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DHS Publishes Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2023-2027
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DHS Publishes Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2023-2027

The Department of Homeland Security identified six priority missions in its strategic plan for fiscal years 2023 to 2027.

The plan, published Tuesday, also outlined objectives under each mission area to guide DHS components in achieving agency goals and enhance their coordination to ensure their activities are aligned toward desired outcomes.

Mission 1: Counter Terrorism and Prevent Threats

According to DHS, the United States must remain vigilant against all forms of domestic and international terrorism despite significant progress and a diminished terrorist threat to the country, noting that homegrown violent extremists — individuals inspired by the ideologies of foreign terrorist organizations — will remain the most prominent form of international terrorism facing the homeland.

To combat terrorism, the department aims to enhance the collection, analysis and sharing of actionable intelligence and information with local and international partners and adopt emerging technologies and understand how terrorists can use them to threaten national security in preparation for potential attacks.

Mission 2: Secure and Manage Our Borders

DHS has raised concern over a significant increase in irregular migration brought about by violence, food insecurity, severe poverty, corruption, climate change, the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and dire economic conditions. The strategy indicates that transnational criminal organizations are taking advantage of the migratory flows to exploit migrants as part of a billion-dollar criminal enterprise. It highlights the importance of collaboration with law enforcement partners to disrupt the operations of such organizations and arrest the individuals involved.

While the agency tightens security at its air, land, and maritime borders to prevent unlawful entry to the country, it works to expedite legal trade and travel through various agency programs.

Mission 3: Administer the Nation’s Immigration System

Under the mission area, DHS aims to enforce U.S. immigration laws in an effective and humane manner and provide immigration benefits to eligible applicants.

The agency said it is updating the U.S. legal immigration system, which is broken and outdated and brings challenges to immigration law enforcement.

Mission 4: Secure Cyberspace and Critical Infrastructure

Amid increasing cyberthreats, DHS will continue collaborating with government and private sector partners to strengthen the security and resilience of critical infrastructure and federal civilian IT systems.

Objectives under the mission area also include assessing and countering evolving cyber and emerging technology risks and combating cybercrime. The strategy highlights the need to identify and mitigate key emerging technology risks, particularly quantum computing risks in preparation for future threats to existing encryption methods.

Mission 5: Build a Resilient Nation and Respond to Incidents

“Disruptions caused by the global forces of pandemic disease and climate change have given new impetus to building resilience to all hazards and developing new approaches to prepare for, prevent, protect against, mitigate, and if necessary, respond and recover to natural and man-made events,” the strategic plan stated.

DHS’s goals within the mission area include developing a robust response capability that matches the nature of incidents, preparing its entire workforce to execute incident response capabilities and providing communities with access to resources to support recovery after a disaster.

Mission 6: Combat Crimes of Exploitation and Protect Victims

The desired outcome of the mission area is the capability to identify crimes of exploitation and protect victims through expanded education, digital forensic technology, support services and partnerships with federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, international and private sector partners.

According to DHS, the increasing crimes of exploitation, including online child sexual exploitation and abuse, human trafficking and labor exploitation, threaten the U.S. physical and virtual borders, immigration and customs systems, and national security.

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Gillian Bussey Joins Space Force as Deputy Chief Science Officer
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Gillian Bussey Joins Space Force as Deputy Chief Science Officer

The U.S. Space Force has appointed Gillian Bussey, a federal science and technology leader, as deputy chief science officer.

In a LinkedIn post published Tuesday, Bussey said she will serve as deputy to USSF Chief Science Officer Stacie Williams.

According to her profile on the professional networking platform, Bussey most recently worked as an analyst at the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation, or CAPE. In this capacity, she was the lead analyst for science and technology issues.

She also served as a special assistant to the U.S. Air Force’s chief scientist and provided advice on hypersonics, nuclear modernization, directed energy and other technical matters. 

The former CIA weapons analyst spent nearly four years within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, where she served as director of the Joint Hypersonics Transition Office.

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Defense Health Agency Issues RFI for MHS GENESIS
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Defense Health Agency Issues RFI for MHS GENESIS

The Defense Health Agency is gathering information for the Program Executive Office for Defense Healthcare Management, or PEO DHMS, on possible approaches to creating and maintaining documentation for environments with multiple vendors.

According to the request for information posted on SAM.gov Tuesday, DHA is seeking industry input on technologies that can be utilized for technical documentation supporting MHS GENESIS.

The potential project is intended to address the lack of sustainment processes and internal interface configurations of the MHS GENESIS system documentation. Architecture artifacts, system/sub-system design documents and other technical documentation will also have to be revised for parties outside the government and prime contractor to understand them.

What Is MHS GENESIS?

MHS GENESIS is an electronic health record, or EHR, system being implemented by the Department of Defense, as well as the U.S. Coast Guard, Reserve Components, United States Military Entrance Processing Command and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency and the National Security Agency.

The all-in-one recording system is designed to enhance the quality of healthcare by modernizing clinical and business processes. The standardized system is intended for the creation of a single record of care for each patient, which should help the military health system provide quality and efficient healthcare.

Potomac Officers Club presents the 2024 Healthcare Summit on Dec. 11. Register now to explore the transformative trends and innovations shaping the future of the healthcare sector.

Defense Health Agency Issues RFI for MHS GENESIS
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OIRA Takes Steps to Modernize Regulatory Comment Process
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OIRA Takes Steps to Modernize Regulatory Comment Process

The Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs has initiated steps to address mass, computer-generated and falsely attributed comments that were submitted in response to requests for public input on proposed regulations.

In a blog post published Tuesday, OIRA Administrator Richard Revesz wrote that his office has worked with the General Services Administration to better handle mass comments.

“These include, for example, a deduplication tool that one agency used to distill from 300,000 comments on a proposed rule a much more manageable set of 30,000 distinct comments,” Revesz noted.

How OIRA Is Solving the Problem

To manage computer-generated comments, OIRA has collaborated with GSA to implement additional checks at the comment submission system’s front end to protect the system from potential abuse.

When it comes to falsely attributed comments, the OIRA chief stated that the agency has established an interagency technical working group to share tips and best practices on how to manage comments in an effective manner.

“This working group regularly brings together dozens of regulatory professionals across many different agencies to ensure that issues like falsely-attributed comments can be addressed as new challenges develop,” Revesz added.

In December 2023, OIRA issued new guidance to facilitate greater public engagement in its regulatory review process.

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Air Force Acquiring Additional CCAs for Operational Tests
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Air Force Acquiring Additional CCAs for Operational Tests

The U.S. Air Force is acquiring additional collaborative combat aircraft, or CCAs, to test how the drones will operate in battle.

Andrew Hunter, the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics and a 2023 Wash100 awardee, said that he recently authorized the purchase of more CCAs for the service branch’s experimental operations unit, DefenseNews reported Friday. With this additional purchase, Hunter looks forward to further testing and development of CCAs. 

“You learn a lot when you get into flight test,” Hunter said. “But … it’s [also] the approach to production, the people demonstrating they can scale to the rates that we envision for this platform, and that are necessary for it to be affordable mass.”

How Do CCAs Operate?

CCAs are uncrewed drones designed to travel next to F-35 joint strike fighters and the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter. The drone also features mission capabilities, including striking adversarial targets, observing threats and jamming enemy signals. 

Hunter emphasized that the Air Force aims to move swiftly through the CCA program and has already begun considering how to develop the drones and keep future maintenance costs down. He also noted that the airworthiness of CCAs will be tested differently than that of previous autonomous aircraft. 

“We think about airworthiness differently,” Hunter stated. “With prior uncrewed aircraft that we’ve procured, we’ve kind of done airworthiness largely the old way, and we really need to do it in a fundamentally new way.”

Frank Kendall, Air Force secretary and 2024 Wash100 awardee, reportedly wants CCAs to cost a “fraction” of an F-35, which can be between $80 million to $100 million.

General Atomics & Anduril CCAs 

In April, the Air Force tapped General Atomics and Anduril to develop CCAs under two option awards. Hunter said the service branch plans to acquire both Anduril’s Fury and General Atomics’ Gambit CCAs for the experimental operations unit. 

“I think both vendors have an opportunity to succeed, and it’s entirely conceivable that we could move forward with both,” Hunter stated.

Air Force Acquiring Additional CCAs for Operational Tests

You can learn more about the Air Force’s emerging autonomous capabilities at the 2025 Defense R&D Summit on Jan. 23. Claim your tickets to the 2025 Defense R&D Summit now!

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Sairah Ijaz Named HUD CIO
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Sairah Ijaz Named HUD CIO

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has appointed Sairah Ijaz, a more than 20-year federal IT veteran, as chief information officer.

In a LinkedIn post announcing her appointment, Ijaz said she looks forward to enhancing HUD’s security posture, collaborating on innovative platforms and implementing forward-thinking strategies.

Ijaz’s Career History

She previously served as deputy CIO at HUD, where she was responsible for IT platforms and service delivery, data governance, strategic planning and stakeholder collaboration to advance digital transformation.

The certified Project Management Professional held IT roles at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Government Accountability Office and the Social Security Administration.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Ijaz spent three years at Grant Thornton as a manager.

The CIO holds a bachelor’s degree in information systems from the University of Maryland’s R.H. Smith School of Business and is pursuing a master’s degree in business analytics at Georgetown University.

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LLNL’s El Capitan Deemed World’s Fastest Computing System
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LLNL’s El Capitan Deemed World’s Fastest Computing System

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced Monday that the El Capitan exascale supercomputer has been benchmarked as the fastest computing system in the world. The system was evaluated based on the High Performance Linpack standard, which is used by the TOP500 organization to evaluate supercomputing performance.

Performance Rating

El Capitan earned an HPL score of 1.742 exaFLOPs with a total peak performance of 2.79 exaFLOPs. In comparison, Sierra, LLNL’s previous most powerful system, had a peak performance of 125 petaFLOPs. El Capitan’s peak performance exceeds that of Sierra’s more than 20-fold.

Commenting on the accomplishment, LLNL Lab Director Kim Budil said it “is a testament to the Laboratory’s leadership in driving scientific discovery. It continues a legacy of supercomputing excellence that spans more than 70 years.”

“El Capitan’s extraordinary computing capabilities will allow us to tackle complex challenges that were previously out of reach. We are proud to lead this achievement in partnership with industry, and advance science in ways that will benefit society and the nation as a whole,” Budil added.

System Specs

LLNL’s new supercomputer is built on the Cray Supercomputing EX system by Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The system is also powered by AMD’s Instinct MI300A accelerated processing units, which work to deliver computational performance required by artificial intelligence workloads.

Functions of El Capitan

El Capitan will be used by the National Nuclear Security Administration Tri-Labs — LLNL, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory — to support the Stockpile Stewardship Program and other nuclear security missions. The supercomputer will help with the various tasks to be carried out by Tri-Labs scientists, including weapon performance and safety modeling, high-energy-density physics experiment modeling and AI-based workflows like those involving material discovery, advanced manufacturing and digital twinning.

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Commerce Dept Awards $285M to SRC for New Manufacturing Institute
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Commerce Dept Awards $285M to SRC for New Manufacturing Institute

The Semiconductor Research Corporation Manufacturing Consortium Corporation has won funding valued at $285 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce to construct and operate a new manufacturing facility in Durham, North Carolina.

The Commerce Department said Tuesday the investment is part of a $1 billion total funding for the establishment of the CHIPS Manufacturing USA Institute, known as the Semiconductor Manufacturing and Advanced Research with Twins USA, or SMART USA. The investment is intended to boost the semiconductor industry through collaborative research, design and development of digital twins.

Goals of CHIPS Manufacturing USA Institute

The new SMART USA institute is meant to strengthen the semiconductor industry by reinforcing the development and utilization of digital twins. Through the use of digital twins, the institute aims to optimize the design, production and testing process of semiconductor chips.

SMART USA is set to become part of a network of 17 institutes working to make U.S. manufacturing more competitive and to strengthen research and development.

SMART USA Objectives

The new institute aspires to foster partnerships between stakeholders and provide access to physical resources and novel digital capabilities needed to tackle digital twins challenges. The main goals of SMART USA are to accelerate the development and deployment of semiconductor technologies by lowering U.S. chip development and manufacturing costs by 35 percent and shortening the development cycle by 30 percent. It also aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent and train over 100,000 workers and students on digital twin technology.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, said, “With new digital twin capabilities, America is fostering unparalleled opportunities to collaborate with experts and researchers anywhere in the world to develop the next frontier of technological advancements in the semiconductor industry.”

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NSF Funds MITRE-Led Dynamic Spectrum Sharing R&D
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NSF Funds MITRE-Led Dynamic Spectrum Sharing R&D

The National Science Foundation has extended a $10.5 million funding for a team led by non-profit national security advisory firm MITRE to conduct dynamic spectrum sharing research and development.

The team, dubbed “SPARKIE,” will initially establish an experimental dynamic spectrum-sharing zone at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory in California that would shield radio telescope operations from interference of local spectrum users, such as cellular devices, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, MITRE said.

Portal to Next-Generation Connectivity

The non-profit firm added that as research on dynamic spectrum advance, the technology’s sharing could usher in next-generation connectivity resources for national security and critical infrastructure.

SPARKIE’s experiments, which will involve spectrum research facilities, will design and develop a toolkit for radio dynamic spectrum sharing environments.

The MITRE-led team is composed of spectrum engineers, academics and radio astronomy researchers from the non-profit research organization SETI Institute and five educational institutions: Northeastern University; University of Texas, Austin; University of Utah; University of Colorado at Boulder; and University of California, Berkeley.

Remedy for Radio Spectrum Shortfall 

NSF is funding the team through its National Radio Dynamic Zones program, which John Chapin, the foundation’s special advisor for spectrum, said will help solve the radio spectrum shortfall due to the rapid rise of wireless communications and other uses. 

“NSF is supporting this team to test innovative new ways to increase spectrum availability for diverse use cases, such as sharing spectrum between wireless communications networks and radio telescope facilities,” he added. 

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GSA Offers Update on Multiple Award Schedule Pricing RFI
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GSA Offers Update on Multiple Award Schedule Pricing RFI

The General Services Administration received 507 industry responses to a request for information on how to better align multiple award schedule, or MAS, pricing with commercial practices.

In April, GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, or FAS, issued the RFI to support its assessment of existing agency practices related to performing price analysis and determining “fair and reasonable” prices on MAS contracts.

The agency said Wednesday key takeaways from the RFI include minimizing barriers related to offering identical services and products across multiple special item numbers, or SINs, to improve sales opportunities, updating solicitation instructions to prioritize the use of data already available within the government and expanding the Transactional Data Reporting initiative as an alternative to legacy pricing disclosure requirements.

How GSA Will Implement Feedback

According to GSA, FAS will make changes to the MAS solicitation based on industry comments, including reaffirming that vendors can offer identical products and services across multiple SINs if the items are within scope.

FAS also plans to seek public feedback on planned modifications to MAS pricing practices and policies, including draft revisions to solicitation price proposal instructions that streamline documentation requirements and a new draft FAS policy and procedure implementing GSAR case 2020-G510, FSS Economic Price Adjustment.

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