The Department of the Air Force plans to raise the number of sites eligible for consideration for U.S. Space Command’s permanent headquarters with the release of screening and evaluation criteria, the Space Force reported Friday.

Communities that meet the screening criteria will have an opportunity to present themselves as potential candidates for SPACECOM’s HQ location. The service will provide the potential candidates with additional information as part of the assessment process.

The release of the evaluation and screening criteria is part of the department’s updated approach that considers the organizational structure of the U.S. Space Force and seeks to provide a comprehensive analysis of potential candidate locations.

The department plans to select the final location for the newly established command in early 2021. The city of Colorado Springs in Colorado serves as SPACECOM’s provisional headquarters.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are each working on efforts to deploy robotic process automation to streamline operations amid the ongoing pandemic, Nextgov reported Thursday.

Stacy Dawn, senior adviser for cybersecurity and privacy at HUD, said at a virtual ATARC panel that the department is creating a Digital Services Program Management Office to address RPA needs. HUD is also looking into applying multifactor authentication for a new technology meant to automate payments and other tenancy-related operations, she added.

Glenda Conroy, deputy chief financial officer and director of the Office of Financial Management at NIH, said the agency is currently working to transition some of its workloads to the Department of the Treasury’s Invoice Processing Platform.

“But in the interim, we needed a short term solution to be able to receive our mail electronically,” Conroy added.

Speaking on the IRS’ RPA efforts, the agency’s Special Assistant Mitch Winans said they are working remotely to utilize automated capabilities meant to shift focus from mundane tasks to higher-value work.

“So we’re definitely trying to leverage a few bots that we have for some compliance check processes in the procurement office, also a contract clause review tool that helps us make sure we’re staying up to date quickly on regulations and policies, and things like that,” he added.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has released an “Insider Threat Roadmap” that will serve as a framework for procedures, requirements, partnerships and capabilities needed to mitigate risks to the operation of U.S. transportation systems.

TSA said Thursday that the roadmap is primarily focused on promoting data-driven decision-making, advancing new capabilities for combating threats and maturing technologies to address such attacks in the Transportation Systems Sector.

According to the agency, insider threat has been identified as among its enterprise-level risks and it wants to “identify and exploit long-term trends and patterns” associated with such threats. TSA also intends to develop agency-wide procedures and conduct assessments of resources and human capital to support requirements detailed in the roadmap.

“Together with our interagency partners and industry stakeholders, we will maximize innovation and technology to mitigate insider threats,” said David Pekoske, administrator of TSA. “While we recognize that there is no ‘turn-key’ solution to mitigating insider threat, this roadmap will help implement safeguards that incrementally raise the security baseline.”

The roadmap comes after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a directive titled “Information Sharing and Safeguarding: Insider Threat Program” in October.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has commenced the application period for up to $2 million in grants to identify approaches for modernizing emergency communications systems in the country's rural areas. CISA said Wednesday that it will back up to two projects aimed at helping public healrh and medical facilities address data sharing challenges.

The agency is looking for applicants that can demonstrate abilities to support the establishment or sustainment of statewide systems intended for health communications as well as apply current infrastructure to transform rural care delivery.

Applications are due June 24 and will undergo a competitive assessment process. Funds will cover a two-year performance period that is slated to begin on Sept. 30.

The Texas A&M University System board of regents cleared a $79.3 million budget for the establishment of a complex to test hypersonic technology prototypes for the U.S. Army.

The Bush Combat Development Complex, which will include an enclosed-tube facility and combat vehicle testing grounds, is scheduled for construction on the RELLIS campus beginning this fall as part of the university’s efforts to help the military branch transform combat readiness, Texas A&M said Thursday.

The state government allocated $50 million for the Texas A&M Engineering Experimental Station to support Army Futures Command modernization programs.

TEES also agreed to work with the Combat Capabilities Development Command-Army Research Laboratory under a $65 million cooperative agreement.

The campus’ hypersonic facility is intended to support research into materials that have the potential to increase vehicle speed and will feature a suite of sensors and equipment for personnel to collect, store and analyze data.