders Army Corps to 'thank' whistleblower - Kohn, Kohn, & Colapinto)
• The General Services Administration is a step closer to setting up a new way for agencies to verify and authenticate the identities of their customers, by taking its Login.gov platform to the next level. And it is going to lean on industry expertise to do that. GSA awarded eight vendors a spot on a new blanket purchase agreement for next generation identity proofing capabilities. Through the BPA, which has a ceiling of $194 million, the eight vendors will provide a variety of services including document capture, authentication and validation, biometric comparison and identity resolution. The agency is using the BPA as part of its improvements to Login.gov after a scathing audit report in 2023. GSA received 17 bids, so a protest is still possible.
  (GSA awards next generation ID proofing contract - Federal Procurement Data System)
• The Veterans Benefits Administration is looking to move away from mandatory overtime. VBA is providing more benefits to more veterans than at any other point in its history, but it is looking to make sure its workforce can keep up with the pace. VBA is asking Congress to nearly double its overtime budget in fiscal 2025. But Undersecretary for Benefits Joshua Jacobs said VBA is looking to move away from mandatory overtime, in an effort to reduce employee burnout. “We are working very hard to move away from mandatory overtime. I don’t think it is sustainable in the long term," Jacobs said.
  (VBA looks to move away from mandatory overtime to reduce burnout - Federal News Network)
• Agencies are seeing some trouble spots when it comes to hiring employees with disabilities. A specific hiring authority, called Schedule A, is meant to help agencies streamline the hiring process to onboard individuals with disabilities. But the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has found agencies face confusion and difficulty when it comes to using that authority. Many agency officials are not familiar with the hiring authority. And often, agencies do not have enough qualified HR staff to process those hiring actions. The EEOC is calling for better guidance, clarification and outreach to help agencies better understand and use the authority.
  (Promising practices for using Schedule A to recruit, hire, advance and retain persons with disabilities - Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)
• A Department of Homeland Security component is facing an exodus of employees. Over the last six months, DHS’s Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office (CWMD) has lost 24 out of about 240 employees, representing roughly 10% of its staff. The law authorizing the office expired in December and Congress has yet to pass a reauthorization. Without that, CWMD leaders said the office will continue to lose employees and struggle to recruit new talent. The office has also faced low morale among employees, leading to some of the lowest employee engagement scores in the federal government in recent years.
  (Homeland Security CWMD office loses 10% of staff, faces continued attrition concerns - Federal News Network)
• The Army is the biggest participant in the first round of the Pentagon’s Replicator program. One system the Army was already working on made the cut for the initial round of the Replicator initiative. The program aims to field thousands of small, cheap drones. The service is already proposing several systems for the second round of the program. Assistant Secretary for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Doug Bush did not say which system was selected for the first round. Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Slife said the service’s programs are not mature enough for round one of the Replicator initiative.
  (National Security Innovation Base - Reagan Foundation)
• The Justice Department is advancing new standards for systems that underpin the Freedom of Information Act. DoJ is seeking comment on the first-ever FOIA business standards. Feedback is due by May 17. The standards are intended to help agencies coalesce around common FOIA services, while giving vendors a better idea of how to build FOIA case management systems. The federal government received a record number of FOIA requests last year. Many federal FOIA offices report that outdated and disjointed technology is among their greatest challenges.
  (RFI on federal integrated business framework standards - Federal Register )
• The largest military lifestyle survey has found that the number of military families encouraging young people to enlist has significantly dropped. At the same time, the number of families steering young people away from service has doubled since 2016. The military services have struggled to meet their recruitment goals in the last several years. Families not recommending service to their loved ones will further exacerbate the Pentagon’s recruitment crisis, as the majority of new recruits report having someone in the family who did serve.
  (Fewer active-duty families recommend service to young people - Federal News Network)
• The Army is adding a new approach to filling some of its uniformed personnel shortfalls: bringing back retirees. A message sent yesterday from the service’s deputy chief of staff for personnel, authorizes the use of the Army’s Retiree Recall Program to fill “key and critical” position vacancies. All of the recalls will be voluntary, and commands can request either specific retired soldiers to return to active duty, or issue requests to fill particular positions. The Army expects most of the recalls to last for one to two years, and two to three years for retired aviators.
  (Utilization of the Army Retiree Recall Program - U.S. Army)
• The IRS is looking to use artificial intelligence to conduct more targeted audits, but two House Republicans are trying to put a stop to that. Reps. Clay Higgins (R-La.) and Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) are leading the No AI Audits Act. The bill would require the IRS to select and initiate audits, based on decisions from its workforce, not AI algorithms. The bill would also limit the ability of the IRS to set AI guidance, without first setting clear taxpayer protections.
  (Higgins introduces legislation to restrict AI deployment in the IRS - Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.))
• A vast majority of agencies have been effectively offering Personal Assistance Services (PAS) for feds with disabilities. That has stayed true even in work environments with increased telework, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Agencies are legally required to have PAS programs to help staff with disabilities perform physical tasks. For the roughly 15% of agencies that are having trouble with the requirements, EEOC recommends discussing solutions in senior management meetings. EEOC said, when possible, agencies should also allocate additional staffing and funding to provide PAS accommodations.
  (The impact of telework on Personal Assistance Services - Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)

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• Union officials are urging Congress to provide more funding to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. BOP has spent years struggling with staff attrition, and safety and security issues. The American Federation of Government Employees said the fiscal 2024 budget for BOP, as part of the recent government funding deal, would only worsen the agency's current 40% staffing shortage. And AFGE warned that a 38% cut to funding for facility maintenance would make federal prisons more dangerous environments for both employees and inmates.
  (BOP needs more funding, not Less, to address security issues - American Federation of Government Employees)
• U.S. spy agencies are doubling down on efforts to harness open source intelligence. Intelligence agencies will explore new partnerships and reimagine relationships with industry to take better advantage of open source data. That is according to the intelligence community’s first-ever OSINT strategy released earlier this month. The effort is led by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency. The strategy said intelligence agencies will coordinate their open source data collection and expand their data sharing.
  (The IC OSINT strategy 2024-2026 - CIA)
• The Postal Service’s rate hikes on mail are driving away more customers than expected, according to a new report. USPS raised mail prices five times since 2020. That is when its regulator granted new pricing flexibility. USPS last raised mail prices in January, bringing the price of a first class stamp up to 68 cents. It may soon ask that regulator for a sixth price increase. But an industry study found that USPS saw a drop in mail revenue last year that was about $2 billion greater than expected. USPS recently told Congress that mail volume fell by more than 40% between 2007 and 2020 and that this trend will continue.
  (USPS mail price hikes driving away more customers than predicted, study finds - Federal News Network)
• How can agencies chip away at the monumental task of reforming human capital? A group of workforce experts has a few ideas. Agencies should target areas like recruitment of early-career talent and veterans. They can also look into strategies for reskilling employees in cyber and rehiring retired feds. Those are a few recommendations from a recent report on civil service reform from non-partisan organization Convergence. The report offers a blueprint using ideas and lessons learned from some agencies that have already been successful. In some cases, agencies can consider restarting pilot programs that were first launched several years ago.
  (Workforce cohort outlines specific ‘blueprint’ for civil service reform - Federal News Network)
• The Army is bringing back its AI competition. The latest contest is an opportunity for small businesses to share their disruptive AI technologies with the Defense Department. The contest is centered on Project Linchpin, the Army’s effort to create a pipeline of artificial intelligence. Participants will also have an opportunity to submit proposals for a Phase I or Direct to Phase II Army Small Business Innovation Research contract. White papers are due by May 17. Finalists will conduct an in-person demonstration of their solution at the 2024 AUSA annual meeting in October.
  (xTechScalable AI 2 offers cash prizes - xTech)
• In an effort to recruit and retain more service women, the Navy is standing up a women’s initiative team that will identify and tackle potential barriers women face across the service. The Office of Women’s Policy will oversee the team, which will report to the Office of Navy Culture and Force Resilience and to the deputy chief of Naval Operations for personnel, manpower and training. Communities and commands will designate officer and enlisted leads. Both men and women can hold leadership roles and participate in the women’s initiative team efforts.
  (Navy stands up women’s initiative team - U.S. Navy)
• A free online tax preparation tool run by the IRS is gaining momentum. The Treasury Department said more than 50,000 taxpayers have started or filed a tax return using the IRS’ Direct File platform. Taxpayers living in 12 states are eligible to use the platform to file their federal tax returns this year. The IRS is testing out Direct File this year in order to decide whether it should offer the platform in more states. The pilot program was launched using funding from the Inflation Reduction Act.
  (Join the IRS Direct File pilot - IRS Direct File )
• There is a new governmentwide website for sharing software security forms. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s repository for software attestation and artifacts went live this week. Federal software vendors can use the website to upload their software attestation forms and other documents. CISA finalized the attestation form earlier this month. Agencies will need to collect the form for all third-party software they use within the next six months.
  (CISA publishes repository for software attestation and artifacts - Federal News Network)

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