The Senate voted 68-32 to pass bipartisan legislation that would authorize nearly $250 billion for scientific research, technology development and manufacturing efforts meant to increase U.S.’ global competitive position, NBC News reported Tuesday.

The U.S. Innovation and Competition Act calls for domestic investments in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, chip technology and space exploration as the federal government works to address rising competition from China.

“This legislation addresses key elements that were included in my American Jobs Plan, and I am encouraged by this bipartisan effort to advance those elements separately through this bill,” President Biden said.

“As other countries continue to invest in their own research and development, we cannot risk falling behind.  America must maintain its position as the most innovative and productive nation on Earth.”

The bill would allocate a five-year. $29 billion budget to establish a technology and innovation directorate within the National Science Foundation (NSF) and another $52.7 billion to incentivize domestic semiconductor manufacturing work.

House lawmakers will take up their version of the legislation following the Senate approval.

The Biden administration will form a supply chain disruptions task force to help address short-term supply chain challenges and address near-term mismatches between supply and demand in areas such as semiconductors, construction and agriculture.

The establishment of the new task force is one of the recommendations outlined in the 100-day supply chain review reports released in accordance with an executive order signed by President Biden in Feb. 2021, the White House said Tuesday.

The compilation of four reviews submitted to the president contains recommendations that are divided into six categories, including rebuilding production and innovation capabilities, supporting the development of markets that invest in workers, value sustainability and drive quality and leveraging the government’s role as a purchaser of and investor in critical goods.

The White House outlined some of the initiatives it has started to address vulnerabilities in U.S. supply chains. These include collaboration with semiconductor companies to identify improvement in supply chain management practices, the administration’s efforts to address cyber threats to U.S. supply chains and critical infrastructure and the Department of Defense’s announcement to invest in a rare earth element processing company.

The administration also cited specific actions federal agencies will carry out to help secure the domestic supply chain for advanced batteries, support domestic production of critical medicines, address semiconductor shortages and support U.S. workers and innovation.

The FBI employed a mobile communications platform and collaborated with foreign law enforcement agencies in a global sting operation that led to more than 800 arrests of crime network members across 16 countries.

The bureau and its international partners monitored transnational criminal activity using the encrypted Anom messaging system as part of Operation Trojan Shield, with participation from Europol’s Operational Task Force, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.

Authorities covertly tracked approximately 27 million messages from more than 12,000 Anom devices sold to alleged crime syndicates who were not aware of the investigative work and communicated illegal activities with the technology.

“This was an unprecedented operation in terms of its massive scale, innovative strategy and technological and investigative achievement,” said Randy Grossman, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California.

“We aim to shatter any confidence in the hardened encrypted device industry with our indictment and announcement that this platform was run by the FBI.”

The Anom-based investigation began in 2018 after the FBI lawfully shuttered Phantom Secure, a Canadian encrypted device vendor found guilty of helping criminal users secretly communicate to evade law enforcement detection.

A federal grand jury in San Diego indicted 17 foreign nationals Tuesday for the distribution of communication devices to suspected criminal syndicates following a two-day global takedown.

Police forces in Australia, Sweden, Lithuania and the Netherlands took part in the effort.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recommended that the Department of Defense (DOD) come up with a reporting strategy to enhance oversight of weapon systems developed using multiple pathways.

GAO conducted its annual assessment of DOD’s weapon programs and found that the Pentagon’s new acquisition framework enables program managers to implement one or more of six acquisition pathways, including middle-tier acquisition and major capability acquisition pathways, according to a report published Tuesday.

The lack of a reporting strategy “not only limits DOD's visibility into these programs but also hinders the quality of its congressional reporting and makes the full cost and schedule of the eventual weapon system more difficult to ascertain,” the GAO report reads.

The congressional watchdog also found that 16 major defense acquisition programs exhibited delays in schedule due in part to poor system performance and test or delivery delays.

Most of those programs do not consistently plan to acquire product knowledge that could help speed up delivery of weapons systems and reduce costs, according to GAO.

The Department of Defense (DOD) demonstrated a potential $90 million 5G network prototype for a smart warehouse that is set to be deployed at Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany in Georgia once completed. 

The 5G network prototype used the 380 megahertz of spectrum in the mid-band and mmWave to deliver downloads of 1.5 Gbps with sub-15-millisecond latency during the Smart Warehouse Technology Early Capabilities Demonstration as part of the department’s 5G-to-Next G Initiative, DOD said Tuesday.

The prototype is designed to adhere to the department’s requirements for zero-trust architecture and is based on the next generation of Open Radio Network standards. The demonstration is part of the Tranche 1 of 5G projects. 

In Oct. 2020, the Pentagon awarded $600 million to 15 companies to support 5G experimentation at five U.S. military bases or Tranche 1 sites, including Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany and Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington.

“This is a unique opportunity to apply the latest 5G technologies to a traditional but mission-critical support area for our warfighters. Warehousing and logistical support is the lifeline for the Marine’s Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations,” John Larson, the prototype’s program manager at Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic. 

Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany will field the prototype as a private 5G network once completed and will use up to 750 MHz of bandwidth to support operations.

If you’re interested in 5G and its integration's impact on public and private sectors, then check out the Potomac Officers Club’s Fall 2021 5G Summit coming up on Sept. 16. To register for this virtual forum and view other upcoming events, visit the POC Events page.

Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) has created its own office that would help both the U.S. Space Force and U.S. Air Force pursue digital transformation.

AFMC said Tuesday that its new Digital Transformation Office (DTO) will manage digital transformation across the USAF-USSF enterprise and establish a structure for digital governance. Twelve personnel compose DTO, which will operate under AFMC’s Engineering and Technical Management Directorate.

“This office is the first organization that will stand up from an enterprise-wide perspective to address digital needs with a long-term perspective in mind,” said James Kyle Hurst, director of the Digital Engineering Enterprise Office within the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Science, Technology and Engineering.

Hurst will go on to serve as DTO’s branch chief. He also said DTO will work across the entire Department of the Air Force, despite operating from AFMC.

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released a platform through which agencies may report cyber vulnerability information that ethical hackers would use to identify and assess system flaws, Fedscoop reported Tuesday.

CISA's new vulnerability disclosure platform supports a 2020 directive that asks agencies to report cybersecurity issues and verify applicable testing methods.

Civilian agencies may use the platform to address cyber vulnerabilities in cooperation with civilian ethical hackers. EnDyna and Bugcrowd, a pair of government contractors, will administer the platform with the help of CISA's quality service management office.

Agencies must also establish a process that accommodates anonymous vulnerability reporting, according to the directive.