NASA Administrator Bill Nelson wants the Senate to boost NASA's funds as the space agency seeks to finance a second contractor for an existing lunar lander project, Space News reported Tuesday.

Nelson told the Senate Appropriations Committee that NASA needs more funds to promote competition in the Human Landing System (HLS) program, which seeks to produce a lunar lander and is currently awarded to SpaceX, the lowest bidder.

The fiscal year 2021 appropriations bill provided HLS $850 million, which is only one-fourth of NASA's request. Of this amount, $400 million was needed to finance work assigned to SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics.

Nelson, who became NASA administrator in May, suggested boosting funds through a jobs bill to allow for competition in the HLS program.

“The jobs bill is a way that you could fund NASA’s needs, not only for infrastructure but also for this additional money to try to give us the competitive proposition so that we can downselect two landers, at least,” he said.

Nelson stressed the HLS program's importance as a means to compete with China's growing space program. HLS's resulting lander would support NASA's Artemis program, which seeks to revive manned space exploration.

The U.S. and the European Union on Tuesday formed a Trade and Technology Council (TTC) to build up global cooperation on digital issues, technology and supply chains, work on international standards development and support collaborative research efforts.

The TTC will be composed of working groups focused on advancing cooperation on tech standards on artificial intelligence, the internet of things and other emerging technologies, ICT security, data governance, investment screening and semiconductors, the White House said Tuesday.

A senior administration official said Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai will co-chair the council, according to a report by The Hill.

The U.S. and EU also announced their intent to create a Joint Technology Competition Dialogue that would focus on strengthening cooperation in the tech sector with plans to pursue a research program on genomics and biotechnology and deepen collaboration on cybersecurity certification of software and data sharing on cyberthreats.

The EU and the U.S. announced the moves as part of the renewal of their transatlantic partnership during the U.S.-EU Summit held Tuesday in Brussels. They also outlined their specific plans for ending the COVID-19 pandemic and preparing for future health emergencies, advancing democracy and addressing climate change.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) come up with a comprehensive strategy for supply chain management to address its acquisition management-related issues and better meet the needs of veterans.

GAO made the recommendation after it found that each of VA’s initiatives to advance supply chain modernization and prepare for future public health crises faces delays, according to a report published Tuesday.

Those initiatives are the department’s replacement of its inventory management platform with the Defense Medical Logistics Standard Support system, establishment of four centers as central sources of critical medical supplies and planned participation in the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) program to ensure emergency access to critical supplies.

The congressional watchdog has provided VA with 49 recommendations to make improvements to its acquisition management since 2015. The department has addressed 22 of those recommendations, according to the report.

Tonya Ugoretz, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s cyber division, said the bureau and its industry partners need to piece together perspectives on cybersecurity incidents to prevent network attacks at agencies and companies, FedScoop reported Tuesday.

“The private sector holds valuable cyber threat intelligence that exists nowhere else,” Ugoretz told attendees at a virtual conference.

Industry submitted tips to the FBI regarding some large-scale breaches such as the SolarWinds hack.

Ugoretz said the bureau will continue efforts to analyze data and connect with other organizations as part of its cybersecurity mission.

President Biden’s fiscal 2022 budget request for the FBI includes $15.2 million to fund its Enterprise Security Operations Center and Cybersecurity Threat Assessment Program.

FBI Director Christopher Wray told The Wall Street Journal in a June 3 interview that the bureau was looking into 100 ransomware types and emphasized the importance of coordinated efforts to fight malicious threats.

“There’s a shared responsibility, not just across government agencies but across the private sector and even the average American,” Wray said.

The U.S. Navy is advancing the development of artificial intelligence applications to support warfighting, readiness, sustainment and other functions, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.

Brett Vaughan, the Navy’s chief AI officer and portfolio manager at the Office of Naval Research, discussed how AI could help the service in areas such as decision-making and autonomy with unmanned platforms.

He highlighted the need for users to work through the AI stack by ensuring that data, compute, models and other components of that ecosystem are present and healthy in order for an AI algorithm to work.

“And by the inverse, if any of those are missing or deficient, you’ve got a toxic ecosystem and — the probability of success for your AI algorithm would decrease,” he said on FNN’s Federal Monthly Insights — Cloud and Artificial Intelligence. 

“So the stack looks very different inside the Pentagon than it does on the bridge of a ship in the middle of Pacific Ocean, as you could imagine. So there’s a continuum,” said Vaughan. 

Vaughan also noted the potential role of cloud or a high-performance computing platform in training an AI algorithm.

Jennifer Granholm, secretary at the Department of Energy, told a Senate committee that DOE wants to elevate the organizational structure of its cybersecurity, energy security and emergency response (CESER) office, FCW reported Tuesday.

She said at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing Tuesday that the department also looks to equip CESER with first responder platforms and intends to keep career officials in the office leadership.

"What we'd like to do is to strengthen CESER by elevating it to be a directorate position, but not subject to who's in and who's out, a professional group that is trusted," Granholm added.

The department seeks to help electric utility operators defend power infrastructure against sophisticated threats as part of its 100-day coordinated effort with the private sector and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). 

President Biden's fiscal 2022 DOE budget request includes $642 million for the department's cybersecurity programs, up 42 percent from the enacted FY 2021 funding level. 

The National Guard Bureau enlisted the help of Verizon to deploy more than 100 communication technologies for an ongoing first responder training exercise at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin. 

The company said Tuesday that its response team is using the Verizon Frontline mobile network and technology to provide on-demand communications support to participants in the National Guard's PATRIOT 21 event.

Verizon platforms deployed at the exercise include the Response Satellite Pico-cell on a Trailer, manually aimed satellites and antenna technologies.

The Verizon Response Team sets up Wi-Fi hotspots, portable cellular sites and other communications and network equipment to support emergency response missions.

In a separate announcement, the National Guard said more than 1,000 from both the public and private sectors are taking part in the four-week event that kicked off Monday.

The exercise features simulated scenarios designed to test the abilities of military and civilian personnel to operate in the event of a natural or a manmade disaster.

A new U.S. Navy self-sufficiency program is teaching sailors how to address fiber-optic issues onboard a ship traveling far from shore.

The Naval Sea Systems Command said Monday that the Fiber Optics Test and Repair (FOTR) program will certify fiber technicians and verify their capability to resolve problems in shipboard infrastructure while deployed.

Under the FOTR effort, sailors will receive initial fiber instruction from schoolhouses in San Diego, California, and Norfolk, Virginia, for their certification. They must then renew their certification every 18 months through an inspector from the program lead Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division.

"This program reduces the risk of a situation where the equipment is down or the ship is without warfighting capabilities because of a fiber optic issue," explained Matt Castel, the head of the Navy's Fiber Technology and Interconnect Branch.

Master Chief Terry Russell, a key member of the program's working group, added that the COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the need for such a program that has long been an interest among the fleet.

The FOTR program held a pilot in the latter part of  2020, during which officials verified the fiber training and proficiency of fiber technicians onboard five ships from the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group.

"We’re already seeing the return on investment as ships have been able to repair major system causalities on their own utilizing the fiber training and program we have stood up," said Russell.

Naval officials credited a similar circuit board self-sufficiency effort, the microminiature electronics repair program, for the fast deployment of the FOTR.