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TMF Funds Modernization of 2 Critical Federal Agencies
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TMF Funds Modernization of 2 Critical Federal Agencies

The Technology Modernization Fund has invested a total of $19.7 million in the modernization of two federal agencies to enhance their services.

The U.S. General Services Administration said Tuesday the TMF will award $18.3 million to the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, while the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, or EOIR, will receive $1.34 million.

Office of Personnel Management Modernization

OPM is a government agency in charge of human resources for the federal government. It handles the retirement benefits of millions of federal employees, retirees and their families. The investment intends to modernize the agency’s outdated retirement system.

The current system utilizes old software that incurs high maintenance costs and is vulnerable to cyberattacks and other threats. Through the investment, OPM will migrate from its legacy systems to a modern infrastructure. This development is intended to reduce maintenance costs and boost the agency’s customer experience.

Enhancing the Executive Office for Immigration Review

EOIR is an agency under the DOJ that oversees the nation’s immigration court system. The TMF investment aims to boost immigration case processing by modernizing the agency’s legacy case management system, which still utilizes manual processes for document intake, address changes and other critical tasks.

The agency will enhance parts of its current case management system and backend databases to enable document intake automation and an address change system integration to allow information-sharing between Department of Homeland Security agencies. 

Federal Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana, TMF Board chair and 2022 Wash100 Award winner, said, “These investments will be transformative for the public, as well as the federal workforce, enabling them to work smarter and deliver greater impact with taxpayer dollars.”

Robin Carnahan, General Services Administration administrator, stated, “TMF investments are helping agencies adopt modern, secure systems that reduce costs while delivering the essential services people need.”

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Navy Designates Service Desk & Cloud Offerings as Enterprise IT
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Navy Designates Service Desk & Cloud Offerings as Enterprise IT

The assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition and the Department of the Navy chief information officer have designated Naval Enterprise Service Desk, or NESD, as the naval enterprise IT service for service desk capabilities and support, and designated COSMOS as the naval enterprise IT service for Amazon Web Services GovCloud for DON research, development, test and evaluation missions that require acquisition and consumption of cloud services.

Table of Contents

NESD & COSMOS

Managed by the Program Executive Office for Digital and Enterprise Services, NESD is a centralized support center powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning. For its part, COSMOS is an AWS Impact Level 4/5 unclassified GovCloud environment that enables users to self-onboard, build and secure non-production workloads. Managed by the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific Service Center, COSMOS adheres to a zero trust security model.

Enterprise IT Services

NESD and COSMOS are two of four enterprise IT services designated by DON CIO Jane Rathbun. Such services or service offerings are mature technologies that can be paired with appropriate use cases.

“Enterprise information technology services are a huge force multiplier: these services allow our entire enterprise the ability to do more for less with greater security, quality and speed,” Rathbun, a 2024 Wash100 awardee, said.

The designations of NESD and COSMOS are part of the DON’s overall efforts to transition from isolated, duplicative IT functions toward enterprise IT capabilities.

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Cyber Guide Outlines Telecom Deterrence Against China-Linked Hackers
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Cyber Guide Outlines Telecom Deterrence Against China-Linked Hackers

The National Security Agency, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have collaborated with their counterparts in Australia, Canada and New Zealand in developing a telecommunication industry cybersecurity guidance to deter China-linked malicious actors. 

The defensive measures in the nine-page cybersecurity information sheet call for stronger system visibility through a detailed understanding of network traffic, data flow and user activity, NSA said Tuesday. 

The guidance, titled “Enhanced Visibility and Hardening Guidance for Communications Infrastructure,” may also be useful to organizations using enterprise equipment on-premise, the agency added.

Proactive Cyber Defense Approaches 

Dave Luber, NSA cybersecurity director, pointed out that vigilance is crucial in network defense.  “Always have eyes on your systems and patch and address known vulnerabilities before they become targets,” he stressed.

To enhance visibility for systems at network perimeters, the guidance suggests a log for all configuration and connection changes, along with alerts on any unexpected activity. The guide also recommends several best practices to tighten telecom companies’ cybersecurity, through such measures as securing password use and storage, timely patching and upgrading of devices and closing all unused, unverified or unencrypted protocols.  

Specific hardening approaches were recommended to disable Cisco operating systems that were previously targets of China-affiliated hackers.

Inside VA’s $369B FY 2025 Budget
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Inside VA’s $369B FY 2025 Budget

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has requested a budget of $369.3 billion for fiscal year 2025 — a $32.9 billion increase from the previous year’s budget — to improve healthcare resources and the delivery of benefits to veterans.

At the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Healthcare Summit on Dec. 11, you can gain insight into how VA officials plan to enhance care and benefits for veterans while reshaping the healthcare sector through impactful initiatives. The 2024 Healthcare Summit will feature world-class healthcare officials, so secure your ticket for the 2024 Healthcare Summit and become a part of the conversation now!

Inside VA’s $369B FY 2025 Budget

The VA’s FY 2025 budget request includes substantial investments in technical services, including IT and artificial intelligence. The budget also emphasizes supporting veterans’ mental and physical well-being by investing in modernized healthcare.

VA Secretary Dennis McDonough said, “We still have a lot of work to do. The President’s proposed budget fully funds VA so we can continue doing that important work. That work is also about preventing Veteran suicide, ending Veteran homelessness, supporting health care for women vets, modernizing our IT systems, processing benefits, and honoring vets with eternal resting places.”

VA Budget Key Efforts

VA’s Electronic Health Record

The VA’s 2025 budget request includes $894 million for the veterans’ electronic health record, or EHR. The EHR stores patient information and connects VA medical facilities with critical agencies, including the Department of Defense, which allows healthcare providers to efficiently access a veteran’s complete medical history in one centralized location.

The department launched an Electronic Health Record Modernization program reset in April 2023 to address federal EHR-related issues found at five VA health facilities during initial examination periods.

The VA plans to invest $375 million in the federal EHR contract for the upcoming year to address clinicians’ issues and support healthcare deployment strategies that optimize resources throughout procedures.

VA’s Requests for IT & AI

With increased IT efforts, investments in capabilities like AI have become increasingly vital to the VA. The department has requested $6.2 billion for IT systems and $10 million for AI research and development.

The VA aims to advance AI research through innovative procedures in data science, implementation science, systems science and science of veteran and other stakeholder engagement to develop biomedical acumen in operational practice.

Learn more about how the VA plans to implement AI and various IT services throughout the healthcare landscape at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Healthcare Summit on Dec.11. Reserve your spot for the 2024 Healthcare Summit before it’s too late!

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House Bill Seeks to Improve Transparency in AI Systems
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House Bill Seeks to Improve Transparency in AI Systems

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., has introduced a bill that seeks to improve transparency in artificial intelligence by requiring market and banking regulators to study and assess current labeling practices on products, tools and services that use AI and offer recommendations to Congress based on those practices.

What Would the Bill Do?

The proposed Responsible AI Disclosure Act of 2024 would direct the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other financial regulatory agencies to conduct a study on how companies categorize AI data and train AI models.

The proposed measure would require each agency to submit to Congress a report containing findings from the study and recommendations on whether additional regulations should be implemented concerning AI labels and disclosures.

The legislation introduced by the House Financial Services Committee’s ranking member would also allow agencies to require the companies they oversee to report on the data used to train AI systems.

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Army Expects Pay System on Oracle Cloud to Go Live by 2027
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Army Expects Pay System on Oracle Cloud to Go Live by 2027

The U.S. Army is preparing to move its personnel and pay system to Oracle’s cloud platform and expects the cloud-based system to be operational by December 2027, Defense One reported Wednesday.

In October, Oracle announced that the military branch will migrate its Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army, also known as IPPS-A, to the company’s U.S. Defense Cloud under a task order awarded through the Department of Defense’s Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract, or JWCC.

Oracle is one of the four companies that won spots on the potential $9 billion JWCC contract awarded in 2022.

Kim Lynch, executive vice president for Oracle’s government defense and intelligence business, called the task order the “biggest competitively awarded JWCC contract” so far.

“So that has been a huge win for us,” added the 2024 Wash100 awardee.

According to the report, Oracle must develop a secure environment to host data, applications and services before commencing the cloud migration effort.

“The awarded task order allows the team to conduct parallel operations in building an Oracle Broker Landing Zone environment at the Army level and the operating environments for the IPPS-A tenancy,” a spokesperson for the Army said. “This step is critical to lay the necessary framework for migration of the IPPS-A system and its associated environments.”

What Is IPPS-A?

IPPS-A is an online platform that the Army uses to manage personnel, recruitment and soldiers’ medical files.

The platform seeks to eliminate more than 300 interfaces and integrate over 30 existing systems to deliver visibility over the entire force and improve access and auditability of personnel and pay information across the organization.

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DIU, USCG Deliver Wireless Maritime Comms Technology
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DIU, USCG Deliver Wireless Maritime Comms Technology

The Defense Innovation Unit has collaborated with the U.S. Coast Guard and a private company to develop a wireless communication technology for maritime operations under the Wireless Crew project.

The collaborative effort selected Denmark’s INVISIO in June 2022 to prototype communications equipment that can be deployed in various operational settings, DIU said Monday. INVISIO advanced the hardware and met government requirements by incorporating input from several operational uses and challenges during the prototyping process.

Technology Testing and Evaluation

The USCG then conducted a final operational test and evaluation of the Wireless Crew system in early November in Portsmouth, Virginia. During the test, the equipment was assessed using different real-world and training scenarios to validate its multi-mission functionality.

The result is a system that is intended to provide reliable communication under extreme conditions and enhance situational awareness, operational efficiency and crew safety during challenging missions, according to USCG Operations Specialist Chief Petty Officer Eric Wells.

System Attributes

USCG Boatswain’s Mate Chief Petty Officer William Campbell added that the capability features a modern user interface and excellent battery life, ensuring that it will provide sustained communication excellence to crews for an extended time.

DIU noted that the Wireless Crew project’s success proved that partnership is critical to prototype and deliver cutting-edge technology that can be produced immediately.

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OFPP Suggests Practices to Promote Small Business Subcontracting Opportunities
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OFPP Suggests Practices to Promote Small Business Subcontracting Opportunities

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy within the White House Office of Management and Budget has released a memorandum highlighting governmentwide regulatory requirements and management practices that can be implemented by chief acquisition officers and senior procurement executives at agencies to help improve access of small businesses to federal subcontracting opportunities.

In a memo published Friday, OFPP said contracting officers should work with small business specialists to determine opportunities for subcontracting and assess an offeror’s performance in meeting its past small business subcontracting plan goals to predict the chances of achieving goals on the new subcontracting plan.

Other pre-award practices that agency contracting officials can adopt are considering subcontracting incentive strategies to help strengthen the supplier base, broadening the use of small business participation evaluation factors and strengthening the small business supplier base for research and development by considering a preference for Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer subcontractors.

Post-Award Considerations

The memo also outlines post-award reminders and considerations for contracting officers to boost small business subcontracting participation in the federal marketplace.

These include monitoring the submission of subcontracting plan reports, evaluating contractor achievement against the small business subcontracting plan and documenting the review in the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System and taking note of ongoing policy actions that can help small subcontractors compete as prime contractors.

The document was signed by Christine Harada, senior adviser at OFPP.

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ARPA-H Solicits Clinical Trial Improvement Proposals
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ARPA-H Solicits Clinical Trial Improvement Proposals

The Advanced Research Project Agency for Health, or ARPA-H, is seeking proposals for a funding opportunity to develop new tools designed to improve clinical trial administration.

ARPA-H said Monday that through the Advancing Clinical Trial Readiness, or ACTR, initiative, it will award funding to multiple teams to create a robust, efficient and decentralized trial infrastructure and overcome challenges, including high costs, lack of interoperability among electronic health records and other data systems, trial recruitment and regulatory complexities.

Better Access to Clinical Studies

According to the agency, which operates within the Department of Health and Human Services, the infrastructure and tools are expected to enable 90 percent of eligible Americans to participate in clinical studies within 30 minutes of their home.

“Improvements in trial administration—from data collection to recruitment—can dramatically accelerate delivery of innovations to patients,” said ACTR Portfolio Lead Etta Pisano.

ARPA-H is interested in proposals focused on automated data collection and standardization, trial participant identification and engagement, and decentralized data curation and auditing.

Proposer’s Day

Interested parties may attend a hybrid Proposer’s Day on Jan. 16 in New Jersey to learn more about the ACTR effort and seek answers to questions related to the funding opportunity. In-person attendees have until Jan. 9 to register while virtual attendees may register until Jan. 14.

Join the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Healthcare Summit on Dec. 11 to explore the transformative trends and innovations shaping the future of the healthcare sector.

POC - 2024 Healthcare Summit
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Bath Iron Works Secures $82M Navy Contract for Lead Yard Support
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Bath Iron Works Secures $82M Navy Contract for Lead Yard Support

General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works subsidiary has booked a modification contract from the U.S. Navy to continue providing support services for the DDG 51 Class lead yard.

General Dynamics Bath Iron Works Contract Modification Details

The Department of Defense said Wednesday the company will receive $82.3 million for the cost-plus-award-fee contract. It will conduct the bulk of the project in Bath and Brunswick, Maine while the remaining work will be done in Washington, D.C. The project is expected to be completed by November 2025.

As the contracting activity, the Naval Sea Systems Command will obligate the initial funds from the Navy’s shipbuilding and conversion funds. An amount of $22.1 million will come from the 2022 funds while around $7 million will each be allocated from the 2021 and 2020 funds. Around $3.2 million will be received from the 2018 funds while $2 million each will be obligated from the 2015 and 2019 funds. Finally, the fiscal 2017 funds will contribute $418,061 for the project. The amount of $10.4 million will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.

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