
Coast Guard Rear Adm. Douglas Fears, formerly senior director for resilience policy at the National Security Council, has been named homeland security and counterterrorism adviser and deputy assistant to President Donald Trump.
âFears brings more than three decades of experience across a range of vital homeland security areas including counterterrorism, cybersecurity and disaster response to the NSC,â National Security Adviser John Bolton said in a statement published Friday.
Bolton added that Fears will also serve as his point person on matters related to the NSCâs cybersecurity directorate and help coordinate disaster response interagency efforts.
Fears previously served as special assistant to the president and chief of staff to the head of the Coast Guard Atlantic Area Command.
He will succeed Tom Bossert, who resigned as homeland security adviser in April.
Related Articles
Team Atlanta has claimed the top spot in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s AI Cyber Challenge, or AIxCC, securing $4 million in prize money for its artificial intelligence-driven cyber reasoning system. The team, including experts from Georgia Tech, Samsung Research and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology, outperformed six other finalists in the two-year competition aimed at creating AI systems capable of autonomously detecting and patching vulnerabilities of open-source software, particularly those used in critical infrastructure, including financial systems, public utilities and the health care ecosystem, DARPA said. The agency partnered with AI industry leaders Anthropic, Google,
The Federal Communications Commission has appointed Andy Hendrickson as the chief of its Office of Engineering and Technology. Hendrickson is transitioning from his former post of chief technology officer at the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, the commission said Thursday. As OET head, Hendrickson will serve as FCC’s principal technical adviser on spectrum policy, equipment authorization and keeping regulatory standards apace with the rapid changes in the communications sector, FCC noted. According to his LinkedIn profile, Hendrickson joined the FCC Enforcement Bureau as CTO in October 2024, taking the task of guiding field operations. In his previous role, he also provided the
President Donald Trump has issued an executive order aimed at overhauling the federal government’s grantmaking process. New EO to Prevent Tax Dollars Wastage According to the president Thursday, the new EO aims to end “offensive waste of tax dollars” by establishing a new review process to determine whether grants prioritize national interest. Under the presidential directive, each federal agency will have a senior political appointee tasked with evaluating every funding opportunity announcement and grant award to ensure it will benefit Americans and align with agency priorities. The EO permits the termination of grants that are not consistent with agency priorities, national