Civilian

NASA and France’s national aerospace research center, ONERA, will collaborate on a study to predict the landfall location of sonic booms from aircraft flights. The research agreement, signed at the 2018 Farnborough International Airshow in the U.K., will support efforts meant to develop supersonic over-land passenger flights, NASA said Wednesday. …

Margaret Weichert, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, said at a Senate panel hearing Wednesday the Trump administration will start its government reorganization effort with transferring authority of security clearances and standardizing cyber jobs, Nextgov reported Wednesday. She told Senate Homeland Security Committee members the White …

The Government Accountability Office has called on Congress and the White House to ask several questions that could help evaluate reform efforts of federal agencies. GAO said in a report published Friday those questions are divided into four categories: goals and outcomes; process for reform developments; reform implementation; and strategic management of the …

Sen. Roger Wicker and Commissioner Brendan Carr have announced that the Federal Communications Commission intends to run a $100 million pilot program that aims to provide telehealth services for low-income U.S. citizens. The Connected Care Pilot Program will focus on providing healthcare for veterans and Americans residing in rural areas, FCC said Wednesday. The …

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., has proposed the establishment of a single agency for the federal government’s inspectors general, Federal News Radio reported. Heitkamp said an independent IG agency would give investigative officials more freedom to perform agency audits and should function as an extension of the Government Accountability Office and Congress. Her proposal …

The House Energy and Commerce Committee has asked the Environmental Protection Agency whether it uses internal controls to oversee its contractor workforce. The committee wrote in a Tuesday letter to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt that reports by the Government Accountability Office and the EPA’s inspector general office cited gaps in …

John Foertschbeck, a senior adviser at the Social Security Administration‘s Office of Systems Operations and Hardware Engineering, has said adopting a hybrid cloud computing infrastructure will help the agency manage its footprint on mainframe systems, FedScoop reported Friday. SSA aims to migrate information technology applications to public and private cloud …

The Project on Government Oversight has called on the Treasury Department and the Office of Management and Budget to update the functionality of a web-based resource for federal spending information. Both agencies should work to address data search filter, presentation and reporting concerns related to USAspending.gov, the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization said in a …

Andrew Wheeler will take over as acting head of the Environmental Protection Agency following the resignation of EPA Chief Scott Pruitt, CNN reported Thursday. Pruitt resigned from his position following 13 federal investigations looking into a variety of ethics scandals at the agency, the New York Times said. Wheeler, who …

The Commerce Department’s inspector general has commenced a year-long audit to assess how the First Responder Network Authority oversees the development of a national public safety broadband network through a contract awarded to AT&T, Reuters reported Friday. AT&T secured a potential $6.5 billion contract in March 2017 to build and …