President Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to declare a national emergency to help address the threat posed by the country’s dependence on critical minerals from foreign adversaries to U.S. national security, economy and foreign policy.

The executive order directs the secretary of the Department of the Interior to work with other secretaries with other federal agencies to investigate the country’s reliance on critical minerals from adversaries and submit a report on the investigation within 60 days.

The report should “recommend executive action, which may include the imposition of tariffs or quotas, other import restrictions against China and other non-market foreign adversaries whose economic practices threaten to undermine the health, growth, and resiliency of the United States, or other appropriate action, consistent with applicable law,” the document reads.

The secretary of the State Department should hand over to the executive branch a report that details planned and existing initiatives and policy options to establish resilient critical mineral supply chains, reduce the country’s vulnerability to the disruption of those supply chains and promote responsible minerals sourcing, business practices and labor.

The policy also calls for the secretary of the Department of Energy (DOE) to come up with guidance “clarifying the extent to which projects that support domestic supply chains for minerals are eligible for loan guarantees pursuant to Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005."

Cynthia Mendoza, chief architect at the intelligence community, said the reference architecture framework (RAF) seeks to be a “cradle to grave” model that could enable IC to implement information technology programs through standard integration and business approaches, Federal News Network reported Thursday.

“Today, the RAF has advanced interoperability and safeguarding in three foundational areas. I like to call these the bedrock: Collaboration services, identity, credential and access management and the data reference architecture,” Mendoza said on the network’s Ask the CIO. 

“These foundational architectures provide collaboration capabilities and tools across our community shared space. The RAF success in the IC has been promulgated globally to the Five Eyes enterprise with our international partners as well.”

She cited the importance of building trust across the community’s IT enterprise and described RAF as a people process.

“It begins with developing a stakeholder engagement strategy that is inclusive of all the key enterprise stakeholders and together we focus on a gap,” she said of the framework.

The CIO Council has partnered with ACT-IAC to update a framework intended to help agencies improve transparency and financial management in their information technology initiatives.

The IT spending maturity model comes as part of a joint effort between the council’s Federal Technology Investment Management (FTIM) community of practice (CoP) and ACT-IAC’s IT Management and Modernization (ITMM) community of interest (CoI), FTIM CoP said Wednesday.

ACT-IAC and the CIO Council’s free model works to visualize IT spending and quantify metrics for financial management while ensuring compliance with Technology Business Management (TBM) standards.

Both government and commercial best practices were also considered as part of the tool’s development, according to FTIM CoP. Modernization ofthe spending model comes as part of efforts to address a directive under the Federal Data Strategy 2020 Action Plan to improve standards for financial management data.

The U.S. Space Force is providing alternative contracting methods through which technology companies may secure opportunities more easily, Space News reported Wednesday. Col. Eric Felt, director of the Air Force Research Laboratory's space vehicles directorate, said at AFWERX's EngageSpace event that his group is searching for technologies that have dual uses.

Companies interested in addressing this need may apply for cooperative research and development agreements, an alternative contracting method that provides companies access to government expertise, mentorship and facilities, Felt said.

“We can do testing and evaluation, and give you advice on how to mature your technology," he said. Felt added that AFRL allows companies to directly engage with government customers to provide more insight into market preferences.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has offered a $50,000 prize pool for novel approaches that employ artificial intelligence to detect circular-shaped elements in satellite images. 

NGA said Monday that it is seeking automated approaches that can trace, delineate and describe circles in satellite imagery as part of the Circle Finder challenge. The agency cited fuel storage tanks, agricultural irrigation areas, traffic circles and fountains as examples of circular features.

"This particular challenge is difficult because many circular features are not going to be perfectly circular nor similar in size," said Jack Brandy, geospatial intelligence capabilities integration officer at NGA.

"The difficulty lies in an algorithm’s ability to property identify any size circular object while rejecting obfuscating elements that could prevent proper detection," added Brandy.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) plans to continue testing and training for the updated electronic health records (EHR) system ahead of its scheduled launch date at the end of the month. The VA intends to roll out the Cerner-developed EHR system at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center by Oct. 24th as part of the capability set 1.1 increment, Nextgov reported Wednesday.

John Windom, executive director of the VA Office of EHR Modernization (OEHRM), said at a recent House hearing that the COVID-19 pandemic “caused a shift in the VA’s health care operations” and that OEHRM sought to execute a nonintrusive modernization process.

He noted that his office has completed infrastructure readiness requirements for the new EHR at the Spokane, Washington medical facility and concluded prerequisite procedures for the go-live.

“The remaining key milestones are on schedule to be executed in advance of Mann-Grandstaff go-live, which will further hone governance, configuration management, as well as solidify processes,” said Windom.

The VA is slated to launch the EHR capability set 2.0 in spring 2021.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that federal agencies “varied in their efforts” to execute category management procedures to prevent duplication in information technology contracts.

GAO said in a recently published report that most of the seven agencies it reviewed had fully or partially implemented activities recommended by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to prevent, identify and reduce IT contract duplications. Three agencies had not implemented spend analysis procedures in line with the OMB-recommended practices, the watchdog noted.

According to GAO, contract duplication occurs when agencies award two or more contracts to the same vendor or different vendors offering similar products or services. Duplication also occurs when agencies issue new contracts for projects that could be categorized under contract vehicles. 

Agencies reported a significant amount of savings resulting from category management practices, while others cited challenges such as ongoing efforts to establish strategies for integrating such activities into agency operations, GAO noted.

“Until agencies ensure that their efforts to prevent, identify, and reduce duplicative IT contracts are fully aligned with category management principles and practices, and are informed by spend analyses, they will be at increased risk of wasteful spending,” the report states.