Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), the chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), head of the Subcommittee on Government Operations, wrote a letter to House leadership, requesting a $9 billion emergency injection into the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), under the next COVID-19 relief package.

“Without modern and nimble IT systems, the federal government cannot deliver critical payments and services to individuals, families, and businesses who rely on them,” the letter stated. The letter was also signed by Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Eleanor Holmes Norton, (D-D.C.), Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), John Sarbanes (D-Md.), Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) and Ro Khanna, (D-Calif.)

The letter noted that government networks will remain vulnerable if legacy systems continue to be neglected. It also stated that antiquated IT networks have contributed to the slow pandemic response, such as dispersing stimulus benefits and COVID-19 data tracking.

“We must begin to address IT investments now, or we will continue down the same path as before unable to deliver critical services to the public at a time when our country needs it the most,” the letter added.

Previous COVID-19 relief packages initially included billions of dollars in funding for the TMF; however, it was later cut from the final bill. The fund was created in 2017 for high-priority modernization projects across federal agencies. The TMF had $150 million appropriated to it to date. 

President Biden recently announced his support of the TMF, prior to taking office. Biden’s transition team called for giving the TMF $9 billion to launch shared IT and cybersecurity services across the government. 

Biden’s plan has also budgeted for $200 million to increase the hiring of cybersecurity experts “to support the federal Chief Information Security Officer and U.S. Digital Service” and $300 million for “no-year funding” to support the General Services Administration (GSA) Technology Transformation Services (TTS) team.

He projected an additional $690 million to help the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) “bolster cybersecurity across federal civilian networks, and support the piloting of new shared security and cloud computing services.”

Avaya has made its OneCloud CCaaS and OneCloud CPaaS portfolios available with Avaya AI Virtual Agent Enhanced, the company reported on Wednesday. The company’s AI Virtual Agent will deliver human-like automation features that will work to improve customer experience and contact center efficiency.

The company’s new AI capability will leverage Google Cloud Dialogflow CX, and is part of Avaya’s ongoing integration of Google Cloud’s Contact Center AI (CCAI). The combination of Avaya AI innovation and Google Cloud CCAI will deliver enhanced experience for users by uniting automated and assisted experiences throughout a customer’s interaction with the contact center.

“Avaya and Google Cloud are delivering AI innovation that is making organizations more agile, more responsive and more capable of meeting the needs of today’s ‘everything customer’,” said Eric Rossman, Avaya VP of Technology Partners and Alliances.

Avaya Virtual Agent Enhanced will improve customer experience through more natural and context-driven interactions. The adoption of enhanced virtual agents, delivered by Avaya and Google Cloud, will also drive more effective customer interaction.

Avaya OneCloud CCaaS contact center solutions will support customer experience centers to better connect and support touch points across the customers’ missions, including voice, video, chat, messaging, and social. The company will leverage AI, insights, knowledge and resources to improve customer and employee experience.

Avaya OneCloud CPaaS will enable organizations to build the experiences and communications-enable apps by delivering workflow integration. The company will support these apps with integration to Google Cloud Dialogflow CX. Avaya OneCloud CPaaS will help build applications faster, supporting SMS, MMS, voice, messaging, and digital channels.

“Our strength in delivering AI continues to drive growth in our cloud solutions, and is making a real difference for our customers,” Rossman added.

The Department of Health and Human Services has unveiled an enterprise strategy to advance the development and application of artificial intelligence across common mission areas in an effort to meet the evolving needs of U.S. citizens.

The HHS AI Strategy calls for the department to establish an AI council to help communicate the department’s AI vision and ambition and implement the enterprise strategy and strategic priorities with regard to the technology.

The HHS AI Council will specifically set and carry out priorities, cultivate partnerships with public and private entities, provide governance support and sponsor a community of practice comprised of AI practitioners.

Nextgov reported a chair and co-chair will lead the AI Council as it implements the strategic priorities in the document. Oki Mek, recently named chief AI officer at HHS, said he will serve as the council’s co-chair and the chair will be a senior official who will report directly to the HHS secretary.

Operating and staff division leaders across the department will comprise the rest of the council.

“AI Council members should be deeply familiar with the mission and operations of their respective Op/StaffDiv and have demonstrated experience with or interest in artificial intelligence,” Mek said. “The composition of the AI Council should include a variety of both technical and non-technical perspectives.” 

The council will identify and back priority initiatives within four key focus areas: develop an AI-ready workforce and strengthen AI culture; encourage health AI innovation and research and development; democratize foundational AI tools and resources; and promote ethical, trustworthy AI use and development.

“This strategy lays the foundation upon which the AI Council can use to drive change across the Department by encouraging the application of AI to promote advances in the sciences, public health, and social services—improving the quality of life for all Americans,” the document reads.

Army Gen. James Dickinson, commander of U.S. Space Command (SPACECOM), said he supports a plan for the Department of Commerce (DOC) to take over space traffic management responsibilities to enable Space Command to focus on monitoring space activities that have an impact on national security, SpaceNews reported Tuesday.

Dickinson said his command and the department have been collaborating in the past two years to come up with a plan for the transition. He also cited the country’s need for an equivalent of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that would be responsible for ensuring safety in the space domain.

Dickinson said he supports the transfer of space traffic control to the Department of Commerce “where it can be better managed,” he said.  That would allow Space Command to focus on tracking space activities that affect national security.

“Our orbital regimes are becoming much more congested,” he said Tuesday during a Mitchell Institute virtual event. “Most of it is either space debris or commercial activity. And as we look to the future that’s only going to get more congested.” 

The U.S. Army seeks to further develop its network capabilities with the planned fielding of new communications equipment across multiple brigade combat teams.The service branch said Monday it will continue integrated tactical network development after the completion of handheld and man-packable radio tests for Capability Set 21st, a package of modern network technologies.

The 173rd Airborne Brigade, operating in Vicenza, Italy, will receive the next CS21 delivery as one of four initial fielding brigades. Brig. Gen. Robert Collins, head of the Army's Program Executive Office for Command, Control and Communications-Tactical or PEO C3T, said the Army will distribute CS21 kits to five more brigades in fiscal year 2022.

The Germany-based 2nd Cavalry Regiment will be the first of five to receive the next batch of kits.

“As we are getting ready to pivot to multi-domain operations, we realize the importance of not only having a tactical, capable force, but also having our expeditionary signal battalion enhanced and [continuing] to refresh our ESBs,” Collins said at a virtual conference of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association's Northern Virginia Chapter.

The Army will also continue to develop Capability Set 23, a prototype technology package designed to boost network convergence, resiliency and capacity. CS23's further development will build on CS21 and future Project Convergence exercises.

Maj. Gen. Pete Gallagher, director of the Army's Network Cross-Functional Team, said the service wants to become a multi-domain capable force by 2028 with the help of CS23.